<p>“Yes, he is doing it by relating to the crowd in a way that no-one else could.”</p>
<p>Hogwash and patently demeaning. You might as well have said that ‘they’re all alike.’</p>
<p>Hayden, I agree with all of that and I didn’t say skin color was the only thing that mattered. But, I also do not think it’s insignificant. The us vs. them situation is not a small part of this whole thing and it was from the beginning.</p>
<p>Policing experts around the country, <em>white</em> policing experts, have criticized the militarized approach the Ferguson police adopted. The Philadelphia Chief Inspector, Joseph Sullivan, is a white guy: dude has a face like the map of Ireland, as they say. And his Philadelphia doesn’t adopt a military approach to handling protests.</p>
<p>Flossy, do you mean that the crowd calmed down on Thursday because Capt. Johnson is black? And you think it had nothing to do with the fact that he and his force talked with people, listened to people, marched with people, apologized to people, and allowed people to exercise their constitutional right to assemble without threatening them?</p>
<p>No. But I think it helped and I watched him talking to them today. “I am one of you,” was a big part of his message. It may be a direct quote. And, it’s a big part of why they were willing to listen in the first place. If he was a white guy I think it would have been harder. The governor was useless. Embarrassingly so.</p>
<p>It is pretty clear from the article posted by Cobrat and I that racist, violent policing is nothing new to the local police. </p>
<p>Charging an innocent man with bleeding on your uniform after you beat him up? Really? with a straight face?? And he is concussed, but the judge finds that it was not excessive force? Really???</p>
<p>One thing that I see here is a colossal failure of empathy on the part of many.</p>
<p>Yeah, this kid wasn’t an angel. Do we deal out the death penalty to the average white, blonde female mall shop-lifter???</p>
<p>Unlike the Ferguson police, whose message was “You are the enemy.” Flossy, you err if you think that it’s impossible for police to do community policing in majority black neighborhoods unless the chief of police is black. Any police force ought to have the message, “I am one of you. We are in this together,” and a police officer ought to have more tools in his toolbox for mouthy, shove-y teenage boys than shooting them dead.</p>
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<p>No, THAT’S demeaning, and not at all the point. Treating a group of people as “other” and deserving of fear and contempt because of how they look–and then arming law enforcement to the teeth to “deal” with them–that’s demeaning. As for hogwash, I’d say introducing the video of the previous incident fits that definition.</p>
<p>CF- Of course, I agree with you on that but when things get this bad I think it was helpful. I think he knows it’s helpful, too. There’s nothing racist about it, though.</p>
<p>Flossy, you can’t be serious. Actually, I believe you are. White privilege at its finest. </p>
<p>That judge who found that the guy with the concussion didn’t have a serious injury must not be a hockey fan. We’ve learned from sad experience that when our favorite players get concussed, it’s a bad, bad thing, and can take months or even years to heal.</p>
<p>I think that, realistically speaking, the fact that the captain of the highway police is black is helpful in establishing trust. </p>
<p>I also think that the fact that the local police are overwhelmingly white speaks volumes. And the white police chief–who apparently has been trying to improve the situation, to his credit–COULD have taken steps that would have had a similar effect.</p>
<p>I continue to think of parents of black sons, especially. I find it difficult to imagine the fear you must live with on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Thank-you. Realistically speaking is how I roll. I think initially they were just plain and simple out of control. It’s a small town police department. </p>
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<p>There are also multiple FOIA requests for the autopsy, specifically the number of times Michael Brown was shot. I wonder why the Chief doesn’t want to respond to those press requests?</p>
<p>He also said today:</p>
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<p>Needed to? Why exactly “needed” to?</p>
<p><a href=“Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson Shot and Killed Michael Brown After Alleged Robbery”>http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/darren-wilson-shot-and-killed-michael-brown.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“Ferguson Police Release Name Of Officer Who Shot Michael Brown : The Two-Way : NPR”>Ferguson Police Release Name Of Officer Who Shot Michael Brown : The Two-Way : NPR;
<p>The shooting is under investigation by some other agency. But, it will come out eventually.</p>
<p>I fail to see why the number of shots can’t come out right now. How is that going to undermine the investigation?</p>
<p>Flossy, I think the heart of the issue is, Who is the “us”, and who is the “them”, and how do the police define which is which. </p>
<p>It doesn’t take white skin or black skin to figure it out, it just takes empathy. </p>
<p>IDK. But you could ask that question about a multitude of things that governments claim are under investigation. </p>
<p>Clearly, the authorities seem interested in managing the release of information to keep the fragile peace.</p>
<p>For police, “us” is the good guys and “them” is the bad guys. If he was a dangerous fleeing felon then he was bad guy. But, we don’t know that yet.</p>