Ferguson is currently deadlocked due to race conditions.

[MRT144]

(compsci joke)

Governor Nixon has called up the Missouri National Guard to keep order in advance of the grand jury decision which will almost certainly choose not to prosecute the police officer who shot Michael Brown.

Because a lot of loud dumb angry people would prefer our justice system to be more akin to ritual sacrifice than rule of law, the FBI believes this will probably lead to riots.

Here's hoping any protests remain peaceful.

Our justice system which systematically values white people more than black people, but sure.

[Hauldren Collider]

Whatever the decision, I'm going to assume that the grand jury, which has been studying the case for 3 months, just might know something about it that I don't rather than immediately assume some sort of race relation horse****.

[MRT144]

Whatever the decision, I'm going to assume that the grand jury, which has been studying the case for 3 months, just might know something about it that I don't rather than immediately assume some sort of race relation horse****.

Your deference to an obviously discriminatory system is noted.

[DinoDoc]

Your deference to an obviously discriminatory system is noted.

Are you one of the people Crump was talking about that will refuse to be persuaded by eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence?

[regexcellent]

It's much more plausible that an arsenal of conspiracy theories are true than that someone who just committed a violent crime committed another violent crime 10 minutes later.

[Sava]

Poor white America (not to be confused with Americans who happen to be white).

YOU SO ANGRY AND AFRAID AND FULL OF HATE

[MRT144]

Are you one of the people Crump was talking about that will refuse to be persuaded by eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence?

No, but I'm also not someone who credulously believes the system works in every instance and I certainly don't believe that anything is above board in situations like this or Zimmerman. I have a very dim view of police and that colors everything for me.

[MRT144]

And even further, I think the reaction that a lot of people in Missouri have with basically trolling protesters is symptomatic of people who either don't care if the police can get away with murder (whether its the case here or not) or just dislike black people enough to feel justified doing it.

Reg and HC just seem to worship systems and institutions of authority and it distresses me.

[MRT144]

Like, I'm only kind of joking but I imagine HC and Reg would totally be compliant SS officers mounting a "just taking orders" defense.

[rah]

My only issue is that there are going to be quite a few protesters that didn't review the evidence and just assume that the process is biased and flawed.
I have no problem with them assuming the process is flawed if they reviewed all the evidence and made the determination themselves, but we know most won't.
They'll believe what they're told.

And I think it's unfair to make fun of the people that prefer to listen to those that actually reviewed all the evidence.
It doesn't make those that prefer to do that racist necessarily. But doesn't exclude that possibility.

[Lorizael]

I am continually amused by the right's insistence that the government is terrible at everything except killing people and meting out justice.

[rah]

Someone has to mete out justice. Either the government or the mob. While both don't do a great job, one does better than the other.

[Sava]

Like, I'm only kind of joking but I imagine HC and Reg would totally be compliant SS officers mounting a "just taking orders" defense.

I'm telling you... all the virulently anti-communist people who came over from the old country after the war are fascists. Just straight up collaborator types. I know too many of them via the Serbo-Croat mafia (not referring to actual criminals).

Stuff like that is cultural within families. Knowing a side of their family came over from the Ukraine (iirc), it doesn't surprise me one bit. When Serb refers to such people being Nazis, he's not totally wrong.

[regexcellent]

I am continually amused by the right's insistence that the government is terrible at everything except killing people and meting out justice.

Meting out justice is one of the few things that only the government can do.

Anyway, MRT, the SS officer thing makes no sense to me in this context. I contend that, most likely, Darren Wilson acted in a completely justifiable manner.

[MRT144]

Meting out justice is one of the few things that only the government can do.

Anyway, MRT, the SS officer thing makes no sense to me in this context. I contend that, most likely, Darren Wilson acted in a completely justifiable manner.

I think like Zimmerman this is a 3 step fiasco - 1. He has a negative predisposition towards blacks and this is refinforced culturally within the police dept he's in 2. He is in a virtually unassailable position of authority and he has internalized that concept to be who he is as a person. 3. He isn't necessarily fit for his LEO position based on the previous two points but there is no incentive to getting rid of cops like him because in most instances the circumstances won't conspire to lead to lethal consequences.

But outside of Wilson himself the thing that makes me most upset is that there are people rooting for him to not face any scrutiny what-so-ever because they implicitly trust "the system" or they just don't like black people or protesters that much. Like, they don't want to even discuss that there are endemic racial problems in America let alone local police departments and the way they police. Not even entertaining the possibility it might be the case. It frustrates me, not because I believe I'm right, but because someone who disagrees with me comes at it from the opinion that everything is as it should be, as if they can't imagine better.