6 hours ago Ryan Reilly introduced himself to me in a McDonalds. Then we ended up in jail. Wonder what he's got planned for our second date
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
Phenomenal reporting by @WesleyLowery from Ferguson – if you're not following him or reading his timeline, you should.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 14, 2014
The Washington Post gets a lot of grief, much of it well-deserved, but they have been stepping up on the ongoing Ferguson disaster.
FERGUSON, Mo. — When an unarmed black teenager and a police officer crossed paths here last weekend with fatal results, the incident cast a blinding spotlight on a small police department struggling for authority and relevance in a changing community…
But while the racial disparity between the public here and its protectors has come to define the violent aftermath of Brown’s death, the department’s problems stretch back years and include questions about its officers’ training and racial sensitivity.
The office of Missouri’s attorney general concluded in an annual report last year that Ferguson police were twice as likely to arrest African Americans during traffic stops as they were whites.
And late last year, the state chapter of the NAACP filed a federal complaint against the St. Louis County police department, whose officers are now assisting Ferguson’s force since the shooting, over racial disparities in traffic stops, arrests and other actions…
(h/t commentor Tissue-Thin Pseudonym/JMN)
Dave C
I’ll just repeat what I said at the bottom of the previous post:
Violet
Governor Jay Nixon:
jenn
Fyi, since I didn’t notice it on the last thread, it appears Claire McCaskill has been talking with the DOJ, and will be talking with Holder tomorrow.
Karen in GA
Sorry, it’s OT, but it’s an open thread, so: Iggy, irked.
Tomorrow he goes for his heartworm injections. He’s coming home Friday, when he starts his 30 days of strict confinement. He pulls at the leash something fierce when I walk him (I try training him, hubby lets him pull — no consistency), so now I’m paranoid that a simple five minutes outside will jack up his heart rate and kill him. Thinking of just carrying him outside so he doesn’t get a chance to go into tugboat mode.
But other than being terrified, I’m fine.
ETA: he’s curled up next to me. I should sleep.
Dave C
Statement from the Governor:
Seems kind of like weak sauce to me, at this point.
aangus
The Civil Rights Act is 50 years old. These two pictures were taken 50 years apart. Behold our progress.
https://twitter.com/jackfrombkln/status/499531968229683200/photo/1
scav
Still, it says volumes that an official report can document a twice as likely pattern of arrests and merely elicit a response of “includes questions about its officers training and sensitivity.” Objecting to being disproportionally hauled off to jail is just one of those minor social differences that it’s hard for a professional to wrap their head around. How quaint and unusual of them. Must pop off for a little additional PC-inspired twaddle about the sub-culture.
Karen in GA
Would anyone there even listen to Nixon at this point, after decades of right wingers doing and saying everything they could to de-legitimize Democrats as leaders?
bluehill
I think Nixon failed the “3 am call” test and he had 5 days to get ready for it.
WaterGirl
I hope we are at the end of the pendulum swing and that it’s about to start swinging back in the other direction, because, damn, I can’t take much more of young black boys being gunned down in the streets.
Between Robin Williams and this young boy’s death and seeing a fascist police department full of fucking white men “policing” all the scary black people, I am terribly sad. Sad in a profound way, like I felt after september 11 knowing that all those people had been killed and that there were people trapped under rubble and how I felt when our soldiers were matching into Baghdad.
I was thinking earlier that with the shock of losing Robin Williams like that, at least people are starting to have real conversations about depression. And for about a tenth of a second I found myself thinking that maybe we will start to have a real conversation about race in this country. Like that’s going to happen. I would be laughing if I weren’t crying.
On a positive note, I am really glad to have you back, John Cole. I hope you are doing well. It’s a comfort to have you back while we face all this shit.
amk
@aangus: Nails it.
Comrade Luke
@Karen in GA:
Nixon is failing at his job. The fact that he’s a Democrat is beside the point.
Joel
The problem with the Ferguson cops is that they aren’t wearing their Member’s Only jackets.
wmd
I’ve been beating a drum about someone that should be speaking right now – Joseph McNamara. He started as a beat cop NYPD – Harlem. Along the arc of his career he got a PhD, was Chief of Police in Kansas City, then San Jose California where he successfully reformed a cowboy culture. He’s currently at the Hoover Institution.
He can be reached via his website. I contacted him after the flash bang grenade used by the Atlanta PD put a 2 year old in a coma and the ACLU sent an alert on demilitarizing police. He could use some respectful contacts urging him to cement his place in history as a cop that said “no more” and fought for stopping this BS.
SatanicPanic
@Karen in GA: Nixon seems to be doing a good job of de-legitimizing himself.
Mart
Cut & paste from below: @Comrade Luke: I was trying to get the whole video on the Google of the St. Louis County Soldier taking aim behind a stone and concrete pillar, with machine gun drawn back-up County Militia men over his shoulder, aiming a canister at al-jazeera America’s live feed. All I found is the gas going off and the crew running. It was a pre-meditated attack. It makes me sick; and I am flowing adrenaline near 911 levels.
To help those not from the Lou. it is very bigoted. I live in bleached white West County St. Louis. We are, and the counties north of the Missouri River, white flight. South County is “blue collar” and mostly white. There is some hispanic just south of Interstate 44 near the city center, and the South County whites. Hispanics are a relatively small population. The blahs live north of I-64 (called fourty locally) in a narrow east west band that reaches the Missouri River. This includes Ferguson adjoining the airport. There is a lot of white flight, or I aint moving dambit white people racial division. I like a lot about this region, but I hate the God thumpers blocking smart stuff like medicaid expansion; and I especially hate the racial divisions. Weird state, Blue St.Louis and Kansas City, and nuckle dragging Red everywhere else. When we moved here from a racially diverse Chicago suburb, my family freaked out.
aangus
PzFeed Top News @PzFeed · 38m
DEVELOPING: Protesters now heading to the Ferguson Police station. Police threatening mass arrests, protesters just continue walking.
Karen in GA
@Comrade Luke: @SatanicPanic: True. I’m just wondering if he ever had a chance to rein in these cops anyway.
WaterGirl
@Karen in GA: I am sorry to say that I had forgotten all about Igg’s heart worm. It was upsetting when I first read about it, but now it’s much worse because I feel like I know Iggy personally now!
Remember, the best thing you can have in a situation like this s a strong-willed dog with spunk, and I think Iggy’s got that covered!
As for tugging on the leash, go to the pet store and get Iggy one of these. You hook the leash to the harness instead of the collar – that way they can’t pull with their neck. Works like a charm.
http://www.amazon.com/Rogz-Utility-Reflective-Adjustable–Harness/dp/B002DX8X88/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1407994414&sr=8-9&keywords=dog+harness
Sending good thoughts and prayers for all of you!
SatanicPanic
@Karen in GA: Ah, I see what you’re saying. hadn’t thought of it that way, who knows.
Phil Perspective
But … but .. but .. Glennzilla hasn’t said anything about Ferguson!!!!!
Karen in GA
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the suggestion, and the thoughts and prayers.
My main concern is that he just gets so excited and tries to run at everything and everyone; I’m worried what that will do to his heart rate. (If you’re not familiar with heartworm recovery, his heart rate has to stay down so the dead worms don’t go shooting off through his system and causing a fatal blockage anywhere. Hence the 30 days of strict confinement.)
Eh. Should have gone to sleep hours ago.
Karen in GA
@SatanicPanic: Yeah, at this point it’s irrelevant. But I do wonder what the long-term effects of de-legitimization are — authoritarian freaks out of control and no way to stop them because the person with the authority to stop them is from the “wrong” party.
But as I’ll say for the third time in this thread, I should go to sleep.
cthulhu
@Karen in GA: I doubt any pol, Dem or GOP, gets any points in MO for immediately leaping to support the citizens of the East St. Louis area. So ignoring local troubles until they can be ignored no more seems prudent if callous. Still, there’s a lot more people I would complain about over Nixon.
Nonetheless, these events literally sicken me. I could not laugh at this: http://www.theonion.com/articles/police-officer-doesnt-see-a-difference-between-bla,36683/
Anne Laurie
@Karen in GA: Don’t blame you for being paranoid, the potential ‘side effects’ of heartworm treatment are terrifying! On the plus side, it beats the heck outa not-treating… you saved Iggy’s life once by adopting him, and now you’ve been given the chance to repeat your mitzvah.
Don’t know how you feel about aromatherapy, but a lavender diffuser might calm you (& the cat) down even if Iggy don’t care. (All three of my rescue dogs, including Mr. Picky, are crazy for the joint-formula Bonies, but I haven’t had the chance to test them with the “calming formula” variety yet.)
WaterGirl
@Karen in GA: Do you have a crate for Iggy? Remember, no matter how hard he makes it on you, it’s your job to protect him from himself. If you don’t have a create, get one, and use it if that’s the only way to keep him quiet.
Does the vet have some medication you could use to slow him down for a bit?
You have to hang tough for 30 days, that’s a long time, but I know how much you love Iggy so I know you will keep your eyes on the prize and keep him quiet for as long as he needs to be.
TooManyJens
So, this happened:
cthulhu
@TooManyJens: It’s pretty clear that it is time for a far more professional peacekeeping force to take over. Frankly though, if the cops weren’t there, would a lot of this bad stuff even be happening? Who are they supposedly protecting?
TooManyJens
@cthulhu: I was talking about it with my husband earlier tonight, and he suggested that in the cops’ minds, they’re protecting their families from Those People getting out of control and taking over.
They’re sure as hell not protecting the people they’re pointing rifles at and teargassing. And no, if not for the heavy police presence I doubt there would be much more going on than rallies and vigils.
cthulhu
@TooManyJens: The fear of society or simply the “wrong elements” getting “out of control” is such a common thing for conservatives. It yields the whole gun fetish/survivalist ideal. Must be prepared for the apocalypse! And yet experience tells us that it is pretty much a bad misread of human nature. When massive disaster does strike, our tendency is to pull together rather than fight to the death for remaining resources. In fact, you see people supporting strangers they’ve never met given our current global interconnectedness. Hmm, it is almost like the capitalist concept of “social Darwinism” is complete BS…
Someguy
At what point does the President send in the military here to put down the abusive local government?
Under the Anti-Insurrection Act, he has authority to do so, where the local government has broken down and is incapable of protecting the civil rights of those within its jurisdiction. That law was passed to deal with the segregationists who refused to obey court orders but you can make a pretty good argument that when a police force is gunning down unarmed young black men, jailing reporters and committing mass violence against protestors, that we’re in exactly the situation for which that law was intended. It wasn’t aimed at putting down protests, as the reich wingers fear, but at putting down local governments that refuse to obey federal laws…
Or is it too much of a reach to expect quick federal action, and the real federal role here is to buy some popcorn, sit back and watch, then send DOJ in later on to conduct the post-mortem via litigation?
Bobby Thomson
@Joel: Probably more appropriate.
LeeM
@WaterGirl:
Another great product, especially for larger dogs:
http://www.amazon.com/Halti-Opti-Head-Collar-Medium/dp/B00EQ3423I/ref=sr_1_2?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1408025472&sr=1-2&keywords=halti
My hound mix was causing my shoulder joint to ache, and this stopped it cold. It isn’t a muzzle, but it controls their head better than a harness.
WaterGirl
@LeeM: Yeah, I’m not a fan of those. People see that when you’re on a walk and think the dog is dangerous. I really like the halters, though! Tucker, not so much, but it really makes it 1,000 times nice to take him for a walk. So I consider it a win.
AxelFoley
@Phil Perspective:
I’d have thought he’d love to live there, seeing as though he likes representing white supremecists in court.
AxelFoley
@Someguy:
Ah, I was wondering when some asshole here would put blame on Obama.
PIGL
@Dave C: How about “The Charter of the town of Ferguson is hereby revoked, the police force is dissolved and all employment contracts terminated for cause. I have asked the Department of Justice to take responsibility for the investigation as well as for local law enforcement until a new municipality and police force can be established. Without prejudice to the investigation, former members of the Ferguson police department, and their civilian political authorities, might consider seeking new career opportunities out of state.”
Now that would be getting a grip on the situation.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@PIGL: It might be getting a grip on the situation, but it would be well beyond his powers as governor.