News #ferguson

[Deleted member 27340]

I searched #ferguson on Tumblr, and also other tags such as #protests and #hands up don't shoot.

This gave me much more insight in what's really going on over there, and the palm of my and a few of my friends' hands now says "hands up don't shoot".

I was just wondering what you think? I know many of you live in the states, and I like to learn about what's going on in the world.

 

[Justmehere]

I don't have a strong opinion about what happened between the officer and the young man he shot. I wasn't there and I haven't reviewed all the evidence.

What does alarm me is that the prosecutor completely misused the purpose of a grand jury. It actually makes me physically ill to think about. Grand juries are very different than juries at a trial. At a frail, witnesses are cross examined. At a grand jury hearing, they are not. The only purpose of the jury to is review he evidence that points to the crime. Almost all grand juries choose to have charges filed. What this prosecutor did was to present a lot of evidence that supported no charges being filed, and with no one to cross examine that evidence.

He perverted the purpose of a grand jury.

If the case went to trial, I don't think there is enough evidence to convict the officer. Right or wrong, there is significant evidence of reasonable doubt that it was self defense that a defense attorney would have a field day with. It would be hard for a jury at a trial to convict him.

However, that does not give this prosecutor ground to try to misuse the purpose of grand jury to try and get his buddy officer off.

It brings up that blue line, the code of silence, the effort amoung all on the law enforcement side to protect their own. I believe that culture comes from trauma bonding. These folks see things in black and white ways, and as if they must protect their own at all costs, because their thinking is so much in survival mode because of the real threats they face on their job. PTSD is massively unfettered and under reporteres amount law enforcement and I think better awareness of this might help begin to crack that culture. There have also been studies done that show that reading officers for snitching or reporting other officers leads to less coverup and silence and desires to protect fellow officers at all costs. Including the cost of proper use of a grand jury to evaluate if charges should be pressed.

I understand the anger. In my one life I have seen law enforcement racially profile and target even young kids hat I work with. It makes me furious too. However, I don't understand the looting. Then again, people in the US will riot and burn down things after losing a football game.

For me, the whole mess shows of massive changes needed in my country to better hold the police accountable, and to also hold prosecutors accountable -- and for those who are pissed about losing a case or a football game to stop burning stuff down. That only creates more victims of more trauma...

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

I'm not from the states, but I've see about Ferguson on my dash on Tumblr, but it's not just Ferguson there are riots all round the world right now. Americans in many states have been holding silent and peaceful protests for those from Ferguson and there are riots in Mexico, Brazil, London (and other parts of the UK), China, Taiwan, Egypt, Ukraine, Palestine, Nigeria, Venezuela, I could go on but I'm sure you get the point. It's a little scary actually though also democratically exciting. also I've also done a little reading though last week there was so much of it I actually got triggered by it and had to ease up on what I was seeing and avoid it a bit. No matter how much worrying I do or how much concern I have for the wellbeing of others there's nothing I can do to change what's happening.

I saw Mockingjay the other week at the cinema and really it's like that - I've seen a lot of references to the similarities between that fictional story and what's going on. Actually I've seen side by side photos of footage from the scene and real events going on across the world including in Ferguson right now. A lot of protesters have adopted phrases from the books/film like "If we burn, you burn with us" as well as "The Hanging Tree" song.

Another thing about what you can see on Tumblr is the huge extremes of what isn't being published in the media. I've seen footage of thousands of people sitting still and silent in a peaceful vigil. Or just singing. I've seen footage of police brutaility even on young children. I've seen and read some of the quite disturbing coverups over the murder - like the Pathologist being asked why he didn't take any photos of the body "because the camera ran out of batteries" and so much more. It's horrifying really and I can't even begin to see how a higher and impartial authority hasn't stepped in over it. The cover-ups are so huge and multiple. Relating it back to myself, I've taken two things from it; firstly that racism is still so prominent disturbs me - though it makes me certain in every possible way that I'm not racist. Secondly, it just makes me relieved I've never tried to press charges on my abusers - the system seems to be easily corrupted and manipulated.

 

[Recovery4Me]

Devonte Hart, was holding a sign offering "Free Hugs" during a Tuesday protest. Portland police Sgt. Bret Barnum extended as the young man was in tears.

America has many peoples, many sides and many journeys to complete to heal. United as a country, with equity & compassion for all, is one of our hopes for positive change.

 

[Justmehere]

Very well said @Recovery4Me!

 

[WillyKat]

I think it's fairly obvious to everyone that with all the profiling and racism in the US and everywhere else, non-whites and the poor rarely get the benefit of the doubt. White and well-to-do tend to get more breaks.

There seems to be a growing chorus that says: the looters and rock throwers are giving a bad name to all the positive things going on. On the other side, a few bad cops give them all a bad name. We have to stop using individuals to define large populations.

I have direct experience in some of the same crap back in the 80s. I was involved in campus protests over the university having investments in South Africa and was therefore profiting from apartheid. We would organize a rally, and guess who showed up in the back to cause trouble? Little shits wearing masks and throwing shit. They were such a pain in the ass.

But I will say this too. I personally witnessed police doing some pretty awful things. I saw a young woman with punk hair being shoved into the side of a van by a cop with his billy club. She was walking away at the time, but got her head slammed pretty hard. I also personally witnessed an agent provocateur, that is someone in the employ of the police pretending to be a demonstrator. He kept pushing up against the cops, hoping others would do the same and give the police an excuse to bust us up. We all just told him to knock it off and soon he left.

So I've seen both sides.

Here's the thing. We white, well-to-do folks need to figure this out. By 2040, whites will be a minority in the US. If we don't get our act together we'll end up with another South African apartheid. I kind of think we're better than that, but only if we start doing the right thing now.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I completely agree with @Justmehere. I think that the grand jury was not properly used and as such they had no choice but to say there was not enough evidence to go to trial. The prosecutor used the grand jury as if it was a trial jury, demanding that the grand jurors do the job of trial jurors.

I lived maybe 10 miles from Furgeson for about 3 years. The St Louis metropolitan area is VERY much a racially divided city where there is a LITERAL line in the sand between where white people go/live and where white people go/live. (Ask anyone in the area and they will tell you the name of that street....well, there's more than one of them, but a prominent one comes to mind.) I grew up in a small town where I went where I want and did what I want as race wasn't a barrier to anything. So a bit of culture shock when I moved to the big city and saw all of the racial divides and racial tension. It wasn't something I was used to!

My aunt moved to Missouri about 10 years ago or so. She had a bit of racism in her but I attributed that to living in a war zone (the middle east during the first gulf conflict) and I thought (HOPED!) it was a passing thing. (I was still a kid when she moved back and naïve little me didn't take it seriously.) Uhm, nope, it wasn't a passing thing. My dad brought up the Ferguson issue on Turkey day and she gave him an earful over the phone about how black people had it coming. My dad relayed the conversation to me and I was speechless. I think he's written her off as "gone to the dark side" and at this point, I don't doubt it. [She's sort of out there on a number of issues.] I told him how different things are out in St Louis, and he thinks she's being influenced by the people she associates with.

I stay off of Facebook because ignorance is so prevalent and I just want to punch people for being so freaking stupid. It seems to me that part of it is an issue of those who have always been at the top of the totem pole so to speak have no idea what its like to not have all of those privileges....And its sad that I have to term it like that, because they shouldn't be privileges, but rights afforded to everyone. The "haves" simply cannot fathom the struggles of the "have nots". [This argument isn't just for race, but can be used for anything....gender, wealth, etc.]

 

[rightkindofme]

I was very involved with Occupy Oakland. To the point that I paid to repair damage done by some of the black block provocateurs. They were not emblematic of the larger movement and I didn't want their actions to be what people remembered. I even paid for the buses that shut down the Port of Oakland.

I have VERY strong feelings about what is happening in Ferguson. If I lived even a little closer I would be at all of the protests. I have not joined the counter-protests locally because I am sick as a dog and I have been for weeks. If I lived there I wouldn't care that I was sick.

The grand jury was misused. I don't know for SURE whether the officer is "truly guilty" but the fact he didn't stand trial is an unmitigated outrage.

Riots are the language of the unheard. I have no problem with the riots. I think they need to be happening. I think that standing up and making sure your government can't claim that everything is peachy is important.

I'm very disgusted by my country lately. Err, strike that "lately" and put "since the beginning of our racist terrible history".

 

[rightkindofme]

A little bit more about the kid and the cop hugging: http://www.today.com/parents/6-thin...hug-photo-1D80328968?cid=par-huffpost-gravity

 

[Ronin]

Yeah and that 'amazing cop hugging' also supports police violence.
Interesting hypocrisy, like pick a one way or the other, either you want Black youth murdered or you want to hug them, but doing so for publicity is nah.

Sh-t, where did my resolution to not engage primarily white communities on this topic as much as possible go. Bitter, bitter, bad choice self. I tend to get kind of passionate where humanity of others is concerned, & mostly tired of fighting for it one way or the other all of the time. Retreating.

 

[catjudo]

I have no problem with the riots. I think they need to be happening. I think that standing up and making sure your government can't claim that everything is peachy is important.

But it's not just government property that is being stolen and destroyed. Regardless of what a person believes...guilty or innocent, justified or unjustified, race motivated or a cop protecting his life...regardless of the facts or what anyone chooses to believe please tell me how violence in any way changes, fixes, or makes up for what has already happened. Someone was killed and the answer is to go out and steal and destroy private property of people who were in no way involved??? I don't know what they hope to accomplish but it seems to me that they're going about it the wrong way. Growing up I was taught that two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[rightkindofme]

Where I am from unless you make a whole lot of people very uncomfortable you don't get change.


Also: [DLMURL]http://gu.com/p/43z2v/stw[/DLMURL]