I am deeply dismayed and concerned by the decision of the grand jury not to indict Ferguson, Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown.  Based on my interaction with constituents I expect that many thousands of others share that response and will express their concerns in peaceful public protests.  I call upon law enforcement in Missouri, and all across our nation, to show all possible restraint and sensitivity and allow the American people to exercise their First Amendment right and responsibility in expressing their opinions over this event and similar recent events.

The events leading to the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, mirror a horrifying string of similar deaths and shootings of African American men at the hands of law enforcement all across the country which seem to have escalated in recent weeks: Eric Garner (43), Staten Island, New York -- July 17; John Crawford (22), Beavercreek, Ohio -- August 5; Ezell Ford (25),
Los Angeles, California -- August 11; Dante Parker, Victorville, California -- August 12; Levar Jones (35), Columbia, South Carolina --September 4 and most recently Tamir E. Rice (12) in Cleveland, Ohio –
November 23.  According to the Chicago Tribune (8/26/2014) “Chicago police shot 36 people last year, 26 of them African-American males, and have shot 34 people so far this year.”  The circumstances
surrounding many of those shootings remain unclear or unknown. The emerging pattern of these events raise significant, troubling questions about the protection of the civil rights of Americans,
especially young African American males, in encounters with law enforcement.

The sense of frustration and anger felt by so many African Americans, especially young African Americans, is understandable.  There remain great inequities in the functioning of our criminal justice system, inequities which are also still found in housing, finance, employment, and electoral politics.  History suggests that the reduction of these inequities come only after sustained, unremitting public protest, unified community resistence and economic, legal and political action.  The progress we have made as a nation in securing equality and social justice has been uneven and intermittent.  There have been periods of backlash and backsliding but over the years the end result has been slow, but relentless progress in repealing and reversing legal, social and economic injustices.

The question before us now is how best to protect our youth, how to end violence, including police violence in our community?  Times like this bring to the surface powerful emotions and the temptation to lose faith in our still too often imperfect democratic process.  Peoples of nations around the world which either have never established democratic institutions and processes or have given up on perfecting them have paid a horrible, and unnecessary, price.  Now is a time to make our laws and law enforcement work for our community, not against our community. Now is the time for us to redouble our determination to reform and strengthen our system of laws and law enforcement, not to abandon it for a brief moment of street rage.