FERGUSON, Missouri -- Five years ago this week, the national and international mass media descended upon Flyover Country to flood the airwaves and printing presses with a “narrative” about this suburban community not far from downtown St. Louis. Social unrest had erupted when a young black man, Michael Brown, was shot to death during a struggle with a white police officer.
Disruptive demonstrators – most of them recruited from out of town – rioters, arsonists, and looters brought a halt to business in Ferguson for weeks. The town was presented by the world media as a hellhole of dire poverty, urban decay, drive-by shooting deaths, and despair. Some parts of the St. Louis area deserve this awful description, but not Ferguson.
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