Ferguson Fights

On August 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by officer Darren Wilson. Michael Brown and his friend were walking in the street when Darren Wilson stopped them from his car and asked them to move to the sidewalk. While doing so, officer Wilson noticed that Michael Brown fit the description from a burglary at a local drug store from earlier that evening, and in turn calling a dispatcher about the two men. There was then an altercation between the two men and officer Wilson then shot Brown multiple times and in turn killing him. The grand jury decided to not indicate Wilson of any crime. The major problems here were that the grand jury was made up of 9 white men and 3 black men in a black majority neighborhood. There has also been a history of problems between the police department, made of mostly white men, and this same black majority
neighborhood.



Recently in Atlanta, there was another protest during the annual celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday. One of the events that was stopped was when around 200 protesters sat in the middle of Peachtree Street and stopped a parade in honor of MLK. Protesters are saying that all of the events that have occurred, such as Ferguson or the Trayvon Martin case, are causing Dr. King's dreams to be diminished. As protesters argued with the old civil guard, they pushed their way into the parade and marched down Peachtree Street sharing their opinions of how MLK day became more of a corporate holiday and speech making and less of trying to get racism to really go away. The people that ran the events were frustrated but also accommodating because they knew what Martin Luther King and his fellow protesters had to go through trying to get their point across. After listening to the protesters, many of the people thought their passion was great but hopefully they will try to get their point across the right way.



These protests and so many more that have been occurring are all in common because of the black men dying. The driving force of all these protests would have to be the innocent black people dying. They believe that the black people that have dyed have not gotten the correct representation for their deaths. It also seems to me that the protesters are being underrepresented. If someone was listening to their thoughts and concerns, they probably wouldn't have to go about interfering into celebrations, but they have to do what they have to do to get their point across.