When Is an Unarmed Teen Not Unarmed?

From the start, it was almost a forgone conclusion, because of systemic biases, that the law would not hold police officer Darren Wilson accountable for shooting and killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown (explainer). Since the announcement of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson, a lot of analysis from legal and law enforcement experts has pressed the point that irregularities in the handling of the case by the police and Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch made certain Wilson wouldn’t face charges. I’m not the one to analyze that data, but I do want to look at some astounding narrative sleight-of-hand that aided the authorities in their crime.

 

The above cover for satirical news publisher The Onion appeared on August 15 soon after Michael Brown’s death. It’s a funny cover, taking a jab at those who see every person of color, every young man with swagger, every boy in a hoodie, as a threat, and it uses a clear logical contradiction to do so: Assuming you have the average human being’s rational apparatus, you would have to switch it off to think that an unarmed teen is armed.

That is the exact narrative, however, that Wilson sympathizers have been pushing and that the anti-protester crowd embraces today. The first trolls to engage me on Twitter always started with some version of “But hey, Michael Brown was a big guy.” The idea is that Michael Brown was so big, so ferocious, that with his bare hands he was an immediate threat to the life of a grown man his own size, armed and trained. Wilson made the same claims in his testimony--in which he described Michael Brown as a “demon.”

All of this is to say, in effect, that unarmed teenager Michael Brown was actually armed. He was deadly. The very lunatic logic behind the humor of The Onion’s cover has become the narrative of everyone--including many in high places--who thinks Darren Wilson did his job, Michael Brown got what was coming to him, and the protesters should just shut up. This narrative is tried-and-true and has gotten many a killer off the hook, while the victim's parents and friends cope with the loss of a loved one in the face of a system that will do exactly nothing for them.

I have held off posting this as I tried to decide how much I want to continue to address the issue--like the death of Trayvon Martin, I find this injustice upsetting--and as I have waited, the story has continued to develop. Wilson has resigned without severance pay, President Obama has met with community leaders to look for solutions, and protestors of all variety continue to raise a stink. In the end, I suppose I have to post this to raise my own small voice of solidarity with those who have little power but a voice to raise.

When is an unarmed teenager not unarmed? When he’s armed, of course. We might also ask where is an unarmed teenager not unarmed? Why, in America, of course. Because in America, you can kill unarmed kids in broad daylight in front of witnesses and not even go to trial.

Justice in Ferguson has been served up like a sad, sick joke.

 

 

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Previous posts on Ferguson:

Ferguson: How Did We Get Here?

Identifying with Ferguson as Symptom

Don't Look Away from Mike Brown