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The US has always had, and continues to have, a problem with race.quote:Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs. This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson community. Further, Ferguson’s police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, including racial stereotypes. Ferguson’s own data establish clear racial disparities that adversely impact African Americans. quote:Officers expect and demand compliance even when they lack legal authority. They are inclined to interpret the exercise of free-speech rights as unlawful disobedience, innocent movements as physical threats, indications of mental or physical illness as belligerence. Police supervisors and leadership do too little to ensure that officers act in accordance with law and policy, and rarely respond meaningfully to civilian complaints of officer misconduct. The result is a pattern of stops without reasonable suspicion and arrests without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment; infringement on free expression, as well as retaliation for protected expression, in violation of the First Amendment; and excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. quote:African Americans are more than twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops even after controlling for non-race based variables ... but are found in possession of contraband 26% less often than white drivers, suggesting officers are impermissibly considering race as a factor when determining whether to search. African Americans are more likely to be cited and arrested following a stop regardless of why the stop was initiated ... FPD appears to bring certain offenses almost exclusively against African Americans. For example, from 2011 to 2013, African Americans accounted for 95% of Manner of Walking in Roadway charges, and 94% of all Failure to Comply charges. quote:Nearly 90% of documented force used by FPD officers was used against African Americans. In every canine bite incident for which racial information is available, the person bitten was African American. I've heard people justify the excessive use of force used by PD because they feel like their lives are in danger when dealing with black people. Not only is this an idiotic excuse (because cops are professionals and their job isn't particularly dangerous anyway) but also because a cop is more likely to be killed by a white person than a black one. However, the chance of being killed on the job for a cop is so vanishingly small (it isn't even the top ten most dangerous jobs in the US) that there is no excuse for this disparity.  quote:The discriminatory effects of Ferguson’s conduct are driven at least in part by discriminatory intent in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Sadly, the recent Ferguson report is merely part of a growing body of evidence that racial discrimination in the US exists in both law enforcement and in the judiciary system. In response to the recent protests in Madison, the mayor said this: quote:At the gathering, Madison’s mayor, Paul Soglin, told the Guardian that since the killing was being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, he had no information on why officer Kenny had used his firearm rather than a taser when reportedly struggling with Robinson. He also acknowledged racial disparities in the city’s policing. Both the mayor and the police chief in Madison are interested in addressing the grievances that the protestors have, and the protests have been mostly peaceful. This is how things will hopefully go in the future. This thread is not for discussing the details of the shootings. If you want to obsess over the minute-by-minute reconstructions of the incidents as they work their way through the judicial system this isn't the place for it. The shootings themselves are just catalysts, the important part of these protests is that they are being used to highlight systematic racism in the US law enforcement and legal systems. I want this to be about institutional racism in the US (I'm also interested in any comparative information that people have, such as the plight of the Romani in Europe.) I'm not sure if the US is uniquely bad with regards to race in the first world (it certainly is when it comes to incarceration rates), but we might be just because of how many racial minorities we have in the US and the centuries of discrimination against them for our entire history. It also doesn't help that one of two major parties in the US has been courting racist votes for over 50 years. There have been efforts by GOP-led legislatures to pass Voter ID laws which, while ostensibly about combatting non-existent voter fraud, make voting more difficult for two demographics that tend to vote against the GOP: poors and minorities. The Supreme Court opened the door to this when they struck down the preclearance requirement for such legislation in Shelby County v Holder. Anyone who supports the GOP is enabling these policies. The Ferguson report is hopefully just one of many, because at this point we can only guess just how widespread these biases are. When the mayor of liberal hippy town Madison admits that there is a problem, it shows that the US is not the racially harmonious society that we pretend to be. Obama's speech on the 50th Anniversary of the Selma marches is a good one, and this is coming from someone who is pretty cynical about political speeches. With these revelations coming to light and with the media finally focusing on it I'm confident that we are at least on our way to being able to have a national dialogue about racism in the US (even if half of the dialogue is Fox calling Obama a reverse racist.) Racism has always been part of US history, and it still is. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The biggest thing to remember is that these issues don't away just because people don't talk about them. 
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Mar 10, 2015 11:12
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ArmZ posted:stop spraying communist propaganda op you joke, but 
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Mar 10, 2015 12:21
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Daedra posted:so youre telling me a town that is 67% black that black people did most of the crime 
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Mar 10, 2015 13:10
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Neurosis posted:also it's more likely that a white person will kill a police officer than a black person - truly shocking when there are 6x more white people in the us than black their work isn't even dangerous so they can stop whining anyway. they need to do their goddamn jobs like the rest of us and people shouldn't make excuses for them
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Mar 10, 2015 13:14
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no one actually think that this refutes the findings in the report or anything right
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Mar 10, 2015 13:20
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Count Freebasie posted:OP do you have the stats of crime in Ferguson that is black-on-black, too? black on black crime is a major problem what is your point
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Mar 10, 2015 13:27
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Hobohemian posted:I know white people suck; you don't have to tell me. it's good to have data to back it up tho
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Mar 10, 2015 13:43
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IzzyFnStradlin posted:agreed. does this excuse institutionalized racism against blacks?
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Mar 10, 2015 13:48
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IzzyFnStradlin posted:Uh, no. I'm agreeing with you, duh! that's good because i'm right the sovereign citizen thing made me skeptical but ok glad to see we agree
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Mar 10, 2015 13:51
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spacemang_spliff posted:i believe that humans are smart enough to figure out how to end racism. i think that the only real end to institutional racism in the US will be when demographic changes make it more and more difficult to implement i'm pessimistic about the US having some moment where they're like "ok ok OK we get it, institutionalized racism is bad, sorry folks"
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Mar 10, 2015 13:53
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sexy young infidel posted:i don't give a poo poo about your stupid, stupid opinions on race or really any political item, OP. Great, stay golden lol if you think these are opinions
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Mar 10, 2015 17:49
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Moridin920 posted:the whole 'blacks commit more crime' thing is retarded because crime isn't about race, crime is about class
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Mar 10, 2015 19:33
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1gnoirents posted:yeah well go to another country and see what real open racism is like OP i've been to other countries, it's still real bad in the US
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Mar 10, 2015 19:59
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welp those assholes who shot the cops might derail everything
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Mar 12, 2015 19:14
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Another unarmed black person shot and killed. This is the article posted before the video surfaced. sound familiar? quote:Police and witnesses say Scott tried to run from Slager before turning to fight for the officer's Taser. It was during that scuffle that the officer fired his service weapon, fatally wounding Scott.
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Apr 8, 2015 18:49
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TheImmigrant posted:US and Canada are probably the two countries where both social norms and official policy reflect the idea that "racism is bad" the most strongly. If you goons ever got out, you might realize this. If you define racism as "using racial slurs" sure, the US is super sensitive about that.
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Apr 9, 2015 18:42
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So I'm sure a few of us have seen a lot of posts on Facebook about the riots in Baltimore, likely from people who completely ignored the previous weeks of peaceful protests. There is a lot to say on the subject and it's something that really gets me pissed off, but I'll bump this thread with an excellent Vice video that contains interviews of some Baltimore citizens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wks84RJxgh0 "A riot is the language of the unheard."
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Apr 28, 2015 13:51
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