Prosecutors and Grand Jury's Proving That "Black Lives Don't Matter"

ST. LOUIS - Dec. 4, 2014 - PRLog -- I, like many citizens can tell you that the verdict regarding police officer Darren Wilson and the immediate violent aftermath in Ferguson were entirely predictable. Ferguson essentially had been under military occupation for a week prior in preparation for the disturbances that were bound to occur.

It is hard to understand why the clearly inept Governor Jay Nixon would fail so blatantly in deploying the National Guard so late to protect those businesses that were destroyed. That is another discussion totally. But in the aftermath of Ferguson, one wonders if the sight of military vehicles moving into civilian areas is something that might become commonplace in America on a regular basis, very soon.

Watching the violent footage of angry protestors, lighted police vehicles and images of a city in flames reminded many people, especially among the black community in America, of the Los Angeles riots of twenty years ago, and with the obvious observation having to be that little has changed in the intervening two decades.

Today, a New York Grand Jury failed to indict a New York police officer in the  death of Eric Garner, a young black man whom he choked to death. What appears to the African American community, and to many others, not only in this country, but around the world is what many of the protestors have been demonstrating for awareness of. Simply put, "Black lives don't matter."

In the case of Ferguson, we have a situation in which various witnesses and police officials have different recollections of the same event (as if that is something new). The situation is evidently not as clear cut as all the Darren Wilson supporters are willing to fall in line with.

Michael Brown was unarmed, surrendering (in some manner) and shot dead for a questionable reason (a strange vague quote about an "aggressive look and a grunt"). And the grand jury’s failure to indict Wilson resolved absolutely nothing with regard to the question of whether Brown’s hand were in some sort of surrender position when he was killed.

The only thing that can truly be concluded from the grand jury last week, was that four or more members of the Grand Jury panel did not believe the evidence supported a criminal indictment of Wilson.

The resounding problem with secret Grand Jury hearings is that the people know absolutely nothing other than the fact that the grand jury did not reach the statutory nine-vote threshold for indicting Wilson. There is no guilty or innocent finding. Only a "No True Bill". There is no reason or justification to speculate about anything that might have led the grand jury to find anything. We don’t even know if a majority of the panel agreed with not indicting Wilson, because it is a secret process.

There is no grand jury report that says Officer Wilson's account was "verified" by physical and ballistic evidence as well as eye-witness testimony, which led them to conclude that no probable cause existed that Wilson engaged in any wrongdoing. If there is a grand jury report to that says that, then perhaps the Prosecuters office should release it.

The fatal shooting of Brown, and the choking of Garner in a public setting isn't a rare occurrence in US cities anymore, as there have reportedly been several similar incidents in different locations just between the Michael Brown shooting (in August) and now.

Endemic racial injustice carried out as a matter-of-course and under the guise of a supposedly impartial legal system (a poorly proctored Grand Jury's) is practically designed to create long-term resentment and antagonism. A system where a white police officer can legally shoot dead or choke to death an unarmed black person and essentially get away with it can basically be said to amount to a tyranny in everything but name. And it's a disparity in American society that never, ever seems to get better.

The state of race relations between a large part of the black community and the law enforcement authorities in American society has reached a new boiling point. A perception of racial inequality and state injustice continues to get passed on from one incident to another, from the mass unrest following the exhonorations of the murder of Treyvon Martin, to the killing of Michael Brown, and now the choke out killing of Eric Garner.

So what steps might to be taken to address what is a deep-rooted and ongoing problem in American society? And when? It would seem that the case of Darren Wilson provided just such an opportunity for something to be done to change the widely held view that 'black lives don't matter"; but instead it played out like a bad movie, with the inescapable story line of the excessive law-enforcer being favoured over the unarmed victim in a system that can no longer legitimately claim to have its citizens' best interests at the core.

Though Ferguson wasn't peaceful at all times, and with the exception of the violence, looting and vandalism (which I don't support or condone), most of the protests in various US cities have been peaceful. Going back to the Los Angeles riots in 1992, it wasn't pretty. It was a very violent few days, especially if you lived in Los Angeles. But the point is, it doesn't work to simply try to quash the riot. There's no point in trying to put out the fires when what's needed is to address the causes and the grievances.

One also wonders whether these kinds of situations, these simmering tensions and major breakdowns in law and order, are being deliberately engineered and provoked by higher powers for the purposes of further, future curtailments of civil liberties and enhancements of law-enforcement powers. In other words, the more riots that occur, the more images of police cars burning and shops being smashed in, the more the case can be made in both government and the media for more police states and more "cracking head' metality on blacks.

That may be a very cynical view, but it's difficult to be anything other than cynical when observing situations like these. People have called me racist or accuse me of "stirring the pot?" To the first accusation I say "ridiclous."  Race and the open dialog of the subject are taboo in this country, and until we can have open, honest discussion on the topic, society will remain stuck on the current hampster wheel it has been on.

To the second, I simply say this. "I stir the pot, because the pot needs to be stirred.

John Parker is a senior public relations and marketing professional, activist, and President of Parker Public Relations, a minority owned public relations firm in St. Louis, MO. He is well experienced in crisis communications, and public affairs with over 15 years of diverse experience in media relations, political operations, social activism and connecting individuals and corporations with the world through communications.