What's happening in Ferguson is an atrocity.
Completely unrelated to the protesting (though ten days after the
protesting has started) a black man walks into a store and steals two
sodas. Someone starts recording him, it's apparent the police are on
their way. The moments the cops get out of
their big SUV they have their guns pulled, and in a matter of 23
seconds the black man is shot and killed. 12 rounds fired into him
within three seconds. He was being confrontational, and was armed with what appeared to be something "like a steak knife." (direct quote from police report - could've been a butter knife). When the cops arrived on the scene and got out of the car and pointed their guns at the man, he started screaming "Shoot me, kill me now!" So what do those
cops do after they kill a man (after not even trying to de-escalate the
situation)? They turn his dead body over, and handcuff him.
The police chief, Sam Dotson, 90 minutes after the "incident" said the
man was acting erratic, would not respond to verbal commands, and said
the officers statement said the man was coming at them with an overhand
attack. Not long after that a video emerges of the "altercation"
starting and ending in 23 SECONDS folks, and the video clearly shows the
man was not attacking the officers. The officers had tasers and guns.
Why didn't they use tasers? "Because they aren't 100%."
The tasers that law enforcement carry have a standard spec of 35 feet shot distance and 50k volt pulse. Two officers with taser guns surely would've sufficed, but no, these cops wanted to bring a gun to a knife fight.
How
is it that men and women who go through extensive training on law
enforcement somehow completely forget training that's done on
de-escalation and consideration of preserving life over everything else?
12 days ago Michael Brown was killed, there's still no
police report and there's still no autopsy report that's been made
public. Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed wanted to petition a
state prosecutor to recuse himself from the Michael Brown case. Armed with SEVENTY THOUSAND signatures, she was denied entrance to a public
building. Police officers stood behind yellow tape and denied her and
her constituents entrance into a PUBLIC BUILDING.
Peoples
rights are being stripped, and it's no big deal. Oh no worries, you
can't enter this building your tax dollars help maintain. Oh, sorry no
you can't assemble in peaceful protest. Here, in order to keep you from
protesting we'll use sound cannons on you that have only been used
twice on U.S. citizens and is normally a instrument used in WAR.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has sent over 1000 troops BACK to Iraq to fight
ISIL, they've executed 84 airstrikes (now featuring bomber planes),
Syria is going through a gigantic civil war (over 191,000 killed since
March 2011), and the list goes on. Hamas and Israel, Russia and
Ukraine...
Yet here we are, eating our McFlurrys and
hamburgers living the American dream, blissfully ignorant of everything
that doesn't involve our need for immediate consumption, clicking links
that show us "The 12 Cutest Kittens Ever" and posting picture quotes,
nothing real anymore... I think the worst thing is that a lot of my
friends have no idea what the hell is going on until I talk to them
about it. That really disturbs me. I'd rather someone have a terrible
opinion on SOMETHING than not have one at all. Not educating ourselves
on what's going on in this country (and outside of it) is possibly the
most detrimental thing like...ever. The apathy kills me.
Inactivity
leads to captivity.
Do you really want to be a mouse in a cage?
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