Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has written his reaction to the news that Darren Wilson would not be indicted in the shooting of Michael Brown, pinning the blame for the unrest mostly on politicians and their failed policies designed to end poverty and eradicate drug use.
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“We are witnessing a tragedy in Ferguson. This city in Missouri has become a focal point for so much,” he wrote. “The President and the late Michael Brown’s family have called for peace. I join their calls for peaceful protest, but also reiterate their call to action — ‘channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change.'”
“In the search for culpability for the tragedy in Ferguson, I mostly blame politicians,” he added. “Michael Brown’s death and the suffocation of Eric Garner in New York for selling untaxed cigarettes indicate something is wrong with criminal justice in America. The War on Drugs has created a culture of violence and put police in a nearly impossible situation.”
Paul said it is understandable that blacks feel unfairly targeted by police, and that new ways need to be found to keep violence from escalating.
African Americans perceive as true that their kids are more likely to be killed. ProPublica examined 33 years of FBI data on police shootings, accounted for the racial make-up of the country, and determined that: “Young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts – 21 times greater.”
Can some of the disparity be blamed on a higher rate of crime in the black community? Yes, but there is a gnawing feeling that simply being black in a high-crime area increases your risk for a deadly altercation with police.
Does bad behavior account for some of the interactions with law enforcement? Yes, but surely there must be ways that we can work to prevent the violence from escalating.
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Isn’t there another alternative where we utilize police power to counter violence, but for the most part leave non-violent citizens alone?
Paul is taking steps with the REDEEM Act to do just that.
There are also cultural issues to pay attention to, however. Paul notes that there is the “link between poverty, lack of education, and children outside of marriage is staggering and cuts across all racial groups,” thus part of the problems we see begin in the home.
But escaping these snares requires some hope that the world out there has something to offer other than failure or death.
Paul, vowing to continue fighting mandatory minimums and sentencing reform for non-violent drug offenders, summed up his thoughts:
I will continue the fight to reform our nation’s criminal justice system, but in the meantime, the call should go out for a charismatic leader, not a politician, to preach a gospel of hope and prosperity. I have said often America is in need of a revival. Part of that is spiritual. Part of that is in civics, in our leaders, in our institutions. We must look at policies, ideas, and attitudes that have failed us and we must demand better.