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“Chaos erupted in Ferguson after the announcement of the grand jury ruling Monday night. While officials and community leaders called for calm, the Missouri suburb exploded. Protesters torched buildings, flipped cars and smashed windows. Businesses across town burned to the ground. Rioters fired shots. St. Louis County police arrested 61 people, and at least a dozen were injured in the pandemonium.
Across the country, Americans were glued to televisions, watching protests in Ferguson and beyond. While many anticipated a turbulent response to the grand jury’s decision, some reactions capture a deeper problem. Many labeled the protesters savages, animals, hoodlums and thugs. Musician Ted Nugent posted a diatribe online, calling protesters “Ferguson thugs” and describing their actions as “a plague of black violence.” Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik made an appearance on CNN to support the police and their use of force, saying, “You cannot allow people to act like savages, you cannot allow people to act like animals.””
– Mic, 9 Photos of White People Rioting That Put Ferguson into Perspective.
“On Sunday, two rival biker gangs engaged in a massive shootout outside a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Tx. resulting in nine deaths and at least 170 arrests. Although the media had become accustomed to covering protests in Ferguson and Baltimore using descriptors like “thug” and “riot,” they chose to use less loaded words like “melee” and “scuffle” to depict the events in Waco. Police response in Waco was also dramatically less aggressive than it was in Ferguson and Baltimore.”
“When black people protest against police violence in Ferguson, Missouri, they’re thought of as a “mob.”
But when white people got up in arms at the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire, a few weeks ago — for apparently no reason whatsoever — they were merely accused of “disruptive behavior.”
The two situations — protests in Ferguson and drunken violence in Keene — are not equivalent. However, it’s revealing how the two groups are perceived differently by society and the media. How is it that the bad behavior of some black people is used to condemn an entire community, while the bad behavior of some white kids is excused and explained away? Maybe this is why residents of Ferguson protested in the first place.”
– CNN, When white people riot.
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World News
World News is a project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories from around the world.
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