TA K I N G F E R G U S O N S E R I O U S LY Amna Akbar Assistant - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 0 T H I N G S T O C O N S I D E R TA K I N G F E R G U S O N S E R I O U S LY Amna Akbar Assistant Professor Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

Black people are angry because of the way we're treated, the way the police, who are sworn to protect us and uphold the law, are so often above the law. What we are seeing in Ferguson is a pro-democracy protest like other pro-democracy protests we’ve cheered worldwide in recent years. The people are saying that justice ultimately cannot spring from the status quo, so it must be dismantled. As Martin Luther King said, "Riot is the language of the unheard.” —Vince Warren, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York Times

1 0 . E V E RY 2 8 H O U R S . Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

I N C O M P L E T E G O V E R N M E N T D ATA • FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program: in 2012, 410 people were killed by police in “justifiable homicides.” While the FBI collects information on the victims' race, it does not publish it. • ProPublica analysis of 2012 FBI data: young black men are 21 times more likely than their white peers to be killed by police. • DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics: in 2003-2009, there were 2,900+ arrest-related deaths involving law enforcement. That's about 420 deaths a year. While BJS does not disaggregate the annual number by race or ethnicity, its data shows that black people were about four times as likely to die in custody or while being arrested than whites. • CDC National Vital Statistics System counted 460 people who died by "legal intervention" involving a firearm discharge in 2011. Between 1968 and 2011, black people were between two to eight times more likely to die at the hands of law enforcement than whites. Mother Jones

9 . John Crawford, 22, 8/5/14 Tanisha Anderson, 37, 11/12/14 Tamir Rice, 12, 11/23/14 N AT I O N A L I N S C O P E .

8 . D A I LY P O L I C E B R U TA L I T Y & H A R A S S M E N T.

7 . I M P U N I T Y F O R P O L I C E A C T I O N ( P R O S E C U T O R S & C O U RT S ) .

6 . A L O N G H I S T O RY.

5 . P E O P L E TA K E T O T H E S T R E E T S O U T O F H O P E & D E S P E R AT I O N . credit Shannon Benine

4 . C I V I L D I S O B E D I E N C E I S N E C E S S A RY F O R S O C I A L C H A N G E .

3 . T H E S TAT E O F T E N R E A C T S V I O L E N T LY T O C A L L S F O R S O C I A L C H A N G E .

2 . S P E C TA C L E , V I O L E N C E & D E S T R U C T I O N O F P R O P E RT Y A R E R E G U L A R PA RT S O F M O V E M E N T S F O R C H A N G E .

1 . W E A R E I N A M O V E M E N T M O M E N T.

L A W & O R D E R = J U S T I C E

An Open Letter from Protestors On The Grand Jury Decision In Ferguson, a wound bleeds. For 108 days, we have been in a state of prolonged and protracted grief. . . . For 108 days, we have continuously been admonished that we should “let the system work,” and wait to see what the results are. The results are in. And we still don’t have justice. This fight for the dignity of our people, for the importance of our lives, for the protection of our children, is one that did not begin Michael’ s murder and will not end with this announcement. The ‘system’ you have told us to rely on has kept us on the margins of society . This system has housed us in her worst homes, educated our children in her worst schools, locked up our men at disproportionate rates and shamed our women for receiving the support they need to be our mothers. This system you have admonished us to believe in has consistently , unfailingly , and unabashedly let us down and kicked us out, time and time again. . . . We will continue to disrupt life, because without disruption we fear for our lives. . . . We are, altogether , bound up in a system that continues to treat some men better than others. A system that preserves some and disregards others. A system that protects the rights of some and does not guard the rights of all. And until this system is dismantled, until the status quo that deems us less valuable than others is no longer acceptable or profitable, we will struggle. We will fight. We will protest. . . . [W]e still continue to stand for progress, and stand alongside anyone who will make a personal investment in ending our grief and will take a personal stake in achieving justice. We march on with purpose. The work continues. This is not a moment but a movement. The movement lives.