The result of the Ferguson, MO grand jury investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown is scheduled to be announced any time now (authorities indicated that the results could be made public as early as yesterday). No one but the grand jury knows what that result will be. That would not be the case, were the situation reversed. If a black man in Ferguson had shot a police officer (who, unlike Michael Brown, would have been armed) then other black men – members of the shooter’s gang – surrounded the area a prevented the officer’s body from being removed from public view for hours, there would be no question of the outcome of any grand jury investigation. Those men, if they lived through the ordeal, would be charged and the shooter would not be at home with his family on paid administrative leave. Maybe there would be reasons not to charge the shooter in that case, but is there any chance, really, that those reasons could ever result in a vote not to charge the shooter? Maybe there are reasons for the Ferguson grand jury not to charge Michael Brown’s killer. But if the grand jury votes not to do so, claims that a different, and double standard was applied, will be hard to refute.
