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The Ferguson Riots

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The death of Michael Brown, a young African-American, happened just over a year ago. The community of Ferguson, Missouri came together to peacefully protest in honor of Michael, and fulfill the Black Lives Matter movement; although once things began to escalate, the police presence became stronger. Police forces are often expressed as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against attackers. However, with the Ferguson protests and riots the police chose to use many tactics in order to diminish the protests and riots.

After the African-American teen Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a police officer, the hashtag and movement, #BlackLivesMatter, was created. “I [Alicia Garza] created #BlackLivesMatter …show more content…

“In the chaos, it was not immediately clear which agencies did what exactly …” (Levs, 2). This shows the lack of knowledge the authorities had about the situation, and how eager they were to put an end to the riots without thinking about the safety of the protesters. “Chief among them are making decisions like deploying heavily armed officers and using military equipment; which some experts say helped to make a bad decision worse” (Levs, 2). Having the Militarized units, as well as equipment, being brought in caused many people to voice their opinion on the choices being made by the authorities, and how they are affecting the community and the protesters. “Militarization of policing encourages officers to adopt a ‘warrior’ mentality and think of the people they are supposed to serve as enemies” (Levs, 3). The police, militarized units, and other authorities had the task to safely calm the violent protests, and to prevent the protesters from continuing to damage the city. The tactics that they used were not only unnecessary, but also extreme. Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said, “The tactics they are using, I don’t know where they learned them from, it appears they may be making them up on the way. But this is escalating the situation … What authorities should have done, is have ‘front line policemen’ to face protesters, not a SWAT team”

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Such as the events witnessed at Occupy Wallstreet or even in people’s everyday lives. Collins: That’s a good question Roger. For one, officers know that the law protects them more than citizens. This means that, during a conflict, the police can get past their fear and tension and experience forward panic.

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I. The Army Comes to Annapolis The day after the Baltimore riots, Saturday, April 20th, the Massachusetts Eighth Infantry, led by General Butler arrived at Perryville, Maryland, on the north shore of the Susquehanna River. There was no bridge across the Susquehanna River so the railroad had a large ferry steamer, Maryland, stationed in Perryville to ferry the trains and their passengers across the river. The ferry had railroad tracks on its deck so the cars could be rolled onto the ferry for its trip across the river.

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McDuffie Riots The Biggest Riot In Dade County History After Arthur McDuffie was beaten to death by white Miami Dade County police officers, a series of riots broke out in Dade county, causing expensive damage and creating more racial tension. This riot placed 4th in America 's biggest riots, and had property damage of $181,000,000 . Miami 's Liberty City was filled with smoldering flames while people looted businesses. 18 people died, and more than $100,000,000 worth of property was destroyed.

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One common opinion is that officers should not use more force than is necessary or reasonable, and even then, that force should be used only as a last resort. “Police use force to affect civilians’ conduct. On a day-to-day basis, they do so most often by employing the least degree of force available to them, their mere presence. Cops wear uniforms and drive distinctly marked cars so that, without saying a word, they may have an effect on citizens’ behavior” (Fyfe, 38). When an officer’s presence fails to fulfill the desired conduct, the next course of action for said officer would be verbalization.

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what they thought was the solution was to start breaking things and protesting in violence like a child would. The riot nearly had three dozen juveniles arrested and more than 200 adults were taken into custody after people set fires to cars and businesses, with lots of looted stores. Nearly 150 cars were burned with a cost of nine million dollars total to the city of Baltimore. This has not been the only tragedy that was created by race. The 2015 Ferguson riots are another example.

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Michael Brown’s shooting involves a racial tension between blacks and whites since Brown was unarmed and surrendered. In Ferguson, the majority of people are African Americans, and the majority of police officers are white. On the night of the shooting incident, Brown was walking home and confronted by Wilson because Wilson thought Brown was suspicious. There was a struggle between Brown and Wilson. According to Brown’s friend, Wilson started the fight.

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Garner was murdered about two weeks before Michael Brown, but his death was not as widely known until the video footage of him begging a police officer to stop choking him was released, but especially not until mass protests in Ferguson and around the country began. The cultivation of disdain for the brutality African Americans faced in America grew more and more as more information about Eric Garner’s death surfaced. The released video showed footage of Garner being forced down onto the ground in a chokehold, followed by multiple New York Police Department Officers who held Garner down as he repeatedly said, “I can’t

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The death toll among these police brutality victims is extremely alarming. Every year police in the United States kill hundreds of people—461 in 2013, according to incomplete FBI statistics based on self-reporting from local law enforcement agencies, and more than 1,000 in 2014 according to Champion, which combs through media reports. The fatal shooting in August of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in an interaction that began over jaywalking propelled the issue of police violence and excessive force into the national news cycle. The police response to subsequent protests similarly propelled the issue of militarized police into the national news cycle (Champion,

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Cincinnati had race riots going on since the 1800’s. A riot is a public outbreak of fights and violence between two racial groups in a community. One outbreak started in 1829 between Irish immigrants and African Americans for jobs in Cincinnati. Their goal was to get rid of the Black African Americans. They were wanting the African Americans to move to Canada or get out of Cincinnati period.

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Newseek has stated that "Studies also show that police have the power to either lessen the tensions of an angry group of people or goad them into a riot" Confronting angry citizens in military clothing with gas masks and automatic weapons angers protestors and accomplished

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[ Imagine this scenario: you are complying with the police that are screaming at you, guns pointed at you, screaming “please don 't shoot” and trying your best to do what the police are asking. Daniel Shaver was an unarmed man fatally shot for no good reason. He was complying with the police officers orders and was begging for his life, screaming “please don’t shoot,” before he was fatally shot 5 times. Unfortunately, this is just one example of police brutality, an instance when police use unnecessary force when either they are unarmed or are complying with orders. Today I want to tell you of the injustice of police brutality, the people it affects, and how just asking the right questions could make sure that police are punished for their crimes.

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There is a misunderstanding with how police deal with intense situations. The public don’t understand that we only have a split second to make a decision in an intense situation like this. The media uses negative news to attract more attention. People don’t get all the facts, they only know one side of the story. He gives the example of the incident

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