- Joined
- Sep 16, 2012
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- 49,598
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- Location
- Tucson, AZ
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- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Mike Brown was unarmed, walking down the street, and a cop killed him.
There's more to the story and we don't have all the details yet but that simple assessment is what seems to be in play right now and it has caused riots, looting, destruction of property, curfews and at least one more shooting. This all begs the question.....if you are a cop working in a predominantly black neighborhood what are you going to do if you are in a situation where you may have to use force against a black suspect? If it's not a life or death situation are you just going to walk away?
In the Mike Brown scenario Officer Wilson could have just blown the whole thing off. Yeah, maybe he just made contact with the kid that robbed the liquor store but is it really worth his career to take action and risk being thrust into the public spotlight? If he says, "Come here, please. I need to ask you a few questions" and the kid tells him to **** off should he just walk away?
If a cop has his own interests in mind he would certainly, in light of the circumstances in Ferguson, have to think twice before having any kind of physical contact with a confrontational black suspect.
That might be a good thing for community relations between police and blacks. Certainly less confrontation would be welcome....wouldn't it?
There's more to the story and we don't have all the details yet but that simple assessment is what seems to be in play right now and it has caused riots, looting, destruction of property, curfews and at least one more shooting. This all begs the question.....if you are a cop working in a predominantly black neighborhood what are you going to do if you are in a situation where you may have to use force against a black suspect? If it's not a life or death situation are you just going to walk away?
In the Mike Brown scenario Officer Wilson could have just blown the whole thing off. Yeah, maybe he just made contact with the kid that robbed the liquor store but is it really worth his career to take action and risk being thrust into the public spotlight? If he says, "Come here, please. I need to ask you a few questions" and the kid tells him to **** off should he just walk away?
If a cop has his own interests in mind he would certainly, in light of the circumstances in Ferguson, have to think twice before having any kind of physical contact with a confrontational black suspect.
That might be a good thing for community relations between police and blacks. Certainly less confrontation would be welcome....wouldn't it?