Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency in Missouri.
Before anything has happened.
Missouri is in a state of emergency because of… “IF” and “MAYBE” and “IT’S POSSIBLE”:
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Monday ahead of an expected grand jury decision in the case of Michael Brown.
In his executive order, Nixon cited the “possibility of expanded unrest.” He said that people have the right to protest peacefully but that citizens and businesses must be protected from violence and damage.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the plan will bring National Guard troops to the city, but he said their role is designed to be secondary to local law enforcement.
Brown, a black teen, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, on August 9. The grand jury is weighing whether to indict Wilson.
Photos: Emotions run high in Ferguson Photos: Emotions run high in Ferguson“In the days immediately following Michael Brown’s death, peaceful protests were marred by senseless acts of violence and destruction,” the governor said last week.
“That ugliness was not representative of Missouri, and it cannot be repeated,” said Nixon.
The state of emergency will expire in 30 days unless extended by another order.
Slay said he did not immediately know how many National Guard troops would be deployed to his city, which is near Ferguson, or when they would be deployed.
Missouri is de facto and de jure a police state, and the right to murder black teens without consequences will not be denied.
I don’t give a shit if the alternative is worse, there is no defense for that piece of shit Jay Nixon.
AxelFoley
The fix is in. Nixon knows that the grand jury will let Wilson off.
Trollhattan
Ugh. Have to ask whether doing this is a sign they want unrest? Seems provocative.
Mnemosyne
@AxelFoley:
That’s exactly what I was thinking, too. Why else would he pre-declare?
ranchandsyrup
I have heard some impassioned explanations on why looting is very very bad today.
I think killing is worse. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
BGinCHI
Nice demonstration of how Missouri has shown no ability and little willingness to solve the problems underlying this whole situation, while being completely willing to throw all manner of resources and effort at making it worse.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a militaristic, failing empire reacts this way in its soft white underbelly.
Mandalay
@AxelFoley: Exactly what I was thinking. The state of emergency twaddle is Nixon’s way of leaking the decision. But if he thinks that will defuse anything then he has another think coming.
If Wilson is off the hook massive shit will hit the fan, and rightly so.
ranchandsyrup
Musical accompaniment: The Kaiser Chiefs — I Predict a Riot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hamKl-su8PE
Soprano2
Yeah, Nixon has turned out to be a pretty worthless governor, although to be fair it’s hard for him to stop the worst stuff because the R’s have a supermajority in the legislature, one they added to this fall. MO is going to suck even more than it already does, I place even odds that one of the first three bills filed next year is some kind of abortion restriction, because what we really need in this state is good jobs.
skerry
I fear for the people in Ferguson.
lamh36
And they say history doesn’t repeat itself
Tone In DC
The NBC news site doesn’t mention a specific day upon which the grand jury must decide. I thought there was a hard date for that.
Regarding this action by Nixon, the Missouri authorities have been nothing but provocative since that day in August.
It’s been said before: jaywalking is not, and has never been, a capital crime.
Lolis
@Mandalay:
He will be off the hook. The fix was in by the way the county prosecutor handled this case. That is why nobody is even pretending like Wilson will be charged.
scav
Pre-emptive cover and justication for otherwise uncontrollable cops and grass-roots racist posses.
gocart mozart
Another Holocene Human
COLE PLEASE CHECK MODERATION QUEUE ON PREVIOUS THREAD
THX
dp
Good grief, that’s terrible.
Cacti
@AxelFoley:
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
No way does the Governor pre-declare an emergency w/out knowing what’s on the way.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
And yet god knows how many people will defend this because ‘OMG all those super murderthugs rioting!’, despite how much shit gets instigated by the cops down there, rather than the ‘thugs’.
No justice, no peace: that’s not a conditional statement on behalf of protestors anymore. It’s the conjunctive threat by the police: You don’t deserve justice, and you’ll get no peace from us’.
Cacti
Maybe Jay’s sending the National Guard out to protect Ferguson residents and journalists from another cop riot.
Yeah right.
daveNYC
If this were used as a way to get the national guard in to replace the local law enforcement, then it might not be a bad move. The local cops have been horrible for this entire thing, but to just have them as a backup for the local thugs is not a good thing.
lamh36
@Lolis: actually, I’ve been told since this jumped off, that people are reading “too much” into the nature of the grand jury proceedings, or the timeframe, or the “leaks”, or the nature of the prosecutions handling.
So I really can’t wait to hear the same people, telling me there people are reading too much into this as well. All they need to answer for me, is if Guv Nixon expected an indictment of Wilson, would he have declared this pre-emptive state of emergency?
Or how about all the “preparation” memos we have been seeing from law enforcement?
geg6
Jeebus. This Nixon dude is either a complete incompetent or a secret member of the KKK. Either way, I expect more deaths of innocents. This is provocation, pure and simple, in a situation that really didn’t need any more.
MochaDem
tinykittens.com. Looks like Dorothy is ready to have her kittens
lurker dean
elon said it well:
Elon James White @elonjames · 1h 1 hour ago
America: Where just the fear of Negro anger, not actions, can lead to a State of Emergency. And you wonder why cops shoot so fast. #Ferguson
Cacti
@lamh36:
Some part of me hopes that if we have another cop riot, President Obama pulls an FDR, federalizes the National Guard, and tells them to protect protesters and journalists from the local police.
dance around in your bones
@gocart mozart: Great :)
Of course the governor is named Nixon.
West of the Cascades
I hope the feds are ready to indict Wilson right away on civil rights violation charges.
Kay (not the front-pager)
I have to agree with the governor. There were senseless acts of violence and destruction. So is he bringing in the National Guard to prevent the police from repeating those senseless acts?
Cacti
Why is it that I could see Hillary making Jay Nixon her running mate?
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36:
Since I have been one of the people who has been saying not to read too much into everything and wait for the actual grand jury result, I’ll go ahead and answer. Nixon obviously expects the same thing you do. I still say “Wait for the actual grand jury result..”
paradox
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a militaristic, failing empire reacts this way in its soft white underbelly.
That’s very well said, BGinCHI.
skerry
@geg6: I don’t think Gov Nixon was among those doxed by Anonymous this weekend.
Belafon
I’m not trying to give any kind of mark of confidence to Nixon, but declaring a State of Emergency is what is required to even organize the national guard. It’s like making a disaster declaration before a major storm hits, so that possible resources can begin to be organized, which he had here in Texas last year even though they didn’t end up being needed.
If you’re going to complain about this, bitch about the fact that he’s put the control of the national guard under the St. Louis County police rather than, say, the state highway patrol.
aimai
@Soprano2: He should resign if he can’t mitigate the horrors of republican rule and the growth of the police state.
Tone In DC
@West of the Cascades:
That would be the best non-indictment outcome, in my less than humble opinion. Missouri could be shades of 1992 Los Angeles.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@Belafon:
I’m not sure that the comparison to storm preparation is one in favor of Nixon in this case. It still presumes that the reaction is going to be so outrageously violent on the behalf of protestors that they simply have no choice but to bring in the Guard to ‘pacify’ the situation.
scav
@skerry: Didn,t seem to flutter his cage or cause any movement toward even a stern word when the formerly twittering Klan made their move toward self-appointed extra-judicial activities in exactly the same locations.
skerry
Related news: A Ferguson corrections officer faces 4 felony charges, including rape of a pregnant inmate.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: of course I never expected you to say otherwise.
Answer me this at least, are we realling thinking that Guv Nixon is expecting “extreme reactions” from pro-Wilson side if Wilson “is” indicted?
skerry
@scav: Agreed.
Felinious Wench
@West of the Cascades:
My exact thought.
lamh36
@Belafon: oh, don’t worry, people are “bitching/complaining” (not sure I agree with the use of those words, as if people don’t have legitimate concerns and disents), about that as well.
It’s putting the fox in charge of the hen house as it were.
Tommy
I live a few miles from Ferguson. This is fucked up. I can’t wrap my mind around it. Just so I am clear Nixon is an idiot on this topic.Terrible. Best I can tell they killed a black youth because he was black. Pretty sure they would not have shot me as an adult white male under the same situation. Then all this BS. I am just going to stop writing after this because anything else I write will be pretty rude.
elmo
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country:
Yeah, I actually think that comparison makes it worse. Storms and so forth are natural disasters, totally unpreventable. All you can do is prepare to respond.
We’re talking about his own constituents, Missouri citizens, and he’s so terrified of what they MIGHT do that he’s considering it the same as a natural disaster?
Omnes Omnibus
@West of the Cascades: @Felinious Wench: Don’t rest your hopes on that possibility.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: also too, Nixon may know more than just “expectations”. I’m completely convinced that the prosecutor in this case, who as I understand it are chummy with both Nixon and McCaskill, has already let them know where the winds are flowing.
Sure I could be wrong, but yeah, won’t hold my breath.
Betty Cracker
Some yahoo crowdfunded a billboard in Ferguson that says “#PantsUPdon’tLOOT.” Yeah, that’s helpful.
RE: a DOJ civil rights indictment, I think I read somewhere that’s already been ruled out. But maybe I’m wrong.
ETA: Nope, I’m not wrong; from 10/31 WaPo:
“Justice Department investigators have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement officials said.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-civil-rights-charges-unlikely-against-police-officer-in-ferguson-shooting/2014/10/31/56189d80-6055-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html
elmo
@skerry:
I swear, it’s to the point now that I look at all such corrections and LEO stories as “scorpion and the frog” stories. Of course he did that. It’s their nature.
BGinCHI
Someone should ask Nixon directly: “Who is the National Guard there to protect?”
danielx
Fixed.
What happened in Ferguson can happen anywhere, at any time, and the reaction of the local Praetorians would be exactly the same. Since it generally happens to poor people/people of color and in their communities, people living in more affluent communities generally don’t notice.
srv
White folks are buying all the guns they can get their hands on.
Tree With Water
@gocart mozart: You beat me to the punch with that reference. This scenario is reminiscent of events that preceded the tragedy at Kent State, and lest we forget the killings at Jackson State University later that same week. For some reason I’m also put in mind of Watts and Newark way back when.
Violet
@srv:
WTF? How is “an area” a threat? What is he even saying?
And man, are white people chickenshits. Nation of cowards.
Keith G
@lamh36:
Are you saying that you think he is part of some criminal conspiracy?
Maybe the fix is in. Maybe this man is trying to do the best job he can do, whether he’s doing it competently or not.
I do not know the guy and I do not know what is in his heart.
It is possible that he is an agent of evil. It’s possible he is not malicious but has the raw intelligence of a bag of hammers. It’s also possible that he is feeling that it is his responsibility to be prepared for any possible outcome. Maybe reality includes some of all of these conditions.
I will wait and see.
Patrick
@Omnes Omnibus:
You are quoting Washington Post, which has has been very biased in this case. By the way, the Justice Department immediately contradicted the article when it came out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Patrick: Interesting to know. Thanks.
Mike in NC
@srv:
It’ll be interesting how the national media covers this story over the next few days. Clearly the absurd treatment of the ebola and ISIS “crises” was insufficient to panic enough old white people, so they might as well go with the tried and true “lawless young bucks are coming to steal your property”.
lamh36
@Keith G: I’m not really surprised you feel that way.
What I am saying is that I do NOT trust McCullough, the prosecutor.
What I am saying is that I completely believe that McCullough would give the Gov of the state a heads up that things will go “this” way.
What I am saying is that the prospect of Black folk protesting, NOT rioting, but protesting what they consider an unjust ruling is being compared to a natural disaster and therefore warrants a “state of emergency”.
What I am saying is who is Nixon “protecting” by calling out the national guard?
Patrick
@Betty Cracker:
The Justice Department has not officially made any ruling on whether to charge Wilson and has denied the Post’s story. “This is an irresponsible report by The Washington Post that is based on idle speculation,” said Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon.
The Ancient Randonneur
@srv:
Yes, of course they are. 2nd Amendment was specifically written so “Liberty Loving Real Americans” can protect themselves from
an out of control government“those people”.lamh36
All I need someone to tell me is, other than a nature disaster, what is the precedent for declaring a “state of emergency” before something may or may not happen?
Explain that one to me?
A “state of emergency” to protect whom?
Mnemosyne
@Violet:
He’s saying that black people are going to rise up and kill all the white people. This despite the fact that it’s pretty much never happened in the history of the US (barring one or two slave revolts) but has happened pretty frequently in the opposite direction (Rosewood, anyone?)
Patrick
@lamh36:
It is interesting to compare the situation in Ferguson to the situation in Nevada with Cliff Bundy. There is a state of emergency declared in Ferguson while the white guys in Nevada have gotten away with thumbing their noses at law enforcement. Is there any doubt if Cliff Bundy was black he would be treated like the people in Ferguson?
Mike J
Regarding those cops that threatened to kill demonstrators a few months ago: I seem to remember they were sent back to their home police departments, maybe even suspended. Whatever happened to them? Will they be back out policing protests? Are they still licensed LEOs in Missouri?
mai naem mobile
Were people really expecting Wilson to be indicted? I figured after the cigarillo tape leak it was pretty obvious they were not going to indict poor little armed white boy.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Ancient Randonneur: Since the Second Amendment was pretty much codifying the right to bear arms that Englishmen had as specified in the Bill of Rights of 1689, I am not sure your statement stands.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@lamh36: I found this 41 page PDF:
p.14 footnotes
(emphasis added.)
So, declarations of states of emergency seemingly has happened in advance of anything bad happening before, but note the rest of the footnote.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who agrees that at least as it is reported so far, it’s a very bad sign.)
Tone In DC
@Violet:
The fear in question has removed most, if not all, rational thought from the equation. For too many people. The lizard brain in Show Me Land apparently has two settings, fight or flight.
I may just be remembering the past through rose colored glasses, but I don’t recall Americans generally lacking intestinal fortitude like this, before that late summer day in 2001. And people in places of authority all but shouting at the population (for damn near 8 years) to be VERY AFRAID.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
Via comments elsewhere, the best possible response to the declared State of Emergency.
FlipYrWhig
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. See the work of Lois Schwoerer, among others.
Suzanne
Wilson will go to trial when monkeys fly out of my butt.
This is total bullshit.
scav
Relatively small space populated by newly armed jittery second-amendment militia expecting trouble. Faux and the hen house primed and generally unccordinated. If they generally stay at home, under the stars and bars bedsheets with deadbolts thrown, their compatriots might just make it through unpunctured so long as they avoid all porches and no pizzas are delivered for a bit, but if they put on their cowboy and klansman jammies en masse and play at patrols, there might just be a spate of unforseeable accidents to turn a blind eye to.
dance around in your bones
Oh yeah, as a pasty white person I have to go out and immediately buy a gun BECAUSE THERE IS A BLACK PERSON LIVING RIGHT IN THE HOUSE!!!!!
Jeebus – his name is Alem, he MIGHT EVEN BE A MUSLIM TERRORIST who will behead us in the house one night when he’s not sleeping exhausted after working his job with the County water company all fucking day,
lamh36
Apparently Guv Nixon is giving a presser later today to address the “state of emergency” declaration.
I sure hope someone asks him who this SOE is “protecting”.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Pouring gasoline on a fire, the good Governor is.
Well, we’ve all seen this movie before, with the firehoses and the dogs and the big angry white cops with their billy clubs. Think I’m going to stay home, maybe rent it on Netflix in a couple of years, but I know it’s going to suck.
PIGL
@Cacti: that would be the least violent way to improve the situation.
Elizabelle
OT: Facebook issue: have a dear friend who’s politically attuned, but spamming me with liberal sites. As in, 7 times as many posts as anyone else puts up. 3-4 hourly. I applaud Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich et al, but do not want to see them every time I check FB.
I don’t want to defriend her, and would enjoy visiting her page and commenting on all the stuff and links THERE.
What can I do? I don’t want to block her; definitely want to be able to FB-chat with her, but enough is enough.
beltane
@Elizabelle: Set her as an “acquaintance”. That way she’s still on your friends list but you don’t have to see her posts. She won’t know about the change.
Starfish
@Elizabelle: Here are some options.
Tree With Water
“I may just be remembering the past through rose colored glasses..”. My guess is that your love everything good about America was never denied for not being a member of “the silent majority”, whose fearless leader boozed and bombed asians for kicks.
Elizabelle
@beltane:
Will try that. Thank you. And will def check her page every day or so to converse.
BGinCHI
@Elizabelle: Is she posting them on your wall? Politely ask her not to. And hide them.
d58826
@Kay (not the front-pager): If I may play the part of the skunk at the picnic and defend the governor just a very very little bit. Given the events of August only someone just landed from Mars would discount the possibility of violence, therefore the state and local authorities have to be prepared.
That being said I would like to have seen the authorities come out with a positive message as well. Something along the lines of: we have been working with the leaders of all of the communities to put in place plans for a peaceful response to whatever the grand jury decision is. We are working with local leaders to have a preplanned protest parade. The parade route would be secured, there would be the usual amenities such as food/water/medical/potapoties,etc for the marchers. We are also trying a different approach to the expected influx of trouble makers, whither they are African American gang bangers or white supremacists. Last August a number of possible looting incidents were prevented by local leaders, rather than the police, intervening to defuse the situation. We have set up fast reaction teams in the various neighborhoods to let local leaders/ministers/etc try and prevent the hotheads from creating trouble.
That type of approach would be pro-active and aimed at keeping the peace rather than just threatening citizens with the National Guard. Unfortunately that type of approach would take the kind of leadership that we haven’t seen much of in the past few decades. So just to repeat my defense of the governor is a very very narrow one. I’m not surprised that he reacted the way he did
BGinCHI
@beltane: Holy fuck I did not know about that! Thanks.
Betty Cracker
@Patrick: We’ll see. The Feds didnt charge Zimmerman, so I don’t expect much from that quarter if the grand jury fails to indict Wilson. But maybe they’ll surprise me.
Elizabelle
The prosecutor seems biased; should have recused.
Any remedy for that, should grand jury decline to indict?
Is it just Federal civil rights case then?
And what’s the weather like near Ferguson? Is it snowing? (Not watching cable news; swore off it after Election Night, but might check in for presser …)
kindness
Well….we can all look forward to the paragon of enlightened administration that future Governor Claire McCatskill will bring.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@lamh36: No, but boy did you just bring up a possibility that should make your blood run cold; a cop riot. It could happen, it has happened in the past, and they tend not to stop until everyone that has pissed said cops off is dead. So I’m really hoping that such a scenario is outside the realm of possibility, because if it isn’t, it will be beyond awful.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: The difference is that Wilson was acting under color of law – using his “authority” as a police officer. Zimmerman was not.
d58826
@mai naem mobile: Given that we have a video tape of a cop killing a black man holding a toy gun and threatening no one in a Target I don’t think there is anything that will get a white cop arrested for killing a black man. Well maybe if the black man is the good old Herman Cain there might be a chance.
Patrick
@Betty Cracker:
True. But the Post’s source was a “law enforcement official”. For all we know, it could have been the police chief of Ferguson that they used. I have no problem with anonymous quotes. But not from the Post, which clearly has taken sides in Ferguson.
d58826
@Omnes Omnibus: and the ‘color of law’ is white
MomSense
@Violet:
It’s not what he’s saying. It’s what he is trying not to say.
Elizabelle
@Starfish:
Thank you, Starfish. Very helpful.
Tiny Tim
my zip code’s about 35% black, 45% white, rest asian/latino/other. I’d say it’s still pretty ‘segregated’ in the sense that people keep to their own “kind.” I’m not saying that’s a purely racial thing, it’s more a different types/ages of people arrived at different times, correlated with race, though I’m not erasing the racial element. Still I really have never heard my white neighbors speak in explicitly racist terms about black people in the neighborhood. I’m not claiming there’s no racism. I’m sure there is. I just mean that they at least don’t feel comfortable expressing it to casual company, whatever they say behind closed doors.
Elizabelle
@d58826:
Good comment on how to be respectful and pro-active.
Howard Beale IV
@Elizabelle: The grand jury should have gotten rid of the judge.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@d58826: That happened in a Walmart (in Beavercreek, OH), not a Target.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
D58826
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: ooops.
Mnemosyne
@d58826:
If I had some confidence that the National Guard was going there to protect the citizens of Ferguson against the local police, I would probably be less pissed off about the early declaration of a state of emergency. Unfortunately, given the events of this summer, it seems pretty obvious that their purpose will be to suppress any peaceful protests that occur and that the National Guard will stand by while the police run riot. Again.
I really hope I’m wrong, though.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
you beat me to it, lamh
Morzer
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/17/anonymous-takes-over-ku-klux-klans-twitter-account
BGinCHI
@Morzer: Who follows the KKK on twitter??
Having said that, I’m curious what those fuckheads tweet about. Is it wrong to be entertained by that?
It probably is. Although maybe it would be just the same as Reince Priebus’s feed.
D58826
@Elizabelle: It seems to me that you have a better chance of avoiding violence if you approach the citizens with an open hand rather than a mailed fist. The open hand may not work. The anger may be to deep but our public officials have to at least try and show respect for all of our citizens and try and nudge the dialog in a positive direction even if its only just a few steps.
Just Some Fuckhead
Jay Nixon is with us on everything except the war.
RaflW
A 30 day state of emergency declaration. The right wing runs around constantly yelling about threats to freedom, and yet will stay shockingly mum about this. Well, they’re probably cheering it, now I think about it.
I do not think “freedom” has shared meaning in the American context anymore.
Morzer
@BGinCHI:
The sort of people who tweet using their knuckles while swearing that this danged keyboard is mighty hard to see through mah lilywhite white hood?
BGinCHI
@RaflW: Some people get to be freer than others. It’s right there in the Constitution.
Article Shut Up and Do As We Say, section 2.
lamh36
@d58826: sure, except let’s not re-write history here. there was a professor on MSNBC I believe who has people in the area and has talked to clergy and community leaders in the areas and guess what, NONE of that has happened and in fact, outside of photo ops, neither the governor nor local officials have “reached out” to the community at all. When they put Ron Johnson front and center, people expected maybe some outreach, but it would seem like the STL county folks undermined him at every turn so that whatever benefit of the doubt Johnson had was over quickly.
BGinCHI
@Morzer: Thinking about the Klan scene in Django and laughing my ass off.
“Who sewed these hoods?”
“Well, if you don’t like it….”
D58826
@lamh36: My comment was just a ‘what if’. I know the only thing he offered was the mailed fist
Another Holocene Human
@AxelFoley: To repeat what I said while I was beating the dead thread (something is wrong with mah brane), he’s going for the Bull Connor Award For Governance (in the service of white supremacy).
Mnemosyne
@RaflW:
Let’s face it — the only people who ever had a shared meaning of “freedom” in America had white skin.
Another Holocene Human
@ranchandsyrup:
Gesundheit.
Another Holocene Human
@Mandalay:
Mostly provoked by the fucking police. Get it right.
They’ve been doing this shit for over a century, but the lid’s been blown off their tactics. The ones who can’t see it now are willfully blind.
Timurid
So there’s still no firm date on the decision other than “any time between tomorrow and mid-January?”
I assume Nixon got some kind of inside info, but the announcement may still be days away (time enough for all the troops to be called up and deployed).
Another Holocene Human
@lamh36: I was promised “as farce” and this shit ain’t funny!
Another Holocene Human
@lurker dean: They’re fighting shadows in their own heads,
but the bullets are real.
Another Holocene Human
@West of the Cascades:
They’ve already put out the word not to expect this, but to be fair, it’s not Wilson so much as a lot of the higher ups including that asshole prosecutor who need federal indictments. Maybe when they’re done with those bozos it might be time to nail Wilson and his direct supervisor(s).
Another Holocene Human
IANAL, but can’t a prosecutor keep seeking indictments until the cows come home? I mean there’s no reason a special prosecutor can’t come back later with the same or more evidence … right? Or is MO one of those “one and done” states?
Another Holocene Human
@Tone In DC:
20 years of Republican rule? Damn.
Elizabelle
CBS Evening News led with Ferguson and all but called the cop a liar. They noted he showed up at police HQ after the shooting, apparently uninjured, and CBS also interviewed some poised and compelling black community members.
They didn’t get to ISIS for over 10 mins; I was assuming it would be lead story. It was Ferguson and then segued into “what cold weather” after reporting it’s 24 or 25 degrees in Ferguson…
D58826
@Another Holocene Human: The last thing we need is a replay of 1992. If the governor can’t show enough backbone and leadership to offer the open hand I just hope that the Brown supporters show the rest of the country what a peaceful protest looks like. Make MLK proud!
Another Holocene Human
@danielx:
The whole country has issues that must be confronted, but you sound like, whether you mean to or not, like an apologist for STL and MO.
It DOES happen elsewhere and guess what, NOT followed by a cop riot. No cop riots in Flori-DUH despite everything that went down. This despite some pretty vile republican rule. I think in part there is a bit of alienation between LE and the GOP at present in FLA. The ConservaDems in MO and LE interests are absolutely one and the same and this is probably pouring gasoline on the fire. Plus the rampant corruption. Rick Scott is working on the Florida judiciary, though. Give him time.
Another Holocene Human
@danielx: If we can’t discern where things are the same and where they are different, we can’t fix them.
Another Holocene Human
@srv: They missed the Sandy Hook memo but now, they buy.
Must be saving some private sellers on eBay who really needed some dosh and found out the bottom had fallen out. Wonder when the NRA will chime in. LaPierre was sounding pretty bummed and apocalyptic a couple weeks ago.
Howard Beale IV
@Another Holocene Human: Yep-prosecutors can indict ham sandwiches.
Another Holocene Human
@Keith G:
What else do you call a perversion, a miscarriage of justice? Nixon could have headed this off months ago, tossed the prosecutor, not put him in the position of going against his family and friends and bunting the pitch he ought to have slammed, and just put a special prosecutor in there. He could have acted differently on the cop riot issues. He could have done a lot of things differently. Instead, he’s acted like an ass and told the world as the blood of Abel cried out from the pavement, “I am not my brother’s keeper.”
He’s looked the other way while justice was most certainly not served. It’s not really a conspiracy because it’s all out in the open. White privilege.
Mnemosyne
@Tone In DC:
Having lived here in Los Angeles since before 1992, I honestly don’t think that Ferguson is anywhere close to that point, even with the provocation of the police. There was a whole lot else going on in addition to Rodney King that started that fuse burning.
Plus, of course, the LAPD deliberately deserted the streets and let the looters do whatever they wanted to “prove” that the city really needed them, but all they managed to do was to make themselves look like incompetent assholes who needed the backup of the National Guard to do their fucking jobs.
Elizabelle
CBS is closing with a segment on today’s tree planting on US Capitol grounds in honor of Emmett Till, dead in 1955.
Very interesting open and close to tonight’s CBS Evening News.
ETA: Whoa. That is the first time I’ve ever seen a close-up of Emmett Till’s face, in his coffin. Battered. Good on CBS for showing that. Open some eyes.
Another Holocene Human
@Elizabelle: Facebook feed – change her setting so you only see her “important” posts. So you’ll only see posts where certain keywords are included that indicate important life events and all those reblogged memes won’t make the cut.
Although not “liking” any of them usually makes them go away on their own.
nellcote
@Another Holocene Human:
A prosecutor has to want to get an indictment. No signs point to that being the case here.
Another Holocene Human
@d58826:
He has had so so so so many chances to do things differently. Just look at his social media feed. The bullshit he was posting about when stuff was going on. He and his staff get zero respect from me. He didn’t even weigh in late–he’s put his head in the motherfucking sand and showed his ass to everyone. Political difficulties MY ASS.
Another Holocene Human
@d58826: a whited sepulchre
white like bones
white like a very unlucky color
dance around in your bones
Gawd dang, you guys are funny! I have to keep stifling myself like Edith ( Archie Bunker’s wife) so I don’t upset the other roommates or the doggish or teh kitteh while I am fucking snorting out my nose to keep from laughing out loud”)
It’s really the only way I can take “The News” anymore……filtered through BJ.
Elizabelle
NBC goes with unwieldy black people, noisy. Appeals for calm by NFL players and Ron Johnson.
CBS was way more respectful. NBC is confrontation, confrontation.
And now right into ISIS beheading.
I don’t watch NBC any more. Just curious what they’d do re Ferguson.
skerry
@Mnemosyne: and a penis
Another Holocene Human
@BGinCHI: Mocking the Klan these days is kicking down, like mocking Hitler a generation ago. But white supremacy marches on. It just has new names. New heroes. New dogwhistles. And I won’t derail this discussion by sharing my interpretation of same because the usual (white) suspects will be off to the races.
Fuck you, Anonymous. Look in the mirror.
Elizabelle
NBC is talking feet on the ground.
Of snow.
Over to PBS: And RIP Dr. Salia, Ebola victim; doctor who tried to save lives. Bird flu in England, but little risk to human health.
Howard Beale IV
@Morzer: Anon’s has better tools or the KKK has real weak passwords. Probably both.
Howard Beale IV
@Elizabelle: It’s’ not just limited to the UK, The Netherlands also has it too.
Howard Beale IV
Poor Dorothy hasn’t gone into labor yet. Vet’s say she’s carrying 8 kittehs.
D58826
@Elizabelle: Till’s mother wanted the coffin open so the world could see what had happened to her son. She didn’t people to be able to look away.
Morzer
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pants-up-dont-loot-billboard-ferguson
Yeah, it’s conservatives who are the real victims of the murder of Michael Brown. Some days I feel so damn ashamed to be white.
Anonymous for this post
Well, I think that those of us who are “leftist” liberals need protection from the KKK and Republican parties, which intend to off as many liberals in any given crisis as they can.
I think anyone who isn’t a hard right republican should get a concealed carry permit (it is easy to do) and get training in self defense shooting with a high quality pistol and/or a pump or semi-auto shotgun.
If they come for you, don’t go down peacefully, take the Nazis down with you. If the Jews in 1930s Germany had guns and used them when the Nazis came to take them away, there would have been a lot fewer brown-shirts left when the wars started.
That’s my plan – take a bunch of the bastards with me, leaving a message for the survivors!
Elizabelle
@D58826:
A good decision. But I’d never seen the detail, and CBS lingered long enough to get a good look.
Mamie Till died in 2003. I thought it was more recent.
ETA: American Experience website on The Murder of Emmett Till.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/filmmore/index.html
Another Holocene Human
Have you ever had the feeling that you was being had
Don’t that shit that make you mad
They treat you like a slave, with chains all on your soul,
and put whips up on your back,
they be lying through they teeth
hope you slip up off your path
I don’t switch up I just laugh
put my kicks up on they desk
unaffected by they threats than get busy on they ass
see that’s how that Chi-Town made me
That’s how my daddy raised me
that glittering may not be gold, don’t let no body play me
if you are my homeboy, you never have to pay me
Go on and put your hands up, when times are hard you stand up
L-U-P the man, cause a brand that the fans trust
so even if they ban us they’ll never slow my plans up!
Another Holocene Human
@Morzer: We can be sick to death but we can’t ever quit, or disavow. I don’t know what we do at this point. I think joining a local peacemakers group is a good step. I’m going to donate to MORE. There is a legal battle but there’s also the social battle and we’re way behind on that front.
Other than that, I’m lost. Racism is so immoral and self-defeating. I don’t know how you woo somebody away from that. And they’re so angry it scares me.
Howard Beale IV
@Morzer:
It used to be FDR said that a conservative was an individual who had two perfectly good legs but refused to walk.
These days, I define a conservative as someone who should suffer a debilitating stroke that requires fulltime medical care and cannot participate in the political process in order to prevent them from taking the basic rights and freedoms away from people who they hate and fear (gays, minorities, liburahls, democrats. soschulists, etc.)
Also, Grade A, certifiable 100% batshit crazy evil assholes who should never be rendered any aid if they are in a life-or-death situation.
Tree With Water
White fright is a sight to behold. I was working in the predominantly black Bayview district of San Francisco when the Rodney King riots exploded. It was a swing shift loading trucks, and during the first break when the nightly phone calls home were always made (no cell phones back then), the wives of most of my colleagues wanted them home, pronto, before it got dark. No one panicked and left, though.
Morzer
What a price America is paying for the numerous unacknowledged or concealed sins of the ancestors of white people and their shiftless, raging, paranoid descendants.
Amir Khalid
@Anonymous for this post:
Dumbest plan I’ve ever heard.
ASV
“Rest assured,” Nixon added, “police officers murdering civilians is representative of Missouri and will be repeated.”
Howard Beale IV
@Morzer: I’m a first-generation American (Dad was American, Mother is Dutch)-my old man was as racist as they came. He tried to keep ahead of not instilling it in the kids, but he wasn’t as successful as he hoped he was. Hell, when I went to book a vacation to the Netherlands in my mid-20s he went off the rails saying I didn’t know anyone (hey, Dad-did it ever occur to you that that was my point of going over there?)
Good thing I did get there when I did-My uncle had advanced cancer and under went euthanasia a year later when my cousin got married that same year.
Suzanne
@Morzer: Truth. I try to be an enlightened individual, but this is fucking EMBARRASSING.
Howard Beale IV
Looks like its time to stick a fork into Sears.
Morzer
@Suzanne:
I just find it so horrendous that it was white people who created all this nonsense about different races and the whole garbage truck of inferior and superior being dependent on your skin color plus some utterly fact-free claims about non-white cultures and inherent tendencies. And yet here we are in the 21st century, far too many of us, believing this repulsive nonsense just because it makes us feel slightly better amid the steaming garbage heap that white people, living in what was the richest country in the world, have made of American society, politics and the economy. Hell, white people can’t even get their shit together enough to agree that paying taxes for sewers and street-lights is the sensible, civic thing to do. And yet, here we are talking smack about how black/brown/not sufficiently rosy pink people are lazy, irresponsible, obese… you name it.
KS in MA
@BGinCHI:
This.
burnspbesq
@lamh36:
C’mon, seriously?
We both (I think) believe that there is a significant likelihood that there will be no indictment.
We both (I think) believe that there will be massive demonstrations if there is no indictment.
We both (I think) believe that there will be violence if those demonstrations materialize; the various KKK organizations that have been outed by Anonymous have promised violence against demonstrators. I see no reason not to take them at their word, and I see no reason to believe that the Ferguson or St. Louis County cops will get between the Klan and the mostly minority demonstrators..
You have a problem with contingency planning? You want the Klan to have a free-fire zone for 36-48 hours? I’m inclined to think you don’t want that.
sharl
@lamh36:
A good find. In fact, the 1931 lynching of Raymond Gunn in Maryville MO earned an entry in Wikipedia. It made national headlines at the time it happened.
Howard Beale IV
FBI Warns Ferguson Decision ‘Will Likely’ Lead to Violence By Extremists Protesters: ABC News
And just how the fuck would the FBI know this?
dr. luba
@Elizabelle: I’ve had to do that with many of my friends on FB who post too many pictures of their kids playing sports or inspirational sayings, and relatives and acquaintances who veer into right wing ideology.
Simply “Unfollow” them (click on the box at the top that say “Following” so it changes to “Follow”) and check their page once in a while. Following is the default whenever you friend anyone.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Elizabelle:
just unfollow her.
Elizabelle
@dr. luba: indeed.
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): done.
gwangung
@burnspbesq: You’re assuming the Guard won’t be on the side of the Klan.
And, dude…pay attention. This is the move that should be last resort, after exhausting all possible tactics. Nixon didn’t even come close….
Belafon
@lamh36: “Bitching” wasn’t the right word, but I was in a hurry. I should have used “want something to really be mad about.”
Bex
@Howard Beale IV: Two silver tabbies so far…first at 8:13 central time.
Plantsmantx
@Mnemosyne:
Not just Rosewood, but the whole “Red Summer” of 1919.
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
Because the FBI’s institutional memory extends back to at least 1992. “Rodney King” ring any bells?
burnspbesq
@gwangung:
I’m assuming that the Guard will have enough professionalism to carry out the mission it is given.
AxelFoley
@Keith G:
Of course you will. You don’t have a dog in this fight, so you can afford to”wait and see”.
Black folks, though, we’ve seen this movie too many times to know we don’t have to wait for the ending.
Fort Geek
@Elizabelle: You can selectively block content. Like if she’s posting from “I Fcking Love Liberalism!!” you can click to block content FROM that source without blocking everything. I have to do that with one acquaintance who’s an otherwise cool person but she posts anti-Obama crap from her fundie friends and relatives. So I blocked just them…problem solved.
mclaren
@Violet:
Every single area in Ferguson Missouri is a threat. But only to black people.
America is a nation of sadistic cowardly bully-worshipers. Your typical Americano doesn’t have the balls to lynch someone, but will eagerly hold the victim down while someone else lynches him.
Americans excel at tormenting and brutalizing and murdering the most helpless and defenseless opponents. Your Americano doesn’t dare bomb Russia…but Cambodia? Drop millions of tons of napalm and defoliants on that country, and then joke about it. (Henry Kissinger used to answer the phone at Kissinger Associates by saying “Call 1-800-BOMB CAMBODIA.”) Americans don’t have the courage to go up against the Chinese army…but Americans have no qualms about blasting Pakistani wedding parties with drones from 30,000 feet and murdering their defenseless women and children willy-nilly.
White Protestant Americans are born cowards and sadists. They’re the lowest form of human being on earth.
Gus diZerega
@mclaren: Sympathetic as I am to what you write, you are way too broad. SOUTHERN Christianity with its obscene roots justifying slavery is a demonic force that has caused enormous suffering. Some Northern as well. But much that is best in our history comes from Quakers, Unitarians, and other liberal Protestant traditions. I am no Christian and deeply dislike monotheism, but let’s be more focused in our (justified) outrage.