What Will Anger Do? Michael Brown, Ferguson & the New Black Power

When I see the images of young black men and women in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, and the police response to their very presence, I think back to the days of violent rebellion in the city of Newark, in 1967. I was in the streets observing and documenting stories of police violence along with other law students at Essex Newark Legal Services. I ended up before a grand jury to hear the prosecutor question me for making our affidavits available to the community, while no police officials were questioned for the 27 deaths they caused.

And so Ferguson has a familiar ring. The anger, the hatred, the on going struggle between the residents and the police, locked in a battle where one side has superior arms and the mandate to use them; and the other, at most, bricks, and bottles, sheer bravado. What propels these youth to stand their ground? One young man said on television, “We’re going to act up on them ‘cause they act up on us!” Old Testament solution….without concern about consequences. State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, in Ferguson throughout the Rebellion, reported, “ I found myself between armed forces, and young people willing to die.”

 

 

The police response is also familiar. But in Ferguson, the police have been militarized with weapons of war, removing any doubt in the minds of the people that they are indeed an occupying force. They do not engage in traditional crowd control, but crowd repression, and thus the anger is increased. Only 3 black police officers on a force of 53, in a city that is overwhelmingly black. The police are acutely aware of their minority status; taught to maintain control with an iron fist and make examples of this population, especially its youth. Michael Brown refused to walk on the sidewalk, and not in the street when told to do so by an officer of the law. He refused to acknowledge their power, and it cost him his life.

At one time I thought conflict had been diffused when the politicians put a softer face on authority through State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, a black man, outwardly sympathetic. Captain Johnson led one of the marches, channeling anger into a manageable outlet for outrage and frustration. There was a festive mood, reporters said. But by the night, the inherent conflict between the real police and their young black antagonists welled up and the unevenly matched but persistent battle was on, where anyone perceived to be in opposition was subdued and arrested, even reporters from news outlets.

A black face in the place was not enough…and the white power structure, from the Governor down to the prosecutor, refused to give the masses what they wanted: the arrest and indictment of Darren Wilson, the policeman who shot Michael Brown. One black resident said, “If I broke into somebody’s car and took something, they would arrest me as soon as they caught me…they wouldn’t need to investigate first.  I would be in jail!”

The forces of non-violence are still above ground in Ferguson, advocating peaceful protest; appealing to the President to investigate. But there is a segment of the population unfamiliar with the institutions that are supposed to bring redress to grievances—the media, politicians, and government agencies. All they know are the police, and to these young black people, there is no alternative but to fight the way they know how, based on the rules of engagement established by “the street”, rules the police help create and are all too often complicit.

In Newark how did the Rebellion end in 1967? The combined police forces used massive force to take the fight out of the community.  Those of us, who preferred non-violence for the redress of grievances, were forced to take cover. They left Newark on its knees.

 

But out of the conflict came community organization. The violence nobody wanted became the catalyst for an effective coalition to curtail urban renewal, build low and moderate income housing, create construction jobs for minorities at the University of Medicine and Dentistry; and elect the first black mayor of a major northeastern city, who began hiring more black and Latino police officers to integrate the majority white police department. Political reform was hastened because of the rebellion and the consciousness that emerged about who should run the city.

Is this the future for Ferguson? Surely, the majority black population will awaken to the electoral power it possesses…but in whose name will the resultant political reform take place? How far will the new Black Political Class go to change conditions that created the anger in the black, poor and working class population in the first place? Or will there be more black police hired, to suppress black anger?

Paulo Frère said that with the advent of power, the powerless must examine the way they govern. Let’s hope that the youth of Ferguson will be invited to these discussions, to sit at the table they made possible.

 

Junius Williams is the author of Unfinished Agenda Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power, and Director of the Abbott Leadership Institute at Rutgers University Newark.
http://www.junius-williams.com/