FROM RACISM TO CLASISM. LESSONS FROM FERGUSON

FROM RACISM TO CLASISM. LESSONS FROM FERGUSON

Hugo Adan, Dec 3 2014

PART 1  FACTS.  LOS HECHOS. 

Introduction

Source: Ferguson Documents: How The Grand Jury Reached A Decision   November 25, 2014

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366507379/ferguson-docs-how-the-grand-jury-reached-a-decision

NOTICE:  According to this official report a police – Darren Wilson- was assaulted when he was in his car, by Michael  Brown, the big teenager (18 years old) who hit him twice in order to grab his gun. (1: more on the annexes below) ). The police said that Brown was so furious that he look like a demon… not an angry Afro-American.  Why so furious?  It doesn’t say the report?. Is there a chance that Brown was shot by the police, because he disobey his order to walk on the side-walk and instead he insulted him, so the police lost his temper and shot him again?. If Brown would’ve been armed, as the corporate Press said, why he tried to use the police gun? .. he could’ve used his own, if he had one. This type of inconsistency seems to be the reason why the family of the victim and the whole town of Ferguson got furious for 2^nd time.  In Aug, five days after the shooting the town exploded, burned cars and vandalized stores. This was an insult to the tradition of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.  

Wilson's testimony to the grand jury presents the image of an officer who was scared for his life during the confrontation with the larger man who he says was physically assaulting him. Here one excerpt:

--The officer said Brown and his associate, Dorian Johnson, were walking in the middle of the street, preventing normal traffic from passing. He said he told them to move to the sidewalk, and after a brief exchange Brown used a vulgarity at him. Wilson said he called for backup and tried open the door of his police car. Brown, he said, slammed the door shut. They struggled and Brown hit him in the face twice, Wilson said.

--He said he thought, "What do I do to not get beaten inside my car?"

--Wilson said he had considered using Mace, his baton and his flashlight before drawing his gun and telling Brown, "Get back or I'm going to shoot you." Brown then grabbed his gun, Wilson said, and twisted it and dug it down into the officer's hip. The officer said he feared he would die if Brown got hold of his gun. He said he managed to raise the gun and fired twice. It just clicked. But the third time, the gun went off, startling both men.

--That's when, Wilson said, Brown looked up at him "and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, he looks like a demon, that's how angry he looked. He comes back towards me again with his hands up."
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The case is that the Grand Jury decided that there was not enough probable cause to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The prosecuting attorney, Robert McCulloch, said in a televised address Monday night  (Nov 24,2014), after weighing the evidence, the Grand Jury decided that Wilson acted within the limits of the lethal-force law. To issue an indictment, the jury needed at least 9 members to vote for it.

Wilson already quit from the Police, if he is indicted or not for the crime he commit, is not the main issue in this case. What happened simply delivered a message from a society that is given a context for the rage in both sides. If the main issue were “police brutality” or “racism” then changing the color of the police (blacks patrolling black neighborhoods) would  be a solution to the main problem, that of racism. But brutality in both sides, among those who break public order and those who goes beyond the law in arresting them, will continue existing.

The main issue then is not “police brutality”, the issue is accumulated anger because of exclusion, oppression, lack of job and money to survive. If we add to this material misery the ideological stupidity of mutual racism,  then we will continue having this type of problems. One will be predispose to break the public order and the other to shot "demons" for walking in the middle of the street. The accumulated anger is created by this type of economics known as neoliberalism. This non-regulated system  creates millonaries overnight based on frauds and misuses of public money, they will continue creating rage and social disruption more severe than disrupting transit rules by demons in streets of Ferguson.

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ANNEX 1

Wilson Testimony to the Grand Jury

Wilson is 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs about 210 pounds. Brown was an inch taller and weighed about 290 pounds.

The officer said Brown and his associate, Dorian Johnson, were walking in the middle of the street, preventing normal traffic from passing. He said he told them to move to the sidewalk, and after a brief exchange Brown used a vulgarity at him. Wilson said he called for backup and tried open the door of his police car. Brown, he said, slammed the door shut. They struggled and Brown hit him in the face twice, Wilson said.

He said he thought, "What do I do to not get beaten inside my car?"

Wilson said he had considered using Mace, his baton and his flashlight before drawing his gun and telling Brown, "Get back or I'm going to shoot you." Brown then grabbed his gun, Wilson said, and twisted it and dug it down into the officer's hip. The officer said he feared he would die if Brown got hold of the gun. He said he managed to raise the gun and fired twice. It just clicked. But the third time, the gun went off, startling both men.

The officer said that when he looked up, Brown was running away. Wilson said he got out of the car, called for backup and began chasing Brown. He said Brown then stopped and he did, too. He said he ordered Brown to get on the ground, but the 18-year-old did not. He said Brown made an "aggravated sound" and ran back toward him. He said he warned Brown repeatedly to get on the ground, but when he did not comply the officer fired "a series of shots."

"I don't know how many I shot, I just know I shot it," he said.

Wilson then proceeded to explain his rationale for why he chased Brown. He said he wanted to keep Brown "contained" until support arrived. He said he thought that if he could buy 30 seconds of time, until other officers arrived, they could "make the arrest, nothing happens, we are all good."

"And it didn't happen that way," Wilson said

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 ANNEX 2

Autopsy report

From: The Ferguson Documents: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366507379/ferguson-docs-how-the-grand-jury-reached-a-decision

POST MORTEN EXAMINATION of BROWN, MICHAEL

Date/time pronounced death  8/9/24  at 12:15pm

Body weight:  289 pounds .  Body length: 77 inches

The autopsy: Right eye present acute traumatic injury (gunshot wound) . The oral cavity is normal in appearance. Prior to the acute injury in the chess the chess and back were symmetrical. There is a scar near to the left chest that measure .2cms. There a scar near the right upper abdomen that measures .5cms. There is a scar near the elbow join of the right arm that measures  1cm. There is a scar near the right thigh that measure 3cm. There is scar near the right nee that measure 1 cm. There are scatter scars near the left knee that range in size from .5- to 1cm. There are scars near lower the left leg that range from 2 to 4cm. ..  more scars.

Injuries: gunshot entrance one on the vertex of the scalp. One on the central forehead. One exit gunshot in the right jaw. One in the upper right chest. One in the lateral right chest. One in the upper ventral right arm. One exit gunshot in the upper dorsal right arm. 

Total: MORE THAN 11 GUN SHOTS WOUNDS.   

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SOURCE: Ferguson Documents: How The Grand Jury Reached A Decision

November 25, 2014

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366507379/ferguson-docs-how-the-grand-jury-reached-a-decision

 

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