ferguson « Robin Writes

I said yesterday that I’m sick of hearing about Ferguson, etc., so this is it. Next week, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

A news story the other day was about a woman who’d been blinded by an officer firing a bean bag gun. She’s pregnant. Sounds horrific, right?

Well, there’s a little more to it:

It happened in the wee hours of the morning; shots were fired at a gas station, the lot was crowded, police were called. This pregnant woman, who said she was out riding around “respecting Mike Brown,” was in a car driven by the boyfriend. When police arrived, the dude decided to drive around or directly at the police. Doesn’t matter, when the cops show up, you sit tight and follow directions.

So the shot was fired and it entered the passenger side window, where she was sitting, and hit her in the left eye. I still don’t get that part—wouldn’t it have been her right side next to the window? Anyway, she was interviewed outside the hospital and her sister added that they just want “justice.”

Let’s take a look at this situation—we already know the boyfriend was kind of an idiot, right, but also there’s now a warrant for his arrest. So let the police deal with him.

The girl, though—first, if you’re expecting a baby, what the hell are you doing riding around in a car in the middle of the night? Second, how is this “respecting” Mike Brown?

Go to church and pray, talk with others about what a great guy he was, put flowers on his gravesite. THAT is respect. Look it up.

Third, her sister wants justice. Oh, crap. Are we tired of this, or what? It was AN ACCIDENT, that occurred at least partially because the girl was dumb enough to be out in this mess and has really bad taste in boyfriends. I’ve also heard she had two children at home, but I haven’t confirmed that.

Now, if I can see, from my TV, all the stuff going down in Ferguson, why couldn’t she? What would possess someone to go out there? I’m truly sorry it happened, and yes, it’s terrible, but come on. Justice? Again?

Justice comes down to right and wrong. The Ferguson decision WAS justice—the grand jury decided not to prosecute, based on the evidence. There’s your justice. The protestors are still screaming for justice, but what they really want is revenge. They want Officer Wilson hanged from the highest tree. That’s not justice. They got justice already. But not the answer they wanted.

The sister of this young woman also wants justice—but you know what? Sometimes, no one “pays.” Sometimes it’s an accident, sometimes it just happens. Even if she hired an attorney and they sued for damages, the jury will still consider how much of it was her own fault. Bet she didn’t think of that. And if Mike’s family files a civil suit, they might want to think of that too.

Boy, it’s been an interesting week around here. I won’t go into the whole long, sad story because unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re familiar with the details and the start of this fiasco.

In spite of underlying racism, however, if Mike Brown had only followed directions when Officer Wilson told him to move out of the street, things could have been very different.

Since our illustrious prosecutor decided, for whatever reason, to wait until after dark to announce the verdict, and our idiot governor was basically useless, a lot bad stuff went down. Riots, arson, looting—and you can say, all day long, that “most” of those arrested were from outside the area, well, someone let them in; someone said, hey come on down and let’s do some shit. And just because “most” arrested were not from here, it doesn’t mean local peeps weren’t involved.

Like Louis Head. Mike’s stepdad. What a loser. Nope, I’m still not racist—by any definition, he’s a loser. Mike’s dad, Mike Sr., well, he’s a good guy as far as I know. Jury’s still out on Lesley McSpadden—I’ve heard a lot of things, but I’m not impressed. Yeah, jury. No pun intended. Ha.

Why bring up Mike’s family? Because they’re front and center:

Mr. Head incited a riot, calling for arson.

Mr. Brown called for peace.

Ms. McSpadden, well . . . She got all up in people’s faces over T-shirt sales; she went to Geneva to talk about torture (WTH?). I get the grief, the horror, the loss. But good Lord, woman, grieve already—take the time to think about your son, get him a headstone for crying out loud, and get the hell out of the public eye.

Sorry, but I have to think that if it were my son, my first move wouldn’t be hiring an attorney and starting a bunch of crap. Nope. Seriously—why hire an attorney?

And that guy? Well, I’ve heard him speak. Seems like a nice guy. But he was griping about not being notified of the decision ahead of time. Um, dude. It’s not a civil case. It was a criminal case. That means that the state prosecutes (if it does) on behalf of the state; the parties are the state and Officer Wilson, not YOU and YOUR CLIENTS. Duh.

So, we still have peeps running around yelling, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Even though, according to the official report, that didn’t happen. Whatever.

Look, all this rioting and looting and marching and chanting and stopping people from working and traveling and everything else does NOTHING. And we’re all sick of it.

Learn to write, learn to speak. Stop blaming everyone else for every single thing. Get a job, go to work, be smart about your money. Run for office. Just know that there are no shortcuts, you don’t just make a difference because you WANT to, you have to work for it. It takes time. You can be angry all you want, but you can’t just fly off the handle. Leaders don’t do that. Be a leader. Work behind the scenes, or go on TV—but if you’re going to represent, be rational and reasonable and actually do the work.

It’s important.