The Late Michael Brown
The parents of Michael Brown, a Missouri teen killed by police, testified before a U.N. committee Tuesday because they want the world to know “what’s going on in Ferguson.”
Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. gave their speech to the United Nations Committee Against Torture — which also works against cruel or degrading treatment or punishment by government authorities.
“We need the world to know what’s going on in Ferguson and we need justice,” McSpadden told CNN in Geneva, Switzerland.We need answers and we need action. And we have to bring it to the U.N. so they can expose it to the rest of the world, what’s going on in small town Ferguson.”
It will be recalled that Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was shot by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. Accounts differ as to what led to the August shooting of Brown.
While their testimony to the committee took place behind closed doors, the delegation that organized their trip said the couple would read from a statement submitted by the Brown family and organizations called HandsUpUnited, the Organization for Black Struggle, and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment.
The document says Brown’s killing and force used by police officers during protests that followed the killing “represent violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
It requests that the U.N. panel recommend the immediate arrest of Officer Darren Wilson, who killed Brown, as well as an end to “racial profiling and racially-biased police harassment across the jurisdictions surrounding Ferguson.”
Ferguson authorities have repeatedly denied similar accusations in the past.
The statement also calls for recommendations that would apply to the entire United States, including that the attorney general and Department of Justice “must conduct a nationwide investigation of systematic police brutality and harassment in black and brown communities, and youth in particular. Methodology and findings of this investigation must be made publicly available.”
Michael Brown Sr. said he and his wife were offering “an outlook on what’s going on in the United States and all over the world with the police, police brutality, no justice.”
Speaking of what life has been like since the killing, he said, “It’s a situation where I’m surprised we haven’t even lost our mind yet over this. But we’re being strong. Hopefully, justice will prevail.”
The trip came as the parents, and many people throughout the United States especially in Ferguson, Missouri, are preparing for the worst case scenario regarding the results of grand jury deliberations — which will determine whether Wilson, 28, is indicted.
Meanwhile, there has been a spike in gun sales as Ferguson area braces for grand jury decision.
The trip was organized by the U.S. Human Rights Network, which is based in New York and Atlanta.
