Many of you have probably heard of the controversy in Ferguson, Missouri. Police released tear gas and shot rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful protestors. Because of this, unarmed Mike Brown was shot and killed by police. Witnesses say that Brown was just trying to take cover of the rubber bullets and tear gas, while others say they saw him arguing with a police man. I have read a lot of articles about this and I don't even know which stories to believe anymore because they say so many different things.
My friend and I were talking about this, trying to see what was the truth behind all of the stories we read. As we were talking, we realized that nothing we said would matter anyway so why we were wasting our time thinking about it I do not know. Probably because irrelevant news gets thrown at us all the time. Before reading AOTD, I never realized how much news we hear that has absolutely nothing to do with us! Postman opened my eyes to see that I shouldn't wase time on things that aren't my business. Thank you for reading (:
I am a bit confused. Strike that- I am very confused. Are you being sarcastic or are you joking? If you are joking, please disregard what I am about to say. To begin with, Michael* Brown was not killed in a crowd of protestors. Allegedly, after trying to run away from police after being in an altercation that began with the police officer telling him to walk on the sidewalk, the police officer claimed he was thirty-five feet away from him and then proceeded to shoot him multiple times which resulted in death. A witness, his friend, claimed that Brown had his hands up yet the police officer continued to shoot at him. In the officer's defense, he claims that there had been a strong arm robbery a few minutes before and that Brown could be a suspect. Yes, there is evidence that Brown could have been in that robbery. However, that does not give the right for a police officer to racially profile anyone and use excessive force. Regarding your second paragraph, I would not call this useless and irrelevant news. This event brings to light more racial profiling and police brutality that needs to be dealt with nationwide before another young, unarmed teenager of color gets killed by the police for no reason but racism and overuse of power.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI agree with you that news is important. If someone's rights have been violated and it is talked about on the news, we need to be aware so that our rights are not violated.
DeleteParticia, I agree with you and David. The news is important and I believe we should be reading about what is truly happening. Sometimes, an event might be on the other side of the world or even just states away from, but we still need to see what is happening. I agree that reading about events brings more light to the situation.
DeleteI agree. How many unarmed young black men are we going to gun down? The individual stories may not be actionable, but it points to a larger and deeply disturbing fact of life in America: racism exists, and police profile criminals based on statistics, and these statistics reveal lack of opportunity, a broken system that many people of color cannot see working for them. How many kids are we going to shoot before we decide we have to change something. We are losing males. Latino males, black males: by all measures, they are falling behind because the system ("go to school, get a degree, work hard") does not WORK for many. Of course, many do make it work for them and their families. But poverty, weak education systems, absence of opportunity...these things are real, and these factors exist disproportionately in communities of color.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think the police probably do work hard to do the right thing and to protect us all. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt since they put themselves in harms way on our behalf. I would hate it if someone I loved decided to be a cop. It's a dangerous, unpredictable, stressful job. But I still don't like the police as a group. Too many guys with guns and badges lose their perspective and their cool, and too many young people are being shot while trying to surrender.
Or, so it seems. What do I know? I wasn't there, there are conflicting accounts, and this story plays into my existing biases.