On August 9, 2014, an 18 year old named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. From this event sprang countless protests, all stemming from the fact that Michael Brown was African American and that he was killed by a police officer (Sokhi-Bulley). As the protests progressed, the demonstrations were met by increasing police resistance, bringing a growing sense of rage and conflict against the law enforcement of the town as well as the country. Overall, the community of Ferguson, Missouri, has a major problem of police brutality, likely originating from a sense of deep seeded racism within the force as well as the nation’s society. While this may appear to be a straightforward issue, there are many different angles and opinions on the Ferguson debate coming from a wide variety of sources. “Performing Struggle: Parrhēsia in Ferguson” by Bal Sokhi-Bulley comes from Law Critique, a peer-reviewed journal. Bulley’s piece covers police brutality in Ferguson and around the world. She mainly focuses on the racial tensions that arose between the police force and citizens of Ferguson, Missouri. This includes speculations for the reasoning behind this unease, intricate details about race within the …show more content…
This reasoning best explains why African Americans are most targeted for crimes, despite that police officers are armed and told to make more charges on the entire public. “What caused Brown to be shot at least six times was […] the fact that for much of recent history of this country, Black people have bought into the nonsense that we live in a post racial America. That because of the election of Barack Obama as President, racism and the wounds it brings no longer exists” (Baaith). Yet Ferguson has brought the subject of racism back into clear view, and with this information, we as a society can begin to understand it on a deeper