Riots near St. Louis, MO after black teenager shot - Polidicks

The riots scared the shit out of my sister.

[QUOTE=Sailor Mars;45654770]You choose to comment on that? It's almost as if people value their property more than they value the lives of black children...[/QUOTE] Just cause some kid got shot doesn't mean you have the right to break peoples shit fuck face.

[QUOTE=Wii60;45655072]yup, sounds like st louis. st louis is a pretty bad place to be, its like detroit-lite[/QUOTE] People are rating this dumb, but he's not wrong. Saint Louis is one of the most violent and povertous cities in the country. Statistically, we really are right up there with Detroit. [editline]11th August 2014[/editline] I bought ice cream from that QTa few days ago. While I was safe and cozy at home during all this, it's still a little surreal to think that five minutes down the road there was a riot bad enough for the National Guard to respond to with tanks. [T]https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10612726_505686122897164_4942179303333108172_n.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=Sailor Mars;45654796]Yeah there's totally nothing disgusting and racist in saying "those blacks are violent" when they're protesting the destruction of their community. If you seriously think that way, you're an awful person. [editline]11th August 2014[/editline] Yeah, that sounds really moronic. There are no holes in that narrative at all, black people assault police officers and try to steal their gun from them all the time.[/QUOTE] Why does it feel like you are an altaccount of someone permabanned... [editline]11th August 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45655114]But why is it that when black people tear shit up because of mob mentality lots of talking head assholes and angry forums posters rant against the "black community" but nobody ever talks about the "white community" having a "problem with violence" when a mob of sports fans tears apart a town after losing a game? In fact: nobody ever says anything about the "white community" at all, even though it doesn't not-exist any more than the "black community" does.[/QUOTE] So apparently black people don't like sports?

[QUOTE=Sailor Mars;45654770]You choose to comment on that? It's almost as if people value their property more than they value the lives of black children...[/QUOTE] I'll be honest with you. If I had some property and it got damaged I would care more about it than the death of someone I didn't know or never met. Sure the fact the teen died is sad (though I wouldnt go as far as call an 18year old a child) and I might consider it worrysome. The moment though, that the protest would cause me damage directly, I'd want it gone as well.

So glad I live on the west side of the river in o'fallon. It is still decent here. Heard rumors that the rioters are gonna attack the galleria mall today. Hopefully it's just false info.

[QUOTE=insane taco;45657853]So glad I live on the west side of the river in o'fallon. It is still decent here. Heard rumors that the rioters are gonna attack the galleria mall today. Hopefully it's just false info.[/QUOTE] Is there, like, a chatroom for this? I've never understood how a riot can be organized.

Apparently it is getting around via mass text.

[QUOTE]As Chief Belmar spoke at a televised news conference, chants of “Don’t shoot!” and “We want answers!” could be heard from the protesters who had gathered outside the Ferguson police headquarters. At a candlelight vigil on Sunday evening, the heightened tensions between the police and the African-American community were on display. A crowd estimated in the thousands flooded the streets near the scene of the shooting, some of them chanting “No justice, no peace.” They were met by hundreds of police officers in riot gear, carrying rifles and shields, as well as K-9 units. Witnesses described a peaceful protest that later turned volatile, and there were scattered reports of violence. Images and videos captured on cellphones and posted on social media sites appeared to show people spray-painting and looting a QuikTrip gas station and other stores. Rioters shattered the windows of the gas station and damaged several police cars, said Brian Lewis, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/us/police-say-mike-brown-was-killed-after-struggle-for-gun.html?_r=0"]The New York Times[/URL] It sounds like there was a large, peaceful protest until opportunists took advantage of someone's death in order to start a riot, while the opposite was implied at the beginning of the thread. News doesn't seem to spread until there's rioting and pandemonium to report.

[QUOTE=Suzune;45658095][URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/us/police-say-mike-brown-was-killed-after-struggle-for-gun.html?_r=0"]The New York Times[/URL] It sounds like there was a large, peaceful protest until opportunists took advantage of someone's death in order to start a riot, while the opposite was implied at the beginning of the thread. News doesn't seem to spread until there's rioting and pandemonium to report.[/QUOTE] Just like the London Riots a year or two ago.

[QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45655326]It's easy to look down on all of those "inferiors" with "bad morals" but I guarantee you that if you, or I, or anyone else in here was pushed hard enough and for long enough they'd start to smash something. That's why we consider the people like Ghandi or MLK who have the capacity for peaceful civil disobedience special. It takes a unique character to respond to brutality with grace.[/QUOTE] It's fairly early in my morning so I'm just a bit too tired to write an actual argument, but I'll just put what I would say into short terms: You keep discussing police brutality as if it only applies to minorities. I can tell you for a FACT that the black community is to blame here because when some white man gets SLAUGHTERED (like James Boyd [url]http://youtu.be/6tpAZObNZfI[/url] [sp]idk if that video source is from some retarded youtube channel that really isn't trustworthy but footage of the shooting I'm talking about is there[/sp]) by the police, we don't see any white people burning down a city over it. Police brutality is a problem, yes, that is a fact; is it the problem at hand here? No. The black community is, and it's something that needs to be dealt with here.

[QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45655066]No, it's not caused by "the black community," it's caused by "individuals." I don't know what you learned in school but I was taught that human beings are autonomous creatures and not hive-minded things like bees or ants.[/QUOTE] So when you're talking about systematic oppression by police, I can respond with: 'No, it's not caused by "the police community", it's caused by "individuals." I don't know what you learned in school but I was taught that human beings are autonomous creatures and not hive-minded things like bees or ants.' Individuals are responsible for their actions but obviously they can be part of a larger trend, which you yourself are admitting when you put the blame on police for systematic abuse. You can't blame the provocation on the police 'community' but then deny that the response is spurred by the black 'community'. I put the word community in quotes because these are very amorphous categorizations but there is an element of common identity and motivation that goes beyond the actions of individuals, and by pointing out that there are very real, emotional reasons why people would react this way, you're justifying the use of a categorizational label to describe a group.

I haven't been paying attention to this so: A kid may or may not have gotten into a scuffle with a cop and ended up dead. Then the local community held a candlelight vigil which riot police showed up to and the thing got out of hand? Did the riot police show up before or after the vigil turned into a riot? Is there any evidence to support/dispute the police claims?

[QUOTE=Baconator 7;45658390]It's fairly early in my morning so I'm just a bit too tired to write an actual argument, but I'll just put what I would say into short terms: You keep discussing police brutality as if it only applies to minorities. I can tell you for a FACT that the black community is to blame here because when some white man gets SLAUGHTERED (like James Boyd [url]http://youtu.be/6tpAZObNZfI[/url] [sp]idk if that video source is from some retarded youtube channel that really isn't trustworthy but footage of the shooting I'm talking about is there[/sp]) by the police, we don't see any white people burning down a city over it. Police brutality is a problem, yes, that is a fact; is it the problem at hand here? No. The black community is, and it's something that needs to be dealt with here.[/QUOTE] In most poor urban areas in this country, and [I]especially[/I] in Saint Louis (which is rivaled only by Detroit for similar levels of crime and poverty), the "black community" exists as it does primarily because of conditions that were imposed on them by the white community. [I]White Flight[/I] in the sixties and seventies, the mass migration of white families and business owners from areas where black minorities were beginning to take root (ever heard the expression, "there goes the neighborhood?") left the areas that minorities were settling in economically devastated. Property values plummeted, businesses closed, the job market tanked, educators left, and more. Poverty sank in deeply. With poverty came desperation, and with desperation came crime. The conditions were so bad that the minority families who had settled in these areas, even if they had been well-to-do beforehand, found themselves trapped, because they had no money to leave, and their property was worthless. Gangs rose to capitalize on the desperation and poverty, and continued to perpetuate and worsen these conditions by peddling drugs, prostitution, protection, and more. The gangs are the biggest economic powers in these areas, because, in effect, they provide the only jobs that promise enough money to get by. If the only way to feed your family is to sell crack, you'll sell crack. The gangs got so strong that police departments all but abandoned the areas where they rose up, and when they did show up there was little they could do. There was no security for people outside of the gangs except that which the gangs provided. Dropout rates spiked dramatically, as the children of the ghettos saw no hope or point in continuing to go to the badly underfunded and understaffed schools when the only real chance for success and security existed in crime, even if that success and security was a shaky and violent affair. This is an issue that exists in nearly every major city in the United States, to some degree, but Saint Louis stands as one of the most most stark examples. Please keep in mind that this could have just as easily happened with any minority group (and has, in other places), but, as is the American tradition, we dealt the worse hands to black people, and now we find ourselves in the modern age, where they still suffer from the effects of what was done to them, and is still being done to them. So you're not totally wrong in saying that this is an issue with "the black community," but it's important to remember that the black community exists as it does because of the conditions that they're prisoners to. This isn't a matter of guilt, it's not like you or I had any personal hand in this misfortune, but if you're going to criticize the actions and culture of ghettos, and the people who live within them, and talk reasonably about potential solutions for reversing the situations that perpetuate them, it is important to at least be educated on what you're talking about.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;45659101]In most poor urban areas in this country, and [I]especially[/I] in Saint Louis (which is rivaled only by Detroit for similar levels of crime and poverty), the "black community" exists as it does primarily because of conditions that were imposed on them by the white community. [I]White Flight[/I] in the sixties and seventies, the mass migration of white families and business owners from areas where black minorities were beginning to take root (ever heard the expression, "there goes the neighborhood?") left the areas that minorities were settling in economically devastated. Property values plummeted, businesses closed, the job market tanked, educators left, and more. Poverty sank in deeply. With poverty came desperation, and with desperation came crime. The conditions were so bad that the minority families who had settled in these areas, even if they had been well-to-do beforehand, found themselves trapped, because they had no money to leave, and their property was worthless. Gangs rose to capitalize on the desperation and poverty, and continued to perpetuate and worsen these conditions by peddling drugs, prostitution, protection, and more. The gangs are the biggest economic powers in these areas, because, in effect, they provide the only jobs that promise enough money to get by. If the only way to feed your family is to sell crack, you'll sell crack. The gangs got so strong that police departments all but abandoned the areas where they rose up, and when they did show up there was little they could do. There was no security for people outside of the gangs except that which the gangs provided. Dropout rates spiked dramatically, as the children of the ghettos saw no hope or point in continuing to go to the badly underfunded and understaffed schools when the only real chance for success and security existed in crime, even if that success and security was a shaky and violent affair. This is an issue that exists in nearly every major city in the United States, to some degree, but Saint Louis stands as one of the most most stark examples. Please keep in mind that this could have just as easily happened with any minority group (and has, in other places), but, as is the American tradition, we dealt the worse hands to black people, and now we find ourselves in the modern age, where they still suffer from the effects of what was done to them, and is still being done to them. So you're not totally wrong in saying that this is an issue with "the black community," but it's important to remember that the black community exists as it does because of the conditions that they're prisoners to. This isn't a matter of guilt, it's not like you or I had any personal hand in this misfortune, but if you're going to criticize the actions and culture of ghettos, and the people who live within them, and talk reasonably about potential solutions for reversing the situations that perpetuate them, it is important to at least be educated on what you're talking about.[/QUOTE] First of all, I don't think you understand my point entirely. Reading your response, it sounds like you think I'm saying this is an inherent problem with all black people, which simply isn't true. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying we need to lynch the blacks or anything like that, I'm saying that the problem at hand ("Riots near St. Louis, MO") can be directly attributed to the black community of that area. Sure, it could have happened with any other minority group, or even with the white community, but it didn't. Right now, it's the black community. Now then, you're trying to be very sympathetic to that black community. "..the black community exists as it does because of the conditions that they're prisoners to." Do you understand how naive this sounds? This is analogous to saying, "Black people are criminals because they're black." Truly, your statement is just so ignorant and out of hand that I'm baffled to read it. So you're telling me, then, that some black kid gets shot, and all these people come out and start burning down gas stations and shit, and it's justified because "the white man" is to blame for "oppressing" them in the first place? Fuck no. You know who's to blame? The black community, and why? Because they seem to think they're special when it comes to police brutality, as if they're the only group which suffers from it, which again is entirely wrong. I mentioned James Boyd before, do you know his story? As a homeless man, James Boyd was camping out in some hills in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The cops there, as shown by the footage I linked to earlier, slaughtered him, shooting him first with lethal ammunition and then with bean bag rounds as he lay on the ground, dying. James Boyd was white. And nobody rioted about it. [sp]But you know who else's death did cause riots? Trayvon Martin. I, personally, believe George Zimmerman was justified, and given that the court accepted his innocence in the matter, I won't go any further into my personal opinions on that matter (also for fear of causing a shitstorm over the George Zimmerman case, which we shouldn't do because I'm simply mentioning the aftermath, not the case itself. You have your opinion on that, I'll have mine, let's focus on the present). You know what happened when Trayvon Martin died? Riots.[/sp] The problem isn't that "the white man oppresses black folk and so the black people have no choice but to riot every time some black kid gets killed". The problem is the black communities or ghettos or whatever you want to call them. It's not an inherent problem with black individual, but with the group, because this rioting is not remotely justified. Nobody forced the blacks to live in these ghettos ("oh but the white folk moved out there goes the neighborhood etc" yeah but the white people didn't destroy that community in the act of leaving, as fucked up as the "there goes the neighborhood" point of view might be. It broke down with the blacks there, so it can be claimed that the blacks in the white-free ghettos are doing something wrong. Once again, this isn't true for all black people, and it is true for many white people and other minority groups, so don't think I'm a racist prick), and it's not only the blacks that are being hurt in situations like this. The point is, this rioting over individual (and possibly justified) killings is very, very disproportionate "retribution," given that police brutality isn't "a black people problem" but a problem that can, and does, affect ANYBODY in the country. The problem is obviously with the community which is rioting, and this is an issue which needs to be dealt with both in the short-term and the long-term.

And you think [I]I[/I] missed the point?

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;45660062]And you think [I]I[/I] missed the point?[/QUOTE] ...yes? And just in case I really wasn't that clear, my point is that some asshole did something stupid and got himself killed, now there's riots about it. The problem isn't "well they have no choice", it's "there's people burning down buildings".

Do you really not understand the amount of racial tension that was caused by the act of white flight alone? It [I]did[/I] destroy communities. Property values plummeted because of that racism (nobody wanted to live near black people), and every major business pulled up stakes as well, leaving the areas now inhabited by ghettos economically devastated. These black families that had give up anything in order to move into safe and respected new communities found those communities dissolving around their heads simply because there were now black people in the area. They were trapped in these neighborhoods with no reasonable means of escape. They had no money, there were no jobs, and their properties were now worthless because they were in a "black" area, and that's the way these ghettoes have been for 40+ years now. Crime rose up as the only sustainable means of providing for your people, but that also made it impossible for legitimate means of business to thrive, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle of crime, gang violence, poverty, and general desperation. It is difficult to fix, because the gangs that run these places actively resist positive change, as doing so would topple their little empires. We've practically abandoned the ghettos to the gangs, leaving the majority of African Americans in this country trapped in horrible situations from which the only path to salvation is sheer force of will, and a whole lot of luck that you don't catch a stray bullet, which is no real path. White Flight was the catalyst of nearly all of the racial problems we are dealing with today. It was the trend that ultimately created ghettos, and segregated black people into them, and the only possible results of that were spite and strife. I am not excusing the action of the looters in the slightest, I am merely trying to make you understand why there is a huge amount of racial tension in this country, and why riots like this break out in the first place. We have repeatedly throughout our history given black people the short end of the stick, and then, just when they were finally recovering, we unofficially, but almost unanimously, segregated them into hopeless ghettos, and even to this day the efforts we make to right those wrongs and correct the mistakes of our past are severely lacking. The "black community" as a general body is pissed off, and they have every right to be. They were thrown in figurative pit, told to fend for themselves, and forgotten. Looting and rioting isn't helping anything, you're right, but when new injustices are committed against blacks in this country, it is a uniquely sensitive issue. While white people, or other minorities, suffering at the hands of police brutality and general institutional injustice is no less tragic or outrageous, it is the black community that has, historically, been shafted time and time again. Fury over the fact that we are [i]still[/I] subjecting them to new injustices is why we see these kinds of race riots from black people in America, and so much less often from other racial groups. But I promise you this: if Caucasians were the minority here, and if they had been forced into the same kinds of situations that African Americans have been in this country, and if they faced the same kinds of injustices, we'd be pissed off too. You keep saying this is a "Black problem," but that's not quite true. It's an American problem. It's a problem that we, as a country, created, and the ultimate injustice would be to continue to pretend like we didn't. If we want to see the end of the culture of violence and thuggery that has born from the ghettos, then we need to work on eliminating the problems that created ghettos in the first place. They cannot fix themselves, and they cannot be fixed internally. Fixing these problems requires a social maturation, an end to the ignorance of the real issues at hand, and a concerted effort from everyone, white, black, and otherwise to find healthy and actionable solutions.

[QUOTE=Baconator 7;45658390] You keep discussing police brutality as if it only applies to minorities. I can tell you for a FACT that the black community is to blame here because when some white man gets SLAUGHTERED (like James Boyd [url]http://youtu.be/6tpAZObNZfI[/url] [sp]idk if that video source is from some retarded youtube channel that really isn't trustworthy but footage of the shooting I'm talking about is there[/sp]) by the police, we don't see any white people burning down a city over it.[/QUOTE] BECAUSE HE WASN'T KILLED FOR BEING WHITE. BECAUSE THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM DOESN'T HAVE A HISTORY OF ARBITRARILY ARRESTING AND MURDERING WHITE PEOPLE

[QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45660422]BECAUSE HE WASN'T KILLED FOR BEING WHITE. BECAUSE THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM DOESN'T HAVE A HISTORY OF ARBITRARILY ARRESTING AND MURDERING WHITE PEOPLE[/QUOTE] The kid here wasn't killed for being black, either. According to the article, there was a struggle involved and the cop defended himself, so I don't see what point you're trying to make? [QUOTE=Big Dumb American;45660286]Do you really not understand the amount of racial tension that was caused by the act of white flight alone? It [I]did[/I] destroy communities. Property values plummeted because of that racism (nobody wanted to live near black people), and every major business pulled up stakes as well, leaving the areas now inhabited by ghettos economically devastated. These black families that had give up anything in order to move into safe and respected new communities found those communities dissolving around their heads simply because there were now black people in the area. They were trapped in these neighborhoods with no reasonable means of escape. They had no money, there were no jobs, and their properties were now worthless because they were in a "black" area, and that's the way these ghettoes have been for 40+ years now. Crime rose up as the only sustainable means of providing for your people, but that also made it impossible for legitimate means of business to thrive, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle of crime, gang violence, poverty, and general desperation. It is difficult to fix, because the gangs that run these places actively resist positive change, as doing so would topple their little empires. We've practically abandoned the ghettos to the gangs, leaving the majority of African Americans in this country trapped in horrible situations from which the only path to salvation is sheer force of will, and a whole lot of luck that you don't catch a stray bullet, which is no real path. White Flight was the catalyst of nearly all of the racial problems we are dealing with today. It was the trend that ultimately created ghettos, and segregated black people into them, and the only possible results of that were spite and strife. I am not excusing the action of the looters in the slightest, I am merely trying to make you understand why there is a huge amount of racial tension in this country, and why riots like this break out in the first place. We have repeatedly throughout our history given black people the short end of the stick, and then, just when they were finally recovering, we unofficially, but almost unanimously, segregated them into hopeless ghettos, and even to this day the efforts we make to right those wrongs and correct the mistakes of our past are severely lacking. The "black community" as a general body is pissed off, and they have every right to be. They were thrown in figurative pit, told to fend for themselves, and forgotten. Looting and rioting isn't helping anything, you're right, but when new injustices are committed against blacks in this country, it is a uniquely sensitive issue. While white people, or other minorities, suffering at the hands of police brutality and general institutional injustice is no less tragic or outrageous, it is the black community that has, historically, been shafted time and time again. Fury over the fact that we are [i]still[/I] subjecting them to new injustices is why we see these kinds of race riots from black people in America, and so much less often from other racial groups. But I promise you this: if Caucasians were the minority here, and if they had been forced into the same kinds of situations that African Americans have been in this country, and if they faced the same kinds of injustices, we'd be pissed off too. You keep saying this is a "Black problem," but that's not quite true. It's an American problem. It's a problem that we, as a country, created, and the ultimate injustice would be to continue to pretend like we didn't. If we want to see the end of the culture of violence and thuggery that has born from the ghettos, then we need to work on eliminating the problems that created ghettos in the first place. They cannot fix themselves, and they cannot be fixed internally. Fixing these problems requires a social maturation, an end to the ignorance of the real issues at hand, and a concerted effort from everyone, white, black, and otherwise to find healthy and actionable solutions.[/QUOTE] Before I go any further with this, I need to clarify: I'm making an argument that this problem can be attributed to a single group and needs to be rectified immediately. I'm not saying there isn't racial tension here; I understand that. This is America, which is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. No shit we have racial tension issues. Saying "It's an American problem" doesn't make any sense; that's like saying during the Cold War that Communism is "unamerican". What does that even mean? This [b]is[/b] a "black problem," even if it is because we're "still subjecting them to these injustices," because EVERYBODY is being subjected to them. There's bad white cops, bad black cops, bad hispanic cops, bad asian cops, etc., and all the same there are people being discriminated against in every ethnic group. The problem is that certain branches of ethnic communities, most notably in this case a branch of the black community, take matters out of hand. James Boyd is murdered (by 6 white cops, and with no reason to use such heavy force nonetheless), the problem is taken to court. Michael Brown is murdered (after an altercation with the single offending police officer), and a massive riot starts. I don't know if you're understanding what I'm saying, but it really is as though the black community is [i]masochistic[/i] about this stuff. "Hey, somebody from our ethnic minority was killed. [i]Obviously[/i] it must have been racism, so let's start a riot and then later on say that we were being oppressed etc., this can't [i]possibly[/i] lead to further problems and discrimination against our ethnic minority." You're saying that there's just inherent racial tension, and that the black community is right to be upset. Problem is, [b]nobody[/b] provoked them here. They have no reason and no right to be upset here. Michael Brown, or SOMEBODY from that community at least (seeing as the article is fairly ambiguous), [i]fought with that cop over [b]his gun,[/b][/i] and because the cop defended himself, they're starting riots. This [b]is[/b] a "black problem" because this black community, not America as a whole, created this problem by [b]itself.[/b] I'm not saying that there isn't racism in America, and I'm not saying that we don't need an end to ignorance to be able to solve these problems forever; I entirely agree with you there. I'm saying that this problem, which we're dealing with [b]today,[/b] is self-generated by this "branch" of the black community.

[QUOTE=Baconator 7;45660908]The kid here wasn't killed for being black, either. According to the article, there was a struggle involved and the cop defended himself, so I don't see what point you're trying to make? [/QUOTE] The point I'm trying to make is there is a very established precedent for cops and private citizens "defending themselves" (with the biggest airquotes ever) from unarmed black teenagers via the use of deadly force. Just use the tiniest, faintest bit of effort to try to look at this from the point of view of someone who distrusts the police. Just please, please, try to empathize with someone else's viewpoint. It's not difficult. It doesn't require blood magic. Just for a fraction of a fraction of a second try to look at this killing from viewpoint of someone who feels put upon and discriminated against by the justice system because of their race. Can you do that?

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;45654783]This happens a lot in France. Every time someone from a minority gets injured or dies after obviously stirring up shit with the police, some dipshits come out of their dirty homes and start looting businesses while using the death of someone else as an excuse. Fucking disgusting[/QUOTE] The same thing happened in England with Mark Duggan's death. I remember at the time a lot of American posters here acted like the UK was alone in this kind of incidence and some absolute bell-ends used it as some sort of measure of insult, as if English people are genetically encoded to be the only ones who can riot over any minor shit ever. Boot's on the other fucking foot now, you colo-I-I mean.. silly Americans.

[QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45660953]The point I'm trying to make is there is a very established precedent for cops and private citizens "defending themselves" (with the biggest airquotes ever) from unarmed black teenagers via the use of deadly force. Just use the tiniest, faintest bit of effort to try to look at this from the point of view of someone who distrusts the police. Just please, please, try to empathize with someone else's viewpoint. It's not difficult. It doesn't require blood magic. Just for a fraction of a fraction of a second try to look at this killing from viewpoint of someone who feels put upon and discriminated against by the justice system because of their race. Can you do that?[/QUOTE] It's funny that you want me to look at the police force as a single group who acts together, but when someone does that about the "black community" they are reprimanded for not seeing the individuals.

[QUOTE=sgman91;45661090]It's funny that you want me to look at the police force as a single group who acts together, [/QUOTE] The police force is comprised of people who are entrusted with the great responsibility of keeping the peace. We pay their salaries with our tax dollars and give them a huge amount of agency in how they can choose to carry out the law, up to and including the use of deadly force as they see fit. They better damn well have their shit together.

Asian, middle-eastern, pacific islander, white, or hispanic person gets shot, no news. Black person gets shot, it's a massive incident. Why is it always like this?

[QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45661183]The police force is comprised of people who are entrusted with the great responsibility of keeping the peace. We pay their salaries with our tax dollars and give them a huge amount of agency in how they can choose to carry out the law, up to and including the use of deadly force as they see fit. They better damn well have their shit together.[/QUOTE] You didn't at all address his argument and instead you just spouted some generic rhetoric. Come on, at least [B]TRY.[/B]

[QUOTE=SigmaLambda;45660953]The point I'm trying to make is there is a very established precedent for cops and private citizens "defending themselves" (with the biggest airquotes ever) from unarmed black teenagers via the use of deadly force. Just use the tiniest, faintest bit of effort to try to look at this from the point of view of someone who distrusts the police. Just please, please, try to empathize with someone else's viewpoint. It's not difficult. It doesn't require blood magic. Just for a fraction of a fraction of a second try to look at this killing from viewpoint of someone who feels put upon and discriminated against by the justice system because of their race. Can you do that?[/QUOTE] I see and understand your viewpoint, it's just that I disagree with it. That's why we're arguing, silly. Also, are you even reading what I'm saying or just looking at the first sentence and responding to that? I've said at least 2 or 3 times that there are problems with the police in America.

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;45661306]They obviously DON'T have their shit together if an entire race in the US can't trust them. Their shit is so out of whack that the people feel it's easier to riot and get results than it is to wait for the "Investigation" that happens, doesn't that say something?[/QUOTE] I think that was his point. Police officers should be held to a higher standard since their very job is to uphold the law in the first place.

[QUOTE=demoguy08;45662345]I think that was his point. Police officers should be held to a higher standard since their very job is to uphold the law in the first place.[/QUOTE] Even if that was his point it would be irrelevant to the post he responded to.

[QUOTE=Sailor Mars;45654770]You choose to comment on that? It's almost as if people value their property more than they value the lives of black children...[/QUOTE] I bet ya this would not have happend if the kid was white.