What's your demographic profile? What groups do you belong to? What's your profession? How old are you? Are you a member of a religion? Are you male? Female? Caucasian? Asian? Black? Don't tell me, just have that info in mind. Now, of all the groups you could possibly be linked to, is there one group from which I can judge you based on any act ever committed by any other individual within that group? If you're a teacher, can I blame you because a creepy teacher tried to take advantage of my girlfriend? Am I responsible for the Holocaust because my dad's family is German? If you're a police officer, can I assume you shoot people because of their skin color?
I hope you answered no to all of those questions. The answers are obvious. And yet many, many people answered "yes" regarding the police officer in Ferguson. People who weren't there "knew" the facts before there was an investigation. DC's member of the US House of Representatives said she didn't
need to know the facts, because "I know what happened." All those people knew what happened, but they didn't.
The young man did not quietly surrender as first reported by his friend and, as it turned out, his partner in crime. However he had lived his life in the past, that day he was willing to use his size to assault people. He made a series of bad choices that ultimately cost him his life. The investigation confirmed:
- He robbed a store and had no problem man-handling/intimidating the store clerk.
- Rather than move out of the street as asked, he cursed the police officer.
- He tried to pin the officer in his car, punched him twice and tried to take his gun.
- When instructed to stop, he continued to advance on the officer--he's apparently the one person who didn't put his hands up and say "don't shoot".
It's very sad...for him, his family and the police officer. Shooting someone is a hard thing to live with, even when the world isn't screaming for you to be jailed (or worse) before an investigation.
People making assumptions without facts before the investigation caused a lot of trouble for that town. But that has become the norm. What really blew my mind was that even after the facts became clear, people were still saying the young man had been "executed". After the grand jury verdict, one person I knew posted comments on-line that shocked me. I'm going to share two examples that were posted together:
- "Boston Marathon bomber performed act of terrorism, killed a cop, had shoot-out with police. Brought in alive." Actually, one bomber was killed and the other was shot several times. When police caught up to him, he was too weak to resist arrest.
- "Aurora shooter killed 12 people, injured 70 others. Apprehended & brought in alive. Brown stole cigarettes, was shot 6 times." The Aurora shooter did not resist arrest when the police arrived, so he lived. Brown was not shot for stealing cigarettes. He was shot in what was a life and death struggle that he instigated by attacking a cop and trying to take his gun.
When I saw those comments (and plenty of others), to me they read "I hope someday to live in a country where you can attack a police officer and try to take his weapon without consequences!" I don't want to live in that country.
Trends are made up of individual incidents, but we can't assume an individual incident is part of a trend. You have to wait for the facts. When you don't and you're wrong, you hand your opponents a credible reason to dismiss what you say.
If you agree with me, great. If I'm mis-informed, I'm happy to be corrected. But don't feel obligated to post a comment if you're not comfortable sharing your views on this.
I'm with you. we had the same issue here with the shootings in Paris. everyone jumping to conclusions. the media desperate to have headlines before anyone even knew what was going on. which is causing a lot of these problems. people are gullible. if it's in the news, it has to be right, no? well, it most often isn't. and the same goes for black and white judgement. nothing is ever as simple as that. it's never one person being right, another person being wrong. but to figure out where exactly they stand takes to much time and effort. hence the jumping to easy conclusions. agh, I better stop now.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, even little everyday things are rarely cut and dried. With things like this, too many people with agendas try to twist them to fit whatever they want it to be (or not to be :).
DeleteI agree that we need to start "sweatin the details". People in authority cannot ignore some for their own betterment.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, police have to be accountable when they do wrong and leaders of advocacy groups do too when they twist the truth.
DeleteI'm sure humans have always had a tendency to jump to conclusions, and to think they have enough information to form an opinion about a situation. However, with the Internet and social media, this tendency has been given a public platform. What would have previously been an annoying neighbour or relative voicing their ignorance in person, has now become a chorus of ignorance on Facebook, Twitter, etc. The worst part of all is that the media jumps on this bandwagon. If they hesitate long enough to get the full story, like they would have in the "good old days" they can't compete with all the other media outlets.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. We might have had witch burnings in all the settlements along the east coast if social media had been around to fan the flames. About the actual media, I have much more respect for those who simply report what happened. Weeks ago a pipe bomb went off in Colorado Springs. There was NO damage, but a few items did fall off a shelf in a hair salon. Several news outlets reported that NAACP offices had been bombed--even though the bomb was set on the opposite side of the building (MSNBC showed images of a building bombed in France) and cited it as an example of deteriorating race relations. The truth? Some nut was mad at his tax accountant and wanted to bomb his office. Fortunately he didn't know how. Too many professional talking heads are equally inept.
DeleteSimplification and assumptions get people into a load of trouble, wouldn't you agree? I'm glad you shared your viewpoint on this - afterall, that is what blogging is all about
ReplyDeleteI agree! I need to thank my family for helping see at an early age that you can't judge a person by the actions of others of the same faith, race, profession, gender or FAMILY! :D
DeleteTotally agree with you on this. I don't understand how some people could pass comments as if they have come from deep thoughts. I saw some of my American friends commenting on those shooting issues. I simply kept quiet. Great post, Rick!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jo! Kristie was right that it's easy to think we have enough information to form opinions about situations. But people get off-track when they confuse their opinion for facts. It's much better to do as you did and keep quiet until the facts are known.
DeleteVery well said.
ReplyDeleteI had so many issues with how people were going about social media with their opinions. Social media is such a great tool for some things and on the other, at times, hinders the truth and allows misguided ignorance to run like a wild fire.
You're right. a handful with agendas get the ball rolling and so many are willing yo blindly repeat the misinformation...because they "know" what happened.
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