This reads like a puff-piece explaining away police violence. But perhaps we should get used to reading about civic violence in the US, both on the part of the police and from marginalised communities.
The wars of the last two decades are coming home to roost. Excess armour is being given or sold at knock-down prices by the Pentagon to police forces across the US. The police themselves are often military personnel returning from overseas deployment. They are now being sent to Israel for advanced training in the 'art' of civic control. The mentality is 'us' and 'them'.
And the communities they police? Marginalised, poverty stricken, poorly educated and awash in feelings of being trapped in a world not of their making and without access to an exit from a life lived with no horizon, except ironically by joining the military.
As I said earlier: We should probably get use to reading about excessive civic violence coming out of the US. All those blacks are America's Palestinians, and they and their communities will be hammered with the same disproportionate force we see coming out of Israel.
Welcome to Frankenstate, North America, fast becoming a clone of its own creation of Frankenstate, The Levant.

Yep, Halduell, you're absolutely right, except for everything you've written.

The perp was a giant thug. He charged the police officer, who fired in self defence. And he had earlier taken cigars from a shop without paying.

Save your bleeding little heart for something better than "marginalised communities".

Where was all the protests when a few months ago a young white Australian male was shot in the back whilst walking along a street in the USA. I believe his attackers were mostly black.

Ozzie, you obviously don't understand the psyche of the negro in the southern states particularly, otherwise you would not ask the question.
Go back and read Halduell.

David

...Those with the power in society to change the spaces between the diametrics of good and evil therein, lay captured in the lost world of self interest. These are a political class so entrenched in maintaining the status quo for the wealthy (of which they be all too often, the representatives from the class exhibiting the worst excesses)!

...Halduell's simple exposé captures but the outcome of those rejected by the system: The power of the increasing numbers of outcasts, is to simply self destruct!

It's not a race thing anyway, cops in the U.S have a shocking record of killing unarmed people, truth be told most of the victims of police brutality are probably White, like Danielle Willard:
http://www.facebook.com/JusticeForDanielleWillard
Or Dillon Taylor:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58304981-78/police-taylor-lake-salt.html.csp
Or Todd Blair (warning, distressing footage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6Bq8xeQrU
Salt Lake City Utah is mostly White, so most of the victims of Police brutality will be White also, Ferguson Missouri is mostly Black so most of the victims will be Black.

This is exactly what you expect to see in marginalized communities, as endless poverty replaces non evident job opportunities.
Yes the guy was a thug, who would have just as easily been rendered helpless, with a repeat action shotgun loaded with non lethal bean bags.
Those outsiders coming in and defying the curfew, are only inflaming the situation, and need to be dealt with a little more severely.
They need to be handled very differently, and water cannons, working in protective pairs, filled with ice cold water would be my first choice!
Drenched maybe!
Still alive and kicking,and heading for home as fast as you can, to get warm and dry, yes.
Curfews are put in for very good, calm the situation/end the killings reasons, and only the criminal element chooses to ignore them/defy lawful orders to disperse?
It's a crying shame the way this situation developed and culminated!
When the young giant, could have been given a job as a security officer?
I mean, as one can see on the CCTV, his mere presence was extremely threatening!
Nobody would have stolen anything and just not paid for it on his watch?
Something does need to be done however, about "police persons", who allegedly shoot first and ask questions later!
One doesn't defeat the armed criminal gang element, by emulating them!
Rhrosty.

While I understand the outrage at the shooting of an unarmed thug, the wanton destruction of innocent people's property is hardly the way to express yourself, rather it reinforces the country's perception of these residents as sub humans.

Some interesting perspectives.
David Carroll, My prediction in the Michael Brown case:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMbbclEutcs
The Michael Brown Shooting And The Questionable Integrity Of Negros:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrAUsy2wEao&list=UUKaK8iWAup7QEjvw554JAEg
The Militarization of the Puhleeeeze;
http://therightstuff.biz/2014/08/19/the-militarization-of-the-puhleeeeze/

It is our belief that the African-Americans of Fergurson are political dissidents who should enjoy refugee status in Australia.

Mr Abbott should deliver these people, in mobs or individually, to our shores post haste.

I have an aboriginal friend who has lived in the USA for 3 years. He's a lecturer there in a university. When walking along the streets he often gets mistaken for an African American by the police there, and is stopped, searched and questioned several times every month. He's been advised by his employers to always carry full ID, and never carry large sums of money as he will be robbed by the police and assaulted and charged if he resists the robbery.

We are very lucky we live in a relatively peaceful country. America is so violent and so full of 'real' police violence and corruption.

Strange! I have a Nephew of dark complexion, his mother being Fijian who has been living in the States (Texas) for a few years now. He is married to an African American woman. So why has he never been stopped by police or harassed once - let alone several times a month?