Aibu too not understand the reaction of the Ferguson Michael Brown in the USA

[Natashathemum]

My Dh thinks that it is a disgusting example of racial inequality in America. But i think having read a lot of articles/news that the police officer was only protecting himself. Although it is unfortunate that someone so young died.

However Dh feels strongly it is disgusting racism. He called me blind and crazy (lighthearted). Aibu for thinking this.

More white people are killed than black people by US cops each year. Again, black people feature disproportionately, but rare??

I'm not casual about the killing of any people, white or black.

Are you seriously saying its police policy to shoot black people. Really?

"
a rare unarmed white man killed by the police compare that to the full range of unarmed black people killed, casually, by the policy on a regular basis."

Sorry, have realised its a typo and you meant police! That makes more sense.

creighton, you not going to answer about the school shootings? maybe because you know your wrong?

Lots of posters here seem to be taking very emotive "unarmed teenage black boy" headlines and seemingly not bothering with facts before posting.
MB wasn't shot 12 times in cold blood - he was shot at 12 times - twice from within the police car when he allegedly leaned in to grab the officer's weapon. More shots as the officer gave chase, and the fatal shots as MB charged at the officer - this wasn't some "kid" mercilessly gunned down - it was a large, aggressive hulk of a man, who'd already tried to take a firearm from a cop car, charging at the officer. I can quite easily believe the office was in fear for his life. Info here:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html?_r=0

He was shot at 12 times. 7 of the shots hit him, the last one went through the top of his head.

The question is if he had been hit 6 times already why shoot him through the head?

Territt, tell me what happened with these school shootings, how many people were killed, why did we not hear about them on the news here?

Minus, try to keep up, 2 cases are being 'discussed' here. the boy is the 12 year old MB is MB, not mentioned anywhere as a boy

Because the first six shots weren't enough to stop him?

The officer said he kept shooting until Brown dropped. Initially he kept coming even after been shot. Some Witnesses back the officer up.

Are you kidding Creighton?!!!! They have been all over news!

Can you all Google 'white 12 year old boy'.

Do the images you see look like that of a man or of a CHILD?

What part of that CHILD image does not translate in to your minds when picturing a 12 year old BLACK CHILD?

"He should have known better than to play with a toy gun in public" REALLY, just really?

Why should any child be responsible for their death? What sort of monstrous thinking is this? This is exactly what victim blaming is and even worse is it involves a CHILD. If you cant see that a black mother having to have this conversation with her child reflects a problem with society rather than that of the CHILD then you are part of the problem and the cycle which will continue.

I argue that society has a genuine fear of the a Blackman. And why wouldn't it? Look at the terrible media bias and the way black men are by and large are represented in the media. Heck even Lewis Hamilton has his character assassinated daily! Police, doctors, teachers and even black people themselves can not escape such stereotypes! All resulting in a shoot first out of genuine fear, and ask questions later mentality.

If you can not not conduct yourself with out letting fear overcome your common sense in a job as monumtal as that of a police officer then as another poster said "get the fuck out of the kitchen".

I genuinely avoid getting into race talks with people who are not 'of colour' as it takes a lot for people to come out their comfort zone and admit their privaliage. Some people do and all it takes is for you to honestly answer some questions.

One for starters is do you genuinely think a 12 YEAR OLD CHILD deserves to be killed for PLAYING with a gun?

Do you genuinely think that universally the image of a black 12 year old CHILD is a threatening as that of a white 12 year old child?

If you can answer both of those with a NO then surely you can find somewhere within you to accept the dialogue that many black people face on a daily basis.

How many of you are saying that the jury knows best? These riots are not about an isolated incident. This is a reoccurring script and if 12 people are to be respected in their views, how can you not find it racially imperialistic to negate the views of millions of black people the world over.....

Or are we all playing the race card whatever that is???

Nicknacky - in that hypothetical case then yes I would expect officers to give a warning. I would also expect the officers to be well trained enough that they'd know to park a decent distance away from a potential suspect so that they weren't putting themselves in undue danger and actually had time to give the suspect a caution.

I think it's your blatant racism that's bought you the attention Creighton, you know, phrases like 'whites like you...' etc. Of course, you are free to continue suggesting it's your race that's the reason, but at least the things you've said are plain for all to see. You declared your race too - I note you just make assumptions about that of others in most cases (this is known as prejudice, in case you weren't aware - seemingly part of the same thing you purport to be against).

Creighton, I'm very well aware of the second story being addressed on this thread, and I'm not talking about that... The word "kid" in my post was a reflection of the media (and some posters on here) "teenage" emotive language in the thread. But feel free to patronise me and respond to that one word (semantics, yes?), and ignore the rest of my reasoned post so you can still paint MB as some "innocent black murder victim"

AnotherEpisode,

"I argue that society has a genuine fear of the a Blackman. And why wouldn't it? Look at the terrible media bias and the way black men are by and large are represented in the media. "

Or maybe the fact that black people make up 13.2% of the people in the USA, but accounted for 52.5% of homicide between 1980 - 2008.

your more likely to be murder by a black person than a white person, which is odd when there is nearly 7 times more white people in america? you have to ask if the fear is down to the actions of the black people

you are more likely to be murdered by someone who knows you i.e if you are white, your white associates will kill you if you are black your black associates will kill you, nice try Territt!

AnotherEpisode don't waste your breath, any conversation about race brings in people who will excuse all bad behaviour towards black people. Even mnhq join in and will pm you to tell you that you must not upset white posters.

Apologies as I know this will seem rude:

I'm American, from new york and DC. Racism and injustice are not just found in statistics, although the statistics make a convincing case. They exist in the everyday lives of people and are taken for granted. Do you think black people report to someone every time they get called something racist, every time they are stopped for no good reason, every time a white person shrinks away from them, every time a cab won't stop for them? No, of course not.

So the only way to really see the depth of racism and police brutality is to listen to people, to live in their communities, to keep an open mind.

So if you are white, living in a mostly white community, especially a white community not even in the US, and you think that your opinion that racism didn't play a role in either of these shootings should be given more credit than the lived experiences of people in these communities -- seriously, have a word with yourself.

If these two victims had been white, they would still be alive, and anyone who has spent any time living in black or Latino communities knows it.

Territ Seriously, things occur in isolation do they? Racism doesn't effect education no? Or employment? Or even self confidence ? And in turn these have no part to play in poverty? And homicide dosent coincide with poverty? And recent history plays no part in ANY of this of course!!!!

No your point is valid. Black people are just genetically predisposed to being murders!

If I'm wrong in completely missing the relevance of your point, please elaborate!

And again that translates in the murder of 12 year old CHILD being okay because he is black and therefore more likely to be a murderer?

What, by saying racist things to them? If so then they're right - nobody should be doing that.

Also, apologies for not answering your question earlier - must have been a xpost.

Yes Tamir was pointing the gun during his time in the park, but he was not pointing the gun at people which I think makes a massive difference. The one is part of playing with a toy gun, the other would almost certainly be intimidation.

Also, I agree that feeling fear can be a natural reaction but I still don't think that you should use lethal force as a first resort unless there is a genuine immediate risk to a member of public i.e. where someone has a gun to someone else's head then that would count, but a fear that someone could start shooting does not count ESPECIALLY if they are not holding the gun at that point in time.

In the case of Tamir Rice, whether through fear, inexperience or being trigger happy, the officers took no steps to minimise risk to themselves or others and instead went straight for lethal force and that is unacceptable.

Trouble is, we are not party to all the facts of the case. And crowds are easy to ignite and hard to control. The jurors would hopefully have been. Is there reason to believe they were not impartial? This case is not regarded as simply this case now. It is encumbered with other issues.

Territt, I think the statistics are that black people who were murdered were overwhelmingly more likely to be murdered by another black person. But I think a white person who was murdered was also more likely to be murdered by another white person. No one seems interested in anyone else. I can't remember the percentages. Giuliani gave them out in his interview, so maybe that is just New York.

That was to Nickynack and now looks completely out of place. Sorry!

Creighton I think its something we have to do in order to improve the livelihoods of OUR children. After all we are quite likely talking to the mothers of the future privileged and one thing I would like to believe is that any decent mother wants to raise a decent human being, truly educated and who understands world issues beyond themselves, not allowing their privilege to show itself as ignorance! Wasting my breath is a small price to play over not trying at all!

And people need to stop believing that juries are impartial. I've served on juries in the US, they can be just as racist as anyone else. How about that LA jury that found the cops that beat the crap out of Rodney Brown on film not guilty. Or the George Zimmerman jury.

There are also calls to bring federal charges against Darren Wilson because of concern about how badly local prosecutors have handled this case.