From what I understand he DID NOT rob the store. Surveillance clearly shows him paying.
That said if the police were elected by the communities they serve, the way they are in some countries, this wouldn't happen.
If the US were not a deeply racist nation this wouldn't happen. I have seen first hand the difference between how a young man of any color other than pink is treated by "cop culture". I know that my son is treated differently by the cops than his cousins who are darker IN THE EXACT SAME SITUATION. Anyone who pretends differently is either a liar or willfully blind.
I have not seen any video of him paying, but I have seen video of him pushing his way out the door as the owner seems to be trying to stop him. I also have read the testimony of the friend who was supposedly with him that says he did steal the items, and that he was very unhappy about it because he was afraid HE was going to get in trouble for it. There are so many holes and inconsistencies in this entire story from start to finish, but I would think that at lest the guy who was with him in the store would know whether he paid or not, and would have said so… I dont' at all disagree about the racism aspect. Had these two been white, would the cop have even started this conversation in the street? Would he have flipped out if they had 'disrespected' him? maybe not. There is a whole hell of a lot to be fixed. And it won't be…. nothing will probably change. Which is really sad.
Okay, so I googled to see if there was something about Mike Brown paying, and I found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maA1FUJqhew, which doesn't quite clear things up. What I'm seeing is he takes stuff to the register. Unfortunately this seems to clip off the beginning so I don't' see him paying, or taking money out.. at least not clearly. His hands are behind him but not in his pocket. He clearly should be paying for something, or why would he have gone to the counter? I see things being dropped, I see the clerk pull things in off the counter that Brown doesn't take..and then I see the clerk come around. Did the clerk suspect him of stealing and confront him for not paying for something? I don't know. Maybe I can find that side on one of the transcripts. It's a moot point in a way, but it's part of the overall 'he said she said' of the witnesses
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Hmmmmmm I suppose the thing to me was primarily that Darren Wilson said he was frighten for his life of an unarmed man when he had a taser, a gun, and a baton and training in all of them. What made him so terrifying? Apparently his skin color.
I actually agree with most of this assessment. I live in a city with similar race issues and poverty issues. It's so bad that a couple weeks ago a man shot a police officer because he wanted to send a message to cops to stay out of black neighborhoods and leave them and their families alone. Our mayor created a program where cops are required to take African American clergy with them in the 19th Ward (where I now work) in order to keep peace and educate white cops.
There's a lot going on. 1. A huge culture gap -- middle class vs poor African Americans here live in different worlds. Speak differently. Act differently. It's a bit like two countries next to one another. And cops tend to be either white or middle class blacks. So the Us and Them is out of control.
2. The poor black people here have largely not finished high school. Many people literally cannot read. I know because I was working with the library literacy program yesterday, so all of this analyzing news stories is meaningless. People on the ground get news from one another or hearsay.
3. Many people here are racist. Blatently. Even cops. Black people are dehumanized in casual conversations and arrested for just about anything. People aren't scared of cops and antagonize them because getting arrested is seen as inevitable. Why even bother "playing nice" when you don't have a chance anyhow? Even if you're heading to college soon, you've no way to imagine different. And this lack of caring makes cops even more scared of the people. Rinse and repeat.
I think that must be one of the huge issues. And even overall, what sense of respect for any authority is there in some communities? It's not poverty that makes people bad.. people have been poor for eons and still had decent communities. There is this missing link in the system it seems now.. and how you fix that I don't know. There is no respect for any authority it seems, because there is so little authority that warrants respect. And like you say, it only gets worse and worse over time on both sides.
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That said if the police were elected by the communities they serve, the way they are in some countries, this wouldn't happen.
If the US were not a deeply racist nation this wouldn't happen.
I have seen first hand the difference between how a young man of any color other than pink is treated by "cop culture". I know that my son is treated differently by the cops than his cousins who are darker IN THE EXACT SAME SITUATION. Anyone who pretends differently is either a liar or willfully blind.
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I dont' at all disagree about the racism aspect. Had these two been white, would the cop have even started this conversation in the street? Would he have flipped out if they had 'disrespected' him? maybe not.
There is a whole hell of a lot to be fixed. And it won't be…. nothing will probably change. Which is really sad.
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I suppose the thing to me was primarily that Darren Wilson said he was frighten for his life of an unarmed man when he had a taser, a gun, and a baton and training in all of them.
What made him so terrifying?
Apparently his skin color.
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2. The poor black people here have largely not finished high school. Many people literally cannot read. I know because I was working with the library literacy program yesterday, so all of this analyzing news stories is meaningless. People on the ground get news from one another or hearsay.
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