Michael Brown's death and Cliven Bundy's life

As I write this, mourners are lining up at a church in St. Louis to pay their respects to Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was shot to death during a confrontation with police in Ferguson, Missouri.

The details of his encounter with the officer who shot him are in dispute and under investigation by both local officials and the U.S. Department of Justice. What we do know is that Brown was unarmed and, according to preliminary autopsy reports, shot at least six times.

Justice is called for but may never be served. The facts may never be clear, and the circumstances may not fit easily into the definitive lines of criminal and civil law. In any case, justice, if served at all, will take time.

The aftermath has been a series of demonstrations and protests, confrontations with heavily armed police and a national debate over whether the killing of yet another unarmed black person by police deserves a national dialogue at all.

Within the conservative collective of commentators, there's a strong sentiment that there's just too much media attention and liberal weeping over police enforcing the law. It's race baiting, they say.

Others find it indicative of race relations in this country that so many are more concerned over the looting than the shooting and place responsibility on the victim and the protesters rather than the police.

There clearly is a racial divide when it comes to perceptions about what happened in Missouri and its racial implications.

A New York Times/CBS poll found that 25 percent of Americans felt the shooting of Michael Brown was "not justified" and that 64 percent felt they didn't know enough to say. But it also found that more than half of black Americans think the shooting was "not justified," while only 18 percent of white Americans think it wasn't.

A Pew Research Center poll found that just 37 percent of white respondents say the case raises important racial issues compared with 80 percent of black respondents. Similarly, 47 percent of whites say race is getting more attention than it deserves compared with 80 percent of blacks.

Not being black I'm not able to speak for that community or to articulate all the reasons for black America's strong visceral reaction when an unarmed black person is gunned down in a confrontation with police.

But I can go back to earlier this year when Cliven Bundy and a bunch of self-proclaimed militia members confronted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as it tried to enforce court orders related to his willful trespass on public lands.

No suspicious behavior here. Bundy was clearly violating the law. He owed $1 million in penalties and fees built up over 20 years of defying court orders. He said he abides by "almost no federal laws" and when the BLM tried to enforce those orders by corralling his trespassing cattle the militia members brought their guns to Nevada.

They camped with handguns on their hips and heavier military weaponry at hand. They created an armed presence and talked war. They were ready for it, looking for a fight with the heavy weapons to fight it.

One news photo clearly showed a militiaman perched in a sniper pose, pointing his rifle down at law enforcement officers. Here we have people openly violating the law, armed and with attitude, aiming guns at law enforcement personnel.

What happened? The government decided to find another time and another way because the situation was too volatile. They wanted to relieve "escalating tensions."

No one was shot. Nobody armed and pointing a gun at federal agents was arrested or punished.

Fox News covered it as if Bundy were an honest, hardworking American being unfairly treated. Some politicians and commentators put Bundy and his militia flank in the "patriots" category. Even if they couldn't support Bundy, many kept the onus on the government for its "bullying" and "overreach."

Yes, I know, the circumstances of Bundy's showdown with federal agents and Brown's struggle with a local policeman aren't exactly the same. But the contrast is too hard to ignore, especially when trying to explain why an unarmed black teenager shot by a policeman just might justify more dialogue on race.

Ron Eachus of Salem is a former legislator and a former chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission. His column appears on Tuesdays. Send email to re4869@comcast.net.

Other views

Sunday: Our Statesman Journal editorial examined how the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, related to Oregon. Read it in the Aug. 24 print edition or online at StatesmanJournal.com/Opinion or stjr.nl/1twBQLK.

Today: Go to StatesmanJournal.com/Opinion, or tinyurl.com/pgruauw, to view a gallery of 60 political cartoons from around the world about Ferguson.

Wednesday: Local columnist Dan Lucas gives his view, in print and online at StatesmanJournal.com/Opinion.