IN FERGUSON, MISSOURI
(…do police only shoot un-armed people because these…can’t shoot back?)

It’s a sad state of affairs when the Governor has to call in the state’s National Guard to re-establish order in a community, because, there’s such wide dysfunction in the relations between the citizens of that community and their police force; a situation which led to the tragedy of a young man losing his life and the ruination of a policeman’s life. Even worse are the probable long-term negative impacts of this tragedy on the future of race relations in that community.

While local outrage at the killing of an un-armed youth is understandable, and the protests it generated, the continuing violent confrontations between supposed “peaceful” protesters and the forces of authority strongly suggest that there are outside elements fomenting most of the trouble there. Outside elements which really don’t belong there. One would think that, under the circumstances, the authorities would be taking measures not only to haul them in, but to prevent them from coming into Ferguson in the first place.

Officer-involved shootings are always difficult things to deal with. On one hand, there is the natural desire to ensure that the officer (s) involved acted correctly, according to established rules and protocols by their departments, and doing that requires a methodical, meticulous investigative process. It’s a process which requires a proper amount of time if it is to have any validity at all. On the other hand there are the equally natural emotionally driven needs of the shooting victim’s friends and relatives desires for immediate answers as to why…it happened.

No one really knows what caused this to happen. A young man, Michael Brown, un-armed, appears to have been gunned down in broad daylight, for no apparent reason, by an officer who seems to have acted from an enraged state of mind, by firing multiple times at him, of which one was the only mortal shot.

Unfortunately, in Ferguson, there seems to have been an immediate, hysterical, knee-jerk reaction to that shooting because the officer involved was white, and the victim African-American. One can’t help but wonder if that would have been the case if the officer had also been African American. Everyone there seems to have jumped to the conclusion that in Ferguson, Missouri, police only shoot un-armed people because these…can’t shoot back. It’s a conclusion that further incited the violence prone elements there.

Such a negative view of police, however, regardless of any racial aspects involved, seems to be common with a broad spectrum of youth across the country. That is, a “badass outlaw” attitude which insists on reacting to any legitimate police activity, as if that’s an absolute imposition on their freedom and personal rights. A wrongheaded notion, because that refuses to acknowledge the right of any law officer to say or do anything that might restrict their activity or behavior. It’s an anarchic attitude which inevitably escalates even the most legitimate police question or direction…into a confrontation… which then leads to violence and thus much too often, to the deadly results seen in Ferguson and elsewhere around the country.

Perhaps all of our youth need to be reminded of an old saying: There are only four words you should ever use when in an encounter with police. These are…YES SIR…and NO SIR…say anything else and you only invite more trouble. Besides, there’s a better way to get even if you feel you’ve been picked upon. Instead of becoming hostile or resisting, just smile if they insist on taking you in to the station, because, if they do so for no good reason or probable cause…you can always sue the pants off of them later…thus retiring…rather than dying…young.

CENTURION