I'm curious what people who don't live here and don't know the people involved think about all this shit going on in my home?

I think it sucks that its happening. I don't think there are any winners in the situation there. I think the protesters and rioters do have a point about being treated poorly by members of the police force, but it certainly isn't a case of all bad cops etc....but there seems to be a good ole' boy system in play and it also seems like in many places people are not demographically represented in the force policing them, and instead of being protected and served...well you understand. And of course there is a criminal element that will take advantage of the social discord and I hope you and your family are safe.

Thanks skinned you're pretty spot on. But blacks aren't much of a minority here, especially in certain neighborhoods. We have a very bad crime problem here and the statistics are mostly coming from who you probably think are commiting the crimes.

He deserved it.

Most of the non-black world (and probably most of the black world that just won't say it) knows that Michael Brown charged at that cop. I think most see St Louis as a once great city, baseball adoring, now turning into urban decay where the nice neighborhoods are rising in price because the moderate neighborhoods are turning to shit. Thus, population decline of people with money will continue. I feel bad for people who live in St Louis who just want to lead a normal life.

One side of my family has lived in the St. Louis area since well before I was born and they're all leaving as quickly as possible. It's a shame, as I used to love visiting STL as a kid and going to the Zoo, farmers markets, Busch Stadium, ETC .

I go to STL about once a year for thanksgiving or Easter and I swear it gets worse every time. It's going to beat Chicago as the first major city to get into Detroit status. Hopefully you are not in Belleville or Florissant areas, I hear from friends & family that this is the worst right now.

My grandmother lived in Cahokia for 30+ years and I had to go down very impromptu to move her stuff to a new town because some scumbag punk 20 something broke down her door in the middle of the day stole her purse and took the keys to her car.

I'm not really experienced in how the police state is down there. I've never been in trouble in STL area, thank god. I'm sure the truth falls somewhere in the middle between corrupt policing / mindless violence and looting from trashy people.

To echo Skinned, I hope you and your family are safe. I know I check in with cousins/aunts/uncles almost daily.

If it was just Michael Brown the whole city wouldn't be in turmoil.

As an outside observer, I think the cops need to get fucking owned by the citizens. The cops have become a violent organized street gang that doesn't do its fucking job.

This post was edited by inkanddagger on Sep 20 2017 12:41pm

Did HuffPo or CNN tell you this?

I don't visit either of them. I've been doing copwatch and organizing against the police since the 1990s, long before Huffpo existed and back when CNN was fully in favor of Bill Clinton's "tough on crime" bullshit reforms.