Ferguson: Final Thoughts

          Throughout the process of researching and writing these posts, I discovered a few trends. First – news outlets can’t agree on the number of people connected to the Uprising to have died in so-called suspicious circumstances. Even while researching the death of Bassem Masri, outlets claimed he was only the fourth person involved with the Uprising to die. Criteria for who was “close to the Uprising” seem to be vague at best in most news outlets –  making it impossible to come up with a concrete list of these so-called suspicious deaths.
          Of course, this isn’t to say that all of the deaths were not suspicious. In fact, the second trend was the disturbing amount of men found shot in cars that were then set on fire. That stands out to me as a very specific MO – and yet, there is little public knowledge available to suggest that these deaths were or are being investigated as connected.
          The final trend I saw while researching is the obvious grappling for meaning with rampant senseless loss of life. Regardless of whether there is some sort of conspiracy targeting activists in the Ferguson area, there is still a tremendous amount of loss. With loss comes trauma. And this community was already traumatized before the Uprising began. The Uprising itself traumatized it further, and now it is forced to deal with the sudden and tragic loss of more of its members. As a continually underserved population, members of this community likely would have trouble accessing reliable and consistent support services.
          So I suppose the bottom line here is much the same as it usually is here at the Morbid Library. Is there a conspiracy going on? I can’t say no. But are there larger problems with the societal infrastructure that may have led to (or at least contributed to) these deaths? Absolutely.