Politics and religion.

[Karen]

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A stupid kid waving a fake pistol in a park gets killed by a PO.

What did the kid do to get the police to show up?

The media places NO RESPONSIBILITY on the idiot's actions BEFORE the incident. It's all the the Establishment's fault.

The establishment doesn't give the people jobs, schooling, integrated police forces and government - people talk about change - but wait for it to be handed to them.

From what I have seen, it was nothing the kid did - playing with a toy pistol by himself in a park - but that a neighbor called 911 to report what she thought might have been someone with a gun. She did mention it may be a juvenile ... but the police drove up, saw the kid, and the toy gun and shot him before the kid had any chance to do or say anything.

Should a child have been given a toy gun with the orange plastic removed, and allowed to go outside with it? No. But he obviously was a bored kid, nothing to do ... he knew it was a toy, but ... the officers obviously did not.

Tragic all around, on any other day it might not have happened.

So many of the issues are not nearly as black and white, cut and dried, as the media make them out to be - but nuance takes more than a soundbite, and heaven forfend we spend more than 60 seconds to research or explain a given story, when hype plays!

[momoffuzzyfaces]

I was amazed by all the protesters marching around INSIDE stores in Ferguson on Thanksgiving!! Since when is it ok to protest INSIDE a business??? They should be darn grateful they had any businesses left open in town after they burned and destroyed lots of them recently!!!

[RICHARD]

From what I have seen, it was nothing the kid did - playing with a toy pistol by himself in a park - but that a neighbor called 911 to report what she thought might have been someone with a gun. She did mention it may be a juvenile ... but the police drove up, saw the kid, and the toy gun and shot him before the kid had any chance to do or say anything.

Should a child have been given a toy gun with the orange plastic removed, and allowed to go outside with it? No. But he obviously was a bored kid, nothing to do ... he knew it was a toy, but ... the officers obviously did not.

Tragic all around, on any other day it might not have happened.

So many of the issues are not nearly as black and white, cut and dried, as the media make them out to be - but nuance takes more than a soundbite, and heaven forfend we spend more than 60 seconds to research or explain a given story, when hype plays!

On the CCTV tape the kid was waving the gun around and pointing it at people.

There also was some breakdown in what the 911 clerk relayed to the officers.

No there are no cut and dried issues - a 60 second soundbite is a lifetime compared to the 3-4 seconds a PO has to make a decision?

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I have a .22 cal pellet gun that we'd use around the neighborhood to shoot at cans. The house across the street had an empty lot where people would toss trash into. We'd shoot at bottles and cans all the time when we were bored.... My friend was shooting at a can when a cop car drove by and the PO in the passenger seat looked right at us.

I knew they were coming back, so I took the gun and walked across the street with it. By the time I put it away at my house, the cops had come around the block and were rousting my friends....

The hassled the crap out of us -rightfully so - but that stupidity could have ended up in a more serious incident. It only takes one act of stupidity to get into trouble way over your head.

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My gripe with the media is that a story is often slanted by the people in charge of the news networks.

It's all sensation and when you do start to peel the layers away, you get the truth?

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My mom had the best line for me when I got into trouble and went to her for help. She'd listen, then ask me, "who sent you" - meaning who was the person that got you into trouble?

I saw the idiot everytime I washed my face in the bathroom!