re: This board has convinced me that race is not an issue

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I came here expecting many on the board to be complaining and criticizing the big-government overreach and police-state tactics on full display in Ferguson. I expected this "libertarian" board to be disgusted by displays of excessive force and intimidation as well as restriction of the press. I thought that maybe I'd find common ground with folks I usually argued with. Instead, I feel like the general tone of the board is that Michael Brown was a criminal that deserved to be shot and that the protestors are in fact violent looters who deserve to be put under martial law. Why does it seem like so many supporters of individual freedom have gone silent or flipped sides when Big Brother isn't after them?

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I've avoided these threads because I find them maddening, and I hate how the media covers court cases in general, because it's all about ratings and legal porn (see Casey Anthony).

People are presumed innocent until proven guilty and we haven't even gotten to an investigation or a potential charge. That should be our attitude, and to the extent civil rights activists are involved, I think it should be to call for a complete and thorough investigation to be conducted. That's completely fair. Instead we get things like Jesse Jackson calling this a "state-sanctioned murder."

On police militarization, I don't think this is an either-or issue. I can see how a police department needs planes and choppers and even "military-style" firearms. I don't see how they need tanks and grenade launchers. If you literally have a situation like 9/11 where there's chaos in the streets, then call in the National Guard, it's what they're there for.