Lesley McSpadden and Louis Head, the mother and stepfather of Michael Brown, on Aug. 9.

Six bullets. Michael Brown, an unarmed young man, was shot six times by a police officer named Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. Brown, 18, was Black. Wilson is White, as is the overwhelming majority of the police force in the town that is mostly African American. Tensions boiled after the homicide. 

The community tried to protest, but police put on threatening military gear, shot tear gas at the mourning crowds and started an arrest campaign that did not even spare reporters sitting in a fast food restuarant. The chaotic scenes in Ferguson are a sign of an epidemic that is sweeping the nation; law enforcement agents often forget that they are employed by and for the people. 

Police abuse their powers and get away with it. The abuse starts with unlawful stops and a bullying attitude, and it could end with a national tragedy as it did in Ferguson.

Much like Ferguson, the police department here in Dearborn does not mirror the demographics of the city. Is it any wonder the community has had its share of problems with the police?

This year, Dearborn cops stopped and violently subdued a mentally disabled man who was riding his bike late at night. They also broke into the wrong home, subjecting an innocent family to prolonged time of horror. 

Near The Arab American News office last month, one of our writers was stopped by the police who addressed him with a sickeningly condescending attitude and searched him against his will because he allegedly resembled the suspect in a nearby larceny. Our reporter said he was made to feel like a criminal solely because of his appearance.

Many police officers treat people, especially minorities, with disrespect, as if they are guilty until proven otherwise.

But what happens when the police treats citizens like subjects, like suspects? The trust between the community and its supposed guardians disappears. The protectors become the villains and the traditional villains (the thieves and drug dealers and violent gangs) exploit the rift between the police and the people to go about their criminal business. 

However, local municipalities are only mirroring the un-American policies of the federal government. 

As an Arabic saying goes, “the big bull is responsible for crooked plowing.” The U.S. government has been spying on us en masse, putting us in terrorism databases because of our faiths and political beliefs, preventing us from flying without due process and extra judicially executing American citizens.

In 2011, teenage Colorado native Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was assassinated in a drone strike in Yemen because his father was a suspected terrorist. 

Brown and al-Awlaki are two victims of the criminal mentality of limitless government power. 

Here in Metro Detroit, we are familiar with federal agents’ harassing citizens. At the U.S.- Canadian border, Arab and Muslim Americans are humiliated daily by insensitive border patrol agents who treat them like suspects, not travelers. While crossing back into the United States, some travelers have been asked bizarre questions about their places of worship, others have been held up for hours. Unnecessary phone searches are common at the border. The agents often address travelers with a rude, commanding, demeaning tone.

The relationship between “we the people” and law enforcement is essential to the wellbeing of society in any form of government. In a democracy, the voice of the people empowers the government, whose agents must not overpower citizens. Our tax dollars should not pay the salaries of uniformed men and women (mostly men) who antagonize us, profile us and endanger us.

Every law enforcement agency across the country should take a lesson from what is happening in Ferguson and treat people with the respect and caution that the Constitution commands.