Opportunity out of tragedy?

photo A barber at Queen's Royal Touch Salon & Spa in Ferguson, Mo., sweeps away glass from broken windows Tuesday after overnight protests.

What good can come out of what's bad in Ferguson, Mo.?

After all of the misplaced violence over the exoneration of a white policeman in the shooting of a black teenager in the St. Louis suburb dies down, a realistic road must be paved -- not just in the town in which the incident occurred but across the country in cities where a similar incident might provoke a similar powder keg.

• Such a road should not be one in which the words "murder" and "killing" are thrown around when an officer follows proper training in taking action the officer believes necessary.

Such inflammatory but false words have been all the rage since the death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9. No one spewing such words -- for instance, "You can get away with murder as long as it's a black person," uttered by Chattanooga's Ash-Lee Henderson, an organizer for Concerned Citizens for Justice -- witnessed the incident or sat on the grand jury that considered the evidence.

Indeed, when such words as those are said, all reality goes out the window. They're a proverbial stop sign to reason and should be discarded by anyone who hears them.

• Such a road should not be one which papers over statistics that show blacks are stopped and arrested by police more than whites. If a stop and arrest are called for, so be it. If they're not, don't rush to judgment because of skin color.

A USA Today analysis shows that police in at least 70 police departments across the nation arrest blacks at rates 10 times greater than any other race. Chances are, they don't commit crimes 10 times more than any other race.

• Such a road should not be one in which the professional race business becomes involved. As occurred in St. Louis, when outside groups bring minds-made-up opinions and apply generalities to specifics, bad situations get worse.

Officials believe most of the violence that occurred in Ferguson after the shooting and after Monday night's grand jury decision was committed by people who were not residents of the community. Some went there, for instance, on misinformation disseminated by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who spoke at Brown's funeral, returned late last month and planned to return to the town Wednesday to further stoke the fire.

• Such a road should not be one in which no consideration is given to a town with a majority black population and a majority white police force. Although the St. Louis suburb in 1970 was 99 percent white, it's now 67 percent black and 29 percent white. As of August, though, only three of the 53 officers on its police force were black.

It's possible that in Ferguson, as in Chattanooga, officials have tried hard to recruit black police but haven't found the success they wanted. But it's important to redouble efforts there.

• Such a road should not be one taken without consideration of the necessity of proper equipment. Would a Taser have beena more prudent weapon to have been used by the officer on the teenager in the situation? Was one available?

FBI statistics, according to USA Today, show that police in the line of duty shot to death more people last year -- 461 -- than any time in the last two decades. And this has occurred as overall crime has fallen in the same decades.

If the proper road is not taken, things won't get better in Ferguson, and other places will be ripe for violence if a similar situation occurs.

By all rights, St. Louis, Mo., county officials did their due diligence following the shooting in an effort to take that proper road. And prosecutor Robert McCulloch's tedious but thorough presentation of the facts Monday night, before revealing the lack of evidence for an indictment, and his answers to both insipid and legitimate questions afterward attempted to quell any threats of violence.

He noted, among other things, that the grand jury and only the grand jury heard all of the evidence, that some of what was suspected to be damning evidence against the officer wasn't true and that the public would have the ability to sift through the case file and make its own judgment.

As sound as those moves were, they didn't keep cars from being set on fire, stores from being looted and, reportedly, a policeman from being shot.

So, going forward, the most important question may be: Which of the involved parties want to go down a realistic road toward a better society and which wish to remain stuck?

The opportunity awaits.

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