Ferguson

Is Ferguson just another example of how "Jim Crowe" has continued to evolve and oppress people of color, or was it justified what the police did to that kid?

 

I don't know if Jim Crowe is the right way to describe it, but it was definitely not Ok what happened. To shoot an unarmed person is just not OK, I don't know why the cop thought he was being threatened so much that he needed to shoot, but I do think it was completely out of line. Personally, I hope he gets charged. I don't know all the details of course, but what I have heard from credible sources makes me think the cop should be charged with this.

 

It's not okay to repeatedly shoot a kid who wasn't armed even if he *had* just committed a crime. Never okay. In my opinion one officer made a huge mistake in not only "shooting to kill" but shooting many times. Huge horrible error, and like @DancingLady said, he should be charged. I'd guess (may be wrong) that he would have had the authority to shoot to maim or whatever they call it, if he felt threatened, but all those shots? Never.

That said, though, the aftermath should have never happened. All the destruction and damage and turmoil... rioting... all that was/is a very poor way to handle frustrations and it didn't need to be escalated.

I (personal opinion here) think that if Jim Crow Law was a part of it, it would have been on the part of the officer in question... but the resulting chaos backfired and made it look even more like that.

 

I recently took a rap and culture course in college and we talked about the riots in Los Angeles in 1992. There were a lot of chilling things I learned about those riots and one of them being that the cops job was to eliminate people of color. Not in those exact words, but I know that was their objective.

 

The whole case has not come out at this time, so I do not know all of the details of the actual shooting. Perhaps even weighing in on this subject is a little dangerous and a not so smart of a thing to do, but no one has ever accused me of backing away because I was smart.

I try to think about how I would react if someone were indeed fighting with me in a close contact type of confrontation. If I had a gun, and a finger on the trigger, it is not hard to imagine myself shooting someone several times especially if they were larger than I and pretty much on top of me. If the argument that the police are supposed to be well trained regarding the potential of similar situations happening, so be it. No matter how much someone is trained, each situation is different. I was trained to protect myself and to kill at the same time. My training was different than a police persons but I can still relate to the scenario.
No one really counts how many times they use a weapon on someone. If it were a stick and an arms length confrontation, you hit the person as many times as it takes to make the adversary stop doing whatever he was doing.

For whatever reason, I do not feel as though this can be compared to any other confrontation, whether it is the Rodney King provoked riots or the Detroit riots in the late 60's. I do not believe that the shooting was race motivated, but it was touted as such and the consequences are still a topic of debate. There were so many outsiders in Fergusen that had absolutely nothing to do with it provoking and in the riots. The Black Panthers were there and their leader said over the air how much he HATED white people. He didn't say police or any other leader.....just white people. The race hate mongering and riots were not the intention of the local black people of Ferguson. The demonstrations concerning police abuse were.

Race is no longer a topic about cars. If we say race it is automatically about whites persecuting black people. I am really getting very sick of the whole thing. Until recently, I have never had any feelings one way or the other. A person is a person is a person. Now, I feel as though my race is on some kind of judging block wherein we are all now accused of racism because we are white. If the roles had been reversed (race wise) I fear that the media would have shrugged it off as just another no news day.

 

It's hard not to think of it that way though. Because black people have been persecuted for years. Now, I don't know if there is a legitimate reason for it or if it is racially motivated and I really don't know what the statistics are of black people being arrested compared to white people. And I actually read a few chapters about Huey Newton and how he started the Black Panther movement. Originally, he went to law school so that he could educate the people in black communities about their rights. He emphasized how they had the right to defend themselves and that is why you see the black panther party armed with guns. Unfortunately, there were those who took the black panther party to a whole other level and it became an advocate for people who hated white people. Who can blame them really. I mean, it's okay for white people to be racist against black people but not the other way around? It's not okay either way, but you can't blame black people for feeling the way they feel about white people.

Anyway it seems to be a continuous cycle. Maybe the cop had a reason for shooting a kid, but the least he could've done was wound him, not kill him.

 

I deeply hesitate to write this, but someone has to come out and say it.
There are black CEO's, Senators, Congress persons, D.A.'s, our president, an x-secretary of state, business owners, managers, scientists, cops, brain surgeons, ect. ect. If you talk to any one of these people they will not tell you that it was white people that held them back. Most people whether white, black, indigo or green will tell you that all that is required to be a success is some intestinal fortitude and hard work.
If you hear about a black judge sentencing a black person to prison is it a racist thing? But if a white judge does the sentencing it's racist.
In Ferguson, who did the ransacking of black businesses? It's 75% black in Ferguson. Who voted the all white city council into office. With a 25% white population there had to be some black votes in there. In Chicago black on black murders far exceed a white/black issue. Did anyone arrest any of the black panthers for threatening white people at the polling areas in the 1st O'Bama presidential election? Matter of fact, did the leader of the panthers get busted in Ferguson for his hate speech?

I did not own slaves. I do not know any slave owners. I have never met a slave, but I do know the history of slaves. I do not even know any black people who say they have ever been persecuted by white people. But then, most of my black friends are military veterans, some of which retired with extremely high ranks. Nobody holding them down.

I have been called a racist because I openly oppose O'Bama. Yet, if Colin Powell had run for the presidency he would have been my pick. Now talk about racism. O'Bama's brother said that he didn't like Barack for his blackness, and our president did not like his brother for his whiteness. Yet they both look surprisingly alike and speak alike. They both had the same mother and father. Yet, they dislike each other because of race.

Montel Williams had some great advice about the race boom....."quit talking about it." So....I shall. Cheers

 

Jim Crow laws? If Jim Crow laws would have been blamed for anything anywhere it would have been Alabama, so no. Plus, its been 50 years since they were repealed?

Officers are trained to shoot to kill, not maim. We give our officers a certain trust and authority to make life and death situations. I would personally like to see what happens in a trial if it comes to that. As far as the victim, the people were upset because of the terms "boy, child, teen" being used. Did they realize the huge size of him? On the video he appears to be very large and picking the store owner off the ground. We do not know the description the officer received over the air. If he heard, "Armed and Dangerous. Suspect fled scene of store with weapon after battery" that would put him in a different state of mind than "Teen shoplifted". This is just an example.

I too am sick of the race issue. I was accused of being racist because I used the word "boy" to describe my friend. Another man started screaming at me that he is a "man". I tried to explain that in my generation "boy" was friendly: Boyz n the Hood, Fat Boys, Beastie Boys, etc. It made no difference. I was a racist---even though I was hanging out with my black friends at the time.

I think if people want to stop racism, then they need to stop segregating themselves. Stop with the all black organizations and assimilate properly. White people think the KKK is a bunch of freaks, we are not all like that.

As for the Black Panthers, I have studied them extensively. Believe it or not, they had white members! They were a political party that provided food, education and health care to their communities. J Edgar Hoover saw them as a threat because they wanted people to think for themselves. The FBI turned them into terrorists, but once they were dissipated by the constant barrage of FBI harassment, the communities in which they lived fell apart. Watch the documentary "The Bastards of the Party" made by a real Los Angeles "Blood" gang member which shows how the deterioration of the panthers led to the deterioration of the city.

 

I didn't catch the where and when, but this morning there was a demonstration by the white supremists and just down the road a demonstration by the black panthers. Too stupid.

 

People need to settle down and talk through the issues. Try to understand where the other person is coming from and explain your own views clearly and respectfully so both sides can understand where miscommunication is happening and work to find a real solution. Yelling and demonstrating like this only fuel more anger from everyone, not resolution.

 

I agree Dancing. People are quick to respond in anger, slow to respond in grief. The human race has been dying too long by people's hatred.