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<p>Unless you want to change that tune to “Let them loot the cake shop” that trip back to Marie Antoinette and her brioches serves no purpose whatsoever as a parallel to today’s problem. Or is it all about showing a misguided sense of erudition? </p>
<p>Xiggi,</p>
<p>The article I posted in #319 should be illuminating for you…if you can handle it. </p>
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<p>Actually, I think it would solve the whole problem in Ferguson if, instead of Al Sharpton, cobrat was allowed to expound at length on the links between pre-revolution French aristocrats and today’s problems in Ferguson. I’m sure the crowds would quickly disperse.</p>
<p>Seriously Cobrat - I wish your comments were not so quick to judge your fellow posters. Don’t you think that everyone needs to see how their choices have affected their friends and neighbors and just possibly seeing this might change some behaviors. Ask Natalie the baker why she should have to suffer because her Ferguson neighbors acted irresponsibly. She believed in her neighborhood and physically and financially put everything she had into her business. Yesterday morning all her dreams were destroyed. Because???</p>
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<p>I am confused. I thought you’d want us to look at the riots. Aren’t those the parallels to the oppression in France and the barricades and pitchforks? Should we ignore it or compare it to the actions after the Paterno firing in Happy Valley? </p>
<p>Again, I am confused. Do you condone the riots or consider them a reasonable response to an unacceptable verdict? </p>
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<p>Due to the history of systemic issues in that region/town, the dubious record of the prosecuting attorney, the corrupt “good old boy” type of small town governments, documented history of the town police department abuses against Black people including the justifiably beating up someone and lying about it in court after finding he was the wrong man, bad police relations with mostly Black town residents, inertial effects of past discriminatory laws still having effects in areas of voting and political representation, police provocations against protestors, and more…</p>
<p>the riots are more of a "Considering all of those factors, WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU EXPECT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?!!</p>
<p><a href=“Watching Ferguson Burn: What Constitutes Appropriate Rebellion?”>https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/watching-ferguson-burn-what-constitutes-appropriate-rebellion-20141125</a></p>
<p>Don’t know if this has been proposed or not. </p>
<p>Why don’t we have an experiment here. Everyone answer this question - knowing what you know now, if you were on that grand jury, would you vote “yes” or “no” for indictment. Don’t need to give any reason. We will count all vote by Sunday.</p>
<p>Personally I struggle with the this but I am going to vote “NO”</p>
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<p><a href=“Michael Brown Shooting Witness Admitted Racism In Journal Entry | HuffPost Latest News”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>If this is the kind of testimony that influenced the grand jury’s finding, ABSOLUTELY we need an indictment for a fair and impartial trial.</p>
<p>You know, just based on that ONE situation alone, I’d have voted No. To me, Wilson clearly was defending himself and behaving as trained. Period.</p>
<p>BUT…the white folks of Ferguson had better sit up and take note and make changes. Even if they went about it the wrong way and seem to want to exonerate someone who clearly was in the wrong, still this has opened things up to inspection on a wider basis and that part is not wrong.</p>
<p>“Actually, I think it would solve the whole problem in Ferguson if, instead of Al Sharpton, cobrat was allowed to expound at length on the links between pre-revolution French aristocrats and today’s problems in Ferguson. I’m sure the crowds would quickly disperse”</p>
<p>Okay, that’s the best one I’ve read all week :)) </p>
<p>I’m going to vote Yes. I’m on a grand jury, not a jury on a criminal trial. Do I think there is no chance that Wilson killed Brown illicitly? No, I think there’s some chance, because there are inconsistencies in his story. </p>
<p>If I were on the criminal jury, then knowing what I know now, I’d vote to acquit. But you’re asking me what I’d do on a grand jury-- I’d indict. It’s not my job to say he’s guilty, it’s my job to say he might be guilty. Grand juries aren’t asked to find out whether there is fire, just whether there is smoke. There’s smoke.</p>
<p>“BUT…the white folks of Ferguson had better sit up and take note and make changes. Even if they went about it the wrong way and seem to want to exonerate someone who clearly was in the wrong, still this has opened things up to inspection on a wider basis and that part is not wrong.”</p>
<p>The white folks of Ferguson have been getting along great with the black folks of Ferguson for a long time. There may be serious issues between the police force and the community, but that doesn’t reflect upon the white folk of Ferguson. These people are not the problem.</p>
<p>Young black males in Florida wear “Member FSU Football Team” to avoid hassles with cops. (Except near Gainesville, Fl.)</p>
<p>The white folks of Ferguson have been getting along great with the black folks of Ferguson for a long time. There may be serious issues between the police force and the community, but that doesn’t reflect upon the white folk of Ferguson. These people are not the problem.>>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>Well, my point was they need to do more than “get along”, they need to support them in their endeavors to get a more racially balanced PD, for instance. To investigate the corruption in the prosecutor’s office, though I guess they are state appointed? Not something I know. But if their black friends feel so strongly that their young folks are unfairly targeted, arrested, harrassed, etc. then support them in getting to the bottom of it and getting it stopped. Was my point.</p>
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A “riot” is a public display involving a scuffle. There are plenty of riots in the world that involve police, water cannons, teargas, rubber bullets, but no deliberate vandalism, looting & arson. </p>
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<p>I wouldn’t be so sure of that considering they make up most of the electorate who continues to elect the nearly all-White local town governments who, in turn, create policies which enabled the hiring and continuing defense of the nearly all-White Ferguson PD…a PD with documented past abuses and issues with the majority Black town. </p>
<p>A phenomenon which is one of the carry-over effects of past racial discriminatory laws which existed and when peaceful protesters tried rectifying it some months ago with a voter registration drive, politicians like the Missouri GOP chair declared such efforts “disgusting” rather than encouraging them. </p>
<p>I’m tired of hearing what a “thug” Brown was. What difference does it make? Should we just give blanket amnesty to anyone who kills or injures a “thug”? Lots of kids make bad decisions and even display patterns of bad decision making. That shouldn’t justify killing them.
Several years ago I chaperoned the all night party that our high school hosts on the night of graduation. I think I had the 12 am-2 am shift. Some of the kids were so out of control and obnoxious. I remember saying to my companion that I was glad they came so that they could live long enough to turn into tolerable human beings. That’s what happened to a lot of young miscreants. They don’t stay that way. It’s nice if we can help them live long enough to get there.</p>
<p>I think the disgusting comment referred to partisan efforts to recruit voters based on misinformation about a dead young person, which is a little disgusting, really.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t be so sure of that considering they make up most of the electorate who continues to elect the nearly all-White local town governments who, in turn, create policies which enabled the hiring and continuing defense of the nearly all-White Ferguson PD…a PD with documented past abuses and issues with the majority Black town.”</p>
<p>I have extended family there. My sister didn’t even realize the blacks were in the majority, it’s so mixed up, it’s not something that is noticed as obvious. You have no idea who is voting for which candidates, and you can’t assume it is racism. You have no idea who is running and what sort of campaign platform they are putting out. For all you know, the black people that choose to vote are voting for the white candidates. You have no clue about this. I sincerely doubt that people even thought much or knew about the racial makeup of the police force, and certainly aren’t voting to keep white cops on duty. I’ll bet you, and most other people on this board have no idea of the overall racial makeup of their own local police force. Most of us don’t have a lot of contact with cops besides getting pulled over for an occasional ticket.</p>
<p>The reality is, in most places, people are just going about their lives. Taking care of their families, working hard. Too busy with life to notice every single thing that happens around them until it turns into a problem.</p>
<p>I would vote to indict. </p>