[image: dailymall.co.uk]

Racism and Justice in the Heartland of America

A package of 5 Swisher Sweet Cigarillos costs $4.50. If you walk out of a convenience store without paying for them, do you deserve to take 6 or 7 bullets in your head, face, arms and hands for petty theft? And then, does your body deserve to lay in the middle of the street in the hot sun for five hours while it rots away? And if your neighborhood rises up in anger over this incident, would you protect your neighbors or the police because they fear for their lives?

If the recent gun down in Ferguson, Missouri wasn’t about cigarillos, then what was it about? Walking in the street? Failing to jump when a police officer yells at you? Or your having the temerity to pull away when he grabs your arm?

Or is it all the above plus the additional facts that you are black and he is white in a town that is 67 percent black while 93 percent of its police force are white? And the police officer in question and you both have a “chip on your shoulder?” You mistrust him, and he thinks you are among the lowest forms of life? And all this 50 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became the law of the land?

So many questions, so few answers. This much we know for certain: This incident is not going away anytime soon. Until we get to the bottom of the matter, analyze it for what it is, and then put into place a new set of rules for police to follow, and new standards of conduct for everyone, matters of this kind will only get worse. It must begin by stripping Darren Wilson of his position as a police officer. Gunning down an unarmed teenager or anyone else for minor infractions of the law is totally unacceptable anywhere in this country. Period.