By Ian Kea 

Burning buildings were reduced to rubble and ash. Looters looked for their next target. Waves of angry protesters accompanied them. This all followed the announcement that a St. Louis grand jury would not indict police officer Darren Wilson in connection to the death of Michael Brown.

After the decision came late Monday, much of America was in distress. Here in Massachusetts, crowds flocked down Boylston Street and to the statehouse, while state troopers looked on. Many in the crowd chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

In this case, Wilson claimed self-defense, saying Michael Brown was an imminent threat to his life. Yet, his medical reports show little to no bruising on his body, which had made the Brown family’s lawyer call racial bias.

Coming from the Midwest myself, I believe that police forces have had problems with racial biases and tensions, especially in the African-American community.

Although hard to prove, Wilson seemed to have a background that includes racial tensions, according to reports from community members of Ferguson, and as stated in the evidence by the sole witness of the crime, Michael Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, according to CNN.

Unfortunately, proving racist intentions in a court of law is hard without video or film to supply evidence presented to the grand jury.

Our judicial system has been set up to represent facts in cases, not to act on assumptions. If we did so, our judicial system would never be fair. Although Wilson could very well come from a racist background, he cannot by any means be indicted with the current evidence presented to the grand jury in St. Louis.

If any blame is to come, it should be to the Brown family’s lawyer for thinking that public opinion would sway the result of the grand jury’s ultimate decision. The Brown family lawyer presented limited evidence.

The Brown family’s lawyer should have spent more time finding and gaining evidence to present to the grand jury in order to move on to an actual trial.

The Ferguson protesters have a right to be mad. Cases, like this one in Ferguson, in which the police get the benefit of the doubt, are common in the judicial system. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld that benefit, saying that use of deadly force is justified if officers think they must act to protect their lives or the lives of others if they believe it is necessary to stop a crime in progress.

What happened in Ferguson is unfortunate, but the riots and random acts of destruction will do no good in changing the system. Although I believe Michael Brown was fatally shot because of racial tensions, our justice system needs facts to prosecute, not assumptions. We need to work within the system peacefully to make change.