Ferguson, Missouri: America divided
By Dan Steinbock
On August 9, 2014, an unarmed black 18-year-old named Michael Brown and his friend encountered 28-year old white police officer Darren Wilson on the street during a routine patrol in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis in Missouri.
According to police, a scuffle ensued in which Brown physically assaulted Wilson and tried to take his weapon. In just three minutes, the altercation escalated, and Wilson shot Brown six times.
A protestor holding his hands up chants "Hands up, don't shoot" as SWAT police unit stands guard during protests against police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the United States, around midnight of Aug. 18, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]
According to eyewitnesses, Brown ran for his life. As he was shot, he fell. He put his hands up in a show of compliance and surrender, but he was shot twice more until he died.
Only days later, Ferguson was swept by demonstrations and looting, street violence and tear gas, until Governor Jay Nixon decided to bring in the National Guard.
Days of rage
Reportedly, Michael Brown was not exactly a typical street criminal. At school, he was seen as a student who "didn't cause trouble." He was almost 6'4'' and weighed 292 pounds, but he was a "gentle giant."
Brown was scheduled to start attending technical school only two days after he was killed. His dream was to become a heating and cooling engineer. What he wanted was a business of his own.
In the past 10 days, people have been shot. Police have used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters. Journalists have been assaulted and detained. As Al Jazeera news crew tried to cover the scene, a police SWAT team threw tear gas and fired rubber bullets toward them. Dozens of residents have been arrested on suspicion of theft, assault or burglary.
In Ferguson, military-style vehicles, grenade launchers, automatic rifles and riot gear have been more reminiscent of Gaza than Midwestern America.
Michael Brown is now the subject of three autopsies -- one by St. Louis Country, one which is part of the Justice Department's investigation, and one privately undertaken at the request of the Brown family.
Even the National Guard troops have not managed to quell disorder. On Monday, an evening of peaceful demonstrations against the killing of Brown ended in yet another round of violence in which two demonstrators were shot and more than 30 people were arrested.
President Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, shall visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with FBI agents and other Justice Department officials on the scene. Meanwhile, the Missouri Chapter of the Ku Klux Klan hopes to hold a fundraiser for Ferguson police.
Demographic reversal
Ferguson, Missouri, is a small town that was established in 1855 and incorporated as a city four decades later. Like so many small cities in the Midwest, its population grew rapidly through the first half of the 20th century.
After the population peaked at 29,000 in 1970, things began to slow down. In the next two decades, the city lost almost half of its population. By 1990, it had 22,000 people; today it barely has 21,000.
The past two decades have been particularly dramatic in Ferguson. Its demographic composition turned upside down. In 1990, the U.S. Census identified 74 percent of Ferguson's residents as white, 25 percent as black, and only 1 percent as Hispanic or Asian. Two decades later, only 30 percent of the population is white, but 67 percent is black.
Yet, the Ferguson Police Department has not changed at all. Some 95 percent of the officers are white, but the community the officers should serve is primarily black.
At the same time, the proportion of households with married couples has dwindled to barely 30 percent, while nearly 32 percent of households have a single female parent. The traditional family structure has dissolved.
With drastic changes in demographics, ethnicity and family structure, Ferguson has also witnessed a significant plunge in prosperity.
In the United States, the average per capita income is about $43,000 per year. In the state of Missouri, it is below average, about $37,500. In Ferguson, it is barely $20,500. In this small city, almost one out of every five people lives below the poverty line, including one out of every four children.
Ferguson is one of the many American cities that has fallen behind, and that feels left behind.
White past, multicultural future
America is as divided over the events in Ferguson as Ferguson is divided over the death of Michael Brown. According to a recent Pew survey, Americans remain deeply divided along racial lines in their reaction to the killing.
Some 80 percent of blacks thought the case raises "important issues about race that need to be discussed," while only 37 percent of whites agreed with them. Unlike whites, most blacks also have little to no confidence in the investigation.
From major urban centers to "small town U.S.A.," resentment and a sense of injustice has been bred by three decades of economic growth that has not been accompanied by equality and justice.
After the global financial crisis, this polarization has broadened and deepened, while too many of the gains of past civil rights struggles have been lost. Ferguson exemplifies a gross failure of economic and social policies in America.
When President Obama arrived in the White House, it sparked extraordinary hope among the nation's forgotten minorities and poor. Now, half a decade later, most of that hope has diminished and what is left lingers like a flame that may soon fade out.
When you arrive in Ferguson, you soon see the city's motto: "Proud Past. Promising Future."
Then you see the flames.
Dr. Dan Steinbock is Research Director of International Business at India China and America Institute (USA) and Visiting Fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more, see http://www.differencegroup.net/
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
