Michael Brown

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chaos
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Michael Brown

#1 Post by chaos » Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:35 am

I am sure by now you have all heard about the unarmed, black teenager who was shot and killed by a police officer in Missouri. If not, here is a brief sequence of events: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014 ... e348_10366


This is a thoughtful piece:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... death.html

The True Stereotypes Behind Michael Brown's Death
John McWhorter
8.13.14

Yes, race relations are much improved. But at the core of modern racism is cops vs. young black men. Here’s what we can do about it.

To many, the protests after the shooting murder of black teen Michael Brown in St. Louis will seem like a routine. The outrage, the Al Sharpton—and soon, we’re on to the next thing.

What too few realize is that the main reason so many people think of racism as the core of being black in modern America is the cops: the relationship between police forces and young black men, and how often the former kill the latter under suspicious circumstances.

I am the last person to jump in with overheated rhetoric that America is engaged in a “war against black men.” There is no evidence of anything so deliberate. However, when more temperately minded people say that black lives are valued less in the clinch than white ones, jump in I must, because it’s true.

A few weeks ago, white 18-year-old Steve Lohner could tote a gun around in Aurora, Colorado (where in 2012 James Holmes gunned 12 people to death and injured 70 others), practically taunting law enforcement to mess with him, in a quest to make a showy point about gun rights. Who among us can pretend that if a black kid was doing the same thing he wouldn’t be much more likely to wind up killed? Those inclined to pretend might note that meanwhile, black 22-year-old John Crawford was killed two weeks later for holding a toy gun at a Wal-Mart in Ohio.

This kind of thing sits in black American minds and creates a sense of alienation. I first started writing about race 15 years ago, perplexed that so many people seemed convinced that nothing had changed on race in America since about 1960. Having grown up in quiet neighborhoods, I didn’t get it. I quickly learned—the sticking point was, and still is, the cops.

Incidents like what happened to Michael Brown should teach three lessons.

One: Stereotyping. As most will agree, cops need to get past the idea that what’s cocky for a white kid is potentially lethal coming from a black kid. Clearly, whatever training cops are getting to avoid unnecessary profiling is not zeroing in on this kind of Implicit Association Bias, which is hardly so complicated that it couldn’t be discussed and worked against more diligently. As a linguist, I suggest one focus be speech: outsiders can read black men’s speech as confrontational at times when it isn’t intended that way.

Two: The War on Drugs. However, getting rid of biases like these is hard. I have rarely encountered such sneering, glowering disrespect, almost gleeful in its menace, from any human beings as from New York and Jersey City cops amid minor incidents, such as when the driver of a cab I was in got a ticket and I asked if I could just get out and walk the rest of my way, or when I was deemed to be following one of their traffic-directing gestures too slowly, etc.

These interactions are minor irritants for me, but leave me dreading the fate of a black teen under the power of people like this, especially if the teen deigned to mouth off a little. Let’s just keep black kids away from people like this.

And what brings cops into black neighborhoods as often as not is the War on Drugs, where they are assigned to sniff out people holding or selling said drugs. Imagine an America where the cops had no assignment to do such patrols at all: Black boys like Michael Brown could be left to mind their business. Plus, note that much of what keeps a gang going is drug sales. Imagine if there were no money to made selling them because they weren’t illegal.

This is why we should celebrate the crumbling of the War on Drugs wall with the increasing acceptance of the legalization of marijuana, now even hallowed on the pages of The New York Times. It’s just a start: Weed is only one kind of drug the cops are assigned to trawl for. But to prod the War on Drugs ever further into history is to make the death of children like Michael Brown ever less likely.

Three: Looking inward. There’s something else, harder to discuss but, like so many such things, urgent nonetheless. Deep breath: The black community cannot pretend that the stereotype of black men as violent comes out of nowhere.

Young black men commit about 50 percent of the murders in this country, 14 times more than young white men. Or, where do murder rates among young white men go up each summer the way they do among black ones in cities like Chicago? “Flash robs” happen when large groups of teens beset a store and steal from it, and I’m sorry, but these are rarely white affairs.

There are reasons for things like these. However, we are being unrealistic to expect America to watch these things and think it’s okay because the boys don’t have Dads and decent-paying low-skill jobs aren’t always easy to find. Let’s face it: If Korean boys regularly did things like this, we’d all be scared to death of them.

Be clear: Michael Brown’s murder was grievously unjustified regardless. And forget the tired canard that the black community doesn’t care about black-on-black murder, which could only be leveled by someone who doesn’t know much about black people. Stop the Violence events are a staple in black neighborhoods.

Yet, I wonder if the black community could step it up some on this. We need to devote some more energy to figuring out what we can do about The Violence, because among all else that it destroys, it feeds a perception bias that ends up killing innocents like Michael Brown.

And Michael Dunn (2013). And Trayvon Martin (2012). And Oscar Grant (2009). And Timothy Stansbury (2004). And so on.

Black people do not “get over” this.

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Re: Michael Brown

#2 Post by tvrec » Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:48 am

Absolutely horrendous. Read this morning, too, that another man, also black, was shot and killed/murdered by police in Los Angeles Monday night.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html

Where/how do we even begin to change when such a large number of people believe racism is a non-issue (or, if it is, something that primarily affects a white majority in its "reverse" forms) rather than the systemic, institutionalized one that it is?

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Re: Michael Brown

#3 Post by Essence_Smith » Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:14 pm

tvrec wrote:Where/how do we even begin to change when such a large number of people believe racism is a non-issue (or, if it is, something that primarily affects a white majority in its "reverse" forms) rather than the systemic, institutionalized one that it is?
Whether or not people believe it's an issue or not, racism is not only alive it's thriving and getting even stronger particularly in the Obama era. The saddest part is that there are very blatant signs of it everywhere you look from the way the President himself is dealt with to people like the Michael Brown's of the world on down. As you say, part of the problem is the fact that people really believe it doesn't exist anymore, and this is acute in the black communities who SHOULD be up in arms about this because its today's form of lynching when you have this going on. If you look historically speaking a black person can be killed, beaten up etc and more often than not NOTHING happens to the white perpetrators of these crimes while a black person who even appears to be committing a crime can be murdered and the police, etc get away with it. Too many cases to name, but we need to just stop bullshitting ourselves and admit that there are still a LOT of racist people out there and we need to talk about it. I think it could start in the schools. Race relations should be a required part of curriculum in this country because from what I've seen America is one of, if not the most racist places on the planet. And I'm not talking about prejudice which exists everywhere, I'm talking about racism which is an institution...we have it on lock in the U.S.A.

A side note...the term "reverse" racism is BS to me...black people don't have the power to be racist...prejudice yes, racist no. There is a distinct difference...

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Re: Michael Brown

#4 Post by Essence_Smith » Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:18 pm

10 Ways that Racism Killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner

A New York City police officer put his arm around Eric Garner’s neck and choked out his life as he screamed “I can’t breathe!”

A police officer in Ferguson, MO aimed his gun at Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager and shot him multiple times while he reportedly pleaded, “I don't have a gun. Stop shooting!”

Michael Brown lay dead in the street for hours. The police treated his body like common street refuse.

While the police ended the lives of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, it was white racism that actually killed them.

American society is organized around the maintenance and protection of white privilege.

Racism is not an opinion. Racism is a fact.

The reality of the color line, how whiteness is a type of material and psychological privilege, and that people of color are disadvantaged in American society, are among the most repeated findings in all of the Social Sciences.

Critics of white supremacy and white racism work from the reasonable and informed belief—given the mountains of empirical data in support of the claim—that racism is one of the most powerful social forces in the United States. White racism deniers, and those others who have perverted the notion of “colorblindness” in order to advance and protect white supremacy as one of the United States' dominant ideologies, proceed from the opposite assumption.

Gravity is a fact. It does not need an extraordinary proof. Likewise, the fact of how racism continues to structure life chances in the post civil rights era should be a given for any fair-minded and intelligent person.

Colorblind racism and the white racial frame invert and distort reality: reasonable and sensible claims are rejected in favor of extraordinary proofs for the well documented social reality that is white racism. As such, for white racism deniers and their allies, the standards of evidence are made so absurdly high as to be virtually impossible to satisfy or meet with any degree of confidence or certitude.

Events such as the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown are a nexus where white racial resentment and white supremacy are made to confront black pain, reasonable hurt and righteous anger.

From the American lynching tree of the 19th and early 20th centuries, to the police harassment and racial profiling of the present, white racial logic deems black humanity to be a type of perpetual threat and poison in the white body politic. The black body must be controlled and terrorized in order to create a sense of safety (and community) for the white public.

Consequently, white racial paranoia twists the murder of two unarmed black people by the police into “justifiable” acts, where the victims of gross and unjust violence are somehow made responsible for their own deaths.

Colorblind racism, white racism denying, and police brutality do the work of white supremacy. They are also micro-aggressions, the goal of which is to exhaust and confuse black and brown people by invalidating their life experiences and assaulting (quite literally in the case of police violence) their personhood.

Colorblind racism, and the related claims that racism does not influence how police and the broader criminal justice system interact with black and brown people, are also assaults on empirical reality and the truth.

Justice for Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and the many hundreds and thousands of innocent black and brown people who have been killed by the police requires a clear and direct engagement with the twin facts of American racism and white supremacy.

Eric Garner and Michael Brown were killed by white racism.

What is my evidence for this claim?

1. The United States, from its founding to the present, is structured around maintaining the dominant power position of those people who are categorized as “white”.

America, as a society structured around racial inequality and hierarchy, will reflect that dynamic in its politics, culture, and social institutions. Thus, the legal system and the police will reflect America’s dominant ideologies. America is a racist society; it logically follows that its social and political institutions will channel those values.

2. In his essential book, Discipline and Punish, preeminent social theorist and philosopher Michel Foucault detailed how a society’s legal system and approach to punishment and incarceration reflect the values and norms of its elites and dominant group.

The law is a social construction. It is not a “natural” arrangement. Elites make the law in order to serve their own interests. For example, the distinction between “white collar” and other crimes are but one way that those individuals who make the law can insulate themselves from its full consequences.

The class and racial disparities in American law and punishment are not accidents or a coincident: they are how the dominant and in-group protect their own interests to the disadvantage of the Other.

3. Police in America can trace their origins to the slave patrollers and “paddy rollers” of the antebellum South. Their goal was to support and protect the Southern Slaveocracy by terrorizing black people. The violence, terror, and harassment of black and brown communities, and the violation of the civil liberties of black and brown people, are not aberrations or outliers. They are part of a long cultural habit and tradition of racist behavior by American police departments and other law enforcement agencies.

4. As Michelle Alexander and others have extensively documented, there is racial bias against black people at every level of the criminal justice system. The cumulative effect of institutional and interpersonal racism by police and other law enforcement agencies is that black people are disproportionately incarcerated, receive longer sentences for the same crimes as white people, and are subjected to supervision and harassment by the legal system throughout their lives. The United States is a two-tier racially ordered society where the color line extends to the criminal justice system.

5. A new report from the Vera Institute of Justice details how police and other elements of the criminal justice system have a remarkable amount of discretion in how they choose to punish or otherwise interact with citizens. Those agents use their discretionary powers to disproportionately and unfairly harass, arrest, and punish blacks and Latinos as compared to white people.

6. Police mirror the broader racial biases of white Americans towards African-Americans. The association between black people and criminality has been reinforced by a racially biased media, educational system, entertainment industry, and other agents of political socialization for centuries in the United States, specifically, and the West, more generally. In fact, researchers at Stanford University have recently demonstrated that white people have been so deeply taught to associate black people with crime that they continue to support racially biased sentencing even when shown that it is unfair.

7. While white people were found to be more likely to have drugs or weapons on their persons, African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately targeted for “stop and frisk” police searches in major cities such as New York. “Quality of life crimes” and “broken windows” police tactics are disproportionately used in black and brown communities. The systematic harassment of innocent black and brown people by the police creates a space for negative encounters which may end in incarceration or even police violence.

8. Communities of color, both because of race and class inequalities, suffer under aggressive and hostile police tactics. The militarization of the United States’ police departments is a national problem. This dynamic is amplified in black and brown communities, where for decades, American police departments have viewed them as territories to be “conquered” and its citizens as “enemy insurgents” or “combatants”. Because police see black and brown communities—and their residents—as threats, they are much more likely to use violence and draconian tactics against them.

9. Recent work by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a think tank and social justice research and advocacy organization, reveals how police, street vigilantes, or security guards have killed one black person every 28 hours.

A common scenario involves the police shooting and killing unarmed black people who are holding harmless objects in their hands—with the former claiming that they thought that a wallet, house keys, or even a telephone were “guns” or other “dangerous” objects.

Psychologists have conducted research which suggests that implicit racial bias influences how white people (and others) may actually “see” non-whites in a negative manner. Thus, the subconscious thinking processes of white people may actually be transforming black people into threats where none actually exist.

Other research complements this disturbing finding: researchers at the University of Chicago and elsewhere have reported that white police officers (and others) are influenced by racial bias in their decision-making processes regarding when and if to shoot (unarmed) black people. The research on implicit bias and racial attitudes indicates that white racial animus and subconscious racism influences how police interact with black people—often with deadly results.

10. As Assistant Professor Vesla Weaver of Yale University deftly argued in an excellent piece for the Boston Review, black and brown Americans who live in low income and working class communities are denied the full rights of citizenship by an expansive, punitive, and intrusive state bureaucracy and legal system. Consequently, police are much more likely to come in contact with innocent black people than they are whites who are involved in criminal behavior.

As a result, white criminals are more likely to be ignored by police; innocent black people are harassed and often arrested by the police.

Blackness is judged by the White Gaze as de facto criminality. Whiteness is judged by the White Gaze as innocent and harmless.

This racist logic creates a type of path dependency that justifies the disproportionate incarceration, harassment, and killing of black people by the police. In a perverse twist, the over-policing of innocent black people also offers protection for the white criminals who prey on the white community.

The police reportedly have a saying that, “I'd rather be judged by 12, than carried by 6”. The governing logic is simple: if in doubt, shoot and kill someone because you would rather be alive and put on trial, than be dead and in the ground. That logic is increasingly applied in an unrestrained manner by police who see the black body as a primordial and imminent threat, and consequently do not hesitate to use lethal, and very often, unjustified force against it.

The police channeled this racism to kill Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

The killing of unarmed black people by American police is a human rights issue. It should also be a concern for all people, on all sides of the color line, who care about civil liberties, rights, and freedom. Why? The terrorizing of black and brown communities is a preview of what a militarized and fully unleashed police department, enlisted in the service of the surveillance society and a culture of cruelty, can (and will) do to white Americans in the future.

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Re: Michael Brown

#5 Post by chaos » Wed Aug 13, 2014 5:25 pm

http://time.com/3105035/ferguson-faa-no-fly-zone/

FAA Implements No-Fly Zone in Ferguson Amid Unrest Over Killed Teen
Denver Nicks @DenverNicks Aug. 12, 2014


The Federal Aviation Administration issued a no-fly zone over Ferguson, Missouri, Tuesday at the request of the St. Louis County Police Department.

The St. Louis County Police Department told TIME it asked the FAA for the flight restriction after a police helicopter was fired upon “multiple times” during civil unrest Sunday. Ferguson, located just outside St. Louis, Missouri, erupted in street violence amid demonstrations sparked by the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager who was shot and killed by police on Saturday.

The FAA order restricts flights over the Ferguson area below 3,000 feet to first responders only, including medical and police helicopters. Private aircraft, including news helicopters, are prohibited from flying below 3,000 feet in a 3-mile radius around the town. The rule doesn’t apply to aircraft landing at or taking off from the nearby Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, a major commercial hub. The restriction is in place through August 18.

The order says the flight restrictions were put in place “to provide a safe environment for law enforcement activities.” The FAA would not elaborate further on the reason for the St. Louis County Police Department’s request. “If you want it, file a FOIA,” FAA Spokesperson Elizabeth Cory told TIME, in reference to a Freedom of Information Act request.

It’s not unusual for local police departments to request flight restrictions over potentially dangerous zones, and it’s typically done to clear airspace for police helicopter operations. The Ferguson restriction, however, may make it more difficult for news media to get aerial footage of the town as the Brown story continues to develop.

“If we feel that order is restored we can request ran early termination,” St. Louis County police spokesperson Bryan Schellman told TIME.

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Re: Michael Brown

#6 Post by chaos » Wed Aug 13, 2014 8:06 pm

It's getting crazy in Ferguson. Police are telling reporters to shut it down, and they are arresting reporters who are taping.

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Re: Michael Brown

#7 Post by chaos » Wed Aug 13, 2014 8:57 pm



Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery was detained by police on Wednesday while reporting on the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., August 13 at 11:18 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html

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Re: Michael Brown

#8 Post by chaos » Wed Aug 13, 2014 8:59 pm

Image
A protester takes shelter from the tear gas exploding around him on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Photo By David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com

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Re: Michael Brown

#9 Post by farrellgirl99 » Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:31 pm

I don't even know where to begin with this situation. It's overwhelming :scared:

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Re: Michael Brown

#10 Post by Essence_Smith » Thu Aug 14, 2014 6:46 am

chaos wrote:


Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery was detained by police on Wednesday while reporting on the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., August 13 at 11:18 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... story.html
This situation reminds me of the "rioting" in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn last year...of course there was a massive media blackout so it wasn't reported nationally, but it was basically the same situation...young black kid gets killed by the police, huge public outcry leading to violence, police declared "martial law" (aka a "frozen" zone?) and you heard nothing about it in the major news...

http://digiindie.wordpress.com/2013/03/ ... rtial-law/

http://www.uscop.org/the-nypd-declares- ... -brooklyn/

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Re: Michael Brown

#11 Post by SR » Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:18 am

Fuck cops.

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Re: Michael Brown

#12 Post by LJF » Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:50 am

A side note...the term "reverse" racism is BS to me...black people don't have the power to be racist...prejudice yes, racist no. There is a distinct difference...[/quote]


I'm curious to know how black people can't be racist. Or why you think black people don't have the power to be racist.

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Re: Michael Brown

#13 Post by farrellgirl99 » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:59 am

LJF wrote:A side note...the term "reverse" racism is BS to me...black people don't have the power to be racist...prejudice yes, racist no. There is a distinct difference...

I'm curious to know how black people can't be racist. Or why you think black people don't have the power to be racist.[/quote]

racism is institutionalized and stems from institutionalized power. black people do not belong to the dominant majority and therefore do not have the power to impose their prejudices and preferences on the majority culture. that is why ES says they can be prejudiced but not racist.

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Re: Michael Brown

#14 Post by chaos » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:05 pm

A chronicle of some of last nights events can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/us/pr ... share&_r=0

So much for freedom of the press:

•Both, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowry and Huffington Post Reporter Ryan J. Reilly, were taken into custody at McDonald's (it's not clear if they were "arrested" since neither were mirandized or charged with anything), and detained in a cell for several hours before being released.

•An Al Jazeera news crew was fired at with rubber bullets and gas for setting up their cameras an mile away from the protest site.The police, poised to shoot the potentially dangerous news crew, then dismantled their cameras

Statement from the President of Al Jazeera -

http://america.aljazeera.com/tools/pres ... ement.html

Image

Image

Image


•Antonio French, an Alderman in the 21st Ward of Saint Louis documenting and providing coverage of the events, was arrested and charged with unlawful assembly.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/how-a-loca ... onicler-of
Last edited by chaos on Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Michael Brown

#15 Post by chaos » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:09 pm

Image

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Re: Michael Brown

#16 Post by LJF » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:16 pm

one of the problems here is, as far as I have read, that we don't really know what happened. At this point how can we really find out the truth?

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Re: Michael Brown

#17 Post by chaos » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:18 pm

What are you saying? That we "don't really know what happened" to the reporters and alderman?

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Re: Michael Brown

#18 Post by LJF » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:26 pm

farrellgirl99 wrote:
LJF wrote:A side note...the term "reverse" racism is BS to me...black people don't have the power to be racist...prejudice yes, racist no. There is a distinct difference...

I'm curious to know how black people can't be racist. Or why you think black people don't have the power to be racist.
racism is institutionalized and stems from institutionalized power. black people do not belong to the dominant majority and therefore do not have the power to impose their prejudices and preferences on the majority culture. that is why ES says they can be prejudiced but not racist.[/quote]


When I look up racism this is the definition I see:

1 The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races..

2. Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

3. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race


So does that mean only whites can be racist?

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Re: Michael Brown

#19 Post by LJF » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:30 pm

chaos wrote:What are you saying? That we "don't really know what happened" to the reporters and alderman?

No I'm talking about the shooting of Michael Brown. Why did the cop shoot him, was there cause. As far as I've seen there hasn't been an official statement on what happened. I might be wrong on that.

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Re: Michael Brown

#20 Post by chaos » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:43 pm

Yeah, the versions given by the cop and the witness are at odds. It is strange though that the police have not interviewed the witness who was with Brown when he was shot. It also doesn't make sense that an unarmed, eighteen-year old with no record is looking to assault a cop as he is walking in the street.

Witness account: http://www.businessinsider.com/eye-witn ... ing-2014-8

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Re: Michael Brown

#21 Post by LJF » Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:53 pm

chaos wrote:Yeah, the versions given by the cop and the witness are at odds. It is strange though that the police have not interviewed the witness who was with Brown when he was shot. It also doesn't make sense that an unarmed, eighteen-year old with no record is looking to assault a cop as he is walking in the street.

Witness account: http://www.businessinsider.com/eye-witn ... ing-2014-8

I understand to some extent why the police didn't want to release some info at first, but at this point it is getting out of hand. By not releasing info it seems like there is a cover up even if there isn't. Also the problem is if both sides are giving different accounts, who do you, me and everyone else believe.

Good or bad everything that is known needs to be laid out there.

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Re: Michael Brown

#22 Post by Romeo » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:13 pm

LJF wrote:
chaos wrote:What are you saying? That we "don't really know what happened" to the reporters and alderman?

No I'm talking about the shooting of Michael Brown. Why did the cop shoot him, was there cause. As far as I've seen there hasn't been an official statement on what happened. I might be wrong on that.
Because that is obviously a poorly trained Police Officer. You do not pull your gun unless your threatened with a weapon. And no statement means there is a freaking cover up
Why did the cop choke Eric Gardner who was also unarmed? At least the NYPD stepped up, stripped the officer of his gun & badge, suspended the EMT's without pay who did not aid him as he laid there not breathing

This country can take 2 steps forward and then take 10 steps back :no:

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Re: Michael Brown

#23 Post by Romeo » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:33 pm

The Police also so not have the right to stop people from their first amendment right

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/us/fe ... .html?_r=0

Why the riot gear? Military style vehicles? Assault weapons? Why the tear gas? Why were they arresting and shooting journalists with rubber bullets?

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Re: Michael Brown

#24 Post by Essence_Smith » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:53 pm

LJF wrote:So does that mean only whites can be racist?
Not in the literal sense imo...if you want to go by a textbook definition, then perhaps anyone could be, however imo blacks cannot participate in the centuries old institution of racism in America as we know it. I don't know of any high profile black supremacy groups and the black nationalists are few and far between. There are no black David Dukes out there and black people who openly espouse the belief that blacks lack the ability to mobilize in any threatening way ala the KKK, etc...you also won't see any "racist" blacks running for and gaining political office, etc. On the flipside we can name plenty of white politicians who clearly have some fucked up opinions about minorities and can and do use this as a platform to gain power...look at the Tea Party...some see them as an alternative party, but when you state that you want to "take the country back" it echoes of some pretty scary shit from where I stand. I don't know if I'm articulating properly, but a prejudice white guy can get a lot more sympathy in his community than the other way around...

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Re: Michael Brown

#25 Post by Hokahey » Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:11 pm

There's a TON of misinformation out there. Looking forward to hopping in this thread when I have more time and energy and setting the record straight. The short version: Yes, the kid was murdered. Yes, the cops are being dicks. BUT - what's happening in the streets now is being completely over sensationalized, and the riot cops are generally showing more restraint than they're being given credit for. Believe it or not.

I saw a headline on HuffPo that said "Baghdad USA" and I just can't anymore. I really can't. What a disgusting headline.

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