Ferguson Riots

Recently, in the news you may have heard about the incident in Ferguson, Missouri. In this incident a young African American man was shot by a Caucasian police officer. There have been several debates on what events actually took place and how the whole situation played out. While it is true that there was probably fault on both sides, riots have since ensued stating that there was racial biases on the side of the police man who shot the young man dead. (Wall Street Journal, 2014) Although this may or not be true, the question that forms in my mind is “Why do people feel the need to riot or protest in the first place? Is there something to be said about racial profiling within police forces?”

In the journal article by Robert Staples, “White Power, Black Crime and Racial Politics,” it explains how until 1964 there was a blatant disregard for African American people. It was legal for African American to not even be considered people, they could be considered property as far as sales and auctions go according to the Dred Scott case. In the article, the

Even though people may not necessarily agree upon what they are rioting for, they are swept up in the moment. In the case of my personal experience, I believe that because all of the members of the incident were already connected by the gangs, it was not hard for all of them to join into the rioting and fighting. As far as the events in Ferguson are concerned, the members of the riot were connected by their allegiance to their race. Although there were several police men at the scene of the riot or massive fight that I witnessed, they were being disrespected and there was a clear lack of trust in between the police force and the Tacoma community members. Although there has been attempts to gain the trust of the citizens of Tacoma, there is yet to be an established positive