Posted on 08/15/2014 7:37:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
The facts that seem undisputed -- and in these situations that is so rare -- are that an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown was walking in a street; an altercation occurred with a police officer; the officer gave chase to Mr. Brown after the scuffle and shot Mr. Brown at least once in the back, approximately 20 feet from where the scuffle occurred.
The police officer claims Mr. Brown tried to take the police officer's gun. Witnesses disagree. What is undisputed is by the time you read this, Mr. Brown, who worked his way through a bleak high school education in Ferguson, Missouri, would have been in a college classroom. He defied the odds of many young black men -- graduated from high school and would have started college last week, had he been alive. But he failed to beat the odds of young black men having bad encounters with police.
It is a painful discussion to have in the United States. Too many people profit from racial tension. The media profit by fanning flames and selling papers -- often making themselves the story. Activists in the black community profit by fanning flames of racial unrest and grievance. Activists in liberal circles fan the flames of privilege, class warfare, etc. Conservative activists fan the flames of rhetoric and push back.
Meanwhile, an 18-year-old is dead and everybody is yelling at each other. Facts become more and more disputed. It also becomes less likely that the real truth of what happened can be arrived at.
While conservatives tend to be law and order supporters, there is growing concern about the militarization of local police. Look to Ferguson, Missouri, where policemen who spend their days writing speeding tickets were clad in armor, behind helmets and shields, riding in armored personnel carriers with guns mounted on top.
Conservatives have long lamented the buildup of armaments and stockpiling of bullets by the Department of Homeland Security. The media has mostly treated these conservative concerns with derision. Suddenly, last week, when reporters were detained by the police in Ferguson, Missouri, the media had to pay attention to the militarization of the police and overkill by local police forces.
Given what happened in Ferguson, the community had every right to be angry. The police bungled their handling of the matter, became very defensive and behaved more like a paramilitary unit than a police force. Property damage and violence by the citizenry cannot be excused, but is also the result of a community seeing those who are supposed to protect and serve instead suiting up and playing soldier.
Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878 as Reconstruction came to end. The law ended the military's ability to enforce laws on domestic soil. The police had to be used. But since Sept. 11, 2001, many police departments in the country have turned themselves into mini-militaries. It used to be just a SWAT team ready to take on bad guys.
More and more, the police are suiting up to contain and control the population they are supposed to serve. Not a week goes by without encountering horrific stories of police abuse. In Dallas, Texas, the independent school district has a SWAT team. In New York, a man died after police put him in a chokehold for the high crime of selling cigarettes.
With the rise of terrorism in the United States, major metropolitan areas may need police trained to serve occasionally as paramilitary outfits. But not all police forces are major metropolitan areas.
The odds of a young white man being shot by the police in similar circumstances to Michael Brown are not as high as those of a young black man. But we should not need to have a young white man shot and killed for the rest of the nation to pay attention to the issue.
Just because Michael Brown may not look like you, should not immediately serve as an excuse to ignore the issues involved. Likewise, a media suddenly invested in stories of government overreach should not be dismissive of stories of bureaucrats, not just police, abusing the public trust.
We do, everyday. Here are two: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom
Erikson’s behind the curve on this one after the video from the store was released this morning. Even Don Lemon of CNN had to cover it.
Guess they haven’t seen the video of this upstanding honor student pushing around the much smaller employee of a convenience store in a strong arm robbery, which is why the cops were called in the first place.
There are plenty more recent ones too. They are a footnote, if that, in the media. And when people came out to support the families of Newsome and Christian during the trial, they were called “the Klan” be the media. Of course, they weren’t looting and rioting, so they had to be “the Klan”.
I suppose not. Fox News just showed it a few minutes ago
In the 70’s, Houston PD was rife with shootings by cops with throw-down guns. Race was not an issue. People being pulled over were cautioned to find a lighted, populated area before stopping.
Just same stuff, just more publicity.
There have been white kids killed by police. It is just not nationally reported and white people don’t use the opportunity to riot and loot stores.
The video was just released a little while ago. Not when Erickson wrote the article, which could have been late last night for all we know
They could have held their fire before pushing this narrative, then. I’m not the media, I’m just a civilian with a computer, and I was able to find the story of this robbery yesterday.
The racists, Barack Obama and Eric Holder, will probably demand that an innocent white kid be shot every time a black thug is shot just to even out the body count.
Not only behind the curve, he’s taking part in the “meme” of the events as described by “witnesses” long before any real forensic investigation. The “shot in the back” could turn out to be from some other’s weapon or the person shot (any number of ballistics trajectories which would be borne out by true investigation).
This entire continuing internet scenario baiting and “what if” and “if” games need to stop. Now.
Political posturing now by ... black panthers? This is starting to come right out of the CPUSA handbook. This summer’s riot (last summer it was result of trayvon, remember— everyone’s darling child, not).
Above all— nothing from our dancing present...dent to calm a situation. No? That’s because his handlers want this to blow up, to continue Alinsky/Cloward Piven.
Such is the nature of the thugocracy put in place in the first election— corruptocrats, gangsters and frankly, morons.
Despite the facts of this particular case, this is a very poignant statement.
How many 18 year old 280# white guys have you seen scuffling with police lately?
My brother was white...and killed by the cops...he took 5 bullets in fact...
I don’t say the cops aren’t becoming more militarized, etc. What I take issue with is the, every time, knee jerk reaction by the media that innocent little kid was just minding his business and hurting no one and nothing when the big bad cop just shot him because he could. They know what they’re doing, and if the broader public had any interest in knowing the truth, they would recognize this invariable pattern by the media by now. But no, everyone jumps on an opportunity to make it all about “racial profiling”, or whatever agenda they’re pushing before waiting for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to come in.
Bad timing Mr. Erickson. St. Michael Brown may not be much of a Saint after all.
And for that matter, we’ve already innocent white kids-like the kid with the BB gun-shot by cops, but I don’t recall the media rushing to judgement ahead of the facts to get in the “he was a good kid” narrative going, because they know what’s coming and have to delay or obstruct it. For that matter, the media doesn’t bother it’s pretty little airhead at all when it’s a white kid who was shot by a cop.
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