November 25, 2014 – During the night, last night, looters and “protestors” took to the streets following the release of the grand jury decision not to charge Officer Darren Wilson for the August 9, 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. Brown, shown in surveillance video forcefully stealing from a local convenience store, was shown to have attacked Officer Wilson, trying to get the officer’s gun. After the gun was discharged during the initial struggle inside the officer's patrol car, Brown fled on foot while Wilson pursued. According to reports, testimony given to the grand jury, Brown stopped fleeing, then aggressed toward the officer again. The grand jury determined the shooting was justified and did not issue charges against the police officer.

In the weeks initially following the shooting, looting took place where businesses were burglarized and burned. Al Sharpton came to Ferguson at one point trying to shift all blame to the police and promoting the “protests” which amounted to little more than organized looting. Attorney General Holder also visited the area, meeting with “civil activists” about the incident, which did little to quell the violence. Both Holder and Obama have not formally referred to the incidences as looting, nor strongly condemn the violence. However, public statements by Obama and Holder have asked that protests remain peaceful.

So-called protests in the area have been performed in overnight hours, not during daytime as most protests. Following the grand jury decision athletes like Labron James took to social media disagreeing with the jury decision. Feeds on social media asked what we can do as a society to keep incidences like this from occurring, but none ask what can be done to cause citizens to not behave in manners that cause confrontations with law enforcement.

Picture: courtesy Morgue File