Isn't it funny, in the most pathetic sense, that a lone shooting in the little town of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, can stir up such an upheaval while hundreds of shootings in the metropolis of Chicago, Illinois elicit a great, big yawn?
An unidentified police officer apparently shot and killed 18-year old Michael Brown on Saturday. According to his buddy, Dorian Johnson, he and Brown were innocently strolling home after visiting a convenience store when the cop told them to get onto the sidewalk and off the street.
The pair ignored him and kept on walking which seemed to arouse the cop's suspicions as to whether they might be up to no good. He dutifully confronted them and Johnson says the officer then fired at them as they were running away and, after the second shot, €He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air and he started to get down. But the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots.€
Johnson adds, €We wasn't causing harm to nobody. We had no weapons on us at all,€ without clarifying whether they have caused any harm in the past or usually carried €weapons.€
In any event, the tragic incident, reminiscent of Trayvon Martin's 2012 killing in Florida, resulted in huge demonstrations and a massive outpouring of grief over Brown's death and a candlelight vigil in his honor, as well as an influx of racial agitators including Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice.
As is typical in such cases, widespread looting and burning of Ferguson's stores and businesses ensued, undoubtedly also carried out in Brown's honor.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles attributed the latter honorific to a small group who are hurting the community, although 32 of that small group were arrested for crimes ranging from assault to burglary and theft and two officers suffered injuries in the melee despite reports the police mainly stood by in riot gear and looked on before employing tear gas to quell the small group's mayhem when matters got out of control.
The jury is still out on the circumstances of Brown's shooting since, unlike the death of 46 year-old black man Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York last month, no one videotaped either what actually happened last Saturday or what preceded and provoked it.
At this juncture, the only certainties are that a police officer of indeterminate race shot and killed Michael Brown, a black man in a 70% black town, and that the consequential grief over his shooting inspired blacks to pay due respects to his memory by rioting and looting.
Right now, the real question, the most pertinent question, is why blacks always seem to feel that violent, criminal reactions are their best recourse following incidents they think reflect white bigotry and discrimination. The Brown killing will eventually be adjudicated but when will black crime and violence in America be addressed?
Both blacks and whites in Chicago, where such events are commonplace, must be wondering the same thing.
An unidentified police officer apparently shot and killed 18-year old Michael Brown on Saturday. According to his buddy, Dorian Johnson, he and Brown were innocently strolling home after visiting a convenience store when the cop told them to get onto the sidewalk and off the street.
The pair ignored him and kept on walking which seemed to arouse the cop's suspicions as to whether they might be up to no good. He dutifully confronted them and Johnson says the officer then fired at them as they were running away and, after the second shot, €He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air and he started to get down. But the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots.€
Johnson adds, €We wasn't causing harm to nobody. We had no weapons on us at all,€ without clarifying whether they have caused any harm in the past or usually carried €weapons.€
In any event, the tragic incident, reminiscent of Trayvon Martin's 2012 killing in Florida, resulted in huge demonstrations and a massive outpouring of grief over Brown's death and a candlelight vigil in his honor, as well as an influx of racial agitators including Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice.
As is typical in such cases, widespread looting and burning of Ferguson's stores and businesses ensued, undoubtedly also carried out in Brown's honor.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles attributed the latter honorific to a small group who are hurting the community, although 32 of that small group were arrested for crimes ranging from assault to burglary and theft and two officers suffered injuries in the melee despite reports the police mainly stood by in riot gear and looked on before employing tear gas to quell the small group's mayhem when matters got out of control.
The jury is still out on the circumstances of Brown's shooting since, unlike the death of 46 year-old black man Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York last month, no one videotaped either what actually happened last Saturday or what preceded and provoked it.
At this juncture, the only certainties are that a police officer of indeterminate race shot and killed Michael Brown, a black man in a 70% black town, and that the consequential grief over his shooting inspired blacks to pay due respects to his memory by rioting and looting.
Right now, the real question, the most pertinent question, is why blacks always seem to feel that violent, criminal reactions are their best recourse following incidents they think reflect white bigotry and discrimination. The Brown killing will eventually be adjudicated but when will black crime and violence in America be addressed?
Both blacks and whites in Chicago, where such events are commonplace, must be wondering the same thing.