Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Ferguson, Missouri:
The Shooting6 to Death of Michael Brown, a Black Teenager, by Officer Darren Wilson, A White Police Officer, and It's Aftermath

To ' Serve & Protect' or Communities Under Police Siege?
The answer to this question will depend on whom you speak with.
For Black, Hispanic and Communities of Color in the United States, unless they are equally represented within the forces doing the policing, they will perceive as occupation and control what others regard as the normal exercise of police tasks.
So the issue of race and representation is a critical factor in how a community perceives it's local police force.

Problem Identification Formula
Anywhere in the world, you can formulate that there is a problem of race, ethnicity or religious bigotry and or intolerance where communities are not being predominantly 'served' by a proportionate number of their like-brethren who are doing the policing within that local community.
Ferguson clearly does have a problem. But is the problem in America any different from, say, Zimbabwe, or Brazil or South Africa or the Sunnis an Shias in Iraq or the Ethnic Russians and  Ukrainians in the Ukraine or minorities within the Russian Federation?
Before you say how ridiculous the comparisons I want you to reflect for a few minutes, very carefully.
How ridiculous you find such comparisons will also, more likely, depend on whether you are a member of a majority or minority within one or other of these communities. I have made my point here so I want to move on to another matter.
Senator George J. Mitchell7 (United States) when looking at sectarianism and racial discrimination against the minority Catholic community over hundreds of years in Northern Ireland, recommended the disbanding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a sectarian police force which the majority of Northern Irish Catholics found abhorrent to join, because it was blatantly racist, anti-Catholic and sectarian.
(Senator George Mitchell's Lebanese Christian origin put him in a unique position to look at discrimination against minorities, having come with historical experience from one such community.)
It was only after the disbanding of the RUC and the creating of a different culture in the recruitment and training of police officers, that Catholics en masse had the confidence both to trust and to join the Royal Irish Constabulary,  to 'Serve and Protect' the community as a whole, Catholics and Protestants, and with pride.
A similar reform of police forces across the U.S. is long overdue, as we see from supporting demonstrations against police brutality and harassment nationwide.

The Second Amendment To The Constitution of The United States – and Why It Must Be Defended by All Communities Regardless of Race, Religion and Color
The next issue is that of the 'militarization' of the police force in Ferguson and why they should be 'demilitarized'. This line of discussion is usually promoted by media networks, politicians and individuals who would, ultimately, prefer to disarm the people to concentrate firepower exclusively in the hands of the State. They would, on the whole, therefore, wish to extend this argument to the issue of gun control - and Ferguson provides an unexpected opportunity first to promote the 'demilitarization' of the local Police, then, as an extension to this, of local citizens, leaving the State (or National Guard and Armed Forces) as the ultimate 'protect and serve' guardians of the people.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution of The United States5  is the most precious gift of liberty the Founding Fathers have given to all Americans.
Every tyrant from Hitler to Stalin to Saddam Hussein to the Taliban in Afghanistan first seek to disarm the people – and in many instances the local police (creating specialist units – such as the Schutzstaffel (SS) and Die Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) who have State authority to bear arms) before they implemented reigns of terror against defenceless communities.

Every tyrannical country in the world you can think of today make the possession of personal firearms illegal or at the very least, subject to local (State Police) control
and monitoring.  They give all sorts of excuses but the real reason is to leave the people powerless against State tyranny.
Not in the United States where citizens rights to bear arms are enshrined in the constitution.

Problems in Ferguson – Is Ferguson Unique or Just Long Due for Overhaul?
There are problems in Ferguson, Missouri, as there are problems in many police forces across the United States as there are problems in police forces across many countries in the world, but such should not turn into a debate about disarming America, as a civil society, including the disarming of the police force.
Most citizens outside the free world envy the right of every American to protect himself herself and family with as much an arsenal of weapons as they can afford to maintain (assuming they agree with the principle of the Second Amendment.)
It's at times such as this that the NRA should be universally supported so that other Fergusons become less likely and the State thinks twice before looking down the sniper sights of it's arsenal against the people exercising their First Amendment8  rights. 
If there ever was a reason for communities to organize themselves under the Second Amendment for protection it is Ferguson - and the NRA5  can provide the right guidelines to all citizens, regardless of race, religion or color, to ensure that this protection is available within the terms of the U.S. constitution.

The H.R. 1033 Program1&2  – 
And The Rights Of Citizens Opposed To Police 'Militarization'
Unlike, for example, Russia, America is an open democracy where the rights of all citizens are enshrined in the constitution.
You will never hear of protests against police brutality towards minorities in the Russian Federation because the people are powerless against the State and, of course, it is illegal for citizens to possess weapons to protect themselves and their families against criminals and the totalitarian post Soviet Police State.
If American citizens are unhappy with the 'militarization' of their local police force they can lobby their lawmakers to either scrap or amend the H.R. 1033 program1 as applicable to their State or Community.
Indeed one Democratic Congressman, Hank Johnson3&4  is doing just that.
There is no particular reason to have a 'militarized' police force to counteract peaceful protest (even with the presence of troublemakers amongst demonstrators) but to suggest 'demilitarizing' the police and leaving communities defenceless simply because of 'rogue' elements within forces (or indeed introducing gun control because of rogue or mentally unbalanced individuals across the country) is, in my opinion, not a solution to racial profiling, racism nor the culture of discrimination which results in minority communities being 'curfewed' or harassed after darkness by 'rogue' police forces and officers operating unter the guise of 'To Serve and Protect'.


Patrick Emek


1. https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1033/text

6.I say 'shooting to death' so as not to prejudice the on-going FBI forensic and other likely subsequent investigations into the death of this unarmed teenager

7.Senator George Mitchell:
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000811

8.The First Amendment To The Constitution of The United States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution



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