For millions of people, the last several months have provided all the evidence anyone could want to indict the whole system of racism and inequality that caused Mike Brown’s death, along with hundreds of Black and Brown people across the U.S. killed by police and state-supported vigilantes every year. But the mainstream media focused on burning stores and overturned police cars. It was a lesson in the diversionary tactics of the media: Ignore the decades-long economic destruction of Ferguson. Ignore the shredding of civil liberties by militarized law enforcement. Ignore the statistics that show there are more Mike Browns being killed by police every single day. Point the cameras at the fires. […] All the while, atrocious crimes in Ferguson that may be part of a racist backlash are being ignored. This includes an arson that burned down the church where Mike Brown’s father was recently baptized. Then there’s the reported murder of 20-year-old DeAndre Joshua, whose burned remains were found in his car the day after the grand jury decision. As police towed his car from the scene, Joshua’s grandmother Renita Towns said, “Police don’t care–he’s Black.” Perhaps the most grotesque example of racist hypocrisy, however, came after a video surfaced of Mike Brown’s mother and stepfather reacting to the announcement of the grand jury’s decision not to indict. In that moment of anguish at the failure of the system to bring any justice. Brown’s stepfather Louis Head exclaimed, “Burn this bitch down.” That was all Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder needed to demand that Head “should be arrested and charged with inciting to riot.” More here.