Does anyone here actually believe anything will change?

[Puzzledtraveller]

That protesting, rioting, posting on the internet will do anything? Honest question, because I have come to the point that I may as well be living on Mars, as much as I wish I could. The entire incident, the reactions, conspiracies. How many times has this happened, how many times has DU caught fire? Maybe I doubt too much, I doubt peoples motives, what they say they believe and what they really believe. I doubt peoples convictions, how many people are willing to really stand with the oppressed? Some here have, some here will, most of you won't and I won't either.

I will put the weight on the other side now. Will the system change? No. Will leaders across the nation wake one day and think, let's change, let's take a passive approach to policing, let's ditch our intimidating uniforms, buzz cuts and sun glasses. Let's actually put officers on the beat without guns, so they can interact and be a part of the community instead of the guards over it. I quit the police academy because there was too much of a "let's crack some heads" attitude. So I'm sick of the system, and I am sick of the people these days.

[immoderate]

1. Eventually...

--imm

[Recursion]

2. Sure. They have, and will continue to. Slowly.

20 years ago "cop shoots unarmed black teen" wouldn't have been more than a local media ripple.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Do you think the citizens are to blame for the Ferguson riots and the police are blameless.

Do you think the government is out to help us?

Welcome to Bad.

The worse it gets the more we know some kind of change will come.

That's the only bright side to it.

[helpmetohelpyou]

4. nothing will change

A week or a month from now another big headline and people forget about what happened .

People live by what the media feeds them

[SoCalMusicLover]

5. Nope n/t

[ucrdem]

6. Yes, things have already changed. Ferguson wasn't Watts, Detroit, Newark or L.A.

Though from the livestreams last night it sure looks like it was supposed to be. But it didn't happen fortunately and I don't think it was the cold weather. The nation has changed even if certain law enforcement agencies haven't.

[Skittles]

7. yes

I believe an air of "WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE THIS SHIT ANYMORE" does indeed help to promote change, however small

[enigmatic]

8. You either fight to change, or you give up

The problem with giving up is you're not only giving up on yourself, but you're giving up on your fellow human who is fighting along with you. And your children, and theirs.

If you don't fight to change the injustice that you see and feel, you become a passive accomplice in your own figurative and literal death and those who are being oppressed and marginalized. You give the oppressors and marginalizers a victory. And another generation will suffer because of it.

I'll never stop fighting for change.

[Kalidurga]

9. Yes and no

People are moving to communities that they feel match their values a bit more now. So people who care about civil rights and things like that are huddling together. People that think civil rights are only for the rich are huddling together. So eventually many of us will be in like minded communities. This is why I keep moving back to Minnesota. I was out twice both times for two years, once stint in Michigan my home state and the other in Tennessee, it was awful. It's very hard living around conservatives in so many ways.

[roody]

10. Yes. When I was a kid lynching was

still taking place with impunity. Maybe I'm off historically, but it was not long ago.

[sabrina 1]

11. Yes, it will change. History proves it. Do you think this is the first time in history that

greedy, criminal morons took over and impoverished populations, stole their resources and used their Thugs to keep the people down?

We don't need to go too far back actually, to see a time when many felt as you do now, just return in your mind to the '30s and '40s in Germany.

And keep on going back. See France when people had no hope left and the 'rulers' treated them like dirt. If you had lived at that time, you would have been wondering the same thing 'will it ever change'. But it did.

History is littered with examples of oligarchs taking over and oppressing and killing the people.

But it is also littered with examples of how that doesn't last.

YOU may doubt anything can change, but you haven't been paying attention if you think that bad guys don't know it can.

They KNOW and they are more frightened of the people, see the ARMIES they send out now to silence the people, than of anything else.

What hasn't happened yet, is that tipping point, but it's close.

If you thought these things change over night, you were bound to be disappointed.

We could speed it all up if we didn't have the usual apologists and enablers who think if they suck up to the oppressors they will be okay. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Carlin said, 'it's a small club and we ain't in it' whether we suck up or stand up.

[applegrove]

12. More police are wearing cameras which is great.

Some police forces are gearing down on the military hardware. Both important steps. And the communities across the country are mobilized to take action, with new leadership and old. Next police and cities are going to up the dialog with communities because the status quo is unacceptable to the people in those communities. All people need access to power in a democracy. That way predatory lending practices and such don't happen again. Ferguson has changed policing and demonstrations practices too. It is the start of a sea change I think. People need to vent all this grand jury stuff. Roll up their sleeves and get to work making sure power hears their very legitimate grievances and aspirations.

[Purveyor]

13. Yes but it will be 'ugly' getting there... eom

[Journeyman]

14. Not as fast as some would prefer, but yes, incrementally . . .

Maybe the key is to focus on changing a single aspect as much as possible. Say, work to make it a requirement all police must wear at least a forward looking camera at all times, a camera they can neither switch off nor mute. It won't be much, in and of itself, but it will lead to other changes, and perhaps with time it will amount to something which we can all look upon with satisfaction.

It's worth a try. It's always worth a try. "Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a straight jacket, its definition is possibility." How can we do anything less than try?

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Yes, change is a constant, that's both the good news and the bad news....

That which you love about your life will change just as the things you dislike will change. It'll be greater later.

We are not what we should be, but thank the stars we are not what we were.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. I'm leaving a quote by Howard Zinn, one of my favorite quotations for a society stuck on snark...

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn

[etherealtruth]

17. Wonderful!!!!! Thank you for posting this n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

18. The general attitude in the US is that smarter, wiser, more insightful people are hopless cynics

and anyone who is not a full tilt pessimist is some sort of sap. It's an affectation and it is toxic.

[lonestarnot]

19. Yes, yes I do believe it will change.

[damnedifIknow]

21. Gotta believe

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

Martin Luther King, Jr.