Looking at Vietnam from Ferguson shooting death of Michael Brown NYPD officers detain a protester during a march in support of the protests against the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in Manhattan, New York August 20, 2014. Reuters Editor’s Note: Scott Duke Harris is a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News. He filed this article exclusively to Tuoi Tre News from the U.S. A recent Internet report featured this click-bait headline: Just 11 Countries Around the World Are Free From Conflict Congratulations, Vietnam! You made the list! Right there with Switzerland, Japan, and a few others. So says the Institute for Economics and Peace, whatever that is. (Maybe the research was done before China parked that exploration rig near the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands, sparking deadly factory riots.) So Vietnam may not be utterly “free from conflict,” but the country that suffered so much violence in the 20th century now seems like an oasis with so much of the world in turmoil – from the extremes of Iraq, Gaza, and Ukraine to the American town of Ferguson, Missouri. As an American, my attention turns to Ferguson. Much of the world, it seems, is now shocked by the latest headline-making racial conflict in the U.S., which was triggered by the itchy trigger finger of a police officer who shot an unarmed African American 18-year-old named Michael Brown. Shooting him six times, in fact, making Brown the third unarmed African American to have been killed by U.S. police in recent days. (One was shot while holding a toy rifle in a Walmart; another expired after a “chokehold” meant to cause unconsciousness.) An acronym-loving friend who had extensive LEO (law enforcement officer) training said cops might have classified Brown as DRT (dead right there). Why is it that the U.S., having elected an African American as president in 2008, still has so much trouble with race relations? For an answer, I fall back on that old saying about how the more things change, the more they stay the same. President Obama represents a milestone of progress – yet young black men in America are much more likely to wind up behind bars than earn a college degree. Episodes such as the strife in Ferguson and the 2012 slaying of unarmed, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a “neighborhood watch” volunteer reflect the long, deep history of racial inequity in American life. Consider: About two-thirds of Ferguson’s residents are black, but among the city’s 53 police officers, only three are African American. (The white mayor, of course, expressed shock that there could be some racial trouble in his fair city.) Some commentators have been quick to label the killing of Brown an “execution,” saying that he was killed for jaywalking, but that rhetoric goes too far. Instead of describing in depth the various accounts of what, precisely, happened in Ferguson, allow me to offer my quick take. Brown, who stood 6 foot, 4 inches tall and weighed about 300 pounds, was walking down the middle of the street with a friend when a police officer told them to move to the sidewalk. After a brief physical confrontation, the officer panicked, shooting Brown six times. Again, that’s my impression. Justified? Not to me, but American juries have a habit of siding with the police even when plenty of evidence points in another direction. Cops often get the benefit of the doubt. On April 29, 1992, I was in the main newsroom of the Los Angeles Times, gathered with some peers watching the live TV feed of a jury in a neighboring city pass a judgment on four LAPD officers who were videotaped beating a black motorist named Rodney King the previous year. As the first “not guilty” verdict was read, our crack legal affairs reporter said, “Oh my God.” The cops got off, and the verdict was absolutely shocking. Within hours, the outrage in the African American community gave rise to fiery rioting across a wide swath of the city, prompting King to plaintively ask, “Can we just get along?” According to Wikipedia, 53 persons were killed and 2,000 injured, making it the deadliest U.S. riot of the century. “No justice, no peace” is the mantra of many protests in the U.S.  There are good protestors who follow the non-violent principles of Martin Luther King, and not so good ones. The good ones have illustrated the community’s anguish by holding up their hands as if in surrender and saying, “Don’t shoot!” It’s powerful political theater. Unfortunately, there are also those doing damage, looting businesses, and causing other troubles. There are also sensible police, and not so sensible – and Ferguson’s brass did practically nothing right, angering the community with a slow, selective release of their investigation. When protests commenced, cops made matters worse by responding with military-grade equipment and riot gear to face off with protestors; using tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and smoke bombs; and threatening people by pointing their semi-automatic weapons. Many Americans, both liberal and conservative, were outraged by the over-the-top show of force, some likening it to the “shock and awe” attack on Baghdad. The tactics, many say, did not quell violence from protestors, but incited it. The cops also bullied and arrested several journalists. It took a few days, but authorities got the message. The local police were replaced by state troopers, with an African American captain in charge. The upstanding folks of Ferguson took to the streets to urge peace and calm the younger, angrier troublemakers – including some of proverbial “outside agitators” who traveled to Ferguson to join the protests, sometimes bringing along their firearms. Guns, you may have heard, are as American as apple pie, except that guns are more common. If the American police seem trigger-happy, one reason may be that they take care to presume the “perp” (perpetrator) may be armed. Cops in more civilized places, including Vietnam, don’t have that problem. All considered, it’s another reason for this expat to be glad to get back to Hanoi. Vietnam has its problems, but the odds that I or my loved ones will catch a stray bullet have decreased. Scott Duke Harris