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Responding to continuing demonstrations in the wake of the unlawful shooting and killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson urged protesters to take a couple hours to re-watch “Remember The Titans” and think about all that football team had to overcome.
“It’s not going to be easy for us to get back to normal,” said Jackson, speaking of the town that has met peaceful demonstrators with tear gas and assault rifles. “But it wasn’t easy for those students at T.C. Williams either. They had to acknowledge their differences and come together as a team, just as we have to come together as a town to get over this terrible, but obviously isolated accident.”
Jackson added that if it helped, protesters could think of him as a modern day Coach Herman Boone, a role played by Denzel Washington in the film, leading a team of white and black citizens to the victory that is racial harmony.
“Just as Boone reached a hand out to Bill Yoast and the white players on the team, I too am reaching across racial lines to ask protesters to revisit the movie and see if that doesn’t help them come around,” added Jackson. “Remember that scene at Gettysburg? That’s some powerful stuff.”
Jackson reminded protesters that the Titans went on to win the championship, which was impressive and inspiring considering some of the team was black and some of it was white, and if that didn’t prove that Ferguson could figure this whole thing out he didn’t know what could.
At press time, Mayor James Knowles was mentioning that “The Blind Side” is another good one.
