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by wtbob 3520 days ago
> even peaceful protests are met with full riot gear and ends being peaceful as soon as that first baton-swing hits someone's skull.

Is it more likely that a police baton ends the peace, or a protester's stone? Is riot gear offensive in nature, or do the police wear it to defend themselves from violent attack?

> Police murdering unarmed citizens with their arms raised.

While that has certainly happened, you are referring to Michael Brown, who did not, in fact, have his arms raised and was, in fact, beating the police officer who shot him.

> The mass imprisonment of citizens who's only committed what most people consider a minor offense.

I suspect you blame Drug Prohibition (and I agree that it should end immediately), but that's not actually true: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/releasing-drug-offenders-...

Looking at what people actually go to prison for, it often seems like stuff we'd want to send people to prison for: murder, assault, theft, rape, fraud. Maybe we might look at why Americans commit so much murder, assault, theft, rape and fraud?

1 comments

I was assuming he was talking about Philando Castile, who was shot to death while putting his hands up.
That is definitely a much greyer case at the moment; I'm looking forward to the results of the investigation. It definitely sounds bad.