Why Leadership Matters -- Ferguson's Struggles Continue

Ferguson, Missouri suffered more than anything from a lack of leadership.

As of this writing, the details surrounding Michael Brown's death remain murky, and I am not willing to reach a judgment about Brown or Officer Darren Wilson until we know more.

In the aftermath, however, the St. Louis County and Ferguson police utterly failed in their responsibilities to provide safety for the people living there, including the protesters. Considering how much circumstances improved once Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson got out of the way and Missouri State Police Captain Ron Johnson took over, it is clear that much of the violence could have avoided with better decision-making from the outset.

It also seems clear, however, that the protesters lack leadership. The looting and other crime growing after a curfew was imposed over the weekend indicates that the community of Ferguson could use someone to pull it together and impose some standards. In similar circumstances, Martin Luther King (especially in Montgomery in 1955) and Malcolm X (especially in Harlem in 1964) gave people a focus and a purpose that prevented worsening violence. In Harlem, Malcolm prevented a complete loss of control, even though there were riots. In Montgomery, King helped avoid any violence at all.

What "the people" do matters. But individual leadership also makes a difference, and we need serious and committed leadership in times of crisis.

Are the Police in St. Louis Upholding the Law?

When a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shot Michael Brown, he unwittingly unleashed a torrent of fury in the black community there. Brown was 18 years old and unarmed, and the because the police department divulged very little information about how the shooting occurred, except to say that Brown tried to grab the officer's weapon, his death remains one of those inexplicable cases in which a white cop has killed a black kid.

To compound the problem, the police have refused to release the name of the officer involved. So many death threats have been leveled against him that it's easy to see why the department would seek to shield him, but it reinforces the image of the police getting protection that Brown and others like him do not get.

It's also difficult to understand the highly militarized response of the police to protests. Images coming from the scene do not reinforce the idea that the police stand for law and order, but that they stand for violence and power. It is, of course, their job to prevent serious disruption of the city, but these are not the pictures anyone wants to see. High pressure hoses, noise cannons, tear gas and anti-riot tanks are the tools of dictators, and their use here does not serve the city of St. Louis or the people who live there.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When Fox News commentators condemn the police and defend protesters, you know something has gone over the top. 

Reporters from the Washington Post and The Huffington Post say they were arrested and then released without explanation. A St. Louis alderman was arrested and says he was dragged from his car. These things reflect a lack of discipline and training on the part of the police there, and do nothing to dispel the notion that Brown was probably killed without real justification.

Today's Adolph Hitler

As the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and Syria pushes its offensive further south through Kurdish Iraq, it makes clearer its fundamental nature. It is not a religious movement, nor even a political movement fueled by religious values. Instead, it is a totalitarian movement reminiscent more of Adolph Hitler than Osama bin Laden. Its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is an armed thug with very little religious intent. His goal is total control over a population, and he is willing to use fabricated Islamic law to get what he wants. 

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: more Hitler than bin Laden
from Wikipedia

As Scott Stewart wrote for the website Stratfor, the Islamic State has managed to build itself into a formidable fighting organization, but it has forsaken any practical efforts to govern or gain popular support.

Stewart writes that 

So far, the Islamic State has been able to claim its battlefield successes as proof of Allah's blessing. However, it has not yet received the global recognition and acceptance it hoped its declaration of a caliphate would produce. The number of jihadist groups swearing allegiance to the Islamic State has remained quite limited to date.

Zarqawi rapes and enslaves women, executes Shi'ites and Yazidis, destroys infrastructure and rejects any suggestion that its actions might be destructive. Zarqawi is a bully in the largest sense, just as Hitler was, using his willingness to be audaciously atrocious as his favorite tool. Fear is his most effective weapon, and he preys on the ignorance of his own people to convince them that he stands for something bigger than his own power.

President Obama's decision to bomb ISIS positions over the weekend was a start, and while I sympathize with his desire to exercise restraint, this really is the first Munich since 1938. This group needs to be stopped.