Ask anyone on the street in Ferguson carrying a "Justice" sign what "justice" in the Michael Brown case would be. What answer do you get? Among other things, you are told that the police officer should be in jail for murder.

Listen to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and you hear exactly the same thing.

Watch BET, MSNBC, CNN, and the Big Three networks and you hear much the same, though it is under the cover of police corruption, lack of openness, racism and police brutality.

So, the answer is clear, facts don't matter, justice equals mob rule. There are two articles in TIME Magazine this week about Ferguson that caught my attention for take this topic in yet other disturbing directions. One by Kareem Abdul Jabbar and the other by Sen Rand Paul. Their half-truth approach to subjects shout for clarification. I can't make a counter to each point they made, you wouldn't read this blog, it would be to long. But I will highlight a few for a more complete thought on the subjects. First, the Kareem Abdul Jabbar article, The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race. Kareem says it is due to racism and poverty. Poverty is certainly a contributor to crime, has been forever. In the 1930s now famous criminals tried to use poverty as an excuse. It did not work then and it should not work now. Kareem misses the point, badly! Excuses and blame are not solutions. Kareem doesn't get it because his ideology gets in the way. Sadly, he is not alone in this distorted view. Coming race war? I, unfortunately agree. But, does it have to come to that? No, it does not. People like Kareem, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Eric Holder, President Obama, liberal talking heads, Democrat Congressmen and Senators, all fan the flames of injustice being rampant in America. It is not and they know it is not. They need to change there rhetoric to defuse that coming time bomb, not insight it. The barbarian hordes overthrew Rome, but was the situation in the world then better? No, what came next were the Dark Ages. Clearly a better solution was needed to the problems of the Roman Empire too. The race industry, the media and the leftist politicians go after people like Bill Cosby, who has done more for black people in this country than anyone else - period. I put him right up there with Martin Luther King. Consistently, from his breakout role in I Spy in the 1960s, through his comedy, TV shows and albums, but mostly though his 1980s sitcom. When he tried to talk honestly about race and shared responsibility for outcomes, they all went after him. Who would you rather have over your house for dinner to discuss race in this country? Bill Cosby or Eric Holder? Easy choice. Bill Cosby. The 'race industry' will say that is because Cosby is non-threatening. No, it is because Bill Cosby will be reasonable and honest. Eric Holder will be unreasonable, have an agenda and be less than genuine in his discussion based on his actions as Attorney General. Therein lies the problem in this country, on race, on poverty, on immigration, on every major issue. Honest, results oriented discussion is crowded out by the noise of the 'race industry, Democrat politicians and the radical extreme. Dr. Ben Carson has asked for a debate on race with Al Sharpton. Great idea, won't happen. Why? Because it will expose Sharpton and all like him. Do you want to create a solution with someone who is interested in a solution, or someone who is only interested in his solution, no matter the outcome (think War on Poverty)? Another easy choice. Kareem and others talk about the reaction in Ferguson being justified? Is it really? Why? Because a young, unarmed black man was shot. Why was he shot? We don't know. So the appropriate reaction would be, maybe a protest asking why he was shot? Not riots, injury, property damage, looting, and signs saying no peace, put the police officer in jail, or worse. The riot reaction is nothing but an opportunity for juvenile delinquency, to steal with relative impunity, and for those "community organizers" who come to town, to send a negative message. A counter message to truth and resolution. You have a right to protest in this country, but not to riot. Rioting will get you arrested and/or hurt for resisting arrest. And it should. Kareem supports his points with study data. Its one thing to read data, its still another to understand what that study data says. We see it all the time these days. Justifying a position based on data, which is too often doctored for support of an agenda anyway. This oversimplifies the issue by disregarding the actual source of the problem the data is highlighting. Income inequality is one of those data points that no one on the left likes to talk truthfully about, because it destroys their agenda narrative. Only use some of the data to support your narrative. Kareem falls into this trap. Class warfare? Yes, but Kareem says it is the 1% who are keeping the poor, poor. He ignores the Democrat politicians who have installed policy after policy for 50 years that keep the poor poor and who attack the rest of America if they speak up to help the poor find a way out. That is the group who is using the voting block of poor people he describes. Hand up vs hand out is constantly batted around today. We have been handing out for 50 years and in the face of 50 years of failure, all Kareem and the rest can say is give more. There is also the obligatory attack on the 1% for causing the poor, but never saying how or why. Do they actually take money from the poor? He talks about payday loans. They are terrible, but you don't have to take out that $1,900% loan. Make it known what happens and people will stay away. When people stay way, that business collapses. Unfortunately, that business is very strong. No, that is not the 1%'s fault. My family was poor and my father never went to a pay day loan store. Its called good judgement. Its called finding another way. Its called doing what is right for your family. No, the problem is not the 1%. The problem is we allow people to make bad decisions, excuse them away, and then not allow anyone to talk about it (political correctness) so that the 'meta' media narrative, like racism, can be the focus. Remember, Bill Cosby gets in trouble for this. Political correctness in this country serves to conceal the truth. Kareem talks about the Jackson State shooting in 1970 being anonymous to Kent State. What about the white boy shot by a black cop this month. Didn't hear of that one did you? Come on people, lets talk about the real facts, not the made-up facts or the partial truths that confirm our bias. The truth here supports the narrative of 'trigger happy' police. Lets look at that. Which brings me to the Rand Paul article. The Rand Paul article in TIME Magazine, We Must Demilitarize the Police, has a point, but is incomplete in his explanation. Why are the police so heavily armed? Why do our suburbs have gated communities, guards, neighborhood watch groups and video surveillance? Because crime is a legitimate fear. And the Kareem article, Coming Race War ..., certainly illustrates that fear is real. Heavily armed criminals require heavily armed police. And sometimes even military presence. Police are armed to resist rioters because they are armed and on the attack. One creates the other. With crime, come more police and weapons. More heavily armed criminals to defeat the police, more heavily armed police to defend the neighborhood. ... more armed citizens ..., and so on. You can't stop arming the police without doing something about the criminal element in the community. You want the police to show up like Andy Griffith without a gun? He would be killed in today's cities. For example, street gangs in our cities are allowed to run unmolested. Pushing drugs, addiction and criminal activity on our young people. That needs to stop immediately. The only people not harmed in Ferguson were store owners standing in front of their stores holding guns to defend their property. Both articles blame the government which is true. The federal government does not need to be in Ferguson for this. This is a state issue. But, we have the US Attorney General Eric Holder coming to town to let everyone know that "their government" is investigating. Their government is the state of Missouri. In the Ferguson case of Michael Brown the facts reside in the answers to these questions: - Michael Brown either robbed a liquor store and assaulted two people, or he did not. - He either struck the policeman when questioned, or he did not. - He was either belligerent, argumentative and violent with the police officer, or he was not. - He either came back to attack the officer, or he did not. - The police office feared for his life, or he overreacted. - The officer either used too much force to control the situation, or he did not. - There was either evidence of racially motivated actions by the police officer, or there was not. Both sides have taken a position, but we don't yet know the answers. We know that each side of the incident likes only one side of these answers. Justice tells us on which side the truth lies. We may not believe we always get the truth, but we know that we do in the vast majority of cases. And, isn't the truth what we want? Or, do we want just your view of the truth? Just your side, is mob rule. Isn't this the kind of relationship between police and residents we want in all our communities? Obviously its possible.