Here is the Police Chief of Ferguson going on Hannity and doing his best Orval Faubus imitation, blaming the mess in Ferguson on “outside agitators.”
Now that we've met the #Ferguson #Police Dept, does anyone believe the officer politely asked Michael & his friend to move to the sidewalk?
— cheerio grrrl (@cheeriogrrrl) August 14, 2014
NotMax
Oh, so it’s all Al Sharpton’s fault.
Glad that got cleared up.
rikyrah
Nobody believes him
Let me correct that.
Nobody who has been Black in America longer than three days believes him.
Remember, the police STILL have not interviewed the witness who was there.
They are who we thought they were.
Trinity
Jesus.
BGinCHI
I watched the coverage last night on MSNBC until pretty late and it was fucking unbelievable. It was no different from a vintage South Africa apartheid scene. Massive force keeping down a visible minority.
The entire country should be outraged by this.
This is not some problem happening “somewhere else.” It is right here and it is indicative of a huge problem we have across our culture with racism, mass incarceration, a growing and destructive inequality gap, and a failure to invest in jobs and infrastructure.
Zam
Because when you want to get the unbiased truth out go to that paragon of journalism Sean Hannity.
The Thin Black Duke
@BGinCHI: African-Americans and people of color already know what’s going on. It’s white people that need to figure it out.
Elizabelle
President Obama’s election (and re-election :) ) ripped off a scar that’s terrible but important to see. And address.
We’re getting a long immersion in William Faulkner’s world. We need to come out of it, as better people. We need to be honest, and to reward honesty.
NotMax
@BGinCH
Nitpick in that in South Africa, apartheid was enacted against a “visible” majority.
Comrade Dread
Yeah, local folks can’t possibly be upset at all about an unarmed kid who was, at worst, jaywalking getting shot 10 times while running away and eventually with his hands up, while the only witnesses to the encounter who don’t have a badge still haven’t been interviewed, and the local brotherhood is protecting the shooter, pointing guns at demonstrators from atop military vehicles, shooting tear gas at them (including the local congressional representative), and arresting reporters in a McDonalds. Must be all those professional liberal race-baiters, amirite?
Elizabelle
@The Thin Black Duke:
I had hoped Sanford, Florida was an aberration. A regional peculiarity.
Apparently not.
I caught a little of CBS’s morning show at 8:00 a. They led with footage of rioting in Ferguson, but no explanation. Then on to cultural crap (salt is bad for you, and Katie Holmes is in a new movie about a dystopian future).
No honest reporting from the dystopian present.
boatboy_srq
Of course it’s “outside agitators”. He done got his own ni-CLANGs all trained to know their places and mind their manners, yessah.
/snark
Elizabelle
I think Fox News bears a LOT of responsibility here. You know these GI Joe wannabees watch it.
Us vs. them.
Not “to protect and serve.” And, as someone here noted, most network news now follows Fox’s lead.
At least for the first few days. Which is long enough. Mark Twain knew that, in a slower world.
BGinCHI
@The Thin Black Duke: Agreed. Though please, not all of us are unaware of it. People who live lives free of diversity and get their (low) info from radio and Fox are the problem here.
Racism flourishes when there is no challenge to their (frankly white supremacist) world.
Vishnu Schist
Seems the good police chief is right, the people being tear gassed sure don’t look like good white Christian folks to me. Probably from Kenya of something.
The Thin Black Duke
@Elizabelle: Not only will “the revolution not be televised”, neither will the news. Only lies.
schrodinger's cat
@Elizabelle: I was a part of the book club that read Faulkner’s Light in August, I could not finish the book because it was too graphic in its brutality and depressing. I thought that Faulkner was being overly dramatic, but many of the older members assured me, that if anything he pulled his punches and the reality was far worse. One older white guy, originally from the South had tears in his eyes when he said this. He was one of the volunteers who registered people to vote in rural Mississippi and said that his family in rural Georgia received death threats from the local KKK groups because of his activism.
SatanicPanic
@NotMax: Isn’t that the case here too?
shelley
‘Outside Agitators??” Christ, did George Wallace appear alongside with him?
The Thin Black Duke
@BGinCHI: I didn’t mean to imply that all white people are complicit in this indecency, and I apologize if I did. Unfortunately, when it’s only the white bigots that are constructing the narrative and are breaking the law and murdering innocent people without any semblance of accountability, that’s the problem.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Well, the traditional broadcast networks’ morning shows are designed around a formula of short, snappy, primarily feel good pieces and quickie headlines, interspersed with weather and traffic reports.
Qua</i Cronkite: That’s the way it is.
That they showed footage from Ferguson at all is almsot amazing.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Fixed for italics error.
Well, the traditional broadcast networks’ morning shows are designed around a formula of short, snappy, primarily feel good pieces and quickie headlines, interspersed with weather and traffic reports.
Qua Cronkite: That’s the way it is.
That they showed footage from Ferguson at all is almost amazing.
Karen in GA
@BGinCHI:
They should be. Will they be? Sadly, the people that make up the Ferguson
Occupying ForcePolice Department aren’t the only ones who think black people are animals who deserve whatever’s coming to them. A black man standing on the lawn of his own home? Plenty of people think he deserves to be tear gassed. Yeah, maybe he’s not doing something wrong right this second, but he either already has or he was going to anyway.I guarantee you there are plenty of white people watching this and saying, “Why don’t they just go back to their homes and go inside, then?” They don’t want to be tear gassed or arrested? Then they should shut up and do what they’re told. Can’t do what they’re told because the cops made it impossible? Bullshit — they just don’t want to listen to the cops because they’re a bunch of criminals.
I mean, look at the people who’ve lived exemplary lives as defined by white people — “the good ones,” as any racist asshole would say. College, graduate school, well-paying professional job, nice family, stays out of trouble. Hey, that’s a really good black person! America’s not a racist country — hell, a good black person like that deserves to be President!
Oh, wait.
For too many people in this country, there’s not a goddamned thing a black person can do that will make him or her equal in a white person’s eyes. Praised like a good, obedient child, maybe. But never, ever equal.
And remember, good children are seen and not heard.
And this is my understanding of racism as a white woman who’s never been on the receiving end of it. I’m sure I haven’t even scratched the fucking surface.
Eh. Rambling. Unhappy.
(BG, I know you already understand all of this. Just saying it… well, to say it. No idea why, or what good it does.)
ETA: To clarify, when I read “entire country should be outraged,” my response was that the “entire” country won’t get it. Too many racist assholes for “entire” to ever apply.
Patrick
If you are the police chief of any town, why in the world would you go and shoot the breeze with a controversial conservative pundit such as Hannity. You are supposed to represent all your people as the chief. Talk about not understanding your role as the police chief.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@BGinCHI: They aren’t.
petesh
@Karen in GA: Keep talking. Keep writing. Keep reaching inside for your truth and reaching out to learn and to teach.
The only thing that has kept this from being buried five days ago is people talking and standing and writing and tweeting — people communicating. We don’t know where this leads (maybe nowhere, maybe it will indeed eventually fade) but as long as there is a chance, keep writing.
petesh
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Yet.
Iowa Old Lady
Outside agitators? That would be Sean Hannity
BGinCHI
@The Thin Black Duke: I agree, and no, I didn’t take it the wrong way.
What is pissing me off (above the obvious) is that this is just a piece of “news” which means it is one of many stories for people who live lives of isolation from this kind of thing. For those of us who live and work in a diverse world where we push for social justice every day, it is maddening to see privileged white people watch this like it is in a foreign country.
I’m afraid other people (of color, of belief) are a foreign country to them. Small-mindedness and white privilege is hurting us all.
I hope Jay Nixon or the Feds come in and do some serious house-cleaning. But then I think about the LAPD and despair.
Gin & Tonic
@Patrick: why in the world would you go and shoot the breeze with a controversial conservative pundit such as Hannity
I have a feeling that neither the chief nor anyone he ever interacts with views Hannity as being in any sense “controversial.” They probably view him as the guy Diogenes was looking for (although they probably have no idea who Diogenes was.)
BGinCHI
@Karen in GA: Proper, righteous rant. I sure as hell hope GA flips some Rs to Ds in Nov.
NotMax
@CONGRATULATIONS!
Will happen right after the Post Office issues a stamp honoring James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
Or the heat death of the universe, whichever comes first.
BGinCHI
@Patrick: Playing to the base, in more ways than one.
Violet
Posted last night that I watched the NBC Nightly News to see what the coverage of this would be. Of course this was before things got even worse last night, but they did cover it–maybe third or fourth story. They also showed white men in a gun shop in the area buying guns from a white male gun shop owner who said that,“People are taking personal responsibility for the situation.” Sales are apparently up 50%.
lol
State Rep Clay is saying the police are being relieved of duty.
Edit: Looks like Nixon is finally getting off his ass.
scav
Funny how all the relevant details following a busy and confusing night can be responsibly investigated, dispassionately cleared up, reported upon and released to the press before noon the next day in this instance, unlike all the calls for patience during necessary paper-shuffling and cries about respecting the ambiguity of the original situation. Let us not release information publicly concerning blame lest it enflame or endanger individuals, worsen the situation etc.
AxelFoley
@The Thin Black Duke:
Nothing but the damn truth.
rk
The fact that he went to Hannity tells me everything I need to know about the Police Chief. The most racist show on the most racist news channel.
Belafon
@NotMax: This is a small portion of what the South would have looked like had cell phones and the internet existed in the 1950s. Imagine MLK Jr telling blacks to keep the cell phones charged and running (and yes, I’m being serious).
Kay
My favorite response from the protesters is when the police tell them to “go home” and they say “we ARE home!” back.
SatanicPanic
@Violet: Uhhh that makes me sick to my stomach
ericblair
@Patrick:
I get the idea that everyone he knows watches Fox News, so of course you’d go on there. The right wing has spent so much time and effort building their own separate reality that they have no way to interact with the rest of humanity any more.
NotMax
@Belafon
Now trying to excise the alternate universe existence of Y’allTube from my brain.
flukebucket
@Gin & Tonic:
LOL!! Thanks. I needed that this morning.
Karen in GA
@BGinCHI: From your lips to the FSM’s ears.
Belafon
@lol: link?
PhoenixRising
It matters that Mike Brown had no criminal record. Not because this is a racist nation that defaults to assuming black criminality (although it is). Because, in the past 24 hours, the local cops have proved that their story cannot be true.
If the child had literally spit on the sidewalk in the 10 years before his death, one of those veteran-preferred-hire cops would have written him a ticket to ride the School to Prison Pipeline. The fact that he had no previous contact with the criminal justice system says to me: He sassed a cop and got the death penalty. Any other explanation is literally incredible.
Tim F.
@lol: Wait, what now? Link please.
SatanicPanic
@Gin & Tonic:
Which is good, because it would be just like conservatives to start masturbating in public
shelley
But what does Sarah Palin have to say on this matter?
kindness
Curious….Hannity no doubt supports the police in Ferguson. I wonder why Fox thinks the same response shouldn’t be used against Cliven Bundy’s ranch?
PaulW
Why was the police chief on Hannity instead of being out in the streets of Ferguson trying to calm the situation down?
Elizabelle
@Kay:
I love that.
What’s happening in Ferguson could happen in a LOT of American cities and towns.
Better to cover this honestly now, although, in the “if it bleeds, it leads” world, more tumult and “controversy” is good. For ratings. And advertisers. And owners. Who do not live in the world that’s flammable.
I wonder if this is what President Obama is returning to DC on Sunday for.
Elizabelle
@PaulW:
Addressing his supporters?
The Thin Black Duke
@Violet: Thing is, these assholes never take “personal responsibility” for their bullshit.
White Privilege means you can walk around carrying a goddamned AK-47 in public like you’re Rambo and nothing will happen to you.
But if you’re a African-American in White America carrying Skittles, your black ass will get shot.
Jesus. As Marvin Gaye once said, this bullshit “makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands”, y’know?
max
@The Thin Black Duke: I didn’t mean to imply that all white people are complicit in this indecency, and I apologize if I did.
Speaking as an off-white person, I have known about this kind of thing for a long long time.
Makes me kind of hate white people sometimes. (As in, ‘fucking white people, Jesus fucking Christ.’)
max
[‘No need to fret. I hate these guys too.’]
PaulW
@Iowa Old Lady:
No, it was Al Jazeera’s camera crew.
Rafer Janders
Of course, given that this doesn’t involve white dudebros you won’t get Glenn Greenwald to care about this:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/14/militarization-u-s-police-dragged-light-horrors-ferguson/
lol
@Tim F.:
@Belafon:
All over twitter right now.
NotMax
Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy.
Talking head just opined in all seriousness that there is “palpable tension” in Ferguson.
Violet
@ericblair:
Agreed. In his world, why wouldn’t he go on Hannity? It’s probably a big deal to him to get to talk to Sean Hannity. That’s where all his friends and family will see him. It’s a complete alternate reality.
Karen in GA
Hmm. I found this Twitter feed from a Bloomberg reporter.
https://twitter.com/dwallbank
I’ve never embedded a tweet before, so bear with me.
ETA: Okay, it worked. (The embedding, not the removal of the police. That remains to be seen — let’s see who replaces them.)
Tommy
I’ve said I am going to be a broken record on this today and I will be.
Is it even illegal to walk down the middle of a residential street as a pedestrian?
Look, again as I said it is my understanding if I am on foot or my mountain bike (which I often am most days) I have the same “right of way” and/or use of that road as a car. Just because most people are in a car doesn’t mean I can’t use said byway to move around.
Davis X. Machina
@Elizabelle:
I hope not. This elevates a bunch of over-reacting crackers to the level of the Cubam Missle Crisis.
Belafon
@lol: Thanks, not allowed to do the twitter thing at work.
Patrick
@ericblair:
Doesn’t matter. He obviously has no clue what it means to be a police chief. Talk about the most tone deaf police chief in America.
NotMax
So this Sunday, will McCain excoriate Obama for not bombing Missouri?
PaulW
@Elizabelle:
It IS happening in a lot of American cities and towns.
We’ve had years of Stop and Frisks in NYC and other metros, harassing blacks and hispanics disproportionate to the white population.
We’ve had decades of speed traps down here in the South where cops pull you over if you’re DWB.
We’ve had just this month four separate instances of police brutality where unarmed blacks have been killed with choke holds and gunfire.
We’re dealing with more and more warrantless incursions into people’s homes, dragging naked and half-dressed innocents into the streets where they get humiliated, beaten or worse all because the cops had the wrong addresses.
And only now is the media even waking up to the warnings we’ve been getting for years about the dangers of selling military-grade equipment (at billions of taxpayers dollars) to police departments who are under-trained and ill-equipped to handle them.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
After they say it there’s no response because really, what do they say to that? :)
They ARE home, too. I listened to a conversation between a protester and a woman who was standing on her porch. The person in the street used her name and told her to join them. She wouldn’t come off the porch because she didn’t want to get hit with a rubber bullet. The only danger she saw on her street was coming from police.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy: IANAL, but I am a long-time cyclist. I could be wrong, but I think a vehicle is treated differently than a pedestrian. A bicycle is legally a vehicle, a pedestrian may not be, and may in fact not be permitted to be in the roadway.
But I could be talking out of my hat.
Karen in GA
@NotMax: Oh, Christ. Did you happen to catch which one?
Comrade Dread
@Tommy: Even if it is, you know what the proper police response would be? “Hey, guys, drivers may not be looking for you on the road, so it would be a lot safer for you to walk on the sidewalk.”
If they ignore you, then let it go or write them a fucking ticket.
BGinCHI
@AxelFoley: With which I agreed, if you read the whole thread.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: But.. speaking of “home” and tying this into your other favorite topic — I read in a backgrounder this morning, I think in WSJ, that the last town council election had about 1500 voters. There are over 15,000 residents of voting age. I’ll leave it as an exercise to guess which demographic the 1500 came from.
NotMax
Karen in GA
Luke Russert.
Violet
@Tommy: Depends on the area. It may or may not be illegal on certain streets.
@lol: So the Missouri Governor is calling in the federal agents? I guess that’s better, but the National Guard at Kent State didn’t make things any better.
BGinCHI
@Elizabelle: It could not happen in an all-white suburb.
PaulW
@NotMax:
Just Ferguson. McCain doesn’t want the Republican parts of Missouri singed.
MattF
The ‘outside agitators’ statement was inevitable and predictable.
We have to get back to the ‘who’s in charge here’ question. For example, who is doing the hiring, training, and management of these various small police forces? The leaders are the ones who are actually responsible and need to be held to some standard.
Original Lee
@Tommy: IIRC, pedestrians can legally use any public throughway unless it is specifically posted otherwise. For instance, the entrance ramps to interstate highways usually have signs that say No Pedestrians. It’s probably not a good idea to walk down the middle of a busy street, but it’s not illegal.
I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the internet.
BGinCHI
@max: We were cycling up on the north shore this past weekend, which is where people from the city mostly ride for long miles. It’s leafy and rich and groomed and of course you know what kind of folks (mostly) live up there.
I said to one of my buddies, “It would be nice to live up here, but it’s full of white people.”
We both knew what I meant, and we’re white.
scav
@Patrick: It’s likely the spiraling evidence of their incompetence in PR rather than Policing that got the larger politicos nearby off their armchairs and making bleats.
BGinCHI
@NotMax: These are one group of people he won’t want to arm. We might have finally found his limit.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Patrick: And in a sane world, you would be right. We’re talking about authoritarian wingnuts here. Right down that rabbit hole.
White supremacy has been mainstreamed. Thanks, Rupert Murdoch.
(White supremacy was always a feature of network news but it used to be coated in polite lies and misrepresentations. And you didn’t have guys like Hannity on the news egging the Loughners of the world on.)
Chyron HR
@Rafer Janders:
HA HA HOLY SHIT.
So on some level Greenwald dimly recognized that he needed to address Ferguson somehow, but the best he could do is an article with the thesis that the police violence there is an example of, “the vast network of Homeland Security spyware, concrete barricades and high-tech identity screening,” “America’s posture of Endless War,” and, “the massively funded, rights-destroying, post-9/11 security state of the Bush and Obama years.”
I bet the people who said Greenwald didn’t care about this issue are feeling pretty silly right about now!
gene108
Death threats are bad, but what is ironic is the right-wing media, which did so much to stoke people’s ire to the point they made death threats against Sgt. Bergdhal’s parents, when he was freed, are more than happy to follow along with Police Chief Johnson’s need to protect his officer.
It’s an interesting double standard.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): I’ve also read that the “liberal media” canard comes from the 1980s when most of the journalists in TV and print didn’t believe the lies they were paid to tell. They still did reporting back then and thus had a lot of exposure and contact to the populations they were reporting on and when polled they came up considerably more liberal on certain issues than the general public at the time.
Bobby Thomson
@Chyron HR: When all you have is an NSA hammer . . . .
kc
I switched to Fox for a couple of minutes last night, and they were talking about a “confirmed member” of the New Black Panthers being in Ferguson
Swear to God.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Why is that not a surprise?
Matt McIrvin
It seems to me that the police are outside agitators.
MattF
@kc: He was giving out his ‘I’m a Black Panther’ card.
BGinCHI
@kc: I wonder what their 3 black viewers thought about that.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Violet: Cops are assholes in communities of color because white flight suburbanites WANT them to be. (Hell, we all know this but I think there was a study last week out confirming that whites support excessive police force if they think it will be used on people of color.)
That’s why I have zero respect for libertarian douche-bros whining about the police state and police brutality. They don’t give one single shit about that. It’s nothing more than empty trolling. Check your motherfucking privilege dude-bros. Why don’t you report on Mom and Dad who keep voting for Arpaio and a thousand other assholios like him?
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
I wondered about the districting, too, whatever they call the local version of cutting lines there. We have “wards” and the boundaries of the wards can make all the difference in who gets elected. It would matter there, white or AA, particularly is it’s extremely segregated. They can cut lines to concentrate black voters in certain areas and then portion out the white voters by including them w/in an area to elect white reps. It’s not that hard to do. Our local maps at the county elections site get better and better because they have much more data available now and it’s easy to play with different lines.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Tommy: Bicycles are classified as vehicles and have the same rights as cars (generally speaking). As far as pedestrians go, many jaywalking laws prohibit walking in the street when a sidewalk is available (I have not looked up the specific laws and ordinances of Missouri or Ferguson). Even if Brown and Williams were jaywalking, there is no excuse at all for the cop’s actions.
Karen in GA
@NotMax: Oh, Jesus Christ. Li’l Pumpkin, the Nepotism Boy.
My dad’s dead too. Where’s my high-paying media gig?
Cacti
Governor Jay Nixon has finally stepped in and has relieved the St. Louis County police from any further enforcement role in Ferguson.
I’d say the Missouri AG and US DOJ need to take a hard look at their gestapo tactics too.
me
@Karen in GA:
A St Louis County Police lieutenant (the department in the streets of Ferguson last night) was fired for racial profiling last year. He called the black officers under his command “the good ones”.
Tommy
@Comrade Dread: @Original Lee: @BGinCHI: I live in a small rural town. A part of the city that is unincorporated. We don’t have sidewalks. If I want to walk around, and I walk around most days, it is on the street. No other option. Why does somebody in a car get more rights then me going to get a candy bar?
I am a long-time cyclist as well. I don’t think the law cares. That if you are on a bike you are therefore a vehicle. I wish that was the case, cause as I bet you know most folks in a car have no respect for you …. just saying.
scav
All those outsiders and agitators coming in and residing and home ownering in that poor town. Expecting to be able to walk in streets. Although, imagine if they had been armed with sidewalks instead, oh dear.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
“We have such a vast task ahead of us and such great challenges to create a better future. We can ill afford the irresponsibilities and destructive actions of barbaric communist agitators and even murderers who perpetrate the most cruel deeds against fellow South Africans because they are on the payroll of their masters far from this lovely land of ours.”
Violet
@kc: Speaking of the New Black Panthers, an interesting situation involving guns, open carry and the black community is developing in Houston.
Posted this part yesterday:
The community doesn’t want them there so local community activists met with the Open Carry people yesterday.
This quote from the Open Carry guy is just precious:
Yes, how could it be a racial issue? How could that be possible? Gawd, this white guy is such an idiot.
Patrick
@gene108:
Good point. It also reminds me of the threats that were made against the Dixie Chicks. They are such hypocrites.
Cacti
@scav:
All those outside agitators that think Ferguson, Missouri is part of the United States of America, and has freedom of speech, the press, and assembly.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): I’ve also read that the “liberal media” canard comes from the 1980s
Dates back to Spiro Agnew, at least. “Working the refs” is a time-honored tactic in most sports.
Eric U.
@Tommy: I responded to you a couple of threads back, but this assertion is wrong in most states if there is a sidewalk. Most states require pedestrians to use a sidewalk if there is one provided. Cyclists have the right to use the roadway in all 50 states, although that is modified in Oregon and New York if there is a bike lane.
I wasn’t aware until this week that the penalty for violating that is a death sentence. There was the case a while back where a female jaywalker somewhere was tackled by a cop, and the police chief said it was appropriate and that she was lucky she wasn’t raped. So there are hints that deadly force is deemed appropriate in jaywalking cases
Elizabelle
Another Faulkner quote:
@schrodinger’s cat: Haven’t read Light in August, or much of Faulkner at all, but it goes on the reading list. (Make that “attempted reading list.”) For next year …
And I hope that folks are out registering the protesters to vote. Behind the lines. Vote, but protest too. They have a right to protest. And a responsibility to vote.
Belafon
In case your blood pressure isn’t high enough:
Steve King: Since Ferguson Rioters Are All Of The Same ‘Continental Origin,’ Racial Profiling Is Not A Concern:
Laertes
Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. – Martin Luther King
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@The Thin Black Duke: Shit man, have you not figured out in 30 years that “personal responsibility” is a code phrase meaning “white is right”?
I figured that out when I was ten years old and I wasn’t a very perceptive kid.
rikyrah
@PhoenixRising:
tell it
tell it
TELL IT!!
Mr. Twister
Not that this is in any way equivalent, but still …. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/14/mall-cop-ignores-racist-harassing-seattle-protesters-and-pepper-sprays-black-bystander-instead/
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@max: Hold up, hold up–as a white person in America, aren’t all of us white people complicit in this shit? I’m pretty sure we are as the dominant group. Killing in my name is still killing in my name even if I voted for Obama.
Killing in the name of.
Karen in GA
@BGinCHI:
Ha! I had considered moving to Cape Coral, Florida a number of years ago because I like and miss the ocean (okay, it’s the Gulf side of Florida, but still), I know some people there, and at the time it was fairly affordable. But I also said that if I had kids there’s no way I’d consider it. I didn’t like being surrounded by white people who thought it was finally safe to say what they’d been thinking for all of those years, and wouldn’t raise a kid in that kind of environment.
No kids, though. (And no Cape Coral.)
...now I try to be amused
@Patrick:
Joe Arpaio is his role model.
MattF
@Belafon: “We should all be held to the same standards, as long as those standards are set by people like me.”
Tommy
@Eric U.: I missed your previous comment. I would have bet you a nice steak dinner you are wrong, but I have learned people here generally know what they are talking about, so I won’t disagree with you.
Look I don’t make waves. I was taught if a cop asks you a question you say “yes/no sir.” Do as they ask.
But IMHO things become FUBAR. That is the case here.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Rafer Janders:
You can talk about military surplus equipment until you’re blue in the face but if you can’t talk about RACISM (and all the other ‘isms driven by fear and lack of empathy) you’ve missed the point.
Libertarians exist to obscure the workings of power. They are useful idiots (or knowing shills) to fool the gullible into helping the rich and powerful get more so at the rubes’ own expense.
Violet
@Mr. Twister: Comment from the guy who was pepper-sprayed is just heartbreaking:
The Thin Black Duke
@Belafon: Damn.
King wants to say “nigger” so bad it hurts.
It’s always ugly whenever a bigot gets “blue balls”.
BGinCHI
@Tommy: I agree that ped and cyclist should have more rights, but there are all kinds of local ordinances that restrict it.
The village of Glencoe, white and rich and privileged, on the north shore has a recent ordinance that all cyclists must ride single file. Thus no group rides where people can talk and make the road safer for themselves by taking up space (as motorcycles do) or you get a ticket. This is directly aimed at cyclists from the city who pass through there.
Local ordinance trumps state law. Go figure.
PaulW
blaming the mess on “outside agitators” is overlooking the fact this whole mess started because one of your cops, mr. police chief, shot an unarmed kid in the back.
First rule of a shooting, you arrogant self-serving coward hiding on a Fox Not-News rage-festival, is you blame the sonofabitch who pulled the trigger. He’s one of yours, Chief, and he’s gotta answer for it. And you gotta answer for covering it up.
Sherparick
It was perfect that Chief Jackson appeared on Hannity last night, the man who just three months ago was cheerleading the Bundy’s ranch armed sedition against the United States. Driftglass posts the pictures of “Post Racial” America.
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2014/08/are-you-good-citizen.html
Briefly watched Fox last night, which was feeding every racial trope, plus bringing out the “New Black Panther Party,” (who appear to only exist when Fox and Fox affiliates have cameras running and I guess are on Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch’s pay roll). And of course slimming Michael Brown.
The Thin Black Duke
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): Uh, I was born in White America, sir. I’m 59 years old. I’ve known a long time. Or are you being “ironic”?
dianne
I just heard Carol Costello on CNN ask one of the reporters who got arrested “hasn’t this become bigger than Michael Brown” as though the death of a child on the way to college has been eclipsed somehow by the rousting of a couple of reporters. The reporter was in disbelief at his treatment as was Costello (who I usually like) and tone deaf to the fact that the people of so many places in this country are treated this way as a matter of course. That poor kid’s big mistake was not moving fast enough and for that he was executed.
Rafer Janders
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer):
Keep moving those goalposts….
Since Greenwald isn’t a libertarian and doesn’t identify as one I don’t know why you think this is relevant.
muddy
@Belafon: Lovely. Last week my sister was telling me an anecdote and used the phrase “of the African-American persuasion” to identify a guy, after some hesitation over what term to use. WTF??? – was my comment to her.
She didn’t think it was racist. I said if being black is not something bad, then why do you have to hesitatingly use a euphemism? And for that matter, why mention it at all, there was only one guy in the story and nothing about the story had to do with him being black. I’d like to say that I don’t know where she gets this bullshit, but then I remember she has lived for decades in the suburbs of Chicago, and has been well propagandized.
Violet
@dianne: Typical Village. It matters when it happens to them.
Applejinx
@max: I’m Scots, English and Finn and would have to go Swedish to get any more white, and increasingly _I_ am ‘hating white people’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqv9k3jbtYU
Jane Elliot’s Blue Eyes Brown Eyes thing blew my mind pretty hardcore. The concept alone is pretty intense: Jane is really, really capable of hating on blue-eyes convincingly. Seems like an uncomfortable exercise…
…and then the fuckin’ blue-eyes get so haughty at being asked to PRETEND to wear discrimination, even as an exercise, that they BREAK the experiment and in so doing, they literally shut up the protests of the brown-eyes and refuse to let ’em speak on the grounds that what they’re saying is wrong.
If you have any capacity to think and register the states of mind of others (we could call it empathy but I’m thinking an even more basic level here), the performance put on there is fucking obscene. Way to literally trample over the accounts of black (or brown EYED people, even) just to make the case that your blue-eyed ass is so superior that you shouldn’t experience a moment of ill-treatment, even in pretend! Absolutely shocking, a gut-shot.
I have brown eyes, BTW.
But even so, were I to raise my hands and go ‘don’t shoot!’ it would be at best naive and worst, a mockery. I’m a six foot white male and to get pushed around by a cop, I would have to kick up such a fuss that a black man in my shoes would get gunned down by a full SWAT team.
#whichpicturewouldtheyuse is meaningless applied to me because as a white guy I am EXPECTED to bluster and be in charge, something I’ve never particularly wished for myself. And what I’d wish is irrelevant: I could step right into those attitudes and society would nod and smile. I could go full wingnut and carry around assault rifles and society would be very deferential of my feelings while I took on the power to become death for latte purchasers and small children, the limits being only and exclusively my very white male will and judgement.
BULLSHIT.
This is wrong, this is all wrong. The contrast is too stark. And I can’t become black, but as Zappa once said, there’s whole lots of times I wish I could say I’m not white.
Elizabelle
@PaulW:
All true.
Kathleen
@The Thin Black Duke: And it’s not only the bigots at Fox News that disseminate the biased information, the mainslime media contribute by not providing context or accurate reporting (can’t offend their Tea Party demographic in the suckburbs, you know). And, of course, the obligatory “both sides” narrative. I personally think they’re worst than Fox in that regard. I am heartened, however, by the courage other members of the media have displayed in their dogged determination to keep covering the story despite police threats.
Patrick
@PaulW:
And not only that; they refused to name the cop who shot the kid (eventhough police never have any problems naming accused but not convicted civilians), they refused to release the results of the autopsy, they refused to interview the witness. I am so glad I am not black and living in Ferguson.
muddy
@Patrick: If I were the witness I would only want to be interviewed in public.
Kathleen
@Kay: Yes. The people the police told to go home were actually standing in their own yards. I understand that police lobbed either tear gas or smoke bombs at people’s homes.
Suffern ACE
@Sherparick: Maybe if the protest in St. Louis would kindly start talking about how the only legal government is the county government headed by a sheriff, they’d get some respect.
Applejinx
@Davis X. Machina: It ain’t?
Maybe I’m just floundering in a haze of privilege, but calling it ‘over-reacting crackers’ seems to suggest that killing a kid in cold blood and then going to war on a TOWN in their own streets and back yards, with guns and tear gas and the possibility of mass murder at any moment through military-style frontal assault, is ‘white boys being naughty’.
The sad fact is, any reaction Obama does is (a) political and (b) could backfire, and we can’t afford backfires. We can’t afford to double down on this mind-bogglingly horrible crap. It’s way out of line with what living in a civilized country is supposed to be like.
Just because Obama can’t swoop in on ebon wings and go ‘I got this’ doesn’t mean it’s not a very serious thing. There’s ‘over-reacting’ and HOLY BALLS GUYS and this one’s well over the brink into WTF territory. I believe it is well into the ‘serious Presidential action’ range. I also believe Obama could do drastic and impressive things to set this right… if he was an old white male.
And that’s kinda the whole problem right there, isn’t it?
Kathleen
@The Thin Black Duke: That song was running through my head all day yesterday. Last night I was listening to the BBC’s history of soul documentary series on You Tube and watching the live feed from Ferguson on another browser. The show featured footage of riots from the late 60’s so I was flipping back and forth between the footage and the live feed over the soundtrack of Marvin Gaye singing “What’s Going On”. A surreal and sad moment.
Kathleen
@Eric U.: Are you referring to the story of a “jaywalking” female runner?
Tommy
There was a great (and maybe really, really sad) interview on KMOX, a local radio station here in St. Louis (where I live). I can’t find the audio clip.
A lady on Tuesday says police came to her house where they were protesting not far from the shooting. In full military gear. Told her and others they needed to disperse and go home. She didn’t say anything. The police said they’d arrest her if she didn’t go home. It was at this point she says she told the police you are trespassing. This IS my house. I am HOME. Go away.
Mayken
@The Thin Black Duke: Or a pellet gun in a WalMart apparently. Sigh!
Mayken
@lol: Which is only a Good Thing if they don’t come in with tanks and tear gas, too… I certainly hope the state police and feds have learned the right lesson from the outrages here but I’m not holding my breath.
Funkula
Well, the police don’t live in the community, and they’re the ones escalating at every opportunity, so I have to give it to the chief: this is indeed the work of outside agitators.
Missouri Buckeye
@Violet: I believe today’s National Guard is far better trained than *those* National Guard troops were.
I know *my* mixed-race neighborhood is too close to all this for comfort. And I grew up within 10 miles of Kent State. This is getting really weird.
Villago Delenda Est
@max: I’m a white person, and there are a bunch of white people I really hate. Not for the color of their skin, mind you, but for the dearth of content in their character. To include Hannity and the Ferguson, MO police chief.
Missouri Buckeye
@Applejinx: I’m only a 5’6″ white guy, but I’m starting to feel the same way.
I keep on feeling like I should go to the protests, but then what?
Sad_Dem
@Tommy: I clearly remember from my driver training days that a pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way. A driver of a vehicle never has an excuse for running down a human being.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Sad_Dem: That is correct, but it does not necessarily mean that a pedestrian can legally walk in the middle of the road. Jaywalking laws do exist.
Gravie
Having been pulled over in Silver Spring Maryland for honking my car horn at a moron who was blocking traffic by trying to turn left from a right-hand lane, and being a 60-year-old white woman, and being subjected to the arrogant contempt of a swaggering 20-something asshole while being read the riot act, I sincerely doubt the politeness of the Ferguson officer.
kc
@Violet:
Wow, that is interesting. Heard the open carry aholes were planing to march through a black neighborhood but I hadn’t heard that last bit.
different-church-lady
@Chyron HR:
Puts me one step closer to a told-you-so.
J R in WV
@The Thin Black Duke:
Duke, I’ve been white for 63 years and I know exactly what’s going on. The Police in that little burg are rioting just like Daley’s pigs rioted in Chicago at the Democratic National convention 40 odd years ago. Just like in Selma, and Birmingham, and so on and so on since the end of reconstruction and the Federal troops were pulled out of the CSA.
Ever since Jim Crow slavery via prison sentences that no one could survive. Leasing prisoners convicted of walking while black, given 10 year sentences in Angola or Parchman, which were extended ever few years for back talking one of the bulls. Big farmers using prisoners given hard time for vagrancy for cheap labor in the cotton fields.
These small town thug cops made a big mistake when they didn’t kill every witness, and then when they went out of control on camera. Then they beat up a reporter who was in Fucking Mickey D’s restaurant for gawd’s sake, how stupid can they be?
This wasn’t going to get major news coverage when it was one kid dead, but they treated the deceased like a dead pet in the gutter, on camera, and then attacked peaceful unarmed people doing nothing wrong. Then they attacked witnesses, and reporters! Outrageous is the only word.
Don’t be painting all white people with the KKK brush, you need the progressives to help combat the Jim Crow bastards at the ballot box.
slag
@scav: I was just thinking, “You know what this situation could use? More guns. Where’s Monsieur LaPierre when you need him?”.