St Louis police murder scandal (PLUS: riots, idiotic press conferences, etc.)

[Keystone Phil]

Unfortunately, if you are black or brown, attempted shoplifting is a very serious crime in Apartheid America. The only reasonable response by the brave white policeman was to execute him in the street.

Of course if he had been a white attempted shoplifter, he would be put into a fancy shoplifting rehab program.

Not to mention assault.

This man speaks the truth

"Change is not going to come until we change it."

He said literally nothing in that video.

Press the "unmute" button on your laptop because he actually speak words in the video.

[Paul Kemp]

Unfortunately, if you are black or brown, attempted shoplifting is a very serious crime in Apartheid America. The only reasonable response by the brave white policeman was to execute him in the street.

Of course if he had been a white attempted shoplifter, he would be put into a fancy shoplifting rehab program.

Not to mention assault.

This man speaks the truth

"Change is not going to come until we change it."

He said literally nothing in that video.

Press the "unmute" button on your laptop because he actually speak words in the video.

[Keystone Phil]

Unfortunately, if you are black or brown, attempted shoplifting is a very serious crime in Apartheid America. The only reasonable response by the brave white policeman was to execute him in the street.

Of course if he had been a white attempted shoplifter, he would be put into a fancy shoplifting rehab program.

Not to mention assault.

This man speaks the truth

"Change is not going to come until we change it."

He said literally nothing in that video.

Press the "unmute" button on your laptop because he actually speak words in the video.

That reminds me! I was thinking earlier today how I'd love for him to weigh in on this! You know, since the President was on vacation during most of this, I'm sure the philosopher Mr. West would have some very harsh words about the Commander in Chief "not caring." Or maybe he'd just stay focused on how his wife is on more magazine covers than Mrs. Obama. You never know what will come out of the prophet's mouth next.

[Lief 🗽]

Whoa, Phil, please take your disgusting anti-Kanye hate speech somewhere else. No wants that on this forum.

[dead0man]

Is it good news or bad news that the attorneys for the dead man's family can't spell (or use a spell check on a press release)?  All three (3!) of them.

[Lief 🗽]

americanracerelations.txt

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Is it time for RP to leave the Forum again? God, I hope so.

Phil for once is dead on.

[Lief 🗽]

Holy christ, people on reddit are racist: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2dnv4s/video_of_mike_browns_alleged_strong_arm_robbery/

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Holy christ, people on reddit are racist: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2dnv4s/video_of_mike_browns_alleged_strong_arm_robbery/

The videos subreddit is routinely brigaded by Stormfront.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Holy christ, people on reddit are racist: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2dnv4s/video_of_mike_browns_alleged_strong_arm_robbery/

Reddit as a whole has been pretty divided (if not lean pro-Brown) on this whole thing. You don't understand the many intricacies of which subs and which pages within those subs attract which crowds.

[Sol]

Holy christ, people on reddit are racist: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2dnv4s/video_of_mike_browns_alleged_strong_arm_robbery/

Reddit as a whole has been pretty divided (if not lean pro-Brown) on this whole thing. You don't understand the many intricacies of which subs and which pages within those subs attract which crowds.

Though Reddit certainly overall has some unpleasant racist (and also misogynist) tendencies. Not a coincidence that it's a hive of MRAs.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Important advice for dealing with police harassment

I posted that on FB several hours ago, and got exactly zero likes. 

Time to delete all my friends and start again, methinks.

Maybe your FB friends prefer it when The Onion is being humorous instead of factual.

[pbrower2a]

Too bad the Ferguson police don't have mandatory dashboard cameras in cop cars...

Those dashboard cameras are usually bad news to crooks.  

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Too bad the Ferguson police don't have mandatory dashboard cameras in cop cars...

Those dashboard cameras are usually bad news to crooks.  

Both those crooks inside and outside the car.

[Sbane]

Holy christ, people on reddit are racist: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2dnv4s/video_of_mike_browns_alleged_strong_arm_robbery/

Not really seeing anything racist there.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Wow, this might actually be more disturbing than the actual shooting.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/us/ferguson-mo-michael-brown-and-darren-wilson-2-paths-to-a-fatal-encounter.html

[Sbane]

I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

[Beet]

I just saw a video where a guy supposedly says that Brown "kept coming" towards the officer at the end, and the officer "missed" more than once before finally shooting him. That would certainly be very different from him having his hands up. So it seems to be conflicting witness accounts at this point.

[Foucaulf]

Regardless of whatever strong feelings I have on this subject, this recent turn of events in the shooting case is pretty silly. The video is circumstantial and may not even be admissible as evidence. What it really serves to do is give relief to an outside observer that the authorities are in the right, the debate over which is what's actually driving the protests.

Don't forget that the robbery video was released due to a FOI request. The police department likely wouldn't want to release it otherwise, since it's too weak to be evidence but strong enough to raise tensions.

Yes, with the video you may think it's more likely that Brown might have tried to run away from the cop. But your belief may be insufficient, and your confidence in your interpretation of events unjustified. Maybe think harder about this issue before blaming "the media" like a conspiratorial nut.

[TJ in Oregon]

I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

Because whenever a lightning-rod like event such as this shooting happens, some fraction of the country sees the need to canonize the guy and another fraction wants to paint him as Charles Manson. Both because they need to fit him into the narrative they want to story to fit into.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Oh so he may have guilty of a crime albeit not found as such under a court of law.

Ok then agreed, nothing to see here. Fuss about nothing, etc.

[Paul Kemp]

I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

Because whenever a lightning-rod like event such as this shooting happens, some fraction of the country sees the need to canonize the guy and another fraction wants to paint him as Charles Manson. Both because they need to fit him into the narrative they want to story to fit into.

So what's the narrative we should be running with here? "Man steals cigarillos, should be shot dead in street"?

[Lief 🗽]

How dare his family and friends try to remember the boy positively. He pushed a store clerk and possibly stole some cigars one time, he is clearly the worst kind of monster.

[ingemann]

I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

Because whenever a lightning-rod like event such as this shooting happens, some fraction of the country sees the need to canonize the guy and another fraction wants to paint him as Charles Manson. Both because they need to fit him into the narrative they want to story to fit into.

So what's the narrative we should be running with here? "Man steals cigarillos, should be shot dead in street"?

The problem are how much our perspective are manipulated by the media and our own preconceived opinions. Are this kid a innocent victim and the cop a vicious killer? Did the cop just defend himself? Was it just a result of two people being on the wrong place at the wrong time? How should I or anybody else know?

I just know that I trust the media less than I trust the judicial system (even the American which I don't trust very much).

[Sbane]

I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

Because whenever a lightning-rod like event such as this shooting happens, some fraction of the country sees the need to canonize the guy and another fraction wants to paint him as Charles Manson. Both because they need to fit him into the narrative they want to story to fit into.

So what's the narrative we should be running with here? "Man steals cigarillos, should be shot dead in street"?

The worst part of this fiasco is the police response to the protests. Nothing can justify that and the police does need to be de-militarized. That being said, him committing this robbery just 15 minutes prior to his death does change the circumstances there. If he thought he was being arrested, is it possible he acted rashly and did something stupid like reach for the officers gun? We still don't know a lot about what actually happened. If he was shot multiple times in the back, it doesn't really matter what  happened at the corner store. He deserved to be in jail, not dead.