The second shooting you are talking about happened in the City of St. Louis. Here, that 2.6 miles from Ferguson can mean a huge difference. Fortunately, the aftermath of that shooting was handled much better than the one in Ferguson. This time, the City Chief of Police and the Mayor of St. Louis both got out into the area where the shooting happened and were open and honest with the neighborhood about what happened. They have continued to be open and honest, releasing the audio of 911 emergency calls, video from surveilance cameras and cell phones within 24 hours of the incident. This went a long way toward keeping the neighborhood response small, peaceful and reasonable. As opposed to Ferguson where the police of that municipality did everything they could to surpress information and repress the resultant actions of the community.

It is, of course, a tragedy that a mentally ill man was killed. But having seen the video and heard the tapes, I can understand why the police did so.

Even so, it points out how much important work we have to do as a society to address mental health issues, inequality of the poor and disenfranchised, institutionalized racism and the lack of education and jobs in out region.