Structural bias against the poor? Cops hating and/or fearing poor people?

Yeah, it can be. If cops know or expect someone to be wealthy, I'm sure they treat them a lot nicer. Homeless white people are certainly treated terribly.

However, that's no excuse. It's not poverty that causes police brutality. It's police.

If the answer to cops being brutal to poor people is to make poor people rich, is the answer to cops being brutal to Black people to make Black people White?

I don't hear them talk about it as a main problem. It seems they're saying racism is the main problem, and poverty is over there down the line somewhere. I think that's backwards and poverty is the real culprit--in an abstract sense.

What do the 2nd and 4th have to do with Freddy Gray?

Well I didn't mean to imply it was their fault necessarily, just that one leads to the next, i.e. impoverished conditions tend to produce more crime; more crime calls for tougher law enforcement; tougher enforcement tends to yield more police brutality. Whose fault it is sort of left out, for the sake of analyzing the situation.

Yea I'm certainly not excusing police brutality, I'm trying to hit the root cause in an objective way. It seems reasonable that cops adopt more aggressive policing policies in higher crime neighborhoods; and, poverty lends 'itself' to higher crime I believe. So, in an abstract way, it seems reasonable that there's potentially a strong correlation between poverty and increased police brutality.

Problem: Police kill, beat up and harass poor, black people.

Proposed solution 1: Police stop killing, beating up and harassing poor, black people.
Proposed solution 2: Decrease the number of poor, black people. That way police have fewer targets.

The police had no reason to arrest Freddie for a legal knife.

When you say "liberals" aren't discussing poverty it makes me question where you're getting your news. There have been many articles/discussion over the past 2 weeks by liberals on how poverty is a main contributor.

Some of us take the radical position that we should be doing more about poverty and police abuse of power.

Nobody believes this. I don't know why you spend so much time arguing when you are not even listening to what people say. Cops are way too aggressive when it comes to black males, and this sometimes leads to unnecessary deaths.

Some stuff is so absurd about the state of law and order, practical ideas are radical.

Some times radically radical ideas look promising. The **** on NPR this week about Richmond, CA. Started paying people to stop being criminals and connects payouts with giving out opportunity for education and dignity. Over the last few years gun violence way down. Paid the thugs to stop shooting by inviting them to city hall. Hamsterdam level radical thinking targeting specific communities that are caught in a violence trap.

Oh ok, if liberals (or whoever) recognize the poverty-factor then we're not so far off. It's when I hear things like "thug" is a code word for "******" that I start to question whether some people are blowing the racial component of proportion. I feel safe assuring those people that "thug" is not a code word for ****** in white america, and also that people who applauded that black mom, Toya, were not applauding her because she was beating a black person. They were applauding her because they believed she was teaching her son a basic level of respect for law enforcement. The idea that they were applauding her because white people are all racist and were enjoying "black-on-black" violence is so out of touch it's actually funny.

You're wrong.

They may have been, but this is not why the mom was out there.

Thug is considered a substitute for the n word because it's never used to describe white people. I think it's a silly thing to focus on, but apparently it offends black people so I'll respect that.

She wasn't teaching her son to respect law enforcement. In her words, she was mad because she didn't want him putting himself in situations where police would have a reason to kill him.

I mean, that mom probably did the right thing and good on her, but let's not pretend that the outpouring of glee from the Hannity crowd over a young black "thug" getting beaten into submission us anything other than the obvious.

The obvious being the unmitigated hatred of all blacks?

Nothing wrong with that obviously, I'm just not convinced that the racial component is the overriding cause of police brutality. I think poverty produces higher-crime areas and higher-crime produces impatient cops. That doesn't justify police brutality, but it explains it perhaps.

Poor whites aren't brutalized and abused like poor blacks. You're just using your imagination instead of actually investigating.

Thug has the definition of a violent criminal. Problem is when it's used politically to frame a community or individuals out of proportion. Like when somebody with a criminal record dies in police custody and the news is they were a thug that impaled themselves for lawsuit payday money.

To give a sense of proportion, in that Richmond, CA story, they started that program the first year with around 20 people. That is how few literal thugs in a community it takes to make it a shooting gallery, much less just a reputation for one.

So when the word thug is tossed around in the media all one-sided, no scale is provided. It is a sensational word and it exaggerates criminality.

Lou Dobbs on the DA.

http://finance.yahoo.com/video/confl...032357191.html

There are potential conflicts with both sides of the case. Interesting oped.

Never sure is a powerful word when used sparingly.

http://www.thugkitchen.com

And the conflicts are what exactly? She knows a civil attorney who is representing the victims family, and she is married to another elected official in the city. I'm failing to see the conflict of interest here. How do these relationships prevent her from prosecuting these defendants?

I guess I'm willing to concede that the overriding factor is that cops are virtually never held personally accountable for abuse. Now we should probably look at why cops seem to abuse blacks at a higher rate than whites even after controlling for income levels. Maybe deep down they would really prefer to be equal opportunity ass kickers, but have realized that they are less likely to get into trouble abusing minorities. Maybe they're just racist.

LOL this dude once again returning to the "it wasn't obvious to me, so don't say that!" line.

Relying on your own ignorance is a pretty bold rhetorical tactic, Renton. You may wish to consider reading a ****ing book at some point in your life.

This dude, on the other hand, thinks WTC 7 was a controlled demolition, but racism against black people? That's unconvincing.

Stuff like that(and wil's obvious emotional instability) makes me question his rich dude family man persona.

I'm just not seeing what field someone like him could be extremely successful in. Maybe something real focused and esoteric like fine art or some other craftmanship-oriented industry.