Rival gang members come together to stop looting.

O'Reilly is dead on about that point. The looters do not give a shit about michael Brown, hence they totally ignored his parents. They're more concerned with playing the victim - a role they love to play - and freaking out.

Seems very obvious Wilson is an idiot. Both sides should agree on that. His testimony was cringeworthy.

The more dire idiot is the one who thought it wise to beat, intimidate, and charge at a man (a scared man, an unwise man, if you wish) with a firearm.

I just meant that once Brown didn't follow orders, the cop had to start shooting at one point. Especially based on the previous disregard of his orders, the past theft and the violent attack.

Thinking about the shots, they said that the head shot killed him, so the cop first shot at the body a number ber of times, but Brown kept on coming.

I also feel there is, to a certain degree, an unfair distrust of the police. Or rather a growing sense to see every shooting as "bad" and to connect each one with bits of string.

Hypothetical situation: Policeman A is called because of a loud domestic dispute. Citizen A has PTSD and an unloaded Smith & Wesson .38. There is a heated exchange. Citizen A reaches for his gun. Policeman A shoots him, and it is fatal.

I imagine a charge going up Eagle's leg as he reads this on, I don't know, Slate. They have done it again! Why did the policeman not understand and sympathize with the mental illness? Does he not realize the gun was not even loaded?! Could he not shoot to maim or paralyze? Why are the police armed in the first place? Reactionary pig with his simplistic and violent worldview. And, by extension, no sympathy for the policeman and his sense of self-preservation and the tension of his job as he comes upon a volatile scene with limited information.

Human beings in and of themselves can be extremely frightening and destructive. Until he used a gun, Wilson was outmatched by Brown as a physical presence. And Brown was antagonistic, striking him, and returning for more. So he was shot. Screw it.

I wonder if this is the next shooting to catch media fire: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/ind ... rifle.html

Those pigs.

If I were a cop, I would treat any weapon in a criminal or unstable citizen's hand as loaded. Her boyfriend could easily be wrong in saying there is, to his knowledge, no ammunition in the home.

Problem in AMerica is that compared to other develop countries it is violent and cops do experience violence upon them and guns are rampant, which is not the case in other developed countries.


That is why I always notice in the States the cops are way more serious to the point of paranoid then here in Canada.

Abso-fucking-lutely. I don't get why the USA simply doesn't look at other countries and wonder why the hell there are so few people shopt there each year compared to the US. The police barely ever shoots anyone in Germany. Not just lethally, but at all. A friend of mine is a cop and he says he has colleagues who haven't even drawn their gun once in over 20 years. You're gotta start wondering why the hell are the cops in the US so trigger-happy and keep shooting people. Well, most likely because there is a high probability sometimes that the person they shoot could also have a gun. People get paranoid, scared.

The cops I have met in the US have been more genuinely interested in helping you (like when asking for directions) than in most other countries I have experienced and yet, at the same time, I still perceived them more theatening than the cops here. Things have to get really fucking out of control here for a cop to draw their gun at all, I always have a feeling like this line is crossed far more quickly in the US.

The paranoid gun culture that the media and politicians and our deep rooted racism have created is quite unique.

Did you gain this insight from Lethal Weapon? Do you run into cops that often to form an opinion of this nature?

Looks to me like crime is mostly going down across the decades in the U.S.

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

One thing, and this doesn't pertain much to Michael Brown, is that the U.S. uses its prison system as a place to house the mentally ill. Which is sickening. I am not sure how easy it is to have someone committed in other countries, but in the U.S. it is well nigh impossible without them engaging in a violent act against another person.

Didn't read the entire thread, but I wanted to point people to two blog posts I did, because a lot of the comments I am seeing are from people who have no idea what a Grand Jury is and thus have no idea of the kind of sham the DA pulled off here.

http://ventrellaquest.com/2014/11/25/wh ... ry-anyway/

http://ventrellaquest.com/2014/11/26/wh ... nd-juries/

Agreed.

I haven't been following the news closely. Was the Grand Jury decision unanimous? What was the bar for indictment?

It seems the process gave the DA a lot of maneuverability given he was the only one giving instructions to the "jury" and the hearing was closed to the public.

US police officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, triggering nationwide riots has resigned, his lawyer says.

I think the only place he can go is maybe to share a house with George Zimmerman?

It's possible Wilson is telling the truth but there's easily enough case against him to be a trial. The Robert McCulloch selection considering his history was about as fair as Vince McMahon picking a special guest referee for a Stone Cold match

With that said it's possible this is more of a cops are far too protected than races are unequally treated thing

I think this started off as a cops are far too protected thing, but then quickly started to show signs if racism in this country as everything started to play out with the grand jury

Protected cops, militarized cops, culture of violence, poor training, stereotyping, racial inequality, lots of issues at play here.

Just like the black leaders, protestors and rioters, too bad you aren't looking at both sides to correct the problems.

Another no grand jury indictment, in the Eric Garner death. Where there was a video of a choke hold death, a prohibited move.

Hopefully any protests are peaceful. As there should be over this one.

Another bullshit non-indictment.

1) The protesters did nothing wrong, they're simply exercising their first amendment rights.
2) You don't like the current black leaders, that's your opinion, again, they've done nothing wrong.
3) There are undoubtedly a few violent rioters looking to cause mayhem and taking advantage of the situation to loot and steal. These people are a result of the problem, not the problem itself. If they all magically disappeared and nothing else changed, the same issues would create a whole new set of people to take their place. The fact that here is where you would look to correct the problem shows you have no idea what the problem even is.

Tonight in New York is the Rockerfeller Christmas Tree Lighting, so it should be interesting if protestors try something there.

Anyway, lots of cops all throughout the city.

1. Some protestors did things wrong, which led to violence.
2. Try defend the BS that Al Sharpton spouts, as he is one of the biggest talkers.
3. Only a few? Guess you don't watch the news nightly?

On the Brown incident, it is too bad you aren't bothered by many of his stupid, violent and illegal acts, especially assaulting a police officer and trying to take his gun.

If he did do all those things, he would not have been killed that night. So like I said, start with both sides, as they both were wrong.

Brown should be in jail, not in the ground.