Eric Stubben
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Eric Stubben is a mechanical engineering junior and Mustang News conservative columnist. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinion or editorial coverage of Mustang News.
If I could, I’d take an eraser and begin scrubbing as hard as I could until the seven calendar boxes representing the last week of November 2014 were nowhere to be found. I would erase the week off every calendar, every computer and every mind until it was no longer a thought or even a distant memory.
The last week of November 2014 is one that Americans should be ashamed of. It’s a week of paradoxical and hypocritical actions that are not only head shaking, but inappropriate as well. For those whose turkey comatose got the better of them last week (me included), let me introduce a recap of what drove me crazy over the past week.
Around 6:30 on a warm fall evening here on the West Coast, thousands of social media users instantaneously gained their law degrees. Insight began pouring in as a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri ruled that a white police officer would not be indicted on murder charges stemming from a broad daylight killing on Aug. 9 of an African-American teen in the streets of Ferguson.
For those of us paying attention, or maybe more accurately, for those of us who haven’t been living under a rock for the past few months, we know the white officer is identified as Darren Wilson and the dead African-American teen was Michael Brown.
Quickly, the social media law experts weighed in on the ruling, most bashing the decision. “Hands up, don’t shoot,” the unofficial slogan of the whole fiasco was spewed into every crevice of the Internet. But wait, did you know that most accounts in the grand jury never indicate Brown said this at all, let alone put his hands up in surrender?
In the world we live in, media contradicts the law. In America we are innocent until proven guilty, but in the media Wilson was perceived as guilty from the beginning.
Later that Monday night, rioters in Ferguson went on a rampage. They burned and looted several buildings in the downtown area in protest to the grand jury ruling. If igniting a Little Caesar’s in response to law enforcement injustice was supposed to make a statement, it went far over my head.
The rioters continued for hours, burning police cars and American flags to symbolize injustice. As infuriated as I was watching it all unfold over the shoulders of several national media correspondents, I recognize that the First Amendment covers the flag burnings and violent speech. I couldn’t help but wonder how the roughly 1.2 million soldiers who have died protecting that flag to protect our First Amendment rights would feel about those flag burnings.
Yet, the riots are only a small part of the aura surrounding the Ferguson debacle. As one commenter mentioned in one of my previous articles (yes, I do read all the comments), Ferguson is about much more than just police vs. people. Ferguson is about race, it’s about justice, but more importantly, Ferguson is about “the system.”
“The system” has a broad and very vague meaning. From what I understand, “the system” is the complex network of what I would call “the men in suits.” The “men in suits” include politicians to law enforcement and shrewd businessmen.
Now, it’s important that I point out that there are thousands of protestors around the country participating in civil acts of protest. Though I disagree with their view on the Ferguson case, I feel obligated to mention them. These protestors are upset with “the system” because they claim it oppresses and is prejudiced against minorities. They claim that by having majority minority populations represented by majority white police forces, there is an injustice.
I’m here to claim that though I do respect civil acts of protest, if people truly want to change “the system,” they need to become part of “the system” and change it from the inside out. If more minorities became police officers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers or any other profession, they could change “the system.” In fact, I’m all for it. Let’s lower upper-level education prices, reform education and make a college degree more feasible. Until then, police forces will continue to be 75 percent white and minorities will continue to be represented by mostly white police forces.
Maybe the most important thing to come out of Ferguson is a much simpler facet of life. We live in a society where we are increasingly pushing the faults of our actions onto others. Until people once again begin taking responsibility for their actions, we will continue to walk the rocky road of division.
Think about it: If Michael Brown hadn’t shoplifted from a convenience store, if he hadn’t told Wilson to “f*** off” when asked to step onto the sidewalk, if he would’ve just behaved, we would never be here. Michael Brown would be an unknown criminal who shoplifted from a convenience store in some suburb outside of St. Louis. Instead, many today view Michael Brown as a civil rights hero. And that is the paradox of the world we live in today.