The Death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri

http://i.imgur.com/pF0zhqK.png

http://i.imgur.com/gMBRINS.jpg

http://deadspin.com/america-is-not-for-black-people-1620169913

Sultan interviewed an 11-year-old boy about the rioting. "I don't know why they hate us so much," he said.

man, that is heartbreaking. i've had students express the same sentiment and never really known how to respond.

they don't even know why they hate you so much

yeah

don't know the details yet, but this just happened again

http://uptownmagazine.com/2014/08/ezell-ford-unarmed-black-man-killed-by-police-in-south-l-a/

http://jezebel.com/this-is-why-were-mad-about-the-shooting-of-mike-brown-1619522935

http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/08/10_social_media_shares_about_the_horrors_in_ferguson.html

http://instagram.com/p/rlipIeOuCY

Is this SOP for 'riot control'? Closing down airspace?

http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_4_2599.html

http://i.imgur.com/rRwPK29.png

apparently the St Louis County PD asked the FAA to do that, claiming a police helicopter was shot at? this time report notes that it also makes it hard for news organizations to get aerial shots of what's actually happening: http://time.com/3105035/ferguson-faa-no-fly-zone/

Hah yeah, that just came to me - my thoughts were verging more sinister... still, that's pretty fucked up

http://i.imgur.com/lWcDJnO.jpg

NOTAM lifted: http://www.ibtimes.com/faa-lifts-ferguson-flight-ban-airspace-was-restricted-following-michael-brown-riots-1656698

The FAA bureaucracy is still trying to figure out how to deal with both government and privately-owned drones all interacting over this.

Can you explain why a black man is killed by the police every 28 hours in this country?

wau

https://mobile.twitter.com/PDPJ/status/499394946416529409/photo/1

ferguson pd's response: bring bigger guns

FUCK THAT.

it is sort of heartbreaking seeing grassroots petitions and protests demanding real legislative changes in how these cases are treated and knowing that nothing will ever change until everything, the entire philosophy on what "police" (and prison) is supposed to mean from the federal level on down, is completely abolished and replaced with one that isn't built on sadism and racism. all you can really do is call for the persecution -- or at least the firing -- of the guilty officers. anything beyond that is unattainable because this is how the system is built to function. chop off one leg and there's fifteen more all saying "you can still shoot black men whenever you get the urge"

michael brown and eric garner and marlene pinnock, i'm really upset by all this, share zachlyon's frustration with the difficulties of revamping law enforcement.

America why are you looking so much like fucking China or some shit right now, what the hell guys.

Cops give a damn about a ne-gro?/Pull the trigger, kill a n***a, he's a he-ro.

America why are you looking so much like fucking China or some shit right now, what the hell guys.

― the Bronski Review (Trayce), Wednesday, August 13, 2014 3:18 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Police officers in China didn't even begin to carry firearms until a few months ago, let's get our facts straight here

they don't even know why they hate you so much

― j., Wednesday, August 13, 2014 2:55 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they don't even know that they hate you so much. i never know how wilful this is

guy on NPR this morning (heard only a snippet in passing) said that the ferguson PD employs 52 people, 3 of whom are black. patrolling a 2/3 black community. also, there was apparently another shooting by a cop overnight, this time with the allegation that the victim - injured but not killed - had a gun.

America why are you looking so much like fucking China or some shit right now, what the hell guys.

America has always been like this.

Cleveland, OH, 1966. Plus ca change . . .

http://binaryapi.ap.org/ac11b76c8ce24735a7e5c3b38cef9217/512x.jpg

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/america-is-not-for-black-people-1620169913

The worst part of outfitting our police officers as soldiers has been psychological. Give a man access to drones, tanks, and body armor, and he'll reasonably think that his job isn't simply to maintain peace, but to eradicate danger. Instead of protecting and serving, police are searching and destroying.

If officers are soldiers, it follows that the neighborhoods they patrol are battlefields. And if they're working battlefields, it follows that the population is the enemy. And because of correlations, rooted in historical injustice, between crime and income and income and race, the enemy population will consist largely of people of color, and especially of black men. Throughout the country, police officers are capturing, imprisoning, and killing black males at a ridiculous clip, waging a very literal war on people like Michael Brown.

http://www.businessinsider.com/police-militarization-ferguson-2014-8

"Why do these cops need MARPAT camo pants again," I asked on Twitter this morning. One of the most interesting responses came from a follower who says he served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division: "We rolled lighter than that in an actual warzone."

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench <-- deserves a medal for covering the events

There's an amazing picture of him tweeting while standing around a bunch of exploded tear gas canisters.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Buze9jFCIAAM-De.jpg

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/08/unarmed_black_man_ezell_ford_shot_by_police_in_la.html

While the country is still reeling from the news and aftermath of the fatal shooting by police of unarmed Ferguson, Mo., teen Michael Brown, KTLA is reporting that a 25-year-old mentally challenged man, who his family says was complying with officers, was shot and killed while lying on the ground. He also was unarmed.

A Black Man is Killed in the U.S. Every 28 Hours by Police
Fri, 5/31/2013 - by Adam Hudson
This article originally appeared on AlterNet

Police officers, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes extrajudicially killed at least 313 African-Americans in 2012, according to a recent study. This means a black person was killed by a security officer every 28 hours. The report notes that it's possible that the real number could be much higher.

The report, entitled "Operation Ghetto Storm," was conducted by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, an antiracist grassroots activist organization. The organization has chapters in Atlanta, Detroit, Fort Worth-Dallas, Jackson, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, and Washington, D.C. It has a history of organizing campaigns against police brutality and state repression in black and brown communities.

http://www.occupy.com/article/black-man-killed-us-every-28-hours-police

ugh fuck this fucking country for real

re: ezell ford being mentally challenged but also just everything

last night:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bu7bdZfIEAAg5js.jpg

this is all so depressingly predictable/never-ending

wtf

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/08/13/reporters-say-they-were-just-arrested-in-ferguson-missouri-for-not-leaving-mcdonalds-quickly-enough

and now tear gas

amazing to me that no higher authority has seen fit to rein in the cops if for only pr purposes

oh well, war on the streets, states' rights ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It doesn't seem like to me that the city government of Ferguson realizes that THE ENTIRE WORLD is watching and tracking their every move. Or maybe they do and just don't care.

i don't think higher authorities really give a shit unfortunately and never really have : /

The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation but yeah I don't know who is watching the watchers in this case

PaulSzoldra
SWAT using LRAD (loud deafening siren) in Ferguson

hang on, claire mccaskill has made calls to the dept. of justice, may discuss things tomorrow

Way to be on top of things, Claire.

You've had four fucking days.

have we heard of the governor of missouri?

Shit's getting real:

@RealAlexJones 2m
#Ferguson Police Attack Protestors With Tear Gas & Rubber Bullets! Infowars reporter Joe Biggs wounded LIVE: http://bit.ly/1kCmkgt

(They've pissed off Alex Jones! I haven't clicked that link yet.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=zApzDwjxfgs

This is insane

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9035483/events/3271930

holy fuck

Media has been told to stop rolling and the St. Louis Police have issued a "final warning" to the crowd. What the hell

Protectin and serving (themselves that is)

This stream is a repeat, because what's going on now is what's in the youtube video linked above.

When police fuck up then lose control, what can they do to get back control without more fucking things up? It's the eternal police state paradox.

they could just go home

don't read the comments on that video fyi : [

man twitter is a fucking godsend right now. i havent been this disgusted in my country since katrina.

guys america is the best country its the BESSSSSSST

*burns passport*

this place is garbage

luckily you won't be needing that to get to missouri

So fucking frustrating

kinda feeling like germany in 1933 atm

Fucking crazy.

Rubber-bullet Tiannamen.

st louis twitter folks to follow:

https://twitter.com/BlackSpade
https://twitter.com/Vandalyzm
https://twitter.com/TefPoe
https://twitter.com/Nettaaaaaaaa
https://twitter.com/brownblaze

@brownblaze particularly is key imo

Antonio French got arrested

so proud of the people filming and recording the events, i doubt i would have the courage.

are they incredibly stupid or omnipotent... either way they are armed to the teeth and i am really fucking scared

Occupy got us used to footage of tear gas creeping through downtown streets and city parks, but I have to say its a new sight seeing it crawling down suburban roads and lawns

And was wondering when the LRAD would see another deployment.

Reading the story of those reporters who were beaten up and arrested for sitting in a McDonalds and then released without ANY police report / documentation being written up was horrifying, and it's not even close to the worst tidbit of this whole saga

They let us hang out for a couple of months before they came in with night sticks and tear gas. They don't seem interested in letting people in Ferguson stay the night.

xp

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/us/missouri-teenager-and-officer-scuffled-before-shooting-chief-says.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region®ion=photo-spot&WT.nav=photo-spot&_r=0

The photo accompanying this article is so fucked

(not graphic, just the level of armament)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xnSVtW49roE

jesus fucking christ @ that nyt picture

APV with a sniper on the roof - better equipment and coverage than soldiers got for large parts of the Iraq War.

one of the vet tweets I saw tonight commented something like "people who don't want to get shot at don't poke their heads out the top of an armored vehicle" on a similar picture

https://storify.com/AthertonKD/veterans-on-ferguson

https://mobile.twitter.com/AntonioFrench/status/499577829420302336/photo/1

(eugh storify lets you create hipster banner photos now?)

this is spectacularly fucked of course; such a mindfuck to see ongoing reporting

from FB

Sandy Mahady
These are thugs running amuck. I can't blame the officers at this point. This is not about a victim but it has turned into a thug Fest with unruly and tyrant behaviors from immoral thugs!!!

pictures look more like an occupying, hostile army than a police force

Is This How A Dystopia Starts?

Who else is marching today?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bu9-pU8IcAAjiCt.jpg:large

they could just go home

When things are this messed up, it's not that simple, is it? The police presence is the problem, but the complete absence of a police presence does not sound like a solution, either. Unless you just want every single person here - justifiably angry, scared, tired, a few troublemakers, many peaceful folks - to just get it out of their system. Which I don't think is remotely as simple as that scans, either.

xpost If that photo is real and is what it looks like, that is so messed up.

Why the skepticism?

The police BEHAVIOR is the problem! But if they are absolutely unable to do anything right, they should for starters be removed from the equation because they are going to kill more people if this continues.

Longer clip from yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO1SKC6dK7o

xpost Not skeptical, per se, but I've never seen one of those laser gun sight dots in anything but the movies. I know they exist, but I have no idea what they look like irl. Let alone pointed at someone's back in the dark.

The police behavior AND presence is a problem at this point. But if they are removed from the equation, I can't imagine this resolving itself quietly. This is what happens when they lose the public's trust.

According to various tweets, Antonio French was pulled out of his parked car and arrested last night. He was just released.

"Illegal assembly" in a parked car.

Bet you've never seen a police officer in full tactical gear perched on an ATV with a sniper rifle before either but you weren't questioning that photo

Man, those reporters and all the people with cameras in the middle of this ...

http://thatsenuff.com/index.php/2014/08/howard-alum-was-shot-in-the-head-in-ferguson-conflicting-reports-on-what-took-place-photovideo/

what the fuck

Was this posted upthread?

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/whistleblower-in-st-louis-county-police-racial-profiling-probe-alleges/article_3f52ec44-f9ab-5b06-b1f9-868cd63fc9ba.html

Absolutely damning.

http://i.imgur.com/A8mlmOY.jpg

Apparently the Ferguson police tear-gassed an Al Jazeera media crew

Tom Tomorrow cartoon nails it: https://medium.com/the-nib/officer-friendly-28e8d9399bbb

Kids in Gaza and Egypt are currently giving protesters tips via Twitter on how to cope with tear-gas attacks.

Destroy the mind. Destroy the body. But you can never, EVER destroy the heart.

This is easily our country's darkest hour since 9/11. The enemy is everywhere.

I literally want to punch anyone in the fucking face who mentions looting or Molotov cocktails. This is not a proportional response no matter what was going on.

Also I sure see little evidence that this was happening on a wide level

Also what happened to the police being expected to diffuse situations instead of entering them like combatants?

Walking Ebola virus Joe Scarborough says arrested WP reporters should have just yes-sir'ed their asses out of the McDonalds; arrested reporter Wesley Lowery tells him to get bent.

I would invite Joe Scarborough to come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock where he’s sitting sipping his Starbucks, smugly. I would invite him to come down and talk to the residents of Ferguson where I’ve been since Monday afternoon having tear gas and rubber bullets shot at me, having mothers and daughters crying, a 19-year-old boy crying — he had to run and pull his 21-year-old sister out from a cloud of tear gas, thinking she was going to die. I invite Joe Scarborough down here to do some reporting on the ground. Then maybe we can have an educated conversation about what’s happening here.

[...] Let me be clear about this: I have little patience for talking heads. This is too important. This is a community, a community in the United States of America, where are things on fire. This community is on edge. There’s so much happening here, and instead of putting more reporters on the ground we have people like Joe Scarborough running their mouth and have no idea what they’re talking about.

Has anyone given a source for the potential fact going around that there had been no homicides in 2014 in Ferguson until Michael?

https://storify.com/AthertonKD/veterans-on-ferguson

@Cardozorolled
@AdamWeinstein Also, we contained riots in Baghdad next to mosques with less violence than the police are employing.

@13F2PL7
I leveled my weapon twice overseas. Leveled. Not fired. I had legit threats and went through proper EOF. Stop fucking up, Ferguson PD.

i can't stop thinking about the mystery man who started all this -- the man who shot michael brown. does his family know he's the one who did it? the longer we go without knowing that person's name, the worse it gets.
also, who makes the riot gear? who is a shareholder in that company? i can't stop thinking about how horrible a corporate asshole's worldview has to be to want to arm police officers to the tits like this, and to provide the ammunition. it just kinda blows my mind as much as what's going on at a ground level with the riots and tear gas. i'm not reading minute-by-minute news about this bc it will send me into a tailspin and i need to keep it together for the beginning of the semester but man. titanically heavy shit all the way around.

"riots"

Ferguson PD have already released mugshots of the people they arrested for looting on the first night

Meanwhile they're still keeping the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown under wraps

i know
that's what i find completely bonkers because that guy knows who he is and his partners know who he is but no one else knows? who knows?

fucked up

one of the most enraging things, for me, is seeing how much the police officers seem to be revelling in their disgusting role. revelling in the militarisation, in the villainisation, in the sheer control they're able to exert with impunity.

https://twitter.com/mattdpearce/statuses/499763618146050049

this guy's fucking face.

from New Yorker dispatch:

In the same press conference, Belmar released the name of a nineteen-year-old young man who was shot in the head by a police officer during the previous night, who Belmar said brandished a firearm during a protest. The young man remains in critical condition, but, if he survives, he will be charged with felony assault of a police officer. Belmar stated that he saw no reason to doubt the officer’s version of the events.

Please get this kid a lawyer! We have multiple images and id's of Bundy fucks aiming high-powered rifles at agents. Where are their felony assault charges? It is absolutely stupefying.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/saw-ferguson

There will be no witnesses to the above altercation.

i saw some images earlier purporting to be from the killer cop's facebook account, including a few tasteful light quips about how he was trying to anonymize it so people wouldn't find him. won't link to it in case there are legal concerns there but searching twitter for 'scooby' should do the trick

Does not naming him immediately necessarily matter? I understand the resistance against the idea that they're closing ranks to protect him but, on the other hand, he wasn't shot by an individual - he was shot by the police. There's a collective responsibility and if that means the response focuses on collective failure, rather than individual malice / incompetence, that's not always a bad thing.

law enforcement is so insular to where they're practically invincible unless you get someone on video committing the act. and even then the legitimacy is questioned if the video is incomplete, as if onlookers should have anticipated what was going to happen. Police are trained professionals, they know what belongs in the incident reports, what IA reacts positively to and what looks more damning, they know what to say and do to avoid the hot seat and prosecution. They have every tool necessary to frame incidents of excessive force as self-defense.

I had a friend from Ohio who told me scary stories about local law enforcement in her town growing up, how many came from the same family and used whatever means necessary, often illicit, to protect their own when they came into harm's way.

the military equipment is probably just as much to provoke a reaction amongst those who are more easily agitated so they can legitimize their presence and have the entire episode written off as "a reaction to a threat by a disobedient youth who just shouldn't have resisted". y'know, as opposed to someone who was shot while surrendering, and the riots being a very real response to law enforcement who just refuses to listen to the populace they've alienated.

so the cop anonymous has fingered as the killer changed his name on facebook to "scooby willman" the day of the shooting.

i'm sure we remember steubenville--i'm taking the name they've released with a grain of salt, in part because this name isn't even on the ferguson pd personnel list they released earlier--but its on twitter if you go looking.

Apparently local PD are being pulled?

oh, excuse me, merdeyeux got there already. xp

Ferguson PD have already released mugshots of the people they arrested for looting on the first night

Meanwhile they're still keeping the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown under wraps

this is vile.

Only reason I edited this photo is because I don't run ILX. Dude does sorta look like a member of Loverboy.

http://i.imgur.com/zVVCeki.jpg

But COME ON.

looks like the fb account has been taken down.

Also what happened to the police being expected to diffuse situations instead of entering them like combatants?

i believe the constant reply from police nowadays is something like 'officers surely can't be expected to put their lives at risk, they're only securing their own personal safety and health'

I get that dude is getting death threats but guy is a cop, how many of those does he get on a regular basis? and it's not like they don't have the means to protect the guy.

not releasing the name = non-transparency. law enforcement can't sit there and claim "help us help you, tell us what you want", and then reply "ok, well, what can we do for you BESIDES that? We want a dialogue, maaan!".

i would hope this could be a moment when the US finally starts to do something about its completely broken law enforcement and criminal justice apparatus -- you'd think a coalition of the left, poc and amash/paulite republicans could start to cut through -- but who the fuck am i kidding

(and by "the left" i'm not talking the median democrat or obama, here...)

this is nothing, think of how little was done after we had a whole schoolful of children shot up. we're gonna not start to do something REAL EASY with this one.

well gun control and police demilitarization/prison reform/decriminalization aren't the same issues and don't have the same constituencies lining up

no, but that one had an issue that touched people despite constituency. i honestly doubt anyone not way up on the internet knows or cares that much about ferguson right now, or will.

you know the only gateway I see to reform of the police? war on the police.

(what that wd constitute, I have no idea. it doesn't involve permits.)

Meh, freedom-loving Republicans aren't going to get on this train because they're more scared of black people than cops.

ted cruz released a very diarrhea covered statement about the need for calm and for the police to respect civil liberties

POTUS apparently going to have a presser at 12:15.

for a shitrag like cruz to even suggest the police correct their behaviour - that's got to be a big deal, surely?

Even Drudge has switched from a cops-vs-thugs racial story to posting video of press being gassed.

fingers in the wind, hmm

"That coulda been me getting my fedora knocked off!"

lol

(what that wd constitute, I have no idea. it doesn't involve permits.)

even the most well-armed right-wing gun nuts could credibly challenge a major metropolitan police force

uh COULD NOT that should say

Only right-wing response I expect will come from the people who use Superdome photos for their FEMA concentration camp memes.

Yeah, I mean, we've already established that this one small town police force is more well-equipped than the U.S. military in a war zone.

a well-regulated right wing response, being necessary to the security of a free state

I must admit to getting a cynical chuckle out of this comment (from one of the stories linked ITT)

Curious how all those 2nd amendment supporters aren't out there fighting literal jackbooted tyranny.

this shit really puts the lie to the 2nd Amendment imo

xp

Yeah, I mean, we've already established that this one small town police force is more well-equipped than the U.S. military in a war zone.

― The Ape In The Outhouse (Old Lunch), Thursday, August 14, 2014 10:50 AM (40 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, more heavily equipped than a single rifle company anyway...

the difference in LEO response to bundy ranchers vs ferguson protestors boils down to race, not their respecive loadouts imo

do you think Dixie cops wd've used drones on SNCC?

to do what, photograph them?

BTW I don't think it's been posted here yet but apparently MO governor is stepping in to "relieve" local police of duties

I mean an armed one, like the cops will be using routinely in about ten years xp

Shakey, it wd have to be assymetrical warfare

Xpost to self: I guess this is still at the rumor stage. Gov. Nixon is is headed to Ferguson today but as of an hour ago

St. Louis Co police say they are not aware of reports that they are being relieved of duty in #Ferguson probe. #MikeBrown

made the mistake of looking at the FB page of one of the shooter's buddies. him & all his bros very much up on the "he was a THUG" angle & openly racist about p much everything.

POTUS statement upcoming here

http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/president-obama-makes-statement-22

i can only assume that's the default setting for cops (unapologetically and openly racist and hateful)

if you want to depress yourself even more, google "S3cond C1ty C0p" and read the blog, run by a current (maybe former) Chicago PD and frequented by tons of current cops. the racism on display has always been horrifying.

Anonymous twitter account suspended, apparently for posting the killer cop's real name :/

There's 53 police officers on the force. The killer cop has been there for six years. He hasn't punched the clock since Saturday. How hard was it going to be to hide this guy's i.d. anyway?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-14/st-louis-county-police-to-be-removed-from-ferguson-clay.html

*applause*

There's 53 police officers on the force. The killer cop has been there for six years. He hasn't punched the clock since Saturday. How hard was it going to be to hide this guy's i.d. anyway?

― pplains, Thursday, August 14, 2014 10:20 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

@TheAnonMessage2

backup back up

if you want to depress yourself even more, google "S3cond C1ty C0p" and read the blog, run by a current (maybe former) Chicago PD and frequented by tons of current cops. the racism on display has always been horrifying.

― Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0)

my cousin (a gay republican chiPD vice cop of all things) is a fan of that blog iirc. : /

If the cops have lost NRO, then...

If we take seriously the idea that political power ultimately resides in the people, then for the people to do their job and oversee the activities of the representatives they have elected to take care of their affairs, they need information. They are entitled to know the details of the case, including the identity of the officer and the details of his professional history. It is wrong to withhold that information. The investigation of the shooting cannot be evaluated in the absence of that knowledge.

The behavior of the Ferguson and St. Louis County police in this matter is illuminating. They are ridiculously militarized suburban police dressed up like characters from Starship Troopers and pointing rifles at people from atop armored vehicles, i.e. the worst sort of mall ninjas. They are arresting people for making videos of them at work in public places, which people are legally entitled to do, a habit they share with many other police departments. Protecting life, liberty, and property — which is the job of the police — does not require scooping people up for making phone videos; in fact, it requires not scooping people up for making phone videos.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/385391/name-and-name-not-kevin-d-williamson

whoah

looks like the President's statement has been pushed back to 12:40 EDT

wow xxp

Ted Cruz's statement on Facebook brought out some real winners. People are willing to say some crazy shit under their real name these days:

Debra Goudy What happened ?. The same thing that happens everyday, young black men behave as though they can abuse, harass, rape, rob, sell drugs and kill because they FEEL like it.HUMAN RIGHTS the black community needs to start teaching their children that they are not the only people on the earth with rights.

oh my fucking god the governor is joking about taking pictures of himself

young black men cops behave as though they can abuse, harass, rape, rob, sell drugs and kill because they FEEL like it

fixed

this is the worst public speaker I've seen in months

looks a little blue

oh look it's the dudes i see at jimmy john's every thursday

http://38.media.tumblr.com/fa08cd5548bad2311b5c76a886561a69/tumblr_na79r4cBTX1qjk3vuo2_500.jpg

Obama leading with Iraq mission

that has been going around and repeatedly described as fake xp

christ that military action in Iraq is the good news

xp ah ok my bad.

lol williamson's very next line is:

These confrontations are a reminder of the eternal question: Who? Whom? Who is to protect and serve whom here? Is government our servant or our master?

yes, this police action strikes me as very much leninist, wouldn't you agree *sips tea*

dunno if Barack Hussein Obama is the president I want to hear defend journalists' right to exercise First Amendment

O has gone so grey

that was such an uninspriing damp squib of a "speech", why even bother if you've got nothing to say beyond "children, behave"

that's pretty much what he always does iirc

Rand Paul's piece includes both Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation concern about militarization of police, related to that NRO quote.

http://i.imgur.com/tFqIWGN.png

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/10-insane-numbers-ferguson-killing

http://i.imgur.com/gZOJFEa.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/J2AaNIa.jpg

he couldn't resist blaming it on "big government" rather than the perhaps more-accurate "big defense" but man, what's going on in the world

xp infographics are a scourge

On the other hand, I think these stats indicate that, as a white person, my chances of operating a rolling meth lab in Ferguson probably are pretty good! Thanks infographic!

xp infographics are a scourge

― heck (silby), Thursday, August 14, 2014 1:16 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

Heh

did O's mewling at least include the line "Don't arrest journalists, prosecute them"?

sadly part of the problem in this scenario is that the african american community in ferguson doesnt vote.. hence all the white people runnin/ruinin shit

There are still three of the original agencies operating in Ferguson, and nobody is in charge and nobody is accountable. Sigh.

there is probably a lot on the ground to discourage that from happening xp

Last time I checked police officers weren't elected

jingleberries is that a statement from some evidence or are you inferring low voting rates from the current situation?

that was such an uninspriing damp squib of a "speech", why even bother if you've got nothing to say beyond "children, behave"

seriously that was not good

goole my source was an interview on npr yesterday. let me try to find it.

SIEGEL: We've all heard about how few black police officers there are in Ferguson. There aren't many black elected officials either - 1 councilman in 5. Why is that?

BYNES: Well, anything other than a presidential election there is low voter turnout. And the African-American community has been disenfranchised for a very long time. When you have people who are worrying about can I get a job - can I get to work - can I put food on the table - when election day on Tuesday comes around, that is the furthest thing from their minds. And the whites that live in the community - they participate. And so they vote for who they want for counsel and mayor, and they don't always put practices in place that are best for the majority population there.

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/13/340153388/between-fergusons-police-and-population-a-racial-divide

This is great:
https://storify.com/AthertonKD/veterans-on-ferguson

SIEGEL: But in a place with population 20,000, I'm a little bit surprised that actually most people don't know who the police officer was. I mean...

BYNES: Robert, I was just going to tell you people in the community have told me who the police is. They know who he is. It's about, I guess, releasing it at the much larger level. But people locally know who the cop is. The kids knew him. They told me that he would harass them all the time.

wow

BYNES: I was actually out there the night of the looting. I was trying to help calm things down, and I know that the people that were looting - they don't live in Ferguson. There have been reports that have been released from people who they arrested and they highlighted that, you know, so many of them came from the city of St. Louis, and they weren't actually Ferguson people.

Never underestimate the power of gerrymandering to ensure that only white people get elected. xp

How can we arrange to have FOX News firebombed? Anyone?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qcqRmJLudvY/U-zgG9Ag63I/AAAAAAAATuU/_sjBU9BSByU/s400/enhanced-1267-1408029765-17.png

sometimes i wonder just how different our politics would be if election day were a national holiday. xp

jesus christ, that FOX News still is like one of those Onion editorial comics

because you know it's vote or get fired for a lot of these people who don't vote xp

ppl, Fox News is preaching to the perverted

and trolling the troll-addicts

otoh, the cops have not forgotten H Rap Brown's message, amirite

Why don't you just write it, it's pretty obvious that you're dying to

? i thought people would know it

i'm not dying to do anything. everything's a mess.

Fox News is preaching to the perverted

Yes, and also to relatively well-meaning members of some of our families.

I believe it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said "disperse!"

riot vs. peaceful demonstration becomes a false choice when police are this eager to unconstitutionally suppress lawful free assembly

in other words, I lay the blame for everything at the cops' feet #riotapologist

For those unaware, I am assuming the punchline to Morb's joke is "Die, nigger, die!", which was the title of H Rap Brown's autobiography

yeah I think that was not his message, but a cynical book title, but I may be wrong

I was unaware of that one; was thinking of "Violence is as American as cherry pie." My apologies.

our Nobel Peace Prize winner in action

The Obama administration has defended the use of aggressive, militaristic police actions in court. In the case Avina v. U.S., DEA agents pointed their guns at an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old during a drug raid on the wrong house. The agents had apparently mistaken the license plate of a suspected drug trafficker for the plate on a car owned by Thomas Avina. Obama's Justice Department argued in federal court that the lawsuit should be dismissed before being heard by a jury because the agents’ actions were not unreasonable.

To be fair, the Justice Department almost always defends federal employees from lawsuits. And it seems likely that any other modern administration would do the same thing. But it wasn't always this way. In 1973, even the drug-warring Nixon administration fired, and then criminally indicted, 12 narcotics cops for raiding the wrong homes and terrorizing innocent families. Obama may be no different than Bush, Clinton, or his rivals for the presidency in defending drug cops who point guns at children during botched raids. But there was a time in America when even the original tough-on-crime administration was appalled enough at the idea to hold such overly zealous drug cops accountable.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html

I was assuming Morbz was referring to "violence is as American as apple pie" which is surely his most famous line...?

xxp

cherry pie whatever

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/in-defense-of-the-ferguson-riots/

The key for the Ferguson uprising, as with any unsustainable political moment, is to transition outrage and disruption into constructive political organization. Easier said than done — but it’s a better reaction than dismissing the riots and only making it more difficult for the people to accomplish this herculean task.

Malcolm X reminds us that media is a key instrument of subjugation because it determines which acts are respectable and which are extreme and thus illegitimate. Instead of following that familiar script, let’s push back against narratives about rioters being devoid of politics. Let’s find ways to honestly observe and discuss their political needs, rather than simply criticizing the nature of their response to social violence.

Looks good—I was just rereading the SI article on the Watts riots & thinking about how rioting/looting can be a form of "political organizing"

my gut reaction to Jacobin is basically "blah blah whatever guys"

*scribbles notes* "Yes, yes, very good... & now tell me, what is your gut reaction to a convenience store on fire?"

yes let's focus on the rioters who aren't from the community rather than the peaceful protesters who live there. xp

this is about local political culture imo and finding ways to connect and communicate that are part of daily life not filtered through media channels and ideologies hopefully making it less insane not more so for the non-whites who call these places home to exist there.

the author there is one of the smartest and most thoroughly grounded guys i know--and he's from missouri.

i think, mattress, that in saying "the key...is to transition outrage into constructive political organization" and "honestly observe and discuss their political needs" he's agreeing with your point about local political culture. a figure like chokwe lumumba seemed to get this keenly.

ok cool i will actually read the whole thing

get a little kneejerky about jacobin lately tbh

...and rightly so, the writing in that piece is so terrible and about-me and the author doesn't want to see it, frankly his armchair revolution tone, it may be born from good intentions but it strikes me as irresponsible. i think the npr interview linked above with the councilwoman who represents there is a far more grounded take on a few real obstacles that with a bit more engagement could be loosened improving conditions for disenfranchised people there and in other places like it, if only because of the simple act of engagement not grandstanding, and yes, ignorance of certain people on both sides is always going to be a part of the equation...

like here, i am going to advocate for a connecting bus route between two "sides" of the community (latino and white) as i can in my neighborhood, it seems the ratio of potential connection to alienation is greater than one if it goes through, or even if it doesn't and people have to keep trying in different ways to make the common ground become apparent to others, sometimes their whole life. a lot gets subsumed when you compromise and work within an understanding of the system that surrounds you but isn't that part of the transformational point?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvB1CBaIEAAszeW.jpg:large

<3

heart or angel wings?

or weirder, zip ties??

signed,
not a warrior

zip ties = handcuffs

I was unaware of that one; was thinking of "Violence is as American as cherry pie." My apologies.

Thanks. I apologize for transferring my anxiety about this whole situation onto you.

every time a cop fires a rubber bullet an angel gets his wings

ziptie wings are a crazy metaphor of perspective there

theyre also...................................................
,...............................................................
...................
white

A lot of angels got their wings last night

Ghostrider checking in:

http://mobile.twitter.com/pareene/status/499922849776541696

Man discovers One Weird Trick for processing information that conflicts with one's worldview twitter.com/NolteNC/status…
7:17am - 14 Aug 14

Which leads to noted Breitbart columnist:

https://mobile.twitter.com/NolteNC/status/499907224689733632

John Nolte

@NolteNC

#Ferguson is too politically convenient for me to believe anything the media's reporting.
6:15am - 14 Aug 14

reality is too politically convenient not to be denied

i mean i know it's all in the tweet but it's not funny anymore

related:

Peter Enns looks at the latest depressing study showing that facts are not persuasive when people’s religious or ideological preconceptions are at stake. Those contradictory facts are often known, just not accepted. They’re not rebutted, simply rejected outright as incompatible with the person’s preferred anti-factual – i.e., false — worldview.

(I dislike that word “worldview,” but it’s appropriate here since the very people who talk most about “worldviews” are precisely the same people who tend to reject facts in favor of them.)

#Ferguson is too politically convenient for me to believe anything the media's reporting.
6:15am - 14 Aug 14

^^who the fuck is this supposed to be politically "convenient for??

"Them"

A Captain Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol is now the commanding officer on the scene in Ferguson

https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery

tbh I'm almost weeping here at work at the contrast between what the police ought to be to us, in a civil society, and what far too many officers and departments actually are

wow trying to not be too optimistic but this johnson guy seems like he rules

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvCFnjCCUAAIybi.jpg

Are Highway Patrol cops as heavily militarized as other PDs? A tank would not seem especially useful in their line of work.

Had no idea about this Moment of Silence. This wasn't organized just in the past day, was it?

The day after Brown was murdered, I think.

This almost lets me forgive the MHP for that bullshit ticket I got outside of Rolla in 1993.

Almost.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/08/13/340076968/what-policing-looks-like-to-a-former-investigator-of-misconduct

http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2014/08/things-stop-distracted-black-person-gets-murdered-police/

But let’s get something straight: a community pushing back against a murderous police force that is terrorizing them is not a “riot”. It’s an uprising. It’s a rebellion. It’s a community saying We can’t take this anymore. We won’t take it. It’s people who have been dehumanized to the point of rightful rage. And it happens all over the world. Uprisings and rebellions are necessary and inevitable, locally and globally. This is not to say that actual riots don’t happen. White folks riot at sporting events, for example. Riots happen. But people rising up in righteous anger and rage in the face of oppression should not be dismissed as simply a “riot”.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvCci4DIMAEXAIz.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvCnzKfIUAAudPU.jpg

I’ve seen the following sentiment expressed on Twitter in response to Black folks murdered by police: “Stop giving them a reason to shoot you!” I’ve seen some version of that tweeted by people of all races, but the ones that concern me most come from Black folks themselves.

Y’all.

This country has spent the last several centuries systematically killing Black people. Black death is built into the system. Black death, alongside Native American genocide, built the system. Yet, whenever yet another unarmed Black person is killed by police, it’s somehow our fault? We must’ve been threatening/drunk/holding a BB gun/maybe possibly shoplifted some candy? Because after 400 years of never needing a reason, they suddenly need a reason? No. No. They have never needed a reason.

(that was meant to be a blockquote from mattresslessness' link)

she is good on looting too

Looting is often part of the “rioting” narrative. Peaceful protests that turn violent are often accompanied by looting. During the first night of the Ferguson protests there was looting reported at various locations nearby. Looting—stealing merchandise from vandalized businesses during a protest—happens separate from the actual protest taking place and its actual organizers and participants in every case I’ve ever heard about, anywhere, ever. Looting is often an opportunists’ game.

Looting, too, is about power. When people have nothing and something happens to remind them, in a big way, that what little they do have can be taken away in an instant, including their lives and the lives of their children, they may reach for any semblance of power or control they can get. That might mean breaking a window or even starting a fire. It may mean taking something. Something you’ve been told you can’t have because you’re not human enough to live, let alone prosper.

yes, great post.

i remember some of my first "conversations" about all this w/ my parents after katrina, venturing out and offering my newborn viewpoints on race in this completely white fictional matrix-like reality, i was having a hard time arguing with them because the personal property > people assumption is so ingrained. it's more an equation though, people are their personal property, people are personal property.

xp that post makes me want to reverse some of the things i was saying upthread about rioting and re-visit the jacobin piece tbh.

Looting, too, is about power. When people have nothing and something happens to remind them, in a big way, that what little they do have can be taken away in an instant, including their lives and the lives of their children, they may reach for any semblance of power or control they can get. That might mean breaking a window or even starting a fire. It may mean taking something. Something you’ve been told you can’t have because you’re not human enough to live, let alone prosper.

Maudlin, oversentimentalized and deeply insulting conflation of looting with any of the issues here. Looting is about getting wasted and going for nice shoes. It's not about power, race, or anything else. Fuck you.

I am reading this on Zing Touch so maybe you are quoting somebody but I can't tell.

imo the jacobin piece wasn't wrong as such but there was something seriously awry about its tone, i think that piece does a much better job of making the same points (and in far fewer words)

I'm befuddled by the comments about the Jacobin tone--the guy's a buddy, so maybe it's sailing past me for that reason alone.

And ~fields of salmon~, I am glad you've got things so cleanly figured out for all of us.

Maudlin, oversentimentalized and deeply insulting conflation of looting with any of the issues here. Looting is about getting wasted and going for nice shoes. It's not about power, race, or anything else. Fuck you.

man that is a deeply hostile response to a booming post imo

the quote is from the black girl dangerous post listed above, if you're interested in the rest of it:

http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2014/08/things-stop-distracted-black-person-gets-murdered-police/

aero otm

The tweets from the last 15 minutes...

https://twitter.com/trymainelee

That was a lovely post, HOOS -- I've sent it around -- and while the explanation for the psychology of looting was 100 percent otm I wish the writer had at least written one sentence acknowledging that a person or family's livelihood was at the very least set back by the destruction of property.

for folks who come through later:

New witness on @TheLastWord says officer grabbed Mike Brown, fired through window.

Said Michael tried to pull away as officer tried to pull him in.

Was standing 20 feet away. Says first shot fired as Browns hands on outside of SUV trying to push away.

Police say struggle for weapon inside of police car. Witness, Tiffany said Brown never in car when officer fired.

Says officer followed after Brown as he ran, firing as he chased. More than 5 or 6 shots.

New witness says Browns back turned as officer was firing.

Witness says Michael turned around after body jerked from shot, turned with hands up. Officer kept firing.

After last shots officer paced back and forth as Michael's body lay on ground.

New witness echoes what earlier witness said of Brown shooting. No fight for gun. First shot fired from inside car. Others as back turned.

(these are the tweets Andy K was referring to)

oh god

I wish the writer had at least written one sentence acknowledging that a person or family's livelihood was at the very least set back by the destruction of property.

					SAL
		  Whatdafuck do you want?
					MOOKIE
		  I wants my money.  I wants to get
		  paid.
Sal looks at Mookie in disbelief.
					SAL
		  Mookie, I always liked you.  Not
		  the smartest kid, but you're honest.
		  Don't make me dislike you.
					MOOKIE
		  Sal, I want my money.
					SAL
		  Don't even ask about your money.
		  Your money wouldn't even pay for
		  that window you smashed.
					MOOKIE
		  Motherfuck a window, Radio Raheem
		  is dead.

comparisons all too unfortunately on the nose

@jeremyscahill
If they changed the name to Fergustan, the Obama admin might intervene

What is wrong with St. Louis.

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/74/6745663f-af5d-5498-83fa-dfcd0624a574/4f78d1257d05e.preview-620.jpg

two important points:

• This is a City of St. Louis vehicle, not a St. Louis County vehicle.
• This picture is two years old.

But still. "we are watching you!"

what happens when you just let anybody use the decal printer pbly

I mean that's three fonts, a bird, and a weird eyeball…stick…thing??

thought it was photoshop at first, had to look it up for independent verification.

how

on the fence about the looting. agree that the narrative "looting is about power..." is overly romantic and indulgent, though not by any means incorrect.

there was looting by WTO protesters in seattle way back when, and the looters seemed, for the most part, like young, middle-class would-be anarchists (one reporter's opinion). pointedly NOT the utterly dispossessed. the nighttime looting was a disruption of and, yeah, an insult to the peaceful and poltically sensible daylight protesting.

while i don't really know, i would imagine that there's something similar going on ferguson. crimes of opportunity enabled by the breakdown of superficially "civil" society. and looting, regarless of how much we empathize with the motives involved, does require some kind of police response, imo. not what we've been seeing in ferguson -- tanks in the streets, tear gas fusilades gas night after night, crude media suppression, guns trained on peaceful protesters, etc -- not that, but something strong enough to restrict it.

Many of us rush to condemn these types of disruptions because we’re actually content with neoliberalism’s post-racial illusion. At the burned down QuikTrip, someone left a sign addressed to their “corporate neighbor,” in the hopes that the business would return: “Dear Corporate Neighbor, I am sorry this act of robbery & violence has happened. Please return soon. I stop in 2-3 times per week.” On the surface, addressing the effects of rioting is an important political issue. By framing themselves as a customer in need of their “corporate neighbor,” it’s possible that this person is acting not out of concern for the working people that lost their jobs — their actual neighbors — but from the fear that their shopping routine will be disturbed. Like Deandre Smith observed, we identify more strongly with broken windows than broken people.

This part of the Jacobin piece - which I mostly like - gets it wrong, I think. What's to sneer at in someone's shopping "routine" being "disturbed"?

speaking of the battle in Seattle

(Disclaimer: yeah really no reason to care what that dude says about this but hey)

xps to contendo

I was in Seattle then as well, and involved in those protests on a media level, and the looting that was on TV was purely opportunistic late night stuff, no masks. the kind of thing that fits the original post in question (which I obvs totally agree with). the folks you refer to were breaking windows during the day, but that's a whole different thing. if there was anything like what you describe, I don't remember it, and I was paying attention.

curious about how many majority-white districts in america have a majority-nonwhite police force

rally on boston common was great tonight. lots of urgent fire and love from everyone who grabbed the mic. hope this keeps rolling into some serious work. city needs it.

xp sleeve, i'm talking abt the nighttime attacks on like niketown & starbucks downtown, not so much the liquor store hits (etc?) up on cap hill, as i didn't see any of that. most of the vandals i saw just seemed like kids out having fun, though yeah, not the much-discussed "black mask" crowd. so far as i saw.

^ i mean, i've read reporting saying black masks were involved in the assaults against those stores, but didn't see it happen myself, so i can't say for sure.

i tweeted antonio french's photo of the pastor with the rubber-bullet wound and it's getting a lot of RTs. happy to be "twitter famous" for spreading a real message rather than a dumb joke.

riot vs. peaceful demonstration becomes a false choice when police are this eager to unconstitutionally suppress lawful free assembly

― ODB's missing grammy (bernard snowy), Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:57 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ tbomb

It may mean taking something. Something you’ve been told you can’t have because you’re not human enough to live, let alone prosper.

I think this was the part of that post where I started a combination of screaming and howling with laughter. There's a difference between being "not human enough to live" and being part of a discriminated and unfairly treated group in present day America. I'm thinking of some recent and not-so-recent historical events to put things in perspective—Gaza, the Balkans, Sudan, the Holocaust. The majority of Americans, even the poor black ones, can still go home, flip on the TV, and put some popcorn in the microwave oven. Most Americans still have the ability to express their sexualities and reproductive choices (although less so in the Republican areas, as far as I can tell as an outsider) and those that have kids can be reasonably certain they won't die in infancy or be taken away. Boys and girls are both free to attend school, and girls are not forcibly married at twelve or fourteen. It's also unlikely anyone will fire a rocket at your children's school.

I'll say it again, looting is not about power. It's about the opportunity to attain free consumer goods. I'm a middle class white person and I'd probably loot given the right circumstances. I don't begrudge people for ALSO looting in a time of turmoil or rage, but I've seen people looting after their sports team won or lost. It's all just... Stuff. Consumer goods. Please, don't conflate any of the issues surrounding a person being murdered by a police officer and all of the implications that holds for everyday life with people taking shoes from Foot Locker. These are two. different. things.

To be fair I didn't realize mattresslessness was quoting from a post by somebody else—who was talking about things people get distracted by when there is an event like this. In context, the paragraph about looting actually makes sense.

Hoo boy

depressed

There's a difference between being "not human enough to live" and being part of a discriminated and unfairly treated group in present day America.

i am sure the african american community, whose young men are imprisoned at rates to rival any cohort of oppressed people globally, who are victims of gun violence every 28 hours, who are prosecuted to stiffer penalties than their white counterparts for every possible crime, and who continue to endure all this punishment due to centuries of ignorance and injustice, despite the fact that they live in 'the greatest country in the world' will appreciate this difference and enjoy their fucking popcorn.

Also, the whole issue at hand, as the linked post indicated repeatedly, is that a black teenager is fair game for murder at any moment. So yeah, ''not human enough to live'' maybe seems closer to the mark.

Whenever a cop shoots a black youth and it makes the papers, what's the most common reaction? "He had a criminal past, he was no angel" or "He was committing a crime at the time, if he hadn't have done that, perhaps things would have gone differently".

Would some of these folks criticizing Brown share the same opinion if he was a white victim? I am doubting it. Folks come into these stories with their confirmation bias and assumptions, and as a result, they legitimize the actions of the police force.

I can't at all blame someone for feeling like they're "not human enough to live". Or, quite honestly, being scared out of their mind right now. It's fucking heartbreaking.

fields of salmon with a classic i'm white btw post

two important points:

• This is a City of St. Louis vehicle, not a St. Louis County vehicle.
• This picture is two years old.

That was at Skinker and Delmar. Here's "why" the truck was there http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/04/200-youths-riot-at-popular-st-louis-restaurant-district-gunshots-caught-on-video/

btw Delmar = http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17361995

Darren Wilson named as the officer who shot Michael Brown

Jeez didn't Anonymous tweet a different guy? That's really shitty

"Robbery suspect," huh? That's a new one.

Yeah, apparently they didn't leet hack their way into the Ferguson PDs personnel files after all.

"Robbery suspect," huh? That's a new one.

― Andy K, Friday, 15 August 2014 10:01 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a bit convenient, at that

OH, wait -- I forgot about the chatter about a candy bar.

Can't remember where that chatter came from, though.

probably Y0ungC0ns3rv4tiv3s.c0m, who are touting new pics that paint a 'diff pic' of Michael Brown cos he's pictured flipping the bird in one pic. they were the first hit I got when searching for the name and "candy bar".

don't go there btw. in fact, can a mod googleproof that so those assholes don't come here, either

Waiting for the appearance of an additional "witness" who was hanging behind a bush and overheard the murderer say, "Get the fuck on the sidewalk...you strong-arm robbery suspect who is about to reach for my weapon."

getting fatigued of watching people go 'we should withhold judgements until alllll the facts come out, we don't know what happened' as if a magical Evidence Wizard is going to show up with unedited video of the whole encounter which clears everything up.

I mean yes, by all means, familiarize yourself with all available details as they arise and map your opinion accordingly, but the disingenuous "oh this story is just media-slanted, wait until the facts come out" is such nonsense. In the end, it's going to be the witnesses' words against the police, with some other circumstantial evidence tossed in.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

Was listening to Steve Harvey this morning, and in as much as a teachable moment can be made of this tragedy, he really emphasized the importance of registering to vote, which not only gives citizens a say in the composition and diversity of their local government, but also betters the chance of a more diverse jury pool. Because what are the odds that the jury this trial eventually gets will be just as unrepresentative as the police force?

Jeez didn't Anonymous tweet a different guy? That's really shitty

Anonymous never gets anything right fwiw. Me OTM

Josh plz see upthread re: the impossibility of full time workers being able to take the time to vote

Missouri has also been trying to implement voter ID laws since 2006

Oh, I know all the reasons people don't vote, or can't vote, or are prevented from voting. But voting is part of the solution to several broader problems. This is something well-meaning observers who *do* vote, down in MO and elsewhere, can push for and/or through. Better laws, fewer bad laws, voter registration, helping people vote, etc.

Also, just registering to vote is enough to get placement on jury lists.

Which is something else folks with full-time jobs struggle with. That five bucks a day or whatever doesn't make up for the work they miss.

I mean, I get your point Josh and agree with you, but we need better laws to protect EVERYONE's ability to vote and serve without negatively impacting their livelihood.

I think voting is important but I also think it's a smokescreen for the issue that, no matter who is in charge, cops should not be murdering unarmed black kids. Like it is not acceptable for anyone to run on the "let's shoot em" ticket.

they're saying he allegedly stole a 48.99 box of cigars now. wtf

Like it is not acceptable for anyone to run on the "let's shoot em" ticket.

But all tickets are that ticket, unless/until they take explicitly take the position AGAINST being that ticket as a signature issue. That's what it means for white supremacy to be the default setting. That's why the term "anti-racism" is purposefully different from "not racist," because it has to be intentional or else things fall back to status quo, which is that black lives matter less.

I mean you're right, and I think you meant to say basically the same thing I did, I just wanted to be really clear about that point.

ot

m

.

In orbit science BOOM.

just want to repost this bit from the black girl dangerous post, it's been haunting me, feel like it does a good job of really explaining how and why it is NOT true that "There's a difference between being "not human enough to live" and being part of a discriminated and unfairly treated group in present day America.". They are the same, dehumanizing a group of people is discrimination, is unfair treatment, discrimination and unfair treatment ARE EXACTLY dehumanization, a "little bit" or "a lot" is where the excuses of convenience bear their wearying weight, your euphemisms are lies that allow this deep wound to fester.

I understand how hard it is to accept that as a Black person your life means so little in this country that you can be killed by police for nothing. That walking down the street while Black can be the only reason your life, or the life of your son or daughter or father or partner or friend, ends. You want there to be another reason, any other reason.

Yesterday on Twitter, @prisonculture wrote, in response to a tweet suggesting Black people can dress better to avoid being murdered by the authorities:

…”looking the part” doesn’t help you brother…I’m so sorry. I feel so much compassion for you. How do you absorb & internalize that you are killable, always killable? You create your own fictions. To survive, to live. I understand.
I, too, understand that it’s hard. Almost too hard to bear. Who wants to have to carry these things? Especially when you’re young and dreaming of a life without barriers based on your skin color. But pretending we can “respectable” ourselves out of racism is dangerous. And it will not save you.

Please don’t let respectability politics distract you from the issue. The issue, again: yet another unarmed Black teenager murdered by police. His name was Mike Brown.

yourour euphemisms

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench/status/500316380063748096

local PD strikes back, if u ask me

not sure i understand the issue here, didn't everybody want the name released?

they released the name of the officer, with zero details about the shooting

except for their side of events leading up to the shooting: there was a robbery of a convenience store, and brown "fit the description"

please correct me if that's not what just happened.

also: anonymous fingered the wrong guy

FOX News reporting, of course, that Brown did the robbery.

How could the Ferguson PD even know?

They left his body in the street for hours without collecting any evidence

FOX News: We mislead. You decide.

Voting might not mean much for local politics when city council positions and the like aren't full-time jobs, meaning you have to have a career that allows you the time to also serve on the city council. Voting is kind of moot when you get to pick between different people who do not have your interests in mind.

it doesn't matter if he stole a box of cigars or not

what matters is white cop murdered an unarmed black man

Except the (often unconscious) racist formula goes:

(black man = dangerous) + (theft = criminal) == dangerous criminal

And, of course, dangerous criminals may be shot on sight by the cops, who protect and serve us by shooting dangerous criminals on our behalf.

Has this been linked yet? http://grantland.com/features/ferguson-missouri-protest-michael-brown-murder-police/

The chant went strong for 30 seconds, until protesters grew weary of saying the same thing over and over again. And then, moments after the chant had died down, I heard glass break and the sound of a loosed gas canister.

“THIS IS NO LONGER A PEACEFUL PROTEST WHEN YOU TRY TO INJURE PEOPLE,” said the voice from the tank.

A man sitting near me was the first person I saw start to run. Then, suddenly, we were all running. I remember looking over my shoulder as my legs churned beneath me. The police were shooting flares and I didn’t want to get hit in the back. But I didn’t stop running, because I didn’t want the smoke to catch up. There was also the sound of weapons firing. And this siren. This terrible, terrible siren.

At some point, I fell. And, for a moment, I could feel the smoke in my lungs. The mix of the weapons firing and the smoke and the sirens froze me for a second, and then I got up to hide behind a tree. There were screams — “LET’S GO!” Some yelled at the cops: “Come lock me the fuck up!” “On the side of y’all car it says ‘to protect and serve’ and y’all ain’t protecting shit!” “There’s fucking kids out here and you throwing smoke bombs!”

Eventually, they’d pushed the majority of the crowd back to the nearest intersection. But most people weren’t leaving. And then the voice from the tank spoke again:

“RETURN TO YOUR VEHICLES AND RETURN TO YOUR HOMES, YOU MAY NO LONGER BE IN THE AREA. IT IS NO LONGER A PEACEFUL PROTEST. YOU ARE NOT PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLED. YOU MUST LEAVE OR BE SUBJECT TO ARREST.”

The more that voice from the tank spoke, the more agitated those that hung around became. And the less interested many were in following its orders.

“Y’all made this unpeaceful. That’s your fault. We was peaceful until y’all did that shit. Smoke bombs and people got their kids out here? Really?”

Reaching into my pocket for my phone, I realized that when I fell, I’d landed on it. It was done.

I wanted to leave, but I needed to send some type of message indicating that I was OK. I was at least an hour away from being anyplace where I could text or tweet.

As I searched for someone with a phone, everyone around me was ready to fight.

“Oh, y’all want us to shoot back. We’ll shoot back, just wait.”

“Tonight’s the last peaceful night. Know that.”

Shit, I immediately thought. Someone is going to die tonight.

Eventually, I met Michael Calhoun. He works at KMOX, the CBS radio affiliate out of St. Louis. He still had some juice in his phone and let me send a few tweets. Then we returned to the main street to see what was up. It seemed calmer than when we’d headed to the car. Smoke was in the air, but it wasn’t new smoke.

And then what felt like a bomb went off.

I don’t know what it was, but it sounded like a bomb. I don’t know what I was talking about when the explosion happened, but I ran. I caught Michael’s eye as he ran back to his car, letting him know he didn’t have to wait up.

I kept running. I didn’t know where I was running, but I was running. Now there were explosions and sirens and smoke and gunshots and a helicopter shining its light through the neighborhood. We scattered like roaches, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the cops thought of us that way.

And I kept running.

I can’t believe I didn’t call my mom.

After weaving through the streets, realizing that I’d gone in some sort of circle, I ran into a camera crew. One of the men let me attempt to charge my phone in his car. I laid down on the grass briefly, but then propped myself up because I couldn’t get the smoke out of my throat. A man walking down the street stopped and we stood there, coughing and spitting for 10 seconds.

And then what sounded like another bomb went off.

As we ran across the street, away from the sound of the explosion, a helicopter shone its light on us. We instinctively ducked, as if a prison watch guard had caught us trying to break out. And I grabbed my stuff. We told each other to be safe, and I started running toward the main street. I figured if I could just get up this one block, I’d find my way to the car blockade, and then I’d be safe.

Then I froze. I could see the soldiers marching up West Florissant. They looked like monsters.

At that moment, I didn’t feel like a journalist. There was nothing about this event that I felt the need to chronicle. There was no time to find out what the bombs actually were and what was actually coming out of the guns and what type of gas was coming out of the canisters. In this moment, there was nothing I felt the need to broadcast to the world. I didn’t even have the desire to communicate my safety or lack thereof.

I was just a black man in Ferguson.

I could imagine this shit happening at almost any moment in almost any town and city in America, that's how fucked up it is.

Oh it looks like Brown and probably is – didn't Dorian Johnson admit Brown took the cigarillos (I thought I heard it a few days ago? The officer who confronted Brown wasn't aware of the shoplifting accusation, I don't think. The video is timed to conflate two discrete incidents. What does Brown's stealing the cigars have to do with the confrontation or murder?

the problem is that it gives some people an imaginary "excuse" for the shooting, I would guess? I hope I phrased that right.

iow shakey otm

if some kid shoplifting from a convenience store is an excuse for shooting them, then there are a loooot of people I know who would have never made it to adulthood

i'm pretty glad i wasn't caught putting sales sticker on expensive CDs at tower records back in the day

And there are people deathly afraid of Sharia law.

wouldn't the barcode still have triggered the real price?

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/itemizing-atrocity/

For blacks, the “war on terror” hasn’t “come ‘home.’” It’s always been here. How then might we consider the emphasis on the militarization of policing as the problem as another example of “the precariousness of empathy”?

if some kid shoplifting from a convenience store is an excuse for shooting them, then there are a loooot of people I know who would have never made it to adulthood

this made the rounds this morning

TNR rounds up

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119109/ferguson-police-michael-brown-incident-raises-more-questions

it wasn't really "shoplifting," he asked for the cigars, said he wasn't going to pay for them and then roughed up the clerk who tried to stop him from leaving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHxXGvXQrno

Obviously that doesn't give a cop the right to shoot him in the street. But the guy with him in the store is the guy who gave the main eyewitness account of the shooting, makes it seem slightly less credible. Also makes it more likely that there was a struggle with police. OTOH it's not clear whether the officer even knew he was a suspect in a robbery. Still reserving judgment. Still think the larger takeaways remain true -- police are overmilitarized, their relationship to the communities they police is a big part of the problem, and excessive force is too easily justified.

well the front page of cnn says

"Ferguson's police chief says officer Darren Wilson shot the unarmed teen after first approaching him for "walking down the middle of the street blocking traffic." FULL STORY "

Casual racists really only need to be presented with the barest pretext of "thuggery" to smooth the cognitive dissonance stirred up by vague feelings that a person of color deserved to be murdered. Shoplifting on its own isn't so terribly damning, but shoplifting while black is indicative of a whole spectrum of antisocial behavior which would have only escalated had the police not taken care of the situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/15/us/surplus-military-equipment-map.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

Mapping the Spread of the Military’s Surplus Gear

State and local police departments obtain some of their military-style equipment through a free Defense Department program created in the early 1990s. While the portion of their gear coming from the program is relatively small (most of it is paid for through department budgets and federal grants), detailed data from the Pentagon illustrates how ubiquitous such equipment has become. Highlighted counties have received guns, grenade launchers, vehicles, night vision or body armor through the program since 2006.

xp Right, just saying a guy who had just robbed someone a few minutes earlier would be more likely to struggle with police than any guy walking down the street. Still seems suspicious that they haven't released more of the details of the shooting itself.

i think the problem really isn't any "struggle" but the fact that cops in general time and again seem to believe the only way they can deal with a "struggle" is by shooting somebody.

agree, also other witness accounts still make it sound like he was running when shot

BTW, that wasn't directed at you, Hurting. Just a general observation born of impotent rage.

like it's amazing to me that all i'd need to deal with a guy who's kinda maybe possibly (but maybe not) being a slight dick is to put on a badge, call him out on it, wait for him to get aggro back, and shoot him, then continue about with my life like nbd.

Well, you might be suspended without pay for a little while. Or be given desk duty. But otherwise, yeah.

without pay? my union will have something to say about that.

administrative leave = pay

cops coming up w this info 5 DAYS LATER is highly suspect; info itself is completely immaterial to the murder imo

like omg guy just got aggro and boosted some cigars BETTER SHOOT HIM

from that new republic article

What happened to the box of Swisher Sweets?

lol

administrative leave is one euphemism for the ages, sounds like dude off doing his taxes

from what I've gathered the police officer who shot michael brown had no idea that he had just shoplifted

wau: the overweight grouch on the FOX News panel on the 5 p.m. who passes for a moderate voice denounced the network for playing in a loop the video of Brown's alleged shoplifting. Why not footage of the peaceful marches? Whereupon the video shifts abruptly to...the peaceful marches.

Lovelace the police chief confirmed in a recent report that the officer did not, indeed, know he had just shoplifted. he had not responded to that report (that was a diff officer)

ok that makes the release of the video REALLY fucking suspect

yeah it's character assassination, nothing more. I mean nobody can defend the actions depicted in the video but the appropriate action is an arrest, not a shooting.

I agree w/ Hurting before that the testimony of the friend who was with him might not be trustworthy, but that was always known. Other independent witnesses who didn't (to my knowledge) have a vested interest in Brown also reported a similar story (although they did confirm a struggle in the car).

it speaks a lot to our gun-fetishism that someone holding a heavy weapon of weaponry can reach to any flinch or lurch as 'reaching for their gun', or any hand motion towards a waist as 'reaching for a potential weapon' and shoot someone dead and have millions come to their defense as responding to a 'credible threat'. You're the dude with the weapon.

Just a cursory glance at that NYT weapons map reveals an insane number of armaments.

I hovered over Yolo county CA, home of UC Davis, to find it has a helicopter, and an armored vehicle, and 446 assault rifles to keep the peace among its 204,000 residents across 1000 +/- square miles. I'm not sure if the weapon hoards are shared between agencies or if its all county property. But for a county that has 2.9 violent crimes per 1000 people, it seems grossly excessive.

I was also disturbed to learn that my own county of Alameda (7.9 violent crimes per 1000 citizens) is in possession of a grenade launcher. How it might be utilized in a policing situation is beyond me.

http://www.kaceykaderly.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/sublime-rome.jpg

Also they're apparently super into overnight surveillance in Ventura County, home to 3275 pieces of night vision equipment.

for the record, the "struggle in the car" that both eyewitnesses have described:

A new witness to the killing of Michael Brown emerged Thursday, corroborating major details offered by the earlier witness, Dorian Johnson. Both described the initial interaction between the 18-year-old and the officer as a tug-of-war in which the officer grabbed the teenager as Brown tried to free himself from the officer’s grip through a car window.

Contradicting an earlier statement by St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, Mitchell said she did not see Brown or anyone else assault the officer. Brown’s body stayed out of the police vehicle the entire time, Mitchell said. She also contradicted Belmar’s statement that there was a struggle over the officer’s weapon.

i think the problem really isn't any "struggle" but the fact that cops in general time and again seem to believe the only way they can deal with a "struggle" is by shooting somebody.

"cops in general" yes, but also people with guns in general. Black men are dangerous weapons and therefore it is justifiable to use deadly force when faced with even the hint of physical force from one. Obv it's even more egregious when a "professional" officer of the law is seemingly unable to use other options when faced with such a "threat".

someone in contact with Darren Wilson's family calls in to a wingnut radio show to give "his side of the story"

Wilson's totally plausible story is that of a cop with the politeness of an angel being assaulted by a maniac so aggro that not only did he initially attack the cop, and grab for his gun, but said maniac then ran 35 feet away only to turn around, taunt the cop pointing a gun at him when told to freeze, and then suddenly "bum rush" him 28 Days Later zombie style probably because he was "on something"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzBdY6WXeRE

shit sorry that garbage embedded

don't listen to wingnut shows

don't read the comments

don't post them here

Seeing speculation that the location of the theft and the location of the shooting are about half a mile to three quarters of a mile apart, meaning Brown would have had to traverse that distance in about 6 minutes while wearing flip flops

the store mike allegedly robbed was ransacked tonight--shortly afterward many took up posts in front of that store and others to guard against looting.

Eddie Baker ‏@iameddiebaker 6m
Repeat: dumb, drunk people tried to loot but were peacefully stopped by protesters while cops posed in riot gear and did nothing #Ferguson

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvJAvwJIUAATbaj.jpg

fuck this shit after yesterday. i mean the return of the stormtroopers, not the righteous protestors guarding shops

yeah, the return of the tear gas caught me by surprise

fuck this shit after yesterday. i mean the return of the stormtroopers, not the righteous protestors guarding shops

^^^all of this

Holy shit. Curfew announced from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m.

meet the new boss, etc.

"We must first have and maintain peace. This is a test. The eyes of the world are watching," Nixon said at a news conference Saturday afternoon...

so nervous right now

Yeah, Nixon again:

@GovJayNixon 13h
To achieve justice, we first need peace. Plz stay safe tonight. #PeaceinFerguson

Is THAT how it works -- "no peace, no justice"?

Twitter is the most undignified means of communication ever devised.

He had 60 characters left.

At a news conference about 3 a.m. on Sunday, Captain Johnson explained that some tear gas had been used because the police had learned that armed men were inside a barbecue restaurant. One man with a gun had moved to the middle of the street, Captain Johnson said, but escaped. Another man, who was not identified, was shot by an unknown assailant and taken by companions to a hospital, where he was reported to be in critical condition. A police car was fired upon, the captain added, but it was not immediately clear if it was hit.

nyt. ???.

Twitter indicates that police denied for something like...6 hours? Some hours? That they were shooting tear gas, claiming it was just "smoke" when EVERY SINGLE PERSON WITHIN WAFTING DISTANCE could tell they were lying. Then as they were about to leave the scene, a spokesperson admitted, Oh yeah, we eventually DID fire tear gas at those people.

My sense of the timeline is muddied by only finding this out when I wake up in the AM.

AND YOU KNOW FYI MISSOURI IS AN OPEN CARRY STATE SO

jesseWilliams. @iJesseWilliams
All of you vile, incurious, justify-anything, white supremacist cowards need to miss me w/ the bullshit & unfollow, forthwith. #Ferguson

dude from grey's anatomy is real AF

@WesleyLowery
On the phone now with a Ferguson mother who, along with her 17-year-old son, was also arrested in McDonalds on Wedns cc @ryanjreilly

@WesleyLowery
Had gone to counter to buy a sundae, saw cops. They demanded she come outside. She did. Said "can't leave w/o my son." They put her in cuffs

@WesleyLowery
When her son (seen in my video) finally finds her, she instructs him to record arrest on his iPad. Cops proceed to arrest him too.

This feels like that Bob Herbert town in Texas or other stories we've heard about small corrupt towns, but this one has growing witnesses every day (including Amnesty International).

Looking really grim right now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/us/michael-brown-autopsy-shows-he-was-shot-at-least-6-times.html

haven't been in this thread cuz have nothing unfatuous to say but this shit is the worst the worst and my heart pounds whenever i think of it, just wanna register that quickly here cuz i have no one otherwise to talk to abt it irl at the moment without causing arguments i don't wanna have anymore.

(haven't been posting in this thread i mean.)

Is this not the exact tyranny from which the second amendment provides protection? Surely the NRA is rushing to stand with the protestors?...

Haven't seen this posted yet, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a thing for Time:

http://time.com/3132635/ferguson-coming-race-war-class-warfare

"The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race"

Mr. Johnson said that he hid behind a parked car and that Mr. Brown was struck by a bullet in his back as he ran away, an account that Dr. Baden’s autopsy appears to contradict.

from the nyt story. i feel like they buried the lede? i mean so far these facts are much worse than Zimmerman for the prosecution

jesus those gov. soundbites are chilling

Then we’ll start debating whether or not the police in America are themselves an endangered minority who are also discriminated against based on their color—blue. (Yes, they are. There are many factors to consider before condemning police, including political pressures, inadequate training, and arcane policies.)

political pressures, inadequate training, arcane policies, and TANKS

arcane policies like "do not draw your gun on unarmed teenagers"

i agree with him in that the emphasis should be on systematic/institutional abuse, but i have no problems discriminating against somebody who has no problems shooting me on a whim

so if Brown actually was going for the gun you would call that a whim?

i'm not talking about just michael brown

michael brown and eric garner and marlene pinnock, i'm really upset by all this, share zachlyon's frustration with the difficulties of revamping law enforcement.

― brimstead, Tuesday, August 12, 2014 11:30 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oscar grant

etc

that's fair, i think all of those cases have better evidence of abuse than this one has as of yet

Things I hadn't read elsewhere - http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/16/ferguson-and-thepoliticsofzipcodeapartheid.html

Ferguson is an outer suburb of St. Louis, the 16th fastest gentrifying city in the U.S., according to Census data... In the St. Louis area, this type of population shift transformed the predominately white town of Ferguson into a largely black one.

In 1990, white residents of Ferguson comprised 73.8 percent of the total population, while those identified as black made up 25.1 percent, according to the U.S Census. By 2010, 29.3 percent of residents identified as white and 67.4 percent as black.

oh come on een

so in one generation the racial makeup of the town flipped essentially.

i'm talking about the general abuse of police power. that includes scaring protestors by rolling up with tanks, spraying protestors with crap, LYING about it/withholding information.. that's in addition to the everyday stuff like choking people, punching people in the head, etc.

so if Brown actually was going for the gun you would call that a whim?

― een, Sunday, August 17, 2014 10:21 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

uhhh good question, what is this dungeons and dragons?

the tanks are stupid, i can't think of any practical reason for having them there. tear gas is appropriate in myriad situations. i don't know whether this was one of them but the police claim that gunshots hit a squad car. i don't know what they lied about.

you weren't just talking about the handling of the protests though, that's why i first commented. and yeah my question was a good one, whether or not he rushed the cop or was executed with no provocation is the crux of the fucking case

i don't think figuring out what happened in this incident does any major part of the work in the systemic racism of police practice, but saying that officers will shoot on a whim is just kneejerk bullshit that doesn't address that racism

in fixing*

ok, but it does effect how safe/unsafe i feel around cops! i didn't mention anything about race

Haha, just tried posting about this on Facebook. Reminded why I don't post about politics/etc. on Facebook.

well anyway, SORRY, i should not have used the word whim so whimsically.

sorry for taking you too literally, i wouldn't have said anything if i didn't think you meant to imply a conclusion about how the shooting happened

This was... not the best week for LET'S BE COPS to be released.

National Guard deployed, Amnesty International sending team to US for the first time

i have an awful lot of trouble believing that michael brown went for the cops gun

Is there a good place to go (outside of Twitter) for regular and generally unbiased coverage of what's going on? I'm trying to stay abreast while also forestalling my rage strokes.

Nope. Twitter is it

there's gotta be somewhere

Twitter really is it.

Welp, I guess I'm out of the loop until after work hours, then. Y'all have been good with the updates on this thread, though, for sure.

I mean, I watch msnbc and Chris Hayes etc religiously, but that news is 12 hours old by morning and a whole other set of events has taken place. (And I think even CH has had some tonal problems at times.)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/18/ferguson-violence-martin-luther-king-michael-brown

“One should not overstate the case: [throwing firebombs and shooting at police] are not the hallmarks of political sophistication. But then nor are riots. They are the crudest tool for those who have few options. By definition, they are chaotic. Rich people don’t riot because they have other forms of influence. Riots are a class act.”

I would settle, during the hours of the day when my internet access is relatively restricted, for suggestions of news sources that stray somewhere beyond the "heroic police force vs. faceless, rioting savages" narrative that much of the mainstream media depressingly clings to.

http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry

http://www.msnbc.com/all

If you can listen on headphones, or use to follow links to print reporting.

@AntonioFrench
Police say static protests will not be allowed today on West Florissant. Marches along the sidewalk, but not gatherings. #Ferguson

What in the hell is the end game supposed to be, for "authority"? What happens once armed forces are keeping law-abiding citizens trapped in their homes by threat of state violence??

They're probably hoping people will run out of energy and stop showing up. Hey, it works for lots of dictatorships.

I keep asking myself that. At this point, what are they trying to accomplish?

Also honestly I'm getting more and more upset with Obama for not doing something.

"static protests will not be allowed" sounds kiiiinda completely fucking unconstitutional but hey, i'm just an unfrozen caveman internet commenter

Maybe this is his implicit way of encouraging a full-scale uprising of the US citizenry against their local constabulary.

I find it very helpful when the kindly policemen let us know which legal actions they will and will not tolerate. It gets so confusing when I have to constantly wonder which laws and parts of the Constitution are actuall valid!

loyal Dem excuse-making for the POTUS is in full effect on FB

"the AG and DOJ are investigating, that's the tool of the executive"

It seems like the feds can get directly involved now and get absolutely avalanched by states' rights protests, or wait until more people are killed as a result of the military occupation of a quiet American town.

didn't stop Eisenhower in '57

morbius don't you have a larouche table to be manning in an airport somewhere?

:p

Paid for by Expatriates for Hillary 2016

xp

http://www.clickhole.com/article/8-more-unarmed-teens-still-large-731

The unarmed teens are the ones to look out for. They're so unhinged that, with little provocation or reason to do so, they'll lunge through a car window to snatch a gun away from an armed psychopath with the law on his side.

Also honestly I'm getting more and more upset with Obama for not doing something.

he's been golfing in martha's vineyard iirc

not really sure what people expect O to do in this scenario

If I were Obama I would be spending my days hoping for oblivion at this point so

looks like there's some good news for him then

the philosophically honest thing to do would be to send the Army in

do we even have an army anymore I thought it was just cops and drones

It's time to send in the Robocops

I don't know, call in the National Guard but to reign in the god damn police, not the protesters.

The National Guard will be on hand to provide surplus ordinance in case the state police don't have enough tear gas for all of the children present at the protests. You know how kids can get if the boy next door gets gassed and they don't.

https://storify.com/miniver/mike-brown-facts-and-dog-whistles-from-shaunking
https://storify.com/miniver/mike-brown-facts-and-dog-whistles-from-shaunking
https://storify.com/miniver/mike-brown-facts-and-dog-whistles-from-shaunking
https://storify.com/miniver/mike-brown-facts-and-dog-whistles-from-shaunking
https://storify.com/miniver/mike-brown-facts-and-dog-whistles-from-shaunking

Somebody(I think it was TNC), pointed out that all it took was O to say something last year about Trayvon Martin for the rightwing douchebag noise to go from a trickle to a deluge.

It'll happen again this time, no doubt.

Small portion (not even close to the most important bits) from what I just linked:

Minutes before the Ferguson Police Chief sounded his dog whistle, our petition was getting 1,000 signatures an hour for 48 hours straight.

Literally, and I mean instantaneously, after the Police Chief sounded his dog whistle, we went from 1,000 an hour to 150 an hour.

In other words, by releasing the video of Mike Brown stealing cigars, the police chief said, "White people. It's OK. You don't have to care"

Consequently, and social media is what I do for a living, the positive @ mentions of Mike Brown & signups on our petition by whites TANKED.

The thuggification of black victims of police violence (and other forms of violence) is a real thing. It's real & it's despicable.

i got into a near screaming argument about ferguson with a woman last night who started out with with "they're killing each other out there now, that's the real problem". She works in education; I was kind of shocked anyone who works with children could have that kind of fucked up attitude. It was a five minute conversation that featured me repeatedly saying "the problem is that the cops killed an unarmed kid" several times and ended with me more or less walking away after she said "eighteen isn't really a kid you know, they can buy cigarettes".

17 and under kids never smoke iirc.

her blitheness of "we're having a difference of opinion here: you think it's a problem with the police and I think it's a question of education those people so they can get better jobs and won't loot; why are you getting so upset" had me whipped into a fucking fury
I occasionally find people who feel like it's just us chickens talking, why can't we be honest who think they can get away with saying the most vile shit with the most uncaring bored attitude

There really is no bottom limit to the type of infraction that racists will accept as an excuse for the murder of a minority. I'm sure the jaywalking would've been enough for some people in Michael Brown's case.

side observation: the stills that were made to represent the robbery video make Brown more intimidating/threatening then the video itself. obviously by design.

Heard someone interviewed on npr station carried BBC radio hour this morning who while very very critical of the police (the killing and the afterwards behavior--leaving body on street for 4 hours, subsequent militarization), also suggested that there were last night-Sunday-- looters from elsewhere in Missouri, and radicals from Chicago with molotov coctails; whom the interviewee suggested were giving the rest of the protestors a bad name and encouraging the poorly trained police to act worse

Various twitter users have said similar things. Out of state white people and ding dong Chicago anarchists (also white) mucking up the scene.

It's been a few years but my experience with Chicago anarchists is that they tend to be idiots who fouled up more than one otherwise peaceful protest around here by damaging property, etc.

Has there been any photographic/video evidence of the Molotov cocktails that police, etc. keep on talking about? Because I haven't seen any.

I saw one photo (ONE!) of some dudes lighting a cocktail.

IIRC, most of the photographic evidence of the Molotov cocktails has been destroyed by the protestors' IEDs.

not really sure what people expect O to do in this scenario

― Ο τις, Monday, August 18, 2014 1:25 PM Bookmark Flag Post

acknowledge something enormous

x-post

rightwing site's photo and story (beware of the comments)

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/ferguson-looters-attack-beat-threaten-reporters-with-molotov-cocktails/

but O can't "do anything," ever! i'm sure Republicans are somehow responsible for his bouncing between mealymouthed dribbling and silence.

can totally buy this stuff about agitators from chicago

most unfortunate, b/c it's all going to be collapsed onto lots of racist "blacks out of control" memes that are going to allow white people to hand-wave all the police abuse away

morbs, do you have some kind of alert set up when someone mentions the president so you can rush in and make the same comment for the 85,678,910st time?

oh O *could* do some things, I'm just not sure that a) they are the things people want him to do or b) that they would have any positive impact on the situation.

Like I would be totally cool with him going all angry-Ice-Cube on the Ferguson PD but that would actually produce the opposite of the desired effect (most likely - also O is v aware of this). Or he could (more likely) come out in support of "maintaining peace" and send in some Army troops, which would just make things worse.

But feel free to elaborate if I'm overlooking something.

Yeah, I'm not sure what positive impact he could have, but on the other hand it makes me angry that he's just sitting by silently.

<-- that's the dilemma of being Obama in a nutshell!

he knows how to be a post-race president. the stakes there were expressing forgiveness for his racist white grandmother. now the trick is, how to be the first black president at a moment when out of all of our worst nightmares we wake up in 1966 all over again.

I can't even imagine the pressure. rooting for him & for everyone.

presuming no fed troops will be sent, he has about as much of a role to play in 'resolving' this as Joan Rivers does

I predict this will culminate in the St. Louis PD releasing a statement that they're going to modify their tactics for crowd control and that will be the extent of the 'change'. Cop will get out of any charges.

at this point the infighting on the police/county prosecutor/local gov't level is probably more interesting and more relevant to the outcome of the actual case than anything else going on in the streets

omg guys he was high on pot - CASE CLOSED

This general tone of "however can we quell this tide of angry protest?" I keep seeing in news stories is so infuriatingly disingenuous. There are a lot of secondary factors feeding the flames, sure, but the potential immediate solution that law enforcement is avoiding is the same one they waffled on after the death of Trayvon Martin: treat the murderer of an unarmed teenager like someone who murdered an unarmed teenager.

he wasn't an unarmed teenager he was a black teenager high on the weed who stole some cigars - aka a dangerous threat to white people dontchaknow

he was a black teenager high on the weed who stole some cigars - aka a dangerous threat to white people

Fixed.

heroic peace keeper captain johnson arresting journalists

http://gawker.com/ferguson-police-threaten-to-shoot-reporter-and-mace-chr-1623125660

Yeah, I've read a bunch about people being so happy that Captain Johnson is in charge now, but I haven't read anything that made a case as to why this is such a good thing. The events since he took command certainly seem to suggest it's SNAFU in Ferguson.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/18/police-in-ferguson-arrest-and-threaten-more-journalists/

Overnight, several journalists reported being detained, threatened or otherwise prevented from covering the unfolding story. The arrest late Sunday night of three reporters — Robert Klemko of Sports Illustrated, Chicago-based Financial Times reporter Neil Munshi and Rob Crilly, a foreign correspondent for the Telegraph (and no stranger to war zones) — reportedly came as the journalists attempted to gather more information while police faced off with protesters.

Who's lead are the cops taking when they do stuff like this? Is it their natural reflex to stifle free speech and making any type of record of whatever it is theyre doing or are they getting briefed about how to treat the media?

Reminder that three years ago thousands of college kids were allowed to riot after their school's football coach got fired for withholding information about a convicted pedophile and the police managed to not militarize, use tear gas or fire on unarmed protestors with rubber bullets http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-students-in-clashes-after-joe-paterno-is-ousted.html?_r=0

Sports Illustrated being on the case in Ferguson is just taking the X Games thing too far

龜, that was not a riot but 'community venting'

So I guess the lesson is that riots are acceptable as long as there's either a high enough white-to-minority ratio or an almost completely apolitical reason for the riot.

Mostly the first one I'm pretty sure.

presuming no fed troops will be sent, he has about as much of a role to play in 'resolving' this as Joan Rivers does

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius),

the difference, of course, is that Brown v. Board of Education had been decided and the states had to follow the law and desegregate. No one's been adjudicated yet.

we have an incompetent governor who when faced with the test of his political life has failed. What I've read about Nixon suggests he's spent the last three years being red dog Democrat trying to keep old white people happy.

soooooooooo tired of democrats trying to keep old white people happy, sometimes i feel like this has been their defining narrative of the past, i don't know, 20 years?

I did read that Guv Nixon ran for state AG in '92 as an anti-busing candidate, right?

tired of democrats trying to keep old white people happy

got Ed Koch and Bill Clinton elected 5 times between em

why Bubba got to be "the first black president" I didn't quite understand, after his Ricky Rector, Sister Souljah and AFDC-abolishing moments.

soooooooooo tired of democrats nearly everyone in america trying to keep old white people happy, sometimes i feel like this has been their defining narrative of the past, i don't know, 20 200 years?

not taking a swipe at you marcos just my own very tired reaction to the world in general

no you are otm

Well, I'm sure we'd all agree that nothing could ever possibly go wrong with that continued approach.

iirc, toni morrison was not happy about bill clinton supporters taking her 'first black president' comment out of context (she was using it to criticize the impeachment, not to praise him).

Democrats keeping old white people happy is why the FLSA has exceptions for domestic and agricultural workers. Keeping old white people happy is woven right into the fabric of our country.

Shit the constitution was written to keep old(er) white men happy.

a little late but holy cow, 6 shots? i am no weapon expert, isn't that a full clip?

maybe in dodge city

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/18/klan-heading-to-ferguson-to-guard-white-businesses-back-shooting-of-ngger-criminal/

Six shots, and it's believed that the last two were the headshots. Meaning that it's possible that he might've survived the first four and given damning testimony after he'd recovered so y'know.

No doubt this is projection on my part, but when Obama babbles about "the healing process" he's even less persuasive than George W. Bush. It's like, I know this is bullshit, you know I know this is bullshit, let's get it over with.

I wanted to make a joke about Molotov cocktails and the flammability of Klan robes, but I'm mostly just deeply and increasingly sad for everyone living in Ferguson right now.

you'd think raw story would change that URL but then again, hello clickbait overlords.

STOP WITH THIS 'FOLKS' BULLSHIT

jesus fuck. It's good to have that out in the open, I guess. Have the khan reared their heads up over other recent racially charged events? I can't recall the last time I've seen v anything from them.

there was this incident with a vulcan, but other than that

I've read a bunch about people being so happy that Captain Johnson is in charge now, but I haven't read anything that made a case as to why this is such a good thing.

cuz he looks like Michael C Hall's cop boyfriend in Six Feet Under, NUFF SAID

http://www.thebeerdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Khan.jpg

"I don't know you."

Racial Divide in Response to Missouri Shooting, Poll Finds: "The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last week has stirred contrasting reactions from blacks and whites nationwide, a new Pew Research Centerstudy shows."

I think "whites" is the most egregious misspelling of "myopic douchenozzles" I've ever seen.

polls like that are about as useless as comments sections though not as depressing, usually.

xp

The stuff that people like Sarah Kendzior have been pushing about "outside radical leftist agitators" being the primary cause of violence at the protests is typical reactionary nonsense (nothing new of course: http://goo.gl/0w5EXZ). As if a bunch of RCP,USA activists (who are a complete joke as an organisation) could organise anything other than a shitty sing-song and paper-selling, and to imply that the rioting is largely due to them is insulting to the people who have engaged in protests against racist state violence in their community.

The people in Ferguson have every right to protest in any way they see fit, including by destroying property and using violence against the institutionally racist police. The liberal tendency to tut-tut at this and insist that black communities have to only protest peacefully is as predictable as it is ignorant of the history of protest.

what

every right to protest in any way they see fit, including by destroying property

lol I dunno if I would call this a "right"

yeah really

The people in Ferguson have every right to protest in any way they see fit, including by destroying property and using violence against the institutionally racist policies

this is bullshit

I'm not against violent protest but violence as a tactic requires careful planning and deployment if it's going to accomplish anything, especially anything as daunting as negatively impacting a militarized police force

also how do you use violence against a policy is that like when you have a war on terror

If we've made any racial progress in the last 50 years it's thanks to men and women who pushed white legislators into positions where guilt in the face of impotence at the success of nonviolent tactics translated into action: the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, CORE, and others I can't type fast enough cuz I'm on a phone. But whatever. I'm a queer Hispanic trying to understand things.

i'm generally against violent protest because i don't really trust the type people who would step up to using violence as a strategy rather than as an immediate defense against an aggressor. the latter i realize could be turned around to say "well they're perpetual aggressors and it is a defense" and i get that too but....idk

whoa did my twitter TL just break through a tab into ILX

what's a twitter TL

the first half of a twitter DR

lol

can't turn my face away, can't process it all, can't get any work done

whoa did my twitter TL just break through a tab into ILX

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, August 18, 2014 9:01 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3 <3 <3

Kendzior's red-baiting is garbage--as if the poor townies of Ferguson couldn't see through the RCP's Rolling Commie Roadshow for the nonsense that it is--and according to my Amnesty friends on the ground in Ferguson the Organization for Black Struggle is doing the heaviest lifting in keeping people organized and fed day and night in Ferguson, while the bus of Chicago anarchos & the cultists at the RCP are mainly trying to push their banners to the front of every camera line.

I'd also, as I have here and elsewhere, defend targeted property destruction as a legitimate protest tactic.

That said, I want to make a distinction here: when residents of Ferguson stand up to protect a store from looters, they are defending Ferguson from escalation of violence. Even IF police were standing guard outside a store--rather than, say, holding riot line for looters to fill a store so they can sadistically concentrate the tear gas in it, like they did Sunday night--they would not be defending the city from the escalation of violence. Their presence is escalation. That's a key distinction, I think.

and just to be clear i don't expect anyone except maybe ey to know what i'm talking about in that whole first paragraph but maybe i'm way off

the first half of a twitter DR

― Everyone is awful except you. Wait, no, you are also awful. (jjjusten), Monday, August 18, 2014 4:04 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

~swish~

did not realize the RCP folks were doing their predictable piggybacking here, no surprise though. I swear that's been their mode for at least 30 years.

yeah this is their thing that they do

idiots in the righty blogosphere are trying to use their presence as 'evidence' that its The Communist Threat that's Stirring the Pot of Race War and the reason shit keeps popping off every night, and while i don't doubt a bunch of dreadlocked bros with NATO 3 patches and dead-eyed RCP'ers are kicking the can into the night, to imagine they're the reason expressions of rage continue is absurd.

and when ostensibly liberal/progressive/whatever journalists buy into that line its pure erasure of the legitimate reasons for grief imo

what does RCP stand for please

Revolutionary Communist Party

thanks I was spinning a lot of names in my head.

what is the other kind of communist party

Copacetic Communist Party

Lackadaisical Communist Party

it's some kind of maoist offshoot of america's CP, but really (acc to leftist writers who've run into them, as i understand them) more of a personality cult of its leader. imagine a communist phelps church, i guess.

kind of funny that this li'l oddity of the leftist universe is such a known (and hated) quantity to activists and this crazy dangerous thing to wider/rightist media. not like ha ha funny tho.

xps

these guys show up at every single fucking protest in the bay area so I am well acquainted with their ahistorical revisionist proto-cultist claptrap

i didn't watch obama's speech, which i gather was his intended effect?

His farewell to longtime reporter Ann Compton was more heartfelt.

is rcp the avakian crew? how are they everywhere?

n/avakian

that Shaun King feed from upthread was great.

Amy K. Nelson recorded the arrest of a man who was clearly out of control:

http://instagram.com/p/r28f_xMsnw/
http://instagram.com/p/r28tClssoD/
http://instagram.com/p/r280vLMsoU/

@AmyKNelson
I never heard the police officer tell him what he was being arrested for. #ferguson

if the cops weren't there who knows what might have happened with that lunatic

This whole thing has made me obnoxious to ppl around me. Possibly in a counterproductive way, as in, I'm starting to turn people off, rather than helping them see. I will admit that much of the impulse behind my ranting is therapeutic -- basically it's me discharging the rage (and within that, the pain) I feel. I need to find the proper balance again, but damnit I feel this thing in my chest and where do I put it?

is rcp the avakian crew? how are they everywhere?

― wmlynch, Monday, August 18, 2014 10:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they've set up shop in certain major metro outposts to have people within a day's drive of basically anywhere things are getting heated. it's a holdover from the halcyon days they really thought they could precipitate an uprising among america's colonized peoples (cf Mao or Huey Newton) by showing up and trying to escalate. they still characterize basically every non-sports unrest as a "rebellion" ala mao--annual headlines in their paper are like REMEMBER THE L.A. REBELLION &c

@jonswaine
Lot of people seriously unimpressed with Nelly. "You got options," he tells crowd. "YOU got options – you're rich," a guy shouts back.

guy otm

^^^

this woman, i would follow into battle
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvXY2FhCMAEYrzJ.jpg:large

What if the cop's version is really what happened?

https://twitter.com/christinedbyers/status/501556693382094848

lol nice try guys.

were there even a dozen people (in ADDITION to those who already came forward) on the street that were in a position to see what happened?

and they all waited until now to come forward and all withheld their names?

case closed!

https://fundly.com/feed-the-students-of-ferguson

As the world watches the events unfolding in Ferguson, many people have thought "how can I help?". As a public school teacher, my first thought is always about the children involved in any tragic situation like this. When I found out school had been canceled for several days as a result of the civil unrest, I immediately became worried for the students in households with food instability. Many children in the US eat their only meals of the day, breakfast and lunch, at school. With school out, kids are undoubtedly going hungry.

ALL OF THIS MONEY WILL GO TO FEED KIDS IN FERGUSON. A dollar or a hundred dollars, it doesn't matter. You will be helping to put food in the mouth of a child who needs it. Regardless of your opinion on the civil unrest in Ferguson, there is no need for innocent children to go hungry because of it.

The "cops version of events" has changed at least twice by my count, neither of which remotely suggests justification for the six gunshots.

Xpost

The KSDK (St. Louis TV news) live feed is so aggravating to watch. Constantly repeating "These protesters are not from Ferguson and not even from the area, some of them from Chicago" and so police "are having a hard time infiltrating" etc. etc.

Regardless of your opinion on the civil unrest in Ferguson, there is no need for innocent children to go hungry because of it.

^Please tell me this is satire.

panda fiend (sleepingbag) wrote this on thread Rolling 2014 Thread on Race on board I Love Everything on Aug 10, 2014

literally all cops are scum

i sincerely apologize for not using strong enough language in this earlier post to convey just how disgusting and worthless every single police officer is, without exception.

https://twitter.com/ZekeJohnsonAi/status/501565220033429505

Here it goes again...

If the cop had a good explanation and a dozen witnesses, why all the obfuscation and delay, why the shifting stories as to what he knew or didn't know about stealing the cigars, why withhold his name for days while he and his family skip town like a thief in the night apparently never to return? Cops kill in the line of duty every single day while remaining pretty confident after the fact that their actions won't cause huge uproar, but these clowns circled the wagons and geared up like they were going to war from minute one.

Because the police won't comment on an ongoing investigation?*

*Until they get their story straight?

The supposedly six shots is so crazy to me. That's all from the one guy? Blam blam blam blam blam blam? That's what this one officer thought it needed to stop this one unarmed guy? Even giving him the extreme benefit of the doubt, that he was struck in the back when the first or second impact spun him around, say, that's still some massive bullshit. I'd like the meet the dude on the street who couldn't be stopped or at least stalled by one shot or two, let alone just the threat of being shot. And also, not insane dudes who would actually lunge for a cop's gun are few and far between, I'd imagine, let alone someone who would reach into a cop car and try to do it that way, which doesn't sound even physically possible to me, unless the officer just had it sitting on his dashboard or something.

even IF the witnesses and the cop is telling the complete truth (lol), cops should learn another method to deal with a guy charging at them. i mean fucking swallow your pride and retreat and deal with it another way. it's just an extension of america's gun culture coupled with law enforcement power tripping and masculinity bullshit.

xp

They've been making plenty of comment when it suits them, leak of the convenience store video against the explicit recommendation of the DOJ, leaking that there was weed in his system, etc.

on cnn cops just came up to the reporters and said something much like 'everybody needs to go home now this area's not safe there's been another gunshot victim'

was that a confession?

every single cop they have televised, dozens and dozens of them, have been vicious unapologetic animals with their fingers on the triggers of assault weapons pointed in citizens faces... how can life go on in this town after this?

"They have to keep walking," Johnson said. "We're not going to let groups congregate and build into larger groups. That's what causes the problem."

He said that people's' Constitutional right to peaceful assembly was not being violated.

assembly, that means standing outside for no more than 5 seconds, right?

as·sem·ble
əˈsembəl/Submit
verb
1.
(of people) gather together in one place for a common purpose.
"a crowd had assembled outside the gates"
synonyms: gather, collect, get together, congregate, convene, meet, muster, rally
"a crowd had assembled"

that's what causes the problem.

Amnesty International observers being escorted away at gunpoint

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvYDnPxCMAAy6Ca.jpg

I can't get over the...shamelessness. The police know the entire world is watching, right? And just do not care.