Riots in America

The 2014 Keene Pumpkin Festival Riot was reflective of the time. Coincidentally or not, the unrest in Ferguson Missouri known as the “Ferguson Riots” happened in August of the same year. The unrest in Ferguson was a response to the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man shot by a police officer. The protests began as a peaceful candle-light vigil but turned violent when the tension and emotion spilled over into looting, and destruction of property. One police officer died, 321 people were arrested and 16 people were injured. Many news stations and bloggers have made the connection between the Keene Riots and the Ferguson riots and have pointed out their stark differences in their causes and outcome.

Is there a double standard when an unarmed black teenagers is shot for shop lifting but hundreds of white college aged students are unharmed after destroying property, injuring others and starting fires for no justifiable reason? There are many news sources and social media based blogs that have made this claim.

More information on the Ferguson riots found here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_unrest

New York Times 2014

Timeline of the Ferguson riots:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/timeline-of-events-in-ferguson-mo/2014/08/16/02f37e8c-2580-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html?utm_term=.350aac2c6f50

Other colleges and universities have also had a recent history of alcohol or sports driven riots. For example the University of Connecticut flipped cars and knocked over lamp posts after their basketball team won the NCAA title also in 2014. But this has been portrayed by the media as college students expressing their excitement and kids having fun and not as a riot.

Jj2014 1:29

April 9, 2014

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