I am really getting sick and tired of this whole Ferguson melodrama, the cop shooting, the riots, the self-righteous indignation, the racist backlash, the smug white redneck legal maneuvering, the pious humbuggery of liberal dismay, the whole damn shooting match.

Are young black men the victims of profiling, police harassment, unnecessary and disproportionate arrest and officially sanctioned (if not actually encouraged) violence by the authorities? Of course they are, and those who dismiss the anger, frustration and demand for justice of the black community as simply whining or the work of outside agitators are simply good old-fashioned white supremacists and bigots crawling out from under their rocks to indulge in some good old-fashioned “I told you so”.

But let’s face it, it seems to be a right of passage in the black community to adopt an attitude of surly arrogance and violence against whitey, if not by actual example, then by attitude and posture. Cops don’t trust blacks because most of their contacts with street violence and crime involve young black men, and they are often armed and aggressive. And cops, not being the most socially aware and nuanced thinkers in the society, simply fail to consider the historical, social and economic factors motivating all this dysfunction. And can you blame them? To them, blacks are just primitive savages, and to the latter, the police are just a brutal occupying army: a textbook case study of a mutually reinforcing, positive feedback, self-fulfilling prophecy. Does all this sound familiar? It’s not just an American thing, I could point out other examples in other places.

Meanwhile, the good guys in this movie, the white liberal do-gooders and righteous black church and community leaders, are drowned out by their counterparts on the dark side: outside agitators
and opportunist radicals with their own political agendas and criminal ambitions. Along with the anarchists, looters and vandals on one side, there have also been the usual racist Klan elements working on the other: vicious threatening calls and letters have already been delivered to church and civic leaders counseling responsible protest and peaceful disobedience. Most of the violence and property destruction has not come from the legitimate protestors. Troublemakers on both sides gain credibility from more destruction and conflict, and it creates a distraction which allows them to justify their own litany of hate. And of course, the press profits from the drama of street warfare, while simultaneously spouting tolerance and understanding. Watch where the cameras are pointing, listen to the breathless commentary.

And what of the main participants? Is Michael Brown a helpless child-victim of police brutality, or an arrogant thug and bully who got pretty much what he deserved? Is his killer a beleaguered and noble public official being scapegoated for merely doing his job and defending himself and the public? Or is he a cynical, corrupt cop being protected by legal flim-flam and a racist system? I have an answer: all of the above. Everything we’ve seen about the way the authorities have responded to this case shows evidence of a cover-up designed to protect the shooter. But we have very compelling video evidence that the victim was both a petty thief and a bully; unfair, one-sided and irrelevant evidence released by one side, but not once denied or contradicted by the other. And even if we had the evidence to fully confirm or deny any of those assertions, we still would have no way of knowing whether or not the shooting was justified. Brown’s convenience store Paki-bashing is as totally unconnected and irrelevant to his street execution as Trayvon Martin’s marijuana smoking and pistol picture were to his.

Why is it all so clear and obvious to me, while the rest of my compatriots only seem to be able to pick sides and make excuses, parsing every detail and factoid, real or alleged, to justify the crimes of one side and the innocence of the other?