I wonder if Ferguson MO will turn out to be . . .

[Brigid]

The spark I predicted would happen sooner or later. If so, I was wrong about one thing: I said it would probably be something insignificant that would finally do it, but an 18-year-old kid being shot dead by cops for no reason is not insignificant. Anybody else feel a sense of unreality here?

[elleng]

1. Yes, its 'unreal,'

except the people have been trying to do the right thing, where they live.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Deja vu all over again.

Reminds me disturbingly of some of the stuff that was going down in the late '60s. This might be even worse; in those days the cops - as bad as they were sometimes - weren't militarized the way they are now. Scary shit!

[GP6971]

11. I agree

I grew up in the 60s and remember the riots well. Newark was close to where I grew up. But as I said in another post, you didn't see LE in the 60s on top of armored vehicles pointing their scoped weapons at peaceful protesters.

[Nay]

19. Yep. The cops were mean enough back in the sixties, but they didn't have

machine guns, army vehicles, etc., like they have now. I can't see the difference between Missouri and any banana republic.

[FreakinDJ]

3. 13 yr old kid shot dead in Calif

[MohRokTah]

4. The Ferguson Police Riots of 2014. eom

[Brigid]

6. Just like some argue that back in Chicago 1968,

It was really the cops that rioted.

[MohRokTah]

9. It WAS really the cops that rioted in 1968

Just like it's the cops rioting in Ferguson in 2014.

[L0oniX]

10. Detroit 1967.

[Brigid]

14. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about that.

There are videos of it on youtube.

[geomon666]

8. They just opened fire on the crowd

I can't believe this shit I'm seeing.

[morningfog]

13. What kind of fire?

[geomon666]

15. Rubber bullets and tear gas

Video archived here http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9035483/events/3271930

around 8 minutes in

[conservaphobe]

5. There's definitely something different about it this time.

That can't be explained.

[Brigid]

18. Kind of reminds me . . .

Of that poor schmuck in Tunisia who immolated himself and set off violence all over the ME.

Why this particular incident? It isn't the first. Why now? Something is indeed different.

[L0oniX]

7. How many people would they shoot if they were rushed by protesters?

Got me wondering. If they can murder one innocent person in broad daylight I'm sure they'd have no problem killing hundreds at night. I wonder if or when people will start shooting back. Look what happened in Detroit in 1967:

The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street riot, was a violent public disorder that turned into a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan. It began on a Saturday night in the early morning hours of July 23, 1967. The precipitating event was a police raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as a blind pig, on the corner of 12th (today Rosa Parks Boulevard) and Clairmount streets on the city's Near West Side. Police confrontations with patrons and observers on the street evolved into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in United States history, lasting five days and surpassing the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot.

To help end the disturbance, Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in Army troops. The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. The scale of the riot was surpassed only by the New York City draft riots, during the U.S. Civil War,[1] and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

[Generic Brad]

12. Yes, I do

There is no justification for what the police are doing there. Back in the 70's things escalated to a fever pitch until peaceful protesters were gunned down in cold blood by the National Guard. But this started with a death. It is terrifying to contemplate how far this is going before the establishment in MO snap out of this.

[AverageJoe90]

16. IMO, it could be *a* spark. One of many.

And I'd argue that the election of President Obama was one of those early turning points.....and the creation of the N.Y. General Assembly, etc.; the world is waking up. albeit slowly.

[WillyT]

17. Had The Same Exact Thought...