Originally posted by SDBoiler1:
I don't normally like to get involved with these kinds of discussions, but I feel compelled to respond to your post, pastorjoe.
How would you like to do the job that police have to do in parts of this country? Their lives are regularly put in danger by criminals at all kinds of levels. They have to work in places where lawlessness is not only tolerated, it is encouraged. It's brilliant that people would burn down businesses and buildings in their own town because they didn't like a decision of a jury of their own peers.
Obviously, the Rice case is a tragedy. Still, do you know how you'd react if you were put in that officer's shoes at that time? Who are you to judge the officer? He felt his live was imperiled by this kid pulling a pellet gun on him, which I'm sure looked like some kind of semi-automatic pistol.
Also, in the Brown case and the Garner case, just as in most cases in this country, there needs to be evidence in order to get an indictment. You don't get indictments because a mob of angry people want one. Hell, let's just go back to the old ways of dispensing judgments, and let the mob decide who should die and how.
Finally, three cases does not constitute a pattern. What would you change in order to make yourself feel better?
Didn't mean to "post and run" - had a massive funeral this week.
I think the difficulty with discussing this issue comes down, at least in part, to the difference between individual racism and systemic racism. Every time we hear the word racism, we are tempted to think of the former and to hear it as an indictment of individuals - either ourselves or the police officers in these cases. That's not what the issue is (at least, that's not what I'm talking about). I don't think any of the cops in these situations (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, or Tamir Rice) approached the situation intending to kill another person because that person was black. However, I do think that there is a systemic issue - the root cause of which I do not entirely know - which causes many white individuals to perceive young black men as having a greater potential to be a threat.
For example, in your post, you write "He felt his live (sic) was imperiled by this kid pulling a pellet gun on him, which I'm sure looked like some kind of semi-automatic pistol." Why would he feel this way? Why would you assume that the kid had a particularly dangerous looking pellet gun? These are legitimate questions to ask.
I am not judging the police officers - I am saying that the justice system should. That is what it is there for! An indictment doesn't require "beyond reasonable doubt." It requires "probable cause." And if you don't think there is evidence of probable cause for the Garner case then I'm afraid you're not paying attention. The incident is on video. The takedown hold used is illegal. And yet the only person to be indicted is the guy who shot the video. Even conservatives are having a hard time justifying the lack of indictment there. There should be a trial. If there is a trial and the officer is found not-guilty, that's a different story. But to simply refuse to indict or, in the case of Brown, not even put forth any effort to get an indictment, is problematic.
Finally, if you genuinely believe that my question about a pattern comes from these three cases alone, then I don't even know what to say.
Since July of this year, here are just the names that have made headlines:
Eric Garner
John Crawford
Ezell Ford
Dante Parker
Michael Brown
Akai Gurley
Cameron Tillman
Vonderritt Myers
Laquan McDonald
Qusean Whitten
Tamir Rice
That's 11. I'm sure that in some cases the officers were justified, and in others (Rice, Garner) they were clearly not.
The point is not that individual cops are racist. The point is that racism exists on a systemic level. Just because we deny it and refuse to have any kind of reasonable conversation about it doesn't change the fact that it exists.
