SultanOfSwing

Sorry, I didn't mean to say he absolutely could have used one, should have said, it could have been an option. The certainly could have been omitted as well for clarity.

I have no issue with the police using deadly force if they believe it to be necessary, I didn't want to give the impression that I was saying Officer Wilson was in the wrong.

Only in work

I get a free holdall.

scrubbedexpat099

This could all have been avoided by à fair trial and a hanging.

kimilseung

Everything here is nonsense, race is the issue you can talk about, it hides the issue of class, that's the real taboo in the state's.

Rev. Jesse Jackson rallies to stop black-on-black carnage – USATODAY.com

"Each year … about 7,000 African Americans are murdered, more than nine times out of 10 by other African Americans," Jackson said

Pulaski

Worse, if you try to make an objective criticism about anyone who is of a different race, you get pounced on and accused of being a racist.

kimilseung

Making moral value statements really doesn't help. It is not classy or anything else. It is what it is. This is where we are, this is where history has led us to. This is how you would react if their history was yours. Shaking your head and saying "shame" will not make it go away.

SultanOfSwing

There is no excuse for destroying public property, not history, not nothing. Anyone who was involved in the looting, vandalism or other violence is a ****ing disgrace, no matter who they are.

Michael

Then I suspect you may be a laissez faire capitalist with some libertarian tendencies.

A true libertarian is similar to an anarchist. A libertarian believes in government but not government power where as anarchist doesn't believe in government. Other than those differences, basically both believe in the survival of the fittest.

amideislas

I reckon you could equally be a theogical philosopher, sociologist and political theorist who enjoys Starbucks almond latte macchiato with just a touch of Madagascar cinnamon.

I still believe this is more rooted on guns than racism.

Sally Redux

I don't know what to say on this, and probably shouldn't say anything. I would love to see how the righteous ones on this thread would react if living under the same circumstances.

Michael

Although there are no easy answers, if it was all about race, then the Chinese would be no exception.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882. It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in US history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. The act followed revisions made in 1880 to the US-China Burlingame Treaty of 1868, revisions that allowed the US to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. It was finally repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943.

The Act also affected Asians who had already settled in the United States. Any Chinese who left the United States had to obtain certifications for reentry, and the Act made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship. After the Act's passage, Chinese men in the U.S. had little chance of ever reuniting with their wives, or of starting families in their new homes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

In 1862 the California legislature passed An Act to Protect Free White Labor Against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor, and to Discourage The Immigration of the Chinese into the State of California. The act, which would be referred to as the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 in short, was passed by the California legislature in an attempt to appease rising anger among white laborers about salary competition created by the influx of Chinese immigrants at the height of the California gold rush. The act sought to protect white laborers by imposing a monthly tax on Chinese immigrants seeking to do business in the state of California.

Anti-Coolie Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

lansbury

Thanks, I haven't been reading to much on it as most is posted by the uniformed just spouting rhetoric. So hadn't seen he wasn't carry a taser. So he wasn't left with a lot of options then.

Our idiot city manager decided to save money by only allow staff to undertake training mandated by the State of Oregon. He would have saved $18k a year on the police budget as non lethal force weapons refresher training in not mandated by the State. I had to point out to him and some other idiots on Council that not doing the training meant they were not allowed to carry or use non lethal weapons.

Pulaski

This.

And after how many decades are people going to give up attempting to justify thuggery by referring to history? 150 years after the abolition of slavery, and 50 years, two whole generations, after desegregation, isn't it time to deal with the realities of now and look to the future?

SultanOfSwing

I don't know.

Of course, there are still many members of the black community who are disadvantaged, and it's a terrible thing. Just as there are members of the Hispanic, Asian and yes, even white communities who are disadvantaged. Personally, we need to be tackling poverty, not continuing to label people and defining them based on demographics.

Michael

I had concerns when my cousin married a black girl and they had three daughters. The live in a middle class neighborhood in Minneapolis and she supported the family while he was a stay at home dad. I've asked him if his daughters had any problems because of their race and he said none.

So it's not all about race.

lansbury

Very interesting. I've just read part of Officer Wilson's testimony to the Grand Jury about why he wasn't carrying a taser and his thought process as he continually assessed the situation. How he disgarded the use of mace and why, and how Brown grabbed his gun and was attempting to reach the trigger and what he was thinking.

Then what happened as Brown firstly ran away, and then charged back. The officer decribing what he saw and was thinking and why, and the decisions he made.