Who Protects Us From You? Okayplayer Artists React To The Grand Jury Decision In Ferguson, MO
Last night the news arrived that no criminal charges would be brought againstDarren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th. After a months-long investigation led by St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch, a grand jury deemed the case's evidence and testimony inadequate to justify a criminal charge. On Monday night, Darren Wilson was deemeda free man.
Nationwide reactions to Brown's killer walking free without even a trial includedtears of sorrow and seething anger at what many took to be only the latest in a long and brutal history of racially-biased policing in America--a reaction that seems increasingly confirmed by the release of transcripts from the grand jury hearings, which lend credence to the commonly-held assumption that McCulloch did not seem to be seeking an indictment at all, certainly not with the same zeal prosecutors are expected to display when the person charged is not a police officer.
Photos and video of Brown's mother in agonyflashed across cable news channels and social media, only to be quickly replaced by images of both peaceful protests and destructive looting, followed by police crackdowns all across Ferguson, as well as an eerie absence of National Guard or riot police in predominantly black neighborhoods, a discrepancy some take as a sign that those areas were left to burn.
Many of the musicalartists Okayplayer covers have beenvery much involved with the events in Ferguson since Brown's shooting, sharing information and driving the conversationthrough their social media channels, speaking out eloquently bywritingop-eds, and, in the case of Talib Kweli, Nelly, J. Cole and others, putting their Timberland boots on the ground in the streets of Ferguson themselves.
Following the news that Wilson will not be indicted, reactions from the Okayplayercommunity were once again swift and intense as numerous artists took to their social media accounts, expressing sorrow, anger, disillusionment and the need to organize and take action for the sake of a better future. Some got immediately involved in protests themselves. Below isjust just a small collection of the responses toa justice system that has excluded and suppressed black Americans for centuries.
>>>Read on for more from Killer Mike, Nas, Questlove and others
[Killer Mike also gave a long and passionate speech just before Run the Jewels took the stage in St. Louis Monday night.-ed.]
The Okayafrica Team ran into Q-Tip walking withprotesters and leading the chant in Times Square, NYC. Watch via Okayplayer's YouTube:
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Stay tuned for more reporting on hip-hop's reactions to events both in Ferguson and all across the nation.