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[Truean]

My dad got angry watching Fox News again. In addition to the usual profanities he hurls at the TV, this time he threw an empty bottle that bounced off and hit the dog as he was sleeping. [sigh].

[Rose]

I need to not read the rage thread. It makes me angry.

I have a real problem with second hand anger.

[Euld]

I've suddenly hit a state of mind where I'm having trouble relating to people and understanding people.  Thanksgiving is this week.  THIS IS NOT A GOOD TIME

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Annnnnddded Fergoson went to hell
After they said the cop was innocent and didn't need to go to trial they started throwing stuff at the riot cops then looting and burning things and now they shut down a freaking highway

[Orange Wizard]

Cops! Riots! Shooting! Technicalities! Excitement! Looting!

Seeing as I'm a lazy sod and can't be bothered trawling through dozens of poorly-written sensationalist news articles to try and figure out what happened, I don't suppose someone would be so kind as to give me a brief run-down on what people are so upset about?

[GiglameshDespair]

Black guy robbed a store.
Police later shot him.
People upset about this.
Riots.

Deferred to grand jury if the cop involved should be prosecuted. He wasn't. People upset about this.
Riots.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Spoiler: BLABLABLA (click to show/hide)

The main thing seems to be about these two people, Michael Brown and Dorian Jhonson, right?
So, Michael robbed this convenience store with his friend (Said friend was later released without any charges because she didn't steal or use force during it) and were walking down the middle of the street when Wilson (police guys name) told them to get onto the sidewalk.
Now, here is where things get fractured, and call me out on anything, because I can't find many reliable sources here, so stick with me:

The riots came about from the fact of people disagreeing with the excess amount of force and the weaponry itself (Something about Rubber bullets, I think), for a while there I was heavily biased against the police until (Apparently, remember, no good sources) an autopsy report found THC, an ingredient in marijuana in Michaels blood and urine.

The big parts of the reports (and I'm paraphrasing) here were: "Blood was found on Wilson's gun and inside the car, and tissue from Brown was found on the exterior of the driver's side of Wilson's vehicle, consistent with a struggle at that location. The blood on Wilson's gun indicated that Brown's hand had been very close to the weapon when it was fired, consistent with Wilson's testimony that there had been a struggle over the weapon."

"Three autopsies have been performed on Brown's body. All three noted that Brown had been shot at least six times, including twice in the head, with no shots in the back."

"The autopsy noted the absence of stippling, powder burns around a wound which indicate that a shot was fired at a relatively short range; however, Dr. Michael Graham, the St. Louis medical examiner, notes that gunshot wounds within an inch of the body do not always cause stippling."

"Microscopic examination of tissue taken from the thumb wound detected the presence of a foreign material consistent with the material which is ejected from a gun while firing. Forensic pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek said the hand wound was consistent with Brown reaching for the gun at the time he was shot."

Here's the video recording of the robbery.
Apparently there were conflicting reports about whether or not the police guy actually knew it was him who performed the robbery but that comes from a pretty biased place.

Like, wow, a lot of the stuff I see is really biased.

I dunno, that's all I understand of the situation.

[EnigmaticHat]

Really wish people would stop calling Michael Brown a robber.

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/08/ferguson-store-owner-says-he-doesnt-believe-thats-mike-brown-on-surveillance-video/#

[RedKing]

I'm sad that the situation and verdict in Ferguson seem to have been a siren call to every racist troll on the Internet. Can't look at a single comment section anywhere without tripping over jaw-droppingly blatant bullshit.

Anything that empowers racists is a bad thing, m'kay?

[Arx]

In my own much-less-significant-than-the-inevitable-breakdown-of-civilisation-sadness, I'm burnt (past perfective, action carried through to its completion) out on studying (present continuous; action is ongoing), and it's really difficult to motivate myself to memorise arbitrary writing formats.

[scrdest]

In my own much-less-significant-than-the-inevitable-breakdown-of-civilisation-sadness, I'm burnt (past perfective, action carried through to its completion) out on studying (present continuous; action is ongoing), and it's really difficult to motivate myself to memorise arbitrary writing formats.

I feel you. I've been having that lately, although I think I'm recuperating.

[Yoink]

Just watched Stand By Me for the first time (I've wanted to watch it for ages) and now nostalgia is hitting me really badly, for two reasons.
Firstly just because it's a bunch of kids doing stuff, I mean, that's going to take most anyone back to their childhood. But also, I have this vague memory from early childhood, where one of my friends told me about part of the film which really freaked me (being a pretty nervous, highly-strung kid) out. In fact, that's part of the reason I wanted to finally watch the film.
That scene did not actually occur in the film, not that that really matters.

Main thing is, it still got me thinking back to that particular moment and childhood in general. Now I feel like I'm sliding back into that familiar, depressed state whenever I think too hard about how little of a childhood I had, how sheltered and boring I was as a kid and how I wasted my formative years being shy and helpless.
It's as though, no matter if I do manage to do something interesting with my adult life, I'll always just have this big, blank gap where a childhood should have been. So few interesting/good/exciting memories from back then. Stupid brain, why you do this?

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Well here's what the live news last night said
(And they gave a run down of what has been happening by from shooting to verdict)

Cop is helping some people out after their kid stopped breathing or something
A police report comes in on a robbery
The other cops lead but this one stays to make sure the EMS gets there
He then leaves in the direction of the recent update on the robbery
There is a description of the robber given out (his clothes and what he stole and that there may be one other possibly male person with him)
The cop is driving along and sees someone that matches the description
The asks them to stop (he also noticed that the one match g the description was holding the possibly stolen items)
Words were exchanged
The robber (Michael brown) aprouched the police car
Exchange of words and possibly insults
Brown begins to reach into the car and a struggle begins (supported by physical evidence as well as testimony from eye witnesses, these eye witnesses do include African American people)
Other officer tried to defend himself
He could not reach his pepper spray or cane without putting himself in more danger
He draws his gun and warns brown say that he will shoot him if he does not get back
Brown attempts to get the gun
A shot goes off (possibly the one that hit his hand)
(A couple more shots may have also possible gone off during the struggle)
Brown runs
(This is where eye witness gets iffy but the physical evidence supports some of the eye witness stories so this is what I remember the news saying)
The officer chased after him
Brown turned around (and possibly charged back after the officer)
He did not put his hands up (some eye witness reports even say that he was charging towards the officer or had his hands raised up in fists)
The officer began firing
Brown ran towards him (IIRC)
The final shots were fired (one grazing the top of his head and the last hitting his head directly)
The officer is later examined and evidence of physical injury is found (ie. being punched in the face)

Later riots and unrest begin
This continues and then begins to calm down into peaceful protests for a while
About 2 months pass
Verdict day is announced
Crowds form
Verdict is given
Crowds begin peacefully protesting
Then they start insulting and throwing things at the cops
The cops begin firing SMOKE pellets into the crowd to disputes the crowd
Shots fired (don't know who fired them but I was watching this live)
People begin leaving and now the dedicated mob is left (around this time is when the mob attempted to destroy a police car)
Armored vehicles and riot police are out
One protestor blocks their path with several supporters off to the side and many more down the road
The mob begins burning trash cans, one bicycle art thing, and a cop car
Tear gas and smoke pellets are being used now
The mob is being pushed back and they begin burning and looting in other areas
Riots and control of the streets go on all night
There are still protesters today, now nation wide

Just clarifying the ferguson thing for people that didn't get the live news feed last night

[WillowLuman]

Cops! Riots! Shooting! Technicalities! Excitement! Looting!

Is it bad that I read this in the CinemaSins voice?

And yeah, this whole thing is pretty ugly. People using their anger to justify their greed, and decades old racial tensions still unfortunately alive and well.

[TamerVirus]

Really wish people would stop calling Michael Brown a robber.

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/08/ferguson-store-owner-says-he-doesnt-believe-thats-mike-brown-on-surveillance-video/#

That didn't stop the looters from destroying his store, though