It's very possible. I'd always considered the plots of movies like "Roadhouse" - where one man controls all the power in a small town - to be extreme exaggerations. After moving here, it became quickly apparent that such things are an exaggeration, but not that much of a stretch.

When you understand that a small town is a self-contained political environment, where the judge, mayor, district attorney and police chief are all elected, you can see how the man who "owns the town" - literally - can wield almost unassailable power over the local residents. Once you understand that, it's not a stretch to see how a traffic stop could escalate to a justified police shooting. Especially as small towns are unlikely to have dashcams, let alone bodycams.

And you really don't have to go far from the big cities before you start to see these types of small towns. Essentially, once you clear Houston's city limits, you're into Roadhouse country, and an hour or so beyond that you're into Deliverance country. James Byrd was dragged to death behind a pick-up truck in Jasper, which is about 2 hours drive from where I sit right now.

I had occasion to drive through Jasper about 3 months after that happened. I was told to avoid town on Saturday afternoon because they were going to be having a Klan rally (in the end, there were about 10x as many cops as there were Klansmen, but still...).

I was driving through Jasper to get to Sam Rayburn Lake where, in the 1970s, three men dumped some of the bodies of the at least 28 boys they'd abducted, raped and killed.

As I was explaining in another thread, you have to see these places to get even a small understanding of why the residents do what they do and think how they think. I have sat on a balcony and watched the cars of high school kids (who can drive at 16 but not drink until 21) gather at one end of a one-road town, waiting for 10pm. At 10pm, you see, the traffic lights on main street all switch to a flashing yellow, which means you don't have to stop. The kids then all drive from one end of town to the other without stopping, because they can. Also, because they have f***-all else to do.

Imagine growing up in that town where you know literally everybody, everyone knows you and there's nothing for you to do until you finish high school, and maybe not even then.

Edited by Ray in Houston (08 Dec 2017 6.08pm)

We don't do possession; we do defense and attack. Everything else is just wa**ing with a football.

f***ing scandalous - But there is no movement; the reason why Black shootings get so much highlight, is because there has been a long history of denial of rights and civil liberties to black people in the US - That things like BLM have sprung out of.

The problem of excessive use of force (Murder) by the police in the US isn't just a racial thing - Its just that white people don't have anyone to stand up for them. You can't expect people to do 'things for you', you have to organise and fight for your rights.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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very good Jim.
(some wont get it)

Kids,tired of being bothered by your pesky parents?
Then leave home, get a job & pay your own bills, while you still know everything.

They do. They are normally know as 'racists'. This is why we have Trump world.

Same with Anton Stirling... He reached for a gun... He got shot. America have cops with guns that will shoot you... This is because USA has loads of guns.

America has to sort its obsession with guns out first, then these incidents will become less and less.

It was murder. End of.

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