The natives are restless, once again… And when all else fails, it’s time for violence and looting, because that will definitely solve all the world’s ills.
I wonder what would happen if each time a black man murders a white man, or shoots and kills a white child or teenager, or rapes a white woman, white people went nuts and acted as black people do when of them gets killed? Do black people ever think (or care) about that? No, I didn’t think so. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: The Christian Science Monitor
A police officer in Ferguson, Mo., was shot in the arm Saturday night. Officials say the incident was not connected to protests related to the Michael Brown shooting. But it speaks to the nature of Ferguson’s crime problems.
The officer returned fire as the two men fled, but there was “no indication” either of the men had been hit, said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar in a press conference early Sunday morning. The officer’s injuries are not seen to be life-threatening.
The shooting did not appear related to the ongoing protests over the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black teen, by Ferguson police on Aug. 9. Eyewitnesses have said that Mr. Brown had surrendered and had his hands up when he was fatally shot.
Though looting and violent protests erupted again earlier this week, the demonstrations at Ferguson police headquarters Saturday night were peaceful.
Data suggest that Ferguson’s rates of property crime have remained high even as violent crime has dropped since 2008.
In that way, the Brown shooting, as well as Saturday night’s incident, speak more to Ferguson’s problems with property and petty crime than to a chronic problem with violent crime.
According to City-Data.com, Ferguson scored a 217.3 on its violent crime index in 2012; the national average was 214.0. By contrast, Ferguson scored a 481.4 on property crime such as burglaries and thefts; the national average was 266.5.
Questions have been raised about how Ferguson cops and courts deal with nonviolent crime.
This past week, Ferguson City Council amended city rules to rein in a policy of aggressively ticketing and fining people cited for minor violations like traffic stops. The policy had been a major source of revenue for the city and had resulted in Ferguson Municipal Court issuing so many arrest warrants for unpaid fines there were an average of three per household, according to a Newsweek article. This resulted in people losing jobs and falling into debt.
Moreover, a report by a local advocacy group, ArchCity Defenders, notes that 86 percent of vehicle stops “involved a black motorist, although blacks make up just 67 percent of the population.”
This helped to poison relations between the city officials and law enforcement, who are almost exclusively white, and city residents, who are predominantly black.
On Aug. 9, Brown was originally confronted by officer Darren Wilson for jaywalking. Later in the episode, police say, Mr. Wilson suspected that Brown might have been connected with the robbery of $50 in cigars from a nearby store.
Though the details of the encounter are contested, the situation escalated to the point that Wilson apparently fired more than 10 shots, killing Brown.
Saturday night, the two men fleeing the community center shot first, police say. A search for the two men was underway Sunday morning.
