If I were in charge of PR for Ferguson, MO

If I were in charge of PR for Ferguson, MO. I would want nothing more than to sway general public opinion to sympathize with the police and those in authority. One of the easiest ways to do that would be to vilify the community from which Michael Brown came.

I would delay the reading of the grand jury’s verdict until prime time viewing. If I waited long enough, there would be ample time for a large crowd to gather. I’d heighten the feelings of unease in town and across the country by erecting police barricades long before there was any need for them. I’d leak the grand jury’s verdict hours before it was read in court so that people had that much more time to work themselves into a frenzy. I’d want nothing more than for the riots I’d helped the whole world anticipate to take place after dark so that the rioting protesters were lit by the flames of the fires they’d predictably started.

Because I’d know that the throngs of an enraged black populace lit by fires in the dead of night would strike fear into the people watching the news at home. That they’d look less like distraught citizens and more like wild savage animals, and that the viewers at home would think warm thoughts about the police whose job it was to protect them from the mobs.

Right or wrong. Black and white. Even the safety of the police officers manning the safety checkpoints wouldn’t matter to me as long as it made for good TV watching and kept people from questioning anything that the police might do in retaliation.

I don’t know why the reading of the verdict was delayed until such a politically and news broadcast convenient time, but if I were a PR guru I might. Then again, I could be wrong. I might just be cynical about the whole blasted affair.