Im surprised that there is no thread for this http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/america-is-not-for-black-people-1620169913 . Can one of you good folks give a foreigner an American’s take on what’s happened?
It sounds bad, but it would be smart to wait until the facts are in. Right now it’s entirely based on media hype and emotional interviews, I’m waiting until there’s a proper investigation and hopefully some video before I pass judgement.
Anonymous released some audio of what happened earlier today. There’s also this: http://www.ustream.tv/RealAlexJones and http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9035483/events/3271930 (has video)
At a minimum, the police need to be disbanded there- it’s pretty clear there’s a systemic problem, and that a significant portion of the residents feel the police are a bigger threat to their safety than criminals.
Can we talk about the police overreaction today/tonight, then?
Like how the mayor of Ferguson begged community leaders to hold their protests during daylight hours?
Because that’s what happened. The community complied. About 150 people or so showed up for the protest. You’ve seen rowdier crowds at church softball game. It was peaceful as could be…
…and then the St. Louis County Brownshirts showed up with an armored personnel carrier and 70 guys in body armor and heavy weapons, panning sniper rifles over the crowd.
Also, these idiot wannabe soldiers managed to arrest two national reporters who were having a coffee and recharging their phones inside a McDonald’s for not packing up and leaving quickly enough.
Also, some facts that are known:
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Mike Brown was unarmed.
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Mike Brown was shot multiple times.
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Multiple witnesses have Brown fleeing the initial point of contact with the officer who killed him. Police officer fired multiple shots down a fairly busy street at 2:15 in the afternoon at an unarmed suspect.
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Body was left to lie in the street for four hours before police would let an ambulance pick it up.
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Chief Wiggum of the Ferguson Police turned the case immediately over to Police Chief Himmler at the St. Louis County Brownshirts to investigate, and Herr Himmler immediately notified the FBI and DOJ that their assistance would be required. The speed with which the investigation was escalated seems to imply that the officer may not have followed department protocols for the use of lethal force.
(Sorry, as a longtime St. Louisan, my dripping hatred of the St. Louis County paramilitary force known as the County Police knows no bounds.)
It all makes me very sad. I grew up in Ferguson in the 70’s and 80’s.
Begging for daylight hours is like the old Sundown towns of the Jim Crow era. Especially since the protests have been nonviolent. The only fatality in all of this so far has been Mike Brown.
Even today it really isn’t a bad little town. It suffers from the manufacturing jobs that once were a big part of the economy there being gone, but still. These are working class folks. Many of them are African Americans trying to get away from the gang activity on the north side post-apocalyptic war zone and the nastiness and corruption of Wellston.
Even so, the request was complied with. And rewarded with a paramilitary presence like something out of a bad video game.
As a longtime aspiring decent human being, my disdain for the overmilitaized thugs that is becoming more common in today’s ‘police’ forces knows no bounds.
Police can and should act in the good of the community. For the sake of the cops who do, we really need to reign in this type of military grade bullshit. Because this is no longer peacekeeping, it is shock and awe terrorizing of a community.
Other things we know, the police are trying to drive out reporters, and prevent filming. Why? Certainly no justifiable or good reasons.
The FAA set up a no fly zone for ‘the safety of police operations’ but is a pretty naked attempt to keep news choppers from the area. Again what are they wanting to hide.
There is the typical disparity in the racial profile of the police (almost completely white) and the community (majority black). Same goes for arrest rates, searches, traffic stops, etc.
The best thing the citizens could do is unite, take over City Hall, in November then de-fund their police/ fire all the officers and start over.
No argument on any point. Even without the history of that force, it’s been ridiculous. Now, What Are We Going To Do About It? I wish I knew how to get the system to function even at a child’s moral level, but as long as everything is localized and generally among the marginalized, I have no idea.
That’d be nice. Too bad the people with the money and influence who could affect change aren’t the ones being held at gunpoint and shot down in the streets.
What I said doesn’t work well at the national level due to the reasons you suggested, but it can and often does work at the city/county level, which is where you fix this.
I have no idea what to do about this within the normal scope of the system of state and federal laws and jurisprudence, but if I’m Obama Augustus instead of merely President Obama, and I learn one of my regional governors has done something like this, or even merely allowed it to happen, the next day he’d be on national TV feeding the lions. This whole situation is so monstrous and stupid that any normal response seems like trying to put out a forest fire with a bottle of seltzer water.
All those APCs could buy a lot of wearable cameras.
Don’t worry, fellas. It’s for your own protection.
If it helps any, on Monday night I posted this photo on a sports board I also post at, mostly about baseball and crap. Most of the crowd are white, somewhat conservative, St. Louisans.
When I posted this photo, I was deluged with “You don’t know the context!” type posts, defending this absurd overreach of force. My argument that “I don’t need the context to see three dudes with some serious firepower in tactical gear as overreach” went on deaf ears.
Tonight, those same folks are up in arms about the absurd abuse of power going on in Ferguson. It feels like tonight was the tipping point, when fairly staid old-fashioned white bastions of St. Louis County went “WTF is going on?!?!”
That, I hope, is a good thing.
One of the best twitter feeds to follow since this began on Saturday has been that of young St. Louis alderman Antonio French, who was formerly a journalist.
He has just been arrested. There’s a mob forming at Ferguson city hall demanding his release.