They're tear gassing peaceful protesters and arresting journalists in Ferguson tonight.

Exactly. Now are the police shooting tear gas at people during the day or at night when the crooks are out taking advantage of this situation.

Sounds like a real nutcase.

And he was absolutely correct. This thread was about rioting and the police response. It was not about the event that sparked the rioting.

Please do pay attention.

Do you have cops in your family or circle of colleagues/friends? Some cities have educational requirements, completely free and clear criminal records, etc. etc. so in some (not all) towns many blacks don't have a high school education let alone college. None of these things means you'll be a better cop, but not just anyone can be a cop even if they want to. It's kind of like the military. A lot of people bust on them for being stupid, yet nationwide only about 25 percent of young people are even eligible for the military. And yes, there were in the past lawsuits because cities had lower standards for minorities because they needed to hire more minorities. As far as I know that's nowhere near common these days nor should it be.

I'm a racist because I disagree with you? Yes standards have been lowered in fire/police departments in other cities (in the past) to recruit more minorities.
Google it up if you like. That's just the way it sometimes goes.

Anyway IF there is systemic bigotry/discrimination etc, in St. Louis and it can be proven, everyone from the top down should be fired and sued.

Seriously folks: given their execution of an unarmed child and their response to protests against that execution, what differentiates the Ferguson police force from an occupying military power guilty of war crimes? They're violent, murderous terrorists falsely claiming authority of law, and the governor should send in the National Guard, round up the whole lot of them, have them charged with acts of terrorism, and have them shot if they resist.

And if the governor doesn't do that then the citizens of Ferguson certainly have the right to.

HEY! Stop it Grout! I'm the only one on WF to buck the party line. Having a difffering opinion on anything racial is my schtick!
America "needs" a serious discussion on race but it has to be a one-way monolouge only.

Batboy does not like Liet. Liet scares Batboy.

Good Lord.

Just shut the fuck up already.

Your posts as just wall to wall fascism.

OMG!

"Never connect. Never connect."

Here's the thing, everywhere I go this morning, conservative whites are striking up conversations about what is happening up there, and not from a POV you might expect. My Twitter feed is full of people, left and right, freaked the fuck out about what they are seeing, and not from a POV you might expect. Yes, racism is bad mmmkay? If racism is an issue, it's government sanctioned institutional racism.

But this is not a blue/red issue. Playing the old race cards isn't going to win any converts, most people already accept that it might be involved, but no one, not you, not me, not Liet, can know what happened to that kid. That's for the courts. But we all see what's happening and it's scary. Don't narrow the focus on what is quickly becoming an issue that defies tired old political lines.

The government is arming police, and instilling within them an us vs them mindset. To what end?

An 18-year-old is, at a minimum, a young man. Certainly not a child, you whackaloon!

Unless you're a mind reader, you have no idea what points of view I expect. So take your condescension and shove it up your ass.

I agree with you that militarization is a problem, fuck I said it in the 3rd post of this thread. But you're the one narrowing the focus. This can be a discussion about more than one thing, it can be about the militarization of police forces, as well as about towns and cities that have police departments that utterly fail to represent the demographics of the area and that contribute to situations like this.

Yeah, because threads on Wordforge NEVER deviate from their original topic.

What evenflow seems to be saying (Yes, this is me talking around him for a change) is that militarized police forces have now become a White People's Problem.

We know what happens next.

Half time is over?

I've lost the last ten days thanks to a 103-104 degree fever. I have no clue about any of this. Does anyone that is not a shrieking moonbat want to give me the 50-word version of this as a place to start?

In a perfect world, this is where Batboy would come in.

Liberty is dying, and WF is going to slap-fight over partisan shit until the quicksand oozes over their heads.

Well... That's Thursday for ya.

Are you saying that white people paying attention is a bad thing? Should we only pay attention when it's a cute lil white gurl that gets beaten or killed?

Google Radley Balko. He is white and has been way ahead of the media on this. I'll let you guess his political affiliation.

Don't know if I qualify on the "not a shrieking moonbat" part but...

1) White cops shot in black youth in circumstances that are not yet fully clear, testimonies being very contradictory. They vary from "he was struggling with a cop and trying to take his gun away" to "he was walking in the street, calmly, holding his hands in the air and pleading with them not to shoot." Make of that what you will; your guess is as good as anyone else's. Probably better, actually.

2) The situation degenerated with protests that engendered some violence and looting. The latter was almost certainly not the intent of the organizers of the original protests, which may or may not have been justified (depending on whose testimony you accept about the original incident).

3) The police militarized the situation to stop the looting and rioting, over-reacting seriously in some cases. Among other things, a couple of thug cops arrested two journalists (big mistake there) in a violent way when no arrest was justified, and the journalists of course took it to the public, the media being the only force in the country that is more powerful than militarized police forces.

4) Almost everyone agrees that the over-reaction of the police was wrong, and the guys who did it are probably getting in trouble for it, but the police forces refuse to identify them and throw them to the proverbial wolves. Just about everything from there is speculation, fueled by whatever agendas the ones doing the speculating have.

Don't worry folks, Missouri is a red state, so is bound to have militias and the like. Expect hordes of Gun-Toting Patriots™ to arrive at any moment to righteously repel the Jackbooted Government Thugs™. Really.... any moment now. I'm surprised that they haven't shown up yet. They all must have had car trouble or something. But they'll be here soon. Never you worry. What? Black people you say? Er, um... never mind.

Thing is, you think you're joking. But this is actually on the horizon. At some point a militarized police force is going to run into a "militia" and then things will get interesting. It almost happened with that rancher guy a couple months ago.

I'm saying you don't know your history. These things run in cycles. Stocking up on ammo isn't the cure.

Calling the Bundy incident "interesting" is like saying John Castle's funny. Actually, his desperate defense of those thugs was mildly amusing...

The Tea Party types in my feed sound like Jesse Jackson. The liberals say constitution so much I keep expecting
them to post pictures wearing tri corner hats.

But hey, enjoy your bubble.

It's difficult to know what will excite the conservatives more, championing a rebellion against the jackbooted forces of a fascist state, or the sport of watching white cops tear-gas black protesters. Either way it's a great time to be a conservative these days!

Actually, I guess conservatives will have to go with the cops. If it was white protesters getting gassed, we'd have another Cliven Bundy situation. But since it's poor blacks getting the jackboots in their ribs, they'll support the police since the uppity negroes have to be kept in their proper place.