Why Why the People of Ferguson Don't Trust the Cops
 

Some pretty eye-opening accounts of Policing in Ferguson as they were told to one reporter by some of the locals.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2...trust-the-cops


continued

Get a life it's Friday Night.

Try a porno or something

Quit trolling 4-2-7. Your post had nothing to do with the thread.

Nore does enyone elses around here so don't single me out if I'm off topic. In fact when I brought it up before to one of your house trolls you said they can say anything they want.

Returning to the OP subject, I continue to think it might be informative if the people officer Wilson was assisting at his last stop, before the shooting, were found and interviewed. I'm just wondering if something put him in the mood to roust some teenagers for jaywalking.

In any case, it seems the police had gotten to a place in that town where 'walking while black' punched a button for them in a lot of cases.

In any case it seems the young population has gotten to a place in that town where they feel they can do whatever they want without reprimand and consequence.:rolleyes:

The Ferguson Law & Order dynamic is widespread. Militarized LE perceive/treat some neighborhoods as if they are enemy territory. As a result, LEOs perceive citizens living in these neighborhoods as potential combatants.

I think you've got it nailer. The cops come at you dressed for combat, all in black looking like thugs and acting like they are itching for a fight. So you put yer dukes up in anticipation and they call you combative.

Respectfully, some neighborhoods are "enemy territory." (There's really no getting around that.) The social question is how much perceived lack of freedom can be allowed to promote safety before it is determined to be Draconian.

Part of this is made difficult by John Q. Public. Why? When Barney Fife asked the Barber, "What are you doing up and about so early this morning, Ralph?," he didn't get "Fuck you, pig."

Something changed.

Folks can say it's military-style police but it happened long before that. :(

You got that right.

Barney Fife also had no bullets in his gun.

I mentioned no routine carry of firearms by all police early on as an idea to consider, as a game changer.

He had a bullet, in his pocket. The power to take a life was there.

As for no routine carry of firearms in general police work? That makes you a Codes Enforcement Officer. There's nothing wrong with that, if by "game changer" you're looking for police that nobody respects, listens to, criminals don't fear and who possess no ability to effectively respond to life threatening situations.

I just don't think it can work. :(

Barney didn't always get to carry the bullet.

In any case, that suggests a middle approach--perhaps a patrol officer with a firearm locked in the car.

As NBC pointed out there was 40 percent increase in revenue gained from fines in Ferguson between 2010 and now. So the police must have increased their "velvet glove" pressure of local enforcement quite a bit recently. An increase in that amount of revenue must have been noticable by the people who live there.

Sadly a UK style of police involvement is impossible here because of the Second Amendment and the saturation of weapons among the entire civilian population.

Precious few cops would seriously consider going into the hood without a gun. I do not blame them. There are violent people out there who belong in jail, and some aren't.

There is a culture of violence in some of these neighborhoods. While it appears Ferguson cops may have had something coming, many police forces do not, and there's still bad people doing bad things in them. There is no magic thing that will make all people nice.

Pete

Australia fixed their problem with an overarmed populace, why can't we do the same? We're, by god, number one! :rolleyes:

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me.

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me.

Leave the men where they lay
They'll never see another day
Lost my soul, lost my dream
You can't take the sky from me.

I feel the black reaching out
I hear its song without a doubt
I still hear and I still see
That you can't take the sky from me.

Lost my love, lost my land
Lost the last place I could stand
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity

With the recent Open Carry legislation abounding nationwide with Wayne Lapierre leading the charge I would posit the culture of violence is not restricted to just "some neighborhoods."

Is it a culture of violence or a culture of fear mongering?

Are we really that unsafe.. or are lots of people simply profiting from telling us we're that unsafe.

Is it all just a dangerous illusion?

Either way, it is an illusion that a handgun will make you more safe in society.

If it's just an illusion, why does LE carry?

By now it's a tradition. Badge and a gun, period. Too many movies and shows have glorified this. Nothing else would do.

To police a handgun crazy society.

I'm sorry, but I find the thought that you are not more able to defend yourself armed silly.

Pete

Not what you meant, but this is the image that comes to me when you say 'armed silly:'

http://ospois.files.wordpress.com/20...pg?w=225&h=300

I was looking forward to lunch.

The main problem with defending yourself by being armed silly is that guns don't stop bullets.

You'll say the idea is you shoot the other guy first, but don't forget that if you're armed, you likewise give the other guy a big motivation to shoot you first.

All that said, being armed can of course sometimes be helpful. I'm just pointing out that it's not 100% good, silly.

LOL it sure fits :)

Pete

Isn't that ...? :rolleyes: :D

Should I know who LE is?

Law enforcement.

Stop shoulding yourself!

The individual of whom you speak published another pic of that guy once, saying it was himself. But he was awfully silly, you know.

What's that smell?

You trying -- and failing -- to think.

I'm starting to think Zeke might have a crush on me.

I shower every Saturday, needed or not.

Some people see a police force that's overwhelmingly white, in a neighborhood that's overwhelmingly black, close ranks around an officer who shot an unarmed young black man and don't see how race could be involved.................

Is officer Wilson a racist? Hell if I know, I never met the guy.

However, unless you're dumb, deaf and blind or just refusing to see, it's not all that difficult to see the potential for racial tension to develop, when day in and day out it's mostly white cops dealing with mostly black criminals. Under those conditions the stage is set for a racial divide to flourish. How can anyone NOT see that?

Dave

No, but you should know who an LEO is. They carry the big stick. :D

It happened with the fringe before that, but now it's happening with total law and order types like myself. It offends me that the cops drive ugly thug mobiles and outfit themselves to appear as threatening and intimidating as they can possible look. It offends me that cops are so unpredictable that I know I don't have to be doing anything illegal to become a "target".

Like someone once said, if you come at me looking like you want a fight, I'm putting up my dukes.

If the first thing out of a cops mouth is a barked command, like I'm his bitch, I'm going to become defensive right off the bat.

I agree.

And perhaps it's all those carrying idiots that have turned our police into SWAT teams.

A self fulfilling prophecy perhaps.