Ferguson

[cstone]

All lives matter... to someone.

Not actually politically correct, but the way I was raised, every living and non-living thing was created by God for a purpose. While I often fail, I try not to take anything in creation for granted. No rock, no grain of sand, no dog, no cat, no person, not even a cockroach is useless. Whenever I have been wasteful of anything or taken it for granted, and I actually noticed that I had done so, I feel remorse. That doesn't mean I will never do it again, in fact, I am just about guaranteed to kill and waste again. It is a weakness I live with.

Death is coming for each of us. How you die is less important than how you live, IMO. People want to protest? Go right ahead. People want to interfere with the freedom of others, without due process? We have laws and law enforcement officers, and prosecutors, and judges for that. People want to kill or seriously injure others without legal justification? We have self-defense for that.

I think the type of person you consider yourself to be is less dependent on your skin color than your self perception in your own head. Be who you want to be. You have that choice. I try to be pleasant.

[sniper7]

I'd say there is a big difference between protesting and destroying property, burning buildings, looting, theft, rape, threats to rape and kill officers wives, to kill the officer and his family, etc etc.

I have nothing but disdain for those individuals who took part in those actions, ruining lives, and continuing to threaten and take part in these actions after the court system has done its duty.

these people were not protesting. They were breaking laws, ruining lives/businesses, destroying trust, and not only hurting others, but hurting themselves while they were at it.

For those who are doing peaceful protests, marching, etc. that is great for them, their cause falls on my deaf ears but I support their right to protest and have their voices heard. I disagree with them based on the evidence and the facts, and I agree with the jury's decision not to indict.

[Irving]

This thread ran it's course about 30 pages ago, now all the additional discussion is about as impactfull as additional protesting would be. Knowing that, I'll post anyway.

I think that what harms a protest MOST, is not having a clear message. What is the aim of the protest? What would protesters like to see accomplished? If protesters are just angry, it leaves the rest of the world to project their own manifestations of the protester's purpose (see the last 30 pages of posts), leaving the observers looking just as bad as the protesters themselves. No one wins and nothing is accomplished but property destruction and mind-numbing media coverage. We saw something similar with all the Occupy protests and lack of leaders. A lot of people gathered, and it seemed like every other person had different things they were upset about. As with all public gatherings, criminals show up to take advantage of the situation. It's the nature of people to take advantage of mass confusion. To project the worst of what happened to the entire protest is immature at best. No reason to act like dicks to each other and argue about stuff like looters that only showed up to cause destruction. A big enough protest, regardless of the cause (or lack thereof) would attract criminals.

[Mazin]

In after the lock

[jerrymrc]

In after the lock

Your so slow......

[brutal]

LOOTING OR LOOTED:
*US Bank
*Aarons
*Ferguson Market,
*A gas station
* O'riley's
*Auto-Zone
*Toys R Us,
*Walmart (limited),
*Cell store,
*Family Dollar
*Various residences
*A county venue (?)

ON FIRE:
*Sams meat market
*2 patrol cars
*Little Caesars *total loss*,
*beauty store,
*Public Storage building,
*Another building south of storage building
*Walgreens almost a total loss

INJURIES/ATTACKS:
Lots and lots of shots fired.

*Journalist attacked with brick (assume fox news)
*One individual shot with no information available.
*One individual at fire station with cardiac arrest.
*Elderly man with oxygen tank carjacked and ran over.
*220 receiving heavy gunfire
*Fire department retreating due to shots fired

OTHER VANDALISM:
Fire station door destroyed

BLOCKAGES:
*Interstate completely blocked

I heard earlier on the MSP scanner channel that a "patrol rifle" was stolen from a car. Didn't catch if it was Ferguson PD or MSP.