The saddest part is that you could probably substitute the vast majority of cities for "Ferguson". This particular PD only gets the spotlight because someone died unjustly and people didn't just shrug it off, ignore it, and let it go.
While it may appear obvious to everyone here, statistics of racial discrimination is necessary because it provides objective, undeniable evidence of what may be denied by anecdotal stories.
These results are unsurprising, these results are tragic, but these results are empirical.
Agreed.
I understand if others do not want to form an opinion until some far off arbitrary number of facts all conclude the same thing that we all feel, seen and heard before.
Thats perfectly valid.
But don't shit on other or derail a topic because you feel like everyone must adhere to waiting for 10 million pieces of irrefutable evidence before getting involved in a discussion of issues involving minority communities and how certain institutions interact with them.
Be reasonable, I can recall a few threads on this forum over the past few months about an officer shooting where people immediately leapt to outrage and over the course of hours to a day it turned out that the shooting was justified or, at least, not so egregious as it first seemed.
Trying to take a position that the issue of police abuse is overblown or that racial discrimination doesn't occur is laughably ignorant and indefensible. However, wanting to wait for the facts on a case-by-case basis is just common sense, if only because media reports immediately after an event are
notoriously unreliable. Jumping to outrage every single time a shooting occurs without some consideration of circumstance or evidence just dilutes outrage when it comes to clear cut police abuses and atrocities.