You know if the police just would hand out gummy bears then all the people would just chill out.

Just start shooting the looters and their tone would change very quickly.

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If 67% of the citizens are black, then why don't they vote black representatives to the city council? No one is forcing them to vote for white people. Also, why is it that we are taught that all people are equal, except when minorities are not represented in the same percentage in every walk of life. If all people are equal, then all white cops should be good, right?

But then, if a black man is a cop, then he is no longer black, right? He's an uncle Tom. Same thing they said about Obama before he was elected...he wasn't 'down for the struggle' because he was half-white, grew up in Hawaii and went to Harvard. He was the 'magic Negro'.

Also, cops don't just act on their own. They are following orders given them by their command structure. If the city doesn't like how the cops respond, they should address the mayor and the chief of police.

Here again we hear 'unarmed black man' as a victim of a fatal shooting. When someone is trying to take a policeman's gun, he is only temporarily unarmed. A policeman's gun is community property...it belongs to anyone who can get it. 25% of cops are shot with their own weapon so cops get kinda defensive about people grabbing at it.

Also, Michael Brown was not a boy scout, he was a guy who just committed a forcible shoplifting, which in most states is considered a felony. While the officer did not know this, it may help explain the state of mind of Michael Brown when confronted by the cop.

There may be plenty of blame to go around in this situation but it doesn't help when people riot before all the facts are in. Today the cops are given all the blame while the citizen is given every excuse by the media.

Sounds like a very large simplification for something. You can't honestly think that the reaction was due to one single incident? And if you're sensible enough to realise that, are you genuinely suggesting that the black community is appropriately represented in prison and crime statistics?

Try and avoid racism when you reply.

I think you're living in a dream world. The abolition of slavery is only a generation removed, do you really think that many of these people have had the same opportunities as you have? Whether it be by design, by accident or what have you? I imagine your close ancestors were allowed to accumulate property and status in a way that their ancestors weren't.

That's not a recommendation for guilt, merely that unless you've lived their life in their world you have absolutely no idea what it's like, and you will only ever understand childhood and development (which form your opinions and beliefs) from your own perspective. So don't be too quick to judge others for their situation. I'd like to see how you fared if you grew up in the same environment.

You make it sound so simple to vote for black people... as though it's that simple, as though the democratic system in USA and UK alike isn't riddled with corruption, where money is power, and everyone is opposed to changing the status quo? How many of those in power know what life is like in a black community, to know what the problems are and how deep the divide runs between them and the councillors for their place of residence? ... I've got so many criticisms i don't know where to begin. You've got some points, but they're buried.

Yeah, but that would be against pretty much everything that society is trying to stand for.

1-fire the police chief
2-stop racial profiling (concrete measures)
3-hire more black cops

There are many reasons it might not even be possible to vote in representatives for these people. Gerrymandering, fixed elections, etc. Negligence and apathy are valid, but I doubt they're the primary reasons. And all people are equal, just as all people are fallible.

Cops are just like anyone else, with the exception that they have an institution that will protect them from their personal decisions, such as shooting unarmed, or racially segregated people out of spite. I have more personal experience than I like with white police officers openly practicing racism and physical abuse, when the only minority around is their victim.

You cite how Brown allegedly tried to take the mans gun. He also allegedly did not. Unfortunately it comes down to the eye-witness account versus the officers. In cases like this, I can find 999 instances out of a thousand that reflect police organizations that promote racism and abuse, in a scenario where the minority suspect did everything expected of them in a confrontation, and was still victimized. Having the gall to support the officers in this case, a case where we as the observers have nothing to go on other than heresay, is ignoring decades of historical experience with exactly these scenarios.

Lastly, you're not a boyscout. I'm not a boyscout. Fuck boyscouts; they don't even exist in realistic contexts. I don't give a good god damn fucking shit what he did prior to being murdered. It is so irrelevant it's laughable. In this particular instance where we're judging a man for deserving life or death, it doesn't matter if he skullfucked a litter of puppies and raped the kindly mother of everyone on earth collectively. If the man who shot him had no idea of the crime, as has already been shown he did not, he had absolutely no right to fire on an unarmed man. Even if he *did* know of these crimes: he still has no right to take the mans life.

If Brown tried to grab the mans gun, he failed, and therefore he was still unarmed. We have multiple witness accounts that he was shot while surrendering. At that point, crimes, robberies, past events, whatever: none of that matters, because one man killed another while the latter was no threat. No other argument you can make has any validity.