That's because it's easier to mobilise liberal opinion against the police than it is to explore some of the uncomfortable truths about Black America.

That said, the police do close ranks to protect the force and that should hardly be a surprise as the same sort of attitude prevails in all sorts of institutions. Each case has to be assessed individually and the law should prevail, but If the police investigate themselves then we have a problem. There will always be a conflict of interests.

And it is perhaps so much easier to disparage organisations like Black Lives Matter and to trivialise and ignore the very real racism that continues to pervade the deep South,than to engage with the issue...

I've spent time down around Baton Rouge and its more rural environs..To me,it was in some ways not so unlike the 60's and the prior Jim Crow days...people of one colour living on one side of the tracks,and of another colour on the other side.Local whites being openly racist with no embarrassment and not having any idea why I,as a "white", could possibly think it otherwise than "normal" and "reasonable" disparaging "black people" on the basis of race

...saturday afternoon sport in a local small town being to go out and threaten to shoot a black guy walking down main street,for having the audacity to wear his army uniform while doing so(he was home on leave).One of the perpetrators being an off duty member of the local constabulary.

It may be 2016...but segregation era attitudes are far from dead ancient history...

Why should people have to tolerate that sh#t?

The police reflect the society they come from...

...and 2015 statistics show black people several times more likely to be shot by police than whites..

So,yes, the black community has its share of dodgy people (like any community) and some at the margins overact inappropriately by going out and shooting police (all groups,including "whites" have their share of extremists on the fringe),but there is a very real problem IMO with racism and racist attitudes in the US and this pervades the agencies of the state (as would be expected) such as the police..and the fact the police are an agency of the state and have such power is precisely why police violence on blacks should be focused upon..

And for those who diss the notion that Trump is not a negative factor (however small) in this equation...anyone (whether here or in the US) in the political arena who starts popularising and legitimising an appeal to base sentiments has some responsibility when society becomes more divisive and we begin to reap the fruits of the dirt they sow..

Edited by legaleagle (19 Jul 2016 8.08pm)

if you don't want to get shot don't pose of facebook with loads of guns giving it the biggun, secondly if a police officer says get out of the car and you reach inside your jacket expect what happens next.

"It's not the bullet that's got my name on it that concerns me; it's all them other ones flyin' around marked 'To Whom It May Concern.'"

So anyone who poses with guns on facebook is fair game for police to kill? Great policy.

Secondly, he told the officer he was legally armed, was asked to produce his license and papers (hence reaching into his pocket), and shot in the process - don't let the facts get in the way though.

Exactly - I'm not sure why people are so keen to move the goalposts and focus on the obvious issues in the black community, rather than just admit an obvious truth - there is a problem with police unnecessarily killing black citizens.

Edited by EverybodyDannsNow (20 Jul 2016 10.01am)

Not sure the families of those policeman killed would agree.

The trouble is, I don't hear too much protest about the killing of policeman or the innocent by criminals. All I hear is racist this racist that.

Had it occurred to you that there might be a direct link between the very disproportionate level of crime committed by black people and the racist sentiment you describe?
I'm sure that some good old boys just have hate in their hearts period, but that is not the whole story.

I know you might say that racism has caused black people to commit more crime but last time I looked, we could all make our own choices in life. Many black people are not criminals and do just fine. The President for one.

Edited by Hrolf The Ganger (20 Jul 2016 4.40pm)