What are we to make of events in Ferguson? Has the United States lost hope of racial progress? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk present opposing views.
Joel Mathis:
here is what we know: We know that in the United States white men are far less likely than black men to experience the indignity of ''stop and frisk'', of being treated like a criminal regardless of whether they have committed any crime.
We know that when both a white man and a black man have committed the same crime, it is the black man who is more likely to be arrested and face punishment.
We know that when the police come to arrest somebody for a crime, a black man is more likely to die during that encounter.
We know the black man is likely to serve a longer prison sentence than the white man - again, for the exact same crime.
We know that police officers accused of misconduct are less likely to be convicted and incarcerated than their civilian counterparts.
We know that grand juries almost always hand down indictments. We know the process of indictment is so easy that a competent prosecutor ought to be able to indict the proverbial ham sandwich. So the Ferguson decision was extraordinary.
But we also know that the Saint Louis County prosecutor almost never brings misconduct charges against police. We know that American police accused of excessive force are rarely punished. And we know there is a very long history of white men escaping punishment for killing black men in this country. So the Ferguson decision was entirely expected.
I don't know precisely what happened between Darren Wilson and Michael Brown. Neither do you. What anybody who is paying attention understands, however, is that the deck is stacked precipitously against black men in these kinds of encounters. There was thus never any reason to think a non-indictment should be seen as fair or true.
This seems to surprise some people, who insist on the ''rule of law'' without considering how often that law victimises an entire class of people. The system was broken and undermined long before Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown. The rage you see this week is the result.
Ben Boychuk
Here's what else we know: Michael Brown may have been a giant, but he wasn't gentle. He may have been unarmed when Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot him, but he was still dangerous. Don't forget that Michael Brown had robbed a liquor store for a package of cheap cigars shortly before his fateful encounter with Officer Wilson.
And don't dismiss the forensic evidence, either. Some eyewitnesses claimed Officer Wilson shot Michael Brown in the back. But two autopsies proved otherwise.
Apparently, none of that matters in a society of perpetual grievance. Who has time for evidence when another young black male has died at the hands of a white police officer?
Who needs to point out that 90% of black murder victims are killed by other blacks?
Or that violent crime is far higher in African-American neighbourhoods?
Isn't it easier to blame the police?
As Ferguson burnt on Monday night, President Barack Obama urged calm and respect for the rule of law. If only he'd left it there.
Instead, the president felt the need to lecture police about showing ''care and restraint in managing peaceful protests that may occur'', feeding the narrative that law enforcement is the real problem.
Police, Mr Obama added, need ''to work with the community, not against the community, to distinguish the handful of people who may use the grand jury's decision as an excuse for violence''. That was right about the time more than a handful of ''protesters'' were setting fire to the first of at least a dozen buildings.
Who needs calm when rage is so much more cathartic?It's difficult to take cries of injustice seriously when the ones doing the crying are also rioting, looting stores, torching businesses and assaulting bystanders - in their own neighbourhoods, no less.
The violence in Ferguson bodes ill for racial progress, at least in the near future. Americans already have a deep distrust for government, for the police and often for their own neighbours. But calls for more ''dialogue'' ring hollow after so many past efforts have foundered.
Despair is certainly a sin, but it looks like hope went up in flames this week.
Ben Boychuk is associate editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal and Joel Mathis is associate editor of Philadelphia Magazine.
