Micheal Brown deserved to be shot.

[Aractus]

Lolwut? Maybe I'm just reading this wrong...but the 2013 census estimate shows something like 78% of Americans being white.
Statistically white people are more likely to commit most crimes.

Oops I did get that statistic wrong. What I should have said was not that by volume they are the majority of the prison population, but that they are the majority by volume of poor neighbourhoods, which is where criminal activity mostly occurs.

I didn't get my main one wrong which is that Aboriginals are around 10x more likely to be incarcerated than non-Aboriginal Australians.

Going by this page, it shows the white prisoner population to be 59%. It seems true that whites are about 78%, and according to Wikipedia blacks are 12.4% of the population, but 37.4% of the prison inmate population.

As I said it's a statistical fact that there are many more criminals in the African American community than there is in the non African American community. It probably is around 10x, like it is here in Australia with Aboriginals. And I can assure you it has nothing to do with Aboriginals being profiled targeted and discriminated against by the police as some people seem to be claiming.

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they patrol the black and hispanic neighborhoods.

Incorrect. They patrol the poor neighbourhoods, which are themselves predominately occupied by Black and Hispanic people.

[Chad32]

I guess the aboriginals in Austrailia are luckier than non whites here in the USA. Unfortunately racism is still alive and well over here. Being wealthier doesn't mean less crime, so why do you think the police aren't patrolling everywhere in equal amounts?

[Aractus]

Being wealthier doesn't mean less crime,

Yes it does!!!

Bringing poor countries out of poverty and increasing wealth dramatically increases health, quality of life, etc., and lowers crime rates. How does it lower crime rates you ask? Because it creates more jobs and higher employment leads to lower crime. There are range of other factors but this is the crux of it.

Wealth deters crime and especially so when there is high equality - for example Japan, or Sweden, etc.

Crime rates are always higher among the poor. If you want to lower crime you should look to increasing equality, raise the minimum wage to around $16/hr and provide the poor with the essential services they need to have a better quality of life. It is a lot cheaper to prevent crime than it is to "correct it".

[Ryantology]

I'm of the opinion that nobody ever deserves to be killed. Nothing a person does makes it good, or laudable, that they are put down. Nothing that a person does makes them deserving of something so final and irrevocable.

That's not to say that I don't appreciate that it is sometimes unavoidable, because sometimes, it is... just, far less often than we think. It is vastly more likely that Michael Brown would be alive today if Darren Wilson didn't feel it was beneath him to carry/use a Taser.

If you think that deadly force is for anything but a total last resort, to be avoided as much as humanly possible, if you think that it is something to cheer instead of a something to very deeply regret regardless of the reason, I simply cannot respect the assertion that you are a civilized human being.

btw, Aractus, I deeply regret all the times I was brusque or abrasive towards you, and I won't ruin it by condescending and attributing it to your evolution of belief. Truly, you are a person who understands the root cause of some of society's most pervasive problems and can well articulate that understanding. I can't help but respect that.

[Chad32]

It lowers certain crimes, but surely you don't think the super wealthy in America aren't committing crimes. or at least doing highly unethical things that just happen to be legal because they've manipulated the system.

[psychoslice]

I guess the aboriginals in Austrailia are luckier than non whites here in the USA. Unfortunately racism is still alive and well over here. Being wealthier doesn't mean less crime, so why do you think the police aren't patrolling everywhere in equal amounts?

And don't forget, racism is a two way street, I have been called all sorts of names by aboriginals here in Australia, but if I call them the same, a big deal is made. If Brown was a white guy, would there be so much publicity going on ?.

[Chad32]

I know racism is a two way street, but historically whites have had more power than any other group, and they maintain that power to this day. There is more persecution coming from whites than going to them, which is why people can put up a video where a white guy attempts to break into a car, and a policeman that drives by thinks nothing of it. When his black friend does it, the policeman comes to investigate within two minutes, and already has his gun out of his holster.

If it had been a white guy, I doubt he would have been gunned down like that. I also down a white guy would have been choked to death for selling taxless cigs either.

[psychoslice]

I know racism is a two way street, but historically whites have had more power than any other group, and they maintain that power to this day. There is more persecution coming from whites than going to them, which is why people can put up a video where a white guy attempts to break into a car, and a policeman that drives by thinks nothing of it. When his black friend does it, the policeman comes to investigate within two minutes, and already has his gun out of his holster.

If it had been a white guy, I doubt he would have been gunned down like that. I also down a white guy would have been choked to death for selling taxless cigs either.

I don't know, but I feel insulted when people keep blaming the whites, its nothing to do with the colour of the skin, you get bad in all colours, if the blacks were first advanced like the whites were back then, then it would be the other way around.

[Brian37]

Might want to revise the question to: Did Micheal Brown deserve to be shot dead?

Maybe if Wilson had kept his cool and not gone into the call trying to show him who the boss was, he could have deescalated it.

I believe Brown's friend when he said Wilson cussed them out to get off the street.

"Please step on to the sidewalk" is Wilson's claim.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE STREET" Brown's friend.

Which one is going to piss you off, even if it was a civilian driver in an every day interaction with a pedestrian?

No one is talking about making Brown a saint, but it sickens me every time an unarmed black teen or man dies, everyone believes the officer and not the witnesses.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Going by this page, it shows the white prisoner population to be 59%. It seems true that whites are about 78%, and according to Wikipedia blacks are 12.4% of the population, but 37.4% of the prison inmate population.

As I said it's a statistical fact that there are many more criminals in the African American community than there is in the non African American community.

Statistically, sure. Does that mean that black Americans are more prone to crime? Or does it mean that they've been on the receiving end of profiles, stereotypes, and imbalanced patrol patterns -- or discriminatory payscales, substantially inferior school systems, and so on?

I think you're confusing correlation and causation with the information at hand. There are several different potential explanations for the data we have, and they're woven in a complex manner.

It probably is around 10x, like it is here in Australia with Aboriginals. And I can assure you it has nothing to do with Aboriginals being profiled targeted and discriminated against by the police as some people seem to be claiming.

Why are you touting information about Australia as support for your claims about America?