I don't wanna bet, I agree. They burn down their stores then complain they don't have any......And they wonder why new retailers don't want to open new stores there. Nothing new here. These neighborhoods look forward for a reason to riot, break into stores and loot.

Asking how robbing a convenience store puts him on the road to success was a rhetorical question, but I'll play along...

IT DOESN'T.

Unfortunately you are exactly right.

That also gives us insight into the way the demagogues are seemingly able to perpetually exploit the credulous underclass. Always saying "its somebody else's fault" seems to work every time.

By contrast, the message of personal responbility is a tough sell.

The pool of associate degree graduates qualified to apply for police or other vocational-technical-college graduate jobs in Ferguson is reflected here. Also shown is the hope and investment made via the African-American Male Initiative at this community college in Ferguson:

"When U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder landed in St. Louis Wednesday morning, a community college in Ferguson was his first destination.
St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley is where the nation’s chief lawyer met with students and community leaders in an attempt to quell the most heated racial flare-up in recent American memory. But the Ferguson campus is also where scores of the region’s young people set their sights, hoping higher education can offset the burdens of a disadvantaged upbringing. Many youth in the predominantly black area are not unlike Michael Brown, the college-bound teenager shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer.

Even on campus, though, these students face long odds. Many see the college as a way out, said Marc Wallace, who graduated from Florissant Valley in 2005. But few earn a degree. No more than a quarter of students graduate from the campus or transfer to a four-year institution, college officials said.……

A ‘Safe Haven’
The college is half a mile from West Florissant Avenue, the commercial thoroughfare along which protesters have marched in the days following Brown’s death. Protesters burned down a QuikTrip gas station on West Florissant on Sunday…….

"The area’s young people, then, naturally look to Florissant Valley as a way to advance. The college tries to attract and mentor the low-income African-American students who live in the surrounding area. “That’s one of the groups we are focusing on,” Bell said.

In 2009, boosted by a pair of Education Department grants, St. Louis Community College launched a program known as the African-American Male Initiative, housed on the Florissant Valley and Forest Park campuses. The mentoring program, designed to boost the enrollment and retention of African-American men, served 349 students in the 2013-14 academic year, a Florissant Valley spokesperson said.

But despite the college’s efforts, only a fraction of students successfully use Florissant Valley as a launch pad. The campus’s graduation rate is 6.4 percent, said Dan Kimack, St. Louis Community College’s director of public information and marketing. And 19 percent of Florissant Valley students transfer to a four-year institution. District-wide rates – meaning average rates for all four St. Louis Community College campuses – are higher. The district has a 9.9 percent graduation rate and a 22.4 percent transfer rate, Kimack said."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...aduation-rates

I think you should be thanked for your detailed and factual response to the questions asked of you earlier. It is unfortunate that those who ask do not answer.

I must tell you that in my opinion, your well thought out detailed answer will fall on deaf ears, as it appears that there are those who decided on August 9 who was at fault. While they had no information, and still do not, for some reason they immediately begin a defense of Mr. Brown (as was the case with Travon Martin) based on what I can only assume is race.

What motivates that injustice is well beyond me.

The last thing on earth that Jessie and Uncle Al wants is for their population to get solid jobs... that would put Al and Jessie out of work!!

If only his parents had taught him to respect others.

This thread shows a lot of hatred and I hope it does not represent the views of the majority of Villagers. Racial comments about black's work ethic or that they all just loot or want something for nothing are neither rebuked or questioned. It is easy for the privileged who live here to make these comments when they haven't had to experience what it is like to be black in certain areas of this country.

Yes, many of us are "privileged" now but many of us started out without much at all. Many of us had enough food and decent shelter and a family who loved us, but not anything like the lifestyle we now enjoy.No extras, no lessons, no college money, many had home made dresses, I did.

We can't know what it is like to be anything other than what we are. I don't read HATE, I read fear. Racial tensions are building and they are being encouraged by the media and by the activists.

I don't think most people expect anything more from others, than they expect from themselves and their children. Many were looked down on for being children of immigrants when they were young. I do not think that any prejudice was as great or as awful as that against blacks in the past, but I think we have all come a long way from that kind of pre judging.

If you read that the majority of us believe in the work ethic, You're darn tootin', because that is how many of us got here.

I think what you are seeing is a REACTION to....I suppose it could be called hate, but a reaction to the immediate and vicious accusations based not in fact of one man.

NOBODY expressed hate for Mr. Brown or anyone of another color, but hate for those who, without any facts, robbed, burned and destroyed innocent peoples property.

Had those immediate accusations not taken place, a discussion, AND THIS WAS A DISCUSSION OF LOOTING AND RIOTING, NOT race, guilt/innocence or anything else would have been totally different.

PS...I was not sure where this belonged..decided here. Yesterday, a network spent the greater part of their news day with Mr Brown's funeral, and led just about every hour with a purported audio tape that would show something (they alluded all day to it supporting Mr Brown). They interviewed folks in Ferguson over and over about this tape. TODAY, they do not even mention it, and one on air person openly questioned it existence and it's validity.

THIS kind of thing sparks a reaction, as does the killing of an unarmed youth of any race. The verbage you read here is because after always being put in a defensive spot immediately will sour how you feel, MUCH LIKE I am sure the citizens of Ferguson must have felt. Instead of VOTING, which I understand is not done much there, there are riots, looting a, etc prodded by so called leaders of a movement. This is what spawns reaction.

Nobody knows if the policeman erred or not...if he did, he will suffer the consequences, but, in my opinion, the racist feelings are reverse of how you see it.

Yes, the poster is right. This thread started as a discussion of how to control looting and rioting and the OP told of how a shoot to kill order had worked out well in 1955. The thread did not take on racial tones for 4 more postings and went downhill from there.

With all due respect, I totally disagree. The only race remarks I recall...not saying I am 100% correct...were those who chose to discuss race in calling for the officers head. Most, if not all referred to looters as looters.....rioters as rioters...SHARPTON as Sharpton, etc. Much, if not all racial references were by those who questioned the racial make up of the police, etc.

Well stated.

Absolutely right
 

I read a lot of hate and some not so thinly veiled racial comments. Seems to be the attitude of a lot of folks on this forum, not so much that of this entire place. The key is don't engage these folks in a social situation over these controversial issues. You don't go to a soccer game and judge the other moms by their " politics", but rather by their actions and behaviors.

I think rather than it is a lot of folk's attitude on this forum it's only a few. Its just that this thread brought them all out.