What Happened in Ferguson

Lately, it seems that all that's it the news is what happened in Ferguson- who's right, who's wrong, and now, what to do to change the law enforcement system in America today. A black teenager, Mike Brown, was shot and killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, who was not indicted. Should Officer Wilson have been indicted? I don't feel it's my place to voice my opinion; I simply don't know enough about what happened. However, I do realize that something needs to be done about the law enforcement system in our country.

In the above image, the number of civilians shot and killed by police officers is shown. Alarming, right? 404 civilians in the United States, as opposed to 6 in Australia, 6 in Germany, and 2 in England and Whales. Why do American police officers kill so many more people than other nations? (image and statistics from Business Insider.)

Ladd Everitt from the Washington-based advocacy organization, calls the issue of police violence in America "a product of the continuing arms race between law enforcement and civilians that has been going on for decades." He goes on to discuss why this number is so high in the U.S.: the accessibility of powerful firearms to the general public in our country is alarming, and constantly growing. Police have "legitimate fears" for their lives, as they face civilians with weapons as powerful as their own on a daily basis. The number of police shootings will inevitably continue to increase if nothing is done. How do we, as Americans, change the system that created this problem? How will we decrease the violence that is constantly becoming more of a threat to our country's wellbeing?