Justice Or "Just Us" In #Ferguson Failure To Indict Darren Wilson ?

Portland, Maine Nov. 25, 2014

If Darren Wilson is innocent in the matter of Michael Brown's death, what is to be feared from bringing the matter to trial? A grand jury failed to indict Wilson this week, and the protest that has never stopped since the unarmed teenager was shot to death months ago erupted yet again. For centuries the African American community in this country has complained that when the white establishment talks about justice, it really means "just us" is to benefit from application of the rule of law.

People are fed up with racist policing. Mothers like Collette Flanagan who have lost their sons to abusive police repeat offenders are fed up and will march on Washington to demand justice. The National Bar Association is fed up with abuse of the grand jury system to protect racist police officers and is calling for federal prosecution of Wilson. Amen to that.

People fed up with abuse at the hands of unaccountable police force overthrew the regimes in Tunisia and in Egypt. The fact that they are back under the thumb of violent, oppressive governance following their Arab spring does not change the fact that once people have lost the will to continue being oppressed, they are a powerful force.

Rioting is the language of voiceless, so it is said. History tends to support this view.

WCSH Channel 6 t.v. news covered both the 5pm rally and the 9pm rally and march

From my personal vantage point, I have seldom carried a sign through the streets that got more interaction and attention than the one I held last night in Portland, Maine: BLACK LIVES MATTER.

As we left my friend's house to walk to Monument Square, we passed two young boys on the street. They seemed to be about twelve years old. One was black and one was brown, possibly Latino. He smiled broadly and said, "That's right!" as he gave me two thumbs up. That made my tiredness vanish and I felt glad to be there.

 Many more people affirmed the message: by honking, by thanking me, by affirmative replies like, "Yes, they do!"

Two college students fell into step along with us and reported the conversations that had erupted at their schools after the Ferguson grand jury fail. One of the young women was white, the other of east Indian descent. She said her schoolmates don't get that racism still exists. I said, "Because. Obama." and they erupted with laughter. They were excited that we were headed to a rally and they joined us, taking over our "Justice for Mike Brown" sign while Pat distributed candles.

Portland is very white for a city; it's far north, and even its large African diaspora populations from Somalia and Sudan don't move the demographic needle much toward diversity. Many of the white winos and junkies hanging in doorways reacted as we went by with the signs, too. More than one of them said petulantly, "White lives matter, too" or "All lives matter."

The power of false dichotomy is really phenomenal. Black men are 2.6 times more likely to die at the hands of police than are white men in Portland, Maine according to former ACLU director and senatorial candidate Shenna Bellows' remarks last night around 9:30pm in Monument Square. It's a national problem. But if I carry a sign saying their lives matter, I'm presumed to be saying white lives don't. Such is the power of propaganda which from infancy pushes consumers in the USA to pick a team and root for it.

If you're on the white ally team, here are some meaningful things you can do right now. And here's a link to sign the NAACP's petition demanding federal prosecution of Darren Wilson. Because. Ferguson.