What we’ve seen this past week in Ferguson, Missouri is becoming an all too frequent event…
With Trayvon Martin fresh in our minds, Michael Brown, an unarmed teen, was shot and killed by Ferguson police.
However, “unarmed” does not always equate to innocence..
After it was clear that everyone’s civil rights were being violated by the Ferguson police – from onlookers to members of the media that were tear gassed and arrested without cause to the dead young man – Missouri Governor Jay Nixon stepped in.
And on Thursday Nixon replaced the local police with the Missouri Highway Patrol.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch took offense stating, “To denigrate the men and women of the county police department is shameful.”
What McCulloch willingly overlooked was the denigrating, shameful behaviour of the police. Nixon’s action may be the only thing that stopped further violence in Ferguson as it now seems to have marginally calmed.
We have two evils at work here.
One is a culture of violence that now permeates our inner cities caused by a spiritual breakdown, the disintegration of the family unit and a sense of entitlement.
Regardless of having our first black president, racism is alive and well.
Second, the near militarization of our police forces, combined with what a growing lack of respect for our individual personal freedoms and civil rights, among both blacks or whites.
Combine those ingredients, push the high speed button on the cultural blender and out comes a concoction that’s left Ferguson looking like a war zone.
And they are not alone.
Conjoined blame goes to the Department of Defense’s Program 1033 which distributes military grade weapons and vehicles from MRAPs to mine resistant troop carriers, free of charge to local police departments; a half billion dollars worth in 2013 alone. Do our police really need to be equipped like this?
Ferguson’s population is 67% black, with a quarter of them living below the poverty line.
Meanwhile its 55 member police department it made up of 52 white officers.
You can almost smell the tension brewing by those numbers.
Leaving all that aside, why is the reaction when the black community feels victimized by police, to turn on its own neighborhoods and destroy their own homes and businesses?
Thus far dozens of black owned stores have been robbed, looted and/or burned, including a Walmart, Quick Trip and over 200 cars. And for what?
How does that extract revenge against the police or settle the score?
Fifty years after Martin Luther King’s dream, we have this recurring nightmare replaying over-and-over in our world today.And you can watch it unfold in real time on Twitter and social media.
The Reverend Al’s and Jesse’s are part of the problem, not the solution.
The question is, who’s going to help bring about change?
Hearne or Paul, maybe you can direct me to a link that has a story on what exactly lead to the shooting of Michael Brown. So far I can’t find anything that should be the pressing question for all reporters: What exactly lead to the shooting of Michael Brown on a residential street? I’m not talking about him being accused of robbing a convenience store, either. Even Ferguson Police admitted the shooting was unrelated to that.
I only found this: “The initial confrontation occurred because Brown and a friend were ‘walking down the street blocking traffic,’ Ferguson’s police chief said on Friday.”
I’m sorry, but Ferguson Police should be just as guilty for inciting the past week’s riots by being incredibly vague with information pertaining to his death. It has made the department look like LAPD and Rodney King. I can see why some locals became outraged, which, as expected, lead to race-baiters capitalizing on the situation and international media hanging by their coattails.
What I’m suggesting is Ferguson is complicit of inciting looting, unrest and rioting by not being transparent with the unjustified shooting. Instead, the department exploited the situation by demonstrating yet another beta test of martial law by getting out their military gear and scaring protestors. They may say the investigation is ongoing, but Brown’s friend and the officer involved should have given their account by now to let the public decide.
Wilson appears to share the same view with this cut: “Second, the near militarization of our police forces, combined with what a growing lack of respect for our individual personal freedoms and civil rights, among both blacks or whites.”
The governor, media outlets, et al, have not called for the release of the probable cause or incident report, at least to my knowledge. It’s been a week. Where’s the outcry for that to clear up the confusion and misunderstanding about the now mysterious shooting of a teenager?
Instead law enforcement have gotten their rocks off by getting the opportunity to finally get out their militarized riot gear and point rifles at people exercising their First Amendment. This is where the Ferguson riots should have shifted: A glaring infringement on civil rights.
The plot thickens with tonight’s curfew. But I’d like to put Ferguson’s Chief of Police in a room and ask why he hasn’t disclosed any updates about what lead to the shooting of Brown. His department is unnecessarily being mum and when you usually refrain from talking means you’re guilty of wrongdoing.
Judge me all you want by sounding conspiratorial now, but the whole situation sounds manufactured.
Maybe they’ve been too busy trying to quell the unrest to be transparent?
Who knows.
Steely, the Ferguson cops are knee deep in this. There was a theft of cigars from a convenient store an hour or so before he was shot. They first tried to make a link between the victim, the robbery and why he was stopped. Later, they said there was no connection. Even though the victim is on the surveillance tape, the officer who shot him didn’t tie it together.
Police said they’d release the shooting officers name Tuesday, took till Thursday.
Then the mess with arresting the media, harassing onlookers, it’s dirty from top to bottom and the Ferguson police are as complicit as the dead kid, at this point.
There’s a growing lack of respect for our basic rights among some cops and they get away with it. When they are armed to the gills with military grade weapons and vehicles, you should be concerned.
A person named “Josie” called into a radio show and gave this account of her conversation with Officer Wilson.
“He pulled up ahead of them. And then he got a call-in that there was a strong-arm robbery. And, they gave a description. And, he’s looking at them and they got something in their hands and it looks like it could be what, you know those cigars or whatever. So he goes in reverse back to them. Tries to get out of his car. They slam his door shut violently. I think he said Michael did. And, then he opened the car again. He tried to get out. He stands up.
And then Michael just bum-rushes him and shoves him back into his car. Punches him in the face and them Darren grabs for his gun. Michael grabbed for the gun. At one point he got the gun entirely turned against his hip. And he shoves it away. And the gun goes off.
Well, then Michael takes off and gets to be about 35 feet away. And, Darren’s first protocol is to pursue. So, he stands up and yells, “Freeze!” Michael and his friend turn around. And Michael taunts him… And then all the sudden he just started bumrushing him. He just started coming at him full speed. And, so he just started shooting. And, he just kept coming. And, so he really thinks he was on something.”
The autopsy will reveal the penetration points and if there were drugs involved. As more information becomes available, a more difinative picture of the events will be made clear. No matter what the evidence reveals, time lines, calls, anecdotal testimony by witnesses, blood splatter, autopsy, eye witnesses et al. This cop is going to do time in prison, his and Zimmerman’s both.
http://www.rightwingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/152392_600.jpg
Funny you don’t hear much about this witness or her account on US media. I’m not saying it isn’t true.
Oh hell, Chuck. I frequent TKC and generally agree with most of your sentiments, especially about the fourth estate. My comment above probably read a little liberal-slanted, but I’ll elaborate later. At work now. Oops. Don’t give a fawk.
No big deal SD.
🙂
glenn, I will look for it right now…
ok glenn, here it is—
http://danaloeschradio.com/alleged-friend-of-officer-darren-wilson-offers-his-side/
That settles it, if it’s true. If the kid was carrying a gun and acting like a thug, the cop was justified in using lethal force. (Hey, I don’t personally agree with cops using firearms; especially the young, headstrong rookies. It’s the way it has always been. But hopefully this situation can result in law enforcement relying on non-lethal weapons, like high-voltage stun guns, exotic DARPA stuff, etc. Hell, they get hella grants already.)
Regardless, the only fault with the cop I see so far is the number of shots. Six? Are you for real? That’s excessive use of force in my book.
Anyway, I take back what I wrote earlier and say blame the f’ing media (Fourth Estate) for inciting the protestors and ensuing violence. Both Ferguson and “Josie” (one of my favorite Steely tracks no less) should have mentioned this way earlier to avoid the current chaos.
You know, given the delayed reaction by politicos, the saturated media coverage and law enforcement not being transparent enough by disclosing updates on the investigation to avoid civil unrest, my conspiratorial mind thinks this was intentionally orchestrated as some social experiment to see how the populace would react on martial law. This isn’t the first go-around in recent memory. The last beta test started with a “B.”
“Leaving all that aside, why is the reaction when the black community feels victimized by police, to turn on its own neighborhoods and destroy their own homes and businesses?”
Because it’s the one chance by those who feel powerlessness to exercise power over authority. It’s the same core group of a couple of dozen or so thieves that are defiant in continuing the mayhem. They are the same people that threw rocks as little kids into houses and ran.
BTW I agree with you. MLK is rolling over in his grave.
It takes nothing to join the crowd.
It takes everything to stand alone.
Meh. In America this kind if thing happens from time to time, people better get used to it. The pattern is always the same: innocent fluffy black unarmed teen is shot and citizens demand answers by burning down their neighborhoods. A few days or weeks later we learn that the fluffy teen wasn’t exactly an innocent bystander and the shooting may well have been justified. You can ask why Ferguson police kept mum after the shooting but you should also ask why Eric Holder tried to keep the surveillance footage of Brown robbing the convenience store under wraps. Personally I’m all out of outrage about either side of this story – periodic shootings and rioting are the price America pays for being a dysfunctional “multicultural” society, and as long as nobody has any solutions it will be a regular part of the American landscape.
I have a solution, it would involve more decent paying jobs for regular folk.
We know that won’t happen anytime soon so bring in the goon squads.
🙁
Advice for those in LE, dress for the job you have, not the one you want. Yeah, you Furgeson officer screaming, Bring it on you F’n animals.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038.html#.U_JAyRyEF9s
Cheer up Orphan, here is a Power To The People video from yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxthl0d7Dek
The militarization of local police is one thing Liberals and real Conservatives agree should never happen. Just ask Rand Paul and the other Libertarian-leaning Republicans.
BTW the police chief in Furgeson has admitted the officer involved in the shooting knew nothing of the shoplifting incident.
I guess two-wrongs do make a right now.
This was posted by a guy who lives in St. Louis. His opinion is the cop is innocent obviously, but the time line, no matter what your opinion is, is interesting.
“Here’s how I think it went down, part of this consists of document facts and part is what I tend to believe more than disbelieve.
11:41 am: Brown and Dorian Johnson enter the Ferguson Market
Some time between 11:41 am and 11:51 am: Someone inside the Ferguson Market, not the store owner or clerk, notices that Brown and Johnson are committing a robbery
11:51 am: Someone inside the Ferguson Market, again not the store owner or clerk, calls the Ferguson P.D. to report a robbery and gives the dispatcher suspect descriptions
11:53 am: Brown shoves the store owner or clerk on his way out the door
Some time between 11:51 am and 12:01 pm: The dispatcher puts out a call for an officer to respond to the Ferguson Market for a robbery, Officer Wilson, having just gotten done responding to a call for a sick infant, replies that he’ll handle it.
The time period between 11:53 am and 12:01 pm: Brown and Johnson, just having robbed the Ferguson Market, travel on foot at some rate of speed, given the distance, probably at least at the pace of a very fast walk if not a slow run, north on West Florissant then east on Canfield
12:01 pm: Officer Wilson, on his way between the sick infant and the Ferguson Market, traveling west on Canfield driving a Ferguson P.D. SUV, a Chevy Tahoe or the GMC equivalent, encounters two men walking or running in the middle of Canfield walking east, in the opposite direction. That pisses him off, so Wilson accosts them, a short argument with Brown ensues in which Brown sticks his head into the SUV, then backs off. Johnson was already running away from that scene, then Brown follows him after Wilson gets Brown to back off.
12:02 and 12:03 pm: Wilson gets a suspect description over the radio, and realizes that the two jaywalkers are also the two suspects at the robbery scene he hasn’t gotten to yet. Wilson gets out of the SUV to pursue them on foot, as they had not gotten that far away yet. Johnson keeps on going, but Brown turns around and runs directly toward and at Wilson. Having no other recourse with a 6’4″ 290 pound man coming at you like a speeding freight train, Wilson fires seven shots, hitting Brown in his front with six of them, killing him.
12:04 pm: Another Ferguson P.D. vehicle arrives on the scene, with Brown already dead and laying on the Canfield Avenue pavement.”
Even if this is what happened or what the cop claims happened, he is going to prison. The facts in this case, will count for far less than the need for a sacrifice. He is fu*ked.
The police chief admitted later the officer did not know of the shoplifting incident when he approached the two young men. Three-days before you posted this tripe.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/police-name-darren-wilson-as-officer-in-ferguson-missouri-michael-brown-shooting-1408108371