A grand jury decision in Ferguson, MO that declined to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown was followed by protests, some of them violent. More than 25 businesses and at least 10 cars were set on fire in Ferguson. Looting and vandalism rattled the town. Police reported heavy automatic gunfire.
Protests in 170 cities across the United States and in London outside the U.S. Embassy were largely peaceful.
The Ferguson case has highlighted the militarization of local police and has stoked racial tensions. Militarization of police increases the impression that the government has gone beyond reason in its intent to over-control its citizens. Racial tensions increase the perceptions among minorities that they are being subjugated. Allegations about the legal process involved in the grand jury’s instructions, deliberations and other matters raised questions about whether justice was corrupted in an effort to defend the white police officer who killed the black man.
Mistrust and cynicism has many Americans believing that the U.S. court system is unjust and even tyrannical and is weighted racially against blacks. Some are seething so much that they are willing to resort to violence, not just against those who are proven to be racist, but against authority in general, and even against society at large. They believe that the injustice is so bad that it justifies looting, burning and destroying shops, tossing Molotov cocktails at police and creating general chaos. Violent protests, however small or limited they might have been, were enough to gain a lot of attention.
Whether Darren Wilson was guilty or not, we are living in an age when justice is often poisoned by powerful influences. Issues become very confused, and people react and resort to violence when they perceive that justice has not been served.
The Bible indicates that in the last days, “…Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” Isaiah 59:14
“At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed; the world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution—all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.” Education, page 228