re: I'm Black and I live in Baton Rouge...my opinion of the Alton Sterling shooting

I appreciate your take on this and I value your opinions on these issues. However, what's overlooked in a lot of this is the media spin to control, pardon my direct language, herds of uneducated, unsophisticated and pliable black folks.

Yes, there are brutal, criminal acts of (all colors, BTW) police officers against (all colors, BTW) citizens. When a black officer engages in misconduct against a white citizen, it might be local news. Ditto for a white officer against a white citizen. However, if it is the extremely rare case of a white officer in a sketchy shooting death of a black suspect - then, and only then (it seems) that it becomes an international story.

Your broader point about this being a class issue is absolutely spot on. Cops don't pick on rich black folks any more than they do rich white folks. And the trailer park sees as many (or more) shirtless, toothless individuals of European ancestry getting tuned up by the cops for drugs, domestic issues, public intoxication, as the ghetto housing projects do - it just doesn't make the news as much.

Cops go where the action is. If a particular neighborhood is involved in lots of petty criminal offenses, drug trafficking, noise complaints (these are black folks calling about their neighbors, by the way) - then that's where the cops go - where the public demands them. And then, if a particular subset of folks have been raised with the notion it's okay to run from the police and/or fight the police, now you've escalated an encounter with an armed officer and got his adrenaline flowing. He didn't ask to be there in most circumstances - he was called (or observed an infraction or suspicious behavior). And now, the subject is running and/or fighting.

It is a wonder there aren't more fatal encounters.

Having a misunderstanding because you just bought a car and the name on the registration doesn't match what is on the cop's computer screen? That can be really inconvenient and cost you several hours while they sort it out. Having a misunderstanding and a shiny metal object falls out of your pocket while you're fighting the police? That can end up with you in the morgue.

And it isn't racism causing this.

BLM acts as if white folks who don't comply and fight with the cops don't get shot to death. They most certainly do.

Like I said on facebook. If a white cop shoots a black person and the shooting is not justified, it is wrong. Same if a black cop shoots a white person and it is not justified, it is wrong. Same applies to white on white, black on black. My father was a police officer with NOPD and he told me a long time ago to address the police with respect, yes sir/no sir, yes maam/no maam. I have complied all of one time. I was lucky I didn't go to jail because I mouthed off to a cop after reckless operation of my vehicle. There was no one on the street but I fishtailed out of my subdivision and had an unmarked cop behind me. I was young and stupid. The rest of time I have complied. Do I think the police have cops that are on a power trip, yes, but to get rid of them all is not the answer. I don't want to go there.

I am a white male aged 42.

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You do it by generating revenue from arrests and fines. In the Alton Sterling shooting, I felt like he was going to jail even if he was compliant and didn't have a gun. Even if the entire 911 call was bogus, he was going to jail. I don't feel the police wanted to shoot him. I think they wanted to take him to jail for the however many times he's gone before to keep him on the books and generating more revenue.

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So you think that two cops who could be sitting in their patrol car listening to audio books in the back ground or some nice soothing music for their entire shift and return to the station with no paperwork to do and then go home with no bumps and bruises or threat of losing their livelihood for performing their jobs, thought it was a good idea to arrest a fella who clearly has no money because it will make the hell whole of an area they work in some revenue? They decided they wanted to write reports, get bumps and bruises, put themselves in the media spotlight, likely leave work late, and all because although it does not affect their salary 1 cent it would make the revitalizing metropolis of N BR financially better? C'mon man!

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I went downtown to pay a ticket and the City of BR has a no cell phone policy in the court building. I just went and put mine back in my car. They charge these people a fee to rent a box to store their cell phones in. These poor people who were dropped off or who caught the bus don't have the option of putting their phone back in their car.

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Then don't bring your cell phone to court. Or don't commit a crime that causes you to need to go to court. Or maybe simply have someone else hold it for you when you go in to court. Or maybe save the money on that expensive cell phone and use it improve your life otherwise.


Do economics, cultural degradation, drugs, alcohol, education, weather, environmental exposures, faith, state and federal politics all paly a role in why black ghettos exist? Certainly.

Did any of those things play a role in A. Sterling's death? Not at all.

He was life long criminal with a history of resisting arrest who was once again illegally armed and resisting arrest placing both officers in imminent danger and his actions were met with predictable, announced, and definitive consequences.

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What about the bystanders. They were doing nothing wrong, yet they survived the encounter and didn't spend the night in jail. Please, try to sign your narrative more.

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The police were not called on them. What I'm saying is that if the police were called on you in North Baton Rouge for allegedly waving a gun, and turns out you weren't waving a gun. They will try their best to find any reason to take you to jail. That's just my opinion. In Central, I'm pretty sure its different.

Thanks for your thoughts. It seems to me that the causes of that abject poverty is what needs to be addressed: drug abuse, illegitimacy, lack of educational accountability and music/media that glorifies that "lifestyle".

I often think "white privilege" is almost synonymous with "two parent privilege"; I know it's not that tidy but all of the problems that the BLM agenda is trying to foist on others are largely self-inflicted.

Don't get arrested, don't go to jail, don't pay fines, stay out of trouble, live right. His death was tragic and I agree about that. Justifiable? They will tell us when the result is determined. BLM? It has splintered and now is all about $ and face time.

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The parish gets revenues from downtown BR. SBR neighborhoods, the Mall, Towne Center and all the other businesses not in St. George. St. George doesn't fund the entire parish.

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This obviously isn't enough. What happens when St.George leaves.

This is 100% truth. Taxation by policing is absolutely wrong as is civil asset forfeiture absent conviction, and both of these were expanded and emboldened by our failed War on Drugs. Giving police an incentive to crack down on arbitrary activity so they can properly fund themselves inevitably leads to the kinds of abuses we have all become used to such as what happened here, speed traps, no-refusal checkpoints, no-knock warrant raids.

We have turned our police forces from being protectors of property rights and guardians of public safety into highway robbers.

The fines thing is ridiculous. John Oliver did a great peice on it. Peoples lives are getting destroyed for speeding tickets, etc... That they cannot afford to pay.

John Oliver Municipal Violaions

But I don't think that was the case here. They were called because he pulled a gun in someone. He is dead because he was armed with a gun and forcefully resisted arrest and quite possibly was going for his gun.

the southern poverty law center in alabama is suing cities all over the country for what you describe is happening in BR.