Dr. Michael J. O’Connell, PainCare, New Hampshire asked if anyone has noticed how the incense and fervor over Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY had not just simmered down, it went ice cold? With grand juries and the federal government, after very considerable deliberation, having all refused to indict and/or further investigate supposed police brutality/excessive force, a lot of air has escaped these inflated cases. The media (and sadly, our president and the DOJ), assisted greatly in magnifying the drama leading up to the non indictments, but have been comparatively non existent in commentary since. It’s as though Michael Brown and Eric Garner hardly ever existed, barely a footnote. Amazing when you think of the “moral outrage” these cases generated. Or rather the media fanned. Amazing that this administration used Ferguson and Staten Island as examples of “what is wrong with race relations in America,” and now?
When the good guys (the police) appear to have taken appropriate actions, the show is essentially over. It is much more media worthy for the police to be portrayed as blood thirsty dogs who specifically target black characters and use force disproportionate to the situation. THAT issue has draw power, the makings of a box office hit. It pulls the liberal Hollywood elite out of their Belmont mansions to march in the streets with the down trodden masses. It solicits hate speeches against whites especially by the likes of the rev Al Sharpton. These are the ingredients of media frenzy, and we fall victim to it all the time. Well, actually not “we.” I refuse to be included in that herd of white sheep who swooned to the “American conscience” and accept as fact that police wear black hats, and act out that evil role all the time against unsuspecting and totally innocent black youth.
Black, white, tan, yellow, red.....if you are acting belligerently to those who provide security, then God help you. Actually May God help you to alter your personna....when innocent, ACT innocent. Simple. It is time for the focus of attention to be redirected from those who secure our neighborhoods to those who are committing crime, or appear as though they are. THEIR behaviors need to change.
I blame the media and our current administration for the rioting, the mass protests, the hooliganism, and the wide spread criminal activity that surrounded both cases. What might possibly have been a true teaching moment for black youths was fumbled away by the two black leaders in power who could have provided the lesson—Eric Holder and Barack Obama.
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