What should be done in Ferguson

[Drano]

As far as I recall from my Civil Rights and Liberties class last year, the only statistic showing a racial bias against minorities involved sentencing and incarceration rates for individuals, white vs. minority, tried for a similar crime. In that case it showed that minorities had a 75% higher chance of being incarcerated than Caucasians and often carried stiffer penalties. In essence, it had nothing to do with an arresting officer's discretion and had more to do with judges and juries.

By no means am I even going to attempt to make claims about detention and arrest ratios of whites vs. minorities as it seems to differ from source to source.

There has been some arguments made that despite the fact that African-American minorities represent ~30% of the population they are disproportionately represented in prison inmate statistics. Often, some say that more African-Americans are imprisoned than Caucasians, but it's actually closer in proportions than one may realize. http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/...nmate_race.jsp

Conflicting information, I know.

Finally, it's also of note to recognize the difference between being detained, and being arrested. Police officers can choose to detain anyone if they have reasonable suspicion. They can arrest if they have probable cause. A good rule of thumb is this: If you're being read your Miranda rights, you're being arrested. If not, you're being detained.