rioting in the midwest

www.cnn.com...

CNN) -- Police in a Michigan town said they were preparing for more violent rioting Wednesday after two nights of burned buildings, gunfire and beatings.

A hospital spokeswoman said 10 people were injured in Tuesday night's violence -- a reaction to a high-speed police chase in which a Benton Harbor, Michigan, man crashed and died. The disturbance lasted into the early hours of Wednesday. Most of injuries were laceration wounds, and at least person was treated for a gunshot wound.

Early Wednesday, police told reporters the protests were getting worse and authorities planned to declare a town curfew. Michigan's governor declared a state of emergency, which allows for the activation of Michigan National Guard troops, if needed.

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well it looks like there's a forecast of rioting and looting and violence about to go down for a while. this is all over the news, all kids of video with broken windows, fires, flipped cars. damn, the anger of a people if a powerful weapon.

I wonder if it's politically correct to speak about that subject.

Originally posted by phoenix_cross
damn, the anger of a people if a powerful weapon.

why is the anger always misdirected, though? i mean, you can't get pissed at cops for doing their job. he was running...he is responsible. we lived in a very white small community with it's own police and my step-dad (cop) always told my brothers to look the cops in the eye and be polite and cooperate no matter what the situation or how much disrespect u endure. u can always turn him/her in. it sucks that in some cases cops are harrassing but in the long run it doesn't matter it's better to get out of it alive and as black peoples in this country u never know what is gunna happen when they do pull u over or approach u. it's somethin you worry about that's a reality.

this just sucks all the way around cause it's another thing added to the list of so called abuses and it just adds on to the communities fear and law enforcements fear.

Because, my Love, in today's society nobody is responsible. We are all victims. No matter how stupid we behave, it is someone else's fault. Welcome to the House the Liberals built. It ain't pretty, it won't last long, but its what we sheeple want.

Quit thinking logically, Saphie, "they" don't want logical and conscious thought!

when I heard that Benton Harbor was rioting, I thougth they were joking. Benton Harbor is barely a large enough town for a riot! (I know, I've been there.) how completely strange.

These people don't want to be logical.

Let us observe what Cross said at the end of his post.

Cross says>>>>>>>>>

". damn, the anger of a people if a powerful weapon."---Cross

No not anger, but ignorance.

This is just pure ignorance, not anger.

How is it possible that all these people are angry???

Do they all know this man??? Likely not. I lived in a town with around 20,000 people. That is far from 12,000 but even still it is quite close. After years and years of living there I met more people than I thought possible. I don't think that everyone knew this man. Even if they did it is not possible for all of them to agree with his actions. Wouldn't it be more likely that they are taking advantage of the situation, rather than avenging the death of the one they knew???

I think that the rioting can be blamed on ignorance rather than anger and revenge. How many of those rioting really care what happened to this guy???

Really???

www.guardian.co.uk...

Shurn, and another motorcyclist, had at first been tailed by other police on a highway outside town, and the chase had been abandoned because the two were travelling at more than 100mph. When they entered Benton Harbor proper, the local police resumed the chase.

Translation: These individuals were acting suspiciously & necessitated police intervention. They run away from the police using their motorcycles, violating posted speed limits. The police chase after them, and one of the motorcyclists crashes the bike. What's the problem? Cheater's justice.

if i tried to riot cos some smelly hells angel ran into a tree, no one would support me. i feel so anguished. the cop was just doin his job. i could understand him being strung up from a telephone wire, but if he was runnin in the first place then it's on him.

strange : no numbers, no pictures ...

benton harbor must be a very boring place.

A kid on a crotch rocket crashed into the back of my friends truck back in 96 in houston, the guy was weaving in and out of traffic doing 100+

he died on impact.

Once again I say

People get what they deserve.

If one reviews regs concerning police chases one finds that within city limits the police are not suppose to exceed certain speeds. They are suppose to let him go and deal with it later but as is often the case with respect to such situations the police get exited and
proceed in ways that violate the actual law.

In this case what the rioters are upset about is the fact that today this man could be alive (granted probably in jail but alive). People in this country are accused of crimes they did not commit and do spend time in jail because of it. Specifically because of that reason they do try to escape and the laws are set up in such a situation so that such a person will not be killed as a result.

I am reminded of an incident in St Petersburg in which a Police Officer pulled over and African American gentlemen for speeding. The officer asked for his driver�s license to which the driver responded by reaching for his wallet, the officer saw something black with a point that looked like a barrel to a gun on the driver�s waist. As a result the officer drew his handgun and fired 7 shots at the driver effectively killing him.

After it was over the officer looked at what he thought was a handgun, it turned would to be a cell phone, it would seem the idea of a black man having a cell phone in Tampa/St Petersburg was a bad idea.

Myself at the time was residing in the general area and as well did have a cell phone, whose appearance could have been misconstrued in the same way. Being a brown man my concern was to whit fear for my life in the case that I was pulled over (for whatever reasons).

That night and for several other nights in St. Petersburg there were riots.

For me that this man was a criminal that he was not is not the issue. Did the police do what they were supposed to do no they did not.

That is the issue

In this country you are innocent until you are proven guilty when the police take that into consideration they are doing their jobs, otherwise what they may cause
is a riot.

I see no problem with that.

One of the contributing factors to this death may have been caused by police negligence but it would be reaching to state that they killed this guy on purpose and that they are solely responsible. Mistakes are made and accidents happen.

The rioters are using the death as an excuse to vent their anger over other issues. Nothing more.

If the rioters really cared for the motor cyclists, this situation would never have occured. Any responsible society would have educated these two guys and taught them that laws must be obeyed (especially those that are in our interest such as speeding laws).
Society could be blamed for creating these deaths as it failed to teach accepted behaviour. These rioters are part of that society and therefore as guilty as anyone else.

They are just as much to blame as the police or the motor cyclists themselves.

Therefore I believe the rioting to be pointless. It is a selfish act using the death as an excuse for anarchy - the very thing that killed this guy in the first place (for what is law breaking but a type of anarchy?). If these rioters really care, rather than acting like a mob they should return to their homes and teach their children the difference between right and wrong so that incidents like this one could not occur again.

With respect to right and wrong the law clearly states this man is innocent until proven guilty. The fact that he runs from the police is not proof of guilt which is why laws have been set up to protect his innocence.

The police had no legal right to chase him beyond a certain speed (within city limits). And the crime he committed would not have resulted in being charged with a death penalty.

The police were legally wrong in taking the action they took. Rioting against this action presents to law enforcement, the consequences of taking action which is essentially wrong.

They should have let him go and deal with him another day if they had he would not be dead.

Originally posted by Toltec
With respect to right and wrong the law clearly states this man is innocent until proven guilty.

They should have let him go and deal with him another day if they had he would not be dead.

In cases of murder or other crimes that need unravelling - yes. But it is my understanding that the sole reason for trying to stop these guys was because they were speeding at over 100mph in the first place.
This is a crime that can be proven by police cameras on the spot and does not need a court system to tell you that these motor cyclists were guilty of a crime.

As for letting them go? The crime had been committed (there is no doubt about that) and they were travelling at high speed and endangering life before any police intervention.

Imagine if the police had stood by and done nothing and these guys had run over a small child further down the road. The outcome would probably still have been the same. People would have blamed the police for not acting.

Then you have the fact that the police might have had reason to believe that the motorcycles were stolen.

With hindsight you could say that they shouldn't have given chase. But with hindsight you can also see that they were caught between a rock and a hard place.

They are opportunists looking for any reason to do things like this and shift blame on someone else.Who can they blame but themselves.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the police chief and the mayor from the same ethnicity as they are.It's time that people started taking responsibility for their own actions.

Imagine if the police had stood by and done nothing and these guys had run over a small child further down the road. The outcome would probably still have been the same. People would have blamed the police for not acting.

That is exactly why I like your views so much. You always give us both sides of the story and you do it every time with reason and rational. That statement I quoted above couldn't be more true. Once we tell cops to start NOT policing is when those great men lose their purpose and their focus.

What this issue comes down to is solutions not blame. We can blame all we want, but we cannot solve the problem so as long as we look for someone to blame it on. This situation could be averted in the future by lobbying for better technology in cars. We all know the technology is there to stop these crimes but the car makers don't take the time and money to put it to good use. The governemt needs to make it mandatory for cars makers to install these systems to stop the engines of the cars they produce so these matters never fall into place. That is all that needs to be done. Nothing more nothing less.

Am I right or am I wrong???

Opinions please............

Rules are rules Leveler the speed exceeds a certain amount the police are supose to back off, that is the regulation and that is the point.

I wouldn't say that they are opportunist...it's a small community and in the first story they said he was well known and well liked...in the second story it said that folk came to the scene after and put up ballons and were having a lil memorial...so it would seem that it is more about grief which can lead to all kinds of emotions that could possibly lead normally reasonable folk to riot specially if they believe the police were in the wrong.

Originally posted by Toltec
Rules are rules Leveler the speed exceeds a certain amount the police are supose to back off, that is the regulation and that is the point.

Don't get me wrong, there definately needs to be standards and limits set down for the police to follow but you speak of this as if it were the officer's fault that this man crashed. He was at fault for continuing to do the speed he did and to disobey the law as he did. Nonetheless as I said earlier this arguement shouldn't be about blame, but about solutions. We can sit here and blame all we want, but it is not going to get us anywhere and it sure won't solve the problem.

What do you feel about car standards for this type of prevention???

If you don't know what I am talking about then look up above at my last post. Can you give me your opinion on that???


Abraham