Richard Epstein on the DOJ report, Michael Brown, and Darren Wilson: ‘Race Baiting And Ferguson‘

‘The situation is made worse with the publication of the second DOJ report which offers a top-to-bottom condemnation of Ferguson’s criminal justice system. This report was clearly prompted by the belief that Wilson’s killing of Michael Brown was the result of structural problems in Ferguson. But why pick on Ferguson after Wilson was exonerated? It would be one thing to argue that the illegal killing of Michael Brown stemmed from a corrupt and racist culture inside that department. But once it is established that Wilson was fully justified in acting as he did, it is impossible to explain how the culture and norms of the police could have contributed to any illegal act. Indeed, the only plausible inference cuts the opposite way. The ability of Wilson to handle himself well under extreme pressure reflects approvingly on his conduct and on the ethos of the Ferguson Police Department.’

Across media outlets, many have become invested in a similar ethos of activism; trumpeting a state of permanent ideological victim-hood and protest which often goes in search of facts and evidence after genuine outrage is stoked and unleashed.

Jonathan Capeheart at the Washington Post admits as much.

It’s always 1968 for some…understandably for many in the Civil Rights movement and those law-abiding citizens neither served nor protected well by the police where they live.

Yet, when the people who run the Department of Justice put their weight behind a case like this, where the facts and evidence don’t line up with the outrage, potentially serious damage has been done to our system of justice.  More injustice can be created (Darren Wilson, the injured officers), the public trust can be eroded, and fires burn with no place to go…but up.

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