How do people justify the killing of unarmed young African American men

[gollygee]

over and over again, in community after community? I know there are people who think nothing is wrong. No one specifically references Michael Brown YET, but they will. For now on Facebook I see people saying stuff like that they support police officers, "who put their lives on the line for us every day." Or whatever. In general terms, but obviously about this case.

How do they not feel horrified by this (to me very obvious) trend of unarmed African American young men being killed for no real reason? How do they side with the people who kill them, over and over again?

[LynneSin]

1. Because Faux News and the right-wing media treats them as animals and not humans

[WinkyDink]

3. And they are subliminal subs for the POTUS.

[WinkyDink]

2. Key term: "African-American."

[Rebubula]

4. This killing is horrifying....

....and, if it happened as reported, the cop needs to be fired and serve time. But I am more worried about the 1000s of young black men killed by other young black men every year.

No one knows their names....no one marches when another 17 year old kid is shot in the streets UNLESS he is shot by a cop.

Around 8,000 young black men are murdered every year....93% of them are killed by other young black men....

Where are Jesse, Al, The NAACP, New Black Panthers when thier mothers are crying?

Again....cop in Ferguson (and sooooo many other cities) need to see the inside of jails....but someone needs to start really caring about the other 8000.

[bravenak]

6. You know what?

I'm getting damn good and sick of people running around and blaming us for everything. They always seem to leave out the hundreds of years of violence and degredation of black in america by whites in America when they want to trot out their tired ass 'where are the black community leaders' talking point.

You know what, where are the reparations so that we can have the same opportunities to build generational wealth, like many white people earned off of the blood, sweat , tears, and lives of our ancestors.

White people taught US violence, bred us violently, treated us violently, and still to this day, run roughshod over us in many ways, but never take ANY of the blame for hiw this shit has played out fromslavery, to jim crow, to now. We are still treated like scum, have problems obtaining employment because of institutional racism, are pulled over and have our civil rights violated on a daily basis.

When is the white community going to finally stop trying to shame US and take some of the blame upon themselves for all of the pain and misery they have caused us and stiil cause us. I woukd be embarassed to stand on my soap box, knowing i benefit from white privilege and try to lecture a whole race of people like i'm better than them.

Maybe you need to ask the Whits community "where are your leaders" to help end this four hundred years of white privilege and racism in the country THEIR ancestors founded on slavery and genocide.

And while your at it. Work on that mass murdering problem you all have. And the serial killing shit.

[justiceischeap]

7. I just like to point out a fallacy that you brought up

Yes, there is a lot of black on black homicide and it's sad but don't forget to look at the white on white homicide... the FBI numbers from 2010 put us at about even for killing within our own race.

http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t31292010.pdf

Homicide tends to happen within ones own race, so, yes there is a lot of black on black homicide and that's sad but there's also a lot of white on white homicide that no one asks where the white community leaders are on this.

Frankly, I'm tired of people trotting out tropes and not doing a bit of research on whether those "facts" are skewed or telling the entire story.

In 2010:
3,062 white people were murdered
Of those 3,062 murder victims, 2,777 of the killers were white

2,950 black people were murdered
Of those 2,950 murder victims, 2,459 were black

If you look at the numbers from 2010 (I couldn't find more current statistics), it seems white people have a bigger problem than black people when it comes to killing our own.

[Rex]

10. 84% of murders commited against white men, are done by other white men.

Don't you think that too is a very worrisome statistic?

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf

[bravenak]

5. Were animals to them.

We served our purpose many years ago. We are not wanted here, and they need to cull the herd before we get too much power and they have to compete with us directly. It's the lames that justify it. Those that if not for white privilege, would be on welfare.

[Rex]

8. Because they are all docile sheep that believe everything they hear from the M$M.

They don't critically think for themselves and allow others to form their opinion...for them.

[aikoaiko]

9. the issue really isn't whether one was armed, but a reasonable threat

One can be threat without weapons.

I just hope the facts of the Michael Brown killing are unambiguous and the shooter is held accountable for his actions.

[AgingAmerican]

11. Because they are Republicans

Listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, OReilly, Beck, etc for a few days and you will hear why they are so ignorant and stupid when it comes to these things.

Republicans believe what they are told to believe, and everything they are told to believe is bullshit.

[intaglio]

12. They say the man must have been a criminal because he looked like a criminal

Just see at the asinine threads about how "there's video of Brown committing a robbery" - except it is not any such thing and even if it was Brown that is not an excuse to shoot him in the back.

[gollygee]

13. If the police officer thought Brown had committed a robbery

Then when he was standing there with his hands up, the officer might have arrested him so he could stand trial. Why is Michael Brown not worthy of an assumption of innocence, just like everyone else? How many people here at DU and elsewhere talked about how George Zimmerman should have a presumption of innocence? How many would give the same presumption to Michael Brown? How many of those people are assuming right now that Michael Brown committed a robbery?

[intaglio]

14. Exactly!

What is worse is that it has taken days for this half-assed justification to come out and so many seem to ignore that, even if true, the officer was acting on a vague description - no more