ForumsWEPRFerguson, Missouri protests

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soldier7
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soldier7
148 posts
Nomad

Thoughts?

In my opinion, its basically the beginning of a police state. With all the police militarisation that has been going on I feel that people should protect themselves from their own governments more and more. Since I am in the UK and Guns have been banned the fact sickens me. I'll probably buy one off the black market in the near future if I feel I must.

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Jagatai_Khan
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Jagatai_Khan
312 posts
Nomad

He has at least once committed theft and criminal battery and, according to news reports, he also "dabbled" in drugs and alcohol and made several rap songs with "vulgar lyrics." I believe he has a rap sheet as well.

Isn't it ironic that Brown is the perfect example of the black stereotype


http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/3AzfIhs2-zo/hqdefault.jpg
nichodemus
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nichodemus
14,991 posts
Grand Duke

The protest has just erupted into a furious ball of blatant ignorance, hysterical doom-saying, and self righteous reverse racism of whites. Just gets irritating.

pangtongshu
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pangtongshu
9,808 posts
Jester

Protesters threatened to shut down I-70 (major highway in St. Louis County) today

aknerd
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aknerd
1,416 posts
Peasant

I'll start with a disclaimer: I spend a lot of time driving so I get all my news from NPR, with all the biases that entails. I will not cite any sources here because I don't care enough to look up the web articles that correspond to the various programs I've listened too, especially considering I listened to them across many states. End disclaimer.

There are a few things being said here that I do not agree with. First, it was brought up that Michael Brown committed a theft before being shot. The only relevance of this fact (and this was rightly brought up) is that it could provide motive for Brown to attack the police officer if he (Brown) thought that the officer was going to arrest him. But other people seem to be stating that Brown was a bad person. Why does that matter? The police cannot dispense justice. This is not Judge Dredd or Dicksonian London where the cops can just kill thieves. If Brown was an absolutely terrible person, if he was running a child slavery ring (for example), it still is not okay for a cop to just shoot a person. There has to be some sort of serious threat. Witnesses say that that was not the case in this shooting, but the investigation is ongoing.

I ask a question: do you guys think that racial aggression actually exists within the police force in the U.S. on a scale that would be noticeable to minorities? I think that it does. You look at the area of the shooting, and you see that the police force is almost entirely white even though a large part of the population is black. You see a far greater proportion of black people are pulled over at traffic checks and yet a far greater proportion of white people are actually charged with committing a crime. You see that when cops are made to wear cameras while on duty that charges of police aggression drop by something like 95 percent. When you take all of this together it seems like the most reasonable conclusion is that the police are unfairly targeting black people.

This doesn't mean that Brown's death was a murder.

It does, however, make the protester's haste seem more reasonable. If I had lived under these conditions it would be much easier to believe that the police officer had just up and shot Brown. And why wait for the system to work out what has actually happened when you have no trust in the system in the first place?

I think that protests like this happen because there is actual, justifiable mistrust of the police system by a large part of the population. I think that it is wrong to blame something like this on white guilt or reverse racism.

pangtongshu
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pangtongshu
9,808 posts
Jester

But other people seem to be stating that Brown was a bad person


I believe references to this were in response to the media trying to create the "Gentle Giant" image of Michael Brown to further his martyr status. You are right, however, that it is not a justification for his death.

Witnesses say that that was not the case in this shooting,


Witnesses being truthful have already shown to be suspect, however

It does, however, make the protester's haste seem more reasonable


My distaste about this ordeal comes from the fact that these riots and protests were a response to nothing more than a lie (i.e. the statements by Michael Brown's friend that started the whole ordeal), as well as the fact that this all started with most of the &quotrotesters" making such statements like "**** the police" and "the only good cop is a dead one".

I don't think the idea behind the protests is a bad one, but that the original reaction and the pedestal they are using for it aren't quite good.
NoNameC68
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NoNameC68
5,043 posts
Shepherd

Some idiots got themselves arrested trying to block Interstate-70. I love how these protesters are, in a sense, trying to hold innocent commuters hostage as a means of getting what they want. Justice? Hardly.

There's a lot of focus on the fact that most of the officers in Furgeson are white, despite Furgeson being a mostly black community. I have to wonder how many of those officers actually live in Furgeson, because Furgeson is a ghetto.

SSTG
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SSTG
13,055 posts
Treasurer

Their message was sent and received.
Now they're losing the little respect they got from the public.
It's actually very annoying and they will lose many businessmen in the city.
Later they will whine about the lack of stores in their town!

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