Devon Smith

From Plantation to the Whitehouse

Reflection Paper: Ferguson, Disintegration

In 2014 the town of Ferguson, Missouri went up in flames. In the late summer of that
year, Michael Brown was murdered by a police officer. His murder led to unrest amongst the
public and sparked protests and demonstrations all over the United States and abroad. When the
incident first occurred, no one had heard of this small town right outside of St. Louis, Missouri.
The country was split, some thought that this incident was a part of a larger pattern of racially
motivated police killings that were apparently happening over the United States. Others believed
that this was an isolated incident and that race wasnt a factor at all. In the end, the officer that
was accused of murdering Michael Brown was acquitted, yet, the civil unrest in this small town
led to an investigation of this towns police department by the Department of Justice. As the
paper itself says, This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct
within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth
Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law. Supplementing this
investigation by the DOJ we have a book written by Eugene Robinson titled Disintegration. We
have come across another chapter in time where people from the African diaspora need to come
together in solidarity. Yet, it appears that Robison believes that in society as it stands today, true
solidarity the way it existed during Jim Crow and the civil rights movement is impossible. The
reason being that the black community that stands as it is today is not united under one interest.
Robison says that the black community is divided into four major groups with different interests.

The first being the top elite class, people like Oprah. The middle class who are basically just
the group of people who are kind of well off. He then mentions a class made up of some
communities of mixed race, and African or Caribbean immigrants. Finally we have the
abandoned which is made up of the poverty stricken rural and urban communities of the
South. Robinson believes that these different groups dont have enough in common to have
similar interests when it comes to issues that afflict them. We can see why this is important
in terms of solidarity throughout the community.
The investigation of Ferguson found that Fergusons law enforcement practices are
shaped by the Citys focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on
revenue has compromised the institutional character of Fergusons police department,
contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal
court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm
on members of the Ferguson community. In this situation, we could see that the people
being harmed are the lower class people. Besides the fact that the people in the different
classes have the same skin as them, what else could these people relate to in this situation?
Most likely, they feel that this kind of issues wont impact them in their lifetime, so they
dont have interest in taking a stand against things like this. Of course, this doesnt apply to
every single person that is a part of the different classes, but in general this is the trend. For
there to be true solidarity in the community, everyone must believe in the same cause, and
have the same interests. Because this is not the case, progress wont be as fast as it could be
in building institutions to help aid people who are victims of these types of systems.