Quote Originally Posted by Enoch the Red View Post
I think there are a number of different issues at play here that are easily conflated.
Well, that's why I posed two different questions in the OP.


There's the circumstances surrounding the shooting, the non-violent protests following it, the police response to both the peaceful and violent protests and looting, the riots, and the larger questions of race and racial injustice. Standing alone each individual component could be challenging, together they represent a complex interplay that isn't easily teased apart.

I think Flixy is definitely right that there are underlying issues that go beyond the specifics of this shooting. I don't think there are many who believe it is okay to shoot an unarmed teenager without reasonable provocation, just as there aren't many who believe looting the town of Ferguson is somehow a principled stand and not an opportunistic ploy.

It becomes thorny when you start to look at the more fundamental issues behind much of the anger. I don't think it's unfair to say that the criminal justice system doesn't have the best track record when it comes to race, and I think especially in the black community there is a well deserved and general mistrust of the police.
Well, defining "fundamental" issues isn't easy. It's even harder in a country like the US since our "systems" are linked to political money first, and "rights" can be secondary afterthoughts.

That being said, I'm struggling with whether lionizing this particular youth will do much for the greater cause, or if it will backfire as the details of the case emerge.
He doesn't have to be 'lionized' any more than the next guy....ya know, the mentally disturbed man who was shot dead by Missouri police on Tuesday because he had a knife and was yelling "shoot me!"

There's something wrong when Police (civil servants/peace officers) think shooting is their first or second conflict-resolution tool, instead of treating it as a last resort.

As far as the militarization of peace officers has been a long standing issue, and it's easy to see how simple and peaceful protests can spiral out of control when the police mount a show of force. When you are given a 24 ton hammer everything starts to look like a nail, and as Fuzzy pointed out much of the equipment comes with a use it or lose it stipulation.
Sure, that makes sense. But I'm not sure it acknowledges and appreciates the conflicted relationship between a "legally armed" person in the US, how our police forces are trained to react to people who might have a gun....or how we expect them to act as peace officers.

The 2nd Amendment has a fuzzy under-belly like some other constitutional rights and protections do. But we have three branches of government that are supposed to work these things out *before* they reach full-blown municipal, state, or national CRISIS level.