The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri is a tragedy. Yet another example of a senseless killing of a young man by the police. I understand that racism still haunts the United States of America but I did not realize how intractable this fear is or how pervasive this fear is among police officers. Thankfully the inept local police have been replaced by State troopers. /edit – Turns out that all the police can do is attack. There is, bizarrely, no other tactic. Each level of police seems incapable of realizing that it is their presence that is destabilizing. Have they learned nothing from other jurisdictions that have attempted to stop people from what they perceive as legitimate protest? Here is a link to video of police threatening the media.
Is anyone in charge here?
I hope that tensions ease and peace returns. This same sort of police action occurred in Canada several years ago targeting dissenters at the G-20 meeting in Toronto and I was disgusted by this abuse of power. I could not imagine living in a police state all of my life, which is what most minorities do in inner cites across the USA. It is ugly, this racism. Here is a very interesting blog called If They Gunned Me Down, a blog showing two images of each poster, asking the question: what photo would they use.
And here is a link from Jacobin to some good thinking on the subject of the increased militarization of the police force.