Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
The climactic uproar in Ferguson, Mo., a week ago took a zany turn when the “we want peace” message of Michael Brown’s family rotated 180 degrees to the imperative command, “burn this bitch down,” hollered repeatedly by stepfather Louis Head outside the grand jury headquarters as the decision was announced. The assembled crowd dutifully obliged and burned down many of the businesses that the local population depends on for routine commerce.
The scripted quality of these events seemed as formally predictable as an 1856 minstrel show, and the parallel is worth reflecting on because the nation appears determined to explode again in some kind of a civil war — bearing in mind Karl Marx’s advisory that “history repeats, first as tragedy, then farce.” As is the case with many show-biz extravaganza’s of our time the script had many authors.
First were the cable TV news venues, led by the race hustlers at CNN, whose limitless pandering to the intemperance of black viewers played a large part in cultivating the mood of injustice that failed to square with the objective reality of Michael Brown’s shooting at the hands of policeman Darren Wilson. Every conceivable delusion generated by the event was nurtured to the max in order to amp up the melodrama at the expense of clarifying what had happened. In the end, CNN celebrities Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper got the explosion of violence that their producers had worked so hard to fuel.
Next were the professional black race hustlers such as the Reverend Al Sharpton, now an MSNBC anchor! It seems generally forgotten that Sharpton fomented the 1988 Tawana Brawley rape farce that occupied the nation’s attention for a good year before all the allegations unwound into a limp skein of falsehoods, and Sharpton along with his race hustler lawyer sidekicks, Alton H. Maddox and Vernon Mason, were found liable for making defamatory claims against a Duchess County (New York) Assistant District Attorney (alleged to be among several Brawley rapists). Now, 25 years later, a new crop of race hustlers has come along such as Brown family lawyer Benjamin Crump, who previously worked for Trayvon Martin’s family in the 2012 Florida case. In Act 3 of the Ferguson soap opera, you can be sure Crump will be trolling the “deep pockets” of Missouri for a “settlement.”
Next are the two idiots on The New York Times op-ed page: Nicholas Kristoff and Charles M. Blow. Kristoff, in his latest installment of racial self-mystification — When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 5 — proposes a “national commission” to study America’s race troubles. Wow, what an original idea! Commissions are so darn effective, don’t you think? Mr. Blow repeatedly makes the point that Americans are not willing to have an honest debate about racial issues. That is true largely because public figures such as Mr. Blow will instantly label as “racist” any idea or opinion that contradicts their own pleadings. Is disproportionate black crime a problem? “Racist!” Don’t go there.
A week after the grand jury decision and the riot that followed, the Michael Brown incident is already disappearing down the national memory hole. Why? Mainly because anyway you cut it Michael Brown was a poor candidate for martyrdom. The generous view of his fate is that he made a series of very poor choices one summer’s day. So now CNN is shopping for a replacement. As of Sunday night, they seemed to have settled on 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot while brandishing a BB gun in Cleveland, Ohio. The media insist on calling it “a toy gun,” though photos depict a BB gun obviously designed to look like a regular automatic pistol. Poor Tamir Rice was foolishly acting out a childish mime show, pretending to shoot at passers-by. Someone in the neighborhood might have advised him that this was a good way to get himself shot. But no one did. Now, why was that?
The new World Made By Hand novel
!! Is now available !!
“Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist
My local indie booksellers… Battenkill Books (Autographed by the Author) … or Northshire Books…
or Amazon…
He forgot to mention the 2 reporters that made public Wilson address. Who in turn have had their address made public and are crying foul!
Kunstler nails it. Just about when I’ve decided I’ll never read his stuff again, he pulls me back in with good stuff like this.
In a nutshell, the three main shit-for-news channels don’t report news …. they make it.
The press is often amongst the first to hang from the lampposts in a revolution. There’s a reason for that.
President Obama ‘Fixes’ Ferguson
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/01/2014 14:29 -0500
Yep that should do it…
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The White House explains…
White House Review: Federal Support for Local Law Enforcement Equipment Acquisition
Today, the White House released its review which provides details on the programs that have expanded over decades across multiple federal agencies that support the acquisition of equipment from the federal government to LEAs. During the course of its review, the White House explored whether existing federal programs:
provide LEAs with equipment that is appropriate to the needs of their communities,
ensure that LEAs have adequate policies in place for the use of the equipment and that personnel are properly trained and certified to employ the equipment they obtain, and
encourage LEAs to adopt organizational and operational practices and standards that prevent misuse/abuse of the equipment.
The report finds a lack of consistency in how federal programs are structured, implemented and audited, and informed by conversations with stakeholders, identifies four areas of further focus that could better ensure the appropriate use of federal programs to maximize the safety and security of police officers and the communities they serve: 1) Local Community Engagement, 2) Federal Coordination and Oversight, 3) Training Requirements, and 4) The Community Policing Model.
Consistent with the recommendations in the report, the President instructed his staff to draft an Executive Order directing relevant agencies to work together and with law enforcement and civil rights and civil liberties organizations to develop specific recommendations within 120 days. Some broad examples of what process improvements agencies might implement as a result of further collaborative review include:
Develop a consistent list of controlled property allowable for acquisition by LEAs and ensure that all equipment on the list has a legitimate civilian law enforcement purpose.
Require local civilian (non-police) review of and authorization for LEAs to request or acquire controlled equipment.
Mandate that LEAs which participate in federal equipment programs receive necessary training and have policies in place that address appropriate use and employment of controlled equipment, as well as protection of civil rights and civil liberties. Agencies should identify existing training opportunities and help LEAs avail themselves of those opportunities, including those offered by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and the International Association of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.
Require after-action analysis reports for significant incidents involving federally provided or federally-funded equipment.
Harmonize federal programs so that they have consistent and transparent policies.
Develop a database that includes information about controlled equipment purchased or acquired through Federal programs.
Task Force on 21st Century Policing
The President similarly instructed his team to draft an executive order creating a Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and announced that the Task Force will be chaired by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who also serves as President of the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, and Laurie Robinson, professor at George Mason University and former Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs. The Task Force will include, among others, law enforcement representatives and community leaders and will operate in collaboration with Ron Davis, Director of DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office. The Task Force will build on the extensive research currently being conducted by COPS; will examine, among other issues, how to promote effective crime reduction while building public trust; and will be directed to prepare a report and recommendations within 90 days of its creation.
Community Policing Initiative
The President also proposes a three-year $263 million investment package that will increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement agencies (LEAs), add more resources for police department reform, and multiply the number of cities where DOJ facilitates community and local LEA engagement. As part of this initiative, a new Body Worn Camera Partnership Program would provide a 50 percent match to States/localities who purchase body worn cameras and requisite storage. Overall, the proposed $75 million investment over three years could help purchase 50,000 body worn cameras. The initiative as a whole will help the federal government efforts to be a full partner with state and local LEAs in order to build and sustain trust between communities and those who serve and protect these communities.
* * *
So, a task force (aka Police Tzar) by Executive Order, more funding for local police equipment, and figure out how to make gold from lead promote effective crime reduction while building public trust
Ok, off to the golf club…
This post perfectly sums up how I feel:
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/item/the-post-in-which-i-piss-off-everybody
That’s someone else, focusing on a somewhat different topic (though one I also care about), but the attitude is what comes through. After everything that’s happened in the last six months, I don’t give a flying fuck, a rat’s ass, half a libtard’s brains, or anything else for Obama, federal politics, Ferguson, views of “race relations” from blacks or anyone else, or the vast and growing mob of droolingly stupid, arrogant, dangerous Democratic/leftist voters, thugs, pols, reporters, and other hangers-on. Fuck them all, every last one.
I am afraid that another civil war is coming, and I think that’s the goal of a great many people. I’m getting as far away from that in all possible ways. We need this sucker to implode like the USSR, because the alternative is a WWII repeat on a greater and more destructive scale.
In another post I said I wanted to see a trial. That idea was voted down. You know who else didn’t want a trial …. the local powers that be ….. they’re hiding shit. Bet on it.
===================
“The problem with the grand jury and prosecutor in Ferguson and everywhere else is that the real problem — the training of police to use deadly force as a first resort — was not identified as the cause of Michael Brown’s death.
The Ferguson grand jury’s decision is not an exoneration of Wilson’s use of deadly force. Anyone familiar with the American criminal justice (sic) system knows that any prosecutor can get or prevent an indictment from a grand jury. Prosecutors are allowed to determine what evidence is presented. Prosecutors are permitted to bribe witnesses with money or dropped charges, and they can coerce false witness testimony by threatening a witness with charges. Seldom does an indictment or refusal to indict turn on the true facts.
The US justice system is no longer concerned with justice, but with the careers of prosecutors, punishing the powerless, and protecting the powerful. As justice has largely departed the justice system, it is hardly surprising that police lack any concept of justice.”
.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ferguson-Re-examined-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-Force_Justice_Police_Violence-141128-241.html
@Stucky, I don’t even know if Wilson is innocent (justified) or not. I’ve read things here and there. I’m not a forensics expert and I’m not going to spend the next weeks reading every word of the evidence published. In a fair system I wouldn’t need to, I could trust the “system” to “work.”
Here’s what I do know:
1) The St. Louis area was dangerous, scary, and had little to offer good people before this. No change apparent.
2) Sometimes cops kill innocent people, sometimes cops kill bad people who were trying to kill them. It’s not always easy to tell which is which. No change.
3) The usual cop groupies will always assume cops walk on water. No change.
4) The usual race-baiting scumbag slimeballs will come out of the woodwork to destroy things made by white people and try to steal money from white people. No change.
Am I missing anything?
Stuckey, most cops are not deep thinkers about much of anything. They are just technicians in the use of force. most of them are propagandized muscle and guns with a liscence to use force in certain circumstances. What they don’t know is that if they mess up they are disposable. They are kind of like soldiers–heros until they embaress TPTB.
Persnickety
I certainly have no desire to read every word either … or, any of it, in fact. Even if one did, one still wouldn’t get the whole truth. Apparently, prosecutors have FULL control over the the hearings; which evidence is or isn’t allowed, they can even make shit up (!!), and no one is cross examined nor is testimony allowed to be refuted. A Grand Jury hearing is largely a fucking sham … it’s not justice … and that’s why they say a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, if necessary.
I don’t know if the copfuk or neegro is guilty, and I don’t really care about that.
As I see it, a trial would have put THE COPFUK SYSTEM on trial. A system that guarantees a copfuk can get away with murder simply by him saying “I feared for my life”, and nothing more. Shoot first, ask questions later. And not only that but … shoot to kill!
Regarding that last point … HOW FAR AWAY was the neegrow from the cop AT THE TIME the cop shot him? 20, 30 feet or more? WHERE was the copfuk ….. hiding behind his cruiser, I imagine. Wasn’t there at least another cop there? Now, you’re telling me the ONLY solution was to shoot the neegrow six fucking times? Whatever you think of the neegrow, those actions see excessive at best, unnecessary (hence, an unjustified shooting) at worst. I guess we’ll never know the full story.
Again, just to be clear, the copfuk system would have been on trial … had it gone to trial … and how damn convenient for the copfuks that it didn’t.
I will second the seconding (thirding?) that I have no desire to read everything about that shithole. But here is what I do know:
1. Brown robbed and assaulted a store owner earlier in the day.
2. After his death, there were immediate calls for jailing of officer Wilson, before any facts come out and anyone knew what happened. Not trial, not investigation, not assessment of policing methods.
3. The media began a circle-jerk of sophistry, resulting in less facts and more feelings, to bolster ratings.
4. His supporters burned down businesses that had nothing to do with his shooting.
5. A few months later, they get mad after the grand jury finds Officer Wilson to not be charged, so they burn down more buildings.
6. Now that they burned down buildings and rioted, we are suppose to have a “national race conversation” in which we pretend that it is not the fault of the people who burned down buildings that they live in the burned-out corpse of a city. Instead, it’s the fault of white people that they live in a neighborhood destroyed by the slow rot of civil decay and crime (where they were the majority of criminals) and rapid, explosive eruptions of third-world tribal violence( caused by the same).
SO…
Fuck it. Maybe Michael Brown was innocent and Wilson was wrong, but that doesn’t even matter now. Guilt by association is wrong, and there is no such thing as innocence by opposition. But right now, I kinda feel like maybe there should be.
A Broken System: The Secret Darkness of Grand Juries
by LAUREN C. REGAN
Over the last 17 years I have represented dozens and dozens of clients who were subpoenaed to testify as witnesses at State and Federal Grand Juries regarding government investigations. A grand jury is a secret tribunal where a citizen is forced to answer questions by a prosecutor, often against their will. They are not allowed to have an attorney in the grand jury room to advise them while the questioning takes place. There is no Judge in the grand jury room to oversee the fairness or legitimacy of the proceedings. The prosecutor alone determines what evidence will be provided to the grand jurors, and that alone forms the basis of their deliberations and their determination regarding whether a felony indictment will issue. The prosecutor becomes the grand jurors’ friend: he controls their bathroom breaks, meals, and whether they can return to their work, families, and lives. The prosecutor, a politically elected position, works very closely with police every day and generally exhibits bias toward police as a result of this familiar relationship. The prosecutor holds enormous power over the outcome of a grand jury proceeding.
As a lawyer for a subpoenaed witness, the primary concern is whether our client may incriminate itself by providing testimony to the grand jury. Because the grand jury is this secret process, the answer to this question is almost always yes, there is a possibility that this person could be compelled to testify and give information that might lead to criminal charges against that person. In these cases, the witness is advised that they must assert their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent so there is no chance they will incriminate themselves of a crime. The only way that the prosecutor can overcome the Fifth Amendment right of a person is to impose immunity from any potential prosecution upon the subpoenaed person. If immunity is thrust upon the witness, their Fifth Amendment right is taken away from them and they are forced to testify. But, by providing immunity, the State acknowledges that they are no longer allowed to prosecute the witness for any crime related to the testimony sought.
It is with this background and understanding that I have been very suspicious about the recent grand jury proceedings regarding Darren Wilson, the police officer who murdered 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. If a person was being investigated for murder, would they (in their right mind) voluntarily waive their Fifth Amendment rights and testify to a grand jury without immunity or some other type of agreement with the State that would assure the suspect officer that their testimony would not be used to prosecute them for one of the most serious felony crimes that exists in this country? If such a deal was not struck in the secrecy of the grand jury process, one would expect that the powerful police union or Wilson’s own lawyers would have asserted his Fifth Amendment right. Because the prosecutor totally controls the questions asked and evidence provided to the grand jury, it was not surprising that as always, the State guaranteed the result they wanted—the police officer would get away with murder again.
Sure, the State felt compelled to hold a grand jury investigation given the public outrage and attention this police murder garnered around the world. And sure, inviting Darren Wilson to give a speech to the grand jury proclaiming his innocence and victimization gave some semblance that the State was undertaking a “real” investigation into the murder. Lauding the service of the grand jurors is a nice distraction as well, but of course it is not the jurors’ fault that the grand jury system is broken. If the jurors are only allowed to touch the trunk and tail in total darkness, it might be hard to see the elephant in the room
And so, another cop killing never even sees the light of a court room, but instead lurks in the secret darkness of the biased grand jury room.
This scenario has played out too many times in the United States. Marginalized human (whether black, mentally ill, poor, etc.) is shot and killed by a law enforcement officer sworn to uphold the law and protect community safety. The Community reacts with horror, fear and anger at the murder of a victim they know or can relate to. The State provides some window dressing as if they were truly interested in whether this person—one of the few that has the lawful power to kill people under extreme circumstances—acted in conformance with the law. Despite the growing number of cop killings that occur in this country, it is suspect that the State’s conclusion is overwhelming in favor of exonerating the actions of the police officer and affirming the right of the officer to punish a person with death. The community responds in outrage. Protests and direct action have become the only way people can vent the rage and resentment against a broken system of injustice. This public outrage then becomes further justification for increased State repression upon these communities—militarized police, National Guard troops, and the jailing of community leaders. The community often becomes torn and divided between those who cannot remain contrite in the face of such injustice, those who remain obedient to the tenants of Ghandian civil disobedience, and those whose privilege allows them to simply bury their heads in the sand.
Another young black man is dead. Another cop killer remains employed to protect and serve the community he has destroyed. A broken system is perpetuated without discussion about what might replace it. Instead of just replaying this same devastating tragedy, perhaps ‘we the people’ should be coming up with a societal solution that could earn the respect of the people.
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” – Hunter S. Thompson
The Shakedown: TV News, Race baiters, Find a suitable victim, enlist the family, create a sob story, foment a crisis, milk it or all it’s worth, when it dies out, find another tragic life cut short by the man and repeat.