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against the police force. This tragedy and the violence that has arisen from the shooting of Michael Brown raises a question: how has Ferguson, a town in a country where racism has supposedly been de-institutionalized, come to such a desperate state? The police force is not the only institution that has failed the St. Louis community. Ferguson's standardized test scores are consistently below average: for the AYP (the Adequate Yearly Progress measure enacted by the federal No Child Left Behind Act), 90% of all students did not meet the criteria for proficiency in math. Normandy High, the school Michael Brown attended, has a 58% graduation rate, and fewer than 10% of graduates scored above the national average on the ACT, according to city- data.com. St. Louis schools are also starkly segregated; Brown's school has a 98% black student body, 77% more than the national average. Financially, 74% of Normandy High students live below the poverty line, which is 53% more than the national average. After graduation, black men between the ages of 16 and 24 in the Ferguson workforce suffer from 47% unemployment according to the 2012 census, 39% greater than the national average, and three times that of the local white population. Only 6% voted in the 2012 presidential election, 41% less than the national average. It is not only Michael Brown who residents of Ferguson are trying to draw attention to, but the extreme social inequality which allows events like his death to be brushed under the rug. Racism is entrenched in the history of St. Louis. In 1916, the local government created and dubbed areas of the city as "Negro blocks" to be the only areas African Americans could inhabit. Even though the Supreme Court blocked this ordinance, the Real Estate Exchange of St. Louis continued segregation by threatening to revoke the real estate licences of agents who sold homes to African-Americans outside designated areas. The effects of this policy are still vastly present today, forty-seven years after the Fair Housing Act, a federal regulation prohibiting discrimination in selling real-estate and mortgages, was passed. The St. Louis area is one of the most segregated in the country, World News Page 4 Ferguson to New York February 20, 2015 of the 25th, the body of a twenty-year-old African American man named DeAndre Joshua was found in his car near the block where Brown was shot. As of writing this article, Darren Wilson has remained on paid leave, gotten married, and, though he has expressed sympathy for Michael Brown's parents, continues to stand by his actions, stating: "I have a clean conscience… I know I did my job right." In the upcoming days, there is the possibility of a civil rights case being opened by the Brown family, which could potentially result in Wilson's conviction. However, as of writing this article, the case is closed. On the night of the 24th, peaceful protests were held in more than ten cities in the United States, though the protest in Ferguson quickly began to resemble the violent riots of the past few months. The Brown family released a statement following the Bob McCulloch's announcement of the Grand Jury's decision: "We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions. While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen. Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera… Let's not just make noise, let's make a difference." President Obama also issued a statement, outlining his sympathy for the family, and conviction that the system that caused Brown's death is deeply flawed. In response to a petition signed by more than 150,000 people for the mandatory outfitting of police with body cameras, the White House stated their "support [of] the use of cameras and video technology by law enforcement officers." In New York City, a pilot program designed to outfit a small number of officers with body cameras began on December 3. Though this is a promising development, it would not solve the institutional problems that resulted in Brown's death, and as shown in the case of Eric Garner, even video footage does not necessarily lead to indictments. Two weeks before Brown's death, on July 23, 2014, Eric Garner, a 40-year-old African American father of six, was killed by police officer Daniel Pantaleo, for selling "loosies", or single untaxed cigarettes in Staten Island. Pantaleo, a 29-year-old white man, had already been sued twice for violating the constitutional rights of citizens whom he arrested. At the time of his death, Garner was free on bail for three misdemeanor cases which were being processed in the Stapleton Criminal Court. Pantaleo used a choke-hold to restrain Garner, a tactic of pressing down the neck of a suspect into the ground until he or she is in handcuffs, which unequivocally resulted in Garner's death. Not only is this a tactic that limits the flow of oxygen to the brain– especially dangerous for those who are overweight or asthmatic, as Eric Garner was–but it is also one banned by the NYPD more than twenty years ago. As seen in the video of the events, captured by Garner's friend Ramsey Orta, Pantaleo choked Garner for even longer than the outdated manual suggested, continuing as Garner gasped "I can't breathe". On December 4, 2014, a grand jury, like the one that did not indict Darren Wilson, decided that there was no probable cause to indict Daniel Pantaleo. A Grand Jury is a group of 16 to 23 jurors used to determine whether there is probable cause to prosecute someone for a crime. The Continued from Page 1 due to the concentration of affluence outside major urban centers. The segregation of St. Louis is symptomatic of a national issue. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 28% of black Americans live in poverty while only 10% of white Americans do. In this country, the income of a white family will be, on average, twice that of a black family. Most strikingly, 45% of black children live in areas of concentrated poverty, while only 12% of white children do, according to the 2012 Kids Count. Impoverished areas like Ferguson and the North part of St. Louis have increased amounts of crime, and therefore more police activity. Sometimes, as can be seen from Ferguson, this has the opposite of the desired effect. The concentration of law enforcement in areas of poverty has contributed to severe racial inequality in our justice system. Though police, security guards, and vigilante figures in the year 2012, a total of about one death every 28 hours. Michael Brown's case is not unique; his name is only one more on the long list of civilian casualties in America's ongoing racial conflict. On November 24th, 2014 at 9:00pm EST, a grand jury came to the conclusion that there was no probable cause to indict Darren Wilson. It is legal for police to use deadly force when they or bystanders are threatened, making Wilson's actions, though tragic, not criminal in a county court. What constitutes probable cause is a subject of constant debate because of its subjective nature; would Wilson have felt as threatened if Michael Brown had been white? Evidence released by the grand jury shows that the first shot was fired in the back of Officer Wilson's car, but Brown's body was found more than 150 feet away, showing African Americans are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts. African Americans only make up about 13% of the civilian population, they make up 40% of the prison population, and are more likely to be killed by law enforcement officials than their white counterparts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has not released the complete list of weapons discharged by police by demographic. However, the over 1,000 deadly police shootings which have been recorded show that African Americans are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts, according to ProPublica. The pattern of black youths being killed by people charged with protecting them is clear. We have all heard too many stories like Michael Brown's: Trayvon Martin being shot in February 2012 after being deemed "threatening", Jordan Davis in November 2012 for playing music too loudly, and Renisha McBride, who was killed when she looked for help after a car crash in November 2013. Operation Ghetto Storm, a study published by the Malcolm X Grassroots movement in 2013, gave 313 instances in which black people had been killed by that whether or not Wilson's statement that Brown charged him was correct, Brown did try to flee before his death after a conflict in the police car. According to his statement, Wilson used deadly force because he could not reach his mace during the conflict, and was not carrying a taser because he finds them uncomfortable. Support for protesters has been growing around the world, with people from Palestine to London expressing solidarity with Ferguson citizens. The Egyptian police force, responsible for over 2,000 civilian deaths in the past three years, issued a statement on November 25 in which they "urged US authorities to deal with the demonstrations, according to American and international standards". Both Chinese and Russian commentators, as well as groups such as Amnesty International, have expressed their feelings that the United States should not criticize other nations for human rights violations until it fixes its own situation. In the twenty-four hours after the grand jury announcement, multiple buildings in Ferguson were set on fire, and on the morning Photo courtesy of Wikicommons

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