Editor, Times-Union: Mr. Gerard, concerning your News Views titled “The Trouble With Ferguson.” One thing that you really got right is the statement “I am a white guy, so I don’t pretend to understand what it’s like to be black and afraid of being unfairly treated by the police.” That might have been a good place for you to stop. You continue with, I think I have a solution to the problem of unarmed black guys ... being shot by cops ... When a cop asks, tells, or commands you to do something, just do it.” Amazing! I bet the African American community had never thought of that. You understand that the thousands of people protesting now, are addressing a problem much bigger than the shooting of Michael Brown. The factual documentation of minorities being compliant to authorities and still being shot, treated unfairly, etc. are everywhere for you to read. CNN just ran a very informative program showing this exact thing (Black and Blue). Michael Brown committed two crimes , theft and smoking pot which he should have been punished for. What happened to him was a tragedy. Your statement “ if you smoke a little weed, steal some cigars, walk down the middle of a busy street, get confronted by a cop (all factual up to this point) slam the cops door on him a couple of times, jump on top of him in the car, repeatedly punch him in the face, and try to take his gun and use it to shoot him” all of these statements are not based on facts, and were proven inconclusive. Do you really think punching someone in the face repeatedly would only result in only a little redness on the jaw? There are many conflicting eye witness accounts. No indictment by the grand jury is being challenged by many of the best professionals. You have the ability when you put pen to paper to challenge your readers to look at many aspects of these events, and there are so many things we can learn and need to learn from the emotion that has erupted with this. A most compelling commentary written by NFL player Benjamin Watson that has gone viral, gives insight we can all benefit greatly from. We can all do better and need to. Donna Beer Milford, via email
