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Hark! What's this? A prior incident where the Ferguson Police blatantly lied about beating an unarmed AND wrongly accused negro?!? It must be TUESDAY!!
I'll just leave this HERE.
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So let me see if I've got this correct:
They arrested the wrong guy.
They knew they had the wrong guy and beat his ass in the cell anyway because,well black guy right? WHO'S GONNA CARE.
When it comes to light that they did this they drop the initial charge but then charge him with DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY for BLEEDING ON THEIR UNIFORMS?
Then during the trial when the attorneys are trying to get records of non-lethal abuse on the cops it turns out that the PD didn't keep any of those records and don't know where they were being kept??
If this was a movie I'd be screaming at the screen at how unrealistic this was.
SILLY ME.
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Seems like the officer has been named and an reason for his actions have been given- fitting the description in a robbery earlier that day. This sounds rather hastily put together and doesn't match what happened in the end - the uncle already pointed out one does not politely ask a robbery suspect to get off the road and walk on the sidewalk, you attempt to arrest them.
Seems like the officer has been named and an reason for his actions have been given- fitting the description in a robbery earlier that day. This sounds rather hastily put together and doesn't match what happened in the end - the uncle already pointed out one does not politely ask a robbery suspect to get off the road and walk on the sidewalk, you attempt to arrest them.You also don't allow the suspect's accomplice to leave the scene.
It doesn't matter though. In the eyes of the media and the country, he's now a dangerous black criminal and it's a lucky thing the officer was able to defend himself and no build deal that one more black thug is dead.
Now we can focus on the rioters and how we need more militarized riot cops to protect ourselves from these dangerous animals.
It also doesn't matter that the numerous witnesses and area shop owners said nothing about any accusations regarding this "crime" from the officer at the time. Or that the shooting wasn't called in (or if it was, it wasn't addressed properly) for long enough that the victim's body was left in the street for several hours without a single EMT or Coroner's crew coming to collect the it (decomposition removes evidence, let's not forget). Or that the victim had his hands in the air, was unarmed, and shot repeatedly at close range after no longer being any conceivable threat.
But sure, we're post racism and we believe in due process.
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There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
Everyone with a smartphone should consider acquiring the ability to surreptitiously record and upload video of cop interactions, preferably uploading such video to a secure online server. The only way to curtail police abuse is to make the panopticon work for the citizens.
Here are some apps for smartphone users:
Police Tape, by the ACLU NJ: for Android and iOS
Open Watch (Warning: Demo video on site plays automatically): for Android and iOS
FiVo Film ($1.99): for Android and iOS (uploads video to your Dropbox account)
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Thank you, dear slaad
America: Shifting blame in no time flat.
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Seems like that's the sort of thing they'd want to be sure of.
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Seems like that's the sort of thing they'd want to be sure of.
No it seems like the sort of thing you want to say in the heat of the moment so you have plausible deniability when its later wrong, but the idea has cemented itself in certain segments of the population anyway.
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Unfortunately, large portions of the American political apparatus will ignore the larger issues that Ferguson represents because of the alleged robbery by Brown. Because as we've already seen repeatedly in this thread, tu quoque seems to be perfectly fine for many people.
But for me, it wouldn't matter if Brown was a horrible person and the officer was doing the right thing by shooting him, because it's bigger than Brown. It's about how police react to their population. It's about treating peaceful protestors as criminals. It's about assaulting and abusing a free press. It's abut arrests without cause. It's about the thin blue line defending the cops who do do wrong/immoral/illegal things as a sort of fraternity. It's about Scalia's "new professionalism" protecting police departments from outside review.
Yes, there was looting and rioting the first night. But after that, the protests were largely peaceful. And the police reacted with armored vehicles meant for combat zones, with long range acoustic devices to deafen and subjugate the people they have sworn oaths to defend and protect, with disregard for civil liberties and private property, with animosity toward a free press meant to keep the government honest and to protect society from encroaching tyranny.
But Brown was a black kid who may, may, have committed assault earlier. So all of the actions of the cops are "justified." Just like their actions toward Eric Garner were "justified." Just the like the 115 cases so far in 2014 where police departments have used SWAT teams against targets other than hostage or barricade situations (you know, the reason that SWAT teams exist) were justified.
When the police treat their citizenry as the enemy, we will respond as the enemy. When the police treat the citizenry as human beings, we will respond as human beings.
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Presentation is important. When you approach in camouflage and armor and an assault weapon, looking like a group enemy combatants rather than an officer in a uniform, reactions will certainly be different.
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To extend the metaphor, the story about the murdered youth being a suspect in some other crime is the police's attempt to use Bluff, but with the -20 penalty for saying completely unbelievable.
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To extend the metaphor, the story about the murdered youth being a suspect in some other crime is the police's attempt to use Bluff, but with the -20 penalty for saying completely unbelievable.
There is however a +5 "target wants to believe you" bonus for the explanation fitting their pre existing narratives.
All I gotta say about it, is the following. Death in any form is regrettable, though predictable and inevitable.
The mass amount of attention on this is doing other victims elsewhere disservice by completely overshadowing them, how many people even heard of all the other police brutality/murder/etc scandals going on right now in other parts of the country?
For the past week or so, my FB has been FLOODED with almost nothing but police scandals.
[sarcasm] Riots are a REAL SMART way of dealing with something. /Sarcasm
I'm completely and irrevocably tired of internet crusaders that jump on a hot topic band wagon, get extremely pissed off when someone has a dissenting opinion (see my statements above) on it. Getting "Tired" of having to "educate" people? Then STOP doing it. Sure, get red-faced and spit at me while shouting that I'm a mean horrible evil and vile human being for being a logical, reasonable realist, it really helps your case.
To sum up... Yeah, tragedy, okay. Wait for the evidence before getting red-faced about it. And say it, don't spray it, to your fellow evil vile worms of human beings that pay attention to the rest of the world instead of focusing solely on whatever your faux self-righteousness is tickling your fun spot.
OK, venting done. Stated my opinions, albeit with some snark, within. Referencing someone off-site I might add.
Granted.
However. Raise awareness of the problem over all, or include the other ones. Don't just point to the most volatile one, you'll make the less volatile seem less important.
I'm well aware of cops closing ranks (had several family members on the force attest to this kind of behavior). Thus, raise the fuss. Fuss LOUDLY. Not PHYSICALLY.
As for the riot thing. Yeah, no one here said they were smart. I've had 2 internet crusaders on FB and one on another site crow about the "riots of justice" going on and other addle-brained idiocy.
I think we can all agree loss of human life is worse than a sports game.
For the love of all on high, don't anyone take what I said as if I don't care. I'm sick and bloody tired of it.
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Artemis: You're pulling a zero sum game/ either or fallacy. There is no rule that says the amount of attention this case is getting is wrong and the amount of attention others are getting are right. (saying you then have to average them out is another fallacy)
Nor is there any coherence to the broader idea that every situation needs to be given the same outrage.
Originally I attempted to give the commissioner benefit of the doubt - he kept coming across as slightly bewildered, a little Mr. Magoo-ish, unsure why one of his boys would act out in such a fashion but sure there is a logical explanation.
Then he went on Hannity and blew that out of the water.
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Originally I attempted to give the commissioner benefit of the doubt - he kept coming across as slightly bewildered, a little Mr. Magoo-ish, unsure why one of his boys would act out in such a fashion but sure there is a logical explanation.
Then he went on Hannity and blew that out of the water.
what did he say on Hannity?
what did he say on Hannity?Originally I attempted to give the commissioner benefit of the doubt - he kept coming across as slightly bewildered, a little Mr. Magoo-ish, unsure why one of his boys would act out in such a fashion but sure there is a logical explanation.
Then he went on Hannity and blew that out of the water.
In full candor and disclosure I have no idea.
I don't watch the show, what clips I've been subjected to in the past nearly provoking apoplectic fury that rendered me incoherent. Hannity has a voice and face combo that is an incitement to ire and the choice to appear on said show, especially given its target demographic, says more about the Ferguson chief than I would like.
I thought the prior chief was the one with the stars and bars thing as well as the theme days, AKA 'let's have a black day, let's stop everyone with a tan today'. If what you say is true, thejeff, I will feel like I wasted good will and fair-minded thoughts as I tried to be so in spite of his being in law enforcement - something that I generally don't do due to my own experiences with police.
what did he say on Hannity?Originally I attempted to give the commissioner benefit of the doubt - he kept coming across as slightly bewildered, a little Mr. Magoo-ish, unsure why one of his boys would act out in such a fashion but sure there is a logical explanation.
Then he went on Hannity and blew that out of the water.
In full candor and disclosure I have no idea.
I don't watch the show, what clips I've been subjected to in the past nearly provoking apoplectic fury that rendered me incoherent. Hannity has a voice and face combo that is an incitement to ire and the choice to appear on said show, especially given its target demographic, says more about the Ferguson chief than I would like.
I thought the prior chief was the one with the stars and bars thing as well as the theme days, AKA 'let's have a black day, let's stop everyone with a tan today'. If what you say is true, thejeff, I will feel like I wasted good will and fair-minded thoughts as I tried to be so in spite of his being in law enforcement - something that I generally don't do due to my own experiences with police.
Oh my word! Your not angry over anything said since you didn't listen... NO your angry because he appeared on a popular TV show?! AND only because you hate that show?! I don't have words to express how wrong that is.
Again I argue calm... does any one think there would be ANY of this craziness if the ethnicity of the teen or officer were changed? Would there be riots if a black cop shot a white criminal? (And yes the felony of assaulting an officer turns you into a criminal regardless of whether you already were or not) NO there would be no riots. What if they were both black or both white? Nope no riots. That means MOST of the hysteria is in peoples preconceptions about race NOT in the actual events. Let calmer outside heads sort out what happened and deal justice.
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Again I argue calm... does any one think there would be ANY of this craziness if the ethnicity of the teen or officer were changed?
I never tire of linking the police riots after demonstrators took the streets in New Mexico to protest the police killing of a homeless white man.
Albuquerque protesters angry over James Boyd shooting get tear gassed by riot police
what did he say on Hannity?Originally I attempted to give the commissioner benefit of the doubt - he kept coming across as slightly bewildered, a little Mr. Magoo-ish, unsure why one of his boys would act out in such a fashion but sure there is a logical explanation.
Then he went on Hannity and blew that out of the water.
In full candor and disclosure I have no idea.
I don't watch the show, what clips I've been subjected to in the past nearly provoking apoplectic fury that rendered me incoherent. Hannity has a voice and face combo that is an incitement to ire and the choice to appear on said show, especially given its target demographic, says more about the Ferguson chief than I would like.
I thought the prior chief was the one with the stars and bars thing as well as the theme days, AKA 'let's have a black day, let's stop everyone with a tan today'. If what you say is true, thejeff, I will feel like I wasted good will and fair-minded thoughts as I tried to be so in spite of his being in law enforcement - something that I generally don't do due to my own experiences with police.
Oh my word! Your not angry over anything said since you didn't listen... NO your angry because he appeared on a popular TV show?! AND only because you hate that show?! I don't have words to express how wrong that is.
Again I argue calm... does any one think there would be ANY of this craziness if the ethnicity of the teen or officer were changed? Would there be riots if a black cop shot a white criminal? (And yes the felony of assaulting an officer turns you into a criminal regardless of whether you already were or not) NO there would be no riots. What if they were both black or both white? Nope no riots. That means MOST of the hysteria is in peoples preconceptions about race NOT in the actual events. Let calmer outside heads sort out what happened and deal justice.
Stormfront has been holding the occasional rally whenever a white person is assaulted by black people. I do remember a friend of mine at the second job talking about it when organizing a gay day at an amusement park.
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Yes, race is at the heart of it. But that's not because people only get upset when white cops shoot black people and they'd be just fine with black cops shooting white folks. It's because we keep seeing cases where white cops kill black men under questionable circumstances and we don't hear nearly so much of the other cases.* Add to that the widespread perception of racial harassment of minorities by police, both in Ferguson in particular and more generally across the country. It's all the same
*As Comrade Anklebiter keeps linking there are cases of questionable shootings of white men, that sometimes provoke protests and even riots, but they're often of other marginalized groups - homeless or mentally ill.
I, of course, would be the last to deny that race is at the heart of it:
America: Young Black Men Have No Right to Life
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“They can be arrested for nothing, or shot down in the streets with impunity.”
There are lots of pictures coming out of Ferguson, Missouri, a two-thirds Black town just outside St. Louis, where a policeman shot down Michael Brown, this past weekend. The 18 year-old’s last words before dying were: “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting.” The cop kept shooting anyway. The pictures show Brown’s body in the middle of the street, where it was left for four hours in the baking sun.
Other pictures show Brown’s grief-stricken mother, and his stepfather carrying a sign that said, “Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son.” There are plenty of images from the two nights of disturbances in the town, where there isn’t really much to loot. However, I think the most poignant picture shows young Blacks blocking the street in front of the Ferguson police department, their upraised arms signaling surrender, just as young Michael did before the cop administered the coup de grace.
How different that picture would have been in 1966, when young Black people in California responded to murderous police violence with armed patrols of their own, under the newly formed Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The Party declared that Black people had just as much right to defend themselves as white people, including the right to defend themselves from the police, who act as an occupying army. Which is, of course, a self-evident truth.
The Mass Incarceration State
The Black Panther Party’s vigorous assertion of the right to self-defense prompted the U.S. government to double-down on its monopoly on the use of force – first, with a massive campaign of assassination and false imprisonment against Black radical leadership, many of whom still remain behind bars. Then, as the decade of the Seventies began, mass Black incarceration became the universal policy of the United States – north, south, east and west. A new class of Black politicians filled the void that police repression had created. These were men and women who were quite amenable to corporate rule and made comfortable homes in the Democratic Party. Even as the prison population rose to nine times 1970 levels, the Black Misleadership Class blissfully celebrated its own upward mobility.
Meanwhile, the Mass Incarceration State consumed millions of Black lives and consigned most Black communities to Constitution-free zones, where young Blacks could be arrested for nothing, or shot down in the streets with impunity, as was Michael Brown, and as happens to other young Blacks every day of the year.
The people who rule America no longer need Black labor. What they do need is a class that is forcibly anchored at the bottom of U.S. society, who can be scapegoated for whatever is wrong with America, and whose very presence serves as an excuse for massive urban dislocation and the steady erosion of civil liberties. Michael Brown and countless others have died in order to keep America deeply stratified. That’s the only use the United States has for young Black men.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com to sign up for email notifications of our new issues, each Wednesday.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
My apologies. Comrade Anklebiter has made a solid point. I concede that I didn't realize our police forces in many cities had grown so... wrong in pursuing ... justice? I wonder now. I withdraw my contention about the racial preconceptions; I clearly have something to think about.
As for thejeff, really? Must everyone be politically correct to the point of absurdity? If it pleases you then by all means add alleged criminal to your reading of my post. I have always been a supporter of victims rights and often this over eagerness to offer every possible defense to those who commit crimes even going so far as to even prevent people from even referring to them as a criminal does nothing but help turn the law against victims.
In this case however I am not kidding when I say let the FBI find the truth; THEN if the officer did do what witnesses say he did then THROW THE BOOK AT HIM. Abuses by the police make me sick. If that is what society has become then maybe we need to find a better way to enforce laws. We definitely need a better way to recruit officers. But destroying the livelihoods of innocent shopkeepers in a riot is just as bad as the police abuse that followed.
Unfortunately, large portions of the American political apparatus will ignore the larger issues that Ferguson represents because of the alleged robbery by Brown. Because as we've already seen repeatedly in this thread, tu quoque seems to be perfectly fine for many people.
But for me, it wouldn't matter if Brown was a horrible person and the officer was doing the right thing by shooting him, because it's bigger than Brown. It's about how police react to their population. It's about treating peaceful protestors as criminals. It's about assaulting and abusing a free press. It's abut arrests without cause. It's about the thin blue line defending the cops who do do wrong/immoral/illegal things as a sort of fraternity. It's about Scalia's "new professionalism" protecting police departments from outside review.
Yes, there was looting and rioting the first night. But after that, the protests were largely peaceful. And the police reacted with armored vehicles meant for combat zones, with long range acoustic devices to deafen and subjugate the people they have sworn oaths to defend and protect, with disregard for civil liberties and private property, with animosity toward a free press meant to keep the government honest and to protect society from encroaching tyranny.
But Brown was a black kid who may, may, have committed assault earlier. So all of the actions of the cops are "justified." Just like their actions toward Eric Garner were "justified." Just the like the 115 cases so far in 2014 where police departments have used SWAT teams against targets other than hostage or barricade situations (you know, the reason that SWAT teams exist) were justified.
When the police treat their citizenry as the enemy, we will respond as the enemy. When the police treat the citizenry as human beings, we will respond as human beings.
Except they haven't been peaceful, have they?
Hmmm... stripped of PC we get the following:
[PC off]Black criminal murdered by white cop. Riots and an abusive police crackdown to follow.[PC on]
And yes I am going to pray for BOTH sides. Because when each side decided to get evil then it is the innocent on both sides that get to suffer. The peaceful protester tear gassed and shot at with bean bags, the hardworking shopkeeper watching helplessly as people destroy his shop. And with each act the supporters for the other side grow until we end up with the raw violence of evil mob fighting evil mob. And at the end of the day most of the offenders on both sides will walk away free of any charges. Ultimately the cop will face the FBI and be found guilty or innocent but until then lets all behave like frenzied barbarians or jackbooted thugs.
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[Tries not to be ill]
So, what's the status of the smear campaign now? Last I heard, the Confederate-flag flying police chief had held a press conference where he said that even if Brown had been trying to steal cigars (is that the WCC party line?) it had nothing to do with his killing.
But, admittedly, I am the type of person that the phrase "policital correctness" was invented to describe.
Also, speaking of political correctness, I don't really get the line "this is only news because he's black." My buddy was attending community college during the Trayvon Martin thing and he said all the young white kids kept saying "It's just 'cuz he's black."
I don't understand, nor can I understand why the liberal-dominated media only picks up certain stories and doesn't pick up others (I'd imagine it has something to do with the days of rioting, but it's just a guess) but I would like to invite others who are interested in this kind of thing over to the Bride of Government Folly thread* where we do make some attempt to cover all of the other stories. And boy are there lots of them.
*
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Where, if I may brag, I think was the first post about the police lynching of Michael Brown and the resulting uprising.
From Gaza to Ferguson, It's Right to Resist!
Vive le Galt!
(How's that for political correctness?)
EDITED: Forgot the second link!
Also, speaking of political correctness, I don't really get the line "this is only news because he's black." My buddy was attending community college during the Trayvon Martin thing and he said all the young white kids kept saying "It's just 'cuz he's black."Of course it's just cuz he's black.
If he wasn't black, he wouldn't have been shot. That's the point!
I'll favorite this, but I got the feeling that Zimmie could have shot anybody of any color. But it's just a hunch.