Guest Column by John W. Whitehead: We Are The Enemy Of The Police

I am gratified that my view of Ferguson is shared by the distinguished civil liberty attorney John W. Whitehead. Once again the media, the justice (sic) system, and political authority have failed the American people.
‘As long as we remained steeped in ignorance, there will be no reform.’ John. W. Whitehead
We Are the Enemy: Is This the Lesson of Ferguson? By John W. Whitehead The Rutherford Institute
‘If you dress police officers up as soldiers and you put them in military vehicles and you give them military weapons, they adopt a warrior mentality. We fight wars against enemies, and the enemies are the people who live in our cities – particularly in communities of color.’ – – Thomas Nolan, criminology professor and former police officer
Should police officer Darren Wilson be held accountable for the shooting death of unarmed citizen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014?
That the police officer was white and his victim black should make no difference. In a perfect world, it would not matter. In an imperfect world such as ours, however, racism is an effective propaganda tool used by the government and the media to distract us from the real issues.
As a result, the national dialogue about the dangers of militarized, weaponized police officers being trained to act like soldiers on the battlefield, shooting first and asking questions later, has shifted into a largely unspoken debate over race wars, class perceptions and longstanding, deep-seated notions of who deserves our unquestioning loyalty and who does not.
Putting aside our prejudices, however, let’s not overlook the importance of Ferguson and this grand jury verdict. Tasked with determining whether Wilson should stand trial for Brown’s shooting, the grand jury ruled that the police officer will not face charges for the fatal shooting.

This post was published at Paul Craig Roberts on November 26, 2014.