Ferguson, MO: Unrest Continues

[Jubal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28848753

US police say they have arrested 31 people during another night of angry protests in the town of Ferguson in the state of Missouri.

Unrest flared hours after President Obama called for calm following the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on 9 August.

The US attorney general is due to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet federal officials investigating the killing.

The National Guard has been deployed to support police operations.

So, this was all sparked by police shooting an unarmed black teenager who almost certainly hadn't done anything wrong at all.

Turns out that if you take a bunch of guys, dress them as soldiers, give them heavy duty firearms, train them like soldiers, they'll start acting like soldiers. And then all of a sudden people are surprised when the "enemy" that they've made out of perfectly ordinary citizens finally wants to fire back. The race issue is obviously also a really severe part of this, the police in much of the US are overwhelmingly white and there keep being continued cases of disproportionate focus and disproportionate sentences given to black people as regards crime.

[comrade_general]

If you look into the studies they will show that more crimes are committed by Blacks and Hispanics than other races. That's just a fact. But it doesn't mean that kid should have been shot five times.

The real issue here is the militarization of our police forces and their growing tendencies to oppress the citizens they are sworn to protect.

[Jubal]

Yeah, they're poorer on average than whites so you'd expect that. But the studies do also tend to show that sentencing is harsher on those people for equivalent crimes, more of them get targetted by police, etc.

I agree though that the militarisation of the police is absolutely a core issue. I had no idea until all this flared up how much military kit your cops actually have, it's kinda terrifying. Who do these guys think they're going to be fighting?

[Pentagathus]

Texans?

[comrade_general]

One of the podunk towns near here received a 12-man armoured personnel carrier for their Sheriff department from the guvment. They don't even have half that many on the entire force!

[Jubal]

Now that IS nuts.

[Jubal]

As usual, John Oliver gives a better account of the problems than actual news sources:

I still can't believe there are towns that size that have a tank. That place was the size of Diss. And it had a tank. An actual up-armoured on tracks honest-to-goodness tank.

[Pentagathus]

Now that IS nuts.

Now that IS nuts.

IS

IS? ISIS? Its a conspiracy, Obama really is a terrorist mozzer geezer. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

But seriously that is portugaled up. Move far away CG. Like here. Or Canada, Canada sounds nice.

[Jubal]

I'm afraid you've been beaten to that conclusion, Penty, in a rather big way: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28745990

[Gen_Glory]

Actual photo of police sniper in Ferguson

Couple of points;
 A bipod and a tripod?!
 A telescopic scope and a reflex sight?!

This appears to be an AR-15 and as far as I am aware not standard police issue which leads me to believe that it is that officer's own gun.

I've seen many people comment on reddit about how members of the police in America like to play soldier
As seen in this incident http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/24/james-boyd-killed-by-cops_n_5021117.html

The shooting of Michael Brown and the police response to the subsequent unrest highlight serious problems in the local (and to some extent national) police force. An autopsy has shown Mr Brown to of been shot six times, twice in the head, from a distance greater than 2 ft, does that not seem like a gross misuse of force?

I would like to see if these events make american police forces clean up their act.

Obviously my opinions on this are of a curious Brit looking on a situation in a country whose police force shoots dead more people every month than the british police shoot in more than a decade. Heck I've only ever seen armed police in airports and around London.

[TTG4]

From the sounds of it, it seems as if Brown was unlawfully killed. However, there are clearly some people hijacking the protest by burning and looting stores and throwing bottles and rocks and (possibly) molotov cocktails at the police, so there does need to be a response and comparing it to situations like the riots we had in cities in the UK a few years back is innaccurate.

Though I have to wonder, whats caused this to escalate so quickly? I suspect the fact that the police have these pieces of kit has given them a false sense of conflict being immanent and so snapped into action. Though they have managed to avoid killing many people, unlike in places like Egypt where the security forces are clearly brutal.

The second person killed seems more defensible, he was moving on them with a knife so they'd have felt endangered. Why they couldn't have used a taser or some other sort of non-lethal restraint or incapacitation does strike me as being this false sense of conflict again.

[Jubal]

I don't like the phrase "unlawfully killed". Call a spade a spade, he was murdered, or if we think the state was culpable, executed without trial. I don't think shooting a man with a knife is a proportional or defensible response either, honestly. I can see why police would want to restrain or arrest such a man,  but the fault is with the police entirely if they then choose to kill someone. If you're running around pointing a live firearm at people, wearing full body armour, you have no business feeling excessively threatened by someone who is only armed with a knife and certainly no business killing them.

I agree that the militarised police are a major part of the picture. I think a very disaffected, poor, unemployed underclass in the form of Ferguson's young black community seems to also be a problem - it's not just the response that's the issue, it's massively higher sentencing rates for blacks and continued racial profiling policies and anger at that is boiling over. Burning and looting clearly needs to be addressed at some stage, but right now the police need to stand down and de-escalate the situation, confrontation is only increasing the levels of property damage.

Also apparently Egypt has called on the US to show restraint in dealing with protestors. Which I think may be the final straw to show just how badly this is going.

[comrade_general]

But seriously that is portugaled up. Move far away CG. Like here. Or Canada, Canada sounds nice.

I am also armed to the teeth, so bring it on cop-bitches.

[Clockwork]

Who do these guys think they're going to be fighting?

The British might invade! Reclaim our territories, fight the usurpers! Or Mexicans, Injuns, 'gators, anyone looking a little middle eastern, The Beckhams, democrats, basically you just never know who you're going to have to use state empowered lethal justice on at any given time.

'Murica!

Also, that American journalist that got beheaded by ISIS? I'm sure his country will use a mediated and appropriate response, maybe find the killer and convict him through a fair trial and certainly not bomb a few villages/towns/cities/countries just in case the felon was hiding in them.

[TTG4]

The British might invade! Reclaim our territories, fight the usurpers! Or Mexicans, Injuns, 'gators, anyone looking a little middle eastern, The Beckhams, democrats, basically you just never know who you're going to have to use state empowered lethal justice on at any given time.

'Murica!

Also, that American journalist that got beheaded by ISIS? I'm sure his country will use a mediated and appropriate response, maybe find the killer and convict him through a fair trial and certainly not bomb a few villages/towns/cities/countries just in case the felon was hiding in them.

The IS(IS) guy was a Brit, I'm waiting for the right wing nuts to start screaming about 1772 again