Civil unrest continues in Ferguson. Washington Post/AP
Riots and looting have returned to Ferguson after only one night of relative calm. Yahoo/AP. Police and 200 protesters clashed again after yesterdays reports that Michael Brown had robbed a convince store before he was shot. The protest was peaceful at first but then looters stole from the very store Brown stands accused of robbing. A short riot then broke out with people throwing rocks and other objects at the police. Police then backed off and a few more stores were looted. No arrests were made. Some of the protesters yelled at the looters and a few even tried to protect the stores.
My Comment:
Well, that didn't last long. So much for calm. It probably made sense from a political and tactical viewpoint for the cops to back off but if i owned one of those businesses I'd be furious. Of course if owned one of those businesses I would be there all night with a rifle. At least some of the protesters had enough common sense to denounce and try to prevent these looters. They deserve credit for that, and more people need to act that way in these situations. However, the people that organize these protests have to understand the optics here. You can't protest being treated like thugs and criminals if people you are associated with are acting like thugs and criminals. Sure it's wrong to judge everyone there by the actions of a few, but everyone does it. And these protesters are being judged by the troublemakers. Just like the cops are.
Of course the fact that the media is blowing this all out of proportion again is a huge factor. Sure, I'm just as guilty, and social media has a role as well. But something tells me that this wouldn't be nearly as serious if it wasn't for the media covering it 24/7. Oh well, might as well go with the flow.
There are legitimate issues brought up by this case. Not so much the shooting itself, but the militarization of the police. I've been worried about that since my college days and it's only gotten worse since then. Of course when I spoke up against it after the Boston Marathon Bombing and the Cliven Bundy incident, nobody really cared other then libertarians and some on the right. Us verus them mentality. Nobody cares about tyranny as long it is focused on "those people". "Those people" could be anyone. Doesn't matter if it's a white rancher in Nevada, or black protesters in Missouri, there will always be people who think they deserve whatever they have coming to them... Until of course that tyranny comes around back to them.
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