I know this question is impossible to answer completely without some sort of survey, but looking at the news and events in Ferguson, I’m not convinced that the looters and violent protestors actually care about the shooting of Michael Brown or even racism. It seems counterproductive to commit crimes that may further exacerbate stereotypes against blacks when you’re trying to fight that very same stereotype.
racism has only gotten worse in this country since obama took office so i would say yes
Could you elaborate on that please? I’m not sure I’ve seen any studies indicating it’s gotten worse. For sure income disparity has gotten greater but that affects whites as well.
Given that particular poster’s history, I’m pretty sure (s)he means racism against whites.
As for your question, considering how much national attention this case is getting, it’s inevitable that people outside of the town would mix in with local protesters, and it’s inevitable that many of those would just be interested in fucking shit up. I understand self proclaimed “anarchists” are amongst them, and that some of the locals have taken to defending their hometown businesses from such.
You’re not kidding. :eek: (Hopefully he/she will be banned soon)
i fail to see where i mentioned a specific skin color.so how about you stop assuming that i meant racism against whites,idiot
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[ul]
[li]You assume that they are thinking in a more analytical way than seems likely from enraged people.[/li][li]When violence starts, the opportunists show up. Riots and looting go together hand in glove regardless of the cause of the riot.[/li][li]It’s likely that they don’t think that they are opposing mere stereotypes, but are opposing outright oppression and killing by racist police.[/li][li]Violence works. Do enough damage and the authorities may well be motivated to solve the problems that caused it instead of ignoring it.[/li][/ul]
In my uninformed view, you have a least three groups all participating in the Ferguson protests:
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People who genuinely believe that a crime was committed by police against Michael Brown, protesting but without violence
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People who likewise believe the above crime was committed, but believe it demands protest through violence;
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People who are taking advantage of the situation to commit violent acts and help themselves to looted goods, more or less because they can.
I cannot assess what proportion of the total mass of protesters these groups make up, but I think most people would say only the first group could have any legitimate standing. What, however, are they to do about the second and third groups? I’m sure some would say they (the first group) have some obligation to stand down, but why should they? They have what they believe is a legitimate point to make, and they are attempting to make their objections to the police action in question known as best they can.
It is of course counterproductive to commit looting/arson crimes as a ‘protest’, especially since those committing the arson and looting are basically trashing what may be a fairly fragile local economy, but the second and third group (especially the third) obviously are not thinking that far ahead. The main point remember is that the violence does not negate the fact that may be a perfectly valid reason to protest shooting of Brown.
I was here in Thailand for the OJ saga and am still here during Ferguson. Both viewed from afar on TV. Seeing the video footage of the robbery, that clearly appears to be the shooting victim in the video. His clothes are clearly visible, and his family and friends must have known what he was wearing or at least known he had such clothes. It’s baffling to me that there could be any doubt it’s him on the video. It reminds me of the polls among blacks back earlier that showed they really did think OJ was innocent.
The people who got violent Friday night seem to have been #3. There are even reports that one group of people cased a beauty store and then came back to rob it after dark. The residents of Ferguson seem to be aware of this and they’re angry about it and doing what they can do stop it. So to answer the OP, no, that group of people doesn’t care about the issue at hand. They’re just jerks and criminals.
To me, it’s like last night one person was shot (not by police), a shot was fired into a police cruiser, I believe a convenience store was looted the previous night (other protesters later stopped the looting and defended the store.)
I think if you look at the incidents versus the number of people out protesting, it suggests to me most of the protesters are upset citizens who do care about the shooting of Michael Brown, whether or not it was a racism inspired shooting, how it will be handled etc. Then I think there are a small number of basically criminals who want to incite pockets of the crowd into looting and stuff because they want to loot, and they see the protests as an excuse to loot.
I think to their credit the majority of protesters haven’t engaged in looting. I know that I’ve read major city police departments employ plainclothes officers these days who quickly separate and arrest “rabble rousers” who are trying to start looting and such, and they’ve found that if you quickly move those guys out of the crowd and arrest them it significantly decreases the chance of the protests turning to violence and crime. So that suggests there’s a small number of criminals, and I’m sure they are just opportunists, and do not care at all about the political issues. But they are a small portion of the protesters.
I think there are also another small group who aren’t necessarily opportunist criminals looking to steal shit, but are just “troublemakers” who want to see shit set on fire, want to fire guns off in the street etc. They are also a very small portion of the protesters. I think some of them may care about the issues, but they care more about “raising hell” and “having fun” and to them that means burning shit and firing guns off, and again, the protests give them a crowd to do it in where they feel protected by the anonymity of numbers.
I think historically sometimes these small bad elements have been able (through various crowd-mind type psychological mechanisms) turn peaceful protests into loot/crime fests, but it appears that isn’t happening in Ferguson, which is a positive to take from all of it.
Well then, what were you talking about and could you provide some cites.
Thanks in advance.
We can’t really see his face in the video. It shows someone who big’s and black and wearing a white T-shirt and a red baseball cap.
The most commonly worn T-shirts are probably white ones. Ferguson is a suburb of St. Louis and the St. Louis Cardinals, who wear red baseball caps are one of the most popular teams in the nation.
Maybe it was Michael Brown, but there must be thousands of young black men in the area that wear white T-shirts, red baseball caps and pretend to be Albert Pujlos.
Beyond that, even if it was him, lots of young men do really stupid things the final summer before they to to college and shoplifting isn’t a crime.
Shoplifting’s been decriminalized?!
D’oh!
Typing fast. I meant to type “capital crime” not “crime”.
Besides, as the police admitted in their next press conference, the office who shot Brown had no idea about this robbery.
Does anyone have a source that explains in any way why he was shot?
OP here, I guess what made me think that many protestors may not care so much is that if you’re gainfully unemployed or productively unemployed looking for work full time then it’s difficult to go out and protest.
You can also see his accomplice, a black man with dreadlocks and wearing a black shirt. Plus, according to Johnson’s lawyer, Johnson told the FBI that it was them.
It’s not shoplifting, it’s robbery. And as the police “admitted”, the officer who shot Brown knew about the robbery, but didn’t know that Brown was the suspect. Not until he saw the cigars in his hands, and suspected him.