That was one gutsy grand jury.
After sifting through all the evidence and hearing from all the witnesses, the St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
In so doing, the grand jury upended the fake narrative peddled by those who have a stake in portraying Brown’s death as the latest chapter in an American story of white police officers hunting down innocent young black men.
And there’s no sign this grand jury did anything other than follow where all the evidence led it.
The death of any young man is tragic, and the same is true for Michael Brown. But let’s be clear about why this tragedy happened.
Brown was coming off one crime — robbing a convenience store — and was shot while assaulting a police officer. Had he not done so, he would be alive today.
It’s not just the witnesses. The forensic evidence backs Officer Wilson’s version of events, just as it contradicts the false narrative — i.e., that he was shot in the back with his hands up. Then again, plainly evidence doesn’t matter to some people.
And even if you conclude the grand jury got it wrong, setting fire to a police car or looting the shop of some innocent small-business owner is not the path to a “national conversation” on racial justice.
So we were glad to see President Obama declare “we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make.” Of course, it would have been a stronger message had his own attorney general not already taken sides by unnecessarily inserting himself in this case.
The days and nights ahead will be tense ones in Ferguson. The St. Louis grand jury did its part for the rule of law by showing it would not allow the implicit threat of mob violence to intimidate it into an unjust indictment of a man it believed innocent.
Local, state and federal authorities now have an obligation to show the same backbone.
It begins in Ferguson, by ensuring innocent and law-abiding citizens are protected from those bent on using the tragic death of Michael Brown as an excuse for more violence and more criminality.