T HE G REEN W AVE G AZETTE
P AGE 10
OPINION
Violent Reactions to Ferguson Must Stop
Innocent victims should not suffer
Sean Bartlett
Contributor
Ferguson, Mo., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014, in the
wake of the grand jury decision not to indict officer
Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Ferguson
teen Michael Brown. (Anthony Souffle/Chicago
Tribune/TNS used with permission)
The killing of Michael Brown, Jr. an
unarmed black man by Darren Wilson,
a white police officer in Ferguson,
Missouri last summer, caused a lot of
controversy. There are many that
think that Wilson was wrong for firing
his gun. Others think he acted in selfdefense, and Brown attempted to steal
his gun first. In November, the St.
Louis County grand jury decided not
to charge Wilson, which only served
to extend the bad feelings between
opposing sides of the issue.
All around the U.S. there has been
debate about this incident. Some believe it was an act of racism, even
conducting a “black lives matter”
campaign and participating in peaceful
marches. These types of protests are
acceptable, because people are just
stating their opinion.
However, a problem arises when the
protests turn into rioting, causing
problems that are not needed. I do not
think this event was caused by racism,
but everyone who does has the right to
their opinion and the right to participate in peaceful protests. Conversely,
the problem-causing riots that are
taking place are totally unacceptable
and must be stopped.
In addition to the peaceful protests in
Ferguson, stores were looted and
burned. The riots quickly escalated all
over the country. The events got
much worse. Police officers who had
nothing to do with the event have lost
their lives, specifically two New York
City police officers; Wenjian Liu and
Rafael Ramos. The murderer also took
his own life.
In Boston, protestors blocked Interstate-93 leading into the city. The
activists were protesting what they call
"police and state violence against black
people.” The riots seemed to stop, but
then on March 12, there was another
incident in Ferguson. Two police
officers were shot in an ambush at the
Ferguson Police Department by shooter Jeffrey Williams. Williams is an
African American who has previously
participated in the Ferguson protests.
These riots cause so many problems
and need to be stopped. Even Michael
Brown’s family put out a statement
saying, “We reject any kind of violence.” People need to think about
their actions. Two innocent men (the
NYC Police officers) didn’t deserve
any harm, and were killed. Then two
other officers were severely injured in
Ferguson. These officers have families
whose lives have also been ruined.
When the highway was blocked there
were people trying to get to work that
could not. An elderly car crash victim
had to be re-routed to another hospital. There could have been a lot of
more serious problems affected by this
act. The rioting is only causing more
problems. It must end.
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(Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times/
MCT used with permission)
“Many have
blamed th