Matt Pearce at the LA Times:
The hands-up—a sign of surrender and submission black men and boys here say they learn early on when dealing with police—has been transformed into a different kind of weapon.

"If you're angry, throw your arms up," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who traveled to St. Louis in the wake of the death of Michael Brown. "If you want justice, throw your arms up. Because that's the sign Michael was using. He had a surrender sign. That's the sign you have to deal with. Use the sign he last showed. We want answers why that last sign was not respected."


Greg Howard at Deadspin:
The United States of America is not for black people. We know this, and then we put it out of our minds, and then something happens to remind us. Saturday, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo., something like that happened: An unarmed 18-year-old black man was executed by police in broad daylight.

By now, what's happening in Ferguson is about so many second-order issues—systemic racism, the militarization of police work, and how citizens can redress grievances, among other things—that it's worth remembering what actually happened here...