<p>There seemed to be a point in the interaction with Brown, that Wilson, instead of getting out of the car, could have rolled up the windows and locked the doors and let Brown run. Is that the way citizens want officers to behave when spotting a robbery/murder/assault/burglary suspect? What if you, the Brown defenders here, are his next victim? Do you expect police protection or pursuit of perps? I guess not, huh? Or only if they aren’t black, I guess.</p>
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<p>At least make a feeble attempt to actually study the evidence before posting foolish comments. It wasn’t just gun residue on MB’s hand, MB’s DNA was found ON THE GUN. He wasn’t just “in the vicinity” of the gun…his hand was ON THE GUN. From the report describing the DNA found on the gun (item Q19)…the sample is a mixture of 3 or more individuals, with 2 primary contributors. </p>
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<p>2.1 OCTILLION…yeah, that’s not telling us much is it? </p>
<p>Not calling out someone’s bad behavior because of race is a disservice to them and yet, this could be the outcome if the police force avoided such confrontations out of fear of being accused of racism.</p>
<p>As long as we place the blame on someone or something else, we will not address what led Michael Brown to make bad decisions. If we accept that Brown was a blameless victim, then we won’t teach other children what not to do, and sadly there will be more like him. </p>
<p>I want young people to know that although things aren’t ideal, there are better choices to make. </p>
<p>Pennylane, that’s the way I feel. Not calling out black criminals JUST because they are black would also be a great disservice to all the law-abiding citizens of mostly black neighborhoods in this country. Lord knows, I live in a D.C. suburb and we see a LOT of crime stories on TV where black people are talking against black criminals. Stuff happens, it has nothing to do with the color on one’s skin and people want to be safe in their home, businesses and on their streets.</p>
<p>OTOH, again, the issue that really does exist of predjudice among police officers MUST be identified and corrected. Period. It’s way beyond time.</p>
<p>I think the police force has some work to do too with it’s own issues, and they will need to confront that. I’m trying to look at it from the perspective of how to keep youth from doing their part in the conflicts too. </p>
<p>No-one wants to say it but It has to start with parents. His ex-con stepfather is on video inciting a fire-fueled riot and may face charges and his mom was arrested for physically assaulting his grandma and some merchants selling hands up T-shirts. I mean why was he violent is not a hard question, really. But it takes unpleasant honesty and it’s not going to happen I don’t think and he didn’t live with these people anyway. He lived at his grandmas place for some reason so what happened there?</p>
<p>I agree. It has to start with parents. Getting out of bad neighborhoods, which of course is easier said than done, is also an important factor for kids who might be targeted when they don’t deserve it (and I am not talking about Michael Brown).</p>
<p>No one wants to say it but it has to start with the severe mistrust created by the amazing stories told earlier by police officers in Ferguson, Missouri. Before the Wilson-Brown confrontation, the testimony, yes TESTIMONY, by officers involved in the Henry Davis case in Ferguson was simply preposterous. Might that have something to do with the frustration of general public in Ferguson? Most rational people dismiss the rantings of knucklehead rioters, but when typically law-abiding people tie their own frustration to that of rioters, well then there’s a deeper problem at hand.</p>
<p>There is unquestionably a deeper, systemic problem at hand. It’s just a shame that the hucksters are muddying the waters and making it harder to focus on the wrongs done to black Americans in America.</p>
<p>No one wants to say it but it has to start with the severe mistrust created by the amazing stories told earlier by police officers in Ferguson, Missouri</p>
<p>Well, I think people have said all of that a whole lot but this is not a one-sided problem, either. If it becomes white cops are always mean to nice black kids going about there own business it’s not reality and it won’t change a thing. And, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes happen. Everything sometimes happens. Sometimes they’re mean to nice white kids, too. Body cameras are probably a good thing since we’ll have the whole video now, not just part two. And, I really I can’t figure out why the easy lessons here like don’t rob and assault aren’t being delivered to anyone instead of spreading even more mistrust based on falsehoods. It’s not as black and white as people are making it and that makes it worse. Really, I don’t even think this was a racial event at all except for the publicity. </p>
<p>I wonder if those who are reaching for any possibility that this didn’t go down exactly as the officer said, grasping for straws that might prove him guilty…will soon be defending the murderous teens that brutally killed a Bosnian man with a hammer. They couldn’t control themselves, they were so frustrated! The injustice made them crazy, it’s the fault of society, this wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t have to deal with so much racism.</p>
<p>Even Ray Kelly, a former Marine and an outstanding NYC Police Commissioner whom has a few stands which I strongly disagree with, recently said that based on his brief observation, something is very wrong systematically with the Ferguson P.D. Ray Kelly is not known for casually dismissing riotous conduct.</p>
<p>@busdriver11 …IMHO, doubtful that will happen on a grand scale. I predict one excuse will be that there is no history of poor treatment/inequality. I’m sure his family will take solace in that, but wait…dead is dead, even if there was no history.</p>
<p>The decision on whether to indict or not here in Staten Island is supposed to come down in the next day or so. Stay tuned . . .</p>
<p>What do you think will happen, zoosermom? What is the public sentiment there? I don’t hear much about this case lately–probably because so much attention has been on Ferguson.</p>
<p>Hasn’t that case been ruled a homicide? They’re so different I really hate these Another Ferguson? headlines. Most people have no idea what’s going on when they decide what they think about it and it’s becoming a big problem. </p>
<p>Several St. Louis Rams players took the field Sunday with their hands up. The police union is incensed, as they put in a lot of work to protect the players. They are also fans and ticked holders.</p>
<p>I’ll bet all of the players that participated in that stunt have been stopped multiple times for DWB, or shopping while black, or living in their neighborhoods while black. And so even though I think the Michael Brown case is a terrible poster child for the problems between the police and the community, I understand the desire to use whatever public awareness is being generated to get something to change. </p>
<p>And really…when someone puts up a post defending the teenagers who attacked to Bosnian immigrant with a hammer, we can all jump on that poster. But can we not “pre-jump” on people who haven’t even posted yet?</p>
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<p>I think it’s rather disingenuous to call people who rioted, destroyed property of people not remotely associated with this event, and committed arson “knuckleheads.”</p>
<p>So many posts here…I can’t keep up. Just want to clarify a point several people have alluded to but haven’t quite fleshed out. It has to do with people, white and black, cops and non-cops being more wary and suspicious around young black males than with other people for reasons other than racism. </p>
<p>It seems unchallenged that black Americans have grown to be wary of police due to the perception that they treat black Americans unfairly. Whether this wariness is based on fact or rumor seems to be irrelevant – it’s there, it’s part of their world view. I would imagine that many blacks would consider a fellow African American who is not wary of the police to lack street smarts.</p>
<p>But the flip side of that coin is that most people in the US (REGARDLESS of their race and ethnicity–remember this? <a href=“Quote by Jesse Jackson: “There is nothing more painful to me at this sta...””>http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5978-there-is-nothing-more-painful-to-me-at-this-stage</a> ) are aware that the murder rate for blacks is usually about six times that of whites (with young black males often being the perpetrators). Think of that: six times. We are not accustomed to such multiples. We would be stunned if it was determined that Oregon has an asthma rate 6 times that of Washington; we would be shocked if a Ford Fusion broke down six times as often as a Chevy Malibu. But if those were facts, we would be foolish not to let them inform our views if we had breathing problems or wanted a reliable sedan. And we wouldn’t be anti-Oregon or anti-Ford if we did that…we’d simply be aware of significant differences in statistics…we would be “street smart,” not bigoted. </p>
<p>I’m saying that ALL Americans are aware of the crime rates every year–or at least they watch TV or internet news and see young black males’ pictures connected to crimes way out of proportion to their population. Do we really expect police officers of all races–whose very lives depend on being wary–to be unaffected by the statistics? Isn’t that part of THEIR street smarts?</p>
<p>Charles Barkley believes they ought to go by ‘scumbags’.
Besides saying he thought the grand jury got it right, he went on to hit a few of the other points that have come up on this thread:
Seems brick-throwers come in all sizes, shapes, and colors.</p>