His name was Michael Brown

I spent last Wednesday, August 13, 2014, glued to my computer. Scrolling across my twitter feed were the stories coming from Ferguson, MO. I was watching live video, not from some giant news corporation, because none of them had crews there (the locals did, but their footage, if it existed was not making its way to the national coverage) but of people actually on the ground as a heavily armed and armored police force tear-gassed its way through a residential neighborhood. Imploring protesters to "Go home, this is no longer a peaceful protest!" all while firing stun grenades, tear gas, flares, rubber bullets and having the piercing shriek of an LRAD blasting in the background.
I read in real time as two reporters were arrested for not leaving a McDonalds quickly enough, and then after the Police Chief found out, quickly being let go. I saw the reporters of Al-Jazeera flee their camera equipment as a tear gas canister exploded near them. I read the eye-witness reports of people saying officers pointing that camera to the ground.
A local reporter spoke live on camera of her fear as police searched the media vans, military rifles in hand, and suggested it was time for the media to leave as the police couldn't vouch for their safety.
I've since followed various narratives on the story since. The brief day of mostly calm on Thursday as the thugs of the St. Louis County Police were pulled out and the Missouri Highway Patrol, under the command of native son, Capt. Ron Johnson took over.
I watched and read with disgust on Friday as the Ferguson Police finally released the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown while simultaneously releasing video of what appears to be Brown robbing a convenience store minutes before he was shot.
Then, hours later mentioning, oh, the officer in question had no knowledge of the robbery so that had nothing to do with Brown's death.
I've watched and been sickened by so much racist vitriol, both blatant and carefully camouflaged has been spewed about the looting that happened the day Brown was killed. Mostly ignoring all arrested for looting had come into Ferguson from out of town. There has since been a bit of looting, but the images of the citizens of Ferguson, standing guard outside the stores to stop looting are poignant. These people LIVE there. They don't want to steal from neighbors or destroy their property. There is a criminal element anywhere and they are always opportunistic. Seeing regular folks standing up to thugs both with a badge and without is heartening.
What is disheartening is another unarmed black man is dead. I'm not certain what happened on August 9th. All I know is an unarmed 18 year old black man was lying dead on the pavement over thirty feet from the police car where the initial shot was fired. All I know is his body lay on the pavement for over 4 hours as they "processed the scene." All I know is that it took a week for them to even release the name of the officer involved. All I know is the police response was akin to what I would expect in Moscow, only I believe the Russians could actually have executed it in a professional manner.
The Michael Brown case brings so many issues to light yet again. Race issues. Police issues. Political issues. If I can bring myself to write about some of those I will. Right now, my heart breaks for the family of Michael Brown.
And my heart breaks for Darren Wilson, who has to live with the fact he shot an unarmed man to death. He apparently felt justified in the moment, but someone is dead because of his actions and that person didn't even have a weapon. Maybe Wilson is some racist monster, but I think more likely he a fairly regular officer for Ferguson, though, read some of the articles on that and you might be appalled.
I'll stop for the moment with this: If you were more concerned by the limited looting that occured over a week of protests than you are that an 18 year old man had his life cut short for little apparent reason, then you probably need to take a good hard look at your values.