Tag: Ferguson

Ferguson: Media Has A New Obsession

Most credible news organizations have just about exhausted all avenues of the Clinton e-mail scandal……..they have been pushing the bounds of good reporting to stay on the trail of the story……but now they can let out a sigh of relief and fixate once again…..

Two officers were shot in front of the Ferguson Police Department shortly after midnight as protesters gathered following the resignation of the city’s embattled police chief, a spokesman for the county police department says. Their conditions are unknown and no further details are immediately available, the spokesman says. The shots were fired as what had earlier been a crowd of about 150 people had begun to dwindle, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Some protesters fell to the ground and others ran. A huge police presence, including officers in riot gear, later surrounded the department.

I could turn this into a 2000 word diatribe but……why?

This is all the info that is available at this time……

READ: DOJ Report on Civil Rights Violations in Ferguson, Criminal Probe of Officer Darren Wilson | Democracy Now!

Since last August and the protests in Ferguson…all eyes and ears have been on just what will happen in Ferguson……will the cop be charged…..will there be an investigation into the PD…..have there been civil rights violations?

Like I have said……….. questions.

DOJ has released their report on the situation….the report is here…..read it and make your own conclusions….do not let others form them for you!

 

READ: DOJ Report on Civil Rights Violations in Ferguson, Criminal Probe of Officer Darren Wilson | Democracy Now!.

Here We Go Again!

Tis the season to be jolly……is not going to happen in Missouri……another teen was shot and killed by police in the Ferguson area……

The town of Berkeley, Mo., is roughly two miles from Ferguson, and today finds itself dealing with some Ferguson-like protests after a police officer shot and killed a black teen who was allegedly armed last night. Per a statement posted to Facebook by St. Louis County Police, during “a routine business check” at a Mobil gas station at 11:15pm, the officer approached two males who were standing outside the station; the officer says one pointed a gun at him. “Fearing for his life, the Berkeley Officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him. The second subject fled the scene.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a woman at the scene identified the dead 18-year-old as her son, Antonio Martin.

The body lay on the ground for at least two hours, as what KMOV describes as “large crowds” of protesters began to gather at the scene. Its reporters describe police in riot gear as being present, and observed flashes of light. One reporter tells the BBC, “As soon as I got there police started firing off flash bangs which are used to, hopefully, disperse some of the crowd.” KSDK reports things heated up around 2am, when protesters reportedly hurled rocks and bricks. About a dozen protesters remained five hours after the shooting. Though his mother tells KSDK that Martin did not have a gun and was just on his way to see his girlfriend, county police confirm they have recovered the “the deceased subject’s” handgun. The Post-Dispatch notes that it appears there are security cameras at the scene; police say they’ll release that video at 8am EST.

This should not be a season of sadness……but sad to say the trend continues…..NO family either police or civilian should have to deal with the death of a loved one during this season……

Why police are rarely indicted for misconduct | Al Jazeera America

With the decision coming out of Ferguson…..social media was a flame with pros and cons…..whether you agree with the decision there is a larger question that needs answering…..why do the police seem to always walk?

This op-ed covers that question and is a pretty good piece……

Read and let me know your thoughts…..

 

Why police are rarely indicted for misconduct | Al Jazeera America.

Cop’s Interview——A Worthless Display

Decision announced…..violence ensued…….then cop capitalizes on his fleeting fame and grants an exclusive interview to ABC News and the little Greek guy……..

My thoughts on the interview…..but with a different perspective……

I think he is more than right to have his side of the story told…….the problem is that there is NO one to confirm anything he said…..we must take or reject it on face value…….

First he says he was afraid…a logical assumption but a cop should be able to suppress that feeling to get the job done….he was hit in the face and it has been called a savage beating….I have seen the pics of him in the hospital….if that is a savage beating then women should use that term when pressing charges against abuse……he was afraid…..a 6 foot 4 inch man was afraid of a 6 foot 4 inch kid?  Apparently he is one of those people that wants to wear a badge and a gun without thought of what it means to be a cop..

The interview went on and on……we learned that he would have made the same decision if the person was a white teenager……we learned that after being shot Mr. Brown started to run then stopped turned an ran at cop with a clinched fist (did this man take the unarmed self-defense class or was he at Dunkin Doughnut that day?)

The interview continued and the answers were answers that an intelligent person could have predicted the from the start.  Basically it was blah-blah-blah….yada Yada yada……..

The little Greek dude ask a question that made me start the mental process all over again…….he asked the cop if the killing of another person would haunt him (paraphrase) and the answer was predictable….”NO it is something that I had to do and I will cope” (another paraphrase).  His answer was bullsh*t!  If he is not sociopath then that image will be with him for a long time.

This is the question that most angered me.  His question seem to imply that his life would change in ways he may not be aware of at this time……and then………

That question was a logical question…..but my problem is that NO one in the media has ever interviewed a veteran, especially a grunt, and ask that type of question.  WHY?

Could it be that vets are not interesting enough to ask a question like that or maybe the media just does not care…after all they are the ones that help sell the concept of a war to the public.

All in all the cop interview was a pathetic piece of journalism…..

Police expert: War on terror has turned our cops into occupying armies — and we’re the enemy

The grand jury decision is during any day for the shooter of Mr. Brown in Ferguson…..and everyone seems to expect some sort of violence and protests……the MSM is chomping at the bit….it would make their month for violence break out after the announcement of the decision by the grand jury…..

Some Missouri mayor popped off about not tolerating violence from protesters……but will let the police and nat guard go about harming people with immunity…..sounds like a police state to me…..how about you?

This is a fascinating article that I hope others will like as much as I did….tells the story that the media seems determined to not…….this will be a prime example of our police state at work…..watch for the story to infold……

Let me know what you think, please.

 

Police expert: War on terror has turned our cops into occupying armies — and we’re the enemy.

Police often provoke protest violence, UC researchers find – SFGate

After the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson there were a few contentious nights between protesters and police…..there has been a blame going on about the violence……cops blame it on “outside agitators”….the protesters blame the cops for attacking like an occupying force……

Now some research has been done that could explain who’s fault possibly contributed to the violence on those streets of Ferguson……..

 

Police often provoke protest violence, UC researchers find – SFGate.

It’s Those Damn “Outside Agitators”!

Opinion from the desk of the Editor:

 

How many times will the trooper in charge run up to the closest microphone and decry about those outside agitators?

Do you, my readers, know how often that has been used to explain violence in the streets?  NO?  Well, let me help.

First of all….who are these “outside agitators”?  Define the word “outside”.  I get the agitator part but the ubiquitous “outside” is baffling, at least to me.

Let’s look back at those “outside agitators”…..

The year is 1886, Chicago, during a peaceful labor demonstration a bomb was thrown at police and the resulting gun fire killed several people police as well as civilians.  The subsequent arrests netted 7 or 8 anarchists all convicted of the deed.  “Anarchists” was the term of the day for “outside agitators”.

Fast forward to the labor movement at its height….this , at its zenith 1900-1920, where there were demonstrations and violence was used to silence the labor movement….of course, because of the rise of socialism in those years, the corporate bosses blamed most of the demonstrations and violence on the socialists or what we call “outside agitators”….

Time to hit the fast forward button again…..the tear is mid 1950’s until 1965……this was a movement to give minorities mostly blacks the right to vote and to end segregation……the demonstrations were oft times violent and people died…the southern governments blamed all the protests on “outside agitators”…mostly, according to those perpetrating the violence, were commies and other “agitators”…….

Now slow move forward….the year is 1960’s….some call it the students protests others say it was an anti-war protest….both are correct…..some were looking for social change and others , especially vets, were there to protest the war and its results on people both Americans and Vietnamese.  The biggest and most violent protest was the one in Chicago, again, in 1968……what started off as a protests against the Dem convention being held in the city broke into massive protests and violence….and once again the problem was blamed on “outside agitators”……

There were many other occurrences through the years and most of the most violent ones were explained away as the work of “outside agitators”.

My point is that it is a catch all to explain when security breaks down into violence…it is seldom that the police have lost control of the situation….but rather it was because of all those “outside agitators.  The police seldom if ever admit to their on incompetency…..so it must be the work of “outside agitators”.

Here is a novel idea….the police should just fess up and admit that they were incompetent in dealing with the situation.  If they cannot do that then maybe explain just who these ever present “outside agitators” really are…..

Another thought…..they have calm right now in Ferguson….maybe you should STOP using the terms guns and Molotovs and concentrate on the positive.

Thoughts?