When Bob McCulloch, prosecutor for St. Louis County, MO. read his prepared “No indictment” statement regarding Officer Darren Wilson, he confirmed what we longtime fighters in the civil rights struggle saw coming: no indictment of Wilson for his August 9, 2014, Ferguson, MO, shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
We have received “no indictment” signals for two months. McCulloch presented what the legal profession calls a balanced lie, common not only in racial problems but also in the use of police stops and arrests to tax the poor with fees and fines, in a town 60 percent Black but with an all-White city council and only three African Americans on the police force.
Bob McCulloch: an angry White man, staunch defender of racism and racial obstruction, seeker of “White justice,” placed lies on the scales of justice turning them into scales of injustice for Michael Brown. McCulloch perverted law and justice, mixing prosecution and defense, first playing defense counsel for the killer, Officer Wilson, and then prosecutor of the victim, Michael Brown.
McCulloch showed all of us in Black America how it is done. McCulloch, sounding like a defense attorney against us, is frightening for the future of American race relations. Ironically, sadly, Mr. McCulloch and President Obama were actually on the same page, 90 minutes apart. Both talked about the importance of rule of law and calm but avoided the quest for justice. Where was the rule of law and justice for the unarmed Michael Brown on August 9, 2014?
McCulloch knew when he received the call August 9, 2014, that he had no intention of structuring the procedure in such a way that an indictment could be arrived at by the 12-person grand jury. McCulloch was very clever, crafting the throwing of the Obama administration under the bus by mentioning Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, at least nine times, saying that, at each and every step of the investigation, he kept the federal authorities and, by extension, Eric Holder, involved every step on the way.
He intimated he and Eric Holder were best of friends, as if they went fishing together down by the community water hole. Both McCulloch and the president urged “calm” but not a word about justice.
The quest for justice has failed again in America’s democracy and justice arena. Let’s not pretend to be naïve, saying we were surprised by the grand jury’s action or by the prosecutor mixing up his responsibilities as an elected public official sworn to defend with integrity and fairness all of the citizens of St. Louis County, Missouri.
McCulloch is now zero for five in obtaining indictments of White police officers who’ve shot and killed unarmed African Americans. All the warnings were there, including the governor declaring a state of emergency, ordering in the National Guard, quietly training a 98 percent White special police force to keep the natives under control.
The youthful rioters and marchers of the 1960s and ’70s wanted race and war “justice to flow like a river” (Amos 5:24). They are now the status quo preservationists. Their grandchildren now riot and march, another generation seeking “justice to flow like a river.” Dr. King’s “why we can’t wait” again becomes, “wait some more.” And although we don’t advocate destructive rioting, we understand the formulas of “No justice, no peace. Know justice, know peace.”
What more can we say? God bless America. Pray for the soul and spirit of Michael Brown and for all young African Americans. May this generation succeed where their grandparents and parents failed.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solutions papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books, go to www.BeaconOnThe HillPress.com.
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