On August 9th, officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in an act of self-defence, thus beginning many months of reexamination and protest against the United States justice system. Before going into details about the after effects of this event, it is important to know what truly happened that day.

At 11:54 AM, Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson were exiting Ferguson Market & Liquor. The store’s surveillance showed what appeared to be Michael Brown stealing some cigarillos. Shortly after, the two men continued north on West Florissant Ave and made a left on Canfield Drive. Officer Wilson, sitting alone in his car, saw Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson walking in the middle of Canfield Drive and told the two men to move onto the sidewalk. Seeing that Michael Brown fit the description of the Ferguson Market & Liquor surveillance video, Officer Wilson called into the dispatcher about the two men and positioned his police S.U.V. to block them and traffic. Then, there was an altercation between Mr. Brown and Officer Wilson at the window of his S.U.V. “At some points [Mr. Brown] was actually in the vehicle”, according to an exclusive interview with Officer Darren Wilson. In the altercation, Officer Wilson fired two shots. One grazed Mr. Brown’s thumb, the other missed him. Mr. Brown then ran down Canfield drive, pursued by Officer Wilson who exited his vehicle. Shortly after, Mr. Brown stopped and turned around. Officer Wilson stopped, Mr. Brown took a step towards Officer Wilson, before Wilson fatally shot Mr. Brown.

After Mr. Brown was shot dead, the United states was engulfed in a storm. Shortly after, on August 20th, the grand jury began reviewing evidence about the shooting of Michael Brown. After many months of review, the grand jury released a verdict on November 24th, the defense attorney Bob Mcculloch released the verdict, saying that the grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson. This decision caused an even bigger uproar.

Although the idea of killing an 18 year old boy is disturbing enough, the racism occurring in the Ferguson Police Department makes matters worse. After the decision was made to not indict Officer Wilson, the Department of Justice lead an investigation to “see if federal civil-rights laws were violated by Officer Wilson” (Grand Jury: Darren Wilson) and the rest of the Ferguson Police Department. The findings of the Department were devastating. In nearly 90% of cases, physical force was used against African-Americans. In 161 cases, none of the incidents resulted in disciplinary action towards the police officers (DOJ: Wilson). You would think these findings roused enough suspicion. However, the Department also found multiple “racially charged emails written by members of the police department and other city agencies”. Some emails included pictures depicting President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee. The racism in the Ferguson Police Department is now evident. There is no question whether or not racial bias is infecting the police officers. However, the question that we ask now is whether or not racial bias influenced Officer Wilson. We have our opinions about that question, but unfortunately we will never know.

Now why should we care about something that happened in a small city in Missouri? Events like the shooting of Michael Brown have happened before. Oscar Grant in Oakland, California; Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida; and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York were all killed in and has made clear that this issue of racial bias is beyond the Police Department of Ferguson. We as Americans hold the freedom and justice, which should be protected by our government, sacred. However, during events like the shooting of Michael Brown, we realize that the majority of people who are supposed to protect our rights, don’t do their jobs correctly. So, we as a generation of young adults need to call out these officials and demand justice, because when one person’s rights are abused, the whole country’s rights are put at risk.