Stop reading about militarized police, reporter arrests, demonstrations, urban rage, segregated cities and police forces for a minute, and read this:
“Michael Brown didn’t die in the dark. He was eighteen years old, walking down a street in Ferguson, Missouri, from his apartment to his grandmother’s, at 2:15 on a bright Saturday afternoon. He was, for a young man, exactly where he should be—among other things, days away from his first college classes. A policeman stopped him; it’s not clear why. People in the neighborhood have told reporters that they remember what happened next as a series of movements: the officer, it seemed to them, trying to put Brown into a car; Brown running with his hands in the air; the policeman shooting; Brown falling. The next morning, Jon Belmar, the police chief of St. Louis County, which covers Ferguson, was asked, at a press conference, how many times Brown had been shot. Belmar said that he wasn’t sure: ‘more than just a couple of times, but not much more.’ When counting bullets,’“just’ and ‘not much more’ are odd words to choose.”
— “Why Did Michael Brown Die in Ferguson?” Amy Davison, The New Yorker
Related:
“The Anger in Ferguson,” Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker
“It’s not just Ferguson: America’s criminal justice system is racist,” Ezra Klein, Vox
“The Death of Michael Brown and the Search for Justice in Black America,” Mychal Denzel Smith, The Nation
“We All Live in Ferguson,” Ryan Jacobs, Pacific Standard
“Ferguson, Mo. Emblematic of Growing Suburban Poverty,” Elizabeth Kneebone, Brookings Institution
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