By ‘Sola Fagorusi
Death. It is the five-letter word that signals the end of life. When the word is used, in most instances, it dampens countenance causing anguish and sorrows of huge proportion to listeners. Depending on how it happens, the story would always have to be told. And so it was for the people of St. Louis County in Ferguson, Missouri last week. The town has since August 9th 2014 had the story of its anguish told to the world. In apparent day light murder, a police officer, now identified as Daren Wilson, 28 had shot eight times at 18-year-old Michael Brown. Given that the teenager was a mortal, he fell and his life was sadly cut short. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people is one of those statements thrown around after incidences like this.
No journalist was on the street where and when the teenager was shot but the conversation has been huge. It has been massive and predictably it has been global. The conversations have also been both posturing in some instances and profound in others. #Ferguson, #MikeBrown and #MichaelBrown were some of the earliest conversations that took over social media space when news of the shooting filtered out to members of the community. By the time raw details started becoming available and people knew the circumstances surrounding the killing, the conversation took on a new turn with #DontShoot and #HandUpDontShoot becoming the dominant hashtags. The reason was the unearthing that Michael hands were up following the first shot and he had asked the officer to stop shooting since he was not in possession of a gun. Tweets from around the world have gone out with pictures of people with their hands up in solidarity with Michael Brown’s last action.
For all it is worth, it was a needless blunder by the police officer especially given that the victim was unharmed. Michael and his friend Johnson, 22 were on their way home from a store when a policeman asked them to get out of the street and use the sidewalk since they were obstructing traffic. What followed afterwards is still not clear given the various versions out there. The police and the eye witnesses’ reports have huge variation but with eight shots of gun fired, it is hard to think that the police officer was compassionate in his approach.
Thanks to the power of the social media, the world gets smaller by the day; and in a grand form injustice anywhere is now a clear threat to justice everywhere to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr. The global attention supports this. While the police deliberated on whether to release the identity of the officer or not, there were already death threats in social media space. The campaign also mattered given the convergence of traditional media and new media. People have been on the streets since the day of the killing asking for one thing – Justice. Mobile technology has shaped the protests further in organised form with predictably most information coming out form mobile devices that from laptops or desktops. A click of the mouse did not make the cut, it was a touch of the finger that did.
Also paramount is how technology has become the witness to history. The witnesses, Tiffay Mitchell and Piaget Crenshaw have also corroborated claims that Michael shooting was unwarranted given that he had even run away from the police’s patrol vehicle and turned around with his two hands raised. This is a far contrast with the Police’s official position that Brown had assaulted the officer and tried to run. Mitchell had a video of the crime scene post-shooting with the victim’s Uncle trying to get a close look at the victim but he was sent back by another police officer. Singer Thee Pharoah’s tweet was one of the first tweets about the killing. He had a picture to also go with his. He tweeted that “I just Saw Someone Die OMFG”. Pharoah had watched on from outside his apartment that Saturday morning sharing two pictures from the crime scene. The street protests have also enjoyed great showing on most social networks and this has keep the issues alive.
#IGotTheTalk And #IGaveTheTalk has also got space in the conversation around the killing. African-Americans have shared how their guardians and or parents had early in life taught them how to behave around police officers given the colour of their skin. The talk involves being told never to try to pull out any form of identity card in front of a cop else he or she thinks it is a gun and innocently shoots. The biggest conversation thus far has been around the hashtags #Iftheygunnedmedown and #ifiwasgunneddown given the police and some section of the media’s portrayal of Brown. The picture of Brown used had him flashing the peace sign or gang sign depending on who is running the commentary had led to this. Started by C.J. Lawrence, 33 he probed which of the two images of himself which he tweeted side by side represented him more accurately. Thousands of people have since done same; tweeting an image of themselves in a graduation gown for instance and another at a party and acting out. This hashtag has drawn attention to the narrative that follows most discussion around coloured people. #IfTheyGunnedMeDown meant in clear terms – if they gunned me down, what photos would the media use to portray me and my life?” This has been shared by concerned people from various races and locations. Brown’s killing is coming two years after that of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot by the neighbourhood watchman, George Zimmerman. Like Brown, some section of the media portrayed him as the hood wearing teen. That became the symbol of the protests that followed his death.
America has a black president in Barack Obama and he has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department to investigate the shooting. Back home in Nigeria, it is still a long shot to get justice to extrajudicial killings. With social media’s ability to attract attention to details the traditional media have missed, the days ahead may be bright in some form.
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‘Sola Fagorusi
Sola Fagorusi is a youth development advocate, freelance writer, accomplished debater cum coach. The Obafemi Awolowo University graduate has about 10 years experience in social entrepreneurship which straddles leadership, good governance cum anti-corruption and adolescent reproductive health. The Leap Africa alumnus is also a trained peer educator, a DESPLAY alumnus and co-facilitator. For 2 years now, he has been a technical consultant and lead judge on the Intra-Faith Peace Youth TV Debate Project facilitated by Youngstars Foundation and the British High Commission. To read his full profile, click here.
