A protester stands in front of a police truck. She was later arrested and held for 13 hours without being charged. Credit: Emily Epstein White
Ferguson, Missouri. It’s all we can think about at the moment. There’s the gross incompetence of the police that started it all. There’s the huge divide between what the mainstream media is covering and what the people who are actually on the ground are reporting. There’s the sadness and frustration of the people of Ferguson. We continue to report as the story unfolds.
Team Blackness also discusses a man in Texas who has been in prison for 34 years but hasn’t actually been convicted, a Brooklyn resident who received a $125,000 settlement after being arrested for filming a stop & frisk incident, and how an ER visit to bandage a finger cost a man $9,000.
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Botsplainer
To protect and serve..,
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/cop-pointing-rifle-at-ferguson-protestors-i-will-fuck-1624463375?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
When you’re being mocked on Deadspin, your department has some serious standards problems.
Somebody needs to buy several cases of Vagisil, and protestors can hand out tubes to the loudest, screechiest, barkingest cops.
Belafon
Saw a tweet mentioned on Daily Kos that the Ferguson police raided a church and took all of the stuff that had been donated for the protesters.
Comrade Mary
Watching you feverishly on Twitter, Elon. Stay safe.
Porco Rosso
Making milk cool for black people?
You need to get a cut for making Got Milk relevant again.
Mandalay
They are getting more brazen in their lies:
There are probably getting pollsters to check on whether it’s a good idea to charge Michael Brown with shooting a police officer.
Mnemosyne
Obviously, the cases are not parallel, but Peter Gabriel’s “Biko” has been echoing in my head this week.
PaulW
How can the cops keep selling the story that Brown struggled for a gun and got a shot off when the autopsy says there’s NO GUNPOWDER RESIDUE ON HIM.
Also, the Ferguson PD isn’t winning any popularity contests if they have officers caught on film screaming “Go F-ck Yourself” to unarmed protesters after RAISING HIS RIFLE AND THREATENING TO SHOOT THEM.
Somehow, a complete failure to teach law enforcement basic customer service manners has happened…
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
It’s such a depressing situation, especially seeing people who I’ve seen were previously sympathetic turn harder and harder toward the police line because, hey, they got proof that Mike Brown was really a super-vicious hyper-violent mega-thug, and that proves that the entire black community there are really just a bunch of self-supporting super-thugs too!!
The police and their enablers have successfully turned this into a public trial on Mike Brown and are well on their way of finding him guilty of common black thuggery, just like they did with Trayvon Martin.
EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to add, the inevitable “WHY AREN’T BLACKS PROTESTING BLACK ON BLACK VIOLENCE” that we all saw coming, with the unspoken but highly implied “doesn’t that prove that blacks are inherently hyper-violent savages?!”
skerry
@Belafon: elon is reporting on this via twitter. also @jelani9.
It seems that a school on church property was raided today (for the 3rd time) by St Louis county police under the pretense of looking for unlawful occupancy. The building was being used by organizers as a place to gather. They say it was locked each night and no one was staying in it.
It’s unclear if they removed any property, but various reports have suggested that milk (used to treat tear gas in eyes) and gas masks were removed.
Raiding churches and schools? Unbelievable.
Davis X. Machina
What think we of MaxSpeak’s take?
Porco Rosso
“He was reaching for my gun”=miranda 2.0.
I think we need a constitutional right to remain intact until proven guilty.
El Caganer
@Mandalay: Christ, give it another week and they’ll be claiming that Michael Brown shot the cop. Maybe even call for a Brown grand jury.
scav
I’m also waiting for all those so serious Missouri Officials et al calling for everyone not to rush to judgement about poor old Officer Davis to shake their not so fast to prejudgement finger at everyone saying Mike Brown was a shoplifting aggressive jaywalker and clearly deserved summary execution on a public street.
Ben Cisco
Captain Johnson greets fellow Kappas with our traditional greeting, gets smeared for using gang signs: http://t.co/FwPzGP8Cv8
TeaNN scrubbed the report w/o admitting they published inaccurate info. Naturally.
Mnemosyne
@PaulW:
Because (white) people want to believe it. End of story.
JPL
@skerry: One tweet said they removed gas masks and milk. OMG, a Church might have been harboring the poor and homeless.
Do we know what police raided the church?
Belafon
@skerry: Thanks. I can’t get on twitter at work.
@Davis X. Machina: I think he needs to be ignored or ridiculed personally.
Mnemosyne
@Ben Cisco:
I dunno, I never did trust frat boys. (Joke!)
Belafon
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
And yet, there will never be any kind of justice if this story fades from the news. What we should all be really worried about is if this story fades into the background.
Tone In DC
The local PD is fucking ridiculous. Their story (or stories) changes almost every day. You could fertilize every field in Missouri with that bullshit.
As for the (repeated) raids of that church’s school, I don’t have the words. And these “peace officers” confiscated milk and gas masks? I suppose they were extremely disappointed they didn’t uncover Molotov cocktails and actual contraband.
daveNYC
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Same here. I’m having a fun time holding the line against my better half. I’ve basically decided to go with a ‘the police are lying in order to cover their asses’ counter-argument every time she mentions one of these character assassinating headlines.
It’s working so far. Fun times.
Porco Rosso
How can citizens respect an irresponsible police force?
Did anyone else catch the vines of Thomas the Tank Engine showing up in Ferguson last night? That was surreal.
skerry
@JPL: Tweets are saying St. Louis county police.
jon
A good question.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Belafon:
The unfortunate thing is that there seems to be as significant a risk of the story being turned on its head and held as proof of inherent black criminality and riotiousness. The narrative is already being hammered in and in many ways, that’d be even more galling than if the story faded away.
Cacti
Why I’m not buying the rumor of a “blowout orbital fracture” for Officer Wilson, or conversely, why if he has one, I think it was from having a buddy cop rough him up after the fact.
If you’re an MMA fan, you may remember Bob “silverback” Sapp. A giant of a man who was 6’5″ and 350 lbs of muscle. During a fight with Mirko Cro Cop, he took a shot to the eye that fractured an orbital bone, and went down to the mat in a heap. Afterwards, he was in tears from the pain. It also frequently causes blurred or double vision, and can lead to bone fragments embedding in the brain or puncturing the eye if immediate medical treatment isn’t sought.
Officer Wilson is a scrawny guy based on his photos, and not a professional fighter. After suffering a fractured orbital, not only was able to still shoot straight, but he was recorded strolling around the shooting scene as if nothing had happened. So, an injury that was enough to drop a professional pugilist didn’t cause a Ferguson cop to miss a beat.
Yeah, that’s believable.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@jon:
Better question: why do people keep using that broad-ass brush when saying ‘oh, all blacks ALWAYS destroy and loot shit to protest’?
Mostly because trying to point out irony to the asshats regarding the ‘Tea Party’ is a fool’s errand.
Mnemosyne
@jon:
But, see, white people riot when they’re happy, and black people riot when they’re unhappy. Totally different!
JPL
@skerry: Did they bring their tanks? What assholes!
Belafon
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: I know, and a white group protesting would just be exercising their first amendment rights. But it’s still going to have to stay in the news. And maybe the only way it stays is that there’s always this fear of blacks doing something, but it’s the white newspeople that keep getting arrested.
Unless news stations start scouring the country for places similar to Ferguson, I don’t see another way to do anything about this unless this stays hot for a while.
Mayken
At the risk of sounding kinda fan-girly, sir, your work on this has been nothing short of heroic. Thank you. Will definitely be setting aside a few bucks in support!
Calouste
Some good news: unless John Roberts intervenes, same-sex weddings will start tomorrow at 8AM in Virginia.
Mayken
@skerry: The silence of all the rabid War on Christianity types on this issue is deafening.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Cacti:
It’s not completely unrealistic to ‘tough out’ an orbital bone. I’m a wrestling fan, and I know three incidents regarding orbital fractures or otherwise eye-related trauma: Big Van Vader had his eye knocked out of socket by Stan Hansen in a match after a stiff (a.k.a. real, or as realistic as possible) shot to the face with a forearm. He managed to finish the match by popping it back in, somehow. Bryan Danielson, a.k.a. Daniel Bryan, had his orbital broken after a knee to the face in the corner wasn’t pulled quite enough by his opponent in Ring of Honor. And Rey Mysterio accidentally broke Undertaker’s orbital with a seated splash that went awry. All three guys managed to tough it out.
But here’s the kicker there: all three incidents, the guy’s eye was noticeably and unmistakably swollen and bruised after, not a minute after the break or injury. It’s nigh impossible to miss that kind of thing when it happens. All three got immediate attention once they were out of the ring, because that is not an injury you fuck around with. The fact that it took this long for this supposed ‘detail’ to emerge immediately sets off by Bullshit Meter on High. A ‘bruise to the face’ can be missed, a ‘giantically swollen bruise to the eye’ that tends to accompany these kinds of things is like wearing a fucking traffic cone on your head, it’s an immediate eye grabber (pardon the pun).
SatanicPanic
@Cacti: Or if you lived in Japan around 2004, you remember that dude. That’s a great point though- he was just standing there after shooting Brown, not holding his face or anything. Very questionable.
Belafon
@Mayken: How many things are supposedly a big deal in Ferguson that they have been silent on? Makes you think there’s something different about Ferguson than the things they care about.
Roger Moore
@PaulW:
It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to muddy the waters enough to give an excuse for people to believe that Brown deserved to be shot. The same with the shoplifting charge; they don’t have to prove that he was guilty of anything or that the cop knew about it, just smear him enough to give people who want to believe the worst an excuse to do so.
bluefoot
Over at Charlie Pierce’s place, he quotes The Riverfront Times about a woman who was shot in the head leaving a protest in Ferguson on August 12th. The victim says doctors told her that the bullet had been confiscated by police after it was removed, but there’s been no follow up.
“Tin soldiers and Nixon coming….”
Mayken
@Belafon: Yep and yep…
lurker dean
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: yes, very depressing. if you make the mistake of reading any comments sections in any news story about ferguson, it’s all hate and racism. i shouldn’t be surprised but it saddens me that so many in this country harbor such prejudice and hate. i’m also surprised to find that my liberal friends aren’t even following ferguson at all, which is also depressing.
keep up the good work, elon, i’m following you on twitter and listened to your frightening account of the tear gassing in the neigborhood the other night. stay safe.
Roger Moore
@Belafon:
And a white group that was walking around armed to the teeth would just be exercising their 2nd Amendment rights. But since the people complaining believe blacks have “no rights which the white man was bound to respect”, they don’t care about the comparison.
eric
@Roger Moore: I believe, that, sadly, for many americans, blacks have the right to remain silent, and should they give up that right……….
Cacti
@PaulW:
Not to mention, the shots to the right arm are on the palm and inner aspect of the forearm and biceps, all of which suggest a defensive posture, such as hands up or arms shielding the body.
If he turned around to charge Wilson, his palm and inner arm would be turned inwards toward his torso, and would be some of the least likely places to be hit if he was charging forward. If the shots to his arms were fired at point blank range, there would be powder residue, as he was wearing a t-shirt and his arms were fully exposed.
And that’s not even getting into the fact that he’s 6’4″, and the kill shot was on the top of his skull.
Botsplainer
@Mandalay:
I’ve been trying to figure out how an officer seated in a vehicle is going to lose control of his service pistol (customarily holstered on the right) to someone situated outside the vehicle on the driver’s side.
Maybe he was driving one of those British things.
SatanicPanic
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Yeah, and those guys are used to getting punched in the face, repeatedly, night after night. Especially Vader. They’re also used to suffering through injuries. This orbital bone thing is either a total fabrication or he got a buddy to punch him in the face afterwards. If his buddy did at least break a bone in his face, that’s justice.
Paul in KY
@Cacti: Great points there. That ‘officer’ killed Mr. Brown because he was pissed off.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: I don’t think it would be too hard to find other sad communities like Ferguson.
Pro Tip: Check out Alabama, Florida, Texas, S. Carolina, etc. etc.
Paul in KY
@lurker dean: Maybe your ‘liberal’ friends aren’t really liberal?
beth
@Botsplainer: Yeah, the “witness” who told Wilson’s side of the story said the gun had gotten turned around, facing his hip and when Wilson pushed it away it went off. How does a 6’4″ heavyset guy get his body through the driver’s side window, past the steering wheel and a squirming cop to turn a gun in a holster around? The whole thing stinks. And is anyone else worried that since they had Brown’s body for a few days at the county coroner’s office, Brown’s DNA and/or fingerprints are going to show up on the gun whether he ever touched it or not?
flukebucket
The most horrifying thing to me is how crystal clear it is that the Ferguson police have been used to doing what they want when they want and in whatever way they want.
The whole world is watching and they are acting worse than Brown shirts. The shit they are saying in front of cameras and on open mics tells you everything you need to know about them. If they will act the way they are acting out in open daylight and in front of cameras I tremble to think of the things they did in hiding.
Horrible. Ferguson must have been a terrible place to live for a long, long time.
Cacti
@beth:
I’m guessing that’s a preemptive story to account for shots that Wilson fired and missed. We know Brown was shot 6-times, but what was the capacity of Wilson’s magazine, and how many bullets were left? In using deadly force, all shots fired should be justified.
Mandalay
More lies from FoxNews:
Unfortunately for the police, someone took a video of Wilson immediately after the killing (the cop on the right). He sure doesn’t look like he “suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture”, and he isn’t behaving as though he was “nearly beaten unconscious”.
wasabi gasp
@Botsplainer: I’d like to know how a cop in a vehicle finds himself wrestling with a suspect through the window…and how he has the suspect by the neck. Inspector Gadget?
chopper
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
The fact that this new line is only coming out now smacks of made-up shit if you ask me.
Hal
I’ve seen two different posts from people on Facebook peddling stories about Ferguson that are apparently supposed to prove the police did nothing wrong. One that the cop was black, with several commentators basically saying HAHA. Case closed. The cop was black. As if that negates brutality claims, or police overreach. Sort of the way Zimmerman being Hispanic was supposed to be the end of the story for Trayvon Martin. The other is the claim an autopsy contradicts eye witness testimony.
There are a certain number of people in this country who are invested in this story being nothing more than a thug who got shot committing a crime. Any other suggestion about police brutality, racial profiling, over militarization, is all the work of racial agitators like Al Sharpton.
It’s not just Ferguson. Women who complain about sexism and harassment just can’t take a compliment. Gay people who complain about homophobia are just intolerant of someone else’s intolerance. Black and Hispanic people who complain about racism just want to feel like victims and can’t get over the past.
What I can’t figure out is why? Why is the automatic reaction of a certain section of the population to deny anyone’s claims of discrimination? What benefit is it to those people that everyone else just grins and bares it?
JPL
From Antonio French’s twitter feed
just f..k
Elie
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
The other necessity would be some fairly intense bruising and abrasions on Brown’s knuckles and hand. Breaking someone’s eye orbit without a boxing glove would be intensely painful and hard to do as well, leaning into a car window where you couldn’t have room to put the power into the punch. The coroner said that there were no signs of struggle on Michael Brown’s body. Also
The lies are flagrant and should be embarrassing for any truly professional police… It is also very troubling that they aren’t even trying to look professional — allowing support from the KKK and continuing to stone wall providing any information other than smearing Michael Brown. I consider myself a fairly moderate liberal but I still have smoke coming out of my ears on this!
Cacti
@Hal:
Well, the officer definitely wasn’t black. His dad forgot to scrub some pictures of him from facebook. Definitely a white guy.
raven
@Hal: Been reading Pat Lang’s blog huh? I have a news flash for ya’ll. Whether you like it or not plenty of people feel just as strongly that the cop was just doing his job as there are people that are convinced it was murder. If someone is shocked by that then someone is really naive.
SatanicPanic
@Hal: The benefit is racist people can say and do what they want.
A Humble Lurker
@Hal:
The idea that things aren’t fair and these things don’t happen to you because you deserve it scares the crap out of some people. Because it means they’re not protected. This kind of shit can happen to them, even if they don’t deserve it.
Ripley
@Calouste: So much for that: SCOTUS Halts Gay Marriage in Virginia.
Belafon
@Paul in KY: But reporters would have to leave their comfy, air conditioned offices.
Ripley
@raven: Thanks for the daily scold, grandma.
Amir Khalid
I’ve refreshed this page several tmes, and the photo at the top still won’t display.
Villago Delenda Est
The Ferguson PD is incompetent only if you think the job of the police is to enforce the laws, not to protect their own under any circumstances.
They’re doing a bang-up job of doing everything to protect one of their own who is a cold blooded killer.
ellennellee
you’re reporting from MO has been amazing; thank you so much!
but, i am unable to see the posted photo; tried on safari and firefox. this happens rather often on balloonjuice. any suggestions?
raven
@Ripley: I’m not scolding anyone I’m just surprised that there is such amazement that everyone doesn’t agree.
raven
fuck it
Villago Delenda Est
@chopper: “Made up shit” is a mild characterization of what is going on here. I think the only one who was more into making shit up was Josef Goebbels broadcasting “live” reports from Stalingrad that originated across the street from the Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin.
Elie
Its tribal. You know, how you root for your people no matter what till the last dog dies. To some whites in this country, black people are the enemy — never to be agreed with, supported or otherwise included in the term WE the people….Its clear from the brazen way these cops have behaved that they have normalized the behavior that would lead to overreaction and outcomes such as Michael Brown’s murder. The way they have attacked non violent protesters as well as the media representatives tells me that this is a deep problem in Missouri and may rife throughout the county police and judicial or prosecutorial agencies and departments. That said, Obama is going to have to handle this carefully. This is not going to be a one step fix but multi-stepped and involving and examining Missouri’s system for policing and providing justice… Again, it tells me what they are up against to see the brazenness with which critical information continues to be withheld and/or made up.
Cervantes
@Hal:
You’ve tried to figure out why but have not succeeded? Can you say anything about the possible explanations you’ve considered and rejected? (Thanks.)
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay: Apparently the wingnutosphere took an xray photo out of a medical textbook and is trying to pass it off as an xray of Wilson’s eye socket.
These people have absolutely no shame or ethics to speak of. They are utterly despicable.
cckids
By coincidence, I’ve just finished re-reading Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch. It involves an attempted revolution, crowds rioting, corrupt (and not-corrupt) police. Parts of it could be an exemplar for how things could have been done in Ferguson to have it not turn to shit.
Sadly, the cops in Ferguson are not Sam Vimes.
El Caganer
@raven: That’s why I only read his blog for stuff on the Middle East/Central Asia.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elie:
This is what seriously pisses me off. I served with “those people” in the Army. Some were good and dear friends. Some were my loyal and hardworking subordinates. Some were mentors. Some taught me but a small fraction of the knowledge they’d accumulated in service, and it was like a deluge that was more than I could handle in a short period of time. Some of my best and most valuable NCOs were “those people”. I owe them a debt that can never be repaid. If we had gone into combat, they’d have my back, and I’d have theirs. Skin color means nothing, NOTHING, when you have a common mission, a common goal.
I am so heartsick over all of this.
Elie
@Villago Delenda Est:
Again, there would be at least some bruising on Michael Brown’s knuckles and hand. The human skull is pretty hard. The kid was not a professional fighter. As was also pointed out upstring, Wilson would be hurting and showing evidence of an eye injury all the time he was walking around on that video without showing any pain. The coroner said that there was no sign of struggle on the kid’s body.
Trollhattan
You have to admit, as a mission statement it’s easy for them to remember and follow.
Trollhattan
@Elie:
Am SO glad we don’t have T&H around to speak up on behalf of the pavement.
lurker dean
@Paul in KY: they’re not DFHs but i’d say they’re solidly liberal. which is why i was surprised they weren’t following ferguson.
i can’t remember if it was here, but someone recommended aljazeera america for coverage of ferguson. i prefer it because their reporter and camera person are in the thick of things, not behind a fence like chris hayes. not that i’m blaming chris hayes, it doesn’t look very safe there.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
You don’t find projection much more pure than this.
Elie
@Villago Delenda Est:
In your experience and awareness, as well as that of many other white people like you, lies the redemption for this country. Your misery is valuable and your experiences will count, no matter how painful this whole process unfolds… I believe that from the bottom of my heart.
Elie
@lurker dean:
I agree with you and watch AlJazeera preferentially and just jump on the others (read CNN) once in a while to see what crap they are cooking up and transmitting
gocart mozart
“Trouble Every Day”
Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guess
So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
Wednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff
And chokin’ in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin’ ’round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin’ down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn
And I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
Well, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
‘Cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
‘N all that phony stuff on sports
‘N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin’ out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so
And further they assert
That any show they’ll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin’ hard and doin’ swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can’t be beat
And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They’ll send some joker with a brownie
And you’ll see it all complete
So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
Hey, you know something people?
I’m not black
But there’s a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I’m not white
Well, I seen the fires burnin’
And the local people turnin’
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite ’em
And they say it served ’em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it’s the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
‘N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don’t appeal to him
(No matter if it’s black or white)
Because he’s out for blood tonight
You know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won’t be many live
To see it really end
‘Cause the fire in the street
Ain’t like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don’t you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now’s the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain’t no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn’t free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor
Blow your harmonica, son!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=girnJH7tvpM
Cervantes
@lurker dean:
You know who else had reporters in the thick of things, right?
Elie
@Trollhattan:
LOL — yes!
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
It means nothing even when you don’t.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes: True dat. Some people apparently can’t learn from the example I cited, though. Which is another cause of heartsickness.
Squiregeek
There’s a difference between incompetent and malevolent. These cops are not incompetent.
lurker dean
@Cervantes: LOL.
AkaDad
I think the best way to change things in a non-violent way is for everybody to go out and vote for people that better represent their communities. I know I sound like Capt. Obvious, but if there’s a better way I’m all ears.
Massive get-out-the-vote drives, voting by mail, a voting holiday, and independent commissions to draw congressional districts would be good start.
Mnemosyne
@AkaDad:
You must have missed the comments from the head of Missouri’s Republican Party yesterday — apparently, getting people to register to vote is “disgusting” and politicizing a tragedy.
Tone In DC
@Squiregeek:
I don’t think the two traits are mutually exclusive. The previous administration, its Iraq invasion, and that war’s many cheerleaders, quickly come to mind.
Svensker
@Hal:
Because then “their country” filled with “real Americans” isn’t perfect. Which it has to be because God made it. Anything “wrong” with America is caused by Outsiders.
AkaDad
@Mnemosyne:
There’s a political ad that writes itself.
Disgust a racist, register to vote.
Elie
@AkaDad:
While I certainly support your values, voting is the last manifestation of a truly democratic political system. It is successful when the people’s will and the means to implement that will are in synch. Lawful institutions and governance follow that — not before.
We have a bit of work to do in Missouri and elsewhere, I am afraid, before the voting will work. I am not discouraged by that. Democracy must constantly be renewed, fought for. Maybe we got a bit lazy and took this for granted. I think now, however, scales have fallen from a few eyes and we see the cancer that was lurking under superficially “lawful” institutions. It is good to know this. Time to get our buckets and scrub brushes.
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est:
You’re forgetting Baghdad Bob. At least Goebells’ audience had no way of really knowing that the reports were false, unlike the audiences of Baghdad Bob and the Ferguson PD.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid: I’m having the same trouble, have had all afternoon.
Mandalay
FoxNews have surely hit a new low with this effort from Greta Van Susteren:
How do you accidentally shoot someone six times?
Calouste
@Mandalay: Only if the standard issue side arm for the Ferguson PD is a Gatling gun.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est: Assuming one has about 30,000 days in all, and assuming the first 25% should be spent mostly on learning how to act, that still leaves more than 20,000 days in which to act. If even one useful action per day is possible, that’s a lot of useful actions.
Cervantes
@Mandalay:
First you shoot them accidentally five times and then you get careless.
A Humble Lurker
@Cervantes:
Swear to God, this whole thing is like ‘Chicago’ but in reverse. We’ve already had a rousing chorus of They Both Reached For The Gun and now just a little bit of Cell Block Tango.
scav
@Mandalay: Oh, those cuties. Never crosses her inter-ear airspace that maybe people have had practice, have prior experience with this whole being unarmed and shot thing and have managed the whole patient thing? Any interest in what might make this case different from all those others? Let alone any flighty concern about the situation in her world where all this accident-prone weaponry is being tossed about the nation to fumble-fingered-whoops-machines with badges?
Violet
Heard on the news the prosecutor is saying it could be October before an indictment. Did I hear that right?
Mandalay
@Violet:
You did, unfortunately. Looking on the bright side, this can only help with GOTV.
Cacti
Well, well, well…
Police sources speaking on condition of anonymity to the NYT, say that Officer Wilson DID shoot at Michael Brown as he was running away, but missed. So, the eyewitnesses who believe Brown was shot in the back, believed it because Wilson actually was trying to shoot him in the back.
Elie
@Violet:
You heard it right.
That said, it shouldn’t stop them from placing Wilson on leave and firing his boss for incompetence while handling the aftermath. Also, they need to let us know where Wilson is (not specifically the address), but that they know where he is. He should be in the state of Missouri. The state indictment will go on its on track but that shouldn’t stop the justice department from its investigation and own data collection.
GRANDPA john
Thank you Ralph Nader Not a dimes worth of difference between Gore and shrub especially in their judicial appointments
Cacti
@Mandalay:
A lawyer like Van Susteren knows, there is no such thing as an accidental shooting.
There are intentional shootings and negligent shootings.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cacti: Funny how that works, now, isn’t it?
Villago Delenda Est
@Squiregeek: THIS
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@SiubhanDuinne: I think it’s this photo from TWiB –
http://i0.wp.com/twib.fm/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/twibfm-dispatch4.png
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Medicine Man
@raven: I generally don’t touch any threads having to do with race on Pat’s Blog for exactly this reason. They are always 150+ comments long and unfold in a wearyingly predictable fashion.
SiubhanDuinne
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
That’s bleak.
But thanks.
WaterGirl
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: @SiubhanDuinne: It’s also stunning. Looks like it could be an award-winning photo, to me.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: Sad & very true.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: Same here, VDE.
Paul in KY
@lurker dean: I’m not following it hourly myself, but I damn sure know what is going on there.