Hands Up Don't Shoot | Teen Ink

Hands Up Don't Shoot

December 10, 2014
By Josie1099 SILVER, Omaha, Nebraska
Josie1099 SILVER, Omaha, Nebraska
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be careful who you trust, because the devil was once an angel


Mike Brown was shot and killed by (former) Officer Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, that is the only fact regarding the whole issue that we know for sure. That said, if we decide to analyze Officer Wilson's account of what happened, Mike was coming at him, Wilson asked him to stop and he continued coming. Wilson was scared by the look in Mike's eyes. Here is where his story stops making sense. Mike was at least 10 feet away from him, yet managed to block the gun. Mike was far away and hit him hard enough to leave swelling that, if Wilson's story is true, lasted four months. Mike Brown's arms are not 10+ feet long. While I understand that Mike was doing something that would cause Wilson to stop, I also understand that policemen are issued a taser and pepper spray for situations like this. So why go straight for your gun? I have heard that Wilson didn't have the pepper spray or taser on him at the time. But is it fair for a boy to pay for an officer's forgetfulness with his life? Mike was shot with his hands up. HANDS UP DON'T SHOOT! Officer Wilson had no reasonable reason to fear for his life. Wilson had (allegedly) been linked to the KKK, which is notorious for being a white supremacy group, therefore racist. Which leads to a reasonable belief that the shooting was a racial fueled crime. BLACK LIVES MATTER, ALL LIVES MATTER! That is part of the reason for the protests in Ferguson. They are a predominately African American town, governed and policed, mainly by white people. I personally believe that the riot's have been a long time in the making and that Mike Brown's death was the event that tipped the iceberg so to speak. I do not condone the violence, however I understand the reason. People can only scream for so long, before they are willing to do anything in their power to make the change they want (or need). While the end does not justify the means, the end goal is still equality. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "I have a dream, that one day my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Although we are closer to that now then we were at the time this was said, we aren't there yet. Something has to change.



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