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Decades of living in America has taught me that Black people, as a group, can not be pleased. If police pulled out of their neighborhoods, then Blacks would protest over the rise of crime that would follow. If police step it up and patrol Black neighborhoods, then Blacks protest and complain over being harassed by police. It's a no win situation with Black and Whit relations.
Reading through all of the Ferguson threads, I continually see some white people equate black people with criminals and black communities as tolerant of crime. The argument goes: of course cops are harder on and rougher with more blacks than whites because more blacks than whites are criminals.
Ok, that may be true. (There's historical reasons for that ... it's not an inherent trait of being black). Here's what also seems to be the case though. Black people -- regular run of the mill non criminal black people with jobs and families just trying to get by (the overwhelming majority) are treated worse by the police than regular white people. They get pulled over more often; they're more likely to be victims of police misunderstandings; etc.
Are you ok with that? Is it cool for you to live in a country where there are still some people who don't get equal treatment under the law?
In a perfect world, every single person would be evaluated on their own exact merits. So a black person doing nothing suspicious should face no more scrutiny from law enforcement than any other person.
But you know that the world isn't perfect. It isn't perfect here or anywhere else. People in England form opinions about a person just because of their accent.
Asians are very judgemental of other Asians from a different country. Go to Japan and you'll see what they think of Koreans.
Young men with dark skin, beards, and certain attire will be assumed to be Muslims.
Much of this is not good, but I don't see how it can change much. What do you think should and can be done?
Reading through all of the Ferguson threads, I continually see some white people equate black people with criminals and black communities as tolerant of crime. The argument goes: of course cops are harder on and rougher with more blacks than whites because more blacks than whites are criminals.
Ok, that may be true. (There's historical reasons for that ... it's not an inherent trait of being black). Here's what also seems to be the case though. Black people -- regular run of the mill non criminal black people with jobs and families just trying to get by (the overwhelming majority) are treated worse by the police than regular white people. They get pulled over more often; they're more likely to be victims of police misunderstandings; etc.
Are you ok with that? Is it cool for you to live in a country where there are still some people who don't get equal treatment under the law?
No, which is why I support mandatory body cameras.
It keeps everybody honest.
The problem of course is that nobody waits for evidence to come out.
(And in the Brown case, many of his supporters were even denying that it was him in the store footage....so really....at some point it's exasperating.)
Decades of living in America has taught me that Black people, as a group, can not be pleased. If police pulled out of their neighborhoods, then Blacks would protest over the rise of crime that would follow. If police step it up and patrol Black neighborhoods, then Blacks protest and complain over being harassed by police. It's a no win situation with Black and Whit relations.
Yes like the current situation, during the first "protest" there was Ferguson police and the National Guard and they complained government was acting like a police state. Because of the complaints they pull back during these recent protest and now they complain "where was the National guard".
I say, pull the police out and let them police themselves... then soon there won't be any businesses to protect.
Decades of living in America has taught me that Black people, as a group, can not be pleased. If police pulled out of their neighborhoods, then Blacks would protest over the rise of crime that would follow. If police step it up and patrol Black neighborhoods, then Blacks protest and complain over being harassed by police. It's a no win situation with Black and Whit relations.
No, which is why I support mandatory body cameras.
It keeps everybody honest.
The problem of course is that nobody waits for evidence to come out.
It's going to happen, and when the number of black arrests skyrockets, which has occurred in areas testing body cams, they won't be happy about it.
Cops already use a surprising amount of discretion and have a fair amount of leeway. Petty crimes witnessed in the course of the day are routinely ignored because of the time, cost and difficulty of making the case. The video cams catch everything, making it far easier to prosecute for petty crap, which will put more people into the system. It's a downward spiral from then on.
It's going to happen, and when the number of black arrests skyrockets, which has occurred in areas testing body cams, they won't be happy about it.
Cops already use a surprising amount of discretion and have a fair amount of leeway. Petty crimes witnessed in the course of the day are routinely ignored because of the time, cost and difficulty of making the case. The video cams catch everything, making it far easier to prosecute for petty crap, which will put more people into the system. It's a downward spiral from then on.
Why would arrests sky rocket because they are being filmed? Did you mean convictions?
Yes like the current situation, during the first "protest" there was Ferguson police and the National Guard and they complained government was acting like a police state. Because of the complaints they pull back during these recent protest and now they complain "where was the National guard".
I say, pull the police out and let them police themselves... then soon there won't be any businesses to protect.
This gets to the heart of the matter of Black/White relations. Black people constantly demand that White people step in to fix the problems that Black people have brought upon themselves, yet they despise White people for doing so. We hear the Black people of Ferguson complaining about White racism, yet many seem to overlook the fact that Ferguson was once a White enclave. Blacks moved into a town that was once almost 100 percent White and now that same town is overwhelmingly Black. If Whites are so racist, then why do Black people keep moving to areas where White people live?
People live in a high crime area yet do nothing about it and blame the police when they come in and take care of things .... How about if we just build a big fence and pull the police out ....
Nice. Let innocent folks become some sort of final death match participants because people want to be able to trust the police to treat them better than actual gang bangers. I still don't know what do nothing about our means. That view is only held by those who have zero clues as to what these neighborhoods are really like and what its inhabitants are really like.
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