Ferguson MO

I probably should not make this thread, but we're less than an hour away from a grand jury decision and I grew up in Ferguson and I now live about 25 minutes away from there and I've never seen anything like this.

If you don't know, there's this.

I cannot put together any kind of rational thought on this right now, and even if I could, I don't think my opinion on this subject is very rational anyway.

That said, if any of you are paying attention to us or following along, I guess I'd like to hear some thoughts.

But I'm bracing for impact on those thoughts...

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I work in the ghetto tonight. Should be an interesting shift.

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BouncingBrick you go first....

Yeah, I am very interested to know what someone so close to it thinks.

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Letterboxd

I wish I could be more excited about this, but I haven't really been following this story at all.

The problem with my opinion is that it is colored heavily by the fact that I am extremely anti-gun. I think that if people in the US weren't so in love with guns then the police wouldn't be so inclined to resort to shooting as often as they do and there are countries whose data support this. That said, my anti-gun stance is only a small part of my opinion.

My other problem is that my wife was a police officer for 7 years and I am still friends with one local officer so I always give the police the benefit of the doubt in things like this. I want to make this next part very clear; this does not mean I always take their side. It just means I tend to wait to hear their side first. There's plenty of cases though where I think the police have overstepped their bounds, especially lately.

On Ferguson, I am hesitant to take too strong of a stance. I think there will end up being no indictment because that's just the mood in town, hence the over preparation for violence. Even if they don't charge officer Wilson I think he had options available to him that didn't require lethal force. I wasn't there and I can't say what was going through his head, but I think if he had just a moment longer to make a decision that day he may have solved the situation without killing Brown. Though, again, I have absolutely nothing to back that idea up.

My father still lives in Ferguson, though he's about as far from the epicenter of this as you can get and still live in Ferguson. I went to high school with Mayor James Knowles. He was two years younger than me, but I went to his house once or twice and we went to a few parties through mutual friends. That's very surreal seeing him on TV and occasionally on Yahoo news...

The worst thing about all of this is the waiting and not knowing what the reaction will be. I don't feel my direct neighborhood is in danger, but I have no idea if I will be able to work tomorrow. I don't know if my kids will go to school. I have no idea what the reaction will be.

Here it comes. I will say this. How volatile this situation is scares the hell out of me.

Let me know what happens.

They haven't said the verdict yet, but I'm predicting that Darren Wilson won't be going to jail. At least, not for a long time.

Yep. No indictment for Darren Wilson. No probable cause.

That was what has been rumored here for weeks.

I just hope we get through the next few days without incident.

Oh great I get to work and I find out The Black Panther Party will be in our area. Possibly tonight.

I hope so bouncingbrick. Keep us in the loop. Very interesting to get an inside perspective that isn't canned for what passes as the news now.

Crazy live stream

http://m.ustream.tv/channel/bassemmasri

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Well, party with them.

So damn stupid. I never understood the whole concept of riots.

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You are no Vader. You are just a child in a mask.

I know it's not funny (this is all about 3 miles from where my dad still lives), but the car on fire that no one will even try to put out is making me laugh every time they cut to it.

This is crazy. It's non-stop on all local channels and on the national news stations.

What you're not seeing is the peaceful protests on the south side of St. Louis. The crazy violent stuff and looting is all in downtown Ferguson.

St. Louis county is going to be buying some new police cars in the coming weeks...

It's the morning after and it looks like there's still some stuff going on.

The case files that have been released.

Riots and junk.

More stuff from our local news channels.

On the plus side the violence stayed out of the residential areas.

I wonder how my work day is going to go down...

I've kept up with the case from Day One... I usually give the benefit of the doubt to the citizens, (99% are civilian)... I've been talking to people in person, but also go online, message boards, cam-to-cam, where it might be easier to get unfiltered opinions, especially on a message board with anonymity.

The Chief of Police lied when he first said the officer knew Brown stole cigars, then backtracked after some flak; the media showed that for a character assassination. I probably wouldn't have been friends with Michael Brown, maybe he was a punk, but that's not cause for murder.

An officer goes through training and should know better. And then to say he was fighting for his life. Darren Wilson had a gun, used it liberally, and more lies immediately. The problem with lying early (and then finding out the truth later) is our minds store things subconsciously, and then it's hard to break. I saw a video right after the shooting as I'm sure many others did. He was walking around... Then we see pictures, and I saw a little red spot on his cheek. You can use a taser, shoot him in the leg, instead of blasting guns like the wild west.

There were multiple witnesses, and I doubt they'd perjure themselves... The grand jury only heard what was convenient to bring about the verdict they wanted to.

I still remember when the officers were found not guilty in the case of Rodney King... I really hate the group mob sheep mentality. If you're not black, you automatically side with the officers, and vice-versa.

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