Ferguson sparks conversations in Twin Cities

Evening vigil turns into an impromptu protest.
A vigil for Mike Brown last week turned into a protest after Minneapolis officers in at least six squad cars detained a young woman who attended the event as she walked outside carrying a sign.
Jon Collins / MPR News

Much of the country has been watching Ferguson, Missouri this week, where nightly protests continued over the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Photos: Chaotic scene captured in Ferguson, Mo.

The unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer - sparking a nationwide conversation about the relationship between local black communities and police.

As New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow wrote last Sunday:

Yes there are the disturbingly repetitive and eerily similar circumstances of many cases of unarmed black people being killed by police officers.

This reinforces black people's beliefs - supported by actual data--that blacks are treated less fairly by the police.

But I submit that this is bigger than that. The frustration we see in Ferguson is about not only the present act of perceived injustice but also the calcifying system of inequity - economic, educational, judicial - drawn largely along racial lines.

Tom Weber talks with three guests about the kinds of conversations Ferguson has sparked here in the Twin Cities.

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