Highway Patrol troopers fix basketball goal for Ferguson children

[Sherman A1]

(KTVI) – With all the tension surrounding the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, police haven’t gotten the best publicity.

But Wednesday was one of the more calm days in Ferguson. That was the day two Missouri State Highway Patrol Troopers went out of their way to help some kids in the community.

The troopers noticed a basketball goal without a net and no children around to play on it. So they went to Target and purchased a net and basketball with their own money.

Captain Ron Johnson said when the troopers came back and put the net up, children around the neighborhood came out, thanked them and started playing basketball. Johnson said the children were extremely grateful.

http://fox2now.com/2014/08/21/highway-patrol-troopers-fix-basketball-goal-for-ferguson-children/

[OnyxCollie]

1. Tomorrow, they're going to paint a school. nt

[KurtNYC]

2. it's obviously propaganda

but a tiny step in the right direction

[Lochloosa]

5. Little things change people on both sides.

[KurtNYC]

6. I agree. Imagining a better world is the first step toward creating one.

But I remember that Ferguson hired an all white PR firm 3 days ago and now we have this BS story on Fox so I am just doing the math.

[procon]

3. Best use of a police vehicle I've ever seen!

?w=770

[Brother Buzz]

4. Perhaps this one deserves an honorable mention

[sunnystarr]

7. How weird it's facing the road ...

and to play the kids would have to jaywalk. Oh the irony.

[KurtNYC]

8. Message not received.

This photo was staged. A hoop with no net is not broken. Many prefer no nets on outdoor hoops because they shrink in the rain and hold the ball.

This man's insightful story about Ferguson was on the greatest page 2 days ago and the people who staged this photo should read it all:

“Yeah, you think we’re just a bunch of stupid monkeys who will vote for you because you dribble a basketball fancy in our parades. Yeah, I saw you. It was the most insulting, offensive thing I’ve ever seen a politician do.”

I flashed back to that day. I’d been so caught up in the cheering I never even considered how others might have perceived me.

“But—it was a parade!" I told the woman. "I couldn’t give a speech! I was just trying to communicate in the only way I knew how, in the moment…”
...
This week, that sentiment seems to describe the feelings of many of those massed in Ferguson. They want white St. Louis to quit it with the knee-jerk paternalism and actually hear their message. They want white St. Louis to finally make an effort to grapple with its shameful racial history, a history in which a complex alchemy of private decisions and public policies conspired to leave north St. Louis County divided by race and class. They want to win some agency of their own lives instead of being at the mercy of forces that have so often let them down—or actively impeded them.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119106/ferguson-missouris-complicated-history-poverty-and-racial-tension