What Cost a Human Life?

I know the title of this is terrible grammar. I also know the post below is likely to be stream of conscious... But there you go...

I hate the media. I hate traditional media which looks only for a story that will drive viewership which will drive ad sales. I hate non-traditional media which is told with a huge slant toward their world view. I'm thinking blogs, twitter, etc in this category. And yet... What can we ascertain without them? I listen to NPR because they seem to try hard to stay in the middle and just report true facts. But even then I know that I hear one side of the story more than the other.

Let's get to the point, shall we Hein? Mike Brown was shot and killed. He was shot 6 times. He may have been lunging at the police officer, we don't know. We do know he was unarmed.

Since then protestors have been rampant in Ferguson. Some have been well behaved and some have not.

As far as I can tell, this is all we can tell for certain right now. That's it. I don't know if the police action are justified. I don't know if the officer was justified. I don't know anything else. If I choose to believe the media outlets I'm following the police have handled this incredibly poorly from step one.

Here's what I think this boils down to. Mike Brown was killed. And as far as anyone could tell the police had no intention of doing anything about it. Mike Brown was probably not perfect. He may have been a criminal for all I know. But shouldn't the law be blind to those facts? Shouldn't the law of this country be such that any death is considered suspicious until proven otherwise?

Trayvon Martin's case was similar. There was such (justified) anger at the handling of his case. How do you not arrest a man who just shot and killed another? Especially an unarmed man? A human's life should mean more than that. We should treat it with such utter seriousness that there could be no doubt that the value of human life is above everything else in this country. The right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is our guiding light right? If this is the case why don't we have investigate thoroughly when those values are stripped from an individual?

This reeks of racism and classism. His life is deemed less valuable because he was poor and black.

We know so little for sure. But one thing we could do as a nation is uphold the value of life. It's gotten lost somewhere. When you look at the comments on a journalists take on what's happening in Ferguson you get a mix of hatred, indifference, and a common feeling that each side knows exactly what happened. Can we all step back and agree that we know so little? That justice must take place? And the police must be held to a higher standard. Deaths resulting from their actions must be looked at with a fine-tooth comb.

I want to tell my son that he is growing up in a land where he will be treated equally. His actions will be judged on their own merit. But I know this is far from true. My son will be treated different. He will be well-educated, white, and upper middle class. He will have every advantage. And that makes me ashamed for where we are as a country. We have come so far in our ability to make life better for people. We have the technology to change the world. And yet here we are: hurling tear gas at crowds and preparing for war within a suburb.