How They See It, November 30, 2014
Grand jury decision on Ferguson shooting
1. The New York Times
For the black community of Ferguson, the killing of Michael Brown was the last straw in a long train of abuses that they have suffered daily at the hands of the local police. News accounts have strongly suggested that [St Louis County] police ... systematically target poor and minority citizens for street and traffic stops - partly to generate fines - which has the effect of both bankrupting and criminalising whole communities. In this context, the police are justifiably seen as an alien, occupying force that is synonymous with state-sponsored abuse. The case resonated across the country ... because the killing of young black men by police is a ... source of dread for black parents from coast to coast. New York
2. Global Times
Three months after 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown was shot dead by white police officer Darren Wilson, the St Louis suburb witnessed one of its darkest nights of demonstrations after a grand jury determined not to indict Wilson ... The city was engulfed with flaming vehicles, broken store-front windows and flying canisters. The decision is not only devastating to Brown's family, but also to thousands who found the decision baffling and an injustice... The spotlight has focused on racial profiling of law enforcement in the US... Despite progress made in anti-racism movements over the past half-century and an elected African-American president, the US is still plagued with racial inequities. Beijing
3. The Guardian
It is customary, when disturbances follow a verdict of the kind delivered by the Ferguson grand jury, for those in authority to buttress their appeals for calm with a higher calling: the rule of law ... The trouble is that the United States, for far longer than it has been a "nation of laws", has been a nation of injustice. And in the absence of basic justice such laws can amount to little more than codified tyranny. When a white cop shoots an unarmed black teenager dead and then is not indicted, the contradiction is glaring. For a world where it is not only legal for people to shoot you dead while you walk down the street, but where they can do so in the name of the law, is one in which some feel they have nothing to lose. London
