Minorities, police shootings and false narratives

There is usually a level of truth in most narratives, but much of the time many pertinent truths are left out to accumulate support for a given view. Doug Nusbaum’s Wednesday letter to the Review-Journal about police shootings and minorities was an example of this.

Mr. Nusbaum fails to mention things that would not be supportive of the narrative he wanted portrayed. For example, for more than a year after the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, the narrative was — and is still held by many — that Brown had his “hands up” indicating, “Don’t shoot, I surrender.” But an extensive, in-depth investigation by private, local and state authorities, along with the Obama administration’s Justice Department, found this to be a totally “false” narrative. It did, however, lead to a wave of police “ambushes” carried out by perpetrators who were twisted by that narrative.

If we continue down this path of believing we belong to this group or that group above all else, instead of trying to be the clear-thinking individuals most people are capable of being, the road will be hard and long. At some point we must learn life is a “do it to yourself project” and that many of the narratives and clichés — some found in the Bible — such as “you will reap what you sow” are really true.