Hands Up, Don't Shoot!

About This Lesson

In September 2014, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) opened two inquiries into issues related to the shooting of Michael Brown, one focused on the shooting itself and the other on police–community relations in the city of Ferguson.

 In this lesson, students review the DOJ’s findings, the complexity of the DOJ’s task, and the implications of the findings for journalists and consumers of news. Finally, students reflect on the persistent differences in understanding about the events in Ferguson and what individuals, community leaders, and journalists can do to try to bridge those gaps.

Essential Questions

• How do the Department of Justice reports about Ferguson confirm, expand, or challenge our understanding of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown?
• How can we remain open, patient, and flexible when faced with emotionally charged events and incomplete information?
• How can individuals, groups, and leaders bridge the gulfs in understanding that often emerge in the aftermath of events like Ferguson?

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to describe the results of the US Department of Justice investigation and explain how the two reports provide a larger context for understanding the information aftermath of Ferguson.
• Students will be able to analyze an excerpt from the DOJ report and draw conclusions about what it reveals about the challenges journalists and news consumers face today.
• Students will be able to reflect on what we can do to bridge the gaps in understanding about the events in Ferguson—and similar events—and their significance.

Activities

Activity 1: Introduce the DOJ Reports

On March 4, 2015, almost seven months after the death of Michael Brown, the US Department of Justice issued two reports. In the first, federal investigators declined to charge officer Darren Wilson with a federal crime in the shooting of Michael Brown. The second detailed significant evidence of a pattern of discrimination by the Ferguson police force and courts.

First, ask how many students know about the DOJ report and what conclusions were reached.

Then listen to the NPR radio conversation on the findings. You may also want to distribute the transcript to students so they can take notes while listening, underlining words or phrases that stand out to them.

Ask students to summarize what they heard and then take several minutes to reflect on the radio piece in their journals. Did they hear anything that surprised them or any new information? What questions did the conversation raise for them? Did it change what they thought about the events in Ferguson? Why might it be difficult to reconcile the two DOJ conclusions (about the Ferguson police force in general and the actions of Officer Wilson in particular)?

Ask volunteers to share their responses. Then tell them that the DOJ report on the shooting is 86 pages long, and the report on the Ferguson police department is 105 pages long. This news piece is three minutes long. What can they conclude from that? What do they know after listening to the NPR piece? What questions do they have about the DOJ report? How could they find the answers to those questions?

You might want to share Wesley Lowery’s summary, included in the Context section, and discuss what his language implies about the difficulty of knowing what actually happened.

Activity 2: Analyze an Excerpt from the Report

A significant rallying cry and legacy of Ferguson is the phrase “Hands up, don’t shoot,” which grew out of rumors that Michael Brown had his hands up and was surrendering when he was shot. By analyzing an excerpt from the DOJ report, students will have an opportunity to experience some of the complexity of reviewing and weighing all the evidence and witness statements, and will be better positioned to consider why it is so difficult to develop a totally clear understanding of the events. In addition, Attorney General Eric Holder’s response to the findings provides an opportunity to discuss the relationship between the two DOJ reports: What is the larger context for the events in Ferguson and how might this inform both the interaction between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson and the potential for confirmation bias in responses to those events?

Using the Learn to Listen/Listen to Learn teaching strategy, have students review the excerpt of the Department of Justice Report in the Hands Up, Don’t Shoot! Handout, which includes what the DOJ concluded about the veracity of the “Hands up, don’t shoot!” claim, along with Attorney General Eric Holder’s comment about the larger context for the movement.

Debrief the process with the larger group. This excerpt is two paragraphs out of 86 pages. What did students learn about how complicated the task of sifting through all the evidence in this case was for those investigating? Did the excerpt answer any questions students had after listening to the NPR conversation? What does the excerpt reveal about the challenges faced by journalists and other consumers and creators of news and information? How did students respond to Eric Holder’s question? How does the other DOJ report inform their response?

Activity 3: Revisit Some of the Fundamental Challenges of Reporting

One of the biggest challenges for everyone—journalists and citizens alike—is the need to avoid drawing inflexible conclusions based on incomplete information. As discussed in the following video, that challenge was heightened in Ferguson because of the lack of available and verifiable information.

View and discuss the video “Looking Back at Ferguson.” Focus on these questions: What do the journalists believe were some of the biggest challenges of reporting on and drawing conclusions about the events in Ferguson? What can we do as news consumers, sharers, and creators to minimize those challenges for ourselves? Look back at what you knew or thought you knew about Ferguson, as captured in your timeline. Can you identify which items were facts, which included opinion, and which were generalizations? Did you discover anything you thought you knew that proved to be inaccurate or misleading?

Activity 4: Brainstorm Strategies to Bridge the Gap

Even in the wake of the Department of Justice report, significant disparities continued to exist between different people’s understanding of the events in Ferguson. Ask students: Given everything we have learned in this unit, why do you think this was, and still is, the case? What can individuals, community leaders, and journalists do to bridge such gaps in understanding when incidents like this happen in the future? Has focusing on these challenges changed the way you think you might respond to controversial events in the future, and if so, how?