Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

The point of me saying that it's justified is my reasoning for why there hasn't been a trial for the Dillon Taylor case, and their won't be one for the Michael Brown case. While we won't know what happened, both officers had reason to believe that their lives were in danger and that it had justifiable reasoning. Not that it was MY opinion on it, but that their actions were justified. The only part of my statement that was my opinion was that the media is giving us bullshit.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

No, stating that the officers' actions were justified in those cases is your opinion. Your opinion can align with a decision reached by a grand jury, but your opinion does not become fact; it's an opinion.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58...-gill.html.csp
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/us...rand-jury.html

I was just restating that it was justified.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

Plus justified means that there was reason for them to believe that their lives were in danger. Not that Michael and Dillon deserved to die

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

Those are links to articles about the decisions reached by the grand juries in those two cases. Your opinion aligns with those decisions, but your opinion is not a fact.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

That was the point.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

My point is that a statement like "the officers' actions were justified" is not a fact, no matter what decision was reached by a grand jury.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

The whole point of me saying that was to reiterate that they had reason to believe that their lives were in danger. Not as if it was a fact, but that it was used to help my argument on the media, and how in both situations they are experiencing the same thing (the officers had reason to believe they were in danger), yet they have vastly different coverage.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

It's a shame that eyewitness testimony isn't as reliable as we'd like it to be. Most basic Psychology classes will teach us that every time we recall a memory, it's slightly less accurate. According to NPR, even Wilson's memory of the confrontation seems more exaggerated in terms of intensity compared to the physical evidence of his condition afterwards, that being a bruise on his face.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

Sips tea

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

There's some pretty stupid shit being said in here and it's all rife with personal bias.

When you detach yourself from whatever upbringing you've had and look at it fact-for-fact, a dumbass kid who was high robbed a store (error in judgement) and then a dumbass cop handled the situation poorly and ended up killing the dude (error in judgement). Is it wrong that there was no trial? Imo it's 100% wrong.

I can understand how some would say that racism is the underlying issue in this situation but it's so much more than that. Police are given an immense amount of power and responsibility and when they fuck up, lives can be lost. In some ways you can compare this profession to surgeons making a mistake and the patient dying on them. At the end of the day, you have an officer who made an error in judgement and just like the doctor being sued for malpractice, is facing a trial. It's a reasonable situation that begs a thorough investigation, hence why I feel a trial would have been beneficial.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

No, but if you assalt an officer and try to take his gun, you can expect to be shot, well within the officer's rights. That was a very bad decision on Michael Brown's part. Seriously, if the officer was the aggressor, why would the physical evidence show a struggle within the police vehicle? Please, look at the physical evidence.

My Conjecture: Michael Brown was flooded with adrenaline from his recent hold up of the conveinence store, and went off on officer Wilson out of panic

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

Guys, guys..you're all forgetting the most important fact of all:

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

lol police shot an unarmed 12 year old black boy for carrying a bb gun in a park as this news was even happening

black men are already disproportionately targets of police violence and are killed despite being innocent and police routinely get away with it. sketchy evidence like this being enough for a police officer to get away w/ taking someone's life is precisely why people are angry

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

@dynam0 the cop did everything by the book. no ordinary cop is ordered to shoot to kill. they are authorized to use deadly force and shoot to stop. and according to the evidence, that's exactly what he did.

the big issue is people and the media are inclined to focus on an individual's action when the real criticism should be aimed at the department that trained the officer to react the way that he did in this scenario. that's how changes are made in policing.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

Would the timing of the announcement on whether to indict Darren Wilson have mattered? Or course not. There was going to be a riot regardless.

Even though they waited until all the schools and businesses closed, they gave the protesters all the time in the world to assemble and prepare.

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

if the officer was able to tell that it was a BB gun in the first place, this wouldnt have happened. instead it looks like the officer was legitimately afraid for his life then he just did what he was trained to do. was deadly force necessary against this 12 year old? hell no. but confrontation with law enforcement becomes an arms race that the cops are required to win. with this kid brandishing a "gun" at a cop, it instantly escalated the situation to a lethal level if the cop really believed he was in danger while in the line of duty.

don't like that? take it up with their police department

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri
 

I think the shooting was probably justified once it got to that point, but the entire situation may have evolved towards violence because of prejudice. Although if there was prejudice, I don't think this was a goal and there is some doubt to messing with such a large person.

prejudice is boring as hell to me tho