There are several issues that are emerging from the tragedy of a police officer shooting an unarmed African American teenager that need to be woven together to make sense of this disaster. This cause celebre involves the role of the media in moulding public opinion and defining the public agenda, the issue of race and inequality in the USA 60 years after the passage of Civil Rights Legislation, allegations of police brutality and behavior, and the process of the USA justice system.
THE MEDIA
Firstly, the American media, and with them the world media, have deserted Gaza for a new story du jour. The Gaza saga is far far from over and that, coupled with the march of IS, with even a beheading of an American are barely making the news. So the “medium is the message” as Marshall McLuhan claimed 60 years ago. Characteristically they, the “media” run a story 24/7 for a limited period of time and then they up and move onto the next one, Jay H. Ell believes this decision is on the basis of ratings, present or future.
The pitching of tents into Ferguson cannot be only on the basis of “police brutality” or even race per se as on July 17, 2014, over 2 weeks after Hamas started firing rockets, and a week after Israel responded with “Protection Edge” there was a senseless shameless police killing of a pathetic 43 year old New York black man, a father of 6, whose alleged offense was selling single cigarettes. The whole episode was on video leaving very little for the imagination. It is only now over a month later that this will go to a Grand Jury to hear evidence as to whether the Police Officer should go to trial.
So the media as a whole, for better or worse, consciously or unconsciously, select a story and almost to the channel punt it till kingdom come, more often than not favoring one side against the other. There can be gross humanitarian violations taking place as they were in May 2001, in Timor for example, when Chandra Levy, a Congress intern, of Representative Gary Condit, disappeared. Team media moved into a tiny Californian town, Modesto, and interviewed everyone from Condit’s barber to the Mayor of the town. Levy’s family believed that Condit had murdered Levy as she was causing problems for him as a result of an affair between the two. The day to day reality show continued and speculation included that Mrs. Condit had eliminated Levy. This all only really ceased when the media finally upt and went to New York to report the story, thus far the drama of the century, of 9/11. Nothing was ever heard again of the Levy saga, even the finding of Levy’s remains and the conviction of her real murderer was scantily reported.
That was the day Jay H. Ell finally came to terms with the fact that the Fourth Estate had sold its soul to the selling of soap. He had read Tom Fenton’s, book “Bad News”.Fenton had been the CBS senior overseas correspondent for four decades and had seen a decline in the reportage of news as more and more stories were spiked as they could result in the viewers flipping channels. This all came about as the news in the networks became a cost center. Up until then the news was subsidized by the other programming. He famously reported that he had stories on the danger of Osama Bin Laden overlooked as who would be interested in that obscure sounding name? Now the cable news channels are totally dependent on advertising and therefore ratings 24/7 so his conclusion that, as a whole, the networks and the channels had abdicated their responsibility to the American people rings true.
That doesn’t mean that, on some occasions, the agendas of soap sale are at odds with “the truth”. However, that latter fact hardly inspires confidence in the former guardians of society. In the meantime if Israel want to flatten Gaza it would not get too much coverage at the moment because the media are camped out in Ferguson, Missouri.
RACE.
The American Melting Pot and Perceptions of Reality
One of the great ironies of the great American Society, a nation of immigrants, is that although, the Irish, the Italians, the Scandinavians, all the Europeans, East and West, the South Americans and the Asians, for example, have integrated into the “melting pot”, the almost indigenous, former slaves, the African Americans are still on the fringe. Now that the media have taken us to Ferguson, Missouri where there has been another shooting of an unarmed African American teenager by a white policeman the festering sore of race has once again been brought to the fore.
Even in the year 2014 the African Americans and the “whites” view the happening in Ferguson totally differently. According to a Pew survey 80% of African Americans believe the issue is about race and well below 30% of the "whites" have come to this conclusion.
Attacks on the poor
As a background to race relations in general the Republicans have conducted, on a State level, a remorseless campaign to reverse the advances of civil rights legislation particularly in relation to voting rights by making it more and more difficult for the African Americans to vote. (Blog: Why The Republicans in 2014 - Its The Plutocrats, Obamacare and Voter Suppression Stupid). This is coupled on a National level of “blaming” the poor for being poor. There is Paul Ryan’s “Givers and Takers” and Romney’s infamous statement that became the mantra of the Republican Party to the effect that 47% of the country would never vote for him, Romney, as they want government handouts. The Supreme Court are leaning more and more to do away with Affirmative Action and Voter Right Protection. There is open contempt for the African American President Obama as epitomized by Fox’s Bill O’Reilly all but screaming at Obama that he achieved what he did because of Affirmative Action and he O’Reilly accomplished his success all on his own.
So there is a national tide of anger, stoked by the Republicans towards the poor in general and the African Americans indirectly.
The Reality
All this aggression accompanies the current statistics showing that the percentage of legally poor is 27% among the African Americans and 12% in the “white” group. Also the myth of the “Great American Dream” of rags to riches appears to be just that. Study after study has shown that if you are born poor you stay poor and the situation is worse in the USA than in certain European Countries. There is also investigation after investigation showing, for example, that educational opportunities and employment prospects are more disadvantageous to persons of color. There is likewise more likelihood of arrest for the same crime, profiling by the police for questioning and far more probability of long jail time for minor drug offenses amongst the non white community.
Race prejudice in Ferguson, Missouri
To get more specific for the town of Ferguson, Missouri there is an activist group, the ArchCity Defenders that provide pro bono defense for those who cannot afford hiring a lawyer. They have stated that the tensions between the African American citizens and the local police go beyond the Michael Brown cataclysm. They maintain that for revenue purposes the African American population is victimized. They have issued a report that found that, “Clients reported being jailed for the inability to pay fines, losing jobs and housing as a result of incarceration, being refused access to the courts if they were with their children or family members and being mistreated by bailiffs, prosecutors, clerks and judges. For traffic tickets they can languish in jail for weeks”.
The ArchCity examination continues, “Court fees and fines are the second largest source of revenue for Ferguson. There is a perception, backed by statistics, of the black population, that are pulled over in greater numbers, than their percentage population warrants and that they are being targeted to pay these fines.” The Executive Director of ArchCity, Thomas Harvey, stated that this situation in Ferguson has created a real tension between the City and the majority of the population.
Bearing in mind that only five of the seventy - five law enforcement officers in a town are African American that has a population that consists of 70% of that ethnic group is a recipe for disaster. And that disaster has just happened.
A take way lesson is how when an African American police captain Ronald Johnson was placed in charge of the angry, sometimes violent, protests the mood of the crowd changed. Johnson could empathize with them. However, he was still a cop whose job was to maintain law and order so he arrested and used tear gas when he thought it was appropriate.
THE POLICE.
Police in any society have massive power. They are the arbiters of whether or not the behavior of any citizen could be violating the law and on the basis of their determination they can immediately deprive a citizen of freedom. Contrary to the mantra that you are innocent till proven guilty in fact it is vice versa. Ask anyone who has challenged even a traffic ticket in the belief that they were not speeding and see the response of the learned judge!
When one analyzes more serious controversies such as whether the death of a suspect is justified the argument assumes a greater dimension. Under normal circumstances the probe is conducted by the police department itself as to whether the fatal response was justified. A devastating analysis of police investigations into nearly a hundred and twenty five killings by the police in Wisconsin has become part of the public record. This research was conducted by a Michael Bell whose son was shot in Kenosha Wisconsin ten years ago. He learned that in not one of the 125 deaths investigated, by the police themselves, was any culpability placed on the police. He believed that this had to be absolutely impossible bearing in mind some of the evidence relating to some of the deaths.
He explained that his enquiry was spurred by an African American who approached him and said, “If they can shoot a white boy like a dog imagine what we are going through”. The father Lieutenant Michael Bell who, ten years later, is finally receiving his day in the media had maintained that his son was unlawfully shot in the public arena. Lieutenant Bell felt that the Ferguson incident could be racially motivated.
For the seventy percent of Americans who believe that the police always act with propriety and are protectors all the time, they have to realize that others see them,essentially, as instruments of oppression. Jay H. Ell has some experience of this phenomenon in South Africa when the black society only saw the police as their persecutors. (Blog: Mandela - Day To Day Memories of Apartheid). While Jay H. Ell was white, as an opponent of the regime, he never felt comfortable in the presence of the police. There were to many occasions where he was at a meeting or even a social gathering that they arrived en masse either to harass or intimidate. Jay H.Ell had personal knowledge of police slipping marijuna into the pockets of suspects and then pretending that they had found it there.
So Americans better get with the program that while the majority of the police evoke the feeling of security for most of us there is sizable minority who mainly see them as persecutors. They need to reexamine why the jury acquitted O. J. Simpson so expeditiously. The principle reason, Jay H. Ell believes, was that an investigating office Mark Furman was proven to be a liar when he claimed that he wasn’t a racist. The predominately African American jury could identify with this type of set up. The racist cop had lied to get a conviction.
The police in Ferguson have not exactly excelled themselves in this incident. They were reluctant to give the name of the policeman involved and were highly secretive in releasing any information about the events. They also allowed Mr. Brown’s body to lie, uncovered, in the street for four hours after the shooting. They published untested evidence about the victim being a shoplifter in an effort to besmirch his character in an episode, even if true, that had no bearing on his death.
THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM.
Jay H. Ell has pointed out some of the differences between the American Justice System and those of the rest of the Western World. (Blog: “Pistorius Trial - Comparing USA and South Africa). The US system is far more politicized as the prosecutor and the Judges are elected by popular vote. The public and the media weigh in from the word go. The “victim’s family” is also considered an “interested party” to whom justice must be served. In those countries whose law is based on the Roman Dutch tradition the crime is against the State and the family’s opinions as to what should be done and what sentence is appropriate, however tragic the circumstances may be, are irrelevant. Most significantly there is no sub judice law in America. In other countries no evidence and opinion as to its significance or any matter related to the trial can be debated lest it influence the outcome. Here the First Amendment trumps all of that.
In America there is a media free for all. There is a divided opinion already as to whether or not the officer acted appropriately on that fateful night. Witnesses give interviews with and without their lawyers. The Brown family and or their legal representation give press conferences. The media weighs in and comments on each bit of evidence.
The public attempt to influence the outcome. There are marches in the streets demanding justice, the removal of the prosecutor and disturbances that result in a police response that exacerbates further anger. Politicians are placed under pressure. The President as well as the Attorney General have been pulled into the debate.
There are conflicting jurisdictions and the State and the Federal Government each are conducting their own independent investigations. The County Prosecutor is holding a Grand Jury deliberation, which allows him to conduct the enquiry in secret as opposed to a preliminary hearing where the evidence as to whether there is “probable cause” to go to trial is in the public domain. The Prosecutor has challenged the Missouri Governor to fire him. And on and on.
In short the process is muddied before it even starts.
THE MESSAGE OF IT ALL
If nothing else this whole catastrophe illustrates the anger of the African American population towards the system. Justice Ginsberg has recently maintained that America has a real racial problem. The white population just don’t get it. You are also dealing with a milieu where the public are very much involved in the justice system. In case America has forgotten there were lynchings in the South, not so long ago for far less than Officer Darren Wilson was alleged to have done to Michael Brown. It was only 60 years ago that the people of color were able to vote and the Southern States with the Supreme Court backing are trying to take that right away again. The Republicans are maintaining that it is the African Americans fault that they are poor and stating they are bone lazy and are “takers”.
Time and again incidents like these arise and on this occasion the media decided to make the Ferguson convulsion their focus and place it front and center in the American psyche. Unless the ratings remain high they will pack up and go to the next crisis du jour before this important circumstance is fully aired. The media have failed once again spotlighting mindlessly the sensational - the protests per se - without examining the real issues, including their own role in the hapstance. In addition the good faith efforts of black leaders to protest peacefully and constructively seek change have not received enough attention.
This country, the leader of the free world, needs serious discussion as to its problems not tabloid journalism. If a wake up call is needed, according to a Rasmussen poll only 20% of Americans consider the media very trustworthy.
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