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

author talks about Henry Louis Gates Jr. This man was arrested in from his home when he refused to show documentation of his legal citizenship. A white police officer named Sergeant James Crowley was the one who made the arrest. When the even caught media attention, Obama commented on the situation and the nation debated on whether or not there was an issue of racial profiling in this case. (Staples, 2011)
Personality is the “individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.” (Personality, 2014) Different characteristics of this case display traits of racism and racial profiling. The officer was accused of racial profiling when Mr. Gates thought that he was being arrested for something he did not do. He believed he was an innocent man and that he had done nothing wrong. There was a lack of communication between parties and there was a racial misunderstanding. This leads me to my next point.
I am originally from Tacoma, Washington. Every year there is an event called ‘The Taste of Tacoma.’ At this event thousands of people from all over show up for amazing food, good music, and a social atmosphere. A large percentage of the attendees are affiliated with gangs that are commonly based out of East Tacoma. At this event last summer I witnessed around sixty African American men fight each other. Both sides had roughly thirty people fighting for their cause. This all started because one man began yelling at another man for wearing a red shirt. People started jumping out of random cars and it created quite the scene. After a few minutes of these men blowing punches, cops ran up the hill to where they were and tased a few people and started making their arrests. When police interference began, racial slurs were being shouted from the African American gang members towards the police on scene. Although the cops were just doing their job and keeping everyone at the event as safe as possible, they were called pigs, they were laughed at, and the gang members acted as if they had been targeted rather than taking responsibility for what they were doing.
When people form a riot they are behaving in a way that displays a strong sense of belonging to the group no matter the cause.

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

relationship.
The relationship between community members and the authority figures in their community needs to be stable. It is important to establish this relationship for a successful community. The behaviors and personalities of the people in a community are always going to be different and they are always going to conflict. However, by establishing some sort of relationship a community can thrive. The personalities of people will determine the way they think, the way they act and how they will lead their lives. The personalities that people have help make a person who they are, they are what define a person. A person’s personality helps determine how they will act in a crowd and how they view other people. The personalities of people that have racial biases or people that join a riot are different or affected by other people or events. It is easy to get caught up in the moment of things within a riot. Personality affects every part of us as people.