Georgetown Reacts to the Ferguson Ruling

On Nov. 24, a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson for his August shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch announced the decision in a press conference around 9:20 p.m. that Wilson will not face criminal charges of any kind.

Despite urges from Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and President Barack Obama for people not to protest, Ferguson erupted with riots, invoking a police response of smoke and tear gas in an attempt to clear the protesters. In D.C., people marched from U Street to the White House. Georgetown students, who have previously travelled to Ferguson and marched in the streets, and professors, who have led conversations among the campus community about the shooting, responded on Twitter to the decision.

Professor Responses

Sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson drew national attention on Sunday for his debate with former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani about race relations and police brutality on “Meet the Press.” Dyson challenged Giuliani’s criticism of the protests about the shooting of Brown. Giuliani claimed that there was not as much focus on black-on-black crime, to which Dyson responded, “Black people who kill black people go to jail. White people who are policemen who kill black people do not go to jail.”

This prosecutor has a deeply flawed history in never bringing charges against a cop who has killed a black person. He should have recused

— Michael Eric Dyson (@MichaelEDyson) November 25, 2014

himself. The governor should have removed him and put in place a truly unbiased and just special persecutor to preside over this case. This

— Michael Eric Dyson (@MichaelEDyson) November 25, 2014

is a profound miscarriage of justice and a slap in the face of all citizens who cherish democracy. We must continue to fight this injustice.

— Michael Eric Dyson (@MichaelEDyson) November 25, 2014

Dr. Marcia Chatelain

Dr. Marcia Chatelain is an assistant professor in the department of history. She started the hashtag, #FergusonSyllabus as a way of getting people to share information, articles and resources that related to the societal issues surrounding the Ferguson protests.

And so we start again…consider teaching "The Making of Ferguson," @DissentMag, http://t.co/QGj4oVIBTt tomorrow #FergusonSyllabus

— Local D.C. park mom, 44 (@DrMChatelain) November 25, 2014

Student Responses

https://twitter.com/atd35/status/537089863364149248

https://twitter.com/YupitsTate/status/537070684996788224

https://twitter.com/adamnramadan/status/537065358600179712

Pres. @BarackObama you're breaking my heart…it is not the people responding to the injustice that are the problem, racism is the problem

— Aya M. Waller-Bey, MPhil (@Aya__Marie) November 25, 2014