Dispatches: Wake up US, Ferguson Calling
By Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno
Many questions are already being raised about the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri in August. However, many of those questions will, by necessity, remain unresolved: without hearing the same evidence the jury has heard in closed sessions over the past four months, it’s very hard to assess the soundness of their decision.
What is safe to say about the failure to indict is that it isn’t entirely surprising. While allegations of police brutality are common in the US, it is extremely rare for them to result in criminal charges – or even disciplinary sanctions.