Cop in MO kills unarmed black teen

TIDE-HSV said:

I believe that's it's largely stopped. The crowds have calmed down and, frankly, most things worth taking are already gone and many merchants have simply boarded up their shops. I dread the outcome if he's no-billed or acquitted, though...

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Displaced Bama Fan said:

If they riot, there may be a lot more dead than one 18 year old boy.

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Displaced Bama Fan said:

If they riot, I hope there are a lot more dead than one 18 year old boy.

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crimsonaudio said:

I have to admit, I'm surprised (and quite pleased) that the release of the shooting of the second black man doesn't seem to have further inflamed these protests - I fully expected things to sling out of control up there for a few days when that video was released.

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crimsonaudio said:

Anyone who has done any real handgun training knows the Tueller Drill (most people do not) - basically, if someone with a knife is 20' or closer to you, they can get to you and cut you before you can draw and fire one accurate shot on target. I think that's why they reacted - normal vests (without plates) do nothing to stop a knife...

That said, I can't fathom using deadly force as a first response when he was obviously unstable - what modern police force doesn't employ tasters?

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crimsonaudio said:

Anyone who has done any real handgun training knows the Tueller Drill (most people do not) - basically, if someone with a knife is 20' or closer to you, they can get to you and cut you before you can draw and fire one accurate shot on target. I think that's why they reacted - normal vests (without plates) do nothing to stop a knife...

That said, I can't fathom using deadly force as a first response when he was obviously unstable - what modern police force doesn't employ tasters?

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Bamabuzzard said:

They are their own worst enemy. When they figure that one out they'll begin making progress as a race in this country. Until then it will be same song same dance over and over.

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stlimprov said:

I know I'm sounding like a broken record, and I don't in any way mean to minimize the impact of the looting, etc. that has taken place, but one of the great frustrations of those from here (STL) is that the portrayal of this whole thing has GREATLY exaggerated the portion of what has been going on that is destructive. There are a lot of people stepping up helping with things like kids getting to school (if you want to see something crazy and convoluted, just try to figure out the school deseg program around here), etc. The vast majority of protesters are peaceful, and a lot of them seem to be trying to engage the complicated topics that all of this brings up. A number of them have gone out of their way to confront those who would commit mischief through ignorance or intent.
It is not my intention to romanticize any of this. All it takes is a few poor decisions and any gathering of people can go south quickly (how's that for a casual pejorative?). But while it is certainly fair to call the whole situation tense, the "powder keg" sensationalism has never felt quite right for this one. That's part of why the whole question of whether the police response was escalating or de-escalating the situation has had resonance.

You know, stupid makes for riveting headlines.

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Article Above said:

A report issued just last week by the nonprofit lawyer’s group ArchCity Defenders notes that in the court’s 36 three-hour sessions in 2013, it handled 12,108 cases and 24,532 warrants. That is an average of 1.5 cases and three warrants per Ferguson household. Fines and court fees for the year in this city of just 21,000 people totaled $2,635,400.

The sum made the municipal court the city’s second-biggest source of revenue. It also almost certainly was a major factor in the antagonism between the police and the citizenry preceding the tragedy that resulted when Wilson had another encounter with a subject six months after he got his commendation.

And any complete investigation into how Michael Brown came to be sprawled dead in the street with a half-dozen bullet wounds must consider not just the cop but the system he served, a system whose primary components include a minor court that generates major money, much of it from poor and working people.

Five of the six City Council members who meet in this chamber are white, even though the city itself is more than 70 percent black. The City Council appoints the municipal judge, currently Ron Brockmeyer, who is also white.

But when this same chamber serves as Ferguson Municipal Court, a disproportionate number of the defendants are black.

The immediate explanation is that the bulk of the cases arise from car stops. The ArchCity Defenders report notes: “Whites comprise 29% of the population of Ferguson but just 12.7% of vehicle stops. After being stopped in Ferguson, blacks are almost twice as likely as whites to be searched (12.1% vs. 6.9%) and twice as likely to be arrested (10.4% vs. 5.2%).”

Lest anyone contend that blacks inherently merit greater police attention than whites, the report offers another statistic.

“Searches of black individuals result in discovery of contraband only 21.7% of the time, while similar searches of whites produce contraband 34.0% of the time.”

That would suggest both that whites were more likely to be stopped when there was actual probable cause and that blacks were more likely to be stopped when there was not. And the antagonism sure to be generated by such racial disparities was magnified by the sheer number of cases.

The report cites a court employee as saying the docket for a typical three-hour court session has up to 1,500 cases. The report goes on to say that “in addition to such heavy legal prosecution,” the Ferguson court and others like it in nearby towns “engage in a number of operational procedures that make it even more difficult for defendants to navigate the courts.”

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chanson78 said:

Obviously not justification, but this town has more issues than Miley Cyrus.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...down-three-warrants-a-year-per-household.html

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