Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the fundamental reason there are riots on the streets of Ferguson is the deficiency of clear knowledge of what really happened, magnified by the lack of a fair process for the redress of grievances. That lack of redress could be effectively addressed by the Fourth Branch’s Consumer Protection Bureau, and the lack of transparency, which was the first cause of this unrest, would have been solved by the Executive Ombudsman’s office. All the lives that have been lost, the businesses destroyed and future profits erased, money spent by government to police the uprisings, repair the damage and heal broken bodies, all of it would have been avoided had we had a NUMA. So much of what is wrong with our world today would be resolved, if we only could spread the news about the potential of a Fourth Branch, and then actually succeed in enacting one. Our standard of living would increase every year regardless of the political winds.
The spark of the conflict in Ferguson is the lack of knowledge of what actually happened that night between that officer and that unarmed man. Even the fuel of anger in the air, well above the lower explosive limit, came about because of the lack of transparency magnified by a lack of redress. Everything beyond that point in time is dependent on that lack of clear knowledge. If the police shot the unarmed man, (regardless of his skin color), while the man was pliant and not aggressive, the officer who pulled the trigger must be charged with, at the least manslaughter, and potentially murder one, if the crime was premeditated and so forth. If however, as the grand Jury found, the police officer shot in self defense, there should be no charges and the officer should be reinstated with all benefits and back pay without prejudice. Anyone who disagrees with either of these two possibilities is unreasonable, their opinion is based on prejudice and not on reason, to them there is no conciliatory logic.
So the basic problem is the lack of clear, unambiguous knowledge of what really happened, that everyone can agree on. If Darren Wilson was wearing a camera that night, recording everything that went on, and the video was available for anyone to see, there would be no reason for the protests, except as a violent means of sedition. One of the basic tenants of a Fourth Branch, or NUMA, would be that everyone in government would be monitored at all times, (like the checkout girl at Walmart). Internal Affairs in police departments would be handled by the state NUMA. More specifically, the Ombudsman of the Executive’s office, would monitor the Executive branch and all it’s employees. The police would be equipped with body cameras, turned on at all times when they are on duty, to protect them and the public. National police like the FBI would be similarly equipped using the same practices. Every interaction with the public would be available immediately upon request of any person involved or at the request of the Consumer Protection Bureau of the NUMA.
If someone had a disagreeable interaction with the police, or their son or daughter was, God forbid, killed, in an interaction with the police, or any other agency of government, that grieved or even an involved person could file a complaint against that officer, department, or agency, and the complaint would be looked into by the Consumer Protection Bureau. The complaint would get sent to an adjuster who would make the initial investigation within a month. After the initial investigation, if cause was found, the case would be assigned to an investigator, otherwise the results would be posted on a government website set up for that purpose. A case that gets appointed to an investigator would be exhaustively investigated, all the findings would become public record available on a government website, free of charge. If the investigator found cause for criminal proceedings the offender would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Since the fundamental reason for the riots was a lack of clear knowledge, and a NUMA would have provided that clear knowledge, as well as a fair mechanism for redress of the grievances of family and friends, we can safely reason that if there was a NUMA in place in Missouri, this whole violent, expensive and bloody affair would have been averted. The lives that have been lost would not have been lost, the human beings wounded need not have suffered nor lost the use of limbs, the property destroyed would be available to enhance someone’s life, the businesses razed would still be providing paychecks to hard working people and the money not spent could be used to cut taxes, harden our electrical grid against solar flairs and EMP, provide incentives to entrepreneurs, or a whole host of other things to improve the lot of humanity, instead of on trying to get back some of what was lost. This is just one example of how a Fourth Branch, or NUMA, would make our lives better. How many more can you think of?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
