Ferguson grand jury.

[hrdlr110]

I have not spent the time to read the grand jury report, but if the forensics and the science backs the officer, what does that say about the "eye-witnesses" who lied about what they saw? What does it mean when a community will invent their own facts to support a person simply because they are the same color against another. Do you think if the officer was black this would have happened? I have never supported the argument that racism is dead, it is not. It is perfectly acceptable to point out to the world that white people are still racist, it is however, rather stunted to make a claim that the man is keeping you down by burning the establishments of your neighbors who share the same skin tint.

This exactly! It just speaks to their laziness/stupidity that they wouldn't go trash the neighborhood where mr Wilson the cop lives. (Kidding of course) Why heap the bad on your own community? Shop owners that most likely feel the same injustice about the grand jury decision, now have been further victimized by their thoughtless thug criminal neighbors.

[Mermaid]

If youre going to assault a police officer and try to take his weapon... then I cant see how its all that outrageous if you end up dead as a result.

If you want to rally under a banner of perceived injustice, this is piss poor choice if you ask me.

Its true that in the states blacks are often singled out by law enforcement, and it is ridiculous; but I cant see how this helps with any of that, or anything else for that matter.

I am talking about the unbelievably racist comments on all of the news stories about this (and in my own Facebook feed), and the invariably dismissive attitude toward the larger problem, mostly by white American men. There's no problem! They are just being the animals they are, and have you seen the prison statistics and the unmarried birthrate and what races are doing the looting and blah blah blah.

I am actually kind of on the fence about Ferguson itself. I think the law is difficult to enforce, and requires judgment. His word against Brown's was what it boiled down to. But this uprising is not about Ferguson in essence. It is about a much larger problem and this happens to be a possibly inappropriate pressure relief valve.

[Mermaid]

This exactly! It just speaks to their laziness/stupidity that they wouldn't go trash the neighborhood where mr Wilson the cop lives. (Kidding of course) Why heap the bad on your own community? Shop owners that most likely feel the same injustice about the grand jury decision, now have been further victimized by their thoughtless thug criminal neighbors.

Redirected aggression.

I read that the NY Times actually published Wilson's address. I am not exactly proud to be American today, nor even a member of the human race.

[FaithIsFilth]

I think we can finally throw out the myth that racism is dead in post-Obama America.

Racism will never die, nor should we expect it to. Do we expect assholes to die out too, and for there to never be another asshole? If you or anyone ever expected racism to come close to dying, that was silly.

I see you only mentioned white racists. I think you're forgetting that blacks are probably the most racist of them all. People of all colours are racist. Let's not ignore that.

Now, we can blame the white man for all the black mans racism, but that's not much different than blaming the black man committing a higher rate of crime for the white man's racism. Neither are good reasons to hate an entire group of people. Blacks are told by their parents that they will never make it in this world because the white man is going to hold them down. If you're raising your child with a victim's mentality, then that's what they will remain. A victim. They'll give up because they've already been told they don't have a chance. And if they do well in school, they won't want to try anymore after their black friends are calling them Uncle Toms and telling them that they're "acting too white" by doing well in school and speaking proper English. Blacks trying to do right are torn down by their own community.

Doing thug shit like looting and burning down the town is only going to make the police look at you harder in the future. These idiots are only making it harder on themselves and the next generation. Doing thug shit is not going to make the police profile you less in the future. We saw Mike Brown's stepfather yelling "Burn this bitch down". The man in Mike Brown's life that was supposed to set an example for him as a man is a dumbass thug himself.

I don't know how to fix things. I want less people in jail, black and white. End the stupid war on drugs for starters.

[SGOS]

I read that the NY Times actually published Wilson's address. I am not exactly proud to be American today, nor even a member of the human race.

That's pretty crappy.  I read another article saying he had grown a beard to changes his looks.  So much for growing a beard to change your looks.  Of course the media would benefit greatly if he were murdered.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Aitm, I hope you're not suggesting police and prosecutors never invent their own facts or that grand juries are always right. This case was so fucked up with a prosecutor siding with police from day one making the suspect into the victim.

[aitm]

Aitm, I hope you're not suggesting police and prosecutors never invent their own facts or that grand juries are always right. This case was so fucked up with a prosecutor siding with police from day one making the suspect into the victim.

as opposed to the media telling us this was just an unarmed kid who playfully snatched a handful of cheap cigars, instead of a man who assaulted a store owner and was a thief?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

as opposed to the media telling us this was just an unarmed kid who playfully snatched a handful of cheap cigars, instead of a man who assaulted a store owner and was a thief?

So pretty much you've sided with one version of media and dismissed the other side and now Brown's death was fully justified because what? Fox news said so? Interesting..

[Mermaid]

I see you only mentioned white racists. I think you're forgetting that blacks are probably the most racist of them all. People of all colours are racist. Let's not ignore that.

Um. No I didn't. Also, your assertion that "blacks are probably the most racist of them all" is....

Well. Really pretty gross. And a pretty good demonstration of the fundamental problem.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

As for why riots take place, it's not merely criminal behavior with no purpose.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hidden-motives/201108/understanding-why-people-riot 

We hear it all the time about riots: "hooliganism" or, as David Cameron put it last week, "criminality, pure and simple." But riots are complex events, hard to reduce to something as simple as that.

It's no surprise that established authorities, feeling attacked, see the violent behavior of their citizens in such terms. They react by becoming dismissive and punitive. The Chinese government used the same language to characterize student protests in Tiananmen Square, as did Arab leaders recently to describe rebellions in their countries.

And often there is an element of truth in such descriptions. If you have ever been in mob that was agitated about some injustice, you know how contagious it can be. Ordinary people, normal citizens, you and me - we get swept up and do things that would be unlikely under other circumstances: shouting, shoving, throwing rocks, smashing windows, and, yes, even looting.

It usually takes an incident to get a riot started, such as an accident or the police attacking or killing an innocent bystander. But once it has begun, the raging mob has a life of its own. Deep-seated resentments, repetitive frustrations and long standing disappointments galvanize people into action. And the mob provides cover, an anonymity that makes it easier to overcome one's usual reticence or moral scruples. One is immersed, engulfed. And it can become an exuberant experience, a joyful release for long suppressed emotions. It can also become manic, driven, a means of restlessly seeking new outlets. Leadership emerges spontaneously and changes rapidly. It offers a kind of intense belonging, not dissimilar to what spectators feel at a sports event or fans at a rock concert. But because it isn't focused on a game or performance, it easily gets out of hand. Freud described such "mass psychology" in 1924, in the tumultuous aftermath of World War One. Others have studied it since as a recurrent form of group behavior.

This is not to justify the behavior of the mob, but to recognize that we all can so easily become "hooligans" ourselves. To be sure, delinquents and petty thieves can easily join in under the cover the mob provides. But riots do not rely on criminals or "criminality, pure and simple."

Thinking that way, though, can distract us from the underlying conditions that give rise to such events. They can be appeals to be heard, when normal channels don't work. They can be eruptions of rage, when frustrations boil over. They can be expressions of hope that things could change. And they could be all these things - and more.

Newsweek reminded us last week of something about the recent riots that many politicians would prefer not to think: "If there's one underlying condition that these movements share, it has to do with unemployment and bitter poverty among people who desire to be part of the middle class, and who are keenly aware of the sharp inequality between themselves and their country's wealthy elite."

Distracted by the flames and the looting, we can easily forget that these are, as Newsweek put it: "social revolutions with a small ‘r,' protests against social conditions that have become unbearable.

[Solitary]

Prosecutors that side with a group that protects and serves us like they did OJ, rather than punks that throw rocks at an innocent reporter hitting her in the head, looting and burning down their neighbors stores like the world owes them a living---how dare them! Let's leave out the race card and look at what happen before and after. Police officer in car gets punched in the face multiple times, tells punk to stop when walking away, disobeys, calling cop names, then gets shot fatally, so all his friends decide to loot stores, break windows, and torch their neighbors stores in retaliation. He was looking for trouble and found it-----cop: "did he have a gun? They usually do in this part of town."

Come on APA, I know there are bad cops, but that kid was asking for it whether he was black, white, or brown. And what all his friends did after show what he was like too. I've had my share of run ins with bad police, and spent two weeks in jail, and a $300 fine, in Georgia when a friend was driving a car one mile an hour over the speed limit in a 40 MPH zone on a long straight road in the middle of no where. I fucking hated cops after that, but I didn't go looking for a fight with them, and expect them to not shoot me if I punched them in the face.     

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Um. No I didn't. Also, your assertion that "blacks are probably the most racist of them all" is....

Well. Really pretty gross. And a pretty good demonstration of the fundamental problem.

Funny... Back when I used a lot of drugs, hung out in dope houses and so on on the "wrong side" of town I was never once assaulted by anyone black, but after I quit using and back in my nice cozy white neighborhood I had my face kicked in for giving a white guy a quarter.. Funny how that worked, huh?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Prosecutors that side with a group that protects and serves us like they did OJ, rather than punks that throw rocks at an innocent reporter hitting her in the head, looting and burning down their neighbors stores like the world owes them a living---how dare them! Let's leave out the race card and look at what happen before and after. Police officer in car gets punched in the face multiple times, tells punk to stop when walking away, disobeys, calling cop names, then gets shot fatally, so all his friends decide to loot stores, break windows, and torch their neighbors stores in retaliation. He was looking for trouble and found it-----cop: "did he have a gun? They usually do in this part of town."

Come on APA, I know there are bad cops, but that kid was asking for it whether he was black, white, or brown. And what all his friends did after show what he was like too. I've had my share of run ins with bad police, and spent two weeks in jail, and a $300 fine, in Georgia when a friend was driving a car one mile an hour over the speed limit in a 40 MPH zone on a long straight road in the middle of no where. I fucking hated cops after that, but I didn't go looking for a fight with them, and expect them to not shoot me if I punched them in the face.     

If that's the story you're buying it all makes sense. I'm not buying the same story as the narrative is being told. I've been around enough cops and prosecutors to know not to believe their word for much of anything. I was caught up and arrested in a drug sweep years ago when EVERYONE outside was arrested just for being outside, about 40 people with nobody I knew there having anything to do with any drugs..

[Solitary]

SmOff You cheap bastard you should have given him a dollar at least---was he black that kicked you in the face, or a nice civil honkey? SmOn Sorry that happened to you! People are all the same, some good, some bad, and some desperate enough to say fuck societies rules. Been there done that. We as humans are a sorry bunch, and at times the animal comes out in us. 

[aitm]

So pretty much you've sided with one version of media and dismissed the other side and now Brown's death was fully justified because what? Fox news said so? Interesting..

Not at all, I saw the store video of a large man threaten a little one, steal from him and push him aside. Fuck him..get that? FUCK HIM! I don't give a fuck who shot the fuck. He is a fucking thief and a fucking bully. FUCK HIM. I'd shoot the fucker myself, I am tired of these kinds of fucks in this world. Feel bad for the fuck? Go right ahead. I feel bad for the clerk who was smacked aside and is probably still being threatened.

I don't watch Fox.