Your Opinion: Time for Ferguson to move on

Dear Editor:

Here we are, one year later, 40 new laws across the country, a black police chief in Ferguson along with more black police officers and sympathetic support from white city officials and what have we got - the same old Ferguson.

The rioting and looting one year ago was uncalled for as it was on the anniversary of Michael Brown's death. The news media and others put the blame on outsiders but the violence that erupted between local gangs that resulted in the shooting by police of another 18-year-old who was armed is symptomatic of the problems that police deal with everyday.

I have heard all kinds of excuses as to why the blacks in Ferguson, Baltimore, L.A., Detroit and countless other cities across the U.S. are unhappy.

Top of the list, no jobs. Think about this. When you see pictures of these depressed areas what you see are boarded up businesses, shuttered factories and lots of trash. At one time there were job opportunities in these areas. What drove them out? Crime. What business would want to stay in an area where they would be robbed, looted and their workers mugged or killed?

The now generation of blacks who are complaining the loudest with their rioting can't blame this situation on anyone but their predecessors who originally brought crime to the area.

Then there are the cops - not enough black cops. Then encourage your children to enter law enforcement. White cops don't understand black culture. Just what is black culture? Crime is acceptable? Blacks don't trust white cops, believe me white cops don't trust black youth, especially those on some kind of dope.

The message of black outrage against police brutality is being lost in black on black violence. If you want us to believe that "black lives matter" they need to show us that they believe it themselves.

I have never judged people by the color of their skin but rather by their actions. Stereotypes arise and persist because of actions. Right now the people of Ferguson are giving support to the vary same stereotypes they want gone.

I think for the most part white people have tried looking beyond color but the rhetoric and violence of this issue are creating more hard feelings than most want to admit.

Michael Brown Jr. should not be the poster child for this movement. He was no child. He was a 6'3" 280 lb. man. He had already shown he wanted to hurt Officer Wilson who was cleared of wrong doing.

Move on Ferguson.