I grew up in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. “Home” to me meant verdant parks. Quiet streets. Quieter nights. The calm darkness of those nights was unbroken except for the occasional passing taillight of our city cops’ fancy Dodge Chargers. When I was three or four, my parents told me what to do in […]
Tag: Michael Brown
The Ferguson Verdict
On November 24th, a St. Louis County grand jury of twelve came to the decision that white Police Officer Darren Wilson acted lawfully. He was on trial for shooting unarmed black teen Michael Brown six times, ending his life on August 9th 2014. Only 11 days after the death of Brown, the St. Louis grand jury […]
Racial Profiling and the Media
Recently, widespread attention has been devoted to instances of racial profiling, about the tragic lives of the victims of racial profiling, about how “wrong” racial profiling is, and about what we, as members of the community, should do to eliminate such activity. There’s just one problem, though. None of this incessant and often repetitive dialogue […]
Tipping the Scales of Justice
In the simmering heat of the Nevada desert, a group of armed white men pointed assault rifles at Las Vegas police officers and 24 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rangers. In the suburbs of St. Louis, a young African-American man was stopped by a police officer for allegedly jaywalking. In Beavercreek, Ohio, a man called […]