American Race Relations

"I'm a man first, a black man second, a husband, a father and a son. There's a lot of things I am before a trooper, but the one thing I am is an honest man. I'll stand for what's right. Even if this uniform is wrong. I'll tell you it's wrong. If we're right, I'll tell you we're right." 
Captain Ron Johnson, Missouri Highway Patrol

"We should be able to walk the streets, we should be able to go to the store without being shot in cold blood."
"We don't feel safe in these streets. Never. Ever. Report that. Tell that. Don't go around sugar-coating things to the media."
Woman protesting, Ferguson, Missouri

People defy a curfew Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, before smoke and tear gas was fired to disperse a crowd protesting the shooting of teenager Michael Brown last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo. Brown’s shooting in the middle of a street following a suspected robbery of a box of cigars from a nearby market has sparked a week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

He's a 51-year-old police professional, a Missouri Highway Patrol officer who has been tasked with heading up security for the daily often-violent demonstrations taking place in this suburb of St. Louis. Informing yet another heckler that it is his job to maintain the peace, to ensure that their rallies remain peaceful,to avoid any further bloodshed and young black men can have the opportunities that 18-year-old Michael Brown can never now enjoy, and he means to do just that, to the best of his ability.

The state government appointed this tall African-American, a black officer in the white-dominated force with its multi-jurisdiction face policing the protest rallies to try to restore order and trust in government and the local security agents. "Capt. Johnson wavers sometimes between wanting to be the community presence and then being the tactical commander", explained Steven Hawkins of Amnesty International. "In some ways he's being forced to wear both hats, and really, you can't wear both hats."

And he has his work cut out for him to wear either of those hats independently of one another, or co-jointly. As a black man in a position of authority he presents himself as an example of equality. But the people living in Ferguson have experienced too many incidents throughout their lives of inequality and they're finding it pretty difficult to trust a lone representative of their community who represents the privileged white entities who fear young black males and whose fear compels them to commit the irreversible.

"He's a brother, he's an honest man and he's a spiritual man, and with those qualities ... you are all right with me", said 30-year-old Richard Fairley, a "dark-skinned black" who affirmed his own experiences of constant traffic stops. "My experience was the same as Mike Brown, but I'm alive to tell it", he said. The fatal shooting by a white police officer of an unarmed black teen is all too familiar to the majority-black residents of Ferguson.

Police claim the officer who shot the teen was pushed into his squad car, physically assaulted and a struggle took place to gain his weapon. Witnesses claim that the teen's hands were raised above his head before he was shot repeatedly on August 9, and killed. While the pathologist said his team cannot be certain exactly how the wounds were inflicted without additional information, it does appear that Michael Brown was defenceless when he was shot to death.

Michael Brown's companion described seeing the officer grab his friend's neck, attempting to pull him into the police car before raising his weapon. Michael, he said, began to run and the officer pursued him, firing the multiple shots; at least six times, twice in the head. It remains to be seen whether the officer, Darren Wilson, will be charged in the death of Michael Brown.

A law enforcement officer on a tactical vehicle watches after a device was fired to disperse a crowd Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, during a protest for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo. As night fell Sunday in Ferguson, another peaceful protest quickly deteriorated after marchers pushed toward one end of a street. Police attempted to push them back by firing tear gas and shouting over a bullhorn that the protest was no longer peaceful.  AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

In the meanwhile, Capt. Johnson acknowledges that some of his fellow police officers are angry that he ordered them not to charge looters one night. Others feel dismay that Capt. Johnson's attempts to lower the tone of the police approach, having them wear regular uniforms rather than military-type fatigues, and evincing a more passive approach to try to help restore calm; that is, until matters become violent.

For his part, Capt. Johnson has praised officers under his command for courage, describing police "screaming" for help over the radio as they came under fire early on Tuesday morning from within the crowd of protesters. And another African-American has another approach to his opinion of a token African-American on the force: "That's somebody they put out; he's a black man, so they think he can calm the blacks. But he doesn't make a difference."