Parents of Michael Brown at UN Torture Panel:

"We Need the World To Know What's Going on in Ferguson and We Need Justice"

November 12, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On November 11, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr.—parents of Michael Brown Jr, murdered by police in Ferguson, Missouri—testified before the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva, Switzerland. Michael Brown Sr. told the world that "Michael was my only son; his death has devastated my family and our community." And, "People have vilified him partly because of his color... they placed no value on his life."

The case presented to the UN Committee Against Torture also exposed the "climate of impunity around police abuses and sanctioning the disproportionate and excessive use of force on people exercising their right to protest". (See the entire statement to the UN here.)

Had this testimony been about Russia or China, it would have been all over the news. But since it was a damning indictment of AmeriKKKan society, it was overwhelmingly swept under the rug in the U.S. On CNN, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. were subjected to an offensive interview by Ashleigh Banfield, who referred to reality of the police murder of Michael Brown, Jr. as "your perception," and claimed that in this case of police murder, "justice is a nebulous thing."

Throughout the interview, Michael Brown's parents repeatedly brought things back down to reality. Lesley McSpadden told CNN "One thing's for sure, [Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson] shot our son. He killed him." She said, "We need the world to know what's going on in Ferguson and we need justice." And she insisted, "This is something that has been happening for years."

Michael Brown Sr. told CNN that Darren Wilson "was playing the part of a judge, a prosecutor, and an executor that day, that moment, he interacted with our son. He had no right to address the law the way that he did." He said they were at the UN "trying to get the eye opener of attention to the situation going on in St. Louis and all over America." And that this case is about "What's going on in the United States and all over the world with the police, police brutality, no justice."

When asked if he would take to the streets if there was no indictment, he said, "Because the fight would not be over ... we understand that our son is gone. But the movement will be that we're trying to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. That no one else has to feel how we feel."     

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