Is the Media provoking racism by feeding into these homicides by unarmed people?

[Blanky]

You are a foolish bigot. American Blacks may disproportionately display those stereotypes, but it's because white people made them that way. When you treat people like dogs over centuries they become culturally vicious. What the black community needs is opportunity and self respect, and many many decades of it.

Why would you call somebody a bigot and then immediately agree with what they said? Unless you are admitting to bigotry yourself, which it seems you are.

 

[gradoman]

Colin Powell said it the way I want to express it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6k6oz41HGI

3:15 is the part I take to heart as a person of mixed race.

 

[Dari]

No. I don't believe that for a moment. If that was the case, you would see all sorts of investigative journalism. These news conglomerates could report on a different city each day that was using clearly racist policies. They could have easily stimulated a discussion on this if they wanted to.

Sorry, Genx, I don't agree with you a bit. I believe that the media is sensationalizing these stories for the sake of ratings.

I'm shocked, shocked that the media would do something for ratings
They're in the business of making money and if they happen to cover something that needs covering then it's win-win.

 

[bpatters69]

Is the Media provoking racism by feeding into these homicides by unarmed people?

Its absolutely about ratings and sensationalism. Media makes its money from ratings and there is nothing that gets ratings like a white cop who shoots a black suspect. Its even better if the black suspect is unarmed. It just perpetuates the idea that the police are racist and trigger happy. The truth lies somewhere between the divergent forces which descend on such events to take advantage of the limelight. The Jessie Jackson's, the Al Sharptons, The Fox News and on and on. It becomes a media circus and you get a bunch of talking heads which try to perpetuate their one sided view of what took place.

Blacks are still economically behind Whites and in some cases that encourages some Blacks to commit crimes. You can argue the reasons why this is true but it is. Unfortunately, this means that Blacks commit crimes in higher proportions compared to the White population of the US. Committing more crimes means that Blacks come into contact with the police more frequently and thus we have more instances where White police officers are shooting Black suspects.

 

[zephyrprime]

Yes.

 

[DrPizza]

I'm shocked, shocked that the media would do something for ratings
They're in the business of making money and if they happen to cover something that needs covering then it's win-win.

"Needs covering"? I'll posit that there are far more stories deserving of coverage that were ignored, while the Ferguson and Trayvon stories were media driven. Without the media, they weren't stories at all. In Ferguson, all of the immediately known facts/evidence pointed to it being a justified shooting. In Florida, Zimmerman wasn't even charged that night - all immediate and obvious physical evidence supported it being a legal shooting as well. Neither case deserved the amount of media attention they got.

And neither story was portrayed very accurately in the media. To say they "covered" it isn't very sincere. They didn't cover those stories - they distorted those stories in ways to promote their own ratings.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Of course they are. We are now at the point that when a black man attacks a cop and gets shot it's automatically a racist cop that did it, and we'll see protests. This default conclusion is itself profoundly racist and excuses the instigating behavior.

No, what you are seeing is that cops, as a profession, have lost our trust. It is not something that has happened in the last few years, but has been on the decline for decades. They got a temporary boost due to the individual heroism displayed around the events of 9/11, but that boost has worn off now, and it makes the ugly racist norm of police work even less palatable by comparison.

Although police brutality is a real thing and they don't in general treat blacks as well as non-blacks, the golden rule remains stop attacking cops, stop getting killed by them. No protest is going to encourage a cop to stop defending themselves when attacked. Lost in the marching asking why these unarmed black teens are getting killed is the question why are they attacking people? Cops will quite happily shoot to death anybody who attacks them of any race and we all know it.

We will soon have to do something about this problem as more and more people are starting to see police not as a civil servant that will help and protect them, but as a potential threat to be feared. It is the police that will have to change, they will have to give up some of their authority, add more transparency, and hold each other accountable for every breach of the law. They will have to hold themselves as shining examples of lawfulness if they wish to be the enforcers of the law. Fail that and these protests will soon turn to mobs, and those mobs will quickly learn to turn their anger against the people that they fear. We have already seen the start of this, we need to take action now to hold off anarchy.

The most infuriating thing about this is just how many fuckers are totally cool earning their living off of making people suffer like this. "Fuck all those human beings, fuck their freedom, fuck their future, fuck their families, as long as I can get a nice paycheck and a fat pension." THOSE asshole cops/lawyers/prison-guards/judges/wardens are the ones that should be in jail for the betterment of society.

The problem is that these people are constantly told that they are heros. They are patted on the back by society and told that they are protecting us. It is easy to delude yourself when you are constantly being told that you are doing good. It is easy to be cruel when the people you are being cruel to are defined as OTHER.

We need an entire paradigm change in our justice system. We need to stop seeing crime as a individual failure and see it instead as a societal failure. We need to stop worrying about punishing individuals for crime and instead seek to heal criminal behavior as an illness.
We need to recognise that our anger will not fix the problem but maybe our compassion can.

 

[berzerker60]

May I suggest that murdering black citizens at a much higher rate per capita, especially unarmed black citizens, is what's causing/symbolizing racism, and the media reporting is the after-effect rather than the cause? It's like getting angry at a woman for reporting a rape rather than getting angry at the rapist for committing it.

ICommitting more crimes means that Blacks come into contact with the police more frequently and thus we have more instances where White police officers are shooting Black suspects.

We're not talking about "suspects" though, unless you just define all black people as "suspects." Policing is a relatively safe job, yet you would think we lived in Escape from New York the way some police react to a black male (even when a young child).

"Needs covering"? I'll posit that there are far more stories deserving of coverage that were ignored, while the Ferguson and Trayvon stories were media driven. Without the media, they weren't stories at all. In Ferguson, all of the immediately known facts/evidence pointed to it being a justified shooting. In Florida, Zimmerman wasn't even charged that night - all immediate and obvious physical evidence supported it being a legal shooting as well. Neither case deserved the amount of media attention they got.

And neither story was portrayed very accurately in the media. To say they "covered" it isn't very sincere. They didn't cover those stories - they distorted those stories in ways to promote their own ratings.

Most lynchings in the South were legal too, up until near the Civil Rights era. We really, really don't need another 50 page threadabout Ferguson or Trayvon, but suffice it to say that an awful lot of people don't think that these were acceptable shootings even if they were legal.

 

[DCal430]

When we have likely klansmen like Wilson in police department, the problem isn't the media.

 

[cabri]

When we have likely klansmen like Wilson in police department, the problem isn't the media.

Still butt hurt that Wilson was not guilty of anything, even charged and the DOJ also exonerated him.

Do you have any evidence at all tieing Wilson to Klan activities?

Given your support for North Korea and here; you continually demonstrate you sense of morality is backwards from the rest of society.

 

[DrPizza]

When we have likely klansmen like Wilson in police department, the problem isn't the media.

Don't you get tired of trolling?

 

[cabri]

When we have likely klansmen like Wilson in police department, the problem isn't the media.

Don't you get tired of trolling?

Maybe the people in charge need to crack down on idiot trolls.

The USSC has stated that freedom of speech does not apply to public safety (crying fire in a movie theate).

Maybe the forums need to take a similar tack. Crack down on the obvious trolls

 

[CitizenKain]

"Needs covering"? I'll posit that there are far more stories deserving of coverage that were ignored, while the Ferguson and Trayvon stories were media driven. Without the media, they weren't stories at all. In Ferguson, all of the immediately known facts/evidence pointed to it being a justified shooting. In Florida, Zimmerman wasn't even charged that night - all immediate and obvious physical evidence supported it being a legal shooting as well. Neither case deserved the amount of media attention they got.

Yea, unarmed black people being shot surrounded by conflicting stories needs no investigation, because reasons. Mainly the reason is that as long as the dead person is black, then who really cares.
Funny how thanks to the media, its been found that Ferguson is run a bunch of racist shit heels. Are you upset about that as well? Or should that have been swept under the rug and just ignored?

 

[cabri]

Yea, unarmed black people being shot surrounded by conflicting stories needs no investigation, because reasons. Mainly the reason is that as long as the dead person is black, then who really cares.
Funny how thanks to the media, its been found that Ferguson is run a bunch of racist shit heels. Are you upset about that as well? Or should that have been swept under the rug and just ignored?

Where did the conflicting stories take root? Media attention.

while Ferguson may have been badly run; the way the population acted seems to be a reflection. chicken or egg

It may take a bunch of "shit heels" to run a place full of such.

 

[CitizenKain]

Where did the conflicting stories take root? Media attention.

while Ferguson may have been badly run; the way the population acted seems to be a reflection. chicken or egg

It may take a bunch of "shit heels" to run a place full of such.

No, they happened right from the start.

Nice to see you are defending the racists in Ferguson, they seem like your type of people.

 

[fskimospy]

Where did the conflicting stories take root? Media attention.

while Ferguson may have been badly run; the way the population acted seems to be a reflection. chicken or egg

It may take a bunch of "shit heels" to run a place full of such.

Are you seriously attempting to blame the people of Ferguson for the racism directed against them?

 

[mizzou]

Why can the police kill unarmed people and expect to get away with it? Why are all these deaths justified?

You should read the cases on those to see why they were justified.

Oscar Grant was NOT justified. Michael Brown WAS justified. Every case is different. "Unarmed" doesn't mean compliant or complete lack of threat. Many people die in the USA without the use of guns.

 

[mizzou]

Colin Powell said it the way I want to express it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6k6oz41HGI

3:15 is the part I take to heart as a person of mixed race.

I've always liked colin powell. Can you believe he is 77 years old?! A true moderate...wish we had more people like him. Overall, I supported most of his viewpoints (except maybe the Iraq war)

 

[SMOGZINN]

You should read the cases on those to see why they were justified.

Oscar Grant was NOT justified. Michael Brown WAS justified. Every case is different. "Unarmed" doesn't mean compliant or complete lack of threat. Many people die in the USA without the use of guns.

While I will agree that unarmed is not the same as non-dangerous, I think that it has become much too easy for the police to use deadly force. Personally, I think the police needs to be held to a much higher standards than they currently are. Part of that would mean using deadly force only as a last resort.

 

[mizzou]

While I will agree that unarmed is not the same as non-dangerous, I think that it has become much too easy for the police to use deadly force. Personally, I think the police needs to be held to a much higher standards than they currently are. Part of that would mean using deadly force only as a last resort.

The only way it can get any higher of a standard is if they have to literally wait for someone to die before using deadly force. If you look at the statistics and read into each police shooting, instances where there is a disconnect between perceived threat of deadly force and actual threat of deadly force are extremely rare.

But again, I already said I wouldn't post about those issues because I made a thread about it

 

[cabri]

Are you seriously attempting to blame the people of Ferguson for the racism directed against them?

I am stating that the people of Ferguson have continued to aggravate the situation even worse.

Burning their community; ambush shooting of LEO during and demand lynch mob justice makes things worse.

while is may only be a few bad apples at any one time; the continued by those actions multiple times leads others to wonder on the catch 22 situation.

The police react based on the community. Now the community responds to that reaction.

Shooting of officers will now cause more mistrust of the community and gatherings.

 

[cabri]

While I will agree that unarmed is not the same as non-dangerous, I think that it has become much too easy for the police to use deadly force. Personally, I think the police needs to be held to a much higher standards than they currently are. Part of that would mean using deadly force only as a last resort.

And as Mizzou stated; where does the line get drawn?
How does one determine when lethal force is needed; when all other options have been exhausted?
By that point; there may not be a chance to respond.

Let yourself get beaten until the perp gets tired, injured you severely, or even kills you because you have a weapon (but can not use it) and they do not?

You tell an idiot to stop/freeze and they refuse; how close do you let them advance on you. People pumped up on drugs/adrenalin do not always listen and their body may reject non-lethal means if initiated.

 

[fskimospy]

I am stating that the people of Ferguson have continued to aggravate the situation even worse.

Burning their community; ambush shooting of LEO during and demand lynch mob justice makes things worse.

while is may only be a few bad apples at any one time; the continued by those actions multiple times leads others to wonder on the catch 22 situation.

The police react based on the community. Now the community responds to that reaction.

Shooting of officers will now cause more mistrust of the community and gatherings.

No one is to blame for the racism of the Ferguson PD other than the Ferguson PD. It was egregious and systemic.

 

[CitizenKain]

I am stating that the people of Ferguson have continued to aggravate the situation even worse.

Burning their community; ambush shooting of LEO during and demand lynch mob justice makes things worse.

while is may only be a few bad apples at any one time; the continued by those actions multiple times leads others to wonder on the catch 22 situation.

The police react based on the community. Now the community responds to that reaction.

Shooting of officers will now cause more mistrust of the community and gatherings.

Its funny that you seem to think that all these problems happened after Mike Brown was shot, but the years of police abuse somehow means nothing.

People learned long ago in Ferguson that the police are not on their side, which is something the police have gleefully shown to be true whenever possible. Maybe if the police had been interested protecting and serving instead of seeing the population as a money source, a lot of these problems could have been avoided. But they didn't, so now this is what they get.

 

[Subyman]

I think there is obviously a reason for them to add in the white/black factor, it does make for a more evocative story which gives them more money. IMO, from what I have read and seen, it is a police vs black community issue instead of that single white cop that happened to have been the one that shot the black person being a racist or whatever. Its about the policies in place. When cops go into impoverished areas they carry with them a different demeanor. That in itself is cause for reflection.