Ferguson, MO Shooting

[Kung Wu]

Kung, I like you, I just despise the race card.

So do I.

[wu_shizzle]

I mean you don't hear much about blatant racism in white bread UT, but it seems we still do in places like LA and MS. Well, the Ozarks are certainly not the Deep South; from a racial breakdown perspective the Ozarks are extremely "white", just like UT (excluding the Hispanic influx seen everywhere).

I would think that's actually the problem in SEMO. There isn't a first-hand knowledge of minorities, but they are influenced by the negative stereotypes in cultures that are near by.

[Dave Stalwart]

So do I.

It all depends on how it's played. For some, you are playing the race card if you come from the black victim position. For others, you are playing the race card if you defend the white position.

The race card needs to not exist at all because we are all Americans. People need to be treated equally and most everyone agrees on that. It's just that some think blacks are being held down by whites while others think they are being held down by their own culture (in other words, not being held down at all). I bet the truth is that both things are happening, but not at all in equal amounts. To me, the problem is that 90% of us are willing to call each situation like it is...objectively, while the other 10% (on both sides) is looking for trouble. Anything bad that happens is racism to them.

I have a feeling it was this kid's lack of respect for authority that got him killed. That's not worth getting killed for, and it's sad, but when a police officer gives me ANY command whatsoever while holding his gun at me, I am going to stop what I'm doing. I really doubt he got murdered in cold blood for being black while standing innocently at the teddy bear shop, buying a toy. I bet he didn't listen when he was told to stop what he was doing and the cop feared for his own safety. There's a really easy way to not get shot by the cops, and that is don't move when they say don't move. In that kind of situation, it's not racist. Maybe this situation was, but how will any of us know at this point? I can almost guarantee that whatever comes out of the police department will make the officer innocent while whatever gets reported by the media will make the officer into a murderer. No one gets to know the truth anymore because no one has any faith in each other and the media wants trouble for some reason. I'm just rambling now...

[MoValley John]

I spent a few years of my childhood in a beautiful little town in the hills of NW AR, and today get down to the Ozarks a few times per year on motorcycle/lake/fall color trips, and I have no idea what you guys are talking about with the references to rampant racism in that area. There certainly is more poverty in rural Ozark AR/MO than rural farm town KS, but I'm not so sure about the more racism claim. Do you have any links or metrics to support the claims, or are we just dealing with conjecture?

As an aside, if I could somehow nod my head like a genie and reset my surroundings and career to NW AR I would do it in a heartbeat. That area is a little bit of nirvana if you enjoy outdoor activities - and the best part is that it is mostly free of enviro-wackos, unlike most outdoorsy regions of the country. You enjoy the rest of your life in flat, treeless, featureless, WT Wichita all the while enjoying those scintillating weekends spent shopping at Town East and dining at Chili's; I'll take the "racist" Ozarks.

I will spell it out clearly. I worked in agricultural advertising in various capacities. One of the things we did to show our commitment to the client was to annually send the entire crew to the client. This included everyone involved in the account. It was completely unnecessary, but it helped us stand out and made the client feel special. Needless to say, we had people of color on the team. The ONLY place we didn't take the whole crew was southern Missouri. I can't speak of Arkansas, we didn't serve that area. Our ethnic staff was refused entry in several of our Missouri client's places of business, they we're stared at, and yes, openly called the "N" word. It was like stepping back into the 40's.

The whole thing was very offensive to me and created discomfort within the staff. It was so bad we abandoned the practice in Missouri. Maybe in the last decade things have changed but I doubt it.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Isn't blatant and widespread racism generally associated with areas of the country where there is a very high proportion of black populous? Where black and white are interfacing with one another everyday - in both good and bad contexts. This is true of the Deep South is it not? I mean you don't hear much about blatant racism in white bread UT, but it seems we still do in places like LA and MS. Well, the Ozarks are certainly not the Deep South; from a racial breakdown perspective the Ozarks are extremely "white", just like UT (excluding the Hispanic influx seen everywhere).

Wait what?

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

I can't believe any involved public official is going to keep their job in Missouri. Sen. McCaskill just buried her re-election I believe today.

How so in the latter?

Truth be told Ive been involved with my own family to pay attention fully. Ive watched some of the streams but not overnight like I could on the weekend. Its my understanding that Sen mcCaskill as said that the protestors are being infiltrated and not actually causing the problems.

http://themissouritorch.com/blog/2014/08/19/antonio-french-catches-communist-agitators-including-greg-joey-johnson-arguing-with-other-protestors-video/

I think we both agree that people need to lose their jobs in Missouri however I think we disagree as to why. This whole operation has been a wreck.



And Im also reading about a church being raided just recently.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AFia3Uo0TQ&feature=youtu.be

[Dave Stalwart]

There are cops, highway patrol and national guard out on the streets in full force. Is that because they are all racists who want to kill and suppress all of the black residents of Ferguson, MO? or is it because there is an out of control crowd that is committing crime that has to be controlled?

I feel like I can't be mad at the cops for being there if they are only there because there is a riot. If one of them cusses at someone, I don't really follow how that makes him a bad cop. The guy with the video camera did a lot of instigating and even some cussing of his own. I really doubt many of the cops want to be there with guns pointed at civilians, and I'm also sure many of the are sorry someone was killed if they believe he is innocent.

The hatred needs to stop from all directions, and that includes all of the spectators around the country. I just don't think you can demonstrate your own flaws at the same time as you protest someone else's (like rioting and looting someone's store who has nothing to do with the issue while you protest a debatable police action) because you lose credibility. This whole thing looks to me like everyone involved needs to check themselves.

[MoValley John]

For anyone curious as to whether or not southern Missouri might have more race issues than, say, rural Kansas, here are a couple of links I dug up. I really didn't dig deep, I just Googled southern Missouri racism.

http://www.whitemansheaven.com/

http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2000/0...st-Groups.aspx

http://www.thetoptens.com/most-racists-states-us/

[WstateU]

[WstateU]

:concern:

[wufan]

:concern:

Following the map from Texas to ND is quite amusing. In TX, the women don't graduate. So they head North to OK and become criminals. They skip KS...maybe they get an STD, and on to NB where the men don't take no ****. SD is really sick of it and that's where the rapes happen. On to ND, and the only ones up there are uneducated thieves in poor health that have been beat on and are now ugly as sin!

[1972Shocker]

So if Kansas is worst at poorest health does that mean we have the best health or just that we don't really have a lot of poor health?

[MoValley John]

More good ol' hospitality and love thy neighbor in southern Missouri...

http://youtu.be/0Vp7g7ENqGw

[moshock]

I can't believe any involved public official is going to keep their job in Missouri. Sen. McCaskill just buried her re-election I believe today.

We can only hope. Our Governor is a buffoon also.

As a 43 year resident of Kansas and a 10 year resident of Missouri - I think I have a pretty good view of racism (I hate that word) in both states. It's definitely worse in rural Mo. When I moved here - we set up our business and interviewed about 200 people to hire a total of 20 positions. It was.......interesting to say the least. We hired 2 warehouse workers who were hard workers. One of our employees who moved from Wichita with us came to me one day and said that we had some kkk members working in the warehouse. I figured it was just someone joking around. Nope - these 2 idiots actually were kkk members. I confirmed it when we had a Chinese visitor come to our facility and had to fire them.

A black family had moved to the small town where our factory was located. The local klansmen decided to park in front of their house for hours to intimidate them. I don't know the end result.

The 2 idiots (and there were more) were followers of Fraizer Glenn Cross - http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/15/us/kan...nter-shooting/ He is the guy who went into the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Ks and opened fire. Yes, he was from the same city that we found ourselves in.

I felt like I had moved to Blazing Saddles, MO. I kept expecting Slim Pickens to come in and apply for a job.

I'm not going to name the town but most of you who frequent Table Rock Lake drive thru it on your way. There are a lot of good people in that town who are not racist but there is definitely a kkk presence there.

I didn't run into anything like that when I lived in Springfield and now Branson. Both of those cities are primarily white but I don't see blatant racism like I did in rural MO. .

I also saw some racism in Wichita. Mostly at the Biddy Gym. I coached a team that was 50/50 white/black. My kids and parents got along great but in the post season I had to tell a FEW of the black parents to stop calling the white kids "slow boys". So my point is that there are idiots everywhere. A small town in SWMO is the worst that I have ever personally witnessed.

I also found this report: http://www.ijreview.com/2014/08/1702...bbery-suspect/ confirming Doc's story about another shooting.