During the last few weeks, America has been in an uproar over the cases of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and now Eric Garner. Many columnists, myself included, commented on these developments as they happened, sometimes with too much haste and without considering their impact. I think it’s important to take a moment to point out when the truth was bent and sometimes completely ignored.
Last week, my colleague TehQuin Forbes wrote, "The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has garnered great popularity recently with members of the black community and their allies, who are using it to speak out against the systematic killing of black people in the U.S." While I understand his good intentions in explaining what the hashtag meant, he unfortunately portrayed an atrocity that is simply not happening in America. To say that there is a "systematic killing of black people in the U.S." is a grand exaggeration that takes hyperbole to the next level and incites fury that is erroneous. I agree there is a problem with our justice system, and blacks often face harsher punishments for the same crimes whites commit, but to proclaim that blacks are being systematically killed goes too far and depicts police and other enforcers of the law in a negative and unfair light.
If you believe blacks are being systematically killed in America, I challenge you to look at what is happening around the world. In Syria, from March 2011 to August 2013, the Syrian government killed approximately 11,000 detainees in the most gruesome ways imaginable. The Guardian originally reported on this "industrial scale" killing and found that "most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution." The amount of killing and the fashion in which it is executed is truly barbaric, and what happened over there is what real systematic killing is like. To compare crimes against humanity like that to our current predicament is wrong and somewhat irresponsible.
My other colleague Alec Carver also wrote about the events unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, and somehow managed to justify the actions of the rioters over the unsatisfactory indictment decision against Darren Wilson. Carver wrote, "the fact that some have taken advantage of the unrest to loot stores and damage property has been used to delegitimize the protests. These incidents have distracted from the real issues and resulted in a false portrayal of the people of Ferguson as violent and unwilling to respect the rule of law." As I mentioned last week, I understand the community’s outrage over not indicting the officer responsible for Brown’s death, but to burn your own city to the ground is not the right way to go about garnering change and getting people on your side.
For Carver to continue to call these "protests" and simultaneously mention that the protesters looted stores and damaged property is a bit concerning. Once you start committing crimes and ransacking your own community, you have gone from peaceful protesting to destructive rioting, which is never OK. To try and spin this destruction into something good is misguided. To report on these incidents is not creating a false portrayal of the people of Ferguson as violent and unwilling to respect the rule of law. It’s actually quite true, as the rioting and looting did, in fact, happen — and those involved openly displayed a disrespect for the law.
The overall response from these situations from American citizens has been mostly reasonable and constructive. For example, I agree and support the protests currently happening in New York over the death of Garner. I think most people would agree, especially if you watched the gut-wrenching video, that the officer responsible for Garner’s death should have been indicted, as it was made clear that Garner was being choked to death. The protests over his death have been mostly peaceful without any violence and theft. When protesters do decide to turn their campaigns violent, they delegitimize themselves and lose the support of the general population, as evidenced by what happened in Ferguson.
From here on out, I encourage everyone who is upset over these events to step back and then formulate an appropriate response that doesn’t involve exaggeration and willful acceptance over obvious missteps. Taking the time to do this will result in more constructive arguments and better opportunities for real change.
Nick Eagle is a UF economics and political science senior. His columns appear on Mondays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 12/7/2014]
[The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Alligator.]
