The Ferguson syndrome
On August 14, 2014, a Caucasian police officer, Darren Wilson, fired upon an unarmed eighteen-year-old African American, Michael Brown, in the small town of Ferguson (population: 21,135), county of St Louis in the state of Missouri, USA. That fatal shooting was the triggering event that revived racial unrest in the USA. What could have been an isolated incident brought back the many precedents of racial conflicts and violence and sparked massive protests, demonstrations, and riots. The blacks in the town as well as from neighboring towns came together in prolonged vigils and eventually escalated their mass protests into vandalism and some alleged looting of establishments owned by white Americans.
The Medico Legal Officer certified that Brown was shot six times and that he was unarmed at the time of the incident. Such finding even exacerbated the anger of the blacks and also put into focus once again the issues of racism and police brutality. A black civil rights and religious leader, Reverend Al Sharpton, called a press conference and denounced the so-called cold-blooded murder of an innocent African American. On August 19, another black, one Kajieme Powell, was allegedly shot by another police officer for supposedly brandishing a knife against the police officer. Again, tensions escalated and riots ensued. Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and called on the National Guards to quell the unrest.
No less than President Barrack Obama, the first black US President forthwith dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the problem. Meanwhile the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to the protesters. There is visible end to the unrest. This reminds us of the civil rights movement led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr in the sixties, which did not end until he was assassinated in 1968. This also calls to mind the struggles of the Indian people led by Mahatma Gandhi against the brutality of their British masters. And also the Africans' struggles led by Nelson Mandela, as well as the struggles of the Palestinians and the Israelites.
This Ferguson syndrome, unknown to many of us in the Visayas and Luzon, oftentimes happens in Mindanao, whenever a Muslim is reportedly arrested, maltreated or subjected to alleged brutality by the police or the military. Every time a Muslim feels that an injustice is committed against the Bangsa Moro people, the spirit of rebellion is fueled. Even assuming that the Muslim is committing a crime or violating the law, and is thus lawfully apprehended, the tendency is to impute a religious or racial color into the arrest. That Michael Brown was supposedly suspected of complexity in a convenience store robbery, and the police was allegedly in the process of enforcing the law. But the police officer was white and Brown was black, thus the drama.
This drama is repeated all over the world. Whether it is between a Patestinian and an Israeli in Gaza, between a black and a white in Ferguson , and between a Christian military officer and a Muslim suspect in Mindanao, the elements are the same. Thus, let us start calling conflicts of this nature as one infected with the Ferguson syndrome.
- Latest
