Many
people in the United States are anxiously awaiting the announcement
of the grand jury verdict in the case of the shooting death of
Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by Ferguson Police officer
Darren Wilson. It's interesting that several weeks ago, U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder resigned from President Obama's cabinet.
And it's also interesting that a number of law enforcement agencies
are “preparing for the worst”: to wit, the Department of Homeland
Security, the Missouri National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation, among others.
This
leads me to make a prediction. First, I expect the grand jury to
refuse to indict Officer Wilson. Secondly, I expect that the
authorities, from Missouri Governor Jay Nixon downward, along with
President Obama, to have known all along that this is how the verdict
would turn out. Third, I do not expect the U.S. Department of
Justice to prosecute Officer Wilson or the Ferguson police
department. Fourth, I expect protests to result from these things.
But while the protests will be largely peaceful, the response of
those who hold power will be anything but peaceful. Thus the rest of
the world will get to see a fresh display of the hypocrisy United
States, which is busy bombing and killing other nations in their
quest to bring “democracy” and “human rights” to those
nations.
Fifth,
I expect a flood of right-wing commentary from the blogosphere, as
well as some rather surprisingly right-wing comments from people who
brand themselves as “left of center.” The commentary will seek
to justify what is in actuality a campaign of oppression and
extermination designed to grant a little extra “living room” (in
German, Lebensraum) to the largely white ruling classes in the United
States at this late hour of their existence. Some of the commentary
is likely to come from people who willfully ignore the history of
their own forbears who endured the cruelty of nations looking for
Lebensraum in the last world war.
Lastly,
I expect many disenfranchised people in this country to become quite
creative in the art of passive rebellion.
I
pray that I may be proved wrong about predictions #1 through #3.
