Feds: Ferguson PD Targets African Americans

[Irish YJ]

Would be a better use of tax dollars than the military industrial complex.

Yep, throw in those special interest dollars too.

 

[dales5050]

The probe uncovered deep and longstanding patterns of discrimination and unfair treatment.

The probe, or better put, the results of the probe are what the DOJ wanted to make it out to be. The DOJ made the focus all about race to appease the ignorant.

Brown did not commit the strong arm robbery and attack a police officer because he was black. He did those things because he was a thug. He was a thug due to a myriad socioeconomic factors that go beyond skin color.

To suggest it's 100% about race, to say that police action was 100% about race is equal to saying black people commit crimes because of they are black. And that is not the truth.

The reason why the residents of Ferguson are apathetic towards elections is not due their skin color but rather due to the reality of their day to day lives.

You could fire the whole damn police department and hire only black officers so it would not be possible to call anything racist and you would still have issues. It's because they have bad police officers and skin does not matter in that. What does matter is being able to screen applicants and only hire those who have the intelligence and temperament to be instruments of the law and you can't hire those people for $15.00 an hour.



It's not 100% about race. It's just that the majority of people in the US are too stupid to see in anything but black and white.

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

Maybe instead of giving the police, the glorified white supremacy collection agency and new Klan, tanks, that money can be used to get rid of the "few bad apples."

Well now I get it...this is really NJNP under a different name like IrishPat did.

 

[GoIrish41]

Well now I get it...this is really NJNP under a different name like IrishPat did.

Turns out NJNP was right about a lot that he was beaten up about ... So piling on now that he is not here to defend himself increases his credibility on this topic. Make jokes about him if you must but he gets the last laugh.

 

[Irish YJ]

Turns out NJNP was right about a lot that he was beaten up about ... So piling on now that he is not here to defend himself increases his credibility on this topic. Make jokes about him if you must but he gets the last laugh.

I don't think anyone would argue there was prejudice in the PD. Clearly there is. This whole topic blew up around the riots. Right, wrong, or indifferent, the destruction and violence that happened is on the same level of "bad" as the prejudice. Ultimately both boil down to lack of respect for our fellow human beings and civility. One does not get a pass for violent and destructive behavior against property or other civilians. I'm glad the spotlight is on improving the situation. The DOJ found what they found, which is pretty compelling. They also cleared the officer. That said, I hope the cleanse the PD, and start the healing process. Peacefully (not NP style).

NJNP, was ultra everything, and thrived on sensationalism. He had some great points, but those get lost with all his other ramblings.

 

[GoIrish41]

The probe, or better put, the results of the probe are what the DOJ wanted to make it out to be. The DOJ made the focus all about race to appease the ignorant.

Brown did not commit the strong arm robbery and attack a police officer because he was black. He did those things because he was a thug. He was a thug due to a myriad socioeconomic factors that go beyond skin color.

To suggest it's 100% about race, to say that police action was 100% about race is equal to saying black people commit crimes because of they are black. And that is not the truth.

The reason why the residents of Ferguson are apathetic towards elections is not due their skin color but rather due to the reality of their day to day lives.

You could fire the whole damn police department and hire only black officers so it would not be possible to call anything racist and you would still have issues. It's because they have bad police officers and skin does not matter in that. What does matter is being able to screen applicants and only hire those who have the intelligence and temperament to be instruments of the law and you can't hire those people for $15.00 an hour.



It's not 100% about race. It's just that the majority of people in the US are too stupid to see in anything but black and white.

The probe was about racial fairness because there were ongoing complaints about it in Ferguson. Turns out the complaints were justified. You seem to believe this was a witch hunt during which these cops and court officials were singled out for no good reason. You would be wrong. The justice department followed up on complaints by citizens and found them to be justified. It was not some trumped up charge that they politicized. The one thing you got right in your post is that the reason for voter apathy is due to the reality of their daily lives ... That reality was that blacks were treated as second class citizens who were forced to pay over the top fines that was essentially funding the town. They almost certainly felt as if it did not matter if they voted or not because the system was stacked against them. Turns out their feelings were justified. They may have bad police officers in Ferguson but they were doing what the local goverent wanted them to do. It is institutionalize racism plain and simple. Don't know how you can read that report and come to any other conclusion.

 

[DonnieNarco]

People aren't born apathetic. They become apathetic when people treat them like subhumans, which the cops were doing in Ferguson.

 

[DonnieNarco]

There's really no argument that the police in Ferguson weren't acting like a white supremacist organization. It was what the city and county told them to do. It was structuralized racism, institutionalized racism, white supremacy.

 

[DonnieNarco]

If the state is unjustly controlling and keeping you down, why would you think that there is any way a single person could change that?

 

[GoIrish41]

I don't think anyone would argue there was prejudice in the PD. Clearly there is. This whole topic blew up around the riots. Right, wrong, or indifferent, the destruction and violence that happened is on the same level of "bad" as the prejudice. Ultimately both boil down to lack of respect for our fellow human beings and civility. One does not get a pass for violent and destructive behavior against property or other civilians. I'm glad the spotlight is on improving the situation. The DOJ found what they found, which is pretty compelling. They also cleared the officer. That said, I hope the cleanse the PD, and start the healing process. Peacefully (not NP style).

NJNP, was ultra everything, and thrived on sensationalism. He had some great points, but those get lost with all his other ramblings.

Good post. On NJNP he did not start out in the topic so over the top. He was pushed there by being McKee and taunted by the usual suspects on IE. Instead of being another perspective on the topic his posts were criticized in very unflattering way and he felt compelled to more strenuously defend he position. Ironically that seems to be very similar to what was going on in Fergeson. While he may have gone too far he was pushed there by people who wer not reprimanded for their behavior white NJNP was banned.

 

[Irish Insanity]

Turns out NJNP was right about a lot that he was beaten up about ... So piling on now that he is not here to defend himself increases his credibility on this topic. Make jokes about him if you must but he gets the last laugh.

I disagree with the first statement. He was right about a lot of the accusations he made specifically about that case, but that's it. Shortly after he started in that thread his stance quickly turned to a discussion about everyone and everything being racist. He found racism in everything. And that was a stretch to say the least. But, #FreeNJNP and #FreePat

 

[Irish YJ]

If the state is unjustly controlling and keeping you down, why would you think that there is any way a single person could change that?

vote, peacefully organize

In the 2000 census, 44.7% were White and 52.4% were African American. that's a voting majority

Edit with 2010
As of the 2010 census,[3] there were 21,203 people, 8,192 households, and 5,500 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,425.4 inhabitants per square mile (1,322.6/km2). There were 9,105 housing units at an average density of 1,470.9 per square mile (567.9/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 67.4% African American, 29.3% White, 0.5% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 0.4% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races. Hispanic and Latino of any race were 1.2% of the population.

 

[kmoose]

People aren't born apathetic. They become apathetic when people treat them like subhumans, which the cops were doing in Ferguson.

So tell me........... how did blacks in America ever manage to earn equal rights, if being treated like subhumans made them so apathetic?

You and others want to keep using past treatment as an excuse for the majority black community in Ferguson to do nothing. Honestly, I am starting to think that you are just anti-establishment, and this is just the "cause celebre du jour" to try to "stick it to the man".

 

[tommyIRISH23]

Maybe instead of giving the police, the glorified white supremacy collection agency and new Klan, tanks, that money can be used to get rid of the "few bad apples."

That's funny. I say all blacks are criminals, I am a racist. You group all cops as the "new kkk" you see yourself as some kind of educated crusader. It's ok to use stereotypes if it supports your argument I guess.

Btw I'm a cop. A detective actually. Lets hear it...

 

[Irish YJ]

 

[MNIrishman]

That's funny. I say all blacks are criminals, I am a racist. You group all cops as the "new kkk" you see yourself as some kind of educated crusader. It's ok to use stereotypes if it supports your argument I guess.

Btw I'm a cop. A detective actually. Lets hear it...

Yeah but you dodged the question of why you hate black people...

 

[tommyIRISH23]

So tell me........... how did blacks in America ever manage to earn equal rights, if being treated like subhumans made them so apathetic?

You and others want to keep using past treatment as an excuse for the majority black community in Ferguson to do nothing. Honestly, I am starting to think that you are just anti-establishment, and this is just the "cause celebre du jour" to try to "stick it to the man".

Lol nail on the head. 19 years old. Read a few books and took a few classes now he's an expert on 60 years of race when he's too young to remember y2k and doesn't have enough life experiences to fill a scrap book.

I find it "racist" that there are people who believe that other human beings lack the reason and ability to make their own choices to control their own lives. As if they deserve nothing but pity bc they're incapable victims

 

[AvesEvo]

No, it doesn't. But ending the apathy could help end the abuses.

You don't think the protests in Ferguson prove that the black citizens do care?

 

[AvesEvo]

So tell me........... how did blacks in America ever manage to earn equal rights, if being treated like subhumans made them so apathetic?

You and others want to keep using past treatment as an excuse for the majority black community in Ferguson to do nothing. Honestly, I am starting to think that you are just anti-establishment, and this is just the "cause celebre du jour" to try to "stick it to the man".

I would say that people can only be pushed so far.

 

[pkt77242]

So tell me........... how did blacks in America ever manage to earn equal rights, if being treated like subhumans made them so apathetic?

You and others want to keep using past treatment as an excuse for the majority black community in Ferguson to do nothing. Honestly, I am starting to think that you are just anti-establishment, and this is just the "cause celebre du jour" to try to "stick it to the man".

Sigh. It took the "blacks" from the civil war till the Civil Right moment to gain "equal" treatment so your point is completely invalid. Even then it took a one in a generation leader to help it happen. You need to give Blacks in Ferguson another 80+ years before you can blame them according to your argument. Nice try though.

 

[GoIrish41]

So tell me........... how did blacks in America ever manage to earn equal rights, if being treated like subhumans made them so apathetic?

You and others want to keep using past treatment as an excuse for the majority black community in Ferguson to do nothing. Honestly, I am starting to think that you are just anti-establishment, and this is just the "cause celebre du jour" to try to "stick it to the man".

I would argue that African Americans in Ferguson did not have equal rights ... that is sorta the point. One does not have to look at past treatment from 50, 75 or 100 years ago for evidence. The Justice report demonstrates that equality has not been achieved there. Being treated diferently (read worse) as a matter of course right now does not equate to the rights they "earned" in the past. That is not the fault of the black citizens of Ferguson but those who control the institutions there -- the police and the courts in particular who have ignored the very laws that were written to ensure equality.

 

[Irish#1]

Turns out NJNP was right about a lot that he was beaten up about ... So piling on now that he is not here to defend himself increases his credibility on this topic. Make jokes about him if you must but he gets the last laugh.

He wasn't beaten up about being right. He was getting dumped on because he refused to acknowledge there were others sides to his comments.

 

[kmoose]

Sigh. It took the "blacks" from the civil war till the Civil Right moment to gain "equal" treatment so your point is completely invalid. Even then it took a one in a generation leader to help it happen. You need to give Blacks in Ferguson another 80+ years before you can blame them according to your argument. Nice try though.

You see? This is the failure in your, and others, logic. I am not blaming the black population of Ferguson for anything. If you follow the line of discussion; I made a reference to reports about how the elected officials of Ferguson pressured the police chief into increasing the revenue his department generated. I mentioned that maybe it was time for the people of Ferguson to clean house at City Hall. There's no blame in that. Blame would be if I said that what the police were doing was ok, because the citizens of Ferguson didn't vote. What I am saying is, "This is the current situation. If you want to change the current situation, then getting out and voting is one way to do it." Instead of just calling for the firing of the Police Chief, who would likely just be replaced by another like-minded individual; change the leadership. The leadership sets the tone. How can you possibly have a problem with that?

 

[kmoose]

Good post. On NJNP he did not start out in the topic so over the top. He was pushed there by being McKee and taunted by the usual suspects on IE. Instead of being another perspective on the topic his posts were criticized in very unflattering way and he felt compelled to more strenuously defend he position. Ironically that seems to be very similar to what was going on in Fergeson. While he may have gone too far he was pushed there by people who wer not reprimanded for their behavior white NJNP was banned.

Freudian slip?

 

[kmoose]

You don't think the protests in Ferguson prove that the black citizens do care?

I think the pathetic voter turnout proves they don't.

Since 16.2% of voters first put Knowles in office in 2011, voter turnout for the annual city elections has never topped 12%.

"Knowles" is the mayor of Ferguson.

 

[dales5050]

The probe was about racial fairness because there were ongoing complaints about it in Ferguson. Turns out the complaints were justified. You seem to believe this was a witch hunt during which these cops and court officials were singled out for no good reason. You would be wrong. The justice department followed up on complaints by citizens and found them to be justified. It was not some trumped up charge that they politicized. The one thing you got right in your post is that the reason for voter apathy is due to the reality of their daily lives ... That reality was that blacks were treated as second class citizens who were forced to pay over the top fines that was essentially funding the town. They almost certainly felt as if it did not matter if they voted or not because the system was stacked against them. Turns out their feelings were justified. They may have bad police officers in Ferguson but they were doing what the local goverent wanted them to do. It is institutionalize racism plain and simple. Don't know how you can read that report and come to any other conclusion.

First off, the DOJ came into the picture to look into the Brown shooting. In that probe, the ORIGINAL probe, the DOJ decided not pursue federal civil rights charges against Darren Wilson. In that original probe, the department found that Wilson’s actions “do not constitute a prosecutable violation” and there “is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson’s stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety.”

In addition to the first report, the DOJ released a second report on broader police practices. In that report, the DOJ did bring to light several issues but failed to look at causes outside of the racial spectrum. This is not to say racism did not play a part, it did, but the issues in Ferguson are much deeper than just racism.

The problem is people wanted so much for the first report to come to a specific conclusion that anything but a racial tone in the second would have been never been accepted.

For example, among the report’s conclusions are that blacks account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations received and 93% arrests made by Ferguson Police Department officers. What's not focused on is Ferguson is composed of only around 67% African Americans.

When you take 70% of the population as one race and then look at 85%, 90% and 93% rates for things like stops, citations and arrests, it's not that disproportionate.

What is disproportionate, and by a large margin, is the concentration of poverty. See below

<a href="http://imgur.com/3Xh7RoJ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3Xh7RoJ.png" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

I would like to have an honest conversation about what's going on in places like Ferguson. To do that, you have to look beyond race.

Look at poverty and education statistics....

In Ferguson, the city’s unemployment rate rose from roughly 7 percent in 2000 to over 13 percent in 2010-12. For those residents who were employed, inflation-adjusted average earnings fell by one-third. The number of households using federal Housing Choice Vouchers climbed from roughly 300 in 2000 to more than 800 by the end of the decade.

Amid these changes, poverty skyrocketed. Between 2000 and 2010-2012, Ferguson’s poor population doubled. By the end of that period, roughly one in four residents lived below the federal poverty line ($23,492 for a family of four in 2012), and 44 percent fell below twice that level.

These changes affected neighborhoods throughout Ferguson. At the start of the 2000s, the five census tracts that fall within Ferguson’s border registered poverty rates ranging between 4 and 16 percent. However, by 2008-2012 almost all of Ferguson’s neighborhoods had poverty rates at or above the 20 percent threshold at which the negative effects of concentrated poverty begin to emerge.

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF CONCENTRATED POVERTY.

On the topic of education....which has not been mentioned in the conversation. Maybe that's because the numbers are not that bad. Or maybe it's because the leadership of the Ferguson-Florissant School District is black.

Only 9.3% of black kids in the high schools are taking advanced math subjects such as trigonometry, statistics, and pre-calculus. But 20.5% of back children were kept out of classrooms due to some form of suspension. This is compared to just 3.3% of white students.

Now why am I bringing up the schools? Because the schools are the first building block for children into learning how the 'system' works..either for them or against them. It's been made clear that black kids find themselves disproportionately in the discipline system of schools but proportionate to adults in the criminal system. Yet, the cries of racism in the school system do not exist. Could that be because the schools are not pointing the finger at race and instead wanting to root out the true causes or is it because it's hard to call a black superintendent racist? You decide.

On the topic of police coverage...Police patrols are a limited resource. Removing the quality of the force itself, it takes basic understanding of statistics to see that when you have a city that is 70% black and then you concentrate poverty amongst that 70% into areas...you would find rates as high as 85%, 90% and 93% for police actions.

Now compounding this issue is the quality of the police force itself. There is no denying that vast and wholesale changes need to happen in the Ferguson Police Department. But while this may change HOW people are arrested and if their rights during the arrest process improves....it's going to do nothing to actually change the rate at which these residents find themselves at issue with the law.

What fixes that is breaking the downward spiral of poverty and it's instruments such as lack of education, parental leadership and a massive spectrum of socioeconomic factors that have absolutely nothing to do with race.

Your view is dangerous. Possibly not by intent, as it's obviously you're outraged at the wrongs here. But your view is dangerous. Ignorance and lack of perspective allows for such a complex issue to be summarized by such a simplistic and statistically incorrect inference that racism was the cause here. Because so many voices like this exist and because so many of these voices are loudest, we as a collective whole continue to simply pick at the scab to try and solve the underlying issue of running into a razor each and every day.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

GoIrish and Syria have advanced their arguments very politely. It's fine to disagree, but not with personal attacks.

 

[autry_denson]

Dales5050 you picked the wrong guy for your post. GoIrish is one of the smartest guys on here, no need to go slow for him ok?


Like many other riots that have occurred in primarily black communities, to understand what happened in Ferguson you have to look beyond the specific incident and consider how the conditions there could have created a situation in which a large segment of the population was so frustrated and humiliated that they felt it necessary to enter into public space and protest. The report on policing in Ferguson goes a long way toward describing these conditions. To do a truly comprehensive job would have taken a much longer qualitative research project, but what they had available were statistics and public correspondence. The statistics do clearly indicate a disproportionate focus on the city’s black population, especially for small-scale, subjective interactions between police and residents. The city’s police department focused its attention on the black population – that’s impossible to argue.

The interpretation of this is more difficult—it could be fully explained by race, it could be partially explained by race but also affected by the spatial distribution of crime, etc. This is where the email correspondence and the racial composition of the police force makes the case stronger.

In a relatively small, somewhat isolated institution like a police department it is entirely possible for a culture to emerge where a pattern of behavior that might be formally illegal and unacceptable in the wider society becomes accepted and understood within the institution. There is good evidence that this happened in Ferguson—not definitive evidence, b/c it is really difficult to prove, but persuasive evidence in my reading. This is not isolated to Ferguson’s PD. We see it, recently, in the stories about prisoner abuse in Rikers Island here in NYC. We see it, this morning, in an entire bus of young men and women from Oklahoma chanting in unison about lynching black people and never letting one enter their fraternity.

The point is not that racism explains everything or is pervasive in every aspect of society. Rather, the point is that there are institutions that have developed in a way that allows for differential treatment of members of different groups—in some cases, it is the treatment of women that differs, in some cases immigrants, in some cases black Americans. When something like Ferguson happens, a very basic look into the conditions that make a protest or riot possible usually reveals a more complete answer as to why its participants felt they needed to move into public space. You may disagree with their assessment of the conditions or with their decision to protest, but you can rarely dismiss the protest as the actions of criminals. That explanation is almost always wrong, as it was wrong in the case of Ferguson.

 

[kmoose]

Dales5050 you picked the wrong guy for your post. GoIrish is one of the smartest guys on here, no need to go slow for him ok?


Like many other riots that have occurred in primarily black communities, to understand what happened in Ferguson you have to look beyond the specific incident and consider how the conditions there could have created a situation in which a large segment of the population was so frustrated and humiliated that they felt it necessary to enter into public space and protest. The report on policing in Ferguson goes a long way toward describing these conditions. To do a truly comprehensive job would have taken a much longer qualitative research project, but what they had available were statistics and public correspondence. The statistics do clearly indicate a disproportionate focus on the city’s black population, especially for small-scale, subjective interactions between police and residents. The city’s police department focused its attention on the black population – that’s impossible to argue.

The interpretation of this is more difficult—it could be fully explained by race, it could be partially explained by race but also affected by the spatial distribution of crime, etc. This is where the email correspondence and the racial composition of the police force makes the case stronger.

In a relatively small, somewhat isolated institution like a police department it is entirely possible for a culture to emerge where a pattern of behavior that might be formally illegal and unacceptable in the wider society becomes accepted and understood within the institution. There is good evidence that this happened in Ferguson—not definitive evidence, b/c it is really difficult to prove, but persuasive evidence in my reading. This is not isolated to Ferguson’s PD. We see it, recently, in the stories about prisoner abuse in Rikers Island here in NYC. We see it, this morning, in an entire bus of young men and women from Oklahoma chanting in unison about lynching black people and never letting one enter their fraternity.

The point is not that racism explains everything or is pervasive in every aspect of society. Rather, the point is that there are institutions that have developed in a way that allows for differential treatment of members of different groups—in some cases, it is the treatment of women that differs, in some cases immigrants, in some cases black Americans. When something like Ferguson happens, a very basic look into the conditions that make a protest or riot possible usually reveals a more complete answer as to why its participants felt they needed to move into public space. You may disagree with their assessment of the conditions or with their decision to protest, but you can rarely dismiss the protest as the actions of criminals. That explanation is almost always wrong, as it was wrong in the case of Ferguson.

I think this is an excellent, well thought out post, autry. But, as to the bolded: It is hard for us to have a real discussion of the conditions, if we are not allowed to analyze what BOTH sides could have done to alleviate the tensions that boiled over. I mentioned the pathetic 12% voter turnout in Ferguson's city elections, and people accused me of victim blaming.

 

[dales5050]

Dales5050 you picked the wrong guy for your post. GoIrish is one of the smartest guys on here, no need to go slow for him ok?

Intelligence has little bearing on perspective or knowledge of subject matter or deconstruction of opinions.

GoIrish has formed opinions and has taken an absolute stance on the subject (see. 100% race) so I stand behind my comments/opinions.

Like many other riots that have occurred in primarily black communities, to understand what happened in Ferguson you have to look beyond the specific incident and consider how the conditions there could have created a situation in which a large segment of the population was so frustrated and humiliated that they felt it necessary to enter into public space and protest. The report on policing in Ferguson goes a long way toward describing these conditions. To do a truly comprehensive job would have taken a much longer qualitative research project, but what they had available were statistics and public correspondence. The statistics do clearly indicate a disproportionate focus on the city’s black population, especially for small-scale, subjective interactions between police and residents. The city’s police department focused its attention on the black population – that’s impossible to argue.

What happened in Ferguson should not be classified as protests. Not only does the actions make that factually incorrect, it does a great disservice to actual protests from the civil rights era where much more shameful actions took place but the community had significantly better leadership.

Also, I am not taking away any of the frustration and humiliation that the residents of Ferguson faced. All I am saying is that this frustration comes from a much deeper set of conditions that go beyond the color of their skin.

The interpretation of this is more difficult—it could be fully explained by race, it could be partially explained by race but also affected by the spatial distribution of crime, etc. This is where the email correspondence and the racial composition of the police force makes the case stronger.

The emails in question do not prove the entire department was racist. However, looking at the comments of one police officer on the rights of citizens and how the police department reacted to the initial riots does show system wide just how inept the department as a whole was.

The greater point here that I am making is wholesale changes need to be made to the department but not because of racism. Rather, wholesale changes need to be made due to incompetence. Wholesale changes need to be made so that politically appointed leadership does not modify policing efforts in an effort to increase revenue.

If you take that to the next level, the way cities and towns all over the US are currently staffing, operating and compensating their police departments is a systematic failure. That has nothing to do with racism.

In a relatively small, somewhat isolated institution like a police department it is entirely possible for a culture to emerge where a pattern of behavior that might be formally illegal and unacceptable in the wider society becomes accepted and understood within the institution. There is good evidence that this happened in Ferguson—not definitive evidence, b/c it is really difficult to prove, but persuasive evidence in my reading. This is not isolated to Ferguson’s PD. We see it, recently, in the stories about prisoner abuse in Rikers Island here in NYC. We see it, this morning, in an entire bus of young men and women from Oklahoma chanting in unison about lynching black people and never letting one enter their fraternity.

In a relatively small, somewhat isolated police department that has a limited ability to staff with the correct personnel due to a multitude of factors from compensation to hiring regulations it not only possible but probable a culture of illegal and unacceptable behavior is born and fostered.

You're correct that this is not isolated to Ferguson. Departments from police to corrections all over the US face the same issue. They are forced to hire and keep the wrong people for the job. We could start another thread on why that is but that's a large part of the issue.

Then when you mix the incorrect personnel for the job with a segment of society that has a completely different perspective on what's right or wrong...you have a powder keg just waiting to explode.

I will add that while you're quick to point out issues at Rikers, you fail to try and consider the opposite experience and how they arrived there.

Take a police officer who time and time again is faced with viewing behavior that is not acceptable. Time and time again they go into homes where children are neglected, criminal behavior is not only ignored but at times accepted and rewarded.

It's waring to say the least. And because of that I think it's fair to say that if someone wants to use social conditions as a explanation of crime, those same social conditions should be used to explain poor policing.

Neither is acceptable but both are understandable....to an extent.

The point is not that racism explains everything or is pervasive in every aspect of society. Rather, the point is that there are institutions that have developed in a way that allows for differential treatment of members of different groups—in some cases, it is the treatment of women that differs, in some cases immigrants, in some cases black Americans. When something like Ferguson happens, a very basic look into the conditions that make a protest or riot possible usually reveals a more complete answer as to why its participants felt they needed to move into public space. You may disagree with their assessment of the conditions or with their decision to protest, but you can rarely dismiss the protest as the actions of criminals. That explanation is almost always wrong, as it was wrong in the case of Ferguson.

Agree. Now apply your logic to all institutions.