In case you haven't been paying attention, an unarmed black kid was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri. The police claim he was trying to attack them, other witnesses say he had his hands up. I don't know, I'm not going to make a judgment call on this one because I can see either side lying. The point is there are protests about police violence, which escalated with the subsequent anti-riot tactics, and at the moment people all over the nation are decrying the militarization of the police as well as the institutional racism in the law enforcement community. Ferguson and St. Louis in particular seem to be particularly segregated, and the vast majority of the officers are white. (I think I read somewhere that there are only three black officers on the entire force.)

The reason why I'm bringing this up is the decision not to release the name of the officer who shot the kid. I actually concur with this. Let's go back to the Martin/Zimmerman case back in 2012. At the time, a celebrity tweeted Zimmerman's address to the effect of, "Go after this guy." It turns out it was actually the address of a couple in their 70s, who received death threats for over a year until after the court case was ended. That was really fucked up. It was especially awful that it happened to an innocent family, but even if it was the right address, you're fucking with Zimmerman's family at this point, who have nothing to do with it. And that's what I'm worried about with the officer; with the tensions that they are now and Anonymous threatening to release the officer's name (and we all know how accurate random people on the internet can be, considering what happened with Reddit and the Boston Bomber), I think we should wait a bit until shit settles down before we work on this. I'm not saying he should remain invisible forever, but just wait until flames (both literal and metaphorical) have been doused. Because the way that it is now, that family is going to be totally ripped apart.

On a side note, Ferguson: When the hell did your police department get enough money to buy armored vehicles and armor? Maybe you should spend some of that money on education or something because god knows you're not responsible enough to use that shit properly.

Update:
Well, that was fast. Let's see how this plays out for Mr. Wilson.