From: Gregory Brown Sent: Sunday, December 7, 2014 9:16 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 12/07/2014 Attachments: Untitled attachment 00253.docx; Untitled attachment 00256.docx; The Grateful Dead bio.docx; Untitled attachment 00259.docx; Untitled attachment 00262.docx; Untitled attachment 00265.docx; Untitled attachment 00268.docx DEAR FRIEND Michael Brown, and Now Eric Garner <=r> =br> At some point between the moment a Missouri g=and jury refused to indict a police officer who had shot and killed Michael Brown on a Fergu=on street and the moment a New York grand jury refused to indict a police offi=er who choked and killed Eric Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk — on =ideo, as he struggled to utter the words, "I can't breathe!" — a counter narrative to this nat=on's calls for change has taken shape. This narrative paints the police as under siege and unfairly maligned while it admonishes =E24›. and, in some cases, excoriates — those demanding changes in the wak= of the Ferguson shooting. The argument is that this is not a perfect case, because Brown — and, one would assume, =ow Garner — isn't a perfect victim and the protesters haven't all been =erfectly civil, so therefore any movement to counter black oppression that flows from the case=is inherently flawed. But this is ridiculous and reductive, because it fails to acknowledge that the whole sy=tem is imperfect and rife with flaws. We don't need to identify angels and demons to understand that inequit= is hell. The Mike-or-Eric-as-faces-of-black-oppression arguments swing too wide, and they miss. So does the protesters-as- movement-killers argument. The responses so far have only partly been specific to a particular case. Much of it is about something larger and more general: racial inequality and criminal justice. Peop=e want to be assured of equal application of justice and equal — and appropriate — use of police forc=, and to