And how many times Wilson’s mother got divorced is relevant? Did you even read that article?
I find it hilarious you think “symantically null” means “ambiguous in tone”.
First, you seem to misunderstand what ‘empowered’ means. Unless you believe throwing burning gasoline bombs is legal.
Second, how many Molotov cocktails have been lobbed in protest of the Kajieme Powell shooting? Sure there’s debate over the justification, and anger over police protocol that doesn’t even attempt a nonlethal response, but there’s no great social unrest over the shooting, because there’s a video of the incident showing Powell’s instability. How much more effective might that video have been at presenting the reality of the confrontation if it were a cop’s-eye-view?
How many times did she get divorced? Tell us what the article says. Then quote the part of the article where it said it was relevant to the shooting. We’ll wait.
This was my post:
“The smear machine is out in full force. Do you think WaPo would ever put out an article documenting how many times Brown’s mother got divorced (or if she was married at all)? And if not, why not?”
BrainGlutton intimated that WaPo would not print that about Brown’s mother because it is not relevant to the shooting. Yet they printed that about Wilson’s mother, even though it is not relevant to the shooting. So - why one and not the other?
Sure, but if we’re trying to choose which of various stories we believe, previous actions by the participants are completely relevant.
All right, fair point. It was not semantically null.
Terr, honest question: Do people consider you a complete dick in real life? Or is it just online?
Here is an article that mentions that Michael Brown’s mother is divorced from his father, Michael Brown Sr., and is remarried to Louis Head. Feel better now? It’s not relevant to the legal aspects of the case, and it’s not a smear to be divorced, or have divorced parents.
I think you are just frustrated that there hasn’t been any real dirt dug up for Brown or his family (and you know your friends at the treehouse have been frantically digging). Other than the incident in the store just before he was shot, he appears to have been an average teenager; not overly ambitious or academically inclined, but certainly not a “thug”. He died too young to say what kind of man he would have become. Same for Wilson’s personal past history, as far as we know now.
The only real dirt in this story are the problems with the Ferguson police force.
That’s pretty funny. Other than the iceberg, the Titanic’s voyage really wasn’t so bad either.
Nope, not even slightly. Not when it comes to someone having been accused of a crime. Then we go by evidence.
Wilson will be tried, or not, in a court of law. But the whole business, which goes way beyond his guilt or innocence, is being and will and should be tried in the court of public opinion, where rules of evidence are looser.
Maybe. I’ll give you this: The Titanic was thought to be unsinkable, which of course turned out to be wrong. But that thinking meant that they were unprepared for the tragic consequences of hitting the iceberg.
Teenagers can think this way as well. I know: Legally he was a man, physically he was a man. Mentally and emotionally? I doubt it. I worked with teenagers. They can do stupid things, sometimes with tragic consequences they are unprepared to deal with. Especially so if they are male, and even more so if they are Black males.
I don’t know the whole story, so that is just my guess as to why he did what he did (again, presuming it went down as it appeared). If he had been apprehended alive, and there was enough evidence to convict him, I’d be fine with that.
Honestly, my take on the whole thing is that he did something stupid, and then encountered Wilson, and they both had attitude, which escalated the situation. Don’t know if Wilson was legally justified or not, and not sure if there will be enough evidence to determine that. Wait and see.
But my original point (to Terr) still stands. It appears to have been an anomaly within his overall history. If you disagree, please bring evidence.
Indeed, adolescence fucks with brain chemistry to an extent that it actually hinders rational decision making, risk evaluation, etc. Adolescents are by nature suffering from diminished mental capacity in several respects.
This Cracked article says something about this — 5 Ways High School Really Does Suck (According to Science) | Cracked.com —
So why publish it?
A store robbery is enough “dirt”, especially one just 10 minutes before the incident.
Perhaps it was. Perhaps that day was his worst day, one where he exercised horrible judgment and violent aggression he never did previously. Too bad for him, because that still makes him–on that day–a violent thug. Your last post is more measured, but the one I responded to, where you said, “The only real dirt in this story are the problems with the Ferguson police force,” was the silliness I responded to. Ten minutes or so before his death, Brown assaulted someone, a violent felony. That’s some mighty compelling “dirt.”
Maybe his teenage brain is the source of his misjudgment, and maybe additional facts will show the assault was an irrelevancy in that the cop had no need to use deadly force. But for now, it can’t be hand-waved away as some triviality.
How many threads have you started or participated in about the media? How many times do you need to hear the answer? Pick one or more: It’s grist for the mill, it’s bullshit, it’s propaganda, it sells ads, it fills the 24 hour news cycle…
See above. There will never be enough dirt for some…
It was silly of me to waste time responding to you. Thanks for reminding me why.
Wow, that stings. Even so, I’ll still be a nice guy and offer you this valuable advice in parting: don’t post bullshit if you don’t want to be called on it. Unless, of course, you’re a teenager, in which case all is forgiven.