Mike Brown — Chernickov

The #Ferguson grand jury isn't deciding if Darren Wilson is guilty, but if a Black man's murder is even worth further discussion in America.

— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) November 24, 2014

Let’s put aside the questionable objectivity of St Louis county prosecutor Robert McCulluch and the requests and petitions to have him replaced.

Let’s put aside the difficult to believe story told through testimony regarding the events on August 9th by Officer Darren Wilson and his depiction of Michael Brown as a “demon”.

Let’s put aside the odd behavior of the medical examiner that didn’t take pictures of Michael Brown’s body because his camera ran out of batteries.

Let’s put aside the historical instances of similarly murdered Black Americans by the police, in St. Louis, brought before a grand jury, led by the same Robert McCulluch, and ending with the same result of non-indictment.

Let’s put aside the mounting number of unarmed people of color that this continues to happen over and over and over and over and over again.

Let’s put aside that in Oakland, California, 37 out of 45 officer-involved shootings were Black, none were White. One third of those were fatalities and 40% of the cases turned up no weapons. And no officers were charged.

Let’s put aside that some police immediately rush to shoot when under threat, even if that threat is a 12-year old boy with a gun that was identified as fake by the person who made the initial call to the police.

Let’s put aside that some police don’t need to reach for their gun when attacked by an individual (although, police don’t always need a gun) to kill.

Let’s put aside ever-growing distrust of law enforcement due to racially-profiled traffic stops and higher percentages of searches and arrests amongst the Black population despite higher contraband rate amongst the White population.

Let’s put aside the for-profit policing that creates a strong financial incentive to arrest and ticket the citizens of Ferguson.

So if we put these things aside, we can clearly see why the ruling was a non-indictment.

It makes sense.

But when you refuse to put aside these glaring inconsistencies, oddities, and outright inequalities and injustices, it becomes plain to see that the ruling was about whether or not the death of another Black man was worth further discussion in America.