Rioting in Ferguson Area

[mindwaave]

I woke up this morning to the news, and as a result am missing quite a lot. I think all this was started when an officer shot an unarmed black teenager last night. The officer supposedly handled the situation well by reporting everything, but the community up in Ferguson is of course upset. Rioting, looting, fires, shootings, and all that good stuff has been going on since. As of now, rioting has mostly devolved into protesting, and police have formed and held a line for a few hours:


(^source)

Just some quick info:

"Live" amateur reporting of events

Professional reporter/photographer's personal investigation

Map of events so far

Amateur reporting on-the-ground via social media

More media, amateur reports, and writing at Reddit

[ropingk]

there is always 2 stories and I personally have a hard time beliving a officer just shoot a 18 year old for no reason i could be wrong but its seems a bit hard to belive

[BagHead727]

Well, at least people will remember this one. Kill a couple cops and it'd be even better.

I love riots.

[Pepster]

I watched this unfold last night on TV of course. It was nuts!! And all the witnesses have the same story, the cops are the only ones with a different story.

I also love riots.

[White Rabbit]

Couple decent videos I found of the rioting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbv6QGhXj7g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EvQ-SgxLxU

[ropingk]

wow its the rabbit

[Meester Beeg]

here have been witnesses telling the same story as the cop, too.

why is it only Black people think it is okay to riot and loot innocent peoples businesses?
They say they want justice. okay jail every one of the people involved.
i bet their tune would change real fast.

[ropingk]

they dont care that some one HAD to pay for the stuff they are STEALING if it was my busniess there would be more than one dead body

[SubLunar]

Damn I leave town for one week and this is what happens?

This is why we can't have nice things.

[Mandi Milenko]

I live like 15 minutes away from this BS. It is getting ridiculous. They don't even want to talk to police and help in investigations when drive-bys happen but they wanna throw a fit because a white officer supposedly shot one of their thugs? Really? This little punk was not the "gentle Giant" everyone made him out to be. He robbed a liquor store and terrorized the tiny little foreign clerk for a pack of blunts. Giant? yes. Gentle? Not in the least. Honestly I was rooting for this kid and defending him against those calling him a thug and I was calling the cop a murdering bastard all week until yesterday when that robbery came out. Now I am ashamed of myself for making assumptions. A supposed friend of the officer came on 97.1 and told his side of the story and I must say it makes way more sense than anything else I have heard. Anyway that's my 2 cents.

http://danaloeschradio.com/alleged-frie ... -his-side/

[ropingk]

all I can say is if a black cop shot a white punk this would not be happening

[BagHead727]

The kid probably deserved what he got, so it was never about justice or race for me. I'm just sick of cops. What if these riots happened every time they killed an innocent person, or no-knock-raided the wrong house and refused to pay for damages, or every time they shot a kid playing with toys, or when they threw a stun grenade into a baby's crib, shot a homeless man living on a hill, shot your suicidal son after being called to help him, shot a person after they called for an ambulance... you get where I'm going with this. Maybe then police would start showing restraint. You call police now and you don't know if they're going to help you or kill you. Revenue collection is the only thing they're good for.

[Pepster]

I echo what Baghead says. And Mandi the officer had no idea that Mike was a suspect in the robbery when he shot him. A cop doesn't need to shoot anyone that is unarmed. Even in the extreme case that they do need to shoot at an unarmed person, 1 shot should be more than enough. That's the only issue I have. What is a cop doing shooting at an unarmed person? What is a cop doing shooting 5 plus times at unarmed person?

Most accounts say they got into a scuffle inside the police cruiser after the officer asked brown to get out of the street. A shot was fired in the scuffle and brown backed down and started to run away. The cop then exited the car and shot 8 more times when the kid had his hands up and was moving away from the officer. That's a problem to me.

[Mandi Milenko]

But see assuming that the cop shot unjustly is exactly what I am talking about. This is what the media is telling you (both the news and social media). The officer's story (supposedly) didn't even come out until yesterday. Everyone sided with the kid immediately without knowing the facts. To say the robbery had nothing to do with the shooting is false. Even if the officer didn't know (though he may have received the call after the initial stop), Mike Brown knew he robbed it. Think about it. If a cop stopped you immediately after you robbed someone what would you think and how would you react? We don't know if this boy was immediately hostile or not. All we have is witness testimony (which has not been consistent) and a friend speaking for the officer (which so far has been consistent). I'm not saying police brutality isn't an issue, but with this particular case we really don't know if it was.

Let's say the kid really did charge at the officer after running, and the cop kept shooting but he kept coming. That shot to the head could have brought him to his knees and maybe he did throw his hand in the air before he fell and that's all that the witnesses saw. I can see how this whole thing could have been misconstrued. The governed wants to talk about how wrong it was to release the robbery info but to me it's no more wrong than releasing the officer's name without knowing whether or not he is really guilty. I mean channel 5 showed his damn house on the news. With all the hostility and threats going around, that was totally stupid and dangerous.

Edit: I just came across this video. Seems to collaborate with what the officer is saying.... http://www.ijreview.com/2014/08/168698- ... -shooting/

[ropingk]

you ever try to stop a 300# person who is charging???? I didn't think so if the cop says stop then STOP its really that simple