Ferguson, Missouri Police Chief Thomas Jackson
The murder of Michael Brown gunned down by police in Ferguson, Missouri has drawn international attention; and why not.
China, Iran, Russia among others have weighed in giving the sanctimonious US a dish of its own medicine pointing out the hypocrisy of the US condemning others for human rights violations while its own house is in disorder.
All the preliminary autopsy reports from three different pathologists confirm the 18 year old Brown was shot six times, all in front with one in the head that was the fatal blow.
Couple this with eye witness accounts that the unarmed teenager had his hands raised, pleaded "Don't shoot" as he faced police officer Darren Wilson, yet despite his pleas was gunned down in cold blood.
As for the authorities handling this case, could they be any more stupid; apparently not?
The latest had Governor Jay Nixon calling up the National Guard to quell the angry crowds protesting against what they legitimately see as the unjustified killing of an unarmed black teenager.
Is it any wonder crowds have gathered not only in Ferguson but all over the country, protesting against the militarization of police in America that are increasingly shooting first and then like Wilson, be put on paid administrative leave, whisked away to some "unknown location" instead of being arrested as evidence mounts to his likely committing an unjustifiable homicide.
Of course the official ineptness began when Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson initially refused to name the officer that shot Brown then compounded it by releasing footage from a surveillance camera at a nearby convenience store showing someone looking like Brown shoplifting something off a shelf then making it appear the unnamed officer committed a justifiable homicide and he was just doing his duty.
Well the protesting crowds in Ferguson didn't buy it easily saw through ruse and refused to be put off by what they saw as a cover-up by officials being dishonest when the protesters wanted a truthful explanation not some "blue wall" defense of one of their own.
Throw in the Saturday night midnight curfew authorized by the governor, military clad police tossing tear gas canisters at what had been mostly peaceful protesters then officials releasing autopsy diagrams of the shooting revealing Brown being shot six times, all in front and what looks to be one in the right eye and these protests reveal a justifiable anger.
As for the protests what could they be revealing?
Could it be there's a strong hint of racism behind the shooting by a white cop of a black teenager? Ferguson is a majority black town with a mostly white police force, an all white city council that recently dismissed its black school superintendent.
Could the unjustified murder of a black teenager-hardly an anomaly in post civil rights America-be the catalyst for a wider racial explosion exposing a seething anger usually kept below the surface but ready to explode particularly when their appeals for justice go largely unheard? America's dark racist past has seen this before.
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