To think if this officer gets off the U.S. will erupt (graphic content)

[99pokerface]

In Ferguson their were still some saying well he did somthing wrong yadda yadda but not only did this officer shoot the guy in the back he then cuffed a dead body then plated evidence on the dead man

Crust I think Obama needs to make a executive call and place cameras on all officers

I hope ALL of the officers arrests are reviews

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3029597/Cop-charged-black-man-s-murder-opening-fire-eight-times-shooting-ran-away-saying-did-felt-threatened.html

America has such a hideous history of racism, and it's all so recent too.

The idea of black inferiority is still so fresh in the mind of the American psyche (I'm not saying all Americans are fully fledged KKK members but those ideas are deeply embedded) that it's hardly surprising people in positions of power think they can behave in this kind of way.

Black lives are seen as worthless.

It's horrific.

There are other things at work as well. Police Officers estimate ages up for black children and down for white. So that a 12 yo child holding a toy gun is a dangerous felon if black and a cute kid if white. Black children are also judged, over a certain age to be more 'guilty'.

I don't normally watch the videos of these horrific events but I did this time. because I want to be able to deal with the whataboutery. Yes, he was running away, yes the Police Officer shot several times as he ran, no he wasn't a threat to the Police Officer. If the Police Officer isn't convicted of murder, there is no justice in the world.

Anyway, we know he didn't see the camera because its owner is still alive and free. Yep.

Adrenaline also causes hearing loss even before the shot would have been fired. And tunnel vision as you said.

Fizzynutsit don't paint us all (Americans) with the same brush. What the hell do you mean that all Americans aren't fully fledged KKK members but those ideas are deeply imbedded? Not for all of us they certainly utterly are not. Your post is highly ignorant and terribly offensive.

Deeply depressing. There does seem to be a recurring pattern of unarmed BME American males being shot by police. I get the impression that there are a number of factors adding up to a perfect storm:

Institutional racism within many parts (note, I did not say all, it may well not be all) of the US police.

Racial stereotyping...not sure this is the right term, but thinking about things like many surveys showing white people tending to automatically score black men as more threatening than white men, the age misjudgement thing, perceptions on liklihood of someone being engaged in a criminal act/armed.

The ludicrous gun situation. If you live in a country where guns are handed out like smarties (90 guns per 100 people....that's actually higher than the number of vehicles per person, which is 809 per 1000!) then the police will, not exactly unreasonably, start assuming that every person they meet is carrying a gun. And thus be a lot more likely to shoot "first". Scary.

Oversight. Or lack thereof. If this killing had not been filmed...

Unequal access to justice. Now, some of this may well be that justice is a rich man's game, and rates of poverty amongst the BME population are themselves very worrying. But it is fascinating to look at the relative conviction rates for black vs white, and the sentences handed down. Frankly, if you're a black male with low educational achievement and mental health problems, and get charged with a crime, you're screwed.

The problem is, of course, that there's no quick fix for any of those (although mandatory minicams on US cops might help slightly with one of them). I hate to think how scared US parents must be for their kids who are GUWB (growing up whilst black).

Could I just point out that in the US, the concept of "minority ethnic" as in "BME" is not the same as it is in the UK.

Seneca can you explain the difference please?

TIA

watching fox 5 this morning the hosts were saying it's shocking as the system relies on police officers word as being correct. It's actually rather similar to plebgate in that regard. Their opinion was that he will be lucky to get life and death row is a possibility.

Videos are not going to change anything. There needs to be a fundamental rethink about the lowest sections of our society here in the US. It's not about pouring money into these communities but creating opportunities through things like after school programs. 70% of kids might be eligible for FSM yet they are getting much higher test scores compared to other town with a similar mix in income.

I don't know what BME is.

And I'm with Tower. I'm nowhere near a KKK member. I was raised to treat people based on nothing other than the way they treated me and others, as was pretty much everyone I know. Yes, there is racism in America (both the KKK kind and, as I said before, the knee jerk reaction that a black man with a gun is more dangerous than a white man with one, even in people who wouldn't consider themselves racist and would be appalled by the KKK) but there are plenty of people of all races who want to live together in peace and are horrified by these murders.

For one thing, the US is made up of many ethnic groups. We are all hyphenated or double barreled Americans: Irish-American, German-American, African American, etc. And almost all of these groups are minority groups. Race and ethnicity are two different concepts in American society and in law.

Race is the primary issue in the discussion at hand, not ethnicity.

And just to echo Cheerful and Tower, I, and my family, have long been committed to racial justice, no KKK members at all, and, for what it's worth, I am a white Southerner.

There's no doubt that a sizable number of individuals find this abhorrent.

But, a police force that is allowed to be so corrupt that this sort of thing is the norm, combined with the fact that civil rights only came about in what is easily living memory for many, does make a lot of people look quite questioningly at the United States of America when it comes to racism.

I find it mind-boggling that when my father (now only in his 70s) was traveling through America in the 60s, it was illegal for black and white people to go to the same shops, drink from the same fountains, etc. That black and white people should be segregated by law, seems to me to be an idea so antiquated, that it can't possibly have happened a mere few decades ago.

I thought America had come such a long way from those days (in a relatively short space of time), but now I'm not so sure. I really had no idea that the police force was quite so fundamentally and institutionally corrupt. This, in itself, is alarming for so many reasons. Something has to be done.

AIBU To think if this officer gets off the U.S. will erupt

You mean like England did in 2011?

AIBU to ask that stupid MNers find their American current affairs news from somewhere other than the Daiky Mail?!

Feijoa Racial segregation by law was only present in the South during the time frame that you refer to. Your post makes it appear that it was nationwide. Certainly racism existed everywhere (and still does), but by 1960 (and earlier) segregation by law (Jim Crow laws) was limited to the Southern states.

Sorry, yes, it was just the South, but that was bad enough in a free country that prides itself on all citizens being equal.

@LikeABadSethRogenMovie

I don't read the Daily Mail as I find its views to be misogynistic, xenophobic, deliberately divisive and borderline racist.

My views about a catalogue of black children, men and women gunned down by officers of the law (or in the case of Trevoyn Martin, a vigilante who refused to believe that a black boy would have a legitimate right to be in that neighbourhood) are formed by the fact that these extra-judicial killings are repeated and those responsible not held to account. What is the first survival tip you would give your child as a Black parent in these circumstances - go to the police if lost, cooperate if stopped OR make sure for goodness sake that there's CCTV around?

The story is always that the officer feared an imminent threat even when the victim was walking or running away or they are aware of a history of LD or MH concerns. Why else would this officer have immediately radioed in that he had been attacked before planting the taser by the murdered man? Have you read the immediate statements put out by the police department before the video surfaced?

I repeat the concern that when white suspects or mass murderers are cornered (check out the outcomes for those responsible for mass shootings) they are disproportionately likely to survive AND to be painted by the media and police as misunderstood or gone astray. The narrative for black people is of 'good/respectable v bad/thuggery' (see images used for the Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin cases where hoodie pictures were used even though the more flattering graduation cap and gown ones existed and would have been without a doubt used for a white victim or suspect.)

The person who took the video has come forward. Bets are being taken on the news feed about his safety and how long it will take for his name and reputation to be shredded by a concerted smear campaign.

You may see the police as benign, but the lack of comprehension about the consequences of such a corrosive context on a specific group's perception of fundamental principles (justice, safety, the equal application of the rule of law) that make a society whole is in itself part of the problem, creating an environment where such matters remain unchallenged or dismissed.

Of course I didn't mean that ALL Americans are racists, that was not what I meant at all and I'm sorry for.the misunderstanding.

My point was that that racism is deeply embedded within American culture, within.institutions like the police force. It's not just a case of 'a few bad apple's.

I don't doubt that there are plenty of non-racist Americans but the fact that murders like this happen show how valuable non white lives are perceived to be.

Argh, apostrophe in the wrong place!

'a few bad apples'

What is it that you don't like about the views expressed on this thread, Seth?

I don't get my news from the Daily Mail either (hell will freeze over first) - I'm not in the UK, for a start, so I don't rely on UK news sources.

We all know that not all Americans are like that, and that there are plenty of fair and kindly police officers. It doesn't negate what's being allowed to continue to happen.

Senseless deaths. Like the man with the small screwdriver, you seriously couldn't taser him? Or kid with the toy gun, did you really have to kill him? I am so glad I do not live in America, the police are trigger mad.

Apart from the fact that racism still prevails in some US states, based on all the horrible murders that have happened clearly the use of guns needs to be controlled, both by civilians and police.
When some of these people have a gun they feel invincible, they shoot first, think second. There has got to be a re-education about respect for human life.
This is happening too often now, when will it stop.
I couldn't watch the video of this poor man being murdered, Dh told me what happened and that was enough for me. I feel so sad for his family. RIP

Police in the USA and (here) are campaigning to make it a criminal offence to film them. Wonder why

US police get away with the craziest stories to explain killing African Americans.
3 recent cases of Houdini Handcuff Suicides
e.g. last year in Louisiana, Victor White III was arrested, frisked twice, had his hands cuffed behind his back, and was put into the back of a patrol car.
Police claim White then produced a handgun not found on him by the 2 searches (?) and committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. What is really "interesting": The Medical Examiner confirmed it as a suicide.

it's all very well saying that most americans aren't racist and that there are lots of lovely police officers but these lovely non racist people don't campaign against racist violence by the police. if they did, the prevalence of these cases would diminish.

if the police were obliged to wear cameras they would all 'fail' on the day that something controversial happened.

BigChocFrenzy: There was a recent American case where a motorcyclist filmed a police officer threatening him with a gun, and the court held that filming was lawful. That was only at state level though.