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Aired on the Doomstead Diner on August 19, 2014
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SNAP to RIOT 2 in #ferguson SNAP to RIOT IN #ferguson
Discuss this Rant at the Podcast Table inside the Diner
Filed Under: Ferguson, Food Stamps, Militarization, Missouri, National Guard, Nixon, Obama, Police State, Poverty, Race War, Riots, St. Louis, Unemployment, Welfare, Death Penalty, Cop Killers
Snippet:
…I was intending on moving on tonight to more International Doom, but #ferguson is the Doom Gift that Keeps on Giving.
For the 3rd night in a row with no sign of slowing down, the looting and rioting continue. The livestreams and pics from tonight’s action look like a War Zone, gas and smoke bombs being fired all over the place, and numerous shots fired, though no reports yet of anyone getting hit.
The Obamanista still hasn’t made an appearance there, you would think after a solid week of this shit escalating it might be worthwhile to fly Air Force 1 into Lambert Field and make an appearance. Even George Bush eventually got the GPS coordinates for where Katrina hit and made it to NOLA.
Even as far as making some speeches are concerned, Potus Telepromptus has so far only been given complete pablum to read by his speechwriters, and Goobernator Jay Nixon hasn’t pitched out anything substantive either.
The Gestapo agent who pulled the trigger has disappeared, his house shuttered and dark. Perhaps he is being given a New Identity by the FBI Shooter Relocation Program. Obviously what the community there wants is to see this guy “brought to justice”, which for them would mean conviction for Murder in the 1st Degree followed by a trip to the High Voltage Recliner. Missouri is a state with the Death Penalty of course…
Ferguson riots, race and Obama’s nightmare holiday
Date
August 19, 2014 – 11:26AM
Nick O’Malley
US correspondent for Fairfax Media
Analysis
Not such a great holiday: President Barack Obama follows through on a swing while golfing on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
Not such a great holiday: President Barack Obama follows through on a swing while golfing on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Photo: AP
Barack Obama took time out from his holiday to address the nation on two complex and violent crises – one in Iraq, one in Ferguson, in the suburbs of St Louis, Missouri, a town has looked much like an occupied territory since a white cop shot a young black man dead at lunchtime last Saturday.
Obama had been criticised for his relative silence on the protests and riots, and on the heavy-handed police response since, and he chose delicate words to address the issue now.
“While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving into that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos. It undermines rather than advances justice,” he said.
National Guard troops arrive at a mall complex that serves as staging for the police in Ferguson, Missouri.
National Guard troops arrive at a mall complex that serves as staging for the police in Ferguson, Missouri. Photo: Reuters
“So, to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let’s seek to heal rather than to wound each other.”
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As he spoke National Guard troops as well as local community leaders and clergy members were arriving in Ferguson in the hope of stilling the violence that peaked on Sunday night with police using tear-gas and smoke grenades to repel rioters armed with Molotov cocktails and even guns.
It was not one of Obama’s best performances but a sad truth of Obama’s presidency is that he does not seem to like discussing race in America.
Protesters face off with police after tear gas was fired at crowds in Ferguson, Missouri, on Sunday night.
Protesters face off with police after tear gas was fired at crowds in Ferguson, Missouri, on Sunday night. Photo: Reuters
Obama became a star of the Democratic Party with his speech at the 2004 party convention, when he addressed those who sought to divide the nation, telling them, “there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.”
The speech electrified the party and began Obama’s march to the White House. Once in office though Obama discovered that his contributions to any racial discussion could inflame passions rather than calm them.
In 2009 the black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after he was spotted trying to force his own jammed front door. Obama’s observation that the arrest was stupid provoked sustained outrage from a conservative media that was wedded to the idea that he was a black president before he was the President. In the end Obama was forced to invite the officer and the professor to the White House for what became known as the “beer summit” in the hope of returning the national debate to his healthcare reforms.
After Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old boy was shot dead in his father’s neighbourhood in 2012 by a neighbourhood watch volunteer Obama observed that if he had a son he might have looked like Martin. Again there was outrage. In his essay Fear of a Black President, Ta-Nehisi Coates observed that after Obama’s remarks the general sympathy expressed by conservative media for Martin and his family evaporated and many began trying to portray the boy as a thug. Martin’s death became another weapon to be wielded in the culture wars.
Similarly two days after Brown’s death Fox News host Bill O’Reilly demanded in a teaser for his show, “Will black America speak out against the looting in St. Louis?” (As though black America was a person who might be roused from grief to take a call from an angry Irish-American to answer some tough questions.)
Those who really want to know what Obama thinks of the dumb and occasionally ugly handling of the riots in Ferguson by local authorities might do better listening to his Attorney General, Eric Holder, another black man in high office who wears the scars of the culture wars.
“Tell them to remove the damn tanks,” Holder told his deputies last Thursday according to a Wall Street Journal report. Holder, and presumably the president, was furious at the military-style response of the local police, who flooded the streets with armoured cars and officers in combat gear training assault rifles on protesters.
And on Monday afternoon Holder fired a shot across the bow of the local police force by way of press release.
“The selective release of sensitive information that we have seen in this case so far is troubling to me,” Holder he said in the statement. “No matter how others pursue their own separate inquiries, the Justice Department is resolved to preserve the integrity of its investigation.”
This appears to be a response to a detail leaked from the St Louis County medical examiner’s report that 18-year-old Michael Brown had “marijuana in his system” when he was shot dead after tussling with policeman who accosted him for jaywalking.
Nearly every decision local police have made since has exacerbated tension. No ambulance was called for the dead man and his body lay in the road for over four hours. His family was turned away from the scene by hostile police when they arrived.
With the protesters and the military-style police facing off on the streets a video of a white officers yelling at the largely black crowd, “Bring it, all you fucking animals! Bring it!”
Calm was briefly restored to the area after the state governor pulled the local police force off the job and replaced it with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. This force is lead by Ron Johnson, a local African-American who removed the tanks and assault rifles and walked among the crowd exchanging handshakes and hugs.
The local police undermined that calm the following morning, again. The department had been directed to release the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown. They named Darren Wilson at a press conference, but they also announced that Brown was the suspect in a robbery that occurred shortly before the shooting.
This twist infuriated those on the streets, especially as the police themselves said the robbery had nothing to do with the incident and Wilson at the time did not even know it had taken place.
Today their story has changed again. Local police are saying that Wilson knew about the robbery and thought he saw Brown carrying stolen cigars.
Holder will tomorrow fly to St Louis to oversee a federal investigation into the incident while a grand jury will decide whether or not Wilson should be charged with any crime. Protesters have declared they will not leave the streets until he is arrested.
The softly-softly approach led by Johnson has collapsed, and rather than being watched over by military-style police, Ferguson is now being patrolled by the actual military in the form of the National Guard.
Obama has returned to what is left of his summer holidays in Martha’s Vineyard from where he will take regular briefings on the security situation in Ukraine, Iraq and Ferguson, Missouri.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/ferguson-riots-race-and-obamas-nightmare-holiday-20140819-105o16.html#ixzz3AoZ85vxM
Nice pictures, RE!
Trayvon’s mom wrote this. Her delusions have only gotten worse. Then again, 95% of neegrow amuricans need to take anti-delusion pills. Anti-psychotic pills would help also.
============================================
To The Brown Family,
I wish I had a word of automatic comfort but I don’t. I wish I could say that it will be alright on a certain or specific day but I can’t. I wish that all of the pain that I have endured could possibly ease some of yours but it won’t. What I can do for you is what has been done for me: pray for you then share my continuing journey as you begin yours.
I hate that you and your family must join this exclusive yet growing group of parents and relatives who have lost loved ones to senseless gun violence. Of particular concern is that so many of these gun violence cases involve children far too young. But Michael is much more than a police/gun violence case; Michael is your son. A son that barely had a chance to live. Our children are our future so whenever any of our children – black, white, brown, yellow, or red – are taken from us unnecessarily, it causes a never-ending pain that is unlike anything I could have imagined experiencing.
Further complicating the pain and loss in this tragedy is the fact that the killer of your son is alive, known, and currently free. In fact, he is on paid administrative leave. Your own feelings will bounce between sorrow and anger. Even when you don’t want to think about it because it is so much to bear, you will be forced to by merely turning on your television or answering your cell phone. You may find yourselves pulled in many different directions by strangers who may be well-wishers or detractors. Your circle will necessarily close tighter because the trust you once, if ever, you had in “the system” and their agents are forever changed. Your lives are forever changed.
However with those changes come new challenges and opportunities. You will experience a swell of support from all corners of the world. Many will express their sympathies and encourage you to keep fighting for Michael. You will also, unfortunately, hear character assassinations about Michael which I am certain you already have. This will incense and insult you. All of this will happen before and continue long after you have had the chance to lay your son to rest.
I know this because I lived and continue to live this. I have devoted my life to the comprehensive missions of The Trayvon Martin Foundation – including providing support to families that have lost a young child to senseless gun violence regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. I will support you and your efforts to seek justice for your Michael and the countless other Michaels & Trayvons of our country. The 20 Sandy Hook children. Jordan Davis. Oscar Grant. Kendrick Johnson. Sean Bell. Hadya Pendleton. The Aurora shooting victims. The list is too numerous to adequately mention them all. According to The Children’s Defense Fund, gun violence is the second leading cause of death for children ages 1-19. That is a horrible fact.
Facts, myths, and flat out lies are already out there in Michael’s case. Theories, regardless of how ridiculous, are being pondered by the pundits. My advice is to surround yourselves with proven and trusted support. Through it all, I never let go of my faith, my family, or my friends. Long after the overwhelming media attention is gone, you will need those three entities to find your ‘new normal.’ Honor your son and his life, not the circumstances of his alleged transgressions. I have always said that Trayvon was not perfect. But no one will ever convince me that my son deserved to be stalked and murdered. No one can convince you that Michael deserved to be executed.
But know this: neither of their lives shall be in vain. The galvanizations of our communities must be continued beyond the tragedies. While we fight injustice, we will also hold ourselves to an appropriate level of intelligent advocacy. If they refuse to hear us, we will make them feel us. Some will mistake that last statement as being negatively provocative. But feeling us means feeling our pain; imagining our plight as parents of slain children. We will no longer be ignored. We will bond, continue our fights for justice, and make them remember our children in an appropriate light. I would hate to think that our lawmakers and leaders would need to lose a child before protecting the rest of them and making the necessary changes NOW…
With Heartfelt Support,
Sybrina D. Fulton
The Pics came from Nick O’Malley’s article. Reuters pics, great selection there. Excellento Graphics.
RE
RE
fyi …. Admin just published a new major article …. so I won’t be submitting the Castle pictorial essay until next week.
Stuck
I’ll post your Castle article as the top post tomorrow if you submit it.
I saw Jimbo’s article. It goes up on the Diner tomorrow.
Pacing the material is important part of growing audience, Many folks here do not like my spin I know, but I do know how the internet works, and how to make a website grow. I’ve been at this game for 15 years now as moderator of numerous forums.
Surly and me are on a Mission From God here. I will get both TBP and the Diner past fucking Zero Hedge in a year, I fucking GUARANTEE it.. OK, maybe not past ZH, but at least past Chris Martenson anyhow. LOL.
RE
Admin
I can finish it this evening …. but, I ask you to reconsider.
I think RE is right about “pacing the material is important”. You wrote yet another wonderful piece with lots of research involved, and IMHO that should stay the lead story through the weekend, and beyond.
I won’t lie to you … I was hoping the Castle story would be the top post (because it was really quite a lot of work, and I think it’s really pretty cool) …. but it’s a “fluff” piece, whereas your article is actually HELPFUL to many ….. so, waiting is no big deal.
I will post the article as soon as it is completed. Consider what I said, and then release it whenever you see fit.
I have to agree with Stuck. Your piece should be top billing at least through the weekend.
RE
From the parallel thread on the Diner:
One thing I will say here is that further description of Michael Brown being 6’+ and 300#+ makes the description of him in the MSM as a “kid” appear to be propaganda. Nobody that size also 18 years old is a “kid” Kid makes it sound like a scrawny 16 year old.
Deal is though, despite the size, he was still unarmed. All the cop really had to do here was back off, not try to arrest him, just get a good description and call for backup. He should never have tried to get out of the squad car if he was alone. Going up against a behemoth like that is just nuts. It would be like me taking on an NFL Linebacker. If you wanna take down somebody that size with non-lethal force, you want at least 3 people, one to grapple with him while the other 2 take out his knees with billy clubs. The guy with the grappling job should be of decent size himself too. The other two could be even small women. Even a 5′ tall female swinging a Billy Club with a lead pipe center will knock out your knees with one good swing of the club. He’ll be down in no time.
Issue is, the Gestapo Agent feels invulnerable with his Gun, if he is being overpowered it is his Great Equalizer.
So, in the best case scenario story I can come up with here, the Cop tried to arrest a freaking Grizzly Bear, and said Grizzly was not going to come along quietly, they rarely do. The Grizzly mauls him, so he takes out the Gun and starts shooting. Biggest problem there is he didn’t STOP shooting until he was sure the Grizzly was DEAD with 2 shots to the HEAD. Except of course, Michael Brown isn’t a Grizzly really, he is a HUMAN BEING. Just a very upset one.
Michael Brown himself also probably felt somewhat Invulnerable, people that size don’t get beat up unless they have the misfortune of running into Jet Li, Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris. He was likely taunted, he was likely pissed off and unhappy with poor prospects for the future, so he struck out at the authority figure taunting him, and threatening to arrest him.
The best solution I think are stun weapons, tranquilizer darts etc, but really, just calling for backup and not confronting until you are reasonably sure you can overpower the Grizzly is the wise thing to do.
RE