The Lie: Hands up. Don't shoot.

[DeistPaladin]

The "Hands up. Don't shoot", in the Michael Brown incident, has been determined by the DOJ to be "Bogus".

Once again the little conservative boy cries "wolf, wolf, wolf!"

I know conservatives don't like to be bothered with facts when they're working up their latest manufactured outrage but here we go:

1. "Not proven" isn't the same thing as "proven to the contrary". 
2. While the DOJ was not able to prove wrongdoing by the acting officer, it did find systematic racism in the Ferguson Police, a point glossed over by the conservative outrage machine.
3. The whole shooting of Brown was rendered comparatively moot, by which I mean you could have video footage proving self-defense by the shooting officer and the issue was rendered comparatively insignificant by the irresponsible and jack-booted activity of the police in response to the peaceful Ferguson protests. The Ferguson Police fired upon media camera crews, swept through nearby restaurants where they reportedly roughed up and arrested reporters for not clearing out fast enough, and generally acted like a bunch of drunken frat boys playing with their shiny new toys they got for Christmas. Their jack-booted behavior would be condemned by the USA if it happened in any other country. 

But the biggest fact I would like to bring to the table for Foxland that might help us to constructively deal with our ongoing race relations issues and help bring about the much needed healing is this:

Talking about race relation problems does not cause racial violence. 

We saw the assertions to the contrary when DeBlasio (*gasp*) talked about his feelings about his biracial son and "the talk" he had with him about how to deal with the police. We saw this when Obama talked about he if he had a son, he would be Travon's age. The conservative outrage machined swung into action, "OMG! They're stoking racial violence. DeBlasio caused the murder of those two police officers!"

So, apparently, if you don't talk about a problem, it just goes away?

Or if you do talk about a problem, even in the most gentle manner, you then own what anyone anywhere does? 

Or if you say, "You know, we really need to work on the problem in America of racial profiling so we can become a better society." it's the same thing as "go out and kill someone or riot in the streets"? 

You see the logical problem?

In order to be able to address a problem, we first need to be able to talk about a problem. Problems won't go away if you ignore them. As for Brown, the shooting could be completely justified for all it matters. We've got much larger issues to worry about with race relations in America. The behavior the Ferguson Police in the aftermath underscores this point.