An unfortunate situation has taken place in our
community. When those who are sworn to
protect and serve are faced with an impossible choice, to use deadly force or
not to use deadly force.
Because of this impossible choice a young man, Michael
Brown, is dead and a police officer’s life has changed forever. Two families
are facing the terrible. One the
untimely death of a son. The other the feelings of guilt and dread over the
taking of a life.
We will never know the complete truth of what happened that
night as Michael Brown is not alive to tell us what his thoughts were and why
he did what he did. Earlier in the
evening he had stolen a seemingly small dollar item, a box of cigars. Yes, he
intimidated the storeowner and that is uncalled for (this fact was admitted in
public by the friend with Michael that night).
Maybe those actions lead him to another poor action when the
officer confronted him, we will never know.
But having worked as a Chaplain for twelve years with police
officers I know that they do not desire to inflict harm. They do not go out on their shift looking for
someone to hurt. The majority of them
truly serve because they want to protect the public. But when faced with a life-threatening
situation they will react and they will react as they were trained. That sometimes ends in the death of a
citizen.
Now, the question comes, why is our community responding with
hurt and pain and anger? Why are there
destruction of property and the looting of stores? What does that accomplish? I understand the pain and anger from people
who feel disenfranchised by those in authority, but in a civilized, educated
society I would hope that we would behave better and be able to come to the
table and dialogue about what happened.
If the officer acted poorly and abused the use of power he
will be dealt with. If he acted within
his authority let us remember that we the people are the ones that gave him
that authority in the first place.
I think it is a sobering fact to realize that out of the
first 47 arrests that were made in Ferguson during the looting that 34 of those
people had previous criminal pasts and that they didn’t even live in the
Ferguson community. They came from
outside the community to inflict the damage and try to gain some material gain.
Ferguson is a good community. It is filled with kind, generous, loving
people who are good neighbors to each other.
They want their community back from those who seek to bring harm to
others.
Why does the media report all the violence and crime, but
they refused to report the good that is happening? Why don’t they report of the prayer meeting
at First Baptist Church of Ferguson that saw over 400 people, both black and
white, come together to pray together and seek God’s guidance together. Eight pastors lead this evening, four black,
four white. Why didn’t the media show
that positive event?
Then what about the groups of church members and community
groups who have come together to serve the community by cleaning up the areas
that have been destroyed? What about the citizens that have come together to
try and protect business from being looted by non-violently standing vigil at
the stores?
Don’t let the media give you just their one sided nature of
this issue. Look for the good and
realize that our community is strong and will show the good that it is. The family of Michael Brown wants the truth,
they have asked for the truth, and they have asked for the violence to
stop. The police want the truth and they
will get to the bottom of it if allowed to do their job.
Let’s just realize from both sides that sometimes the truth
is hard to accept, whatever it turns out to be.
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