Attack a cop, try to take his gun, charge at him while he is firing... Yup, you are going to be dead. Race does not matter.
As one of my army buddies once told me when he was arrested for assault after beating a guy half to death, "I'm a big guy, when I hit someone they go down and stay down. This guy did not go down. He didn't go down so I reached for the pipe and beat the crap out of him because if I didn't he would have beat the shit out of me." This friend was of Samoan descent and was the biggest and toughest guy in my unit. He told me it was the first time in his life when someone took one of his punches without flinching. He was legit scared to death.
According to the reporting I am reading Brown started the incident and did many things to make the cop think it would not end unless one of them was dead.
Today I have been learning how many of my "friends" do not understand what a grand jury is. Mostly they seem to think that they are like a regular jury and that there was a trial.
Man in his own apartment building. Cops come down stairs. Shoot man. Turns out? Black man.
The point isn't the Ferguson situation. It's the national situation. The story that's come out from the trial, in Darren Wilson's own words in the report immediately after the incident, is just weird. Maybe if it went to trial, Wilson would be cleared. Maybe not.
But the whole system is broken. There's nothing that police can't do with the simple justification "I was scared for my life."
You know what? I WANT the police to be scared for their lives and STILL NOT KILL BLACK MEN AND CHILDREN.
At the moment, that's not an option. The logical thing for a police officer to do is shoot to kill. Just like in the stand-your-ground laws. The option that is the most morally repugnant also happens to be the most logic and obvious choice. And a legal choice.
Man, if only we had some kind of gun that shot, I dunno, electricity, rather than a bullet so it was less lethal. Or maybe if we had a canister that sprayed some kind of irritant so they'd be distracted.
Or if we only had civil rights leaders like MLK who would focus on how we are the same rather than how we are different? Or if certain racial groups would refrain from rioting when things do not go the way they want them too?
We need some leaders that know how to unite rather than divide.
You know what? I WANT the police to be scared for their lives
I don't. I don't want anybody to be scared for their lives, and much less the people who we as a society give the privilege of using lethal force as necessary. It's because they are scared shitless that we get reports of officers pulling their guns on the very first people they meet in a dark hallway or stairwell. However, that's also why they get special training and counseling in order to be better prepared for them than the average person.
Maybe it's bad phrasing and maybe I'm taking things wrong here because of it. Perhaps Luke would have done better by saying "You know what? I I STILL WANT THEM TO NOT KILL BLACK MEN AN CHILDREN even if they're scared for their lives!"
Maybe it's bad phrasing and maybe I'm taking things wrong here because of it. Perhaps Luke would have done better by saying "You know what? I I STILL WANT THEM TO NOT KILL BLACK MEN AN CHILDREN even if they're scared for their lives!"
Yeah, that's more like what I meant. Closer to the truth is this:
ESPECIALLY when a police officer is scared for his life, I don't want him to kill black men and children.
Because police officers HAVE to learn that when they are scared for their lives, they probably have nothing to fear. Really. Their fear is based in racism, not reality. They have to face their fear, and let it pass through them, and all that stuff.
If you don't kill a black man or child, you might be able to learn that your fear is unjustified. If the black man or child is dead before the incident is over, by default you are right. As in, there's no way to know if your life was really in danger or not.
Well, Reddit and Imgur are basically just a sea of racism and internet law degrees.
Also: "White people don't riot like this when they don't get their way" "Uh, what about all the times white people have rioted because of sport results?" "Oh yeah but that was a mixed crowd, and other excuses"
And of course, both sides know who is really to blame, here. On one side, we have the media being at fault for the riots, for making all these people think that the cops killed an innocent kid because they keep using older photos, not frames from the CCTV showing brown stealing and assaulting a shopkeeper, and that's why people are rioting. On the other hand, the media is at fault because they poisoned the jury and made them think the white officer was innocent, because he's white.
Or if certain racial groups would refrain from rioting when things do not go the way they want them too?
Maybe blacks wouldn't feel like rioting if they felt they were treated fairly under the law. MLK and the civil rights movement of that time accomplished a lot on paper, but the reality is that not so much has changed. Blacks are still murdered with impunity by the government, black neighborhoods are still terrorized the government, and many blacks still don't have equal opportunity for education and employment. When legislation and time don't bring real change there's not much option but to riot. You can tell people to work within the system as much as you want, but when the system doesn't respect or care about blacks, that shit just does not work.
I love that the NYC protesters are blocking traffic. Fuck almost everyone who feels the need to use a car.
But at the same time, fuck you. Some of those cars have people who absolutely must drive like people who are not able bodied and have places to go, or emergency vehicles, or people driving long distances to/from Long Island to see their family on Thanksgiving.
Well, Reddit and Imgur are basically just a sea of racism and internet law degrees.
I browse Viral and User Sub when I'm going to the bathroom. Since last night, it's mostly just inspiring pointless, asshole-puckering rage.
There's a video on the front page right now which is basically a dude going "You all need to shut the fuck up about Furguson, Racisim is always going to exist get over it, it's all your own fault", and people are taking it seriously because it's coming out of the mouth of someone whose skin colour matches that of the group that's apparently meant to be offended.
I love that the NYC protesters are blocking traffic. Fuck almost everyone who feels the need to use a car.
But at the same time, fuck you. Some of those cars have people who absolutely must drive like people who are not able bodied and have places to go, or emergency vehicles, or people driving long distances to/from Long Island to see their family on Thanksgiving.
And to reiterate Nuri's point - you have no fucking idea what evidence was given there, and no idea what discussions were had. What the media reports is often skewed. You have no basis for assessment because you were not party to the evidence, the charges, or the discussions. Period. Full stop.
Darren Wilson is 1 inch shorter than Brown and weighs over 200 pounds and described himself trying to hold Brown as a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. This is a little weird on its own. It's deeply concerning because expressions of super strength are practically a cliche in police assault on black men.
It may not be legally sound but if I was on the grand jury I'd have said this should go to trial based on Darren Wilson's own testimony. It's the story Zap Brannigan would give to defend himself in this situation. You would think Wilson killed an X-man based on his framing.
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As one of my army buddies once told me when he was arrested for assault after beating a guy half to death, "I'm a big guy, when I hit someone they go down and stay down. This guy did not go down. He didn't go down so I reached for the pipe and beat the crap out of him because if I didn't he would have beat the shit out of me." This friend was of Samoan descent and was the biggest and toughest guy in my unit. He told me it was the first time in his life when someone took one of his punches without flinching. He was legit scared to death.
According to the reporting I am reading Brown started the incident and did many things to make the cop think it would not end unless one of them was dead.
1. Systemic societal racism limiting opportunity for black Americans.
2. Low police threshold for the use of deadly force (arguably the lowest in the industrialized world)
3. Adversarial and militarized police responses in highly racially segregated communities
4. Lack of police accountability and monitoring (cameras, etc...)
5. Lack of a meaningful way for the marginalized to effect political changes
6. Racially discriminatory police and judicial system
The point isn't the Ferguson situation. It's the national situation. The story that's come out from the trial, in Darren Wilson's own words in the report immediately after the incident, is just weird. Maybe if it went to trial, Wilson would be cleared. Maybe not.
But the whole system is broken. There's nothing that police can't do with the simple justification "I was scared for my life."
You know what? I WANT the police to be scared for their lives and STILL NOT KILL BLACK MEN AND CHILDREN.
At the moment, that's not an option. The logical thing for a police officer to do is shoot to kill. Just like in the stand-your-ground laws. The option that is the most morally repugnant also happens to be the most logic and obvious choice. And a legal choice.
We need some leaders that know how to unite rather than divide.
Oh, no.
ESPECIALLY when a police officer is scared for his life, I don't want him to kill black men and children.
Because police officers HAVE to learn that when they are scared for their lives, they probably have nothing to fear. Really. Their fear is based in racism, not reality. They have to face their fear, and let it pass through them, and all that stuff.
If you don't kill a black man or child, you might be able to learn that your fear is unjustified. If the black man or child is dead before the incident is over, by default you are right. As in, there's no way to know if your life was really in danger or not.
Also: "White people don't riot like this when they don't get their way" "Uh, what about all the times white people have rioted because of sport results?" "Oh yeah but that was a mixed crowd, and other excuses"
And of course, both sides know who is really to blame, here. On one side, we have the media being at fault for the riots, for making all these people think that the cops killed an innocent kid because they keep using older photos, not frames from the CCTV showing brown stealing and assaulting a shopkeeper, and that's why people are rioting. On the other hand, the media is at fault because they poisoned the jury and made them think the white officer was innocent, because he's white.
But at the same time, fuck you. Some of those cars have people who absolutely must drive like people who are not able bodied and have places to go, or emergency vehicles, or people driving long distances to/from Long Island to see their family on Thanksgiving.
I mean, what the fuck, seriously.
4799 pages showing evidence available here http://apps.stlpublicradio.org/ferguson-project/evidence.html
Darren Wilson is 1 inch shorter than Brown and weighs over 200 pounds and described himself trying to hold Brown as a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. This is a little weird on its own. It's deeply concerning because expressions of super strength are practically a cliche in police assault on black men.
It may not be legally sound but if I was on the grand jury I'd have said this should go to trial based on Darren Wilson's own testimony. It's the story Zap Brannigan would give to defend himself in this situation. You would think Wilson killed an X-man based on his framing.
and