On Ferguson, Belatedly

[A scene that is unfortunately not from Ukraine or Syria]

When you purchase a new vehicle in the state of Iowa, the dealership does not issue you a temp tag, but instead just transfer your old plates to your new vehicle until the new plates arrive in the mail.  This is not common practice in most states, which I learned the hard way this last summer while house-sitting in Utah.

I accidentally backed into someone you see; we exchanged insurance info, called the cops to file a police report, all pretty by the book.  That is, until the police officer ran my plates, and saw that they belonged to a different vehicle.  In short order he was yelling at me, furious, accusing me of driving a stolen car, threatening to impound my vehicle, and calling me a liar to my face when I tried to explain Iowa state law.  Not that I entirely blamed him, either; what do you say when the truth sounds like a lie?  It was the most frightening afternoon of my summer.

Fortunately cooler heads finally prevailed: I got him on the phone with the dealership in Iowa, I showed him my sales receipt, and after several hours he finally chose not to impound my vehicle, electing instead to just write me a ticket for driving without insurance, which I later got dismissed in traffic court.  I never got an apology from the cop mind you, but hey, could've been worst.

For example, I could've been black while falsely accused of stealing my own car.  Somehow, I suspect that that minor misunderstanding wouldn't have ended quite as benignly.

That's exactly what happened in Ferguson, MO, isn't it.  A routine police stop quickly span out of control.  Suddenly, an unarmed black teenager is gunned down.  No police report is filed.  When protestors demand accountability, the local cops remove their name-tags, shout racial slurs, fire tear gas, and dress up like paramilitary storm-troopers while they go violate some 1st Amendment rights.

For I can testify: a single traffic-cop shouting angrily at you is frightening enough.  A whole gang of cops armed to the teeth and out of control as they try to get away with institutionalized murder?  Those protestors standing their ground have my full respect. 

In my freshman rhetoric class, I teach MLK and Malcolm X--two men who had some very choice words about police brutality--as examples of excellent rhetoricians.  I used to worry that my examples were a little dated.  After Ferguson, I fear they are not.