“Fu*k the police/ coming straight from the underground / A young ni**a got it bad cause I’m brown / And not the other color so police think / They have the authority to kill a minority / F*ck that shit, cause I ain’t the one…”

These were the protest lyrics from the 1988 song, “Fuck tha Police”, written by Compton’s Niggas With Attitude, known around the world simply as N. W. A.

This song foreshadowed the 1992 L.A. Race Riots that happened in Los Angeles, CA as a result of California Police officers being seen on a March 1991 video, mercilessly beating Los Angeles (LA) civilian, Rodney King. Two of the officers were acquitted. And, on April 29th, 1992, LA erupted into protests, violence, rioting, looting, arrests, and some deaths.

On Saturday August 9th, 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year old teen visiting relatives in Ferguson, Missouri was shot and killed by the police.

This picture was posted by one of Michael Brown’s friend to Facebook and posted by Colorlines.com

Although the circumstances surrounding the killing are still being investigated, what is clear is that Michael Brown was unarmed and shot multiple times by a police officer as Mr. Brown was attempting to run away from the officer.

As a result of yet another nationwide killing at the hands of law enforcement, it is this Michael Brown killing that has caused the residents of Ferguson, Missouri to erupt with anger, violence, looting, rioting, arrests, and to simmer in a place of hopelessness. Ferguson now joins the list of cities that have seen young, unarmed men killed at the hands of the police, but Ferguson’s reaction has not been reticent. Rather, it is loud, brash and further adds to the city’s conflict with lawfulness.

This sounds awfully familiar to the response of LA’s citizens in the wake of the 1992 verdict regarding justice for the late Mr. Rodney King.

For many of Ferguson’s residents, at least as it appears from the marching, protesting, and violence, they are fed up with the imbalance of justice. According to all reports, Michael Brown’s slain body remained on the ground for four and one half hours, in the summer, broad daylight of Missouri. According to witnesses, Michael Brown’s hands were raised in surrender, yet he was still killed by a yet unidentified police officer.

The despair that the people feel in the seemingly unjustified killing of Mr. Michael Brown has added to a further breakdown of Ferguson’s civility. News coverage has shown those of us around the nation on our sofas watching flat screen televisions, people looting products from local merchants–gas stations, beauty supply stores and other places.  We have even seen the store in which Michael Brown was allegedly shoplifting burn down.

People are seen throwing rocks and kicking police vehicles as they drive by.  Protesters have carried signs with the reminiscent 1960s slogan, “I Am A Man”“.  We have witnessed the hurt of a mother that has had to identify the body of her once college-bound, now deceased son, as a result of being killed by a police officer.  Also, from our spectator spots, we have heard Ferguson police officers refer to the people as “animals”.

Is the behavior of Ferguson, Missouri what happens when people internalize hopelessness?

Yes.

I have read numerous posts throughout social media, some in defense of the people’s behavior and many adamantly against the people’s actions. At best, I can surmise that some of Ferguson’s citizens have internalized the same hopelessness they feel the police have toward young, unarmed, Black males in Ferguson and across the nation.  It is the same internalized hopelessness the people of LA had when the officers in the Rodney King beating were acquitted after what the world saw on tape that looked very criminal and inhumane.  In the people’s hearts, they knew justice would not be served therefore they destroyed establishments to take out their frustrations and to show a rage that their bodies and emotions could not facilitate.

Michael Brown’s mother, Ms. Lesley McSpadden, pleadingly stated to a news reporter:

“You took my son away from me!  Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school to graduate? You know how many Black men graduate? Not many! ‘Cause you bring them down to this type of level to [sic] they feel like, “I ain’t got nothing to live for anyway…they gone [sic] try to take me out anyway!”

Perhaps in the case of Ferguson, the people are unable to fathom, in this moment, how those charged with protecting and serving them, are disproportionately maiming them.  This altered reality has created a horrible lapse in judgment, and the people have now reduced their behavior to that of one officer’s breach of his or her civic and professional contract to the people; so, they destroy the establishments. While the officer may have individually pulled the trigger that shot multiple rounds of bullets into the body of teen, Michael Brown, the people have internalized one officer’s actions as institutional behavior of all police officers and that cannot be changed right now.

I get it.

I don’t have any judgment to pass on the actions of the people, right or wrong, because I have never been moved to “loot”, even when faced with injustice—as a teen I was on the receiving end of two police officers’ violence.  I have been moved to protest, to tears and I have questioned many of the actions of some of America’s oldest institutions.  In my inquiry, I have condemned the lack of sensitivity, professionalism and care that they show toward groups of people and still I have never been moved to violence.  I have been moved to write about my feelings with systemic practices so that in my process, I may begin to understand the “other side.”  But I have remained hopeful that better people with greater consciousness can and will infiltrate these systems enough to create change.  But every time I read on my Twitter or Facebook timelines, watch a news report, or read in the newspaper about another unjustified killing, I realize that my hopefulness has not yet been met.

And, what I understand about the people of Ferguson is that they are hurt. I imagine that many Ferguson, 18-year old, Black teens may perform a psychological facelift where they are the ones lying in the morgue in place of teen, Michael Brown. I also understand that when these events happen, just like other incidents of racial injustice of Ferguson’s distant and recent past, the people feel isolated from the protection of their police officers and more like targets.

I completely understand how the citizens of Ferguson have internalized hopelessness, and hopefully changes in the practices of the police will move them beyond it.  Until then, I keep my television on and my sofa space ready…

Click on the links below to learn more about Michael Brown’s mother’s reaction and the latest on the Michael Brown fatality:

Lesley McSpadden–Michael Brown’s mother, CNN

Lesley McSpadden–Michael Brown’s mother, NewsOne

Police Officer calling Ferguson citizens “animals” http://m.colorlines.com/archives/2014/08/police_officer_calls_ferguson_protestors_animals.html