Someone white needs to die, and maybe people will start giving a shit.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/21/local/la-me-ln-zacha...
>In a mixed verdict, a federal judge awarded $3 million to the parents of an 18-year-old honor student shot and killed by plainclothes drug enforcement agents, but also determined that the authorities were not negligent in their actions.
U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald said that DEA agents had reason to believe they were in danger, but determined that the agents should not have fired their weapons at Zachary Champommier's car because shooting at a moving vehicle would not have helped their predicament.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff#Confrontations_...
Middle to upper class people (many white) rioted when the SF Giants won the World Series [1]. I don't recall any police officers in military gear.
I believe it's because middle or white crowds don't pose any perceived threat even though they're burning cars and otherwise breaking the law. There were arrests, though.
If you're community is poor and black then you're SOL.
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/san-francisco-riots...
"The following 47 pages are in this category, out of 47 total."
edit: and also this, of course: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Summer#Violence
I just read the Wired article on Snowden on HN this evening, and in it he referred to the process of becoming numb/accepting of something that you get repeatedly shown, regardless of how sad/miserable/bad it is, the frog in the slowly heating pot of water.
I have come to the realization that the country (USA) I was taught about in school that was so great and cherished its Constitution and Bill of Rights is mostly just a fantasy, a hopeful work in progress that does not seem to be making much progress, and the best thing I can do is teach the people around me what I think is right/ethical and keep working to make my small section of the world a better place.
There is a better and better chance that more shit is going to hit the fan financially (http://vimeo.com/user20236372/review/101487179/54bf993e5d), wars seem to now be a constant state of human social equilibrium, and rather than give in to depression, I will teach those around me how to care for what we have, and maybe survive any larger disaster that doesn't just wipe my area off a map.
Sad, but about the only positive thing I can currently think of doing.