There are buildings burning in Benton Harbor, Michigan and people rioting...one dead several injured, because a certain number of the black population believe white police officers intentially killed a black motorcyclist who was fleeing the police. The rumors are that police officers intentially rammed the motorcyclist off the road...mind you, there are no witnesses to this situation. The Police Reports show that the police were no closer than two blocks from the cyclist and that he lost control and crashed into a home before police even got on scene. The cyclist was killed. He had no license and had a small amount of marajuana on him...for this he ran from the police. And, for this some people who saw a dead black motorcyclist and white police officers involved decided to make it a racial issue and start the rumor mills rolling and creating havoc.

This in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous. Do you believe the same would be occurring if the cyclist was white and the police officers were black? I doubt it. Because then it wouldn't be considered "a racial situation". I am sick to my stomach of seeing such situations as this occurring. This type of behavior needs to stop! People need to stop making everything a racial issue every time something like this comes up and making it a racial issue long before all the facts are in. Innocent peoples homes and businesses were destroyed because of the actions of these riotous people...truly disgusting.

This is a long occuring theme in 20the century and beyond American history. The riots are tragic and they represent a failed relationship between law enforcement and a community.

It is also a reflection of a portion of our society that perceives themselves to be somewhat powerless in the political process.

We have studied this problem instensly and our solutions have been feeble at best. The friendly or encouraging solution of the problem failed in the War on Poverty with Community Action Programs. Instead of being a balm, this program seemed to fuel the long hot summers. (Watts was triggered by a similar incident to this one described above)

Attacking the drug markets of inner cities has not stopped the probelms of drugs in the inner cities.

Too many people have chosen to walk the line on the other side of the law for at least part of their income and the police have failed in many places to connect with the communities they serve. (LA and Detroit among the most colossal failures)

I am not pro-riot, but we need to address the whole issue.

Hi, AnAmericanGirl, welcome.

I'll assume the above question is what you want us to debate? For future reference, when you start a post, please make sure there is a clear question to debate.

Also, for those of you who hate to debate based on word of mouth references, here are some links:
Michigan Unrest
Michigan Riots

Edited to add - AnAmericanGirl, this is the first I've heard that it's a racial issue. On CNN this morning, they never once brought up the races of anyone involved. So I'm not really sure on what you are basing your argument.
(and edited to remove a duplicate link)

There's one other element that I'd like to add:

There's a perception within the motorcycle community that police are unfairly targeting motorcyclists, especially sportbike riders. As a result, the whole "driving while black" issue can be exacerbated by "operating one of them damn' rice rockets" on a public road.

Whether or not that has any bearing in this situation I don't know, I just wanted to toss it out there for consideration.

I haven't heard either if this is race related. I just heard on the news I guess another person was killed in a high pursuit a year ago. Be that as it may. These 2 individuals were fleeing police for some reason. I can't imagine any person who if they did nothing wrong would try to flee the police and cause it to be a high speed chase. Even if it were true that this person did nothing wrong it is not a reason to burn innocent bystanders homes and cars. So far it is lucky there has only been one death. They are rioting against 2 people fleeing the police and now another is dead. Don't these people know what rioting is? It is not a protest. It usually involves deaths, injuries, vandalizism to innocent people. Come on. If you have a problem, hire an attorney or get a public defender and have them go after the police if they were wrong. I find this disgusting.

I have no sympathy for the guy that killed himself (yes, killed himself), or the mob rioting in the streets. The mob is simply exploiting the situation in order to run around and vandalize their own town and assault their own citizens. The only people I do have sympathy for in this situation are the law abiding citizens and the Benton Harbor police department. If these rioters want to make some sort of political statement in regards to their police department, they might want to capitalize on a situation where the police did something wrong. In this situation the police did exactly what innocent, law abiding citizens expect from their police force.