What if you knew before you targeted minorities in your community you were getting a free pass? The power that comes from clanmanship and social connections is a powerful one so powerful it sometimes skews everything around it. We see it playing out in our politics and hometowns throughout the nation. Even after it was well known that mixed race children were put in harms way and the initiators were doing so because the target was a "Muslim" and there were opportunities for financial gain for engaging in these behaviors they persisted.
(They came and told me they were doing this to my family because we are Muslim.).
There were further indications that behaviors were coordination with close friends functioning within a local law enforcement agency and in turn a large scale attempt to harm, discredit, and intimidate through potential violence/intimidation tactics (They didn't succeed because I have seen this before and sort of knew what expect. Yet in many ways I believe they are buying their time and with a free pass we may see more emboldened behaviors in the future.)
Such behaviors do not appear to be spontaneous but instead well worn path of group bullying and ethnic/racial/religious intimidation of others (I'm unlikely the first they tried to intimidate but maybe for that group the first minority they went after. It wouldn't be impossible to postulate that some of the officers who coached these members may have targeted minorities in the past and knew what they were doing it and it was illegal. It looked like they were very skilled at it and it was practiced.). Most people know the group and seem to understand their aggressive behaviors and the free passes they have been given at other times and places.
You would have to sort of step back and scratch your head if such behaviors were true and there wasn't any real level of accountability or improvements. There are lots of people upset in our nation over disparate treatment as we become increasingly diverse with each generation. Laws that apply to one ethnic/racial/religious group in ways that don't always apply to other groups is risky (I hope this isn't an example of that. I don't believe so but there is always a little risk.). So much so that hundreds of thousands of people went into the streets to demand fair and equal treatment (It makes no difference if you agree or disagree but that it is the perception of a large percentage of society. It is more of a factual statement based on social perspective.).
(I support police 100% and civil rights 110% and haven't changed based on this situation. Lots of great officers in our country. That includes disagreeing with free passes for criminal targeting as well as in turn targeting police by far left and far right extremists. In modern societies we can resolve our differences peacefully but that takes commitment by societal stakeholders to a greater purpose.
However, if such distorted beliefs make it into our court rooms to legitimize the "illegitimate" behaviors we have looming problems that will be troublesome in the future if experienced by a lot of people. Just think about it for a moment and why our country was started and what issues of unfairness led to our nation forming. That include suppressing religious practice, silencing/ignoring truth, search and seizure by the British, lack of representation for the colonies, and other behaviors that are wholly against our historical values.)
Now let us say it doesn't matter what one does, or they had wink and nod agreements, or that there was some indication of prior history of such behaviors. It comes down to some very fundamental questions of the value of human rights on an actual, realized, local level where social networks risk taking precedence over good moral judgement and conscious. It is a backsliding on some important democratic principles as they relate to our core American values (I can't say with surety. What I can say is there is a high potential of risk that it could have happened.)
Its not my failure but it is something that indicates our nation is not ready to universalize its values to put itself into the highest possible economic and international position through walking the talk of human capital development and opportunities for all of us (I also understand the risks of becoming a highly overeducated dishwasher for standing up for what I believe are American values and increasing risks to a free and democratic society.).
There might need to be greater state and federal protections in place to ensure such free passes don't occur (If they did at all which I can't say they did. It just really looks like it.). We should ensure that if local justice does fail (Not saying it has happened yet but there is some indication its possible; maybe likely.). The concepts of federalism is designed to ensure that local interests of a small sect of people don't supersede the general rights of the nation and its people. There were a lot of people who fought and died for those rights so we must have protections in place to ensure local justice doesn't skew to one racial, religious, social, ethnic or political leanings (No one is immune from wanting to be reelected. Its a pressure that must be dealt with. That is also why we want people to take positions in which they can stand against local social pressures or see through coordinated actions/dishonesty for the best interest of society. Again, I'm not saying any bad decision was made because I really don't know. )
See, I can accept a bad judgement or one in support of one's social group but will society accept it if it is experienced in many places around the nation. Its not about me so much as it is about understanding how these things work in "real life". I have long forgiven my transgressors but I have an obligation not to forget such destructive behaviors. I owe loyalties to my nation (as defined by the Constitution and Bill of Rights), all of our diverse peoples (all of the people that belong to different races and religions), our institutions as long as they are generally doing the right thing (I think they are trying in most places but certainly some changes are needed.), of course to my kids as a parent protecting them from manipulative bigots and bullies, and to the rest of the nation (and next generation) that runs the risk of being bested by other countries/ideologies if we don't understand the bigger picture (Why I encourage leadership to think about the bigger picture and find better leaders if they can't or don't have the moral or mental faculties to do so.)
While I can accept such a judgement (assuming a judgement was made. I'm not in the privy) I do believe the facts would not line up to support a free pass in this instance. I also believe that what I have proposed was reasonable, keeps people out of jail, no one is in trouble (Even though me and my family took all he risks that someone intentionally put on us for racial, financial, reputational and religious reasons) maintains integrity of the local system, and ensures that more people don't get harmed in the future by "normalization" of hate (Community complaints, repeated patterns, etc..). My obligations are likely different than many of the other people involved.( I'm just not sure what obligations others have and how those different values factor into this situation.)
I will put in a word of caution out there. History sometimes has an interesting way of changing what we believe in real time limited perspective into something more accurate through hindsight objective analysis (That applies to me as well so I recognize I don't know what I don't know but can use experience and logic to lay it out as to what seems to fit as a current explanation. It is always possible other explanations come to light. I certainly could be wrong about a great many things but I'm trying to stay as close to perceived truth as possible based on evidence that I have witnessed.)
So I hope and pray they made the right call based on our social contracts, evidence based decision making, and good moral conscious/judgement. Under a worst case scenario knowing that you were getting a free pass and then allowing that free pass to happen would put a lot of people at risk without considering the needs of the victims (Its not a fact it just has a statistical possibility.) We should all be striving for a stronger nation that ties as many people as we can to a shared and universal perspective.
My plan? Be polite but not passive. To encourage truth and good moral conscious (I'm not a perfect person but I'm a pretty good person no matter if I have a "Muslim" sounding name or my children are not part of the "right" crowd. Even if we are seen as second class citizens it does not mean the people who judge us to be "less worthy" are accurate in any way, shape or form.). To encourage our nation to adapt to a higher plane of existence that will help the next diverse generation is important. I'm not sure what our politicians, judges, and leaders plans are but I suspect different people have different goals (Some good and some distorted). That isn't for me to say precisely. Its not easy to stay faithful to a higher understand when so many people have a vested interested in ensuring their "world view" is the dominant "view".
Let us step back, not make any quick judgements, think through the many different possibilities and focus on maintaining a sense of objectivity. I do trust that most judges are trying to do the right thing based on their understanding of events. I'm also aware of a history of bad calls at various times and places by some judges. Sometimes doing the right thing can be difficult but with perseverance we can see our nation grow, adapt, and get stronger (I guess that is dependent on what your vision for the nation is. Me? I see it as adapting to the next rung but cannot say precisely when. It will likely be decided in this decade. The economic side has already begun changing. The alternatives are not the best path forward. If it doesn't adapt there are risks it will decline, breakdown, and get into lots of political, ethnic/racial, and religious turmoil.)
This might be a good test case for students and professors to analysis in hindsight in terms of how it relates to Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech (We put in place constitutional protections to ensure we have strong feedback loops to help us become a learning society based on evidence and logic. While each generation has gotten better we have to be concerned about backsliding and our duties to guard against it.). Just like its a learning opportunity for the agencies involved it might also be a good learning opportunity for policy development (i.e. Michigan Track and Resolve). I know I have learned a lot and I hope you have as well. (Even if my future is a glorified dishwasher for having values I learned that I now doubly respect others who encourage our society to have good values and those within our histories that taught us something about ourselves. i.e. the local college that said I was more than qualified and then "ghosted" me because of their racial and religious hiring practices and false bigoted rumors.). Thoughts? Are we able to live by our essential values?
(The people who started this knew they were being dishonest and aggressive and the people around them supported that. They intentionally put people at risk and they tried to get as many people involved as they can through misinformation. The same thing we see in third world countries and the same thing we have seen in our histories where hate was not tackled while it was occurring. Almost no one stepped up to do the right thing. So if we are to give them a free pass I think it says an awful lot of where we are right now and the values we support; at least locally. While it may be inconvenient to have values sometimes I think its important. Its a question that must be answered by others.)
Again....its not about me...its about a bigger principle.
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