Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
August 18, 2014

Ferguson - Sending In The Bigger Guns

And so it begins?

National Guard called in after second night of chaos in Ferguson, Missouri

Missouri's governor said on Monday he would send the National Guard into the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson to restore calm after authorities forcibly dispersed a crowd protesting last week's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by police.
...
At around dusk on Sunday, hundreds of protesters in Ferguson including families with young children fled to safety after police wearing gas masks and body armor fired tear gas and smoke canisters to scatter them hours ahead of the curfew.

"The smoke bombs were completely unprovoked," said Anthony Ellis, 45. "It (the protest) was led by kids on bikes. Next you know they're saying, 'Go home, Go home!'"

The Missouri Highway Patrol said "aggressors" were trying to infiltrate a law enforcement command post and that armored vehicles were deployed to ensure public safety.

According to Billmon's research the Missouri National Guard has some supremacists/neo-nazi problems. One wonders how diverse such a force is. It has some Military Police battalions all of which have experience with handling "sandniggers" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The National Guard will surely find this or that "aggressor" in Ferguson to justify a further escalation.

One hopes that other cities will join in with the protests in Ferguson and protest against what even conservatives describe as much too militarized and aggressive use of force against citizens prevalent in the United States.

Posted by b on August 18, 2014 at 14:27 UTC | Permalink

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The criminals in charge hate being exposed for what they are,and are too important to be revealed for their hollow souls.So watch for more mayhem by the government.
This protesting cuts through American BS better than any POTUS proclamation Kumbaya dweeb words,and Obombas legacy is further besmirched.
The post racial President.sheesh,like the Zionists in charge aren't the worst racists on the planet.

Posted by: dahoit | Aug 18 2014 14:51 utc | 1

I suspect that discipline and command structure is tighter with the Guard units than with either the state police or the local cops. Most units I presume have civil engagement officers.

A critique by military officers of the Ferguson police department:

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/military-veterans-see-flawed-police-response-in-ferguson-1.298326

Now, whether all that "discipline", "command structure", and "civil engagement", works for good or ill is an open question

Posted by: sleepy | Aug 18 2014 14:58 utc | 2

The video from the convenience store initially televised (which I viewed on Friday) was heavily edited, a fact made clear when a longer version, though also seemingly edited (quick cuts, jumps) showed the larger of the two young men (apparently Michael Brown) put the box of cigars on the counter and spend some time with the woman behind the counter, as if preparing to pay for the items on the counter. Then the tape jumps to him picking up individual cigars from the floor and the two teens walking to the door as the male shop person confronted them. There was no sound on the tape, but no doubt verbal exchanges occurred. Who knows what was said.

Again, the longer version of the tape very clearly shows what appears to be Michael Brown putting the box of cigars on the counter in front of the woman behind the counter. Strong are robbery?

Posted by: Hamburger | Aug 18 2014 15:11 utc | 3

Yes but the real story is how very different the two reactions by police forces are when the people involved are white.

A white racist POS doesn't want to pay his taxes to the point of having civilians aiming their weapons at law enforcement officials? That's cool.

A bunch of unarmed black people want to protest the murder of yet ANOTHER one of their community members? Time to call in the National Effing Guard.

Conservatives/libertarians in the US are in general a bunch of effing retards.

They just LOOOOOOOVVVVVE the police - especially when they are beating/harassing/killing darkies - but scream "TOTALITARIANISM" when the same-said police enforce the laws which they don't like.

Cognitive dissonance writ large in the US: the Right just HATES the government but just LOOOOVES the troops/police who are the coercive arm of the government.

Retarded.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 18 2014 15:14 utc | 4

@3 JSorrentine

Equating the conservatives and the libertarians on this is probably the wrong approach. The Libertarians have been among the only ones decrying the militarization of the US police forces. Read Radley Balko , he was pursuing this long before anyone else except, maybe, the minority rights advocates who are integral with these communities.

The conservatives, on the otherhand, are a joke, and the issues we are seeing in Furgeson are a manifestation, at least in part, of the racism of the right in the US.

The reaction of the White House, or lack of reaction more accuratly, has been most, has been most interesting, and is under extreme criticism by the left and minorities. It is, hopefully, going to lay bare the idea that Obama represents them in any way. I am always hoping that these events will continue to galvanize a left-right coalition between the "extremes" in both parties. This is the only grass roots power that i think will have any real traction in the US.

Posted by: Base | Aug 18 2014 15:34 utc | 5

In the Ferguson incident, it wasn't simply a "fatal shooting" of an unarmed man by police, it was an assassination, the autopsy has shown. Five shots to the front of the body plus one to the top of the head. And this isn't the first police assassination in the United States.

When a convicted criminal under an execution sentence has more rights than a citizen on the streets, there need to be some changes made. That's basically what the Ferguson protesters are demanding.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 15:36 utc | 6

"And so it begins?"

hmmm...

in a poll taken in the immediate aftermath of the ohio national guard's murder of four unarmed student protestors at kent state university on may 4th, 1970, 58% of respondents blamed the students.

and the students were white!

Posted by: john | Aug 18 2014 15:40 utc | 7

My experience, contrary to sleepy @ 1, with the National Guard when it invaded my neighborhood during the WTO ministerial in Seattle is that they were more inexperienced than the police. They didn't know what they were doing; they looked to me to be a lot of inexperienced young men and a few women who foolishly attacked people as they came out of their apartment buildings to protest a camouflaged armed military force in their neighborhood. This brought out more people from their homes until you had hundreds of people on the street resisting the invasion.

Finally the authorities figured out the Guard was actually making things worse and pulled them out.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 18 2014 15:49 utc | 8

I hope the Polic officer who did the shooting will hang himself and end it all.

If he does not , I think its time we send the protesters Arms and Foreign Mercenaries , I am thinking Libyians.

Posted by: Nini | Aug 18 2014 15:56 utc | 9

Police threatening to shoot and mace journalists.

The first link has the video in which the cameraman talks to the police Captain about having a gun-shoved in his face.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 18 2014 16:03 utc | 10

Darren Wilson's side of the story is reportedly here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 16:24 utc | 11

An excellent video here regarding the media aspects.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 16:40 utc | 12

Mike Maloney @6

Yeah, you're probably right. I was basing my comment on the stars and stripes article which of course is comparing regular army--not the guard--to the local cops.

And of course, it was the guard that did the shooting at Kent State, and elsewhere.

Posted by: sleepy | Aug 18 2014 16:42 utc | 13

What a one-sided, dumb post this one! Mr.B sees neo-nazis under every bed apparently.

He and others here conflate the real problem of a militarized police force, which is legit, with excusing a bunch of people looting, rioting and comitting arson!
A few vids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNvhGDsGXM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3aYsyr3alA
Even RT, which, like PRESSTV, tries to take advantage of such situations showed some of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iieEb-RUsk

Even IF the police officer was unjustified in his actions, which at this point NONE OF U PEOPLE can tell, this does NOT justify rioting and looting businesses, many of which are owned by black people, btw. Some of the 'protesters' are even Bloods gang members, identified by their red bandanas and red baseball caps. Some protesters..

@Don Bacon writes:
"In the Ferguson incident, it wasn't simply a "fatal shooting" of an unarmed man by police, it was an assassination, the autopsy has shown. Five shots to the front of the body plus one to the top of the head."

How would you know that, were you there, did u see how it went down? What about the other side of
the story? We have all heard the side of the alleged victim, while ignoring the officers version, which sounds more believable to me.
The 'gentle' giant and his pal, the 'witness', had just robbed a store, this has been confirmed, the officer got a radio on it with suspects description, etc, and tried to confront the duo; Brown then attacked the officer, went for his weapon; a shot was fired, Brown started running away, officer told him to stop, Brown would have turned around and charged the officer who then shot him several times because apparently Brown kept charging and only stopped when head shot. A cell phone recorded a conversation in which a bystander pretty much confirms the officers version.
With all the anti-white bias in the media, particluarly liberal/leftist media, one should be very careful before jumping into conclusions.
In the Trayvon Martin hysteria case, it turned out trayvon was no small innocent child, as liberal media was trying to portray him as, Zimmerman was NOT even white and, as BEST as one can tell, he really was assaulted by Trayvon. That was the most recent case of hysteria over 'racism' in zamerica, and the facts did not bear that out.
It's also interesting that blacks kill each other every other day in zamerica with lib media - and black community - barely noticing or giving a damn about. In the rare cases where a black is killed by a white - the other way around is much more common - all hell breaks loose.
Stefan Molyneux has a good vid packed with info about the case, recommended:
LINK

Posted by: Luca K | Aug 18 2014 16:52 utc | 14

What we see in Ferguson is a junction between two trends in US policing.
The first, familiar enough is the new Jim Crow- the employment of the police, and the judiciary, to maintain the racial discipline that the US ruling class insists upon and has maintained since the late seventeenth century. As we know, and as the Brown case exemplifies, this involves the constant harassment, imprisonment and assassination of young black men. What happened in Ferguson is repeated, in one form or another every day in America. And my guess is that the annual rate of police and vigilante executions on blacks now exceeds considerably the rate of lynchings in the 1890s or 1920s.
Although everything changed after the Civil Rights Act, nothing chamged for the vast number of blacks, except that an informal, sub legal system in a South in which black labour was critical was replaced by a legally enforced war on the poor, a war on drugs and welfare "reform" which has not met up with post 9/11 anti-terrorism.

The second trend is the decision, confirmed in 2008 and a key to understanding Obama-ism, not to employ Keynesian pump priming, including works programmes and youth employment measures, to deal with the longest economic downturn in US history- the current depression. Instead Obama decided to invest the government's resources in repression and a speedy, ruthless response to public protests or social unrest. That is why the cops have tanks and the Governor has called in the National Guard, besides which the Highway Patrol and the St Louis cops will look like London Bobbies.

And what are the NAACP and the Black Congressional Caucus saying, except "We are irrelevant"?
It has taken a long time and a lot of provocation to produce this reaction. I suspect that what surprises a lot of people is how many there are who spontaneously apologise for the acts of a police force whose actions are so flagrantly illegal that to excuse them is only possible outside the context of the US Constitution.
Which makes it just like everything else that this administration and its predecessors back to 1980, at least, have been doing.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 18 2014 17:00 utc | 15

"has not met up " should be "now met up..."

Posted by: bevin | Aug 18 2014 17:02 utc | 16

Luca K
Don was probably basing his information on the Autopsy report published yesterday.
As to looting- yes, it is justified in circumstances in which the law is suspended. The wonder is that in Ferguson, where the laws guaranteeing the Civil Rights of young black men are always in suspense, (as they are in most of the 50 states) the laws guaranteeing property are so rigorously obeyed by those whom the law refuses to protect.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 18 2014 17:07 utc | 17

touché b: One cannot use the "N" word anymore, but it is OK to call the Arabs as "sandniggers". Keep on the good work!

Posted by: A SandNigger! | Aug 18 2014 17:09 utc | 18

the national guard.... funny thing is when kiev was taken over by the junta the usa/cia suggested they have a 'national guard'.. next step, if you don't have an obvious racial profile of black and white, is to label anyone who looks suspicious as a terrorist..

the racial and economic divide in the usa is killing the usa if the only response they have to it is the use of greater military force.. it seems like this is the golden answer to all of the usa's troubles - throw more money into the military/arms complex to resolve it..

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2014 17:32 utc | 19

Yes, one of the most important messages driven home by the war criminal elite to the domestic American populace - and by extension the rest of the neoliberal Empire - over the last couple of decades but especially during the last 10+ years is this insidious/sick/disgusting/inhuman ideology:

Violence against inanimate property == Violence against people

Thus, due to this now psychologically ingrained idiocy that has MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of adherents - go to ANY comment board on Ferguson - whenever someone smashes a window/breaks a storefront/spray-paints a building that person has forfeited their right to existence as law enforcement has been given the right to not only cause that person extreme violence but also to snuff out their life.

Obviously, all the wonderful the double standards - e.g., white/black, rich/poor, male/female, etc - certainly apply but the populace has been conditioned to accept that simple yet COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY EFFING CRAZY axiom:

Damage to inanimate objects justifies any and all subsequent damage caused to living beings.

It's just too dern hard to figure out how to deal with people without effing killing them, doncha know.

HF.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 18 2014 17:34 utc | 20

So obama must go now? Like Qahdaffi "must go", Assad "must go"?

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 18 2014 17:35 utc | 21

According to Scott Horton (former www.antiwar.com) the US police has become more and more militarized over time. They're no longer the friendly police cops but they get more and more military equipment.

And after the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan more and more ex soldiers join the police. and then they use military tactics to surpress unrest.

Posted by: Willy2 | Aug 18 2014 17:45 utc | 22

Begins ? I would say ends

Posted by: Marc | Aug 18 2014 17:55 utc | 23

suppressing unrest... you mean suppressing anyone who is black and out of work?? what happened in the occupy movement? suppressing anyone who doesn't go along with the wall st agenda? the usa is one pathetic country from my pov.. here in canada we have bozos wanting to be more like the usa as well - our idiot leader harper is a case in point.. we are not far behind in trying to turn our country into some type of w. bush moron ranch run by wall st. suppressing ''unrest''.. what a sweet word!!

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2014 18:09 utc | 24

From last week on Ferguson:

Twenty-two percent of Ferguson residents live below the poverty line, and 21.7 percent receive food stamps. The unemployment rate in the town is 14.3 percent, or more than double that of St. Louis County and Missouri as a whole.

“Despite Ferguson’s relative poverty, fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city, a total of 2,635,400,” according to the ArchCity Defenders report. And in 2013, the Ferguson Municipal Court issued 24,532 arrest warrants and 12,018 cases, “or about 3 warrants and 1.5 cases per household.”

Ferguson population is 21,000.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 18 2014 18:13 utc | 25

Many police departments across the US are now being trained by Israelis in policing and crowd control tactics.

Link: http://www.jinsa.org/files/leepParticipants.pdf

Scroll down to the M's and see former St. Louis PD Chief Joseph Mokwa, who participated in the LEEP (Law Enforcement Exchange Program).

Also: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39423.htm

Posted by: anonymous25 | Aug 18 2014 18:17 utc | 26

U.S. officials didn't seem concerned about the property damage caused by the Maidanistas last January and February. Many buildings broken into and occupied and security forces attacked. I remember the comments at the time on this page were, "If something like that were to happen in the U.S., the National Guard would be mustered." Sure enough.

Property damage as justification to declare a state of emergency is as American as apple pie. And of course it is a crock of shit. Anyone, including undercover cops, who are always out in the crowd during these protests, can pitch a rock through a plate glass storefront. How can the right to peaceable assembly always be so readily abrogated by the slightest bit of vandalism?

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 18 2014 18:28 utc | 27

I think that you are "inflating" this particular story
a bit more than what is actually happening.

A small case of "the fire in the minds of men,
and not in the roofs of houses" perhaps?

However, the future long term prospects of a US of A
"Policed" by heavily-armed SWAT teams, does not bode well.

Posted by: chris m | Aug 18 2014 18:28 utc | 28

American police now “Israeli-DHS trained,”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/10/255432/us-police-now-israelidhs-trained/

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 18 2014 18:40 utc | 29

In the Ferguson incident, it wasn't simply a "fatal shooting" of an unarmed man by police, it was an assassination, the autopsy has shown. Five shots to the front of the body plus one to the top of the head. And this isn't the first police assassination in the United States.

What the autopsies have shown is that the "eyewitnesses" who were, up until five seconds ago, insisting that Brown was shot in the back, are liars. OTOH, the autopsies are entirely consistent with the cop shooting at a combative, drugged, gigantic man charging head-first at him. The fantasy of gentle giant Mike Brown, killed by white racism, is sure to unravel as completely as did the fable of St Trayvon, murdered by trigger-happy "white hispanic" George Zimmerman.

in a poll taken in the immediate aftermath of the ohio national guard's murder of four unarmed student protestors at kent state university on may 4th, 1970, 58% of respondents blamed the students.

I have not met a single person who both knew what happened at Kent State and wasn't on the side of the National Guardsmen. The American left seem curiously incapable of seizing on actual instances of injustice, preferring instead their own personal world of delusion.

Posted by: Bill | Aug 18 2014 18:41 utc | 30

Ummmm....the protestors themselves, including the Brown family, have been clamoring for a Federal response, and the National Guard has a dual Federal/State role. If you recollect, Kennedy used the National Guard in Alabama.

Either you want the Federal Government involved, or you don't. It's an all or nothing proposition. I'd recommend keeping the Feds out of it. Of course, the Governor has the ability to activate the National Guard in Missouri just as the President does, so if the rioters keep Burning Down The House, what do you expect? Just let them burn it all down like they did in L.A.? Maybe not a bad idea. If so, White people, get the hell out now, because if you weren't targets before, you sure as hell will be now. The Black people of Ferguson are ghettoizing themselves and imposing self-segregation.

Anyhow, what do eastern Ukraine and Ferguson, Missouri have in common since they're both getting top billing in the news?

Weapons Of Mass Disruption

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 18 2014 18:54 utc | 31

Shooting In Subdivision, Not Busy Street

At first I got the impression Michael Brown was walking on the busy West Florissant Ave, the shopping and business district of Ferguson when the shooting took place. Not so! When I viewed the Piaget Crenshaw, I figured I could find the location, the busy W. Florissant Ave is four lanes, so I had to extend my search.

I found this map of the spots we have been talking about …


Via google maps it was an easy find: a very quiet lane of a residential area. Officer Darren Wilson was answering a call, why did he need to stop to reprimand these two teenagers? I don't get it.

Address: 9401 Stonefield Rd at Windward Ct.

Posted by: Oui | Aug 18 2014 19:02 utc | 32

I hope the Polic officer who did the shooting will hang himself and end it all.

If he does not , I think its time we send the protesters Arms and Foreign Mercenaries , I am thinking Libyians.

Posted by: Nini | Aug 18, 2014 11:56:08 AM | 7

Wow! That's not "off the hook."

Since we're playing "off the hook," maybe Putin can claim them as ethnic Russians and use it as pretetx to invade and annex, or in the least send some Russian, Chechen and Serbain thug mercenaries to "get it on."

Or maybe Nixon (is this story a throwback with the names, or what? Plessy vs Ferguson and Nixon — what next to underscore the deja vu?) can give ISIS a call and then the looters/rioters will really have something to riot and loot about. There's nothing like some beheadings, crucifixions and REAL genocide to quiet things down.

The above was satire since the quoted comment was absurd for those who don't understand satire when they see it.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 18 2014 19:04 utc | 33

@Bill, #28
You seem to favor the government shooting to kill unarmed citizens in their communities and schools. I and many others don't. Furthermore, the probable logical result of this misguided strategy is that citizens will routinely arm themselves for self-protection, and we can retrogress back to the wild West as communities and schools become less civilized. There are many ways to incapacitate aggressive people other than killing them with six bullets. Killing is a mortal sin, if you're religious.

This incident can't be separated from the environment where it happened, a predominantly poor African-American community governed and policed by more prosperous white people who prey on their victims financially and otherwise. But while Darren Wilson suffers from being a part of the lousy situation, still he's the white guy that pumped six shots into a black guy with the clear intention of killing him, and that is inexcusable.

The fact that Obama has a problem with this, by the way, is farcical since he frequently gives the orders to wantonly assassinate people, including Americans, which makes it a national policy which Wilson could be said to be following. Even that doesn't excuse it.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 19:17 utc | 34

@Oui
There was a report that Wilson had just received a radio call about the alleged burglary, possibly including a description the suspect(s).

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 19:19 utc | 35

#3
I have noticed the same things with the video. Brown puts the cigars back on the counter, retrieves items which had fallen to the floor, and walks out with those items - not the box of cigars which he is accused of stealing.

In the Ferguson police report there is a description of the contents of the video. The report mentions that Brown's friend returns a box to the counter, which he does, but it does not mention that Brown does too. It also does not mention Brown leaning down to retrieve items from the floor. It then claims that Brown is holding the box of cigars at the door. I believe this false description is deliberate, particularly since it describes small details (Johnson returns box to counter) but completely leaves out large details (Brown leaning down).

The police report states the stolen item was a box of cigars. One of their witnesses says the dispute at the counter was over the store employee believing that cigars were being stolen. That employee, rushing to the door, may have completely missed that the cigars were returned - and therefore the confrontation at the door may have been based on a mistaken assumption and Brown's shove may have been a response to being falsely accused of stealing.

The police report was written days after the incident and there appears to have been no effort to talk to the other witnesses, as the statements are limited to two store employees. The word should get out about this because the video release has empowered prejudiced stereotypes and reactionary agendas.

Posted by: jayc | Aug 18 2014 19:24 utc | 36

I spend my youth and teenage years in a St. Louis County suburb, so I have a feel for some historic developments of the city of St. Louis from a very prosperous riverfront town on the Missisippi River to a large metropolitan area that couldn't escape poverty and downfall after the Second World War. Metropolitan St. Louis and County are one of the most segregated areas of the U.S. today. When I arrived in St. Louis, Union Station had 52 tracks ending in downtown. From riverboats to railroad with passengers and freight trains, came a further downfall when the airlines starting to transport more passengers at the end of the 1950s into the economic boom of the 60s.

St. Louis was a border town between the North and the South during the Civil War and one of the centra where the slaves sought refuge once they were freed. The Mississippi River made St. Louis a booming town as is seen from organizing the 1904 World Fair. Many negroes from the South stayed and participated in an economy with opportunities for many.

I wrote a diary anout St. Louis here and during some research came across a damn good documentary of the 1956 segregation of Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee and a @sshole provocateur, John Kasper, an outsider who incited hatred and violence. Astonishly, I see some parallels with the political division of today in America and the emergence of Tea Party politics.

With the election of Barack Obama, the white folks and evangelicals who hadn't coped with the multicultural society, became more vocal. Problem is, today in America there is such a high level of guns and gun violence, this is clearly a grave danger.

Michael Brown: Is White Justice Trying to Frame a Dead Man?
Racism in America: Small Town 1950s Case Study Documentary Film

Posted by: Oui | Aug 18 2014 19:31 utc | 37

@28

Wow, and 95% of the apartheid genocidal Israelis thought the recent carnage against the similarly unarmed Gazans was just AOK, too.

Great minds....

But really:

How does the cock of our fascist overlords taste exactly? I'm gonna guess EXACTLY like your own ass.

Am I right?

I mean, to defend 3 different murders involving armed people confronting unarmed people really shows that you have taken to heart the obsequious fascist dick-licker - remember, how it smells, Bill - mindset/mentality that pervades America and the neoliberal West.

Congratulations, you are the walking embodiment of the United States of America in 2014.

Note to rest of the world: run away.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 18 2014 19:42 utc | 38

@28?

*clapping hands* :)

Posted by: really | Aug 18 2014 19:57 utc | 39

@Don Bacon

There is an absurd combination of police forces involved: City of Ferguson, City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Special Operations SWAT Team, State Troopers took over and now Governor Nixon [don't believe, same gd names circulating again] has ordered the National Guard in. Thank goodness, President Obama freed these NG from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. Congress approved DoD Excess Property Program (DoD 1033), these boys got to keep their toy LENCO BearCat and automatic rifles, etc. for Homeland Terror.

By releasing the edited video of the stong arm theft in the shop, the Ferguson chief of police tried to put a felony wrap on Michael Brown. According to Missouri law, killing a felon is like Florida's stand-your-ground law, the police officer perpetrator walks free. The Ferguson police had to retract the info, officer Darren Wilson had not received any call about the shop robbery and description of suspects [KMOV STL Channel 4].

PS Nixon calls off curfew for tonight.

Posted by: Oui | Aug 18 2014 19:59 utc | 40

@37

Lol. Sorry I made a mistake. I meant @36. Jsore had me laughing so much I typed in the wrong number.

Posted by: really | Aug 18 2014 20:01 utc | 41

@3 JSorrentine,

A white racist POS doesn't want to pay his taxes to the point of having civilians aiming their weapons at law enforcement officials? That's cool. [And Hannity makes a national hero out of him for two weeks.]

A bunch of unarmed black people want to protest the murder of yet ANOTHER one of their community members? Time to call in the National Effing Guard. [And use military tanks instead of talking.]


The issue couldn't be made starker.

Posted by: MRW | Aug 18 2014 20:01 utc | 42

Bravo Don Bacon & JSorrentine!

Bill @ 28 you say: "I have not met a single person who both knew what happened at Kent State and wasn't on the side of the National Guardsmen. The American left seem curiously incapable of seizing on actual instances of injustice, preferring instead their own personal world of delusion."

But even Nixon's President's Commission on Campus Unrest, a.k.a., the Scranton Commission, named after Republican Governor of Pennsylvania William Scranton who chaired it, called the National Guard shootings at Kent State unjustified: "Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators."

So apparently you believe Establishment conservatives to be delusional as well.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 18 2014 20:02 utc | 43

Bill @ 28 said:

"I have not met a single person who both knew what happened at Kent State and wasn't on the side of the National Guardsmen."

yes Bill, "Congratulations, you are the walking embodiment of the United States of America in 2014."

and no doubt you were the walking embodiment of the United States of America back in 1970 when the VAST majority of americans opposed the anti-war movement.

so, way to go, pal.

Posted by: john | Aug 18 2014 20:09 utc | 44

I just don't get the white racists, so fearful and so full of hate that they have no problem with your local Barney Fife police dept being armed to the teeth like they are fighting a foreign enemy in a dangerous combat zone...I see it all around me - so many angry and scared white people (some related to me) who eat whatever Sean the Coward Hannity tells them...and laughed at me when I told them years ago during the Bush Dark Ages that pretty soon the local cops were gonna start treating us ALL (not just black people, or Hispanics, Arabs) like Palestinians in Gaza...and oddly enough the same American jerkoffs who love overarmed pigs pushing people around are all for Israeli bloodlust and blood spilling in Gaza, happily and mindlessly deep-throating all the Zionist propaganda without a word or question AT ALL.
I don't get the blaming the victims all the time. What's wrong with these idiots?

Posted by: Prey4 Justice | Aug 18 2014 20:16 utc | 45

Just reported on cnn (yeah i know...don't say it) now the police in Ferguson say the people can not congregatein one place. If they stop walking for too long (whatever amount of time the police deem excessive I guess) they will be arrested. What the cops are wearing stop watches? Hey protester you are on the clock get moving soon or you going to the piss hole... This is a fascist protest rule by ferguson police.

Posted by: really | Aug 18 2014 20:19 utc | 46

There's too many people in the United States like Bill @28 these days...no wonder everyone hates us - we're full of bloodthirsty assholes and Zionists who love it when a big, strong, heavily armed white man is gonna tell everyone how it is - tone deaf to the leeebruls, the gays and the weemen. Daddy knows best and he will take care of everything.
Douchebag.

Posted by: Prey4 Justice | Aug 18 2014 20:22 utc | 47

@john #5

in a poll taken in the immediate aftermath of the ohio national guard's murder of four unarmed student protestors at kent state university on may 4th, 1970, 58% of respondents blamed the students.

and the students were white!

Those students weren't white...they were hippies!

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Aug 18 2014 20:26 utc | 48

I bet Bill@28 is armed to the teeth and thinks he is one of the overlords. But when and if the crap hits the fan, his overlords are gonna show his ignorant ass exactly where he stands in the pecking order, and that is gonna be with the rest of us that Bill likes to ridicule and look down upon fron his false and ever crumbling ivory tower.

Posted by: really | Aug 18 2014 20:30 utc | 49

@38

By releasing the edited video of the strong arm theft in the shop, the Ferguson chief of police tried to put a felony wrap on Michael Brown. According to Missouri law, killing a felon is like Florida's stand-your-ground law, the police officer perpetrator walks free. By releasing the edited video of the stong arm theft in the shop, the Ferguson chief of police tried to put a felony wrap on Michael Brown. According to Missouri law, killing a felon is like Florida's stand-your-ground law, the police officer perpetrator walks free.

Wow. I figured the police chief's release of the edited video on the same day that the shooter's name, Darren Wilson, was made public was just to distract from that fact and change the narrative by adding "strong arm robbery" and "thug". Your information about Mo. law and killing a felon - wow. The police chief has got to go. He needs to be arrested for ... something ... obstruction of justice? Editing the tape, claiming Wilson had heard the report. Wow.

Posted by: Hamburger | Aug 18 2014 20:33 utc | 50

Good piece by Bill Quigley at RSN:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/25398-ten-facts-about-police-violence-in-ferguson-sunday-night

Seven though ten:
"The reasons for the protests we see in Ferguson is as American as apple pie. Almost 50 years ago, the 1968 Kerner Report on protests, rebellions and riots declared: “police are not merely a “spark” factor. To some Negroes police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a “double standard” of justice and protection—one for Negroes and one for whites.”
"Eight. Sending in the National Guard will never solve this. The USA cannot police our way to the end of the Ferguson problems. The same 1968 Kerner identified 6 deeply held grievances of the communities where conflict broke out: police practices, unemployment and underemployment, inadequate housing, inadequate education, poor recreation facilities and programs, ineffectiveness of the political structure and grievance mechanisms. These demand justice, not the National Guard.
"Nine. The problems shown to the nation by the Ferguson community contain their own solutions. “When all else fails to organize people, conditions will.” Marcus Garvey
"Ten. Police violence and National Guard guns and might will never beat the people. As Purvi Shah, after being tear gassed, tweeted: “To the police: you just organized a bunch of freedom fighters. Thanks.”

This is from a Guardian article:
" “This is a revo-fucking-lution,” said DeAndre Smith, a 30-year-old barber. “Plain and simple, this is the revolution. The one everybody was waiting on. It happened like this. It’s the gain in culture by a people who want respect. African American people in this country.
“I been out here since day one. I was on the frontline. Mike Brown was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That’s when we said this is enough. That’s it.”

And this from Counterpunch's Lindorff reminding us of another guy, immortal, called Brown:
"I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with Blood. ...”

Posted by: bevin | Aug 18 2014 20:35 utc | 51

@james #22:

I've recently watched the excellent documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance. It seems that the Canadian authorities used to be polite when they kindly request that you bend over and lube up. At least the CO's seemed polite. The grunt soldiers were still dripping with racism.

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Aug 18 2014 20:36 utc | 52

@Bill #28Z:

I have not met a single person who both knew what happened at Kent State and wasn't on the side of the National Guardsmen.

Are you telling us that what happened at Kent State was different from what the media told us at the time?

By the way, I happened to be an Air Force sergeant on active duty at the time of the Kent State shootings. I can't recall a single one of my fellow soldiers who expressed approval of those shootings.

Posted by: lysias | Aug 18 2014 21:25 utc | 53

@28 Bill,

"I have not met a single person who both knew what happened at Kent State and wasn't on the side of the National Guardsmen."

Then all you've met are cretins. Two of those students killed were walking between classes. The other two were protesting peacefully. Not one of the four killed was less than 70 feet from a Guardsman--over the length of two RVs end-to-end--and WITHOUT RIFLES OR GUNS. The first guardsman who fired into the crowd, fired 'just because'. There was no threat.

Posted by: MRW | Aug 18 2014 21:31 utc | 54

@Posted by: Bill | Aug 18, 2014 2:41:55 PM | 28

Boy, it looks like all the USA's White supremacist "minders" have popped up here as well.

Posted by: Matt | Aug 18 2014 21:38 utc | 55

bill - cold one version 2..

@50 Dr. Wellington Yueh.. oka was a case in point.. we haven't figured out how to process civil disobedience in a constructive way.. we need to recognize valid grievances that are not being resolved thru the courts.. in fact the courts are paid for by the highest bidder whether it is corporations, or those with deep pockets who continue to make and enforce laws opposite the well being of the common folk..

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2014 21:45 utc | 56

Bill @ 28 you say: "I have not met a single person who both knew what happened at Kent State and wasn't on the side of the National Guardsmen. The American left seem curiously incapable of seizing on actual instances of injustice, preferring instead their own personal world of delusion."

That you "have not met a single person..." shows that it is you who live in a world of delusion, one that refuses to register the significance of the DHS militarization of the "homeland" since 9/11 and its connection with US foreign policy. Since you don't bother to list "actual instances of injustice", it can only be inferred that you you see no "injustice" in the USA. It's all hunky-dory in the fabled Land of Liberty, eh Bill?

Man, talk about deluded...

Posted by: Matt | Aug 18 2014 21:47 utc | 57

@bevin, #49
Ah, John Brown, defended by none other than Henry David Thoreau in "A Plea for Captain John Brown" on the eve of his [Brown's] hanging.

.... "All is quiet at Harper's Ferry," say the journals. What is the character of that calm which follows when the law and the slaveholder prevail? I regard this event as a touchstone designed to bring out, with glaring distinctness, the character of this government. We needed to be thus assisted to see it by the light of history. It needed to see itself. When a government puts forth its strength on the side of injustice, as ours to maintain slavery and kill the liberators of the slave, it reveals itself a merely brute force, or worse, a demoniacal force. It is the head of the Plug-Uglies. It is more manifest than ever that tyranny rules. ...

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 21:47 utc | 58

Damn, you got me going now on Thoreau.

...Thus the state never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest...

--from Civil Disobedience, which reportedly inspired Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 21:52 utc | 59

@28 OTOH, the autopsies are entirely consistent with the cop shooting at a combative, drugged, gigantic man charging head-first at him.

No, they're consistent with the movie Iron Man 2. If someone is pointing a loaded gun at you, you will do everything in your power to avoid having your bones drilled.

Posted by: ruralito | Aug 18 2014 21:57 utc | 60

we don't know that happened. the thing I am finding harder swallow is the explanation given by the Brown family lawyers for why Brown had two shots in the top of the head, The wounds to the top of the head indicate his head was tilted forward (or body leaning forward with the head) the Brown family lawyer is insisting this is consistent with witness statements of Brown supposedly trying to surrender but he is claiming Brown surrendered with his head bowed forward. Does that sound credible? who surrenders with their head bowed forward? that certainly isn't how all the protestors trying to imitate Brown do it. Who would take their eye off the cop and bow their head as they surrender? does it sound more likely he was charging at the officer which is a possibility that I finally heard a reporter ask! A possibility that even the ‪medical examiner‬ admits COULD BE the case"  Dr. Baden said of the wounds: 'It can be because he’s giving up, or because he’s charging forward at the officer .'  But like I said, who bows their head when they give up? Doesn't it sound more likely that the location of the wounds to Browns's head are because his head was lowered in a charging motion? (that would match with the position of the body if you think about it) What do you think? What sounds more likely? Please correct me if I am wrong but I didn't hear witnesses claiming that Brown bowed his head? I really would like to know if any did. do you know? And I didn't hear witnesses claiming that Brown got on is knees bowed his head, I would like to be told if there are witnesses claiming that. SEE VIDEO OF WITNESS talking about Brown coming towards the police

Posted by: Tom Murphy | Aug 18 2014 22:15 utc | 61

Yo, "john", it's 2014, not 1970. The vast majority of Americans voted the White supremacist line back then as well, starting with Nixon and continuing thru Reagan. The hated the (largely white) antiwar movement for breaking ranks with White supremacy, not over a war they themselves came to hate (especially the "white" working class, who were being drafted to fight it while the GW Bush's of the world sat it out snorting coke in the Texas "Air Force". Now the majority voted for a Black man, twice (putting his sock puppet politics aside for sake of argument here).

Shouldn't that tell you something? That things change after 45 years. The fact is, the USA is rapidly becoming less and less "white". Since the "white" population is also politically divided over the continuation of traditional White supremacist politics, that makes a majority against White supremacy. This politics is doomed over even the medium run, and that is a key reason WHY the US state is girding its domestic military loins.

White supremacy has been the Golden Rule of US politics and social policy since colonial times. The USG has never known a time in history when it has done without White supremacy. Adolf Hitler only ever wanted nothing more than to be the USA of Europe, adapted to European conditions. Der Fuehrer was only following the Real Leader (and his eugenics policies).

But no, you like the typical US Whitey think that all that Homeland Security is aimed at "them". Talk about deluded - you really think all this preparation post-911 is just aimed at a few African-American looters? They are just target practice with a gun aimed at YOU.

So wake the **** up. But no, you all avoid the truth staring you in the face at home and abroad. Ever seen The Wizard of OZ, an obvious parable on the USA? "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" is basically all you "minders" have to say.

Has the term "White supremacy" been repeated enough here? Apparently not repeated enough. Because the Axis of US politics at present and for that near future mentioned, is the maintenance of White supremacist ideology, politics and social policy in the USA.

Out.

@Posted by: john | Aug 18, 2014 4:09:30 PM | 42

and no doubt you were the walking embodiment of the United States of America back in 1970 when the VAST majority of americans opposed the anti-war movement.

so, way to go, pal.

Posted by: Matt | Aug 18 2014 22:17 utc | 62

More and more US policemen are trained to see the civilian population as the enemy.

Posted by: Willy2 | Aug 18 2014 22:27 utc | 63

@59 tom..

it is very difficult to explain away the many instances of police brutality and or murder..

Since the start of 2014, at least 130 people have been killed by police in the United States. Amongst the victims are:

* Eric Garner, choked to death by police in New York City on July 17

* Misty Holt-Singh, a hostage in a bank robbery, shot and killed along with Gilbert Renteria and Alex Gregory Martinez in Stockton, California on July 16

* Carlos Mejia, shot holding a pair of gardening shears in Salinas, California on May 20

* Steven C. Cordery, shot while surrendering outside of his home in Spokane, Washington on March 26

* James Boyd, a homeless man camping outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 11

* Luis Rodriguez, shot in Moore, Oklahoma after police responded to a fight between his wife and daughter on February 14

* Manuel Orosco Longoria, shot with his hands in the air in Phoenix, Arizona on January 14

Michael Brown is the latest victim to be added to this list. Along with the vast growth in the prison system, domestic spying and the militarization of American society, police violence is part of the repressive response of the ruling class to the growing social anger and opposition that is building up within the United States."

from the bottom of this article august 11th..

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2014 22:34 utc | 64

The entire Ferguson Police Department hast to answer for failing to interview witnesses immediately after the incident, failing to make material evidence available and hiding the identity of the officer involved.


Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 18 2014 22:43 utc | 65

"it is very difficult to explain away the many instances of police brutality and or murder"
that has nothing to do with what I am talking about as far as the possibility that Brown was charging forward at the officer.
I have to tell you, the more I have thought about the more I think that is what probably happened.
You list has no bearing on the facts of this case. Can you tell me if you think the whole "bowing his head" thing makes sense to you?

Posted by: Tom Murphy | Aug 18 2014 22:43 utc | 66

@63

That is part of their plan. The longer the police wait to interview witnesses the more they can attempt to say the witnesses are jaded by the wall to wall news coverage and speculation. They also will attempt to discredit the witnesses saying they are biased as a result. The police are stitching together a narrative to save their own. Btw, the same thing is going on with the mh17 plane shootdown investigation.

Posted by: really | Aug 18 2014 22:51 utc | 67

@Matt, #60
Excellent.
Why, we have Border Patrol (Homeland Security) armed thugs in our neck of the woods, stopping us on the highways and roads, treating us like......you know. It's definitely not aimed at "them". It's aimed at us. And a number of my friends actually like it, and like them! Go figure. Probably they are excellent products of our education system. Sit down, shut up, memorize what we tell you and for heaven's sake don't think for yourself.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 23:00 utc | 68

In addition to my post @63. The longer the police stonewall the inestigation, the more agitated the protesters are gonna become. I also would not put it past them to plant provocateurs into the crowds. Remember, the more looting and violent episodes that occur the better or the police, looting and violence only benefits the police narrative. The Ferguson police knows this and they are gonna drag out this investigation out for as long as possible. They would probably like to drag it out until the press is gone...but will see.

Posted by: really | Aug 18 2014 23:01 utc | 69

Sorrentine

"Cognitive dissonance writ large in the US: the Right just HATES the government but just LOOOOVES the troops/police who are the coercive arm of the government."

This kind of depends on who you're calling the "Right" doesn't it?
The "Right" just hates the government when it believed every single lie uttered by George Bush and Dick Cheney about the WMDs?
Oh, but you pick on an anti-government rightist who would be least likely to support the imperialist policy.

Now , let's blast the libertarian and secessionist righties who want no part of Zionist sponsored Islamophobia policy either.

And Bevin needs to explain how imperialist policies which harm the interests of the white working-middle class by sacrificing its blood and treasure against non-threatening enemies on the other side of the globe are somehow indicative of "white supremacy."
Even as the same Elite outsources its jobs and sponsors mass non-white immigration for cheap labor.

But, of course, it's agreed that any "Euro-American" worker supporting such policy is indicative of white inferiority, not white supremacy.

Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 18 2014 23:21 utc | 70

Obama Orders Attorney General to Ferguson, says telesur ... sorry no link. The Dictatorship here in Thailand is blocking the story, among many others, and I had to access it via proxy.

The good, reasonable, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, black American President is sending Oreo Number Two to Ferguson to tell the black people there to sit down and shut up.

I hope that at least (false) 'identity' politics bites the dust in Ferguson MO.

Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 18 2014 23:27 utc | 71

It is Newark 1967 all over again.

When a riot broke out in Newark in 1967 triggered by a brutal police beating a black cab driver, the New Jersey National Guard was called in. When the National Guard arrived, the troops believed the wide spread rumor that black snipers are lurking in the shadow and trying to kill them. As a result, when they saw people or some shadow on far away windows, they panicked and began to shoot. The results? 26 deaths and 725 wounded.

About the black snipers? This is the report of the Kerner Commission.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/07/newark-new-orleans-myth-black-sniper

..the so-called snipers in Newark were actually members of the police, Troopers, and Guard, who, lacking any reliable communications and possessed by fear of the specter of armed black men, often ended up shooting at each other.


We haven't got there yet. But all the elements are there waiting for a spark.

The most dangerous person in the world is a frightened one. Armed to the teeth, and if they begin to get frightened, horrible things will happen.

There is a documentary film on the Newark riot titled 'Revolution '67'.

Here is a preview.

http://youtu.be/XvOqE39CWTg

And the website.

http://www.bongiornoproductions.com/REVOLUTION_67/REVOLUTION_67.html

Posted by: PuppetMaster | Aug 18 2014 23:38 utc | 72

I have trouble with Right and Left, and consider it old-fashioned. Haves and Have-nots works for me.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 18 2014 23:41 utc | 73

@64 tom..
i am addressing the general pattern as opposed to the specifics of michael browns death.. i don't have an answer for you, but i think browns death needs to be put in a larger context. the public opposition to ongoing crimes of the police/military state the usa has become will continue, especially when the police are only interested in covering their white ass in it all.

Posted by: james | Aug 18 2014 23:42 utc | 74

@ Tom Murphy

[...] Can you tell me if you think the whole "bowing his head" thing makes sense to you?
Sure. Lets have a look at the autopsy report:
[...] "Six bullets struck him. Six bullets struck and two may have re-entered and three bullets were recovered at the first autopsy according to our report," he said.

"There were the two head wounds and the bullet in the chest stayed in the body and were removed in the first autopsy."

One of the bullets hit the top of Mr Brown's head, another struck his eye, while others were located on his right arm, Dr Baden said.

"All of the gunshot wounds could have been survivable, except the one at the top of the head," he said. [...]

So it was the last shot into the top of his head that killed him. Now Tom, say you had just been shot 5 times, three massive wounds on your arm and one in your chest, which direction will you look? How about after having a bullet ram its way through your eyeball, destroying part of your brain, which way will you look?

I find your theory highly unlikely. But then again, if the goal is to blame the victim anything goes.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Aug 19 2014 0:50 utc | 75

"Bevin needs to explain how imperialist policies which harm the interests of the white working-middle class by sacrificing its blood and treasure against non-threatening enemies on the other side of the globe are somehow indicative of "white supremacy." truthbetold @68

This is the oldest paradox of imperialism: that the doctrine of white supremacy is used to ensure the suppression of the great bulk of white people. This is as true in England's history as anywhere else.

As I think that you suggest, the reality is that white living standards are tumbling, if anything, on average, faster than those of the black underclass, who had much less to lose.

And, again as you seem say, the wealth being taken out of the hides of working people is recycled, in part, to Israel, Iraq, Bahrain and other battlegrounds where the imperialists use the military to pursue their narrow class interests.

All that having been said theories of white superiority have been a constant in US politics and a means of dividing to rule since the seventeenth century-and most white radicals have always known and lamented this.

My view is that the old game is just about over, the racist themes thoroughly discredited and that the next round of unrest, which is coming soon and may have started, will burst through race barriers and forge a unity in struggle across cultural and ethnic lines.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 19 2014 1:18 utc | 76

"Counterpunch's Lindorff" That was Ron Jacobs.

James @62. The figures that you cite which are likely to be conservative and to which many deaths in the prison system should be added, indicate, I think, that things are worse than they were in the 1920s.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 19 2014 1:25 utc | 77

"I have trouble with Right and Left, and consider it old-fashioned. Haves and Have-nots works for me."

I agree and disagree. Haves and have-nots certainly works, but the problem is that among the have-nots, we see two tendencies: one, wanting to overturn the system, and the other tendency - as seen in Maidan, amongst the Islamist fanatics in Syria and Libya - who want to reinforce the system. I suppose they imagine that if they can somehow bring the "glory of war" to their country, suppress the underclass, they might come out on top.

And that's the split. And I do think it is a very important distinction. If all the have-nots were willing to say "okay, lets work together to solve this" I think you'd be right on just making that split. But as long as one part wants to say "screw you, its all about (race, religion, etc...) and we're going to put down the other side" then, I think you have to make the distinction. And of course the right serves hardly any of their own interests in the long term. They're only helping those who own the world sink their claws in a little deeper.

Everyone seems to know the oligarchs don't give a fuck about Maidan except the Maidanists. Just like no Saudi Prince would give anymore to the jihdis than he has to spare. But as long as these rightist fiends - of the have-not section - get to chop off heads and go to war against (the infidels, the niggers, the slanty-eyed Russians) they are happy enough.

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 19 2014 1:49 utc | 78

What we need here are half a dozen or more "internal investigations". Because that part of our accepted process has worked so well for so long. ***enter long stream of expletives here***

@Tom #59
I haven't watched or scrutinized any video or other reports on this matter. It's almost all bullshit, oh so predictable, definitely delivered by those who manufacture lies... from police to the press and of course politicians. That said, how dare you assume he simply could not have had his head forward... hell if he was shot somewhere before the head shots... he could have dipped his head in response to other wounds, among thousands of other reasons including no reason at all. I also wonder why folk such as yourself are looking anywhere beside the fact the now dead human being/citizen was unarmed when shot many times to begin with.

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Aug 19 2014 2:03 utc | 79

Excellent article at WSWS:
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/08/18/pers-a18.html

".....It is striking that in the nonstop media commentary on the events in Ferguson, there is virtually no mention of the catastrophic economic and social conditions that underlie both the growth of police repression and the eruption of popular anger in response to it. One would never know that one out of four residents of St. Louis lives in poverty. Or that the wholesale closure of auto plants, breweries and other manufacturing facilities has led to the loss of two-thirds of St. Louis’s population since 1950. Or that 47 percent of the metropolitan area’s African American men between ages 16 and 24 are unemployed.
The well-off commentators, lawyers, academics, preachers and politicians, most of then African American, being paraded before the TV cameras dare not even mention such facts. They are petrified of raising anything that speaks to the class divide in America, and the capitalist economic and political system they defend has no policies on offer to address the social crisis.
"Unlike the 1960s, when the US ruling class responded to the urban uprisings with modest social reforms, today it has nothing to propose other than austerity and more repression...."

Posted by: bevin | Aug 19 2014 2:21 utc | 80

@78 brilliant. St. Louis, is a raped, de-industrialized city much like Detroit.

Another aspect that must be examined is Ferguson as a part of a metropolis (the St. Louis area) that has had its poor pushed out of the city center and into the suburbs. In many senses, these areas are the US equivalent of Gaza - areas set apart from the rest of the country, hemmed in by (as we have seen) military power. These are the"sacrifice zones" that Chris Hedges has talked about.

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 19 2014 2:32 utc | 81

@guest77 #76:

the Islamist fanatics in Syria and Libya - who want to reinforce the system

This is OT, but I ran into an interesting idea today. The blogger who suggested it is by no means a Middle East expert, and I am even more ignorant about the Muslim world and ISIS/IS in particular. His idea is to take IS's idea of the restoration of the caliphate at face value. I think the main assumption you need to make to make this view plausible is that Turkey is playing a long game, and is not simply a passive actor being manipulated by the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

The Jihadis, that is the men with the beards, guns and Korans are here to stay. The only serious opposition against them comes from outside Sunni lands, if we ignore the Kurds and minorities like Alawites (foolishly under attack, sponsored by the Americans), Christians, Shi’ites and a few smaller groups. ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood and at the end of the day, the Turks, all want the same thing: the resurrection of the Caliphate. The Caliphate was a reality for centuries, until the First World War, when imperial British, French, Italians and Russians, all fighting on the same side, agreed to carve up the Ottoman empire and divide the loot between them. An event known to historians as the Sykes-Picot conspiracy of 1916. But now, with the Death of the West impending, there is nothing that can stop the rise of a Turkish led Caliphate. ISIS is merely doing the dirty work for Turkey, that will step in and take over from ISIS, once the Jihadis have eliminated all the old Sykes-Picot frontiers in the Middle East. Welcome to the new multi-polar world order of the future.

If I am being hopelessly naive here, my apologies. I do not dismiss the possibility that this is hasbara. Just repeating an interesting interpretation of events.

Posted by: Demian | Aug 19 2014 2:42 utc | 82

@ guest77, #76
I used a R/L shorthand but actually I have trouble with ALL generalizations. I resist being put in a category myself, and I imagine that others do too. We are all different, thank the lord. Do you label yourself in simple terms? Probably not.

...we see two tendencies: one, wanting to overturn the system, and the other tendency - as seen in Maidan, amongst the Islamist fanatics in Syria and Libya - who want to reinforce the system.

Very few people want to overturn the system, or reinforce it. Most people just want to get through the day and feed their families, and catch some fish or see a ball game on weekends. The stuff we argue about is of little interest to ordinary (sane) people. Heard Afghanistan or Ukraine mentioned at the post office lately? Anybody want to revolt? No. A lot of them don't particularly care for people who are not like them -- that's an issue. But they are not about to take up arms against the government, nor side with the government beyond wanting it to 'keep them safe.'

Again, there are as many differences in these matrices as there are people.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 19 2014 3:30 utc | 83

@75 bevin.. i agree those numbers are probably quite conservative.. regarding the wsws article @78 you shared, i think the racial issue, not to mention the economic divide are the 2 elephants in the room no one wants to talk about..

from the article @78 bevin shared:

"The United States is a country riven by class tensions. Workers and youth, in towns such as Ferguson and countless others nationally, face mass unemployment, declining wages and living standards, and the destruction of basic social services.

At the same time, a new aristocracy, whose immense fortunes are based largely on financial speculation of a parasitic and quasi-criminal character, grabs an ever-bigger share of the national income and wealth. This ruling elite is terrified by the specter of social opposition from the working class."

Posted by: james | Aug 19 2014 3:35 utc | 84

bevin @78: Truly, a bottom line article. Excellent, thanks.

Posted by: ben | Aug 19 2014 4:48 utc | 85

james @82

[...] This ruling elite is terrified by the specter of social opposition from the working class."
Precisely. The reason police departments across the US are being prepared and equipped to deal with mass unrest is because that is what authorities are expecting, plus everybody else who has seen the writing on the wall.

Considering that of the projected 3 trillion in US Federal tax revenue this financial year 2 trillion will be spend on social security in all its forms, eg unemployment benefits, SNAP etc. Add to that the hundreds of billions paid as salaries to US Federal employees, and what you get is the sad reality that 80% or more of the federal tax revenue is needed to keep food on US suburban tables.

With the US near bankruptcy, imagine what will happen when the day arrives where those payments can't be afforded no longer. If Ferguson was a picnic, whats to come will be a disco on crack.

I have a feeling that quite a number of other countries are destined to join the US in its death spiral and hence are taking similar steps to beef up their interior forces, be that with military equipment or by increasing their domestic surveillance budgets and capacities.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Aug 19 2014 4:57 utc | 86

@84

' I have a feeling that quite a number of other countries are destined to join the US in its death spiral and hence are taking similar steps to beef up their interior forces, be that with military equipment or by increasing their domestic surveillance budgets and capacities. '

That's why the EU support the 'experiment' in Ukraine. They're hoping to be able to say, "Hey, it worked in Ukraine ... it'll work here."

Just as Barack the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Obama is saying, "Hey, it worked in Gaza ... it'll work here."

Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 19 2014 5:31 utc | 87

Venezuela Calls for Reconstruction of Gaza


“Our call, firstly, is to the Jewish people of the world, to be the first to reject this policy of extermination. The second call is to the governments of the Arab people,” he stated.

Maduro said he hopes to convene a meeting with Arab nations, and develop a comprehensive reconstruction plan for war-torn Gaza.

Hospitals, schools, homes and infrastructure have all been damaged by Israeli forces in recent weeks.

Over 1900 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, including hundreds of children.

“The message we send to children, mothers and Palestinian families facing these attacks is love,” he stated.


Viva Madura! I hope he tries to get the residents of the 5 eyes countries to renounce US genocide and Gulf oil to pledge funds to rebuild Detroit, and Ferguson, and ... Hell, ending the wars and closing US overseas bases would provide the funds for physical reconstruction.

Structural reconstruction of the economy will require the death penalty for the parasitic financial corporations and taxing the super-rich.

Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 19 2014 5:57 utc | 88

New! Raw Footage of Scene Minutes after Shooting

Michael Brown Eye Witness Crime Scene Video, FULL HD
| MediaEntertainmenTV | published on August 17, 2014 |

"That's her son man." 3:15 mark
Sirens, arrival of a patrol car, likely homocide division. One medic comes out. Voice of mother [?] in background yelling repeatedly: "oh my god."
"That's fucked, oh god. Yeah he got 'em, he got 'em, he got 'em ... [2nd voice: "He stood over 'em .."] Yeah he shot him some more when he was on the ground, yeah that's what they said …. shot him some more when he was on the ground." 4:30 mark
"He had his hands up and everything, he still shot him." 5:05 mark

At 10:00 mark police covers body with a white sheet.

MediaEntertainmentTV – raw footage minutes after Michael Brown was shot dead. Location plus spot where police suv stopped vehicle..

[I was alerted of existing cell phone video when I saw a portion which had been altered with the Darren Wilson version of events including the statement from a corroborating "friend" on a radio interview.]

Posted by: Oui | Aug 19 2014 6:08 utc | 89

@87 video source ::

I need to do a double-check on source of this video whether it is the Original or has been voiced over!

Posted by: Oui | Aug 19 2014 6:18 utc | 90

@87 video source :: seems a legitimate video copied on LiveLeak

This is the LiveLeak version picking up on a different witness account heard in the background [start at 6:28 mark]. This webpage links to an "original" version which has been removed - link.

Posted by: Oui | Aug 19 2014 6:47 utc | 91

Washington Post and Anonymous Source

WTF why are these papers writing a headline from an anonymous source in such a contested case?

County investigation: Michael Brown was shot from the front, had marijuana in his system
| By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Wesley Lowery and Mark Berman | August 18 at 12:34 PM |

While Case declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation into Brown’s death, another person familiar with the county’s investigation told The Washington Post that Brown had between six and eight gunshot wounds and was shot from the front.

In addition, Brown had marijuana in his system when he was shot and killed by a police officer on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, according to this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.


Residents and protesters have noted that allegations of marijuana use have been used in the past by some in an attempt to disparage the character of shooting victims, including in the Trayvon Martin case.


[Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Brown’s family]
Crump said he didn’t know anything about marijuana being found in Brown’s body.

Posted by: Oui | Aug 19 2014 6:58 utc | 92

@84 Juan Moment.. i think you are on the money in your projection..

i went and saw the show 'get on up' -on james brown's life sandwiched into a 2 hour movie.. it was depressing.. the music was good, but there wasn't enough of it... it showed a scene right after king's assassination where the boston mayor was cancelling the show and brown talked him out of it, so as to let him do the show.. the major was worried they would riot.. it got close, but didn't happen.. the one reason it would have happened is the way the police were handling the show at the boston forum - based on the way it was portrayed in the movie anyway...

the mindset of the police enforcing law and order is the last thing needed when people are suffering.. this is what is happening in the states and in many inner urban areas of a number of places... it would be easy to fear for the future.. there are a lot of reasons to give in to one's fear... i am hopeful that something positive will happen, but perhaps not before a lot of bad shit happens. the people who are putting a spotlight on michael browns death are focused on a microcosm that isn't going to go away by forgetting about it, or sweeping it under the rug of mainstream consciousness/culture.. this shit is becoming more mainstream and people are right to be concerned about it and the broad implications of this.

Posted by: james | Aug 19 2014 7:02 utc | 93

WATCH: Jon Oliver on Ferguson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUdHIatS36A

Posted by: MRW | Aug 19 2014 7:37 utc | 94

John Oliver.

Posted by: MRW | Aug 19 2014 7:37 utc | 95

@MRW - Great Stuff!

Best analysis of what's wrong in America I've heard in the last two weeks!

Posted by: Oui | Aug 19 2014 8:59 utc | 96

Marijuana?

No wonder Michael Brown went ballistic and madly attacked a kindly neighborhood policeman, lustfully sitting on his lap in order to see what "popped up." When he discovered it was a gun, he “shot up" and danced sprightly away, then faked a surrender while spinning around like a defensive end, and rushing the officer from 35 feet away, with several bullets in his arm barely holding him back, in his attempt to headbutt Offissa Williams with deadly force.

Or so our two resident trolls, ostensibly preaching caution and reserving judgment, would have us believe in their fairytale version of “Brown meets a Brownshirt: Duel at High Noon”.

Seriously, some nice work by many on this thread, jsore and bevin, some old barflys, and others. Especial thanks for that accounting of police deaths for the year. Imagine if the Gazans had managed to kill that many Israelis. Accidentally, of course.

Some thoughts:

*The bullet which entered the top of Brown’s head, exited below his chin, signifying that Brown’s head was inclined at greater than ninety degrees to the ground, a position it would be impossible to run in.

* We are always told how scared cops are when they are “forced” to draw their weapons. But how scared are those peering at the other side of the barrel?

*The pigs knew they were in trouble from the start. The fix was in from the beginning:

*Confiscation of cell phones with evidence.
*Deliberate transgression of basic crime scene procedure.
*Giving Brown the “Princess Diana” treatment (waiting four hours until he was stone dead before removing the body in a police truck, where any untoward evidence could be massaged, removed or planted before he reappeared in public custody). Come to think of it -- this was the same Presidential treatment accorded JFK on the way to his utterly bizarre autopsy, where the body was “altered” to disguise the direction of the bullets.
*Bringing in the government “handlers,” like ex-mob confidanté Al Sharpton, a man who was described in a recent “Smoking Gun” exposé as having been in “the civil rights business.“


Of course, any crisis is an opportunity for the ruling class to implement a domestic “strategy of tension” -- or as Jay Gould says “paying one half of the working class to execute the other half.” It’s even easier when the other half isn’t even working because there are no jobs. It’s like a football game: “Hate” vs. “Fear.” Or is that the coming court case?

Actually, I am really rather heartened to see Americans waking up from their hypnotic stupor and fighting back. There is more life in Ferguson this week than there ever was in any “occupy” encampment. Let’s keep it going.

*I love it how cops drive around in multi-million dollar assault vehicles, but web cameras and recorders would be “prohibitively expensive.”

*What ever happened to “neighborhood” policing, where you knew the cop on the local beat? Moreover, why doesn’t s/he live in the neighborhood -- that is, unless you purposely want unaccountable mercenaries.

*Sure, more “opportunity” would be good for neighborhoods like Ferguson, if you’re a liberal who buys the matrix lies of society about Obama trying hard to “chip away” at the unemployment rate -- but what about demanding full employment and a living wage for all. The Soviet Union, for all its flaws, could do it, why can’t we? God knows there is enough work in this sick society that needs to be done. And a small Tobin Tax on financial hyenas would pay for the entire project. I have an entire bookshelf full of pompous titles, like “Structural Unemployment in Western Europe” and “Solutions to Social Problems” and “Ineqality and Stratification” -- all picked out of the trash of some of our best Universities, by the way, and yet none of them will admit that these problems are social problems, not “structural” problems, and that they are the result of societal choices in resource allocation -- due to propaganda, often unconscious for all but the ruling class. But they continue to train our planners and social workers to “chip away.” It’s the “values,” stupid.

Anyway, it seems President Hopey Changey has racked up another gold star for merit in militarizing and polarizing our society. He should be well on his way towards his second Nobel Prize by now. Perhaps the new nation of ISISstan will bestow some kind of “Founders” medal on him too.

When, in 2013, Obama declared that slain teen Trayvon Martin "could have been me," he meant that if he had half the huevos of JFK in confronting the evil powers bent upon destroying the entire world in an insane nuclear first strike, he too could have a least given some meaning to the life of being “the decider.”

In 2009, when Obama exacerbated tensions by saying police acted "stupidly" by arresting a black Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., at his own home, he at least was cagey enough to leave out the more obvious thought in the back of his head, it "could have been me" at the University of Chicago.

This time, when an 18 year old was gunned down in cold blood the day before he was to begin college, he did not think that the police had acted “stupidly:"

"There are young black men that commit crime," the president said. "We can argue about why that happens — because of the poverty they were born into and the lack of opportunity or school systems that fail them or what have you — but if they commit a crime, then they need to be prosecuted, because every community has an interest in public safety."

Robin Williams used to love making fun of George Bush’s malaprops in his comedy acts. Who will take up the cudgel with Obama's inanities?

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 19 2014 10:06 utc | 97

Never saw John Oliver before. Pretty good.

Oh yeah, Forgot the introduction of agent provocateurs, and the unbelievably high arrest statistics for Ferguson. Michael Brown must have been one of the only kids in town without an arrest record.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 19 2014 10:31 utc | 98

@ 60

yo, "Matt," you always piss into the wind? 'cause all your insinuations and inferences suggest that you understood nothing from my brief comment. so, way to go, pal.

and actually, no, i don't think much has really changed since 1970, except that the puny left is now pretty much nonexistent and we have the first black white supremacist president in our history(which is actually pretty innovative come to think of it).

oh yeah, and there are far fewer fireflies around!

Posted by: john | Aug 19 2014 10:33 utc | 99

Ukrainian commander volunteer battalion wounded in battle

(AP) ‒ Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that one soldier was killed and four wounded when a volunteer battalion came under mortar fire before entering the town of Ilovaysk, 18 kilometers (11 miles) east of Donetsk. Among the wounded is the commander of the Donbass battalion, Semyon Semenchenko, who said government soldiers destroyed three rebel checkpoints and four firing positions in ongoing fighting.

Who Is Semyon Semenchenko exactly? BBC, of course, described him as a hero.

Posted by: Oui | Aug 19 2014 10:33 utc | 100

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