The last blog at The Thurber Brigade was a sidestep about writing. However, what transpired in Ferguson, MO on August 9th really agitated me due to the police behavior. So this blog goes completely off topic and dips into an even more volatile world then relationships.
As a writer it’s my passion
to tell stories (https://sites.google.com/site/jaywinaustin/home) and when watching a TV show or movie mystery, I try to guess the
outcome or perpetrator. So here's
a dramatization of what I have theorized happened in Ferguson.
The Players:
Policeman—Darren Wilson
Victim—Michael Brown
On a warm Missouri night
Michael Brown and a friend are walking down a street instead of using the
sidewalk. This might be a new youthful trend as while vacationing in Jackson,Wyoming last year, I noticed a lot of young people doing this. At that time I
decided it was a fad, but didn't see any police stop them either.
Police officer Darren Wilson
didn't see this action as a harmless fad though. He passed by the two kids and
pulled his cruiser over and jumped out to confront the wayward pedestrians.
"Hey, you boys* need to
get off the street right now," Wilson yelled.
"Screw* you! We ain't
doin' nothin' wrong," Brown answered.
Officer Brown didn't like being
talked back to, especially by a punk kid. His macho police instincts slowly
began to kick into gear. He stepped up to the large teenager and grabbed the
kid's arm.
"Ya'll* come over
here!" He said and began pulling Brown back toward his patrol car.
"Leave me alone you turd*!"
Brown shouted at the officer.
This inflamed the policeman
even more, as he wasn't about to let this young "thug" sass him. He assured
himself he wasn't being a racist, but his constant exposure to his fellow
biased officers played into his thinking and he had come to believe that any
black person who didn't do as told had to be a "thug."
This angry white policeman
yelling at him and yanking him toward his car frightened Brown. After all, he
had plenty of friends who had been taken into custody and came back home
bruised and battered. So he pushed at Wilson's chest, causing the policeman to
lose his grip and fall back onto the seat of his car. While falling back, his
head hit the top of the doorframe and his arms the side of the door. This added
pain enraged him even more.
Brown, seeing he now had a
gap between himself and the officer, began to back away. Furious at being
pushed, Wilson sprang back out of the car and simultaneously pulled his pistol
from its holster.
"Stop right there you
damn black person*!" Wilson screamed.
Brown saw the gun and
panicked. He began to run away. Wilson fired a shot that nicked Brown. This so
shocked the young man he fell to the ground. He suddenly realized he couldn't
get away, so turned while on his knees to face the officer. He suddenly threw
his hands up in surrender.
"Don't shoot mister*, I
surrender!" He cried.
Wilson, seeing the sudden turning
movement panicked. It was a thug after all and he could have just pulled a gun.
Wilson’s only thought was to
protect himself. He promptly fired
the remaining rounds in his gun at the kneeling young man.
And so concludes our little
tale. A young man walking harmlessly down a city street at night gunned down
for the simple offense of putting up resistance and frightening a man who had a
rigid stereotype of this type of person. Frightening the officer enough that
any sudden movement could cause the officer to panic and respond the only way the
police in the United States are trained to handle people who resist—with
violence.
* Colorful metaphors have been replaced with less offensive words
The Thurber Brigade apologizes for once more veering off the road of the War Between Men and Women and assures everyone that it will return to the straight and narrow soon. Um, maybe.
Ahhh, James Thurber
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