I don't like the reaction their community is giving at all. Like what do these businesses have to do with them at all? I know they raided that liquor place because that was where Mike stole those swishers cigars from, but its like... why do that its not like the owner of the store did anything to Mike. it just seemed like when the announcement was made that it was the looter's cue to go raid shit and set little caesars on fire and everything.

Then again im not even sure if the people raiding were from ferguson. I'm sure many people would agree not to go set fire to buildings and loot stuff if it was their own community.

the criminals basically scared away all the real protesters. after you've broken windows and done other crimes its not called protesting anymore. its called vandalism, trespassing and arson.

You literally copy and pasted everything the media has fed you to believe. Did you read the transcript of the prosecution? Did you know that one of the main witnesses (Witness #42) that testified and verified that officer was being attacked inside his car with gunshots being fired was an African American person? Did you know the 4 "eyewitnesses" you say saw what happened, later declined to give their account under oath (gee i wonder why). Oh wait, it's because said witness above and forensic evidence disproves all of what those 4 people had to say (none of which their stories stayed consistent). Please, keep me informed on your fox news feed it's really helpful.

Now that you mention it:

http://i.imgur.com/t2Ed8ga.gif

I'm not sure if you're a troll account or not. Have you actually read any of the testimonies?

Dude, I dont care what news source you trust or what you think happened. Its an indictment. There's enough evidence for brown to prove the possibility of a wrongdoing occurred. That there wasn't an indictment is a failing of our prosecutor(close ties to police force), jury(75% white), or the legal system (which makes it nearly impossible to convict a police officer of unnecessary force) take your pick. Hopefully the case will get the attention it deserves when the Brown family brings it to civil court, and what really happened will be brought to light.

Speak for yourself you poop head butt face.

Not even a watering can. I am dissapointed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoX-UFdzNDU

Michael Brown is one person, it is unfair to determine the nature of their culture based on one criminal mainstream case. You could just as easily say that the police force in Ferguson has the Us vs. Them mentality; which could to be the case with actual real instances of racial profiling in that area. You can't just automatically assume that parents raise them with that ideology - as far as we know, Michael Brown could have been taught that police officers are actually spiders in disguise.

You have a majority black community and a massively predominant white police force, and racism still being a thing (believe or not) you are going to have some issues whether you like it or not.
Whether or not Michael Brown assaulted Darren Wilson is a moot point seeing as the decision has already been made.

I don't think anywhere in these past few months has anyone said that Michael Brown is innocent 'because he has black skin'. Some are asserting that is the reason he was 'targeted', but to say that anyone pretends their race is a responsibility deflector is absurd.

man this part of your post is killing me man
it just ignores so much shit that happens in communities like this
shit is hitting too close to home

Yes

Yes, there should definitely not be any "us vs the police" mentality
But there also shouldn't be racist cops.

Summary of that pdf: Missouri has 83% white people, 11% black people ; Ferguson, however, has 63% black people and 34% white people, so it's arguable that there are more black people stopped than white people because of the local population difference [in Ferguson] - but 86% / 13% black / white stoppage isn't proportional to the population [of neither Missouri nor Ferguson].

TL;DR you can't really say race isn't a factor in neither society nor police actions.

Ok let me set something up here.

This isn't about Michael Brown. His unfortunate death, and the unfortunate things that've been borne out of it have a lot less to do with the j-walking committed by a black youth and the poor decisions he made while j-walking and a lot more to do with the over all fear being put into people, particularly people of color, around the country by law enforcement.

In much the same way Rosa Parks was not the first black person to refuse to give up his or her seat on a bus, Michael brown is not the first, or even the last person, to be shot to death by police for crimes that do not warrant the death penalty.

In most cases of yet another youth misbehaving and getting shot as a result, nobody would've cared, and likely there were better candidates for this campaign than Michael Brown, but for whatever reason his death is the one that touched off solidarity campaigns and started serious discussions about policing, profiling, the use of force and the employment deadly force throughout this country.

This whole thing is about a *lot* more than the unfortunate death of Michael Brown, that much should be painfully obvious.

Exactly my main problem with all of this is that the only evidence they have against the dude are eye witnesses theres no solid concrete evidence that could have been used against them so even if he went to court (somehow) it would have been a lost cause. Then again this shit still could have been rigged.

do black people listen to kanye west

I'm pretty anti-violence in general.

The police don't make it easy to like them. There are a ton of bad cops out there who treat the police force like a gang. There's very little accountability for cops out there.

That said, I'm not sure this was the best case for people to make their stand on. The testimony from both sides is really fucked up. I'm pretty sure everyone is lying, at least somewhat.

The looting/rioting is a joke, as was the police response to the first round of protests. Seems like the second round was handled a bit more professionally.

Too bad our country is a joke and gun ownership is somehow a normal thing.

Funny thing is they were setup already in the morning so you know that it wasn't going to go well.

http://i.imgur.com/1YLKJ6u.jpg

hey look its the second coming of rosa parks

A few relatively easy fixes that could come out of this:

1. The *easiest* fix out of this would be to make personal cameras mandatory for every police officer who can respond to calls and every patrolman. The patrolmen already typically have cameras on their dash board, so it's not a huge leap. It's already been made abundantly clear that departments who utilize the simple personal camera on their police officers have a reduced tendency to commit crimes against the general population, and typically resort to deadly force far less often. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/california-police-body-cameras-cuts-violence-complaints-rialto

2. Police offices are increasingly corrupt. You would be hard pressed not to find a department who hasn't been scandalized by the misbehavior of some officer who is *still* on the force. Sometimes such officers end up costing communities millions of dollars and *still* keep their jobs: http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/17612783-452/police-corruption-cant-be-ignored.html#.VHUD3clLx8E

To quote that Chicago Sun-Times "The problem of police corruption is not caused by occasional flawed police officers or “bad apples.” Rather, the apple barrel is rotten. Too many police officers violate citizens’ rights, engage in corruption and commit crimes while avoiding discipline or prosecution."

The personal cameras would certainly cut down on such corruption, but the simple fact of the matter is, is that for many people, the police are sacro-sanct. The Michael Brown case highlights that - there were numerous people who came to the defense of Officer Wilson *immediately* because they've convinced themselves that every police officer is a quasi-holy person. Harsher penalties need to be meted out on those officers who violate peoples rights, engage in corruption, and violate the law.

3. This is in part why people are so incensed by the failure of the grand jury to bring charges against officer Wilson. It is *incredibly* rare for a grand jury not to suggest going forward with a case, so clearly police-hero-worship certainly had to play a role, because I fail to see how, robbery, and assaulting a police officer demands the death penalty. https://news.yahoo.com/ferguson-federal-grand-jury-indictment-statistics-history-134942645.html

Every time I hear about the "innocent kid" that was shot, all I can think of is what he was doing before he decided to punch a cop in the face.

http://i.imgur.com/1YLKJ6u.jpg

Oh yeah. Robbing a store....plus he was built like a brick shit house, weighing in at around ~250 from what I understand. He was about as much a "kid" as he was "innocent".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/ferguson-grand-jury-findings/

EDIT: fuck ukm beat me to posting the pic.

UKM, when did robbery warrant the death penalty? I think I must've missed some legislation somewhere.

it doesn't, assaulting a police officer and attempting to get his gun does

Not him, but it doesn't. Punching a cop in the face, trying to go for his gun, running, then charging at him however are good ways to find yourself in the ground.

man it's pretty sad

heard a lot of local businesses got firebombed out there last night, and i don't see the logic in torching your own town to ashes to protest this verdict

2 words. Gas pedal. The point is police resort to deadly force far more often than they should because they *know* it's unlikely that they'll be held accountable. This isn't an isolated incident. Furthermore, his back up arrived, according to the prosecutor, roughly 10 seconds after the last shot. So it was entirely avoidable.

The problem is that sometimes it is an "us vs the police" situation. When you're being targeted by law enforcement for nothing more than the color of your skin it's very hard to foster a friendly relationship. That's why black moms have to tell their kids to be careful where they walk. That's why 1/3 of our prison population is black (most for non-violent drug offenses). That's why a kid with mountain dew in his pocket can be chased down and brutally beaten by undercover policemen. That's why 12 year olds get shot for pulling out a BB gun so they can put it down like they were asked.

Nonrecognition is all fine and dandy until you realize that by saying "Oh yeah I noticed he was black but I ignored that" inherently considers race and judgments follow based on that.

Easy question: If somehow you could become black, how much money would it take to get you to do it?

So he's supposed to leave the suspected criminal alone?
I don't think anyone likes that this dude is dead. The problems aren't as black and white as everyone makes them out to be. Things like this are caused by stupid people. It was a stupid decision to attack a cop, and it was a stupid decision to shoot.

His back up arrived 10 seconds after the shooting Turin - it's also very difficult, last I checked, to outrun a car. But meh, fuck it, just shoot him 7 times. Luckily for me, every time I've had a gun drawn on me (which would be twice now) the officer has had the common courtesy not to bust uncontrollably on me.

It's 2 systemic problems, one being that cops are being militarized, and the 2nd being the culture of the urban black youth.

people need to stop bringing up this 75% white jury thing like all white people are klan members that will always stand up for a fellow racist

Ok just gonna throw this out there

But its actually a very real thing for black parents to be concerned for their children's safety in environments of big cities and in relation to the police

I can't speak for all black parents but in my experience as a child into teenage years growing up in NYC I've only been warned to be as respectful as possible and not to assume anything - when a cop performs their job they're putting their life at risk as well, and it serves both of us well to put things into perspective. And from my own personal experience, these have made quite the difference in my own dealings with the police and racism in general. I can't speak for anyone else, but to me it made the difference enough to hold any thoughts I've had when I've been referred to by police as a nigger, coon, porch monkey, and sambo. To suggest that parents ignore this and pretend that it may never happen to their children seems silly to me, and if I had kids I wouldn't refrain from telling them my own personal encounters and the appropriate way of dealing with it

I understand what you are saying but it seems as if you are implying that nothing happens from the other end of the spectrum, which I can tell you solely from my own experience is not the case

The grand jury was selected months before this happened, so it's not like it was selected with a prejudice for this.

the entire thing from the initial stop to brown dying took less than 1 minute

the officer could have easily been killed within 10 seconds

there is a reason that police are authorized to use deadly force when they feel their life is in danger and that is to prevent police from being killed by violent criminals because they have to hesitate and worry about whether dipshits like you will villify them for the rest of their lives for justifiably defending their own person

police do not have the same duty to retreat an ordinary citizen does, in fact they have a responsibility to try to stop a violent criminal to avoid said criminal getting away and becoming a threat to other citizens

frankly it is completely unfathomable to me that you think someone should be able to assault a police officer and expect the officer to flee, it's seriously insane