The Case Of Michael Brown

In a suburb outside St. Louis known as Ferguson on August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, a black unarmed teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. Ferguson isn’t known as a violent town when it is compared to its neighboring towns. On November 24, 2014, the jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson. Thus, the uprising began. There was already distrust with the majority white police department. Forty-nine out of the fifty-three of the officers in the Ferguson Police Department are white. Before Michael Brown, there was Henry Davis. In 2009, Davis was charged with destruction of property for bleeding on the uniforms of white police officers. He was originally pulled over for no reason according to Davis, but the police tell a different story. Police say that Davis was swerving all over the road at a very high speed and refused to take a breathalyzer test when he got pulled over. After all was said and done, Henry Davis ended up leaving with four counts of destruction of property for bleeding on the uniforms of four white officers (Shapiro 2014). With the investigation of the

The jury that released Officer Wilson was made up of twelve jurors, nine white and three black. The indictment would’ve required nine of the twelve jurors to agree. Even though you can’t be certain about who decided what, it is clear what the people of Ferguson thought, nine white jurors saving one of their own. This brought about more racial tension. As the day went on, things got intense. Buildings and cars were set on fire, objects were thrown, and shots could be heard (Buchana 2015). This all happened near where Brown was shot by Officer Wilson. These acts of anger and frustration went on for weeks prompting officers to use tear gas and rubber bullets, thus causing more tension between the civilians and police