Racist Police Response to Ferguson Protests

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That's definitely a very unfortunate occurrence, without a doubt. It's unlikely I'm going to see eye to eye with you on this, but I wanted to know if you feel the same way when you hear about/see images of protest movements around the world where they occupy heavily used roads etc?

I think (to me, of course) there's a big difference between shutting down a surface road and a highway. Surface roads, you can usually get around, but highways have so few other options.

And as Hewson points out. Sometimes something you do, even if you are raising awareness, leaves people so bitter, that it does more harm to your cause then good.
 
It really is appalling that people are more concerned with protestors blocking traffic rather than the issues that the protesters are protesting against.


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Really?
If you were on a freeway to the hospital and you got stuck in place for a few hours you would still feel this way?
 
Way to be an asshole.


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Now THERE'S a hell of an assumption. :huh:


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Not really. Ferguson and the St. Louis areas have very high unemployment. Ferguson it was around 10% in October and is rising very fast. St. Louis obviously has it's rough spots and is still around 10% as well.
Also, how would these people have time to protest all the time and loot up towns while they work? Unless these people are on some kind of organized protesting rotation (highly unlikely, but actually pretty impressive) there is not a lot of time to work. I've seen some on the street interviews with people from those areas and many have said that they quit their jobs just to protest. Admirable, I guess, if you support the cause, but unemployed now nonetheless.
It's not a stretch to say that a very good amount of the people in that protest are unemployed. It's only going to get worse because no one in their right mind would move there and their destruction of business and property has/will cause businesses to leave town and start somewhere new.
Can't blame the justice system and cops for everything. The cops didn't burn down and loot business and single handedly put the city in an economic hole in which they will probably never recover.


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And as Hewson points out. Sometimes something you do, even if you are raising awareness, leaves people so bitter, that it does more harm to your cause then good.


This.

A few years ago when the civil war in Sri Lanka was winding up the very large Tamil community here in Toronto thought it would be a good idea to block the Gardiner Expressway (the freeway that runs through downtown) for an entire day.

It is unclear what exactly they were "protesting" (considering the war was happening on the exact opposite side of the planet; I believe the intent was to try to drum up support in the form of funding/supplies to be sent to the Tamil Tigers and framing the conflict as a Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing, which it clearly was not to anybody with at least one eye and a brain cell), and caused so many problems, e.g. congestion, rerouted ambulances/fire/police (I believe that someone died because an ambulance was stuck in stopped traffic, and there's nowhere to get off for about a 3 km stretch).

The action had the exact opposite effect, whereby many people who were sympathetic to the plight of the Tamils (which was entirely their own doing, IMO, but that's a topic for another thread) simply switched to wishing for a quick end to the war, which equated to the Tamil Tigers getting shit stomped - which effectively did happen a week or two later.

The community kept protesting afterwards (and shut down another freeway in the suburbs), and nobody gave a shit and just wanted them to shut up and go away.

These tactics are stupid, pointless, countereffective, and illegal. I have zero support for shit like this.



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Do citizens still have the right of way on the highway? I'm not totally sure on the official laws in relation to that.


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Do citizens still have the right of way on the highway? I'm not totally sure on the official laws in relation to that.


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By "citizens" do you mean pedestrians?

If so, then no. In Canada at least, slow-moving vehicles, animals, and pedestrians (basically anything that can't go at least 70 km/hr) are not allowed on limited-access highways. The police can ticket/fine anyone on foot on these roads.


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Here in Los Angelse they have shut down freeways which is illegal
People have been blocked in their cars.for extended time periods.

I imagine 50% of people here are sympathetic to Ferguson isues. Trapping those people in their cars is as useful as Dave's.example above for the Tamils.

I don't know if they have jobs or not.
But they don't care about people who do.
 
Really?

If you were on a freeway to the hospital and you got stuck in place for a few hours you would still feel this way?


No, it wouldn't make a difference, because I have empathy for them and the cause they're supporting. Yes, it would be a major inconvenience to me, but I understand that sometimes you have to do drastic things in order to get people to pay attention to your cause. These issues have been ignored for so long and if it takes protests like these to bring them to the forefront then so be it.


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I agree that it's mostly counterproductive because the people you are trying to reach are going to feel irritated and inconvenienced (and everyone's own problems are more important to them than anything, generally speaking).

That said I do sort of get Vlad's point that if we saw Arab students loading onto highways in their countries to oppose their system of government, the same people who are outraged here would be singing a different tune.
 
I'm more than aware that a racial caste system exists in this country, so can protesters leave the 101 alone? LA is bad enough as it is.
 
By "citizens" do you mean pedestrians?

If so, then no. In Canada at least, slow-moving vehicles, animals, and pedestrians (basically anything that can't go at least 70 km/hr) are not allowed on limited-access highways. The police can ticket/fine anyone on foot on these roads.
it is the same here in the states. the law generally seems to be geared more towards people hitchhiking, as you won't get ticketed if you have to walk to the nearest exit because your car ran out of gas.

i think the protests are really more to try to get rid of the apathy in this country, where people may read about it in the papers, see it on the news, come across stuff on social media and other sites, but just not care because it doesn't affect them personally. i'm not saying they're right or wrong to take over a section of the interstate, though.
 
No, it wouldn't make a difference, because I have empathy for them and the cause they're supporting. Yes, it would be a major inconvenience to me, but I understand that sometimes you have to do drastic things in order to get people to pay attention to your cause. These issues have been ignored for so long and if it takes protests like these to bring them to the forefront then so be it.
Tell that to the parents who missed their child's chemotherapy treatment because of this, the guy out of work 9 months who missed his first job interview in that period, the guy in the ambualnce with spine fractures and more who couldn't get to the trauma center at Boston Medical after his car accident and was diverted to a hospital not equipped for his trauma etc. etc. Have heard of dozens of these stories here locally.

Coupled with the fact that nobody at the time had any clue what the protest was about (29 white people laying in the highway without telling you why doesn't automatically make you think of the plight of African Americans) and that local African American community leaders have denounced this "protest", don't be fooled into thinking this was done to help put an end to racism, these people didn't do this for any other reason than to create anarchy.
 
It is one thing to be inconvenienced by a highway blockage.

It is another thing entirely to cause actual harm to someone (even inadvertently) by blocking the highway.

If a loved one was in an ambulance with a heart attack, or whatever other life threatening problem, you would be okay with the ambulance being delayed by a protest? Or emergency response vehicles on their way to an accident?

It's entirely possible to be supportive of the issue the protestors are raising, but also not be okay with protestors being a public hazard. Not a nuisance, a hazard.
 
No, it wouldn't make a difference, because I have empathy for them and the cause they're supporting. Yes, it would be a major inconvenience to me, but I understand that sometimes you have to do drastic things in order to get people to pay attention to your cause. These issues have been ignored for so long and if it takes protests like these to bring them to the forefront then so be it.


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I'm not sure you actually read the post you quoted.

The post specifically asked if you were on your way to the hospital, would you be ok with it.

You really, honestly would be understanding if you or a loved one were in need of urgent medical care and were stuck on the freeway behind this protest? It would just be an "inconvenience"? You would truly say "so be it" if the paramedic told you you/they wouldn't be able to get to the hospital in time for the required treatment? Really?

I hope you simply didn't read the post you quoted, because an "oh well, they were here first" attitude to this kind of thing is out-of-control asinine. Please tell me I'm wrong, for the sake of your family.


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No, it wouldn't make a difference, because I have empathy for them and the cause they're supporting. Yes, it would be a major inconvenience to me, but I understand that sometimes you have to do drastic things in order to get people to pay attention to your cause. These issues have been ignored for so long and if it takes protests like these to bring them to the forefront then so be it.


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That will get a nice clap on the Oprah show or The View, but no human being who is dying or with a loved one who is dying will think, "glad they're getting their message out."
These protestors are so far out of control. MLK was against violent protest and I consider this an act of violent protest because they are putting lives at risk.



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That will get a nice clap on the Oprah show or The View, but no human being who is dying or with a loved one who is dying will think, "glad they're getting their message out."
These protestors are so far out of control. MLK was against violent protest and I consider this an act of violent protest because they are putting lives at risk.


:applaud:
 
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Darren Wilson Cleared by Justice Department

After studying the evidence they came to the same conclusion as the grand jury.

As I have said before, I understand (and have experienced it) that some police do act inappropriately. Can any of us name a group of people that does not have a few bad apples?

Most law enforcement people do their jobs well and work at times in situations most us have never experienced.

That's what Darren Wilson was doing that day.

Now his career is over as a policeman, businesses ruined, people hurt, hatred fueled, and people murdered.

Yes black lives matter, all lives matter...and I hope we remember that truth also matters.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/us/justice-department-ferguson-civil-rights-darren-wilson.html
 
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