A portrait of Ferguson one year after Michael Brown's death – in pictures

[NancyP]

Gosh, there's a bit of FOX and not much on-the-ground real reporting being spread.
I live in St. Louis about 5 miles from Ferguson. I know people that have lived in Ferguson for some time. Guess what? It is a diverse community of home owners and renters, of employed and unemployed, of young and old, of black and white and mixed-race people. The Guardian photo-essay at least shows some of the diversity. It makes no sense to blame every Ferguson resident for the torching or smash-and-grab stealing at various businesses. It also makes no sense to believe that every vandalism or theft involved a Ferguson resident. If nothing else, having the police concentrated on the crowd means that the small-time criminals can steal and wreck without much risk of immediate arrest - this is an "opportunity" not lost on criminals living across the city line in St. Louis or other communities.

As for Michael Brown being "glorified" or not, to me that isn't the point. He was a stupid 18 year old kid, of which there are many, including many who straighten out and become perfectly ordinary law-abiding citizens once they grow out of the stupid years. In the ideal world, Brown would have suffered the same fate as a white 18 year old boy - land in jail, alive, go on trial, go back to jail. We don't execute people for robbery.We do have laws.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... As for Michael Brown being "glorified" or not, to me that isn't the point. He was a stupid 18 year old kid, of which there are many, including many who straighten out and become perfectly ordinary law-abiding citizens once they grow out of the stupid years. In the ideal world, Brown would have suffered the same fate as a white 18 year old boy - land in jail, alive, go on trial, go back to jail. We don't execute people for robbery.We do have laws.

You see, Nancy, such twisted narrative is exactly the type of the tacit encouragement I was talking about. The straw-man, the narrative that he was "executed for robbery," or because he was black, not because he attacked a police officer and died in the struggle.

As for "the same fate as a white boy"... you are talking about the following fate, right:

- Zachary Hammond, South Carolina, killed by "no-race" policeman
- Gilbert Collar, Alabama, killed by a black policeman
- Dillon Taylor, Utah, killed by a black policeman
- etc., etc.(easy to google)

In all cases, these were unarmed white boys killed by police for "stupid," minor offenses (prior to allegedly attacking police officers that killed them). There was no national coverage, let alone outrage, and nobody burned cities down.