You missed the point. Whether Michael Brown was innocent or not is almost irrelevant - he was just the catalyst for the protests. At the time of the shooting, it was widely believed he was innocent. As Marxist has already stated, this isn't about Michael Brown necessarily, it's about a problem that their community feels they have endured for far too long.

Whether Michael Brown deserved to be shot is unbeknownst to anyone except people who actually saw it and Darren Wilson - anything could have happened, any evidence could have been skewed.

The protest should have continued to be peaceful, It's really sad to see them take the violence route; it dilutes the message completely.

You seem to forget the reason he shot him is because he was being charged at. When a 250-290 pound man is running at you, one who has already attempted to take your gun and has already assaulted you, you think the best course of action is to just stand there for half a minute in hopes he won't fucking kill you in the mean time?

If you decided to escalate the situation by going in by yourself, and stepping out of the vehicle to give chase, alone, then you could also simply aim your gun in such a way so as not to shoot somebody in the head twice. Numerous police forces around the world have rules of engagement dictating that shots must be fired at or into the lower body *first* and that the police officer *must* demonstrate that they attempted to do that before moving to the upper body. Even the IDF (technically less of a police force and more of a military occupation force) has such rules.

When you shoot, you aim to kill. All firearm training everywhere is like that.

You're stretching it Marxist - we really don't know what happened, and frankly it doesn't matter. The decision is made, Brown is dead, Wilson wasn't indicted. What we need to be discussing is the protests and the actual problems in that community.

No bopper, police forces around the world have rules of engagement particularly so that their citizens don't get killed when it isn't necessary. The only people that're going to fix Ferguson are the folks living in Ferguson, the important thing for everybody else is how we can collectively fix our hardly accountable pseudo-military. Attempting to justify a killing by "well he's trained to shoot to kill" "he got punched what else should he do" are exactly the sort of statements that aid and abet the overuse of deadly force.

They really don't know exactly when the backup will get there they have to handle the incident ASAP. And not rely on there backup to be there immediately cause they don't know if they are going to be there in 10 seconds or 10 minutes! I think that he could of used the tazer or something not his gun.

Yeah I have no idea why tazers aren't used more often by cops. Enemy is neutralized, and everyone lives.

Tazer's can cause death too, but not often at all. There's a reason non-lethal weapons are also called less-lethal. Heck, even blanks can kill.

Ok at this point I know that you're just trying to fan the fire. You're right though, it was entirely avoidable, the big bad cop could have decided not to do his duty and just leave or even better the "well educated" "non-drug using" african american who is "innocent" could have decided not to rob a store and then assault a police officer.

Also, to answer your taser question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtD-4LFrjhM

i just happened to see a couple of videos like this last night, thought they were pretty funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBrj2aGqpTk#t=160
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNXdzPTkviM#t=39

Please. People please. Read the actual autopsy report before you make claims that he was standing with his hands up pleading. Literally only 1 person knows if he did or not, the officer. The eyewitnesses were not found to have coherent testimony and were not even allowed to testify in court because of it.

Report summary
Actual autopsy

Also, holy mother of fuck that kid is behemoth. I'm pretty sure that if Brown or any other black, white, hispanic or asian guy that big was physically confronting me, a 5'9" 150 pound guy, while im trying to exit my car (it really happened read the autopsy) and reaches for my gun my best protection I would unload my clip in an instant. I don't know how or why the officer didn't and it would be interesting to know.

Oh, and unfortunately in many cases guns are much easier to unholster and put at the ready than tasers or pepper spray. Not saying that makes it right, just that pulling his gun out first doesn't make him a stone-cold killer. Unfortunately people don't even go the the source (autopsy and official documents) and like to start telling everybody he's a cold-blooded murderer because they heard other people saying the same thing.

It's surprising easy to outrun a car through an alley or residential. You should try that some time and see how cars catch up to people who know how to use their surroundings (unless you think it'd be better to just run him over right away).

Even if Micheal Brown was at fault here, I'm pretty sure the big problem is police corruption/racism. The protests and riots aren't there because one kid got shot and died doing something he shouldn't have been doing, they're there because this happens /all/ the time and the communities its happening in are sick of it (very reasonably so). And sorry but people don't just decide to hate cops and create an us vs them mentality for no reason, if thousands of people in a community all distrust the police in said community there's gonna be a basis for it. Like in my (mostly white and latino) home town Santa Cruz if I heard of a police shooting a black man I'd probably assume that it was not based on race until I saw proof otherwise because cops killing people there is very rare and when it DOES happen it's usually with very good reason (a few years ago someone I met at a party later killed 2 police officers with an assault rifle and then was killed by another cop during a pursuit, and even though I knew him a little my reaction wasn't outrage but rather relief that there wasn't a disturbed person walking around with a hatred of cops and an assault rifle), but if you live in a community where when an 18 year old gets shot and killed by a cop and everyone jumps to the idea that the cop is at fault that points to a serious issue in the community.

Also as far as the rioting goes, I don't condone it but I've heard some people outside of tf.tv say that it only reinforces the ghetto stereotype and I'd just like to say that's some pretty big bullshit while rioting isn't the answer you can't pretend like this is something that only happens when the killer of a black kid is acquitted or that rioting is even a "ghetto" or black thing

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10429343_10152843609371894_1399651568515204019_n.jpg?oh=8a9b9ac1b88d6e3a1d7f4641dbb1cebc&oe=54D58353&__gda__=1426497324_60185313a7b37c146940cf458e77876f

those where all mostly white crowds and the riots were instigated by something much less deserving than the killing of an unarmed kid or a perceived racism in the system.

yeah every cop that shot a black person is racist

Who said that?

ayyy lmao

I live in Philadelphia and I was at Broad Street for this. Every fucking ghetto in the city rolled out for this "celebration" so don't even try and say this was a "white" riot. Were you there? I don't think you were, so sit the fuck down.

The picture wasn't necessary, but chill, I think the point he's trying to make is that rioting is not an exclusively African American thing, which common sense can tell anyone.

Marxist, everything you are saying in your posts sounds like what you would hear from a seminar on civil unrest from a speaker who doesn't have a clue how things work on the streets and would be refered to as "book smart".

Have you ever been in a life threatening situation with weapons involved? I have on several occasions and while I have not killed anyone yet I do know how it feels in those situations. You don't sit back and think things over like a classroom. You react on your training and your mental makeup, it is that simple. Hindsight is fantastic for the biased news media and the classroom. Both can afford to fan the flames and sit back and watch the results. When you are on the street and in action like this it is kill or be killed. It is really no more complex than that. The jury saw the FACTS, not the EMOTIONS of the incident.

Mike Brown picked a fight with a white cop who had training and a gun. He make a huge mistake and paid the price. Get over it.

If nobody had guns this wouldnt be an issue

every gun on earth needs to be melted down into scrap

we as a species have gotten past the point of needing them

We tumblr now?

You're right, black/white and every corner of the globe riot for one reason or another. Perhaps the only difference in his analogy was that in all 4 of his examples there were likely a total of 0 gunshots at the "white riots". Ferguson had what?...150+ in 2 hours? very chilled

mr owl is a hippie

Ultimately depends on the motivation of the riot. 'Civil rights' vs. 'A Sports Game' will of course produce different types of behavior - not that I am condoning either.

I'm honestly curious to see how the police force would function with just rubber bullets and tazers. Would be interesting to see how it could prevent otherwise death-causing cases to occur.

actually just a giant fuckin troll

Race isn't even the issue here

EDIT: The first part of this was a negative response to spacecadets post responding to my first post. I perceived him as being disrespectful and that brought out some heat in me, i responded with an insult that should not have been thrown, this is a discussion not a kindergarten playground. Sorry spacecadet, I shouldn't have let my emotions control how I responded to your (probably justified) criticisms of the wording of my first post. My only response should have been : My point wasn't that "white riots" are a thing but rather as boppet says below just that this isn't something singular to african american communities or the "ghetto stereotype". Again, apologies.

Yeah that was pretty much it, just saying that people riot for really stupid shit all the time and that people freaking out about Ferguson riots seem to be ignoring that. I mean at least the reason behind the riots is like somewhat reasonable, by which I mean the emotions and politics driving the people to riot is at least controversial and important rather than a bunch of fucktards setting shit on fire because A COACH GOT FIRED LOL?

"mostly white" was a bad phrasing that I repeated from https://storify.com/betakateenin/white-people-riots that article, sorry if I offended anyone.

I'd just like to reiterate I don't really have an opinion on the mike brown case specifically but I do believe that racial bias among cops and civilians alike is definitely a thing in america and if you're looking for places where racism is a huge problem a place like Ferguson is probably a good place to start.

unfortunately, most people seem to think that it is.