From the Twitterverse tonight: very peaceful protests in all over the country this evening. However....

NYC.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=tren

If what the Ferguson police have to say is true, apparently, Brown was involved in some sort of robbery prior to being shot. That definitely doesn't justify him being executed if that's what happened, but it does hint that Maybe Brown isn't the best martyr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/us...ouri.html?_r=0

No, he still is. A minor shoplifting incident does not make his life any less valuable, at least to those of us who don't condone blatant racism.

Also, note in the video that he is wearing different shoes.

I think his point was more so that Brown wasn't completely innocent, and there may have been a justifiable reason why the cop felt he had to shoot. There still aren't enough details to make that determination yet. All we know is that there was a robbery and Brown was shot and killed. Everything in between is still unclear.

Everyone keeps mentioning his shoes. What am I missing? Is there video or a picture that I haven't seen?

I agree. Also, if he shoplifted, and was caught by the police shortly thereafter.. there could have been altercation that occurred between Brown and the police officer that made the officer feel he had to shoot. However, I will wait until we have all of the facts laid out before I make an opinion on the incident. We have no idea yet what all of the facts are and I find it to be absolute ludicrous that people are automatically jumping to the conclusion that this cop was a racist who shot Brown simply because he was a black kid.

And yeah, there are eyewitnesses, but eyewitness testimony is about as unreliable as it gets.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ael-Brown.html

The above shows the video as well as the lifeless body. Same clothing.

So is it justifiable to execute someone for robbery? No.

Is it justifiable to execute someone who resists being detained? I can definitely see a lot of scenarios where that answer could be yes. A person of Brown's size could easily overpower the officer and seriously injure or kill him and when there was a struggle with police who were clearly trying to arrest him, that typically doesn't end well for the would-be arrestee.

As i said, sure there are eyewitnesses. It'll be interesting to see how the investigation progresses. It's a little too early for folks to start burning down their own homes and looting stores though.

I knew something was up with him. The media always seems to paint a picture of innocence on a guilty kid. I knew he did something. I agree that he shouldn't have been shot because of just that, but I'll put money on it that there is something more to it that caused his demise.

Right, because nobody has ever had racist encounters with police before that would lead them to these ludicrous conclusions.

:rolleyes:

Looks like the same guy to me. Same build, same hat, same shoes, same shirt and shorts.

He wasn't "guilty". He was "suspected" of a strong-arm robbery in which he stole a $48.99 box of cigars. And the officer supposedly did not know the teen was a suspect in the robbery. If he committed the robbery, perhaps he was aggressive with the officer because he assumed the officer knew about the robbery. We will never know.

The details of this incident remain to be revealed. I don't assume the circumstances warranted him being shot and I don't assume the officer was in the wrong. I do know the trend of Blacks being shot and beaten by the police (and the increasing trend of armed citizens shooting Blacks). It is the "shoot first, ask questions last" that is disproportionately impacting Blacks, particularly Black men. This is more likely to happen to Blacks, particularly Black men, despite being a small percentage of the U.S. population.

Agreed that we'll never know what happened, knowing based on what the media has released that there were no cameras in the area. But if he just robbed a store which based on the surveillance camera, it was him, the same altercation he had with the clerk, probably was a similar one he had with the police. If that is true, with his size, and not knowing if he had a weapon on him, I'd have shot him too, regardless of his race.

But, those are hypotheticals that do not warrant calling him a "guilty kid."

It's more than obvious it was him in the video. Still don't know what happened with the police. But at this point, I'm not taking Brown's side just because he's black.

Neither am I.

There are options beyond "guilty kid" or "take Brown's side just because he's Black"