Ferguson Is It’s Own Worst Enemy

This week, the City of Ferguson, Missouri has descended into a state of total chaos after the Grand Jury decided to not pursue charges against Officer Darren Wilson. The chaos involves violent riots that have piled up property damage and turned a city into a war zone.

But what is the misdirected anger really doing for the protest cause?

What is looting Family Dollar going to do to teach the legal system? What is burning an Advanced Auto Parts to the ground going to prove?

Police brutality exists and is unfortunately quite widespread, but this is not one of those instances. While I cannot possibly begin to understand the pain of Michael Brown’s family, there comes a point when they need to stop blaming the world for him acting like a thug.

This is not a race issue. Period.

If Ferguson is your first example that comes to mind when you think of police brutality, clearly somewhere between conception and today your parents forgot to tell you to “turn off the T.V. and go play outside.”

Just because this is an instance of a white man shooting down an African American man, does not mean it was because of the color of the skin. Society has become increasingly shallow because it views everything as an issue of skin color.

Back in the late nineties, Mark McGwire ended up beating Sammy Sosa in the great home run race that revived Major League Baseball. Why did it restore the greatness of a slumping sport? If you’d ask the citizens of Ferguson, it was because the white man came out on top, again wronging the black man.

When I was in high school, I beat my best friend in arm wrestling once. Did I mention he was African American? Clearly gravity is racist for not favoring him.

But let’s pretend for a minute that there is a race war in progress and that the African Americans of Ferguson are being disrespected because of skin color by an out-of-control police force, which may be the case overall.

So you’re going to react by giving legitimate reasons to be disrespected?

What did looting small business do? Bravo, you stole a television and some toilet paper.

What did scorching buildings do? Well, you can start a fire. Congratulations.

It’s not the police who are suffering, they actually have gained greater job security by having to tame the madness. The legal system is by no means suffering as a result of these riots, because with dozens of people arrested, they have job security as well.

It’s the low and middle class workers who can’t return to work because the windows of their employer got smashed, merchandise got stolen, and the property otherwise made unfit for business. In the days before Thanksgiving in a struggling economy, the heartlessly selfish rioters of Ferguson put them down.

What about the local small businesses with owners who worked hard to create a sophisticated operation to be proud of? In the beginning days of the holiday season, this was all destroyed because of a childish temper tantrum gone wild.

Good job, Ferguson. Your action resulted in a militarized police as a reaction, the very thing many of us agree shouldn’t happen. Your action resulted in job loss and significant property damage to people who did nothing to you or this thieving bully everyone is supporting.

If you believe that the system is indeed broken, then work to make peaceful and productive progress. The system can be fixed by becoming involved in the political processes and mobilizing your friends, family, and neighbors to become engaged activists. The political system could use more everyday Americans to break the chokehold of the political elite.

Violence is not the answer. Is this is not the point of the protesting in the first place? If there is even a point at all?

Chris Dixon

About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.