The Justice Department is, it seems, going to condemn police tactics in Ferguson as motivated by racism, which is what a lot of people living there had been accusing them of anyway, but it seems the officer who actually sparked the protests by shooting Mike Brown will be found not guilty - also not a huge surprise, I think, from what I’ve read about what happened. Still, this is an important moment for that city - what do you guys think will happen? Will they just settle up and continue as normal, or might there be substantive change?
Not a goddamned thing will happen, that’s what.
Unless the Justice department personally steps in and kicks everyone’s asses, the racism and prejudice that is still really quite entrenched in this state will continue to go unchecked. As long as nobody with any real power holds anyone here accountable for their actions, they’re just going keep sliming their way out of it.
This is a broad cultural issue spanning across the country about race, policing and accountability. Its not going to change easily if at all. Politics will get in the way and it will become an issue of patriotism and being a good American.
Ferguson itself isn’t going to change any time soon unfortunately. The whole state of Missouri is that goddamn ‘Deep South’ stereotype, and its showing no signs of changing any time soon, let alone one little city within it.
The rest of the country though should be taking heed at the progressive militarization of the Police and the gun craze sweeping the Nation, and doing something to put a stop to this nonsense.
Missouri is a fucking Border State. It ain’t Deep South.
No, it’s certainly not the south, but there are plenty of people in the state who act like it. Honestly, if another civil war broke out, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if that shit started here. 
Actually, I wouldn’t count on Missouri to actually start a Civil War, but they sure as hell will join one in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose.
But yes, I was not specifically referring to its geographical location but more in line with population density and mindset. Though admittedly, they ain’t no Virgina or Florida either.
The broad cultural issues that Sin mentioned have been drowned out in favor of taking sides and drawing lines in the sand, which they always do. You’re more likely to see people either hashtagging #IStandWithMichaelBrown or #IStandWithDarrenWilson than examining the root issues of the problem.
The whole reaction to this thing is just proof (as if we needed any more) that the whole “tea party” movement is really just a thinly veiled arch-conservative, white supremacist movement. In pure philosophical principle, I can get behind some of what the tea party “supposedly” stands for. Imperial foreign policy, government overreach , the use of the state to suppress individual liberties…of course, that’s what the tea party in principle says they are against. But here we have a pure example of the state being absolutely out of control, literally acting like the mafia and shaking down citizens for bullshit laws that don’t exist, and lining their own pockets off the back of the populace with little to no oversight. But you won’t hear a peep out of the tea party crowd, because it’s happening to black people instead of white people. This was the moment they could prove that their movement had actual principles. Needless to say, I wouldn’t have made that bet, even with 50 to 1 odds.
You had me excited for a moment until you went and ruined it with your talk of being against those things.
That is actually a very good point though. This is an excellent test of politician’s principles, it will certainly say a lot about each parties’ real motivations. Likely they will do nothing.
Edit: To me, the most disturbing thing about Ferguson was never the fact that the guy was killed (he might well have deserved it) but the police’s reaction to the protests that followed. It was incredibly fucked up.
And then shit just got real. Real ugly that is.
This is not how you maintain the moral high ground in a protest.