Ferguson V

On Wednesday night there was another example of illogic.  My husband and I had retired early to be cozy and watch an Agatha Christie mystery on PBS.  Our bedroom is at the back of the house and I heard something similar to a dumpster lid slamming in the alley.  Normally, I would not think twice about the "thump" but this week has not been so normal, so I peeked out between the blind slats.  There were two figures ascending the steps from the gangway between the school next door and our house. Then they hesitated in front of a crumbling ash pit bordering one of the houses that face the street behind us. By then my husband and I were pretty interested in what the two teenage sized figures were doing. After a few moments they returned to the gangway and there was more noise. Considering the vandalism of Monday night in our area, I called 911 to report the suspicious behavior while my husband dressed and went downstairs and out the door to check on the situation. When I hung up the phone, I opened the window and asked my husband, who was by then in the alley, for the prognosis. The teenagers, our impression of their age, were running up the alley after having broken a large, plate glass window next to the school entrance with a loose brick from the ash pit. So I again called 911 with the more urgent information about the attempted break-in. The criminal mischief makers escaped. The police came. I could not reach the principal on his cell phone, but I am guessing there was an alarm sounding at some remote location. Within the hour, a couple of men boarded up the window. The rest of the night was peaceful, although getting to sleep was difficult.
The illogic is that there was no accompanying protest that evening. The building is a school, a non-offensive establishment. And the particular school is a public charter school which serves a population that is 90+% African American. The next day my daughter reminded me that anger does not necessarily pair itself with logic. I know that.  I also understand that the two people who broke the window may have had nothing to do with the core of the protests, that they threw the brick on a lark. But the breakage becomes part of the larger narrative being read by people who do not know or understand these particular details. I am beginning to recognize how easy it is for a narrative to get away from its purveyors.