Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The fog of race

I have to say it was dramatic and intense coverage over on the CW Channel 11 News here, while the prosecuting attorney over there in Ferguson Missoui was droning on and on about the finer points of the grand jury verdict on the bigger split screen they were showing live and growing reaction among the large crowd gathered to hear the no indictment verdict against Ferguson PO Darren Wilson in the tragic Michael Brown case. It didn't take long for the first police cruiser to be set on fire and for the tear gas canisters to be shot in the air. I've noticed more and more in these type racially-oriented protests the increasing number of white protesters joining the African-Americans so it might sound contradictory to say we've made some racial progress but sometimes you have to look for it. There's no way in hell PO Wilson can go back on the streets in Ferguson or any predominantly black community across the country. He'll just have to make some sort of drastic career change so that's a kind of social price against him despite the verdict that was rendered by the jury.

17 comments:

  1. I think the Grand Jury consisted of 9 whites and 3 blacks. IMO, the case is not as egregious as the Trayvon Martin one: the guy was a legitimate on duty policeman.
    (Guilliani thinks the jury was correct, I see). Agreed, the policeman will need to find other work in another area. Apparently, after the guy went for his gun and wrestled
    with him in the squad car, he became concerned that Brown was much bigger, putting him in a 'concerned' state of mind. There is a lot of testimony to go through,
    I feel badly for the boy's parents, they will no doubt sue. IMO, looting, wrecking and burning does more harm to relations than the old MLK-Ghandi solemn. Regarding race and justice, we are reminded of the OJ case, as well as the angry black lady lawyer saying "did the officer fear for his life when Brown charged him, or did he fear
    the disgrace of having the crap beat out of him by a black teenager?" Dunno, when
    a cop tells me to do something, I do it. Anything wrong with that approach?

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  2. How is it there were only three blacks on the jury? I'm no legal scholar but this kinda invalidates the whole thing imo.

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    1. The grand jury consists of six white men, three white women, two black women and one black man. Nine votes are needed to indict.

      According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the racial makeup of the grand jury is similar to the racial breakdown of St. Louis County, which is about 24 percent black and about 68 percent white.

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    2. I can make another case: the situation is so disproportionately relevant to African-Americans that three blacks on the jury still doesn't represent a fair makeup for a jury in such a case.

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  3. It looked like the Middle East last night.

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  4. My overall feeling about the case - I lean towards the cop's version of events but it's still murky to me whether he was justified in shooting him.

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    1. It sounds like he emptied his magazine. What ever happened to shooting to
      disable?

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    2. As I understand it when Brown allegedly got ready to charge him the last time that's when the fatal shots were fired. An upper leg shot was an option, the dreaded kneecap? Whatever happened to the TASER? I saw parts of his interview with Stephanapolous (damn that guy's name!) and just my opinion but he was too sure of himself.

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    3. The idea of having police wear micro vid cameras gets better all the time.

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  5. The Eric Garner grand jury verdict is supposed to come down any day now.

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  6. Had a brush with law enforcement myself last week. Coming back across S Washington state after thanksgiving. Tiny town, flashing lights in rearview mirror.
    I was digging for my license and insurance and the big sheriff says, "Hey, buddy,
    ya gotta tire going flat, left rear." That beat doing time in some adobe jail for a few days! Most of the tiny town was down for the holidays, but I finally found one of those junk yard towing places (broken windows, car parts scattered in the mud and
    the ancient dog sleeping under the tow truck). Enough to keep the wife in the car,
    but they were nice folks and got me going again. Had the tire gone out on the next
    leg of the trip, I could have gone off into a ravine, or sat on the shoulder waiting for
    help from about 80 miles away.

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  7. Replies
    1. The Mrs. has a cellphone. She uses it about 4 times a year. The particular stretch of country we were in consists of canyons, gulches, rises, etc. cellphone service is spotty. Progress-wise, we covered the distance in four hours, which took Lewis and Clark 4 days. We ate better, too. I e-mailed a thank you to the sheriff, figuring they mostly get complaints.

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  8. You probably are more knowledgeable in the field than I: was on a blog about tipping, when, why how much, etc. A commenter observed that liberals and progressives are low tippers. But from a consumer standpoint, the folks I know have
    tipping habits that are unrelated to their political views. thoughts? Me, being of the
    liberal bent, tend to be sympathetic to low paid people that work hard and am quite
    generous.

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    Replies
    1. IMO it would seem to behoove liberals to practice what they preach.

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  9. Regarding the Ferguson situation, former NBA star Charles Barkley has taken a surprising stance.

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    1. It is truly puzzling why his comments have been deemed controversial.

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