I watched about three minutes of the presser, and didn’t even wait for the indictment. I knew. What I saw was not a prosecutor seeking charges in those three minutes, but the closing arguments of a defense attorney.
Was there ever any doubt that there would never be an indictment.
*** Update ***
Hey Obama, if violence doesn't get results, why are we bombing so many fucking people?
— John Cole (@Johngcole) November 25, 2014
Obama just gave the worst speech I have ever seen. Flat, detached, and making no sense. And, actually, violent protests do get results. Ask the people of Benton Harbor:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Next we report on what may be an uncomfortable truth. It concerns the effect of political protests. Sometimes violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted people to say violence won’t improve anything, which is naturally what we would prefer to believe. Who favors violence? Reality can be more complicated. Let’s look now at the actual aftermath of another city that saw violent protests – Benton Harbor, Michigan. In 2003 a black man died during a police chase there. The death set off two nights of violent demonstrations and afterward there was a real effort to change the city. Dustin Dwyer of Michigan Radio reports on the lessons of Benton Harbor.
*** Update ***
On the positive side of things, we can always hope the police will confuse Don Lemon with a protestor.
SteveLCo
Was there ever any doubt that there would never be an indictment.
No, that was easy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
good for whatever reporter asked that last one
dedc79
The media isn’t doing a very good job masking their desire for violent rioting. They come across about as credibly as the weather channel anchors who profess not to want the hurricane to hit.
Hawes
I thought we knew this three months ago…
Liquid
Shorter Mcculloch — BNBG
skerry
Fucking MSNBC has the audio from Ferguson going over the top of the President.
lamh36
Omnes Omnibus
From the previous thread : Obama basically said the Grand Jury result was fucked up.
raven
@lamh36: What did you think he was going to say?
navarro
the glaciers are melting faster than the racism in the system.
Hawes
Obama is going to make the GOP’s heads explode with this presser.
dubo
I knew Wilson would get off scott free when so much of the conservative media crowed about how the autopsy evidence showed that there was a close-range struggle and that vindicated Wilson – despite the fact that the struggle at the police car was never in dispute and all the witnesses agreed it happened
Well, I knew he would get off scott free the moment I heard about the incident, but that was when it was a sure thing
Redshift
Yeah, he gave away the game really early in the presser, when he talked about the unreliability of witness statements and how they were challenged, but made no mention of the veracity of police statements or challenging them.
Baud
@Hawes:
Can’t watch. What is he saying?
Comrade Luke
Friend on twitter:
Somehow it’s always Obama.
Hawes
Jesus. the split screen on CNN is heartbreaking. Obama is trying to talk about “best practices” and building trust. And on the other screen the cops are tear gassing people.
Hawes
@Baud: “We have real issues of policing in communities of color.”
Brian R.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why the fuck would CNN put Don Lemon in there?
It’s a racial powder keg, so put in the weirdo who always says odd shit AND is hated by the black community?
Baud
@Hawes:
Yep. That’ll do it.
rikyrah
.
no
no
no
Morzer
@Brian R.:
When life gives you shitty lemonade….
Betty Cracker
I was happy to hear President Obama call out the media for sensationalizing violence. Of course, it’s like calling out the sun for rising, but still, it needed to be said.
lamh36
@raven: just that. I said when it was announced that he would speak, that nothing he says will be good enough.
So I’m not surprised this is the headline CNN goes with.
Also too notice that the media is using split screen as Obama speaks and for a reason
Baud
@Comrade Luke:
That friend must really hate Rand Paul’s rhetoric then.
Oh, nevermind.
rikyrah
@Redshift:
What police statements?
I was under the impression that they STILL hadn’t released an official police report of what happened.
SatanicPanic
God damn, Don Lemon is a horrible person
GregB
Boy that is pretty fucked up to the play the sounds of the crowds and police sirens as a soundtrack pasted over the President.
kc
Even ABL is turning on Obama on Twitter.
Morzer
@Baud:
Was it just me or was the shiny new brave Rand Paul nowhere to be seen today?
See also: extreme surprise at gambling taking place in a certain establishment.
raven
@lamh36: Rachel and Lawrence are taking great pains to point out the small scale of the action.
beltane
There was no doubt. It was just magical thinking to believe the outcome would be different from the preordained one. Yes, we really are that ugly as a country.
Baud
@Morzer:
Rand Paul is busy declaring war on ISIS.
I’m not even kidding.
kwAwk
I can’t help but think that Michael Brown was ordinarily a good kid but was having a bad night. It sounds to me like he just panicked, which caused the cop to panic, and a stupid situation over the theft of a few dollars in cigars turned into a dead kid on the ground.
I agree that that militarization of the police is ridiculous and that it sounds like there needs to be a reconciliation of the anger within the black community in Furgeson as to how they are treated on a daily basis. But I’m sure about this. Anybody got a link where I can read a comprehensive account of the situation?
Hawes
Jesus, police are firing all sorts of shit at the crowds.
Morzer
@Baud:
No, I know. Not that such minor details will stop the media from lionizing that particular very white mouse.
TomG
It felt sick to hear Obama talk blithely about the “rule of law”, minutes after ONCE AGAIN police got off scott free. In addition to the racial overtones, this outcome is once more telling EVERY policeman that they have cart blanche to kill whenever they want.
And know that prosecutors will in most cases NEVER go after them.
GregB
So now is time when Republicans and Constitutional conservatives stand up for the citizens of America who are being oppressed by the tyrannical police state and the onerous laws that have been forced upon the people. Right?
Morzer
@Hawes:
No doubt the prosecutor will explain that crowds are unreliable and that the police used feather dusters.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I am so sorry about this outcome. It’s disgusting, and maybe something that people of character will remember with shame in 15-20 years.
The police killed Michael Brown, assassinated his character. The prosecutor made clear what a shabby case was presented to the Grand Jury.
And I don’t know the police report was ever released. Selective testimony throughout.
Linnaeus
Hell, we celebrate that every July 4.
raven
That’s a pretty cute analogy.
Morzer
@TomG:
What else could he say? Kill a cop today, comrades?
I would bet that if there is one person who doesn’t feel blithe about today’s events, it is the president.
Elizabelle
@TomG:
I think he was making a point that the laws may not be sufficient.
This was not justice. I don’t for a moment think that President Obama thinks that it was.
Hawes
@TomG: That was true before Ferguson. If anything, Ferguson might lead to lapel cameras on cops.
There is a at least a conversation about this that only a few people were having prior to Ferguson.
skerry
@raven: Seriously, Cole, WTF?
pat
@Redshift:
Absofuckinlutely. Didn’t he just kind of avoid the question of Wilson’s report?
IS there a report from the cop who shot Brown?
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle:
I think his comment about understandable anger indicated that.
rikyrah
That’s the whole point
Liquid
I had the same reaction to his speech but then you realize there’s nothing else he can say.
Morzer
Not always and even when you get results, they ain’t always good ones.
That whole firing on Fort Sumter thing, for example.
Hawes
The police going to tear gas so soon has pretty much guaranteed that Thanksgiving is going to suck in Ferguson.
And enjoy your own Thanksgiving dinner with that Uncle who says, “I don’t have a racist bone in my body but…..”
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The question I would have like to have asked by a reporter was, When exactly did you decide that the fix was in?
raven
@Liquid: Yea, him and Bill Cosby.
skerry
@SatanicPanic: CNN just showed Lemon getting gassed. I took some satisfaction in it.
gogol's wife
@skerry:
Yeah, really. Time to go to bed.
mattH
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Of course it’s Lemon…
farmette
This needed to go to trial. Not a secret court, drawn out, manipulated, offering bread crumbs of info, intended hype and timed finale. Shame isn’t strong enough for this this type of dispensation.
Liquid
@Morzer: But they had gawd on their side!!1
beltane
Ugh, there are rumors going around that the Oath Keepers are sending “volunteers” to Ferguson to “protect” businesses.
Hawes
Obama’s speech was about as tense as I’ve seen him. If it was flat, that’s about all the anger you’ll see from him.
Maybe he needs Key and Peele’s Anger Translator, but he was pretty cleared pissed.
And meanwhile, the cops are back to their old tricks.
lamh36
@kwAwk:
Fixed that far you, interesting how easy it is to transpose those name ain’t it.
How dare the stupid kids panic like that. Dont’ they know they should bow their heads, and avert their eyes and just say yessir when questioned unlawfully.
Hmmm, civil liberties only for some folks huh…
Mike in NC
@Omnes Omnibus: Obama shouldn’t ever comment on cases like this. Always a lose-lose proposition.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
If anyone thinks Obama was going to be anything more than milquetoast in his address on this, they haven’t been paying attention to whatever happens when he opens his mouth.
Even the most tepid of rebukes to McCulloch or the Grand Jury would result in a nigh instant revolt of shit and assuredly would only make things explode even further, and he realizes this, I’m sure.
Hawes
Police tweet:
Police are not deploying tear gas. They are using #smoke to break up unruly crowds. #Ferguson
Bullshit. Reporters are choking on camera.
Omnes Omnibus
Do you seriously think that a US President would go on TV and tell people to hit the streets and burn shit?
dubo
On the other hand the leaders of Are Great State Of Michigan have spent the past decade punishing Benton Harbor for its uppitiness and revoking democracy there
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: There’s a lot of bullshit being talked here tonight.
Morzer
@Mike in NC:
If he doesn’t comment, the left will accuse him of betrayal and the right will just make up a speech for him and pretend he said it. There’s no percentage in saying nothing either.
Mnemosyne
@Hawes:
Once again, I think we have a mistranslation between the Midwest and the rest of the country. In the Midwest, we know that if an authority figure speaks to you very, very quietly, you are fucked beyond belief.
Apparently, that doesn’t translate as “anger” to the rest of the country.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: I think it did too. Remember, everyone who’s pissed at the President, that he’s in a uniquely awkward and fucked up spot here. Because he’s black. He has to signal his disappointment in an inappropriate legal outcome, which he recognizes as a lawyer in a particularly pointed way, but he cannot show any outward anger or he’ll be an angry black man and his response will be used against him and every person who objects to the outcome. Especially those who are black.
dubo
Was it here or another blog where I saw the article about how (much like Katrina) 90% of the “violence” the media slavered over was fabricated?
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
If these are the thoughts of the non-alcoholic Cole, I think I preferred the drunken version. This latest post by him is like listening to Rand Paul as channeled by Ann Althouse. Ignorant, self-pitying, passive-aggressive slop.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
I have to throw this out there…
What is Obama gonna say about this? What could he say? “Kill the pigs! Stick it to the man!!”
Uh, no. That’s not his vibe.
Yes, this was a truly fucked up result. Don’t leave Jay Nixon and McCulloch blameless while lambasting the guy who had little to do with the situation. Obama can’t fix Kansas. Or Alabama. Or Missouri. There are some very scared wingers out here. They’ve been having a temper tantrum/massive freakout for the last six years. Michael Brown is dead. One cause of that homicide is this… so many people feel the need to shit their pants every five minutes. Over something they’ll never have to deal with. And that they cannot control, in any case.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I didn’t even take this click bait at Salon, but…
Brit Hume is considered an elder statesmen among journalists, and Ann Coulter is, or at the very least once was, a regular invitee on the ABC’s VSP Sunday Morning Circle Jerk of Conventional Wisdom.
Liquid
Burn this mother down — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEsgETyGCYA
lamh36
Hmmm, why the analogy between Obama and Bill Cosby? I’m sure there are actual Presidents who Obama could be compared too.
You should really think about why your go to was Bill Cosby, Cole. And don’t say it’s cause he’s in the news, there are any number of other people you could compare Obama’s statent to.
beltane
When Obama leaves office I hope he writes a book where he tells us what he really thinks.
GregB
@dubo:
Gunfire was turned in to “sniper fire”.
By the way, we know how many died on 9/11. About 3,000.
Anyone remember what happened to the death toll of Hurricane Katrina? It met the memory hole.
samiam
Son of Steve Cole trying hard to hide his joy. The sociopath is not happy unless he has something in the news to be cynical about. His last few posts were obviously warm up pre-outrage posts.
Hawes
Jesus, the imagery from Ferguson is terrible.
As for violent protests accomplishing things, I can’t think of many instances when that’s true. And then again, most of the “violence” is simple vandalism. What the fuck does looting have to do with the injustice of what happened?
John Cole +0
@raven:
I didn’t mean it that way. Fuck. I meant when he was giving the pull your pants up don’t be bad speeches. I’m deleting it.
Baud
@raven:
We always turn on our own.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@beltane: I think even then it will require reading between the lines, and very dry, subtle shots at his opponents
JordanRules
Cosby tho? C’mon son.
raven
@John Cole +0: I figured it was something like that. Many of us say the wrong thing but only some of us can delete it after 3 minutes!
Arclite
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, shit, that can only serve to reduce the chance of violence.
raven
@Baud: Dudes are going to try to turn over cars and they are going to get tear gassed. Every fucking time.
dubo
@Hawes: Shhh soon the media blackout no-fly zone will be active and you won’t have to worry about pesky “facts” contradicting the controlled message
beltane
@Arclite: It’s Reefer Madness! Really, CNN is lame on so many levels it’s not even funny.
Hawes
Well, they managed to burn a police car. I guess that evens out the dead teenager, the gassed crowds and the systemic racism.
pseudonymous in nc
As a friend said, it looked like he had nothing in the tank. That’s really not a surprise given the past six years. Despite the delusions of the wingnuts, he’s not a dictator. America’s gonna America.
GregB
Craig Melvin is calling bullshit on the police reporting that their tear gas is not tear gas.
aimai
@kwAwk: Fuck off and die. Really.
Hawes
@dubo: Already worked on Don Lemon.
Right now, Jake Tapper is the only live CNN guy on the street. They’ve cleared the rest of them.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@pseudonymous in nc:
I get the depressing sense that he knows he can’t really say anything because the moment he takes a position, the opposite side simply fucking explodes and makes everything outright impossible and takes things further away from any kind of reasonable conclusion.
PurpleGirl
@kwAwk: I thought that the timeline of events indicated that Wilson could NOT have known about the cigars and that actually the cigars got paid for.
Cain
I made a google+ post, and I essentially said that rioting is the wrong way of doing things.. you need to turn that anger into a political force.. start organizing, creating a political force to be feared. You start registering voting, and you go after these fucks in townhall meetings, vote your own candidates in.. Keep the pressure on.
When blacks riot, it becomes really easy to label them as thugs, and what not. I mean every time blacks have rioted in the past, has anything ever changed? Look at what MLK Jr. has done. That was effective, and they need to go back to it. Blacks can hold some serious political clout if they use it.
JordanRules
Can’t edit on my phone. Saw your update. Word! ‘Preciate the update.
Morzer
@Hawes:
Jake Tapper is live? More like zombie media.
Mnemosyne
@Hawes:
This may be the real reason they waited until after dark to make the announcement — makes it harder for the press to verify what’s actually going on.
#PoliceRiot
(No idea if that’s already a hash tag, but it sure as hell should be.)
Hawes
Don Lemon just completely contradicted what happened in front of him.
They brought an injured woman up and the police fired tear gas on them. Lemon said they “Apparently took the woman for care.” Zero fucking evidence of that.
TBDL79
Wow, so in one tweet the Cole encourages violence and compares the President to what seems to be a serial rapist who drugs women. I mean obviously on this night who else would you take to the internet to rail against other than President Obama. He’s obviously the villain here. Also notice the lack of the term “President” in Cole’s post. Seriously, I’m beginning to detest much of the left as I do the right.
Omnes Omnibus
State Sen. Chappelle-Nadal just brought it on MSNBC.
Cain
@Hawes: NO kidding.. once you start looting, your case is over. It’s not about injustice, it’s just about opportunity to get what? Free televisions? Is that what is really important?
pseudonymous in nc
I now understand why right-wing gun-nut white guys have extended fantasies about black people rampaging in their gated communities. At bottom, they think they’ve got it coming to them.
Got beaten, blackmailed and murdered? Oh, here’s your MLK Jr. quote: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Even the liberal MSNBC finally took their camera off the burning cop car
ex-FBI guy actually said one burning car is no big deal, and MSNBC brings it back.
dubo
Remember when Darren Wilson was beaten severely by Brown until he was nearly unconscious and totally had a fractured eye socket and orbital blowout and and and
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/537089185258414080
lamh36
Oh yeah, Mike Brown beat the shit out of Wilson…NOT!
Hawes
The minute the police opened up with tear gas, there was no chance of this ending well.
Force first, force to the utmost. – the motto of every shitbag cop
Morzer
@lamh36:
Apparently Michael Brown caused a mild case of sunburn.
cckids
“A system cannot fail those it was never built to protect.” – W.E.B. Dubois
Truth.
lamh36
So wait, dude had “razor burns” that constitutes “injuries”
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/537091624481091585
Hawes
Looting on my TV… Any message of justice just got lost in about 50 people looting a store.
Redshift
@pat:
I could have missed it, but from what I heard, there was no mention of police statements. Just unreliable eyewitness statements and a narrative of “what happened.”
Brendan in Charlotte
@Cain: Unfortunately, it seems that the only time that African Americans can get people’s attention on their issues is to riot. Then their issues get covered for a short time. At least until there’s a missing pretty white girl.
dubo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I hate you, and I hate me for being weaker than you
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
beltane
@pseudonymous in nc: Also, white America grudgingly came to the conclusion that the alternative to MLK was Malcolm X and so they took the “lesser of two evils” approach. It is dismaying that most people are so ignorant of history that they feel both MLK and Gandhi accomplished great things by sitting passively in a drum circle smelling the roses.
GregB
Why would the police allow that car to just continue to burn?
Punchy
Not watching…is shit really blowing up in Fergs?
SatanicPanic
@lamh36: damn. Really? I expected him to at least get a buddy to punch him in the face or something. Goddamn it all. Fucking Grand Jury of assholes.
seabe
@lamh36: I’ve seen photos of him normally…doesn’t he naturally have red/rosy cheeks?
lamh36
Picture of Darren Wilson after the shooting of Mike Brown.
Dude looks better than the rest of yall.
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/537090130641952768/photo/1
beth
Fuck you Don Lemon. Looting is not an embarrassment for the Brown family – they have nothing to do with it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Don Lemon: “We’re seeing looting…. a liquor store being looted…”
CNN giant chiron: “LOOTING IN FERGUSON”
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: When the John Gotti guilty verdict was read there were several overturned cars and other acts of vandalism committed outside the courthouse. No tear gas or rubber bullets were deployed.
Liquid
@GregB: Great for ratings!
SatanicPanic
@skerry: NO WAY! Praise Jesus there is some justice in this world!
dubo
@lamh36:
SCENE: The grand jury inspects this evidence carefully.
“The defense has made their case, he is the whitest person on God’s green Earth. No indictment.”
Cain
@Brendan in Charlotte:
Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It just confirms white people’s biases. You just can’t do it that way. I wish people would realize that. This doesn’t work at all, in fact it’s really selfish to use this as an excuse to loot. It’s like those asshole anarchists who always show up to any liberal style protests… I generally hate protests.. the only time it’s time for violent protests if they are clearly fucking me over by taking my votes away..
Hawes
Police are now going to the Daryl Gates playbook: Let the community tear itself apart.
SatanicPanic
@Hawes: Eh fuck it, doesn’t sound like there’s much community there to begin with.
karen
@Morzer:
Obama is in the shit no matter what. He knows that the media wants a race war and the GOP wants a race war and the Oath Keeper wants a race war.so he’s in a no win situation. I also believe that he’s trying to protect the protesters. Milquetoast or not, he understands that if the protesters get violent, they’ll only be killed. WTF else is he supposed to do? What can he do?
Liquid
raw Vice coverage has been decent — https://news.vice.com/article/live-from-the-streets-of-ferguson
Morzer
@karen:
Nothing, which is probably weighing him down right now. He tried speaking up for justice for Trayvon Martin and the results were pretty miserable. I just find it ridiculous for Cole to behave as if Obama somehow betrayed him personally – and the comparison deleted by Cole, between Obama and Cosby, is both nonsensical and grossly offensive. There’s a lot of unexamined white privilege in America and I had hoped that Balloon-Juice might have made a bit more progress than it apparently has in this area.
Arclite
@Morzer:
Well, he was a bright kid.
Arclite
@Redshift:
“Unreliable witness statements”
Translation: different from what the police said.
TBDL79
So let me see if I get this straight. President Obama encouraging people to not attack cops or knock over police cars, and to refrain from violence is hypocritical because we’re bombing people like ISIS. And President Obama saying such things is no different than a serial rapist lecturing us on morality. Got it.
I know Cole was previously a right wing nut and I think that side of him came out tonight. Keep in mind he felt proud enough of these thoughts to actually post them.
The other mind blowing thing is watching middle class white people like Cole lecture black people like President Obama on what needs to be said. President Obama has been on the receiving end of more racism than white people like Cole will experience in a 1000 lifetimes, AND YOUR LECTURING HIM? Seriously?
Arclite
@GregB:
Because then they can say, “See? They’re animals. That’s why we treat them like animals.”
Hildebrand
@Morzer: I want to know just what in the world Cole thinks President Obama could have said tonight that would have satisfied him. I have never been more frustrated with Cole as I am this evening.
Arclite
@beltane:
Well, of course not. The protesters were white.
A long time ago I was pulled over right after leaving a bar. The cops were waiting. Made me run through the tests. I may have barely passed but I doubt it. I’d had a lot. But they said, “You drive straight home and don’t go anywhere else.” I did. But the thought occurred to me on the way home that night that had I been black, I’d be in jail.
Violet
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, this. The quiet tone is scary as hell when you know what it means.
Morzer
@Hildebrand:
Damned if I know, but Cole is keeping mighty quiet tonight – and that’s a good thing. What he said needs a bit more than some quick deletion and innocent looks to make it right.
Cain
Doh, Emily L. Hauser just muted me.. she mistook a tweet of mine.. I was trying to show solidarity, but it came out all wrong.. oops.
Brendan in Charlotte
@Cain: I understand that it doesn’t work well. I hoped there wouldn’t be a lot of rioting over the verdict. But again, that’s the only time we talk about the issues that effect non-whites.
LAC
@Morzer: consider the source. When you start with a WTF post by Cole, you only have to wait for “its obama’s fault for saying something” from the usual suspects.
Cain
@Brendan in Charlotte: yeah, too bad.. they really need a MLK Jr. who can they can all trust… Not that this person would be safe, since I’m sure someone who have the ear of black americans would be someone to be corrupted as they would be a threat to the establishment.
ItAintEazy
@Cain: If they (meaning we) had an MLK Jr. right now, we’d be hearing about how he cheated on his wife and solicited hookers all the damn time.
Plus he’s a socilist
Mandalay
@ John Cole +0:
On a really sad evening that is not a cool or appropriate thing to post, however much you may dislike Don Lemon.
We can’t help what we feel, but we can control what we say to others.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
So true.
AxelFoley
@Couldn’t Stand the Weather:
Thank you. Nixon and crew are directly responsible for this bullshit, but Cole and all the other dumbass armchair quarterbacks online are bitching about the President calling for calm. What the fuck do they expect him to say? Or, do they still expect him to be the stereotypical angry black man, as Bill Mahr said? Yeah, they want President Shaft/Superfly/Black Caesar.
Fuck all that shit. Do these dumbfucks not realize that the DOJ is still involved in this shit? This shit is not over by a long shot.
AxelFoley
@aimai:
Co-sign on that.
AxelFoley
@TBDL79:
Man, since 2008, I’ve hated the left as much as I do the right. 2010 and 2014 just reinforced my hate.
John Weiss
@Hawes: We did.
AxelFoley
@TBDL79:
This needs to be repeated until it gets through Cole’s head.
Linnaeus
@Mnemosyne:
Oh, yes. I’m well acquainted with that.
Bill Murray
@Cain: so what they should do is just sit around and get the crap beaten out of them so that the white moderates will be offended on their behalf and maybe come to their rescue?
karen
@beth:
Don’t blame Mr. Lemon. If it’s not biting a dick to stop a blow job, he can’t get the information right.
El Caganer
So the President is at fault somehow for advocating the rule of law, even when in specific cases he personally disagrees with the outcomes? Isn’t that what every president is supposed to do? What am I missing? Sounds to me like he said exactly those things that a president would be expected (if not actually required) to say in this situation.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
I’m not nearly as angry with armchair quarterbacking as I am with Nixon, that prosecutor and so many law enforcement officers across the country.
I occasionally visit a store like Wal-mart. If I lived in Ohio, I could be dead like that man Crawford. Killed while Shopping While Black.
At the risk of stating the obvious: The few people in Ferguson on my TV shouldn’t be looting and rioting. The majority are not. I don’t condone it.
But I do understand their anger.
It’s late. Gotta get up in a few hours and see some worthless TV pundit blame Obama for the NFL head trauma epidemic.
dance around in your bones
@Arclite: Same experience here – as a pasty white, I have always been able to talk my way out of police encounters.
Once I was at Newark airport and came out to find the THIRD ticket of the day (don’t ask – driving around in NYC and Newark is a bitch) and I was so pissed off I started cursing and kicking the bumper of the car…looked up a minute later to see three cops surrounding me hands on guns and realized….I better just back off slowly.
If I’d been black or brown, I prolly would been potholed 3 dozen times before I got back in the car and drove away (WITH MY THREE FUCKING TICKETS!!)
Cain
@ItAintEazy: True dat. In fact, they were going to do exactly that.
John Cole +0
@TBDL79: Calm the fuck down, asshole. I was not comparing him to a rapist, I was comparing him to Cosby’s pull up your pants speech.
And for shits and giggles, go through this thread and count the sheer volume of people who don’t say “President” in front of Obama’s name. It’s not because I am disrespecting him, it’s because everyone knows he’s fucking president and on twitter, you don’t waste characters for anything because you only have 140.
And finally, I did not call for violence (nor did I blame Obama), I refuted the notion that violent protest never gets results. Ever heard of the American Revolution?
FFS, I get it. You want to lash out at someone, me too. Yell at me all you want, pissant.
Cain
@Bill Murray:
@Cain: so what they should do is just sit around and get the crap beaten out of them so that the white moderates will be offended on their behalf and maybe come to their rescue?
Yes, and it has happened. Let me, show you evidence here
It works because the west sees itself as cultured and refined. Seeing the state beat defenseless unarmed people cuts through racism. During the salt march, the police beat these people silly, for everyone they beat a new person would take their place. The protestors beaten would get medical aid, and then show up again, defiant. This is history. It happened. You put that in front of cameras, and there will be a public backslash that will surprise you. Let me give you a test:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrHNig2aIjQ
Watch that and don’t tell me you aren’t moved. One the most powerful scenes I have ever seen in a movie, and it moves me to tears.
Matt McIrvin
@dance around in your bones: Cops seem to see me as a faintly ridiculous figure. I’ve been in various stressful situations where cops had to get involved, and more often than not, I was flustered and confused and saying inconsistent stuff that didn’t make sense. In about ten seconds they size me up as this absent-minded professor. Sometimes they make stupid wisecracks about it.
It’s mildly annoying. But they’re not scared of me, and it’s not particularly dangerous to life and limb. And that’s white privilege, right there.
Elie
@El Caganer:
I agree but somehow its just hard to NOT blame Obama somehow…its almost a joke
LAC
@John Cole +0: do t get too high and mighty. You wrote a snaky piece of shit in poor taste. Grow up
Cain
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m indian, and we dont’ fit any violent profile. So they are never in fear of their lives when it comes to us, indians. Statistically, we are the least in lawbreaking.
Elie
@Mnemosyne:
I say totally true… Totally.
dance around in your bones
@Matt McIrvin: Oh yeah, it’s white privilege all right.
One night I was coming back to San Diego from LA after working a 3 day trade show, got pulled over for ‘weaving’ or whatever. Cop ran me through all the tests, which I failed miserably; searched the car and found a smallish baggie with some white residue in it and asked what it was…I said, uh….Tylenol? which it had been, though I didn’t mention the #3 part.
I said ‘Look, dude – I am just exhausted. I have been working 15 hour days 3 days in a row and I just want to go home to my kid – you can follow me there if you want – it’s the next exit.’
He did, I got home safe, kid was happy, and I didn’t get busted for anything. Can’t imagine that if I was a POC I would have got off that easy..
It’s true – I just am not intimidating TO them — or intimidated BY them. But then, I was a young blonde girl back then (now I’m an old blonde girl :)
Morzer
@dance around in your bones:
Sometimes the oldies are the goldies.
catbirdman
Violence seems to have served Cliven Bundy pretty well. Haven’t heard anything about that m-f’er for months now.
dance around in your bones
@Morzer: Aw, that’s sweet .
I must admit my blonde hair (which reaches to my bum) is mostly from a bottle nowadays. My one last vanity!
Original Lee
Leave Benton Harbor out of it. Everybody thinks they can “fix” Benton Harbor – every six months or so, a new scheme. All the rioting did was get a measure of national media attention and therefore some $$$ to do a somewhat better job of investigating than usual, so not really a win. IMO the main problem there is a group of grifters got into positions of opportunity during the 60s and think they’ve got a dynasty going. They hand out just enough fistfuls of cash and featherbedded jobs to keep people from rocking the boat too hard, and they count on the fact that anybody not in their clan who has a modicum of ambition will go away. Not at all the same kind of thing as Ferguson.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Time to start building guillotines.
Bruce K
Woke up to this news and wanted to hide under the bed – and I’m eight time zones and an ocean separated from Ferguson.
I hope someone at the Department of Justice has been doing research on a Federal civil-rights case against Wilson. The sooner the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri can make an announcement to that effect, the better.
And double jeopardy doesn’t apply to the grand jury’s decision not to indict. And Missouri doesn’t have a statute of limitations for murder.
In the short term … I’m not looking forward to my colleagues here in Athens asking me what the hell happened last night in America. Because it’s a disgrace. When something similar happened in Athens in 2008, a cop got a life sentence in prison for killing a kid.
Morzer
@Original Lee:
You mean.. gosh.. maybe violence doesn’t work that well after all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Linnaeus: Yup.
I don’t see any way other than violence to change things, frankly.
redshirt
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
chopper
i hate this fucking country.
gogol's wife
Just got up and haven’t read the whole thread, but I would like to point out (as a white person) that the original post dumps on three black men who are not responsible for the original outrage.
Sherparick
Vox has a very good article explaining the flatness of the speech and why the whole Ferguson thing is such a losing issue for the administration, demoralizing its supporters and and energizing its foes. http://www.vox.com/2014/8/18/6031197/obama-ferguson-race-speech
You can expect the Scott Walkers, Christies, and Cruz’s of the Republican Party to be making speeches about the need for “solidarity with our police” and “Obama and Democrats toleration of lawless hoodlums and persecution of “honest” police officers” who are the “thin blue line” between (white) civilization and (Black, brown, and hippie) savagery. Scott Walker has the finest gift for this demagoguery of this sort and it will be the Republican play to get up to 65% of the white vote in 2016 and make the Midwest Red.