White Chicago Cop shoots black teen 16 times

[dmcowen674]

http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-policeman-...10653.html

Chicago charges officer in black teen's death, releases video of shooting

A white Chicago policeman was charged on Tuesday with murdering a black teenager, a prosecution that was speeded up in hopes of staving off a fresh burst of the turmoil over race and police use of deadly force that has shaken the United States for more than a year.

A highly anticipated video of the Oct. 20, 2014 shooting was released on Tuesday afternoon in accordance with a court order and a day earlier than expected. The police website became overwhelmed and did not function.

Seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by police officer Jason Van Dyke, who emptied his gun and prepared to reload, prosecutors said. Van Dyke, 37, has said through his lawyer and the police union that the shooting was justified because he felt threatened by McDonald.

"Clearly, this officer went overboard and he abused his authority, and I don't think use of force was necessary," top Cook County prosecutor Anita Alvarez said at a news conference after the hearing.

Van Dyke was denied bail at a hearing in Chicago's main criminal courthouse hours after prosecutor Alvarez announced charges of first-degree murder. If convicted, Van Dyke could face 20 years to life in prison.

At the brief court hearing, prosecutor Bill Delaney told Cook County Circuit Court Associate Judge Donald Panarese that a video of the 2014 shooting does not show McDonald, who was armed with a knife, advancing on Van Dyke, and that witnesses concur on that fact.

[dmcowen674]

Another street execution but not sure why they charged First Degree. First Degree is pre-meditated and clear intent.

I think the Cop will get off because they should have charged him with second degree murder.

[BenSkywalker]

I think the Cop will get off because they should have charged him with second degree murder.

This differs from state to state, but does Illinois allow conviction of a lesser charge at the trial of a higher charge? Most states do, so it *may* be within the realm of possibility that they could get a Manslaughter conviction even though they pressed first degree.

[ocre]

I dont understand the point in the "white" emphasis. This is a cop slaughtering a man. But honestly, that guy looked like a psycho and obviously had a massive knife. Cops pull up and he doesnt obey their commands. He is walking aggressively way, completely defiant and unfazed by their commands.

I think a cop has every right to take this guy down, even if it kills him.

What i dont agree with is shooting him 16 times after he was already downed. That is insane and baffling.

Look, Dave...
If you take an aggressive stance wielding a knife, walking in stride, all out psycho and such and the cops show up with guns drawn, you better acknowledge their commands. You know, drop the weapon and put your hands in the air. Snap out of it or something.

We cant have guys running down a busy street with wielding deadly weapons, right out in the open in their hands and looking ready to attack. We certainly cant accept it if they then show complete disregard to law enforcement. This situation was completely unacceptable. It has nothing to do with a black man or a white cop. You cant run around the street with a weapon all crazy like that, that is against the law and a very bad thing to do.

But he was walking away from the cops, doesnt matter!!!
Didnt look like the cop that shot him was in danger of being stabbed.....Does not matter!!!!!

This guy was not only carrying a deadly weapon, he was doing it aggressively and walking in stride. What was his intent? At the very least he sought to terrorize, with panic and fear. The other possibility is he wanted to kill.

Cops had every right to stop this guy in his tracks. We dont know where he was going or what he was doing but if he did not slow down when police cars show up, if he doesnt stop when cops with guns are ordering him too...........

See, cops are not restricted to self defence. They protect and serve the entire community, not just themselves. They dont have to be the ones getting attacked in order to fire. It doesnt matter if he wasnt walking towards the cops. This guy had a knife and very much looked like he wanted to use it. There were cars driving by, slowing down.....he was in the middle of the city. It makes no sense for the cops to wait and see what this guy had planned. Wait till he grabbed a hold or stabbed someone? He completely showed that he didnt give a fuck about the cops, they were not gonna stop or deter him. This is a guy wielding a deadly weapon mind you.

I support the decision to use force. No way should you let this guy carry out whatever he wanted to. No way you should set back and watch. No way you wait and see, not in this case.

once he is shot and down, the continued shots are the only thing i have issues with. It is bizarre. The crazy thing is how effective that first shot was. The guy was seriously wounded by the first shot. He was 100% downed and the threat disabled. It looked so serious that he may not even have survived the first shot. Continued shooting makes no sense.

I have thought a lot about this one. As much as the media tries to sensationalize this, all this "white cop" and "black kid/teenager", it is a shame. I watched the video, you see the cop car pull up and the guy getting shot. What you may not realize is that there were already cops already on the scene. When the dash cam car arrives, the video shows this kid running and cop cars around him, one circling and looking for a safe place to get out....a real chaotic scene. The kid is running towards a cop car already there, not away. He starts a diagonal stride but focused on that car, his weapon drawn and that car starts to drive away. The cops that circled around for a safer place to get out, have their guns drawn. Then the guy gets even more ballsy, more aggressively displaying his weapon. His stride is not directly towards the cops with their guns drawn, that is true but just a few seconds prior he was heading straight towards a cop car directly front on. This guy is gone mad and is not stopping even when cops have guns drawn. It is incredibly obvious this kid is looking for some way out of his this terrible situation and he showed no signs he intended to surrender.
No way you let this guy walk off. No way you wait to see what he is up to. No way you let him continue on with a knife like that. He wasnt stopping and he had a weapon. I fully support the decision to stop this guy.

[dmcowen674]

I dont understand the point in the "white" emphasis. This is a cop slaughtering a man. But honestly, that guy looked like a psycho and obviously had a massive knife. Cops pull up and he doesnt obey their commands. He is walking aggressively way, completely defiant and unfazed by their commands.

I think a cop has every right to take this guy down, even if it kills him.

What i dont agree with is shooting him 16 times after he was already downed. That is insane and baffling.

Look, Dave...
If you take an aggressive stance wielding a knife, walking in stride, all out psycho and such and the cops show up with guns drawn, you better acknowledge their commands. You know, drop the weapon and put your hands in the air. Snap out of it or something.

We cant have guys running down a busy street with wielding deadly weapons, right out in the open in their hands and looking ready to attack. We certainly cant accept it if they then show complete disregard to law enforcement. This situation was completely unacceptable. It has nothing to do with a black man or a white cop. You cant run around the street with a weapon all crazy like that, that is against the law and a very bad thing to do.

But he was walking away from the cops, doesnt matter!!!
Didnt look like the cop that shot him was in danger of being stabbed.....Does not matter!!!!!

This guy was not only carrying a deadly weapon, he was doing it aggressively and walking in stride. What was his intent? At the very least he sought to terrorize, with panic and fear. The other possibility is he wanted to kill.

Cops had every right to stop this guy in his tracks. We dont know where he was going or what he was doing but if he did not slow down when police cars show up, if he doesnt stop when cops with guns are ordering him too...........

See, cops are not restricted to self defence. They protect and serve the entire community, not just themselves. They dont have to be the ones getting attacked in order to fire. It doesnt matter if he wasnt walking towards the cops. This guy had a knife and very much looked like he wanted to use it. There were cars driving by, slowing down.....he was in the middle of the city. It makes no sense for the cops to wait and see what this guy had planned. Wait till he grabbed a hold or stabbed someone? He completely showed that he didnt give a fuck about the cops, they were not gonna stop or deter him. This is a guy wielding a deadly weapon mind you.

I support the decision to use force. No way should you let this guy carry out whatever he wanted to. No way you should set back and watch. No way you wait and see, not in this case.

once he is shot and down, the continued shots are the only thing i have issues with. It is bizarre. The crazy thing is how effective that first shot was. The guy was seriously wounded by the first shot. He was 100% downed and the threat disabled. It looked so serious that he may not even have survived the first shot. Continued shooting makes no sense.

I have thought a lot about this one. As much as the media tries to sensationalize this, all this "white cop" and "black kid/teenager", it is a shame. I watched the video, you see the cop car pull up and the guy getting shot. What you may not realize is that there were already cops already on the scene. When the dash cam car arrives, the video shows this kid running and cop cars around him, one circling and looking for a safe place to get out....a real chaotic scene. The kid is running towards a cop car already there, not away. He starts a diagonal stride but focused on that car, his weapon drawn and that car starts to drive away. The cops that circled around for a safer place to get out, have their guns drawn. Then the guy gets even more ballsy, more aggressively displaying his weapon. His stride is not directly towards the cops with their guns drawn, that is true but just a few seconds prior he was heading straight towards a cop car directly front on. This guy is gone mad and is not stopping even when cops have guns drawn. It is incredibly obvious this kid is looking for some way out of his this terrible situation and he showed no signs he intended to surrender.
No way you let this guy walk off. No way you wait to see what he is up to. No way you let him continue on with a knife like that. He wasnt stopping and he had a weapon. I fully support the decision to stop this guy.

Giant wall of irrelevant text.

The Police are not Judge, Jury and Executioner.

[BoFox]

I fully support the decision to stop this guy.

But to kill? 

Seeing as how cops are trained to use their tasers, but don't even want to try that out when facing an armed guy...   well...

FIRST, if cops think that they need to use their guns (pointing their guns), they should be standing/crouching behind cars for cover.  Not walking towards the suspect like a macho executioner.  If just want to walk up to within 10 feet of the guy like that, they should taser the guy as soon as they can!





From wiki: "The Guardian newspaper is running a database,The Counted, tracking US killings by police and other law enforcement agencies in 2015, and counted 965 killed as of 6 November 2015, with rates per million of 2.24 for "white" people, 5.55 for "black", and 2.66 for "hispanic/latino". The database can be viewed by state, gender, race/ethnicity, age, classification (e.g., "gunshot"), and whether the person killed was armed.[5]
"


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States,_2015#cite_note-5][/url]

[BoFox]

That cop should've been responsibly managed by the department before this had to happen:

MISCONDUCT
Van Dyke has had 20 misconduct complaints made against him during the past 4-1/2 years, none of which led to any discipline from the Chicago Police Department, according to research by Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor and expert on police accountability issues.
"The Chicago Police Department refuses to look at potential patterns of misconduct complaints when investigating police misconduct," Futterman said. "If the department did look at these patterns when investigating police abuse, there is a great chance right now that 17-year-old boy would still be alive."

[BoFox]

funny when we watch movies, we always see cops acting professionally (at least the normal cops)... only the corrupt cops would just walk up and treat others' lives as nothing more than that pitbull across the street.

[ocre]

Giant wall of irrelevant text.

The Police are not Judge, Jury and Executioner.

I guess you could call it that........

If you lacked the knowledge or meaning of the word "irrelevant"

[RolloTheGreat]

From wiki: "The Guardian newspaper is running a database,The Counted, tracking US killings by police and other law enforcement agencies in 2015, and counted 965 killed as of 6 November 2015, with rates per million of 2.24 for "white" people, 5.55 for "black", and 2.66 for "hispanic/latino". The database can be viewed by state, gender, race/ethnicity, age, classification (e.g., "gunshot"), and whether the person killed was armed.[5]
"


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States,_2015#cite_note-5][/url]

Meh. I disagree with the whole white/black thing as well.

Whatever the reason, there is an income and education gap between white and black people in the country.

I bet if they put socioeconomic status in the criteria, instead of just race, the numbers level out across races.

Poor and desperate people being involved in crime and making bad choices isn't new.

[BoFox]

From wiki: "The Guardian newspaper is running a database,The Counted, tracking US killings by police and other law enforcement agencies in 2015, and counted 965 killed as of 6 November 2015, with rates per million of 2.24 for "white" people, 5.55 for "black", and 2.66 for "hispanic/latino". The database can be viewed by state, gender, race/ethnicity, age, classification (e.g., "gunshot"), and whether the person killed was armed.[5]
"


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States,_2015#cite_note-5][/url]

Meh. I disagree with the whole white/black thing as well.

Whatever the reason, there is an income and education gap between white and black people in the country.

I bet if they put socioeconomic status in the criteria, instead of just race, the numbers level out across races.

Poor and desperate people being involved in crime and making bad choices isn't new.

Good point, agreed.

[RolloTheGreat]

Good point, agreed.

I blame this and a lot of other stuff on factory jobs getting sent overseas with nothing to replace them for low skilled workers but the Golden Arches.

Used to be we made things here and guys without technical skills could earn a living wage and have a family.

I don't think people (white, black, Hispanic, whatever) want a life of crime/booze/dope, they just don't feel like they have any hope for a "normal American life" in a lot of cases.

It's not an excuse to get into a life of crime, but it sure makes it more understandable. Until we get more successful at educating and employing people who aren't destined to work in high skill jobs, this kind of stuff will continue.

[BoFox]

As much as I agree with you, I know that racism still exists. If it were a white guy instead, the chances of him getting shot would've been somehow lower - even if he were wearing the exact same clothes, walking the exact same way, etc..

Probably not as much as the stats above (2.24 for whites, 5.55 for blacks) but still, if it were a white "whigger", it'd probably be as high as 4.0 compared to 5.55 for blacks, but still considerably lower, nonetheless. Don't be such a disbeliever of racism.

[SteelCrysis]

As much as I agree with you, I know that racism still exists.  If it were a white guy instead, the chances of him getting shot would've been somehow lower - even if he were wearing the exact same clothes, walking the exact same way, etc..  

Probably not as much as the stats above (2.24 for whites, 5.55 for blacks) but still, if it were a white "whigger", it'd probably be as high as 4.0 compared to 5.55 for blacks, but still considerably lower, nonetheless.  Don't be such a disbeliever of racism.  

Plus, if a white guy got killed by a cop for no reason, his death would have a hard time even making the local news.

[dmcowen674]

12-1-2015

Chicago mayor fires police chief in wake of video release


Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the city's police superintendent Tuesday, a week after the release of a dash-cam video that showed a white Chicago officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times.

Emanuel called a news conference to announce the dismissal of Garry McCarthy, who only days ago insisted to reporters that the mayor had his "back."

[dmcowen674]

The Mayor should be ousted as well.

[RolloTheGreat]

As much as I agree with you, I know that racism still exists.  If it were a white guy instead, the chances of him getting shot would've been somehow lower - even if he were wearing the exact same clothes, walking the exact same way, etc..  

Probably not as much as the stats above (2.24 for whites, 5.55 for blacks) but still, if it were a white "whigger", it'd probably be as high as 4.0 compared to 5.55 for blacks, but still considerably lower, nonetheless.  Don't be such a disbeliever of racism.  

Of course racism exists, as do all sorts of other prejudices. (sexism, homophobia, religious persecution, ageism, etc)

What I also know is we have a black president, the number one runner up in the GOP race for the next election is a black neurosurgeon, that one of my neighbors is a black executive and I run into black people at all levels in the business world, and that my son says racism doesn't exist in his HS.

Things are not what they used to be, most of us are smart enough to know people can only be judged by their actions.

I imagine there are a few racist cops like there are probably a few racist bartenders, but we've come a long way as a society.

[ocre]

I fully support the decision to stop this guy.

But to kill? 

Seeing as how cops are trained to use their tasers, but don't even want to try that out when facing an armed guy...   well...

FIRST, if cops think that they need to use their guns (pointing their guns), they should be standing/crouching behind cars for cover.  Not walking towards the suspect like a macho executioner.  If just want to walk up to within 10 feet of the guy like that, they should taser the guy as soon as they can!





From wiki: "The Guardian newspaper is running a database,The Counted, tracking US killings by police and other law enforcement agencies in 2015, and counted 965 killed as of 6 November 2015, with rates per million of 2.24 for "white" people, 5.55 for "black", and 2.66 for "hispanic/latino". The database can be viewed by state, gender, race/ethnicity, age, classification (e.g., "gunshot"), and whether the person killed was armed.[5]
"


[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States,_2015#cite_note-5][/url]

I obviously do not agree, nor do i condone, him shooting the guy 16 times.

As for your question, "but to kill?"----
I believe the decision to stop this threat was totally justifiable. Taser would have been nice but once that decision is made, it is escalated to very very serious. We cannot watch the video later and know what the situation was truly like or what it felt like. There is no excuse in blasting someone 16 times when they are downed. That is completely terrible and unacceptable. But I would have no issue had the cop used his gun to stop this crazy guy. Which completely ignoring reality, walking down the middle of the street, unfazed by multiple cop cars, police with guns pointed at him, steadily gripping, armed and proud displaying a huge knife, not slowing but picking up pace in stride. The decision to take him down, it really should have been necessary. You cant have that in a city, in the middle of the street. As for using the gun......

Watch the video. You see the view from a car heading to the scene. There are people frightened and panicked, I guy pointing towards the commotion as the cop car is driving to the scene. Then we see the guy with a knife walking in stride dead smack towards a cop car in the middle of the street. We see another cop car slowing/stopping and then erratically circling around trying to find a safe distance where they can get out and address this very out of the ordinary situation. As that car is getting to what they think is a safe distance, the guy with the knife got close enough that the parked cop car speeds off. The cops that circled around was just getting out and the guy with the knife is walking so fast that they arent nearly as far back as they intended to be. The guy with the knife is in a stride not completely toward the cops but scary closer with his diangle path. Worse still: he is not listening, aggressively displaying the large knife, not at all slowing down, showing no signs he has any intentions at all of stopping, 100% irrational. This is not the time to sit back and see who or what he can get his hands on.

Should they have use the taser instead? I think that you have to understand that these cops were already trying to park at a safe distance and this guy had came way closer than they wanted him to be in just a few seconds. It was not at all normal and completely unexpected. They had drawn their guns with the intent to contain this guy with a deadly weapon. In a normal situation, the guy with a knife will see cops with guns and put their hands in the air. Not this guy. If you understand why they wanted to get their guns drawn and at a safe distance, you should realize that it is pretty odd you are wondering why they didnt put their guns in the holster, then pull out and arm the taser, point that at the guy and shoot. When cops pull out guns and point them, they arent trained to put them back and get out their tasers. They were threatening deadly force if he didnt stand down. The guy didnt stand down.

Even if you think that there was no way that this guy could have ran at them if he saw them putting away their guns to get out their tasers, it still should seem really strange that you expect a cop should even do that. In their minds, they have their weapons drawn and this guy is completely unfazed and seems to be walking faster instead of slowing down. If you think they should have waited to see where he was going, say he isnt looking for an opening to go after the cops with guns, where do you supposed this would be going? He walks off in a stride down the street and the cops follow him for blocks with their guns drawn. How many more people do you want to put in danger when you have a completely out of control and totally irrational man roaming the streets with a huge knife........
Are we really having this conversation right now?

Of course they should have taken this guy down. They didnt draw tasers and yell freeze, they had guns drawn on a guy with a deadly weapon in his hands. It is not just the fact he had a large knife, it is the stance and pose, that he was projecting it as a threatening grip, showing or acting as if he was intent on using it. Since when do we think it is okay to run around threatening in the street with weapons? Since when is it okay to ignore cops with guns draw on you saying "freeze", "put your hands up", "drop with weapon!!".

Look dude, if the cops even think you have a weapon and are a danger, you better listen when they tell you to stop and draw their guns. You better realize that guns drawn on you mean it is really really serious.

I dont know if i can agree that the cops should have, at that point, put their guns in the holster and fidgeting with their tasers. Not at that point. See, obviously the guns pointed did little to slow down this guy, do you really think that those cops would be like "oh, our guns drawn dont seem to be deter him in the slightest, but i know, lets put our guns away and get out our tasers. Yeah, that will do the trick."
No way!

Those cops were not expecting this guy to boldly carry on. They were there to control and take this threat off the street. If guns were not phasing him, what the heck is this guy on? A taser might work but not only is it not 100%, it would have also been a lot of trouble to get pointed at him at that point. The taser might have hit just right and done the trick, or it might have not. It could easily have not got him good, it might miss or partially hit enough just to really piss him off even more. Or the guy might have been looking for that perfect opening to try to take advantage of. One thing is for certain.....he sure did not look like he had any intentions of letting the cops stop him.

[SteelCrysis]

Not to mention, a Taser is effectively a one-shot weapon. If one of those prongs misses, it doesn't work. If one of those prongs misses, you have to either hope you have enough time to load and fire a second cartridge, or hope that in a melee you can get the backup contact stun prongs to make contact. Neither of these options is a good idea against a mentally unstable person with a knife.

[RolloTheGreat]

Since when is it okay to ignore cops with guns draw on you saying "freeze", "put your hands up", "drop with weapon!!".

Look dude, if the cops even think you have a weapon and are a danger, you better listen when they tell you to stop and draw their guns. You better realize that guns drawn on you mean it is really really serious.

This is the key to a lot of these situations.

"Well the guy would have stopped resisting arrest sooner or later, he was always a good guy" is what the arguments against the cops boils down to a lot of the time.

(or in Dave's case, cops aren't judge and jury)

No, they aren't, but unless they can protect themselves we won't get anyone to be cops.

I'm sure if Dave had a guy kicking his ass (as has been the case in many of the cop shootings) he'd be thinking, "Gosh, I'll just have to take this beating and maybe let the guy kill me. I can't be the judge or jury, wish I knew some kung fu or something....fuck....REALLY hurts when some 300lb guy is walloping your head......should have been a waiter, those guys never get the shit kicked out of them like this...man, this guy is really cruel....doesn't seem to care he's making me bleed at all...just not a nice guy...."

[RolloTheGreat]

All that said, I get why cops would shoot a guy coming at them with a big knife once. 16X is crazy.

Actually, I don't know if I get why ANY criminals are shot more than once. I'd think almost all of them would lose their will to resist once shot.

You'd think with all the tech advances they would be able to make bullets that don't kill but stop. Maybe flatten on contact and hurt like hell but are non lethal?

[dmcowen674]

All that said, I get why cops would shoot a guy coming at them with a big knife once. 16X is crazy.

Actually, I don't know if I get why ANY criminals are shot more than once. I'd think almost all of them would lose their will to resist once shot.

You'd think with all the tech advances they would be able to make bullets that don't kill but stop. Maybe flatten on contact and hurt like hell but are non lethal?

Police training is when you fire your weapon you fire until it is empty, then re-load and evaluate if need to fire until empty again.

[RolloTheGreat]

All that said, I get why cops would shoot a guy coming at them with a big knife once. 16X is crazy.

Actually, I don't know if I get why ANY criminals are shot more than once. I'd think almost all of them would lose their will to resist once shot.

You'd think with all the tech advances they would be able to make bullets that don't kill but stop. Maybe flatten on contact and hurt like hell but are non lethal?

Police training is when you fire your weapon you fire until it is empty, then re-load and evaluate if need to fire until empty again.

Still, you'd think they could com e up with non lethal bullets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_bullet

I suppose the problem is if the crook has real bullets.

[BoFox]

Hey Ocre, I just think that if the cops felt that they were going to need to shoot, they should just take cover, call in for additional backup. A life is very precious (which is why executions in trial cases should be difficult to "earn").

Not sure, but I think that guy was on PCP, IIRC.. I can't remember for sure, but some said that tasers do not work very well against people high on PCP, as it makes them like superhuman??? Hard to believe, though - probably a bit of a myth, but maybe tasers work for only a few seconds on those high on PCP?

If cops get to within 10 feet of a guy "armed with a weapon", they should have a taser gun out in their left hand, while having a pistol in the right hand. They should be trained to shoot accurately within 10 feet (which is basically point-blank range).

One of my brothers was actually tasered 3 times (the 4th cop tried to taser him as well, but accidentally shot himself in the leg and was stunned, lol). It was kind of traumatizing for him, but good thing he was in a very good shape as an MMA fighter.

[BoFox]

Plus, if a white guy got killed by a cop for no reason, his death would have a hard time even making the local news.

ARE YOU REALLY SURE ABOUT THAT????  

You do hit the nail on the head, though - if the guy were white, shot by a white cop, then there wouldn't be as much of an "issue" (with racism out of the picture), but still...

[BoFox]

Of course racism exists, as do all sorts of other prejudices. (sexism, homophobia, religious persecution, ageism, etc)

What I also know is we have a black president, the number one runner up in the GOP race for the next election is a black neurosurgeon, that one of my neighbors is a black executive and I run into black people at all levels in the business world, and that my son says racism doesn't exist in his HS.

Things are not what they used to be, most of us are smart enough to know people can only be judged by their actions.

I imagine there are a few racist cops like there are probably a few racist bartenders, but we've come a long way as a society.

Really?  Carson #1, Trump #2??  I thought Trump was #1 by far, especially after the Paris terrorism.  Carson's nothing more than a doctor - he should just stick to what he's good at - completely nothing like being a president.  It's like an engineer wanting to be a doctor, without going to medical school.  Trump, on the other hand, has worked closely with politics all his life (as mega-business dealings usually had lots to do with politics, plus he has the business experience of 10 past presidents combined - exactly what America needs for economy, along with an icon of confidence and leadership).  

As to the other "prejudices" like homophobia - there's also Androphobia (fear of men).

[RolloTheGreat]

Of course racism exists, as do all sorts of other prejudices. (sexism, homophobia, religious persecution, ageism, etc)

What I also know is we have a black president, the number one runner up in the GOP race for the next election is a black neurosurgeon, that one of my neighbors is a black executive and I run into black people at all levels in the business world, and that my son says racism doesn't exist in his HS.

Things are not what they used to be, most of us are smart enough to know people can only be judged by their actions.

I imagine there are a few racist cops like there are probably a few racist bartenders, but we've come a long way as a society.

Really?  Carson #1, Trump #2??  I thought Trump was #1 by far, especially after the Paris terrorism.  Carson's nothing more than a doctor - he should just stick to what he's good at - completely nothing like being a president.  It's like an engineer wanting to be a doctor, without going to medical school.  Trump, on the other hand, has worked closely with politics all his life (as mega-business dealings usually had lots to do with politics, plus he has the business experience of 10 past presidents combined - exactly what America needs for economy, along with an icon of confidence and leadership).  

As to the other "prejudices" like homophobia - there's also Androphobia (fear of men).

I am sure Carson is the number one runner up- because that means he's number two.

I didn't say he's a good or bad choice- just more evidence that it's not thee bad old days where black people could never be a neurosurgeon or president.