Quote:
Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos
Protesting is what they call a "right" in America. Thousands of people protested peacefully, but you've just painted them all as criminals. To suggest otherwise is, apparently, akin to believing that it's all a conspiracy involving space lizards.
And you believe this guy severed his own spine after he was dragged, screaming in pain, into a police van and then ended up being taken to a close-by hospital an hour and a half later, where he died. This is what you believe to be the most likely scenario.
Lizard people indeed. And call the Rockefeller's while we're at it.
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Firstly, I am talking about the people that opted to loot, riot, and destroy businesses, not the ones that protested peacefully. Anyone that has destroyed public property, assaulted police officers, or destroyed businesses, is not a protester, they are criminals. Period. It is written nowhere in any American law book that this is legal behaviour.
Secondly, this man was a convicted felon with a rap sheet longer than this thread, including burglary, assault and drug dealing. He was a piece of human scum. Did he deserve to die? No. Did the Police have good cause to keep tabs on him, absolutely. I would not want that man as my neighbour, and nor would you. Regardless of the colour of his skin.
http://heavy.com/news/2015/04/freddi...gray-arrested/
Thirdly, he had already had a personal injury settlement for a lead paint lawsuit which he seemed to be blaming his problems on, which he was receiving an annuity. Perhaps he was thinking this was another opportunity for a lawsuit to make someone else pay for his terrible life decisions. It is not at all uncommon for criminals to throw themselves on the ground, and attempt to injure themselves to get lawsuits against police departments. He was not belted into the van, and could have been thrashing around in the back tying to cut, injure or bruise himself. There are numerous videos online of suspects in custody, in cruisers, and jail cells, doing exactly that.
Lastly, I am getting very tired of this argument being about black people being singled out and persecuted simply because of skin colour. Are more black people per capita killed by cops. Yes. Is it because they are black? No. It is because they are unfortunate victims of a socio-economic situation that has put them in an extreme cycle of poverty and crime. You cannot blame a young black man for resorting to a life of crime when he has next to no options otherwise. He is being stereotyped by employers, he is at an extreme economic disadvantage as his parents survived the same tragic set of circumstances, and the cycle repeats itself. But regardless of those circumstances, crime cannot go unpunished. Whether it is the disadvantaged African American from the projects, or the hillbilly piece of white trash cooking meth.
The saddest, most ignored fact of all however, is the person most likely to kill a black man, is another black man, and that is the biggest tragedy.
These people should not be protesting against police violence, they should be protesting against the terrible conditions in which they are living, the seeming re-borth of racism, and against the a-holes inside their own neighbourhoods leading their children to this life of crime.
Anyone with half a brain, and with any Canadian black acquaintances can tell you, there is nothing different about an African Canadian than an Anglo-Canadian besides outward appearance. Because we have a society that embraces multiculturalism, and equal opportunity. Unfortunately, rampant racism, which the internet has IMO fully re-ignited into America, has pushed the equal rights movement back decades, and while most of the Western world is moving forward, The United States seems to be moving backwards.
Lastly, IMO, you're a solid, funny and well educated poster. However your passive aggressive insults get tiring sometimes. You have a very smug way about arguing a point sometimes, and a very talented way of blatantly mislabelling what people said to forward your point. In no way was I painting 'every protester' as a criminal. And if that is what you took away from that statement, I might actually begin to question the educated part of my opinion of you.