Iris lilies, how are things in your hood?

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Originally Posted by peggy

That's a big fella for sure. 292 and 6'4".
If only this COULD be black and white. But it has all shades of grey all over it. Unfortunately.
The police did overreact and some in the crowd did loot. No one is blameless here. But the riot and over reaction of the police are separate from the killing of this young man. These are really two different stories that need to be addressed. Seperately.

I do think the cop acted wrongly. I don't know what he was thinking or feeling...probably fear as that would make him draw his gun and shoot. I'm pretty sure he didn't leave the house with the intention of killing an unarmed man. I'm also pretty sure he knows he was wrong in his actions. He is supposed to be able to handle the situation in a cool calm manner, and not like just some George Zimmerman cop wanna be.

The young man, apparently, wasn't just some innocent good guy walking down the street black. He did just rob a store. He did threaten and strong arm the clerk. He wasn't the teddy bear his friends/family have tried to portray him as. Sure, he might have been a good student, and a nice guy to friends/family, etc..and getting ready for college, etc..but, he DID just rob a store. Good guys don't do that. They don't. Thugs do that. Punks do that. Bullies do that...especially when they do it in broad daylight essentially telling the clerk 'I'm gonna take this and you can't do anything about it'. That's not the act of a desperate person trying to feed his family or 'just get by'. That's not the act of a person driven to desperation by his crummy lot in life. That's the act of a thug. period.

The cop didn't know he was unarmed. The cop was probably scared by the guys size. Yet it would seem the cop blew it.
If only it could be black and white. It would be so easy if the kid was the good/off to college kid some would believe, or the cop was the evil George Zimmerman others would believe. I'm guessing neither is what each side would have us believe. Or as bad as the other side would make them be. Very complicated. Very sad.

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peggy? peggy, is that you?

I agree with what you wrote above, it's nicely balanced and reasonable.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

peggy? peggy, is that you?

I agree with what you wrote above, it's nicely balanced and reasonable.

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There are probably no Republicans involved.:)

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

peggy? peggy, is that you?

I agree with what you wrote above, it's nicely balanced and reasonable.

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. And likewise, it would be nice to have some of you conservatives to show balance sometimes too. Just sayin'.

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Originally Posted by CathyA

. And likewise, it would be nice to have some of you conservatives to show balance sometimes too. Just sayin'.

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What part of perform an investigation, determine the facts, and punish whoever did wrong do you find imbalanced?

I was referring to responses in general. I am always puzzled with the aggressive, somewhat insulting way that some of you present your opinions. Maybe I should have brought this up in another post.

In this particular case, everybody is making assumptions before the facts are known.
And I think, in part, some of it IS a racial thing.......but mostly on the part of blacks. Perhaps my feelings are tainted by the fact that every single day in a nearby city, murders/rapes/robberies are committed by a certain ethnic group. I also have my own life experiences to draw from too. Maybe you've had different experiences.

Perhaps this happens in St. Louis too. We do have to appreciate how frustrating it must be for the police to encounter enraged people all the time.........with such easy access to guns.
Of course there are always bad cops too.

I think they really downplayed the looting, in order not to enrage the crowds more. And I think they brought in the State Police, because the head of it was a black man.......who marched with them.
I think there is a race problem in this country that everyone is trying so very hard to deny..........and it's not always the whites.

Go ahead.....call me a racist. I'm just voicing what I'm seeing going on. There is a sub-set of young black males who are very angry and violent. We need to figure out how to fix that.........if there even is a way.
And we DO need to wait until all the information is in. But I'm afraid the result will either cause riots, or intentionally give the masses what they want to hear in order to keep the calm.

I sincerely DO hope that justice prevails........if we can even figure out what that is.

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Originally Posted by CathyA

I was referring to responses in general. I am always puzzled with the aggressive, somewhat insulting way that some of you present your opinions. Maybe I should have brought this up in another post.

In this particular case, everybody is making assumptions before the facts are known.
And I think, in part, some of it IS a racial thing.......but mostly on the part of blacks. Perhaps my feelings are tainted by the fact that every single day in a nearby city, murders/rapes/robberies are committed by a certain ethnic group. I also have my own life experiences to draw from too. Maybe you've had different experiences.

Perhaps this happens in St. Louis too. We do have to appreciate how frustrating it must be for the police to encounter enraged people all the time.........with such easy access to guns.
Of course there are always bad cops too.

I think they really downplayed the looting, in order not to enrage the crowds more. And I think they brought in the State Police, because the head of it was a black man.......who marched with them.
I think there is a race problem in this country that everyone is trying so very hard to deny..........and it's not always the whites.

Go ahead.....call me a racist. I'm just voicing what I'm seeing going on. There is a sub-set of young black males who are very angry and violent. We need to figure out how to fix that.........if there even is a way.
And we DO need to wait until all the information is in. But I'm afraid the result will either cause riots, or intentionally give the masses what they want to hear in order to keep the calm.

I sincerely DO hope that justice prevails........if we can even figure out what that is.

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Good point, Cathy.....I love your last sentence. What exactly would justice look like in this situation anyway? How is change effected to prevent similar from taking place in the future? I don't have the answers, that's for sure.....Rob

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Originally Posted by Yossarian

What part of perform an investigation, determine the facts, and punish whoever did wrong do you find imbalanced?

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I think there's nothing per se wrong with performing an investigation, determining facts, and then doling out consequences or not depending on the findings. That's how things should work in a civilized society in my book. So I'm not disagreeing with you per se. The only problem is, coming where I come from socioeconomically, I can tell this board that many lower income people have no faith and trust in the system at all, including the legal system. I know many people to whom the word "investigation" automatically translates to "cover up". It's not good that Ferguson is 70% black and has so little diversity on it's police force - leading to perceptions of the old boy's network if this cop does indeed get off scott free. (which remains to be seen down the road).

I think some of what we are experiencing here with the social media onslaught is a lot of people who don't really care for what America has become and due to globalization, don't have much to lose and don't feel they have much of a stake in what America has become AND they have access to social media. Certainly those who feel marginalized are going to take advantage of the social media access, and something else I don't believe those who are middle class on this board don't get - down the pole from you, people feel and think very differently about America and a lot of people are flat out hopeless and fed up. That's why situations like this can be so explosive. Rob

Gotta say I just went online to read the latest about Ferguson and it seems as if there was looting again there last night. This I don't like. Very unsavory, especially after changes were made as to who was in charge and the police toned themselves down. This does not make the black community look good. I'm afraid this is going to be a long drawn out situation with no easy answers, just a real headache. Rob

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Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife

Gotta say I just went online to read the latest about Ferguson and it seems as if there was looting again there last night. This I don't like. Very unsavory, especially after changes were made as to who was in charge and the police toned themselves down. This does not make the black community look good. I'm afraid this is going to be a long drawn out situation with no easy answers, just a real headache. Rob

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The leadership in Ferguson is tone deaf. It's stupid to release any information, to hold any press conference, without cluing in the State team in advance.

That said, last night's crying, screaming, looting, assaulting police--doing all of those things in response to information released by the Ferguson police department (information that had to come out anyway) is off the charts stupid.

Our local news portrayed last night's events as: 300 peaceful protestors went home in the evening, and then the looters and rioters came out.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Our local news portrayed last night's events as: 300 peaceful protestors went home in the evening, and then the looters and rioters came out.

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That seems to be how most of these events have happened the past decade or so. You have the protestors, then you have the crowd of agitators/thugs/anarchists/wildings that come out to play and hijack things.

It's a great combination really.