Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

[Vares]

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

The Grand Jury reviewed all the evidence, including all eyewitness testimony and the phsyical evidence. The physical evidence contradicted most eyewitness testimony. The Grand Jury went through pretty much all the steps of a trial. The entire process took about three months. There was plenty of opportunity to weigh evidence, and their decision reflected the evidence at hand.

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.

[RB_Spirit]

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

Sips tea

[Dynam0]

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.

[TheSaxRunner05]

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

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

They looked like they were looking for trouble and thus killing them is justified?

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

[Red Blaster]

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

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

[s1rnight]

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

[adlp]

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.

[DotKritic]

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.

[adlp]

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

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

[Garquillex]

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

[DotKritic]

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

The BB gun didn't have the orange tip (or whatever colored tip BB guns have these days) to distinguish a real gun from a BB gun. News outlets say the officer demanded the kid raise his hands with the BB gun visibly in the kid's waistband. The kid instead pulled the BB gun from his waistband (if I remember correctly) and pointed it at the officer.

[Ghakimx]

Just wanna give my 2¢ on this.

I heard about this news somewhere and think it's tragic that a kid died at the hands of an officer. If I was the officer, if I saw the guy, I would try to assess the situation properly. What is the race of the guy? Does he look like he's old enough to wield a gun? Does the gun look legitimately dangerous?

However, the officer may not have had enough time to assess these factors and acted straight off of training. Like, "Suspect looks like a black teen, is wielding a pistol and pointing at me, highly lethal, lethal force authorized". He would risk putting the suspect down to decrease the risk innocent civilians getting hurt as well as himself and his colleagues. What I'm wondering is why he chose to shoot him with a gun rather than use other armaments like a taser gun, which would have easily incapacitated him. Did the police force not equip him with it? I don't know.

I always say, there is no one true person to blame for the entire incident, and that everyone is at fault. According to the officer's testimony, the kid WHIPPED out his fake gun and POINTED it at him. If this is true, then that would easily aggravate any police officer as it poses a visual threat. In the reverse, how couldn't the officer tell that he was just a kid? Why didn't he negotiate or talk with the kid before hitting his last resort?

If this wasn't a case of blatant racism on part of the officer, then I don't blame him. His actions were based purely on instinct and training. Otherwise, I'll be damned.

[Dynam0]

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

Mind-sets like this are exactly what perpetuates the gun culture in America. You're essentially defending the improper use of a firearm with the justification that it was a "police officer and it's their right to act in this manner".

The BB gun didn't have the orange tip (or whatever colored tip BB guns have these days) to distinguish a real gun from a BB gun. News outlets say the officer demanded the kid raise his hands with the BB gun visibly in the kid's waistband. The kid instead pulled the BB gun from his waistband (if I remember correctly) and pointed it at the officer.

Just read this, and it's insanely similar to Michael Brown's scenario. A police officer's word against a dead boy's...it's a judgement call that begs an investigation but idk. Blindly taking the officer's word for it just doesn't seem right without an investigation.

tl;dr fuck guns

[adlp]

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

lol dynam0... they used physical evidence and not the officer's word alone in the case. stop letting your feelings get in the way of what "should have" happened

and im not necessarily defending that use of a firearm. im a student of criminal justice and that's currently the train of thought for deadly force.

[Dynam0]

Re: Riots in Ferguson, Missouri

There were a lot of inconsistencies in the officer's recounting and the physical evidence though. The fact that people are able to argue about whether his actions were justified or not should have been enough to have an indictment. It's not as much a fault of the officer as it is the entire justice system for setting so many precedents of police officers being dealt with in a lenient matter that suggests they are in some ways above or exempt from the law.

Also yeah I've heard about 3 different times that you've opened a law textbook or two. I have a degree in chemistry but I don't pretend that I have the right answer to every scientific question...so when you throw comments like that around maybe back your arguments up with some hard facts.

edit:

If you could provide me with the supporting evidence that lead to the grand jury not indicting the officer then I will be able to comment further on it and perhaps even change my mind. As it stands, the information I've looked at from a number of different sources makes me question why there was no trial.