It is hard to fully wrap our minds around the menacing violence, destruction, looting, and general chaos being committed by several in wake of the announcement of the grand jury verdict in Ferguson, MO on November 24th. Officer Darren Wilson will not be indicted in the August shooting death of Michael Brown. The particulars of this case were considered and weighed heavily by the District Attorney and handed over to a Grand Jury for their examination of the facts and sequence of events. At the end of a 3 month investigation their conclusion was not to indict the officer.
From the beginning of this situation there has been a substantial distorting of facts. Attorneys have certainly done their fair share of distorting, as they often do. The family has looked at this, much like any family would, through the prism of emotion. The one place though we should actually expect to get unbiased information is from the media. But, once again just like in countless other stories, the media has been anything but fair and balanced in its coverage. Over time, the media has traveled a road taking them past fairness, through bias, then through substantial bias, to the point of corruption at least in many outlets. There are still good journalists and there are still good news outlets, but they are scarce. The media culture breeds conformity and for those who do not follow the script, there is a hefty price tag to pay. Early on, the media adopted a narrative that a white police officer had gunned down an unarmed black man; therefore race was a major factor. Early on, some eyewitnesses made claims that quickly were proven false. Once the true sequence of events began to emerge, some in the liberal media had already backed themselves into a corner. When journalists become activists they are no longer true journalists.
The police in Ferguson made many mistakes in how they handled the Michael Brown crime scene. For instance, they let Brown’s body lie in the street for 4 hours thereby fueling anger from the community. Their attempts at public relations in the days which followed were poor. But, in all fairness, they were not trained in how to deal with something that grew so big so quick and became nationally prominent.
Politicians made rushes to judgment, notable among them were comments betraying prejudice against Officer Wilson by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. There was certainly bias displayed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama administration as a whole. Three representatives were even sent to Michael Brown’s funeral last August. Race hustler, opportunist, and MSNBC host Al Sharpton, was seen at various points throughout the ordeal, including speaking at the Michael Brown funeral. Sharpton’s presence and words clearly jazzed up crowds of people to expect a certain outcome. There were no real calls for fairness, justice, or finding out the truth. Regrettably, he had made up his mind and, in his mind, justice would only be served when the investigation proved him to be right.
What I am most concerned about in all of this is what is not being said. So often the root causes of problems are ignored and symptoms are treated like they are the problems. Here we have a young man, Michael Brown, seen on camera shoving the owner of a store out of the way when he tries to stop him from stealing from his store. The autopsy confirmed he had marijuana in his system. This was not his first run-in with the law in his 18 years of life. And it all ends one day when he grapples with a police officer trying to do his job and arrest him. Every dad in America should have set down with their teenage sons and had a talk about living right and making wise choices and not wasting your life like Michael Brown. Every parent should be using this to teach their kids not to steal, use drugs, run with the wrong crowd, respect authority, and live as a person of character, lest your life be a total waste and end like Michael Brown’s life ended. He was not a hero, he was thug.
But instead of hearing the common sense truth, we are hearing charges of racism, some calling the police force out of control, people talking about blacks being disproportionately targets, etc. But very little is said about what started the whole chain of events. Only at the point a scapegoat entered the picture (a white police officer) is there real outrage, and its all directed at him and “the system.” Where is the outrage from the black community about the murder rate in the south side of Chicago made up almost exclusively of black on black violence and it has been unchanged for 50 years! Where is the outrage from the black community when more than 70 percent of black babies are born out of wedlock? There seems to only be outrage when they can find a way to pin blame on others for their own problems. Could their time be better spent addressing the root causes of the problems – absolutely! Could they wise up and see how one particular political party has played them and used them as pawns for decades?
Very few these days have a wholesale commitment to the truth. Everyone, it seems, has their own version of truth. Sadly, most of the truth claims which are made are not true at all. God’s Word is the only reliable standard for truth and we are only truthful when our beliefs, conduct, speech, etc. are consistent with and in agreement with God’s Word. Within sinful man, wickedness and lies of every sort abound.
The Michael Brown shooting is, most certainly, a tragedy. It is tragic because a young life with so much potential was totally wasted due to the very bad choices he made, his lack of respect for authority, and disregard for the law. So many people could potentially learn so much from these events. But will they learn?
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
Previous weblogs may be viewed at www.fbcrogers.com
Recent messages may be heard at www.fbcrogers.com
