Fraud. That's the word Rich Lowry used to describe Ferguson, Mo., in his Tuesday column for POLITICO Magazine. Lowry -- an editor for the National Review, a conservative commentariat -- is only one of several high-profile voices who have now digested the news that a grand jury will not indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
Such reactions range the spectrum. Some of these columns explore (or decry, or attack) the legitimacy of the systems that produced the decision in the first place. Others, such as Lowry's, turn a critical eye to the role played by the media and by those citizens who "have proven themselves proficient at destroying other people's property, no matter what the rationale."
And there are yet more. Some, such as Carol Anderson's piece about "white rage," are again surfacing months after being published.
Here is a round-up of new columns that are drawing the most attention.
(The evidence reviewed by the grand jury is available in its entirety online, for further reference.)
Rich Lowry, "The Ferguson Fraud" (POLITICO): "The bitter irony of the Michael Brown case is that if he had actually put his hands up and said don't shoot, he would almost certainly be alive today. His family would have been spared an unspeakable loss, and Ferguson, Missouri wouldn't have experienced multiple bouts of rioting, including the torching of at least a dozen businesses the night it was announced that Officer Darren Wilson wouldn't be charged with a crime."
Jelani Cobb, "Chronicle of a Riot Foretold" (The New Yorker): "From the outset, the great difficulty has been discerning whether the authorities are driven by malevolence or incompetence. The Ferguson police let Brown's body lie in the street for four and a half hours, an act that either reflected callous disregard for him as a human being or an inability to manage the situation. ... Despite the sizable police presence, few officers were positioned on the stretch of West Florissant Avenue where Brown was killed. The result was that damage to the area around the police station was sporadic and short-lived, but Brown's neighborhood burned."
Dana Milbank, "Bob McCulloch's pathetic prosecution of Darren Wilson" (Washington Post): "[Prosecutor Bob] McCulloch short-circuited the process — reinforcing a sense among African Americans, and many others, that the justice system is rigged. He almost certainly could have secured an indictment on a lesser charge simply by requesting it, yet he acted as if he were a spectator, saying that jurors decided not to return a "true bill" on each possible charge — as if this were a typical outcome. As has been repeated often in recent weeks, a grand jury will indict a proverbial ham sandwich if a prosecutor asks it to."
Roxane Gay, "Only Words" (The Toast): "Time and again, Mike Brown's parents have been lauded, and rightly so, for their dignity, compassion, and composure. It is frustrating, though, that as has always been the case throughout history, the subjugated have had to be nobler. It is a hell of a thing to expect nobility in the face of such staggering disgrace. If we were talking about the murder of my child, I would not be dignified. I would be naked and hideous with my grief. I would rage. If I were murdered in such a manner, I would want people to rage on my behalf. I would want to be remembered loudly, with fire. Such visible outrage could be its own kind of grace."
Jonathan Turley, "Ferguson needs facts, not passions" (USA TODAY): "The law requires us to deal with facts, and when those facts do not support a criminal charge, prosecution is barred regardless of popular demand. In the end, it rings hollow to cry 'no justice, no peace' when you are rioting or looting. There can be no justice if it is merely the result of demonstrations rather than demonstrated facts. Otherwise, the scales of justice become just one more object to throw through the window of an appliance store."
Jamelle Bouie, "Why Darren Wilson was never going to be indicted for killing Michael Brown" (Slate): "The judicial system as we've constructed it just isn't equipped—or even willing—to hold officers accountable for shootings and other offenses. Or put differently, the simple fact is that the police can kill for almost any reason with little fear of criminal charges. ... Our courts and juries aren't impartial arbiters—they exist inside society, not outside of it—and they can only provide as much justice as society is."
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