I just question why we must make an assumption or create a possibility that he is racist with no evidence to suggest he is.

Sometimes issues are created without there needing to be, and it creates tensions that can be avoided.

Show me evidence that he is racist or anything about this incident was based on race or colour, because as far as I can see its a trigger happy cop shooting a fleeing man.

who is calling him a racist?

Ok I shall put it in a different way, show me where race or colour had anything to do with this.

As your post on the last page suggests it should be considered when looking at what happened.

I've already explained. For some reason though, you are choosing to ignore all historical context and instead view this incident in complete isolation, and therefore cannot (or will not) understand why people are concerned that these incidents are occurring too often, and appear to be reflective of the perception that the system treats one set of people differently to others.

The uniform! I am not being flippant with that remark. For us to understand why a black person would do this we would have to have walked in a black person's shoes in the country that is America.


There is no evidence that race was an issue here - someone mentioned racial profiling as the tailight isn't an offence there (don't know anything about that) but we don't know if that's the case here - however the incident cannot be totally separated from the race issue ( perhaps unfairly for this officer - we don't know) due to the history, geography and statistics of the country.

Until there is a real perception of fairness to ethnic minorities in the US (and not just the US) race will always be an issue in these types of incidents - rightly or wrongly.

The majority of incidents I look at in isolation, unless there is evidence to suggest other issues are present.

Otherwise it clouds our view of a single incident. You can't judge one based upon the actions of others, unless they of course are shown to be acting in a manner that can be connected to it.

The dash cam has shown that initially Scott was treated fairly for a minor issue. There is nothing about this that suggests any of it was due to the colour of his skin. If we wish to argue that a higher proportion of black oeiole are stopped in that specific area (where the majority of the population is black) then we reach difficult grounds.

We can make race/colour an issue in any incident involving 2 different colours, it doesn't mean that is always or even often the case.

In your biased opinion obviously.

If a black cop shot a white motorist would race be an issue too ?

Possibly.

there IS evidence to suggest other issues are or may be present, you're just choosing to ignore them. that's perfectly fine, of course, but surely even you must be able to understand why others either can't or won't.

anyway, concerning the laws regarding tail-lights...

So, how's that supposed to be resolved, going forward?

Are we to perpetually grant black people the latitude to disregard anything which they don't approve of on the basis that they might still be wary as a result of historical injustices?

If a white person had run away from this cop and got himself shot, do you honestly think there'd be nobody suggesting he was being a dumbass?

This is one of those cases where I'm afraid equality has to work both ways.
You can't just insist that all people have the same opportunities but also claim that they aren't required to have the same responsibilities.

At some point, it's always going to be up to the members of any demographic to commit to full participation in a system rather than just the parts of it that they approve of.

Look at my posts I try very hard to remain objective.

Do you really believe there is true racial equality in the US, do you REALLY believe that?

And, of course a black man can be racist and behave in a racist way. Would a black officer be treated differently by the authorities if shooting a white motorist in an incident such as this if there was no video evidence - who knows?

is there a history of whites suffering racial oppression at the hands of black people in the US then?

Which is unwise because people and issues aren't islands without outside influence. There are still huge racial issues in the US and therefore it's perfectly plausible to consider whether that was a factor.

In this case there's also an issue surrounding the officer having already been investigated before for using excessive force. It seems he's done the same thing here again with fatal consequences. The only difference this time was it was caught on camera.

who is suggesting this?

I feel like this is something that confirms that a lot of the American police force are racist and acting on racism and stereotypes.

And if this cop had attempted to issue a ticket for a faulty tail-light this would be a valid grievance.

As it is, the police (quite rightfully) use their intuition to look for small signs that all might not not be well.

In this case, the cop pulled the driver over for a faulty tail-light and immediately discovered that the driver didn't own the car because he was "in the process of buying it" and didn't have insurance for it either, the first of which is rather dubious and the 2nd is an offence.

So, it would seem that the cop's intuition was perfectly accurate.

Anybody who's suggesting that black people have a right to be mistrustful of the current system as a result of historical injustices.

Perhaps you could try to answer the question?

You are correct however how about those in authority, those with the power and those with greater choices start the ball rolling.

Nope, there is a history of it for black people, but I do believe america has come along way since the slavery days, of course racism and such poor treatment still exists, but it has improved greatly.

We cannot blame history all the time though for today's mistakes. If this individual incident does not show any apparent racism or unfair treatment due to the colour of the skin then it should not be judged that way. If people wish to sit on people's actions in the past and always judge every subsequent incident with that in mind then it will forever be present.

so you're ok with racial profiling (not necessarily saying that's what this was) as long as the end justifies the means?


that's a load of nonsense and you know it.

Plausible to consider but with no evidence to suggest this is the case that thought should be discarded.

Historical? There are plenty of current injustices without going into historical ones.

if the abolition of slavery is your only reference point, then I can only suggest you do some more reading.

Well, yes. We should certainly be doing that as much as possible and both sides should take responsibility for it.

The fact remains, however, that it's wrong to suggest that black people should be excused from submitting to the rule of law on the basis of historical injustices.

Given the opportunity, it seems that US cops are equally trigger-happy when it comes to dealing with black or white people and it seems like that is the issue here, rather than making it about race when it's a black person who is the victim of their overzealousness.

What I can't understand is why some people are determined to bring the persons skin colour into it as though it's in any way relevant. A police officer appears to have shot a man without having proper justification to do so, that's the main issue that we should be focusing on. Tbh I don't care if the officer privately held racist views, that's completely his right to do so, I'm more concerned with the fact that he apparently shot another person 8 times unjustifiably, let's focus on that because that's the main concern here, not the officers private opinions.