Hands Up, Don't Shoot

[The Mad Monk]

Sounds like there's a crime in there somewhere. Arrest them, lock them up. Simple.

Have you heard that it was done?

Neither have I.

[kentonio]

Have you heard that it was done?

Neither have I.

Ah, so we're in agreement that Ferguson police are incompetent? Excellent, glad we could find common ground.

[The Mad Monk]

If the threats only came from Ferguson, you might have a point.

[Jon Miller]

But many police departments are like Ferguson's.

JM

[The Mad Monk]

True, but besides the point.

[FlameFlash]

Having watched this unfold on twitter in real time... I recall seeing the images. The still shots of Brown with his arms up... I find it really funny that after all this time the DOJ and other official accounts would still side with this officer.

The legal space to shoot alone was reported on incorrectly, yet the facts of it never checked except by outside sources that the official accounts, of course, will never actually listen to.

[DinoDoc]

Having watched this unfold on twitter in real time... I recall seeing the images. The still shots of Brown with his arms up... I find it really funny that after all this time the DOJ and other official accounts would still side with this officer.

Damn physical evidence! How dare that racist science interfere with the narrative!

[Berzerker]

Hardly surprising when you look at it as just a single incident in a much, much larger picture.

So judge the cop based not on his actions or character but the bigger picture? Seems contrary to the message of MLK.

The really big issue, the issue which pissed everyone off but which conservatives continue to ignore, is that there was selective enforcement of the law. Normal behaviors, like walking on the side of the street because there is no sidewalk and because the shoulder is muddy, became criminal offenses but only on the black side of town while this wasn't enforced on the white side of town. Out of 21,000 people in town 16,000 had outstanding warrants most for petty **** like above and then the town ran a debtors prison where people would be imprisoned over amounts as little as $20 but when they got out of jail over that $20 they would owe thousands of dollars.

It was an organized shake down system designed to extract money from blacks so whites wouldn't have to pay taxes to support the town. It was so out of control that 80% of the town's revenue came from inflated fines only inflicted on blacks. Is it any wonder people were angry? It truly was an obviously overt racist system by design.
http://wordforge.net/index.php?threa...4#post-2706904

There were sidewalks and this cop gave them a warning, not a ticket... You raise the bigger picture, heads need to roll - not his. WILSON! Btw, this dude must have been among the cleanest cops in the area. You gotta know the smear machine was investigating him looking for anything they could use, but crickets.

[regexcellent]

Did you see Tamar Rice et al?

JM

My point is somehow Michael Brown became the focus of controversy when he's clearly not a very good standard bearer for police reform.

[Kidlicious]

So judge the cop based not on his actions or character but the bigger picture? Seems contrary to the message of MLK.



There were sidewalks and this cop gave them a warning, not a ticket... You raise the bigger picture, heads need to roll - not his. WILSON! Btw, this dude must have been among the cleanest cops in the area. You gotta know the smear machine was investigating him looking for anything they could use, but crickets.

They hate good cops and love thugs.

[kentonio]

So judge the cop based not on his actions or character but the bigger picture? Seems contrary to the message of MLK.

Snark aside, I feel very sorry for any officer (or civilian) who ends up falsely accused of a crime, especially when they have to go through the kind of circus this one did. What makes me even angrier though is when things like that uncover quite how racist and discriminatory a major societal organization is, and because the original shooting is found safe the rest of it just gets swept back under the carpet with a derisory 'Ha, see he was innocent, all these people were marching & rioting over nothing'.

As I said before, these incidents are never really about the spark that ignites them, so if people will accept that the shooting and the reaction are very different issues, I'll be happy to side with the officer over the shooting.

[DaShi]

Ah, so we're in agreement that Ferguson police are incompetent? Excellent, glad we could find common ground.

TMM is serious about this. He starts a thread every time an abortion doctor receives a death threat. He was furious and posted several threads when gun sellers were sent death threats for choosing to sell smart guns. He takes this super serious.

[DaShi]

My point is somehow Michael Brown became the focus of controversy when he's clearly not a very good standard bearer for police reform.

Yup, let's ignore the issue until a better black suspect is shot.

[Berzerker]

Snark aside, I feel very sorry for any officer (or civilian) who ends up falsely accused of a crime, especially when they have to go through the kind of circus this one did. What makes me even angrier though is when things like that uncover quite how racist and discriminatory a major societal organization is, and because the original shooting is found safe the rest of it just gets swept back under the carpet with a derisory 'Ha, see he was innocent, all these people were marching & rioting over nothing'.

As I said before, these incidents are never really about the spark that ignites them, so if people will accept that the shooting and the reaction are very different issues, I'll be happy to side with the officer over the shooting.

Dont mean to be snarky, but why is our reaction a prerequisite? The community should have been patient until the facts were known. But they smeared him, they used him instead.

[Kidlicious]

Snark aside, I feel very sorry for any officer (or civilian) who ends up falsely accused of a crime, especially when they have to go through the kind of circus this one did. What makes me even angrier though is when things like that uncover quite how racist and discriminatory a major societal organization is, and because the original shooting is found safe the rest of it just gets swept back under the carpet with a derisory 'Ha, see he was innocent, all these people were marching & rioting over nothing'.

As I said before, these incidents are never really about the spark that ignites them, so if people will accept that the shooting and the reaction are very different issues, I'll be happy to side with the officer over the shooting.

So you're sorry for Officer Wilson, but you're mad because people called for people to be reasonable in the face of accusations against him. And now that he's found innocent you're still just really mad that he wasn't found guilty so that you could prove a point that isn't true?