The Mike Brown Saga – Will We Win, or Will We Lose?

For some of us this is about winning an argument and nothing more. Some would say he was a human being who lived in a country that believes in the freedom to walk down the street without getting six bullets pumped into his body by a police officer.

Others would say he was a thug, and they will quickly point at a video showing him allegedly robbing a convenience store. And although the video had nothing to do with him being killed, these people would say that the video somehow proves that he was a thug, a strain on society, a young man who chose not to listen to the orders of  a police officer and therefore, deserved the officer killing him… in the free country.

One of these groups will win their argument and he will either be remembered as a human being, a teenager with a mother and father still weeping his loss. A boy who had birthdays, dreams and heartbreaks. For these people,  Mike Brown will be remembered as a human being. He will be remembered as a a teenager with a soul who made mistakes like any other teenager, but like any other teenager, he too deserved to live.

Or, Mike Brown will be looked upon as the ruthless thug who disobeyed the orders of a cop. A thug whose crime began when he literally walked in the streets of this “free” nation. Or maybe, just maybe his crime actually began when he was born and society saw the color of his skin. And maybe because of that color they disregarded his humanity, his birthdays, his dreams and his heartbreaks. And because he wasn’t a human in their eyes they associated his teenage mistakes with thuggery. And they thanked the officer for cleansing the streets of Ferguson. These thug creatures must die.

In the end, one of these groups will have justice, whatever justice means these days. And that justice will either lead to real changes between the police and the communities they’re supposed to protect, or that justice will lead to more Mike Browns and a society stuck in the quicksand of intolerance, a society drowning in its own racism.

As we wait to see who wins…