Michael McDonald has written a letter to his hometown of Ferguson following atrocities in the town this week.
All eyes in America are on the situation in Ferguson, MO with the death of Michael Brown, the ensuing protests and tomorrow’s forming of a grand jury to investigate the shooting.
Michael McDonald has a keen interest in the ongoing situation as he spent fourteen years of his life in Ferguson, including graduating from McCluer High School. It was during this time that McDonald got his start in music, playing with a number of different local bands.
On Tuesday, McDonald’s lawyer released a statement from the singer that was linked through Twitter:
As someone who spent his first 18 yrs in the St. Louis area, (14 of them in Ferguson Mo. ), I pray for the family of Michael Brown and the entire community that is originally my home town to which I still feel a strong connection.
I pray this tragic event and the still greater issue that it heralds will be faced and dealt with in an honest and responsible manner by the residents of Ferguson and the people in its leadership positions. That whatever appropriate federal agency is needed to investigate this tragic incident properly, will be deployed post haste to address the questions and frustrations of this community as satisfactorily as is possible, and although nothing can restore this young mans life, I pray that Ferguson can hold together as a community who’s common interest is justice. No matter what that looks like in the end.
However on a larger landscape, mustn’t we ask ourselves why we’re hearing more and more about the incidents of young black males being gunned down by law enforcement not just in my home town of Ferguson Mo. But all over this country.
What I think needs to be honestly examined by the larger national community, is the difference between what constitutes a valid reason for use of deadly force when a young white male is the suspected perpetrator of a crime and what those standards seem to be when the suspect is African American.
Seems to me, we don’t hear of many incidents of young unarmed white males being gunned down for running away from police, or even for resisting arrest.
In this and all individual cases we must look to forensics and eyewitness accounts to try and get to the truth. However, I don’t think that this is the time for any of us to ignore this obvious discrepancy.
How many tragic losses of this nature must we endure before we’re called to conscience on this issue.
-Michael
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