Police shooting of unarmed teen leads to protests and Riot

[Itse]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

So...when people realize they are less likely to get away with it (on both sides)' they are less likely to act like idiots and instead act like civil human beings. This isn't news.It's a sad fact of life. It's also why the majority of police officers (not their unions, the actual officers themselves) are for body cams.

Then again many things seem obvious in retrospect

More importantly this fits everybody's world view well enough to make this something that should actually be possible to get done. This is relevant in the US which has become a prime example how politics can destroy a political system.

But I'm sure the good old Red and Blue tribe will just quickly decide that this is a partisan issue regardless of the facts...

[ernie]

Justice Department has found that Ferguson Police Department had a pattern and practice of discrimination against African-Americans.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/politi...ion/index.html

In 88% of the cases in which police the Ferguson police reported using force, it was against African Americans. During the period 2012-2014 black drivers were twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during traffic stops, but 26% less likely to be found in possession of contraband.

Blacks were disproportionately more likely to be cited for minor infractions: 95% of tickets for "manner of walking in roadway," essentially jaywalking, were against African Americans. Also, 94% of all "failure to comply" charges were filed against black people.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by ernie

Justice Department has found that Ferguson Police Department had a pattern and practice of discrimination against African-Americans.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/politi...ion/index.html

That reminds me of when I went to court in Lethbridge to fight a traffic ticket. There must have about 15 to 20 native people in there fighting j-walking tickets. The judge threw out all the charges (the tickets were handed out by the same officer).

After the first couple, the judge listened and then let them off with a warning. Then he just stopped and asked for anyone there for a j-walking ticket to raise their hand. Then he got mad and told the officer to stop wasting people's time with that nonsense. It was pretty funny.

[jar_e]

From a CNN Breaking News email...

The Justice Department has formally closed its investigation of Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson, declining to bring criminal charges for the killing of Michael Brown.

In a report released Wednesday, prosecutors said that "Wilson's actions do not constitute prosecutable violations" of federal civil rights law.

[Acey]

lol.

[Flash Walken]

Of all the harrowing stories buried inside the Justice Department’s report on the Ferguson Police Department, one of the most illustrative begins with an illegally parked car. The year was 2007. And a Ferguson officer who noticed the illegally parked vehicle issued its driver, an African American woman, two citations and a ticket for $151.

To the driver, who had bounced in and out of homelessness, the fine was draconian. She couldn’t pay it in full. So over the next seven years, the woman missed several deadlines and court dates. That tacked on more fees, more payment deadlines, more charges. She ultimately spent six days in jail. All because she didn’t park her car correctly. As of December 2014, the woman had paid the city of Ferguson $550 resulting from a $151 ticket. And she still owes $541.

The Ferguson police and courts have come under broad criticism for discriminatory practices. Eighty-five percent of people subjected to vehicle stops are African American, according to the report. Ninety percent of people hit with citations are African American. Ninety-three percent of people arrested are African American. But despite the racial overtones, other mechanisms are in play that that go back centuries.

This, as the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out on Twitter, is “plunder made legal” and “Municipal employees in Ferguson report sound more like shareholders. Gangsters.” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called it a system “primed for maximizing revenue” — one that now basically serves as a “collection agency” instead of “a law enforcement entity focused primarily on maintaining public safety.”

“The new Department of Justice report depicts a system in Ferguson that is much closer to a racket aimed at squeezing revenue out of its population than a properly working democracy,” wrote George Washington University political scientist Henry Farrell in the Monkey Cage blog, which runs in The Washington Post. Ferguson city employees, from the police chief to the finance director, collaborated to generate revenue through tickets and fees, according to the Justice Department. As described in the report, Farrell and others pointed out, Ferguson is reminiscent of medieval Europe, when gangster governments collected “tribute” and bamboozled the subject population at every turn.

...

The Ferguson police and courts have come under broad criticism for discriminatory practices. Eighty-five percent of people subjected to vehicle stops are African American, according to the report. Ninety percent of people hit with citations are African American. Ninety-three percent of people arrested are African American. But despite the racial overtones, other mechanisms are in play that that go back centuries.

This, as the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out on Twitter, is “plunder made legal” and “Municipal employees in Ferguson report sound more like shareholders. Gangsters.” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called it a system “primed for maximizing revenue” — one that now basically serves as a “collection agency” instead of “a law enforcement entity focused primarily on maintaining public safety.”

“The new Department of Justice report depicts a system in Ferguson that is much closer to a racket aimed at squeezing revenue out of its population than a properly working democracy,” wrote George Washington University political scientist Henry Farrell in the Monkey Cage blog, which runs in The Washington Post. Ferguson city employees, from the police chief to the finance director, collaborated to generate revenue through tickets and fees, according to the Justice Department. As described in the report, Farrell and others pointed out, Ferguson is reminiscent of medieval Europe, when gangster governments collected “tribute” and bamboozled the subject population at every turn.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...=hp_mm&hpid=z3

[Knalus]

Flash, that wasn't even the biggest sign of injustice in that article.

And when people couldn’t pay, they were arrested. Around 21,000 people live in Ferguson. But in 2013, the city’s municipal court issued a staggering 32,975 arrest warrants for minor offenses, according to Missouri state records. “Folks have the impression that this form of low-level harassment isn’t about public safety,” Thomas Harvey of ArchCity Defenders, which explored the practices in a report last summer, told NPR. “It’s about money.”

[ernie]

Another reminder as to where many parts of the US are when it comes to racism.

The video shows a group of young white students chanting the n-word loudly and boisterously while riding on a bus.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national chapter shut down the chapter Sunday night, suspended all of the chapter's members and threatened to remove those responsible from the fraternity for life.

In the video, the students are heard chanting, "There will never be a ni**** in SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me."

"SAE" stands for Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. "Sign with" means join the fraternity.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/us/okl...ant/index.html

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by ernie

Another reminder as to where many parts of the US are when it comes to racism.



http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/09/us/okl...ant/index.html

Why are there still fraternities?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Why are there still fraternities?

Spoiled, privileged white kids still need houses to trash.

[Derek Sutton]

nm

[PsYcNeT]

So the unarmed black guy shot to death by American police toll is up to what, 3 so far this week?

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Why are there still fraternities?

This is how southern universities segregate their campus, only rich white kids get in and keep their worthless kids away from the unwanted.

[Bill Bumface]

Two Officers shot in 'Ambush' Outside Ferguson PD

Two officers were shot in front of the Ferguson Police Department early Thursday while demonstrators were gathered across the street — an attack the county police chief described as "an ambush" that could easily have killed both men.

[Canuck-Hater]

My understanding is that the gunfire did not come from the area that protesters were assembled.

[WhiteTiger]

Large image

Spoiler!

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

Large image

Spoiler!

I don't get it. Who are they supposed to protest against, criminals?

[Bill Bumface]

And why did they use 'o' instead of '0'? What does it meeeeaannn!?!?

[afc wimbledon]

I'm waiting for the NRA to applaud the use of 2nd amendment rights in punishing an oppressive and corrupt government. Or does that just apply to whites?

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I don't get it. Who are they supposed to protest against, criminals?

It's pretty much the same logic as those memes going around that said "You didn't see WHITE PEOPLE rioting when THESE PEOPLE were shot by a black guy!!!!!" which of course had a link to an article stating that the perpetrator was caught, charged, and now in jail.