The Death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri

There were two opposing views about policing, he said

He's not a psychologist, he's a mind reader, but he can only read two minds at a time.

I mean, this is a long passage of uneditorialized text, and the views expressed therein are not very well-thought-through, and pretty predictable. So why?

The article critiques that passage throughout its entire length, both through the facts of the case and the interviews with other people involved, which you'd pick up on if you read it.

fair enough, I'm in a foul and impatient mood right now, will give it a chance later

The most telling portion is how the defense from Wilson's former mentor crumbles when he tries to assert that the situation would have gone down the same way if HE'D been involved when the article has already gone to great pains to show that the mentor:

- was gay and felt some empathy to the ostracization of the black community he was policing as a result;
- did a lot of community outreach in his capacity as a policeman, changing the dynamic with which he interacted with the members of that community;
- was in a situation where people were shooting at him and had the wherewithal to remove himself from a potentially dangerous chase scenario and circle back to see if his partner, who had been hit by a bullet, needed help

There are some good points in that article, where the writer presses against inconsistencies in the worldview of the cop. Darren Wilson uses all the coded language of a racist asshole, and he has no awareness about his own hypocrisies. Like, Wilson has never read the justice report on racism in Ferguson, because he doesn't want to dwell on the past, but he has no problem discussing everything else about his own past, and the problems he saw while on patrol. Just, racism, that's not to be dwelled on, because that is the past.

And yeah, that passage is really really strong as well, x-post.

Another police shooting tonight, police firing smoke/tear gas at protesters, this is useful:

https://twitter.com/mattdpearce/lists/ferguson

this is awful.

i should know this by now, but where would be the best place to look for updates on this, where the stories don't consist entirely of things asserted by the police?

washington post has been doing some good reporting all year

deray, netta, cornell west arrested

http://gawker.com/state-of-emergency-declared-in-ferguson-as-protestors-a-1723175123

The place to look for news about all this btw is twitter.

Really good essay by Darryl Pickney:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/black-lives-and-the-police/

really wish this stuff had come out a couple years ago

http://www.theroot.com/everything-you-think-you-know-about-the-death-of-mike-b-1793261221