If you live in the United States, you should be disgusted with your country

[shiney]

Originally Posted by Ryong

swaptag bit

I bet they charged peddler #2 with the death.

[Ryong]

Peddler #2 ran away like everyone else. Cop got charged with the death but his prison sentence was repealed a few days later, because the shot was accidental.

[McTahr]

I really hate to both sides here...
But here goes!

Okay: They have every right to be angry. Absolutely every right in the entire world to be thrown into a psychotic rage. They exist in a society that has very, very clearly placed a price tag on human lives (arbitrarily) and valued them far less than others. Pulling yourself back from a frothing mind-blown psychotic rage is nigh impossible when the issues don't matter. Try when they do.

However: Look at the most prominent leaders of social change. Just look at'em. MLK rocked it at a time when things were far more blatantly overt and awful than the situations we deal with now. If King had simply given in to the anger he would have very rightly been expected to hold, there is almost no chance he could have led any sort of actual movement, let alone managed change even within his own circle of friends and family. You cannot change a mind in hate. You cannot insult and rage until they shy away to their corner of the world and mark you off entirely and then expect them to be open to persuasion. Simply put, if you polarize someone against you, they will not respond to any sort of logic or argument of reason.
Yes, the people who hold these opinions have some pretty bad opinions, but it stops there. You don't know how they got them. You don't know how they got here. If you meet them with a remotely civil discussion of the facts, you might just change a mind today. You might make the world a slightly better place.
You are allowed your rage, but don't let it own you and ruin your cause.

---------

Edit: I spent the night of the announcement in a quiet, impotent rage. I'm still angry. But with time and patience you can do more than be mad. Ex: A group of dudes on Facebook were defending Cosby and misogyny in general, and rather than unleash the beast verbally, I did what I could to simply put down their points, raise the points of feminism, and in general not be a horrible person while trying to show them just how horribly insensitive and awful their beliefs were. I don't think I changed any minds that way either, but ideally I've at least planted the seed for a more receptive discourse.

[Red Mage Black]

Lets get some facts straight that I've seen thrown around:

- Mike Brown was shot 6 times. Not 12 or whatever social media and liberal media bias is trying telling you.
- He was never shot in the back as the autopsy states. Even the medical examiner the family of the victim got to go in there said the same thing.

As far as I care, this is sensationalized bullshit and every incident where a black man gets shot is automatically racism and it's funny because, it's always the liberals who want to bring up race. I'm on neither side of the political spectrum, but it's easy to see where patterns are. I don't have specifically liberal and I certainly don't have conservative views. The fact you guys would like to insert politics into everything is patently ridiculous and why a lot of people tend to view you guys in a negative light.

Assault a store owner, get told to get out of the street, don't comply and get crap from an officer, reach for his gun and get shot, then don't comply when they tell you to surrender anyway and just charge him, get shot and killed and now you're a martyr.

I'm sorry, I don't see the instance of racism here and here are the facts I know. Can somebody point it out? I've gone through this whole thread with overwhelming bias against police. So can somebody who has a neutral stance on law enforcement answer me?

My opinions are already hated by Kim, Snake, Marc and others, but this case is certainly not a social justice issue.

[Nikose Tyris]

King also got shot in the face anyway.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

The thing is McTahr, the time for peace has ended. They tried that path and it helped maybe for a bit, but what happened to MLK? He got assassinated. While it wasn't the white authority who pulled the trigger, they have rarely stepped up to help support the black community.

One can be pushed so far before they lash out.

Yes I am well aware I may be speaking out of my ass here, but this is how I feel.

[RickZarber]

I think this is very pertinent to that "However" of McTahr's. (Like, mostly the stuff below the image set, but that too, while you're at it.)

Jeez, ninja'd three times ya'll are fast

[Solid Snake]

DA: "Did you carry a taser?"

WILSON: "No."

DA: "Why not?"

WILSON: "I don't normally carry a taser. We only have a select amount. Usually there is one available, but I usually elect not to carry one. It is not the most comfortable thing. They are very large, I don't have a lot of room in the front for it to be positioned."

~*~*~*~

WILSON: "I didn't hear the entire call, I was on my portable radio, which isn't exactly the best. I did hear that a suspect was wearing a black shirt and that a box of Cigarillos was stolen."

(A couple pages later)

WILSON: "When I start looking at Brown, first thing I notice is in his right hand, his hand is full of Cigarillos. And that's when it clicked for me because I now saw the Cigarillos, I looked in my mirror, I did a doublecheck that Johnson was wearing a black shirt, these are the two from the stealing."

...One suspect becomes two suspects in the blink of an eye, everyone! And although Brown might not have been wearing black, at least his friend was!!!

~*~*~*~

DA: "Now, he was hitting you with what hand?"

WILSON: "I believe it was his right, just judging by how we were situated."

DA: "Right."

WILSON: "But like I said, I had turned away, had my eyes, I was shielding myself."

DA: "Where did you see the Cigarillos at?"

WILSON: "They were in his right hand."

DA: "Okay. Were there any broken Cigarillos or anything in your car later?"

WILSON: "No, I don't remember seeing anything on the ground or anything."

(IS THE DA ACTUALLY DOING HER JOB IS SHE GOING TO CATCH HIM LYING I WONDER?!?!?!?)

DA: "Okay."

WILSON: "After he hit me then, it stopped for a second. He kind of like, I remember getting hit and he kind of like grabbed and pulled, and then it stopped. When I looked up, if this is my car door, I'm sitting here facing that way, he's here. He turns like this and now the Cigarillos I see in his left hand..."

(Then Wilson either fabricates or remembers that apparently Brown gave Johnson the cigarillos, but couldn't actually see Brown giving Johnson the cigarillos, and the Prosecutor doesn't grill him on this ever-changing story)

(OFF THE HOOK!!!!!!)


~*~*~*~

DA: "Is that you at the hospital on August the 9th?"

WILSON: "Yes, m'am."

DA: "And why did you go to the hospital?"

WILSON: "For my face being swollen."

DA: "Was there any other injuries that you had other than your face?"

WILSON: "They had discovered there that I had scratches on the back of my neck."

DA: "Okay. Anything else, tell us about your injuries?"

WILSON: "I had a swollen right cheek, my left they said was swollen, I had scratches around my hairline in the back and I think on the side of my neck, but that's all that I remember."

(Wilson NEVER receives any adversarial or hostile question regarding the nature of his reported injuries.)

~*~*~*~*

(Wilson has already fired two shots at this point)

WILSON: "As he is coming towards me, I tell, keep telling him to get on the ground, he doesn't. I shoot a series of shots. I don't know how many I shot, I just know I shot it. I know I missed a couple, I didn't know how many, but I know I hit him at least once because I saw his body kind of jerk or flinched. I remember having tunnel vision on his right hand, that's all, I'm just focusing on my shooting."

WILSON: "Well, after the last shot my tunnel vision kind of opened up. I remember seeing the smoke from the gun and I kind of looked at him and he's still coming at me, he hadn't slowed down. At this point I start backpedaling and again, I tell him get on the ground, get on the ground, he doesn't. I shoot another round of shots. Again, I don't recall how many it was or if I hit him every time. I know at least once because he flinched again. At this point it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots, LIKE IT WAS MAKING HIM MAD THAT I'M SHOOTING AT HIM."

WILSON: (Later) "...He still keeps coming at me, gets about 8 to 10 feet away."

ALL THE AFOREMENTIONED SHOTS OCCUR WHEN BROWN IS MORE THAN 10 FEET AWAY FROM WILSON

(By the way Wilson later testifies that he believed his VERY FIRST SHOT FROM WITHIN THE CAR HIT BROWN IN THE LEG)

~*~*~*~*~

DA: "Okay. We're going to go with you to the station in just a minute, but I wanted to ask you about your relationship with the residents in the Canfield Green Apartments."

WILSON: "Uh-huh."

DA: "Did you guys have a volatile, well, how can I put this. Did you not really get along well with the folks that lived in that apartment, not you personally, I mean the police in general?"

WILSON: "It is an anti-police area for sure."

DA: "And when you say anti-police, tell me more?"

WILSON: "There's a lot of gangs that reside or associate with that area. There's a lot of violence in that area, there's a lot of gun activity, drug activity, it is just not a very well-liked community. That community doesn't like the police."

DA: "Were you pretty much on high alert being in that community by yourself, especially when Michael Brown said, 'Fuck what you say,' I think he said?"

WILSON: "Yes."

~*~*~*~

DA: "Get a good night's sleep?"

WILSON: "From what I remember, yes."

DA: "Okay. 6 to 8 hours?"

WILSON: "Yes. Felt rested, ready to go the next day."

DA: "Just had to ask, curious."

~*~*~*~

What standard is used to determine whether Wilson should be indicted?

Jurors have to decide whether there is probable cause to believe Wilson committed a crime. The standard is lower than a jury trial in criminal court, where jurors must determine whether there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed.

Most defense lawyers will tell their clients not to testify before a grand jury, but Officer Wilson reportedly testified for four hours.

...Of course he did.

You know why, don't you?
You know why Officer Wilson testified.

He wasn't being grilled by the Prosecution.
Read all those excerpts again.
The Prosecution's attorneys were acting as Officer Wilson's defense attorneys.

Mike Brown was shot 6 times. Not 12 or whatever social media and liberal media bias is trying telling you.

Oh noes everyonez
I and the eeevvviiillll liberal media are sensationalizing the actual dialogue between Wilson and the DAs
Read the fucking evidence before you make a fool out of yourself, just once, JUST ONCE, RMB, I'm begging you.

[McTahr]

Originally Posted by DaimoMusic

The thing is McTahr, the time for peace has ended. They tried that path and it helped maybe for a bit, but what happened to MLK? He got assassinated. While it wasn't the white authority who pulled the trigger, they have rarely stepped up to help support the black community.

One can be pushed so far before they lash out.

Yes I am well aware I may be speaking out of my ass here, but this is how I feel.

Gandhi was shot too. That doesn't mean we go to war in absolute direct opposition to everything they have taught us.

I'm not saying anyone is necessarily wrong or unjustified in being angry or lashing out. Fuck yes get mad. This is the kind of thing we should be very angry about.

But turn that anger towards something useful. Lashing out only polarizes those opposing even further and creates a gulf between the two.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by McTahr

However: Look at the most prominent leaders of social change. Just look at'em. MLK rocked it at a time when things were far more blatantly overt and awful than the situations we deal with now. If King had simply given in to the anger he would have very rightly been expected to hold, there is almost no chance he could have led any sort of actual movement, let alone managed change even within his own circle of friends and family. You cannot change a mind in hate.

I'll respectfully disagree with you there, I think Malcolm X and all his rage had a far more positive impact on American history than MLK Jr., who quickly -- after death, and certainly against his wishes, but still -- became a Conservative White American symbol of "Colorblindness" and "tolerance" as the barometers of our supposedly overcoming racism.