I’ve been away for 10 days, and trying to catch up with the nightmarish news from Ferguson, Missouri is rage-inducing. I’ve decided that the only possible solution is to declare martial law, call in the National Guard, and let the tanks roll in…to shut down and arrest the police force. These trigger-happy militarized goons need to be stopped, and not just in one town in Missouri, but all across the country: no more drones, armored personnel vehicles, SWAT teams, and thugs playing soldier — those aren’t the police. We need something in between open-carry idiots deputizing themselves to enforce the peace, and these paramilitary pseudo-soldiers who believe their job is to suppress people they don’t like.
Once upon a time, it was people in blue uniforms who were supposed to avoid drawing their weapons in all but the most dire circumstances. Now it’s a race to make the police increasingly lethal, which should not be their mission.
And then, just to get yourself even deeper in a fug, read the opinions of white people in St Louis. We’re screwed.
(By the way, I’m closing this thread full of Ferguson news…now you can fill up this one.)
This might get missed since PZ closed that thread, but I posted a link to this: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/attorney_general_holder_orders_a_federal_autopsy_of_michael_brown
al dente @ 143 on the previous thread,
Barcelona was especially repressed during the Franco dictatorship and has expended much energy since 1975 reasserting its own identity. People there can probably relate to the folks in Ferguson at a very deep level.
*looks at all my previous comments*
…Right, I’ll just link to the very last one: (end of page 3 of the previous thread)
Reposting:
(Twitter link)
First report I’ve seen of sound cannon being used, reported by a journalist at the Riverfront Times:
(Twitter link)
oh, and thanks for the new thread PZ, sorry for sneaking under the portcullis.
Thanks, PZed, and glad you’re back on this side of the Atlantic. :)
Like Tony, I’m re-posting.
I haven’t caught up on the thread today but wanted to share THIS. Scroll down the article for a really fascinating animated map of tweets containing #ferguson and related hashtags around the world between August 9 and 14. You can zoom out to watch the whole world progressively light up with #ferguson or zoom in on your city/country to watch it begin. It’s interesting to note things like Morocco lights up early on but almost nothing from neighboring Algeria. Buenos Aires leads the way in South America, followed by Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an extremely connected city. Italy remains dark much of the time. Barcelona and Madrid are the brightest cities in Spain. Madrid I get, it’s the capital, but why Barcelona? Is it because there is more of an activist fiber in Barcelona than other cities on the Iberian Peninsula?
I wonder what all the variables are, having internet access, being proficient in English, having an interest in social justice issues and ???
In any case, it seems that Twitter’s role in informing the public has reached a clinamen or threshold of some sort.
http://www.brobible.com/life/article/ferguson-man-live-tweeted-police-shooting-michael-brown/
Profile of Atonio French just posted on France’s no. 1 daily, Le Monde.
Not sure if anybody’s doubting that report of the sound cannon being used, but it definitely happened. You could hear it on the livestreams from the reporters’ pen.
Via #AntonioFrench: Curfew in Ferguson will be in place for second night – stltoday link. Seven people arrested last night, one shot and in critical condition.
#Ferguson in pictures: the most gripping images taken in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting.
Who is manning the APCs, etc? My understanding is the local
policeparamilitaries were replaced, on the Vernor’s orders, by the state’s highway patrol, who did an extremely good job of calming down the situation, using a low-visibility, tolerant, and de-weaponized approach. The situation has flared up some since then, leading to the curfew, but unless there’s been some change in the highway patrol’s tactics, I am very very puzzled as to who the goons are in the APCs, etc ?blf: As far as I can tell, nobody knows which police agencies are doing what. They still aren’t wearing badges, and the few times I saw that reporters tried to ask what agencies were responsible, they got no clear answers.
Inaji:
Reposting from the previous thread: (link to comment)
Also in Matt Pierce’s timeline:
(Twitter link)
So if I’m reading this right in context, one of the functions of a declared curfew is that it keeps cooperative journalists away from whatever happens in the curfew area. Meaning, I guess, that the police might no longer be acting illegally by forcing journalists away or arresting them to get them out of the curfew zone. I hope Ken at Popehat or someone else specializing in First Amendment law weighs in on this.
Oh FFS, “on the Vernor’s orders” was supposed to be on the Governor’s orders. I have no idea how that Tpyos offering happened, but trust she/it/they/he is Berry Hopsy.
23 powerful photos capture the nation’s support for Ferguson citizens.
You might be interested in Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop, which traces the history and attitudes that have led to peace officers becoming soldiers in all but name (and training), and the
police statemartial law that results.In this video, posted on 8/13, you can here the sound cannons being deployed. They start out with short bursts but then they let them rip.
This is America… THIS! #Ferguson Tired of all the BS stats on intrinsic criminality among blk ppl.
The flood of racist tweets hasn’t slowed down at all, they are still pouring in. A sample:
Sorry, what? At the Risk of unintentionally reading a few things into Pteryxx@13, there are people running around in uniforms without badges pretending to “cops” and shooting people with a variety of weapons (not all of which are the so-called “non-lethal”), some in tanks (APCs)???!?
(Just to be clear: I can believe it. And wearing badges or verifiability being police does not justify or excuse the goon’s actions.)
So there’s a few tweets coming out trying to implicate Antonio French with collaborating with the police: here and here (related tweets).
Also, this image.
Those seven arrested last night? Here’s one of their stories. No comment.
UK protesters in solidarity, passing on that global support.
Apparently, in this day and age, filming police violence is the ‘see something, say something’. I agree; also that it’s necessary.
Meanwhile, in LA (re: Ezell Ford).
Argh, too many links in the previous, it’s in moderation, but I will not be patient. :P
Part 1:
Also, this image.
Those seven arrested last night? Here’s one of their stories. No comment.
UK protesters in solidarity, passing on that global support.
Apparently, in this day and age, filming police violence is the ‘see something, say something’. I agree; also that it’s necessary.
Meanwhile, in LA (re: Ezell Ford).
Part 2 (from Twitter):
So there’s a few tweets coming out trying to implicate Antonio French with collaborating with the police: here and here (related tweets). And here.
Tony
Those photos are amazing.
Argh! Those racist Tweets are fucking annoying.
Self defense?! WTF?
What would Officer Wilson be defending against? Brown was unarmed!
Also, “they” didn’t destroy their town. First off, the town isn’t destroyed. Secondly, only a small number of looters broke into businesses, and citizens of Ferguson were actively protecting businesses the entire week. They’ve also been on hand cleaning up after break-ins. This attempt to characterize an entire community as a group of wrongdoers is repugnant.
Antonio French @AntonioFrench 5h
Rapper J. Cole’s new song inspired by #MikeBrown and #Ferguson – “Be Free”
When The Media Treats White Suspects & Killers Better Than Black Victims
Rage Is the Right Response to What Happened in Ferguson
#Ferguson
blf: Yes the SWAT-armored cops have no badges or identification, and haven’t since the first reports a week ago, as far as I can tell. And yes, though they hedge and deny, they’ve been firing rubber bullets, wooden baton rounds, tear gas, and using LRAD sonic weapons almost every night this week. There are links all over the previous thread and the first “Robin Williams” thread before that.
blf:
For those who haven’t been keeping up, please go back to the other thread, and read the last two pages of comments, which are full of links and background on events in Ferguson.
Blf, it’s interesting you bring up wearing badges, because it was noted, over and over, that Ferguson PD were not wearing name tags.
More from the LA Times.
Tony @ 23:
Those are the two biggest racist memes flooding the ‘net, not just twitter. They’ve been building for days. The ‘destroyed their town’ one, well, a lot of responsibility for that one lies on the doorstep of MSM, who kept reporting ‘massive riots and looting’, and still refuse to make the distinction between the out of town looters and the townspeople/protesters in Ferguson.
The ‘self defense’ crap took off with Jackson’s release of the video, and won’t die down. As I noted in the other thread last night, one of the building racist memes is “Officer Wilson may not have known about the robbery, but Michael Brown certainly did know.”, meaning Brown tried to murder Wilson because he didn’t want to get caught for robbery. It’s fucking infuriating.
Inaji @ 28
The impression I’m getting from the MSM coverage and responses to it is that in the minds of many white Americans there is literally no difference between a group of black people being gathered together versus a riot.
Missouri Governor: Ferguson Curfew to Continue Indefinitely
Nixon Says Authorities Must Balance Interests of Protesters With Residents Worried About Property
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ‘Thunderstruck’ by Images of Ferguson Police:
Mellow Monkey:
I was starting to get the same impression.
Not wearing badges or other clear-cut individualized identification (such as name tags) is exactly the same tactic the UK’s goons use when doing “riot control” (which includes policing demonstrations and some community events). Fortunately, they don’t carry intended-lethal weapons (albeit an “armed response vehicle” is quite possibly in the vicinity), but are extremely enthusiastic about clubbing people with batons and tasering them (possibly also gassing people, but I must admit I cannot think of any recent incident off the top of my head). The London goons have recently acquired water-cannon, albeit I have no idea if they have been deployed / used yet or not.
MM:
Yep. People on #Ferguson are responding now with images and stories about primarily white riots (like happened over Paterno), where the response was markedly different. I’m also beyond pissed off at the notion that white folk are above doing that kind of thing. Going by the racist asshats, all white people are saints, and none of ’em has every done anything remotely criminal, or got pissed off enough to riot. Nope.
blf:
In the first days, when FPD was playing soldier in Ferguson, cops were also doing this, which I find fucking terrifying – imagine if this person was running at you, or aiming a weapon at you: A photo out of Ferguson to make you feel all warm and cuddly. Or not. *
*First posted here.
A striking view of curfew in #Ferguson. A very powerful photo.
Ugh. Don’t read the racist comments responding to the MSNBC’s curfew photo.
Jesus Fuckin’ Vomited, the comments on that photo (linked @ 35):
I’m getting the same crap on twitter.
https://twitter.com/doppelfarter/status/501063784698351616
Blame the black community for getting shot!
My parents and @AntonioFrench #ferguson (from Twitter co-founder Jack.)
Also, where does a guy who calls himself “doppelfarter” and has an avatar of two butts passing gas get off defending the dignity of liberals and atheists?
or how about this gem? *spits*
If anyone still wondered why black people with clean records and college degrees get hired *less often* than whites with criminal records… it’s because of people like these commenters. (A source for that hiring disparity, btw.)
PZ:
It’s everywhere. I stopped curating news early last night because I couldn’t stomach anymore. Every feed where you can find legit info is being flooded with racist shit.
These are bad cops.
Pteryxx:
Y’know which one infuriated and sickened me the most? This one:
There you have it all – white discomfort, the desire to ignore, institutionalized racism, and respectability politics.
There will be a (third) federal autopsy – apparently, they’re looking for an ‘activist’ medical examiner.
Petition for a special prosecutor in the Mike Brown case.
Then there was this nugget of truth, from someone who also has a bunch of links in her feed on US prison culture.
The linked page, “opinions of white people…,” just phaged my entire day.
I mean, I knew, but somehow the pointed fact that that is the lite version by comparison to other tweets and such completely pegs my freaakmeter.
Frightening. As in circa 1933 consensus frightening, Godwin or no.
PZ:
Yeah, that story was linked all over the place the last couple of days. I really don’t know how anyone could read that and still side with those cops. FFS, they didn’t even try to have a coherent story set up, and whether or not running their video at high speed was incompetence or deliberate, they should all be out of a job.
From #Ferguson in Pictures, linked by Inaji at #11… this is heartbreaking.
Image link
[Photo of a black woman walking down the street in front of a waiting line of SWAT-armored police, in broad daylight, with a determined expression on her face and a bag of take-out food in one hand. Her other hand holds the hand of a small girl in pigtails who’s craning back to stare at the police line just behind them.]
It’s the depressing downside to the media finally getting around to pointing out that this shit is going on: Now we have to deal with outraged idiots, bigoted trolls, and other assorted right-wing douchebags. In the early stages, Twitter WAS the news. Now all the news that Twitter can provide is being swamped by the bleatings of hatemongers, morons, and assholes. So, yeah, we saw the good and useful side of social media like Twitter early on, and now we are seeing its downside. But since the Mainstream Media is the one that worked the right-wing thugs into a frenzy anyway, and is the method which the police used to poison the well with the “robbery” distraction, Twitter still looks damn good even with the current deluge of trolls.
rq @ 45, I thought Michael Baden was going to do the independent autopsy. WTF is going on now?
Pteryxx:
Oh, I started crying when I saw that. That little child…
Ferguson fuels ‘kill switch’ debate
The Price of Blackness
Discussing Race & Racism with Your Black Friends: Dos & Don’ts
Killswitch.
Not being a mechanic-type, in this context it’s a little resonant to me that the first time I encountered the concept was via Rage Against the Machine, due to it’s presence in Tom Morello’s guitars. (Not an endorsement or promotion of anything, just a vague guitar-dweeb / name-of-band thing.)
But seriously, free speech, anyone?
While what is going on in Ferguson is entirely based on race, there is a reason why I refer to what is going on is a police riot instead of a race riot. It was a cop who started the series of events by murdering an armed black teen. And it wass the police who escalated the events by pulling out their military weapons.
Calling it a race riot plays into the racist tropes that many conservatives and MSM are saying about the events. And I want the focus to remain on those who started it, the police.
Janine:
Let’s not forget that it was those cops who aided and abetted Wilson fleeing the area, and having time to delete all of his online presence, such as that on FB. Also, there still seems little interest on the part of anyone in authority in arresting Wilson.
Janine, check your second sentence in #56. I think you left off an “un”.
I notice that a lot of those pictures of the militarized cops show big bunches of the white plastic handcuffs. They were expecting to arrest a lot of people, maybe. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_handcuffs
A Letter to America
Nerd:
Woah, good catch.
I’ve been thinking about the looting (which mostly happened *last* weekend, btw) and the reports that the looters came from out of town, that they come in late at night looking for trouble, and also that whoever fired the shots and put that one man into hospital last night ran away and vanished, while the SWAT police line was busy marching down the street and arresting residents dragged out of their own cars in their driveways. Doesn’t that only make sense, from what we know about troublemaking douchebags that troll feminists and harass at conventions? Troublemakers know where the best environments are to victimize without getting caught. They know when the situation is going to give them cover at someone else’s expense. It makes perfect sense that this variety of shitbag hears about a murder and protests in a neighboring community and knows that the racist cops are going to be too busy cracking down on the residents, who *cannot* leave, and the protesters who *will not* leave, to actually interfere with their looting. They’re going in to break shit up *because* the white cops, estranged from the community, can’t tell the neighbors from the outsiders in the dark. (And the cops
boastedwhined about it. It’s hard to believe the sheer aggressive, systemic, targeted, don’t-give-one-fuck incompetence of the Ferguson police and most of their collaborating departments.)(I do note that the incompetent police seemed well able to tell the journalists from the random populace in the dark, from how they targeted them. Telling, that.)
whoa, I forgot the implications of closing school in a high-poverty area. HuffPo:
Here’s How You Can Help Kids In Ferguson Who Don’t Have Food Now That School’s Closed
Fundly: Feed the students of Ferguson
Pteryxx:
Yep. That’s why so many people are seriously upset that cops aren’t required to live in the community they serve anymore. It’s a major problem that rests on the top of the fact that a lot of cops don’t give a shit about the community they are supposed to protect and serve.
I thought needing weapons to defend ourselves from government tyranny was far fetched. I was thinking about the federal government, their weapons are far too advanced for citizens to fight against. I never thought I would I would see local or state government act this way without the federal government stepping in to stop it. Maybe the NRA has been right (never thought I’d say that) about needing to be armed to protect ourselves against the jack-booted thugs of the government, in this case local and state government.
The $100 Life
Why am I still alive? [Photo of a white protester with a sign reading: At 18 years old in Festus, Mo, I shot a cop with a BB gun. Why am I still alive??? We are all human regardless of what neighborhood we grow up in. We should all be treated as such!]
You’re still out-gunned and out manned. So, what do you need a gun for, other than making you an obvious target to take out first?
Menyambal:
Inaji’s reminder upthread of the riots in the Paterno scandal was so appropriate. Where were the militarized cops then? Oh, wait, they were largely white, so they get a pass. Just normal police security.
zb24601:
They aren’t right. The only thing that would happen is that we’d end up with a shitload of dead people. We have enough dead people at the hands of authority, most of them POC. That is the issue at heart – institutionalized racism. Every day racist attitudes. Do not be arguing gun crap in this thread. Just don’t. If you want to do something useful, go back at least 2 pages on this thread, and click every single fucking link. Learn. Educate yourself. Then start educating others.
You are right Nerd. This is one time I wish there was a chance to edit an already posted comment.
Just to make it clear, I meant that Micheal Brown was unarmed.
Too many lies have been spread already. I am sorry about my stupid typo.
I grew up in the St. Louis area. Race relations were always tense there.
I was not allowed to date a young man who was half Japanese because my mother hated “Japs”.
She had derogatory names for every ethnic group that lived in the area, but especially hated black people.
Since I had learned to hate her because she was so abusive to me, I made a conscious effort to think in ways that were the exact opposite of her beliefs.
She was livid when I went off to college and was assigned a black room-mate. I ignored her, and my room-mate and I became good friends.
My hubby and I left the area in ’81. I guess I was naive in believing that once the hateful, bigoted older generation died off, St. Louis was going to get better. Sigh.
Unbelievable. ‘…no agency tracks the number of people killed by police.’
This is America in 2014? What I witnessed last night in Ferguson was appalling
I’m getting damn sick and tired of seeing this racist shit all over, too:
Running away. Hands Up. Kneeling on the Ground. SHOT NINE TIMES. What in the fuck else do these idiots need to know?
Sigh, after putting in charge of Furguson someone who isn’t incompetent the Governor of Missouri imposes a curfew and the riot cops are back. Capt. Johnson knows what he is doing; everyone else in the Missouri government needs to back up, do what he says, and stop screwing the whole thing up.
Pteryxx @ 63
Thanks for bringing up the school closings. I’d also forgotten that but yes. A lot of poor families really count on their kids getting fed at school. This whole situation is having a much wider impact than just the immediate danger posed by an out of control police force.
re Inaji’s link at #66:
Feminist Batwoman: RT if you shoplifted as a teen and no cop ever shot your white ass.
I am also seeing a rise in the amount of assholes tweeting things like “I see a lot of praying. Is that helping? Hmmm”. If you’re an atheist, and you’re tweeting, try to fuckin’ figure out if that sort of tweet is helping.
Pteryxx:
I did. Got caught once, too. I wasn’t gunned down in the street for it, imagine that.
Support Darren Wilson Rally.
*spit*
THIS WEEK IN TEAR GAS: Ecuador, Turkey, Egypt, and America. Can you tell which one is where? #Ferguson
Because sisters create space for us even in their grieving. #WeGotYouSis #Ferguson #MikeBrown
Campaigns and Ways to Help for #MikeBrown #Ferguson
(Unable to verify at this time.)
I saw a report that the employees at the beauty store hit by the (reportedly out-of-town) looters had a lot of people they didn’t recognize in “browsing” that day, with a lot of them apparently spending more time looking at price tags than anything.
Which is to say that this was planned.
And yes, the fact that the people threatening/throwing rocks/starting fires were (often white) people no one in the neighborhood knew (and sometimes driving cars with out-of-state plates) is pretty gross.
Maureen Brian @2,
More to the point, Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain (about 4.5 million in the metro area per Wikipedia). More interesting to me is the blip in Donostia (aka San Sebastian) at the end–Donostia is in the heart of the Basque country, and they certainly know from police repression there.
Just got back from our annual trip to Spain. Ferguson was pretty well covered in the newspapers there (can’t speak for the TV because I don’t usually watch the news, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they reported fairly closely). Right now I’m just deeply angry and ashamed at my country, but if there’s one silver lining it’s the way the people of Ferguson have reacted with controlled and righteous anger.
An other person who got caught shoplifting as a teen.
The worst I got was a cop tickling my foot when I was in the holding pen taking a nap.
Still not hearing a justification for the shooting of an unarmed teen.
Statement on 7 Arrested Last Night from the Legal Support Team
zb24601:
No. Not at all.
Arming the populace will only serve to amplify the potential for deadly violence. It’s bad enough that the police are armed with military weaponry. Civilians do not need to arm themselves as well.
Rally for Mike Brown, organized by his family, about to begin.
Slightly tangential, but discussion on community safety by NIA.
Some reading lists on prison culture, which seems rather appropriate for this discussion: one, two and three.
And hopefully this will not come across as too much what-about-me: a mother’s white privilege (x-posted from Lounge). Yeah, what she said.
Thousands gathered outside the Greater Grace Church #MikeBrown #Ferguson
Two Months Ago, Congress Had a Chance to Help Prevent the Escalating Militarization of Police
Need the cop’s version? Instead, have two eye-witnesses.
As someone who has been involved with radical politic over the years, I am well aware of these types of white wannabe street fighters. I see them as being agent provocateurs. And even if they are sincere, I wanted nothing to do with them.
Still have bad memories of the white dreadlocked men who tried to recruit my group for street violence during the 96 Chicago Democratic Convention.
Why does my cynicism think this was undercover cops/police/sheriffs/marshals?
from #84 link on the 7 arrested last night:
.
That’s another thing. Why isn’t anyone in the media picking up on that cops are pre-emptively lying as soon as they target someone, and they’re trained to do this just in case a recording device is around and the encounter might go public?
I also noted the eyewitness accounts of Brown’s murder reported the police car passed the two men walking in the street, then backed up and smacked Brown with the passenger door. The Ferguson cops don’t have any dashcams YET, but such a maneuver would effectively prevent the encounter being recorded in the first place.
There’s already a long long pattern of suspicious equipment failures and accidental erasures of recorded evidence in police hands (here, for one).
A comment at Ophelia’s:
This should be investigated the fuck out of.
TMM
Indeed. I recall one fellow I had an argument with at one point who was also convinced that said ‘riots’ were organized by Communists.
Inaji
Because that sort of thing has happened a lot?
Joins in the spitting at the idea of supporting Darren Wilson.
My response to that on FB:
I don’t have words for how angry this makes me.
Support Darren Wilson???!!!
He killed an unarmed teenager.
He shouldn’t get *any* support. He should be arrested and jailed to await a hearing on bond. Then he should be waiting to face a judge and a jury. He killed an unarmed young man in cold blood. That is inexcusable.
And no, I don’t give a motherfucking rat’s ass if more facts come to light. What facts are going to come out that justify his actions? If Brown robbed a store, does that justify his murder? No, it doesn’t. Being a robber doesn’t mean that someone deserves to be killed. Even IF Michael Brown were connected to the robbery-and that was refuted by the PD hours after they released the video-he still should have been entitled to justice under our system of law. He should not have been murdered by a racist cop.
And that racist cop should get to benefit from our system of law as well. I don’t advocate throwing him in jail for 25-life without a trial. Our system may be broken, but it’s what we have and I do not advocate lawlessness. But this guy must be made to answer for his crimes.
NOW.
Just a reminder that the KKK is raising money for Darren Wilson.
Oh, you mean the radicals back in the late ’60s weren’t paranoid about the aggressive/violent late joiners who couldn’t quite pull off the “true Scotsman”? *snicker*
My thinking is that if they weren’t APs, then they were your classic middle-class-and-up suburban brats who thought it would be “fun.”
To those people with blogs, please, keep making noise, keep blogging.
Disturbing and powerful performance art via Feminist Batwoman: (with a heavy-duty racism warning)
Inaji
Damn.
The ‘Support Darren Wilson’ Facebook page has 13260 likes.
The ‘I Support Officer Wilson’ Facebook page has 18158 likes.
I shouldn’t be surprised, but it still always takes me aback that so many people automatically take the side of a cold-blooded murderer if the murderer is part of the authorities.
Zenlike, I’d gently suggest that Mike Brown’s race has slightly more to do with the support Wilson is getting than the fact that Wilson has a police badge.
Pteryxx:
Doesn’t surprise me in the least, but I’d bet money most people are happily unaware of this.
Esteleth is Groot
Granted. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is a huge overlap though, authoritarianism and racism go hand in hand.
Zenlike:
Especially if the murderer in authority is white, eh? After all, as someone so blithely put it in the first thread on this subject, “it’s just another wrongful killing of a black kid.”
New data on racial inequality in schools, at The Nation via Feminist Batwoman again:
Pardon – the school data was released in March. Still pretty fresh.
I have only one criticism, martial law? PZ are you sure you meant this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law
This normally equates to military law and doesn’t protect or enforce civil rights. All of the examples given are the same, just to restore order not to protect the rights of individuals. I’m just saying it seems counter productive proposal.
As for bigots acting like bigots, I’m starting to realize that the south hasn’t changed it’s views in a long time (well this should come as no shock since many still lament the loss of the Confederacy, it’s like watching a train wreck you can see it coming but you just didn’t recognize it until it was too late). I will make mental note. Even fifty years after the civil rights movement bigots are still breeding and passing down their messed up views in large scale. Add to this the people who want nothing more than biblical law (I admit many are the same) and presto Idiot Soup.
I do hope the Brown family gets proper justice for their loss. The officer is clearly a killer, and this self defense crap when he is the one initiating and escalating the conflict, is just so retarded.
So many children #Ferguson
They came all the way from India to #Ferguson.
Wes Aaron:
Speaking of someone who has been helping curate news out of Ferguson for the last four days straight, I invite you to take your quibble and shove it. Preferably where the sun don’t shine.
Of all the bullshit being said, this is only the latest one.
Tony! Here’s what went missing yesterday: http://rickeysmileymorningshow.com/1546886/alpha-phi-alpha-fraternity-to-pay-full-cost-of-michael-browns-memorial-and-funeral-services/
Janine:
Bog standard racist bullshit, too.
Inaji
Read it how you will, after all that is what you do best. (Accusing people of being for something, because at the time they didn’t have all and say they need more info before they decide is wrong and your clearly guilty of that.)
Martial Law is generally bad and only used in extreme circumstances, plus given many of those that would be part of the national guard (are the racists and the very people you don’t want to give additional authority to). It makes no sense.
I had a direct encounter with this sort of attitude many yonks ago, c.1980: A fundie-leaning relative snail-mailed me a photograph clipped from a newspaper showing a uniformed officer (in riot gear as I recall) dragging a long-haired man along the ground by the man’s hair. The relative’s comment: “This sort of STUFF is why I don’t support environmentalists.” † (I do not recall if the caption was still present, but the clipping did not include any story, so I can only assume it was an incident at some environmental rally / protest.)
I pointed out in my return letter the only happening there was a cop apparently abusing a student. (I have no idea if the presumed protester was a student or not.) I never did get a reply…
(Both the uniformed officer and the presumed protester were white.)
† I very distinctly remember the ALL CAPS usage in the (typewritten) letter.
I was thinking that too. Every officer gets a long gun (or two), 3000+ rounds of ammunition, more body armor than actual US military had in Iraq, and military style camo outfits in their size.
Meanwhile, graduating seniors from the beleaguered and poverty-crushed school district have to share two (2) graduation robes among them, in turn, for school photos. (Daily Kos)
Great, the asshole Adam Baldwin is in #Ferguson now. On his feed, he told Antonio French that police aren’t obligated to protect civilians, so of course, his solution? Arm everyone! ‘Cause that will help.
Captain Johnson apologizes in powerful speech – receives standing ovation. (There’s more on the rally at Yamiche Alcindor’s twitter account, @Yamiche. Have a tissue handy.)
This seems applicable.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/08/17/3472261/congress-will-review-the-transfer-of-military-weapons-to-police-forces-after-ferguson/
Amnesty International Takes “Unprecedented” U.S. Action In Ferguson
The pro-life bigots are showing up with more frequency now:
Does anyone know of an online radio giving coverage of Ferguson? I’ve got to do some cooking and can’t really sit here any longer.
Wes Aaron:
You’re fooling yourself if you think racism is limited to the Southern States.
How can #Ferguson people have free speech if there’s a guy staring down a sniper’s rifle barrel as they speak?
chimera – this is Argus Radio’s livestream (with video) but it’s more their reporter embedded in the crowd than a curated stream of information. Yesterday they were speaking to people when they could. (It’s also very noisy.)
Argus Radio livestream link
From my link @118, here are some of the types of military gear made available to police departments across the country:
Michael Brown Memorial Fund
Wes Aaron:
(bolding mine)
Please do not use bigoted slurs here. Get mad or frustrated all you want, but please do not use mental disability as an insult. It’s ableist and very offensive. There are other words you can use.
From Tibet, Justice For Mike Brown
Crying again. What in the fuck is wrong with so many Americans, who refuse to see?
Inaji @111:
My thanks for that link!
Thanks Pteryxx! There are great videos there but it’s not a stream. It stops.
Tony
I don’t think it is just limited to the southern states but they seem to be way behind the rest of society. I more meant it as they hadn’t changed in the slightest since the 60’s. And your post about them having access to and deploying military hardware, truly frightening. The state wide curfew, yep this is sounding like racists enacting martial law and I do hope something is done about this rampant abuse.
And one more time, because we shouldn’t be doing this again.
Tony:
You’re welcome! Sorry it took so long.
I apologize about my misguided remark and will keep it in mind that in mind. Thanks Tony.
chimera: Sorry about that. The stream was live when I checked it, but that was during the church service.
—
Ken White at Popehat just weighed in on the law and very much not-law ramifications of the store video release: Popehat lawsplainer
@zb24601, #65
I realize that you don’t know me at all, but I would appreciate it if you would provide me with an email address (or vice versa) so I could say a couple of things to you? This isn’t spam or some kind of trick. Thank you.
Blue DuPage @BlueDuPage 3h
2 months ago, the entire House Democratic leadership voted AGAINST demilitarizing local police http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/08/militarization-police-force-ferguson-congress?mbid=social_twitter …
To Inaji, Tony!, Pteryxx, Blf, rq, Goodbye Enemy Janine, and everyone else here who are doing the heavy lifting, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Curating the unfolding events in this tragedy is truly service above and beyond.
@AntonioFrench meeting the Tibetan monks who came from India to support peace and justice in #ferguson #dontshoot
I love Tef Poe’s tweet:
J Cole at #mikebrown’s final resting place. #ferguson http://ift.tt/YlMjyU
Tibetan monks learn Hands Up Don’t Shoot
I’m sorry son. #Ferguson
Nixon is tweeting about how residents cooked up lunch for law enforcement and others. His being quiet would be a mercy at this point.
Michael Eric Dyson spells it out for white people: Police won’t ‘kill your child’
The news here about Ferguson:
-> A man robbed some shop
-> That man was unarmed
-> The police of Ferguson killed that man
-> Many people in Ferguson and other places says that was a racist action of the police
-> Manifestations againts the use of excessive force by the police and racist actions by the same police
-> Groups of criminals sacking several buildings in Ferguson
-> Police try to stop violent manifestations, but without much sucess
-> The governor orders a curfew
-> Continue all the confusion in Ferguson, with criminals looting the place and disobeying the authorities
Is this correct, or the news are more like “Faux News”?
There are really groups of thieves looting and destroying things in Ferguson, or the all thing is much exagerated, and an atempt to give a bad reputation to a manifestation to demand a better police, one that don’t be too trigger happy neither racist?
Or, more probably, all this is true: pacific manifestations, that are used by despicable people to loot shops and other buildings, creating a grand confusion in Ferguson, increased by the lack of force and respectability of the local police force, and the need of intervention of the upper echelons of state authority?
Anyhow, i hope all of this is solved, and no more people being hurted or worse.
Trayvon Martin’s father discusses character ‘assassination’ of Michael Brown
Fernando:
Go with Faux news, Fernando. This thread, from the beginning, is stuffed full of links to what has been happening. Please click and read.
We are open every night till 10 in Dellwood #Ferguson Thank you to all our customers and friends for their support :)
Thanks Morgan – it’d sure be nice if we could trust regular media to cover all the background, ask the hard questions, and basically provide fair coverage in a convenient package, wouldn’t it? ;>
—-
via BB: Every item distributed to local law enforcement by the Pentagon’s 1033 program over two years
Also, picture. *hurk*
[image shows a black military Humvee heavy truck decorated with “Lewisburg Police” and a rampant US flag paintjob.]
#Ferguson made front pages in Turkey
How many more unarmed Black men have to be hurt or killed by the police before we say something #Ferguson
#Ferguson Curious kids on sleepy side streets near protest, we had a little chat photography and my job (Via David Carson, photojournalist)
tatyanafazlalizadeh: In solidarity with those in #Ferguson, I painted this piece and am releasing it for anyone who wants to use it.
Find download links here.
Download, print, keep on.
A silent protest in support of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot Mike Brown, starting in St. Louis
They don’t seem to have a lot of people…
More protesters in support of Wilson.
I have to cut out early tonight, keep covering, keep curating, and stay safe!
Good segment on Speak Out with actor Jesse Williams talking about Ferguson and racism.
Also, Jesse Williams is the executive producer of Question Bridge:
ThinkProgress: Mike Brown’s Family Asked To See Robbery Footage Before Police Released It To Media, But Were Ignored
…signed: your friendly neighborhood militia?
Chatting with someone who pointed out that if the reports that the Ferguson 911 service was turned off a few nights ago are true, that’s a serious FEDERAL offense. If it is established that this was done at the heeding of the Ferguson PD, then the Chief and pretty much the entirety of the leadership are, at minimum, getting fired.
Which is to say that the Ferguson PD have nothing left to lose. They’ve well and screwed the pooch here.
They may be of the mentality that they may as well go down punching.
Esteleth:
Interesting. It’s a federal offense to turn off the 911 service? Did not know that.
Esteleth is Groot, that’s assuming that they do not just believe that they are untouchable and it doesn’t matter if they behaving immorally, unethically, or illegally, because no one with any power is gonna shit to punish them. But, I mean, that is the same effect. Except instead of “may as well go down punching”, it is “may as well keep punching because they ain’t go do nothing about it”.
The price of blackness.
As we wait for all of this to play out in Ferguson, please notice that the mainstream media has been all over the story and no longer obsessing over the passing of Robin Williams.
greg hilliard:
Thanks ever so much for informing us. There’s no possible way that we would have known this. Nope. There haven’t been 3 or 4 threads over the course of this last week where many people on this blog have been discussing the events in Ferguson as well as the media’s lackluster response. Nope. We were waiting for someone to let us know this.
Aren’t you clever, greg hiliard.
Also, stop to think about why the MSM is now paying attention, they were forced to do so. Social media was used by people there and people who went to Ferguson to get the story out.
Also, please notice that many in the MSM are spreading the same old racist tropes about rioting people.
The fact that the media is paying attention to Ferguson does not change the fact that they were paying precious little attention to the events for the first few days. The death of a celebrity was still more important that covering civil rights violations. PZ’s original post about the fucked up priorities of the media is still valid.
This is pure spec but I’m guessing that releasing that video was a surprise to everyone who is not the local police and that they’ve spent the last week shredding any and every piece of evidence that might allude to the corruption in the department and local politics. Once they’ve got their ducks in order then they’ll release a faux apology or double down on why the shooting occurred. At any rate, I’m pretty sure that quite a few members of local politics were busily shitting their pants while scrambling to clean themselves up.
I’m also guessing after the release of the video ,a higher authority forced that guy to go on air and admit that the video had nothing to do with the shooting and that Wilson didn’t know about it.
Btw, has anyone seen the dispatch records around the time of the shooting?Released to the internet by Anonymous, I was wondering if that was genuine? That not only didn’t Wilson call in the shooting but that dispatch got their information from TV and had to ask him about it after he called for backup?
The mass media are still refusing to properly investigate the events of an unarmed teen being gunned down by a police officer.
Now they have a media engineered ‘race riot’ to report on – with explosions!
…and the Robin Williams ‘tribute’ movies are still playing …and Mork and Mindy has appeared on our screens again…
So, all in all, greg hilliard, that was a pretty pathetic troll you did there.
lakitha – I’ve only seen a few internet news sites, such as Mother Jones, address the dispatch tapes. I have not seen any mainstream media pick them up nor confirm them, and the Ferguson PD still refuses to release any dispatch information about the shooting – they released the incident report of the convenience store robbery, but nothing about the shooting or Brown’s death.
From that MoJo link:
#Ichthyic, @153
If you had so much confidence in nonviolent protest and pleading for elected officials who chronically do the wrong things to reverse themselves then why did you use your money to move as far away from the United States as you could?
alkaloid, that’s a) well out of order, b) off-topic, and c) none of your business.
@166
Is that an official pronouncement or not? If he’s going to imply that I’m a militia member (even though that’s blatantly false), then I’m going to bring up questions like that. If you (and him) want this taken to Thunderdome, then I’ll take it there.
@greg hilliard, 158,
Oddly enough, while we were passing through the passport control line yesterday in Newark, the monitor tuned to CNN was showing all Robin Williams, all the time (details of what happened, tributes from the likes of Wesley Snipes and the Governator).
I’m sure that’s just coincidence.
Take it to the ‘dome.
let’s see, adhom in the form of well poisoning, and an irrelevancy.
how about you tell me why I should even bother answering your “question”?
ah. nvmd. domed.
The media didn’t cover “Unarmed Black Teen Shot by Cop Multiple TImes” in favor of Robin Williams.
The media are now covering “Black People Riot, Loot to Support Suspected Robber” in favor of (now-stale) Robin Williams.
Ferguson, meet National Guard.
Some more from the night, my Twitter catch-up: the now-usual tear gas, ‘looting’, no more curfew ha bloody ha, and that executive order. More to come.
More on the value of cameras in phones.
Watch out for gang violence. Learn to recognize the markers.
The National Guard again, from the LA Times.
Another question of who’s in charge.
All those journalists and reporters? Violating curfew, apparently. How’s that for transparency (@AmyKNelson has more on her feed)?
Wow, I can’t even begin to list everything I’d want to post – I’m going to sort through some of it, or find a good recap.
A sampling: how cops talk to reporters.
Even Antonio French sounds despondent. (His previous Tweet: “We just watched Vice News be escorted out past us while we just… stood there.”)
Meanwhile, here’s something for those in Vegas.
Here’s one summary of early night events from HuffPo.
From what I understand, there was a car accident that left one person dead, but all I can find on that are things like this or this.
Person @natedrug also posted this. Yes, what could go wrong??
Not that all reporters have been good, too.
A bit more about that cop threatening a reporter
Person made a map of the protests, to help visualize crowd and police movements.
Also, SWAT drove a truck into the crowd.
Preliminary autopsy report out. With some conclusions drawn.
Solidarity.
Here’s another re-cap via The Boston Globe. Oddly, it’s mostly composed of people’s tweets… Innnteresting. :P
Found one livestream that’s still on (I think).
Okay, breakfast break for me.
Sorry, I lied – one more photo, with question.
post is filled with comments that look like what I expected:
since so many witnesses reported “It looked like he was shot in the back”, the conclusion from the mob is that all the witnesses must be lying.
nobody is even bothering to:
-consider again EXACTLY what the witnesses said
-consider why they might have been mistaken about Brown being shot from behind, without lying about it.
it’s fucking sad.
it’ll take MONTHS to sort all this shit out, and in the meantime, the prejudices will continue to rip and tear at the fabric of society.
so, so tired of the same shit happening over and over again, and the media doing an absolutely crap job of even trying to filter the noise; hell they seem to even be encouraging noise any more.
I’m gonna need a strong drink to get any sleep before morning. Good thing I don’t work today.
Police chief got what he wanted… No responsibility and inciting more violence. (Shaking head with disbelief. He knew this was coming.)
The double talk of the governor is also very disheartening… There’s no curfew, we call it street closures now. (Facepalm)
This sick twisted display of officers playing soldiers has to stop before… shit too late. (Weapons grade facepalm)
I will not try to rationalize this, it’s beyond the pale. Had a point to all of this but the rum has finally
affected my mental facilitieshelped me from breaking down in tears watching their struggles. Sorry but this isn’t going to end well for many of the citizens of Missouri. It will tarnish the victims and authorities will struggle to coverit uptheir asses, that is easier thanadmitting blameprotecting the rights of minorities. I strongly doubt even the police abusing their authority will be handled harshly. Another skeleton for the “Let’s all get along closet”.Sorry but I am not well and this
isn’t OKis fucked up. Especially that bullshit about supportDarren Wilsonthis asshole he kills minorities.Thanks everybody for the links on this issue (es. Inaji and Pteryxx). When Czech media finally caught up this morning and tried (and failed) to give overview of the situation, I could thanks to you to correct as many of the wrongs as I could on my blog. It will be read by about five to ten people, but I think it is worth it anyway.
I dedicated it to “Pharyngula commenters” in general due time constraints I could not link to individual comments. I hope nobody feels bad because I did not name them specifically.
Umm, I would say, not enough bricks.
Via #AntonioFrench:
At the QuikTrip – police not allowing demonstrators to gather #Ferguson
#BREAKING: Gov. Nixon, in statement, says there will NOT be a curfew tonight in #Ferguson. (But people aren’t being allowed to gather, so…)
For the past three days, people of Ferguson have been using the QT site for distributing food, having a voting registration, and protesting. The national guard is now fencing and blocking it off.
Michael Brown autopsy: No signs of struggle in fatal shooting
Mike Brown: Facts and dog whistles
on MSNBC right now – Chris Hayes, still on the ground in Ferguson, listing off the different police agencies all operating now. Neighboring towns, Ferguson police, St Louis Metro police, St Louis County police, state patrol, and for a while there he was giving a sight guide by color of uniform shirt. “All of the above.”
There’s no curfew tonight but police have already blocked off the QT where protesters had been staging, and are permitting no gathering of people – “keep moving” – anywhere inside what looks like a mile-wide (?) restricted area. Hayes says the police also ordered *all* news vans out of the area.
President Obama is apparently being briefed on the situation right now by AG Holder.
I also overheard another professional of some sort saying it’s normal for autopsy results not to be released for several weeks until toxicology could be completed. And that of course is why the news was broadcasting detailed results from Robin Williams’ physical autopsy one day after his death.
‘Kill Switch’ Smartphone Bill Passes in California
Kill Switch is horrid legislation. Ostensibly to be used in case a phone is stolen, it makes phones available to be shut down by the authorities. This is bad, bad, bad.
Inaji, are you doing okay? The Ferguson siege has my rage and depression turned up to 11, and I’m not even following Twitter. Please, take care of yourself.
Morgan, thanks, fully rested here, and doing okay. Not happy about events in Ferguson, but no thinking person is, so…
Um, hello, the US constitution? Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Last time I checked, it applied even in Missouri.
Breaking: Allegations that the #Ferguson McDonald’s was looted are inaccurate, McDonald’s corporate spokesperson tells me.
Our President looks all concerned.
12 things white people can do now because Ferguson
Right now. Crews building giant fence around QT at Somerset terrace and West Florissant. #ferguson
Numbers That Matter: Ferguson
Hometown police officer fired after fatally shooting dog #Ferguson cop still employed after shooting human being
ABC World News @ABCWorldNews 3m
ALERT: Pres. Obama expected to speak on the situations in #Ferguson and Iraq around 4 p.m. ET –
Ferguson reveals depths of racial divide
The right’s “race lobby” trash: Why WSJ’s Ferguson explanation is absurd
August 18, 2014
Stark Racial Divisions in Reactions to Ferguson Police Shooting
The fund for Wilson is over 10K.
Poll: White people think the cops in #Ferguson are doing fine, via @voxdotcom: http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/18/6031577/pew-poll-on-ferguson-racial-disparity … (Photo of poll graphs)
City of #Ferguson just hired a PR firm.Their entire team appears to be white: http://www.commongroundpr.com/meet-the-team.aspx …
Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal joins Andrea Mitchell to react to the latest responses from government officials in Ferguson.
Martial Law… Yep you may get what you want. But it’s gonna take congressional approval before full fledged martial law en-stated. (FYI Martial law doesn’t always remove the governor from power and it’s use in the past has been only to keep the peace not punish bad law enforcement, but it functions the same for the people caught up in it.) Which if anyone had take the time to read what it really is would have noticed the elephant in the room.
Now the people of Ferguson can be treated to military law under the competent guidance of their governor and the National Guard. Maybe if the town isn’t a crater, they can get back to normal (notice: where they fenced off the community)…
What the hell do you think martial law is? I said it at the start and will stand by that decision. This is only going to hurt those you want protected. (Fuck it’s not even worth an I told you so.) This is why I asked, are you sure this is what you mean? All that happens is the city is going to be oppressed without right to fair trial or any other civil rights for that matter, if it goes through.
Do you really think for even a moment a bunch of backwater cops are gonna want a war with the U.S. Military? They’re going to happily hand over their mess and say “Sorry bout the mess. Sure you good ol boys can get a handle on it.” The chief will receive no criminal prosecution and will happily move on not wanting anything to do with the giant turd he left behind. And given that there probably won’t be enough evidence to prosecute the cops abusing their authority, it’s gonna take a mammoth sized closet for this skeleton. As for Darren Wilson I do hope there is some semblance of justice he needs to serve hard time, but I won’t delude myself into thinking it will happen. He will get a country club version of prison (for his personal safety), if he is convicted and I’m pretty sure we can guess what color the jury of his peers will be.
I’m gonna step away for a bit so I can get a handle on this. The jets are still active and It really takes a lot of patience to not get overwhelmed by everything.
One last thing, those McDonald’s employees and anyone still going to work in the danger zone for minimum wage deserves a fucking medal. No Joke, that’s gotta be stressful as all hell and I could only imagine the fear of being there.
Gotta agree here, what in the fuck was the point of Obama speaking? You know what would have helped? “Wilson taken in for questioning.” That would have helped.
Reaction to Obama’s speech…… Spits!
Press Release: WBC protesting at Missouri State Capitol
I am speechless! Does this guy really believe what he says??? #Ferguson
In trying to figure out why Obama doesn’t take a stand in favor of civil rights, the right to assembly and so on, all I can think of is all the racism that is leveled at him constantly. People would say he was saying it “just because he is black”, is being a divisive president, not the president of the whole nation and yadda yadda. So that if he was white it might be easier for the President to take a stand. On the other hand, if he was white then he’d get the contemporary version of n-word lover, you know, “liberal” and elitist and out-of-touch and abandoning the white everyday Joes in favor of people of color and all that. I really don’t know what the case is with Obama. I continued to defend him for so many years after everyone I knew had begun to criticize him. I find it hard to even look at a photo of him now without a feeling of aversion or despair.
I saw a suggestion that Joe Biden go in front of some cameras/microphones and lay down some (carefully scripted, of course, but spontaneous-sounding) truth.
This will allow Obama a “safe” way of allowing things that need saying to be said while also leaving the racists powerless to whine about the (so white it’s funny) Biden. Obama is also free to roll his eyes and go, “Oh, you know Joe, guys!” if any aspect of it lands awkwardly.
The Mike Brown Killing: It’s Much Too Late for Angry Words by Kobie Colemon
Justice for Michael Brown Rests Almost Entirely in the Hands of This One Man:
Just read Holder’s statement.
Um. I’m pretty sure the peaceful protesters have been trying to stop the looting, and the police are the ones seeking to inflame tensions. Makes me wonder where he gets his intel.
Linky
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/08/18/probe-into-michael-brown-shooting-goes-to-pot/
JUST IN: Amnesty International just announced they’ve sent human rights team to #Ferguson; First time they’ve done that in the US.
Reparations for Ferguson
Total police control over black bodies has echoes in American history.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Itemizing Atrocity
by Tamara K. Nopper & Mariame Kaba
For blacks, the “war on terror” hasn’t come home. It’s always been here.
Eric Holder Talks About Racism the Way Obama Wishes He Could
Also, whoever decided to use the acronym COPS for the Community Oriented Policing Services could have done better. Wasn’t that the term for the Committee of Public Safety that loved sending people to the guillotine?
Police create “organized protest zone”
Why Black on Black Crime is not the issue in Michael Brown Tragedy Part 2: When was there ever value? (TRIGGER WARNING, GRAPHIC VIOLENCE DEPICTED.)
Live coverage rolling on MSNBC of Ferguson streets, where people just walking (some with signs and flags) are being pointedly nudged along by cops in different colored shirts. Just saw two cops grab a kid with a backpack out of a scattered stream of people crossing the street and push him along by his backpack straps. His hands went up almost immediately, of course.
The dozen or so cops on that street corner were NOT directing traffic by standing and directing traffic with their arms like cops do. They hung out in a bunch, watching the crowd, and these two broke away and went diagonally across the street, stopping to tell a car to go on and move *while* pedestrians were still crossing in front of the car. The car stopped, of course, and only then did the police go and verbally move the pedestrians along while grabbing this one kid out from among them.
As far as I can tell, the police are *yelling* from the opposite corner, or the middle of the street, to the twenty or thirty pedestrians on the near corner, many of whom are just waiting to cross the street. It looks like the police don’t want to get too close in case a civilian breathes on them or something
This cannot possibly go well.
Also to point out. There are no marked crosswalks along that main street of Ferguson. As noted previously by Antonio French and others, there are no working streetlights (haven’t been for months or years) and people who live there don’t like having to walk along dark streets. There was no trash pickup last week because of the unrest. Missed trash pickups, unrepaired street lights, and unrepaired/unmaintained streets are all ways in which less-favored districts of a region can be punished by city officials, now that formal red-lining is illegal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_shrinkage
I would guess they have totally othered the protesters in their minds- how else could they, in any just world, be okay with snipers aiming and peaceful protests? If they got too close they might be reminded that the other side are just humans. And that would not allow them to keep acting at they are acting.
Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein arrested during peaceful protest in #Ferguson for “blocking the entrance”
Missouri governor says he’s been in Ferguson ‘almost every day’ since shooting, not true.
Getty Images photographer has been arrested in #Ferguson. Likely for taking photos. Land of the free. (@ryanjreilly)
The Toast is archiving links and articles as well. Good place to look for stuff that might have been missed here.
Hah. Hedy Epstein?
Sure I know her work in the US. But do you know Hedy Epstein? Seems just a tad relevant.
Klan heading to Ferguson to ‘guard white businesses,’ back shooting of ‘n*gger criminal’
National guard troops deployed on roofs #ferguson
TIME: The Difference Between ALS an Ferguson Is That One Ill Can Be Cured
Pteryxx:
No. It’s another really bad sign that photojournalists are being arrested, and NG are posted on rooftops.
Another journalist arrested in #Ferguson. http://www.cnn.com/cnnx @CNN
But why? #Ferguson
So what happens now that the police in #Ferguson have violated this signed court agreement not to arrest journalists?
Another thought. Why do the police keep changing the rules every night? People live and work there who don’t necessarily spend their lives glued to a smartphone. I don’t expect anyone official is taking responsibility for, say, posting information or telling the residents what the next round of rules is going to be. How are they supposed to know where to park or what streets are going to be blocked off or when? Much less that they’re supposed to keep moving today? A lot of those people are going to get arrested just for doing what worked yesterday without knowing the rules changed again.
Is there an organizational meeting in some police headquarters where they’re going “Okay, here’s how we’ll troll them tonight…”
So what happens? @234
Endless loopholes in the agreement is what happens:
Rob Crilly @robcrilly 1h
Getty Images snapper arrested for not getting out the way fast enough when ordered #ferguson
Me and my fellow jailbird, the amazing Hedy. She survived the holocaust and supports #FreePalestine #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/aIAfgZbJKF
Pteryxx @ 235:
This was on Antonio French’s feed:
That talk must be going really well.
sarcasmAbout 10 humvees now at the #ferguson command center. Most are Military Policeman one of them tells me.
This officer threatened to arrest me if I didn’t move off the public sidewalk. #Ferguson
#BREAKING: @NationalGuard soldiers have arrived at the command center in #Ferguson. #MikeBrown
https://twitter.com/ShimonPro/status/501519341423431680/photo/1
Missouri National Guard Has Its Own History of Racial Tension
I literally cannot believe that this is still going. Cannot. Believe. And fucking Obama and the fucking governor just mutter sternly, mostly wagging their finger at the civilians. Stop these fucking abusive asshole police, you fucks!
I’m shaking so bad right now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to hang in tonight. When in the fuck are people going to pay attention to what’s going on? We aren’t safe. No one is safe. And I’m terrified more people are going to die tonight.
I do not believe that the official reaction to the protests is about anything other than raw power. Emphasis on the raw. This will not end well. If the authorities were to simply vanish, the protests would dwindle.
Peaceful march down Florissant in #ferguson, area completely surrounded by police, controlling all exits & entries
Cops carrying riot gear & big sticks on Night 10 of #Ferguson unrest.
http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/08/18/foxs-pinkerton-baselessly-speculates-michael-br/200461
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/18/1322673/-The-City-of-Ferguson-hires-PR-firm?detail=facebook
The town of #Ferguson has hired a PR firm with a equal racial makeup of their police force
Inaji, for what it’s worth MSNBC has had coverage on the ground constantly since early this morning. They’re getting herded into press-only zones but at least they know this is BS and they’re taking info, footage, and even tweets from folks who *are* walking in the lockdown zone. Internet word is still spreading. I might be able to do more relaying late at night.
A child’s Don’t Shoot, My Life Matters.
Lucas says he wears this bandana because he wants to be known as American-African. (American 1st) #FergusonProtest
Pteryxx:
Glad to hear it, because I’m going to have to sign off tonight, pain levels are high and I’ve had the fun of sciatica during all this, making sitting a…well, pain. Fuck, this night has me terrified. This is a terrible thing we’re witnessing. Stay safe.
Maddow on MSNBC is now covering the suspiciously selective releases of information from the Ferguson and STL County PD. Shot six times? Disclosed by the family’s own autopsy and press release. Unrelated robbery footage and something about marijuana? That gets leaked from the supposed authorities.
via Maddow – showed Captain Johnson last night saying a few people were injured last night by shooting, they were people on the street and had nothing to do with police, no officers were injured, and the National Guard would NOT be called out. That was 1:15 AM.
2 AM, the governor announced the National Guard would be moving in to protect the police command center.
-_-
She’s doing what looks to me like a very good summary of the weekend and last night.
Either one, Captain Johnson is being used, or two, he’s in on a good cop/bad cop thing.
Not entirely sure which is worse.
Live footage on a split screen shows the community protest turned into a march. Looks like the press put up some stationary cameras before being herded into their restricted press zone. Scores or hundreds of people are marching steadily past, holding signs and one waving an upside-down US flag.
Meanwhile Maddow is interviewing one of the St Louis representatives (didn’t catch the office) who is calling for Bob McCulloch to be removed from prosecuting the officer.
Police are blocking all private vehicles out of the area.
Maddow hat-tipping to Chris Hayes who has been reporting from Ferguson since last week (and will be doing more live coverage tonight at 11 Eastern). Replayed footage from last night of Hayes reporting from the street, then the voice of a screaming cop breaking into the broadcast threatening to mace him.
Now showing the protesters who stood in front of stores to protect them from looters, and interviewing a community reporter about brand new leadership and organizing actions that are, for example, registering young people to vote.
On the live feed, protesters are marching steadily down the (closed to vehicles) main street, ten across and hundreds deep, in the glare of fixed lights and unattended stationary cameras.
For those of you unfamiliar with military action.
First rule is containment. Try to contain conflict to a small area.
It gets worse after this. Next is neutralize any threat within the containment area. Photographers arrested and protests shut down, though bad are nothing compared to an area of military operation without supervision. If you cannot take pictures or photos of their operation what laws do they have to follow? How does anyone prove their rights are being violated. That’s the point! No credible witnesses! What part of military law did you miss? No civil rights! The national guard is doing exactly what it is supposed to, they are a military operation and acting as such.
“OK Jethro the national guard is here our job is done.” (To sum up what the cops are doing. I feel sorry for Johnson, he was really trying to make things better.) Do you really think that when the AG gets there on Wednesday he is going to find evidence of abuse? These two days are to secure the area and the citizens of Ferguson are the threat. Look at any military action on US soil and this is what you get. And for those of you doubting any of this, crack open a book all the way back to the heat of civil rights movement. In any of these cases where national guard was on hand did they ever arrest a police officer or a politician? This is about as close to martial law as you can get without a congressional approval.
One last thing I would like to add. Being where I live and knowing many men of service as I have, there’s one sacred cow. You never want martial law! It isn’t designed for governing people it is designed to shut down threats (civil unrest) with extreme prejudice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/us/national-guard-in-texas-could-get-arrest-power.html
Nixon is in charge of the Nation Guard in Missouri, are you scared yet? Because I’m fucking terrified for the people of Ferguson.
Inaji (#206)
Someone should start a fundraiser to buy those stupid fuckers a clue.
I remember in the 70s, seeing the escalation of police response would have engendered a HUGE protest movement to go there in support of the rights of the citizens of Ferguson (like thousands at least).
Now, I’m too old and I guess most Americans have decided that it works better to Twitter the events instead.
seriously, if you live near Ferguson, you should be showing your support for civil rights with your body on the streets.
The City of Ferguson just hired a PR firm. I was unaware that was how Fox News was billing itself nowadays, but maybe it just more lucrative to be honest about it at this point.
Learned a new word from the extensive discussion of what can be learned from the different phases and components of an autopsy: Ballistician. (If that’s not a real word, it should be now.)
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MSNBC keeps running live footage from their stationary cameras as a backdrop, and it’s starting to disturb me. Those cameras won’t catch anything questionable happening unless it goes on right in front of them. They probably can’t be zoomed in or refocused from what I can tell; these don’t seem to be the kind of remote cameras that have operators. They can’t interview anyone on the street. They can’t interact at all. Every once in a while we viewers see a cop step out of the police’s little standing-around groups and talk at or latch onto a protester, or protesters talking with each other as they walk – some smiling, some angry, some determined. None are looking AT the cameras. There could be a hundred stories happening right under our noses and we’d never know. Violence? we don’t know. Protecting businesses? we don’t know. How people feel about what’s happening? No idea. “Looks pretty quiet out there tonight.” “We’ll keep you informed.” “We’ll check back if anything happens. We’ll be right back after the break.”
Then I realized what we’re looking at. Live security camera footage. Observing the Black American in their natural habitat. While the media are restricted to talking-head interviews on the same nondescript stretch of what looks like a hotel yard, with nothing in the background but a few tufts of decorative tallgrass.
It’s the second most disgusting and dehumanizing spectacle I’ve seen today, after the descriptions (frequently re-iterated) of the bullet wounds inflicted upon Mike Brown.
As I said that, cameras on the street (among crowds mostly standing and milling about) are showing the SWAT line of cops has reappeared, with riot shields and gas masks but no body armor or harnesses of spare weapons that I can see. Vehicles arrayed behind them and there was the sound of the LRAD over the crowd.
Live – Near the McDonalds the cops are lined up. The LRAD (sonic weapon) is very audible. Protesters have hands up, some on their knees. 200 or so on the street. The crowd *has* thinned from an hour ago. Reporter: This was a peaceful protest, chanting, signs. Video is very choppy. Police have been saying move back, move back.
MNSBC says it got tense five minutes ago.
MSNBC – People walking were told by police “things have gotten bad”.
Switched to Chris Hayes live show from the ground, though he and his crew are on the lit-up side of a metal fence with the walkers and street on the other side.
There was an arrest or two earlier… people are now running down the street, and sirens (regular police cars) just sped past. On another livestream, folks are walking down the street arm in arm as police lights flash behind them.
The van with the LRAD and riot-geared cops on the roof just drove past, following the train of a dozen police cars.
Ichthyic:
That may not work for everyone. Not everyone has the temperment, time, or energy to be out on the streets. Marching also isn’t the only way to support protesters. Some people would show their support in other ways. Today, with social media being what it is, people can be involved in protesting and supporting civil rights in a wide range of ways.
White dude in a mask threw a couple of small rocks at Chris Hayes. Shouts of “Tell the true story!” He and the other said “We’re trying to.” He’s trying to talk across the fence to find out what’s going on.
– HIs witness says, they told us to disperse. What set it off? Nothing. ‘They treat us like animals.’
The marchers can’t stay to talk to Hayes because they have to keep moving. On THEIR side of the fence, in the dark and the street with the cops. The reporters are clinging to the fence, pressing into it, trying to talk to people as they walk by.
Some passersby are talking through the fence, hands held up. They said no violence, no arrests that they saw, maybe one guy at the front got a bit close to the cops with a sign and the rest of the crowd pulled him back.
But I’m afraid of what will happen to anyone who stops to talk through the fence. Did the media get placed there as bait?
There will never be justice.
Wilson will never even be arrested.
The people of Ferguson will be made to pay even worse for all this.
It will be another mild hiccup in the lives of racist White America or just not remembered at all.
Fuck.
Showing a line of shirt sleeved police (many colors of shirts) with helmets, face shields, gas masks on their faces, some with shotguns in hands, some with billy clubs and long sticks in hands, all in a row. Some appear to have ballistic vests on, some shirts only.
Well some of them have badges showing. That’s nice I suppose.
think of the twitter feeds that have become news.
were those from people just randomly tweeting?
nope, those were bodies on the streets in Ferguson.
Crowd of 50 or so protesters approached the car-lit blockade (there are two, one on foot, one with vehicles, I think) and instead of marching by, swirled around for a bit, then the voices of calm in the crowd appeared to take over and the entire group is walking away from the cops, some backwards and yelling angrily – but retreating.
On the other line of cops, clear riot shields were just distributed.
One camera followed who I think was Captain Johnson, still in blue shirtsleeves only, walking with two others along (away?) from the riot cop line. To my eyes his face looks terribly sad.
“This is not the America anyone envisioned. Nobody envisioned this” “The Ferguson people paid for these streets. We can’t stand on these streets?”
Vehicles driving up and down at a decent speed, protesters retreating to the sidewalks and all watching it go by. LRAD noise heard briefly.
“Had not the media been here, maybe the world wouldn’t have known about us.” when Chris Hayes asked if the media presence was adding fuel to the fire. (Few more rocks.)
Report coming in – Crowd is forming human chains, with arms linked, to keep back the protesters among them who want to fight.
Riot police over megaphone – Clear the street immediately, you’re unlawfully assembled.
I no longer see a single displayed badge among the riot police.
Community and faith leaders with megaphones walking back and forth across the face of the crowd, riot police lined up at their backs, urging the crowd to stay calm. Voiceover of Chris Hayes with an impassioned few sentences about the injustice this crowd feels, that every single person they speak to has cited, that this could happen in America, that a young man could be gunned down on the street without even the dignity of having his dead body treated with respect.
A scattering of riot police, just a few in a line six to ten feet apart from each other, are walking forward to clear the crowd back from an intersection. The community leaders are walking close to the crowd, just in front of them. The crowd backing up sees three layers – the leaders, the few cops just out of reach behind them, the mass of cops some thirty feet beyond.
People are being told they can stay out, there is no curfew, but they must keep moving. At least one arrest, one person down with several cops cuffing them and a ring of seven or eight cops with rifles in a circle, facing outward, around them.
Isolated standoffs between small lines of police and small groups of the few protesters determined to be violent.
Rifles are being held low, pointed down at a 45-degree angle or so towards protesters’ feet if they’re close.
*correction, in a long pan shot across thirty or forty riot cops just now, I saw TWO still wearing their badges.
Phone to Hayes from USA Today – police are trying to separate media from protesters, while apparently one group of SWAT are ordering protesters to leave and they are refusing to go, near the QT.
LRAD vehicle with cops hanging off it and on its roof continues to drive up and down the street.
‘Nother shot at a different point along the drive of a small group of community leaders and riot police talking together.
People started running fast down (Canfield) past Hayes’ standpoint. According to the USA Today reporter they’re running from a loud noise, perhaps a fight in the crowd.
So it looks to me like small events happening across an extremely tense situation, especially as people have had to deal with nine days of this.
On the hour – smoking canisters and flashbangs just started flying from one of the riot lines. A dozen or so protesters of the acting-out variety are facing off, the vast majority of the crowd is fifty feet or more behind them and retreating further.
People at the *other* line are approaching the police on foot asking for medical help. The non-vehicle line of cops are looking at each other in confusion. Sight of Captain Johnson at the non-vehicle line, listening to reports from troopers.
Chris Hayes says yep, that’s tear gas he can smell. Says they can’t blockade *all* the traffic because some people live and work here. He’s trying to find a mask so he can stay on scene.
Pteryxx:
I’m not understanding this. People can protest, but they can’t do it standing still?
The vehicle-side line of cops has some rifles up and leveled. The non-vehicle line are just standing ready, quite a bit of talking.
LRAD (sound cannon) can be heard from various feeds – loud at Chris Hayes’ end, quieter at the staging/media end where the less armored police are.
Tony – yes, tonight’s experimental rule seems to be rolling First Amendment.
the USA Today reporter – says people on her end, the tear-gassed end, are scattered and hiding behind buildings trying to get away from the gas, but they don’t want to stop protesting.
Maddow has been asking if the protesters have space to keep moving IN while hemmed in by the tear gas and police blockades.
The on-foot police line is letting vehicles through, after shining lights on them and inspecting the occupants through the windows.
MSNBC’s reporter says the street’s completely empty where she is. Residents made a chain, linking arms, and marched the crowd and violent elements down the street away from the police line.
As she walks down the street there are tear gas canisters, small explosions going off, and a very small trash fire. She’s broadcasting from her cell phone with no crew, so that she isn’t targeted as media – on the advice of community leaders.
I’ve been following along in horror all this time, unable to comment because what the fuck can I say? Words fail me.
Thank you for all the news upkeep everyone, especially Inanj and Pteryxx. I truly appreciate it. I don’t know what else to say.
Group of yellow-shirted Amnesty International observers walking along the street, hands raised.
The National Guard has stayed off the main lines. There’s a shot of a proper camo vehicle and a couple of soldier-looking folks at the command area, but there are no protesters or gas near there and they aren’t on either of the blockade lines at all.
Maddow fielding a report that there *is* a region of confrontation, somewhere in the middle of the street right now, but no media or eyes are close enough to determine what’s going on. That was Tremaine, I think, reporting from the media’s corner they’re not allowed to step off of, now getting driven away by tear gas.
pardon, Trymaine Lee.
Hayes – They keep trying different policing and every night ends up with abandoned streets stinking of tear gas and people’s unaddressed rage and pain. Every night winds up the same way.
Police overheard – clear the street if you’re not credentialed media. Hayes wearily got ready to move and then remembered he is in fact credentialed media.
The police appear to have separated out the half dozen or so Amnesty International observers and are moving them off somewhere, hands still raised. Visuals only, no words as yet.
..and when it gets to where there are only a few dozen, confused, reporters walking around in the street…
“MOVE BACK ONE BLOCK…”
“Alright, that does it! Bring out the tear gas and rubber bullets boys!”
:checking in before meds eat my brain:
Jesus fuckin’ jumped up Christ.
Pteryxx, thank you so very much for the coverage, I know this is stressful for you.
The police line without the gas masks is moving forward, rifles leveled, to drive off a confrontational group that seems to be using a plastic porta-potty side as a makeshift shield. A few minutes later, even THAT situation seems to be defused – this police line retreats back to their original position.
Report of an empty (previously looted) building being set on fire.
Another report – a dozen or so people trying to get past police, asking to get by, to get to their homes on the other side of the tear gas.
Scattered arrests. More announcements of all non-media being ordered to clear the streets or else be subject to arrest.
The injured person earlier who walked up to the police line was allowed through and to an ambulance.
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So how much of an improvement is it if they only teargassed *half* the neighborhood this time? But there does seem to be some de-escalation happening (rifles go up, rifles go down) compared to the blanket aggressive police response where they just cleared everything indiscriminately.
seconded
Pteryxx
thank you
Blech – the police analyst they just had on said how Captain Johnson listed off all the reasons they had to move in – the Molotov cocktails, the McDonald’s broken into (not very up on his fact checking, is he?) and how tear gas and LRADs are designed to make people want to leave an area without seriously injuring them. *snort*
Maddow mentioning how the lack of news helicopters is directly affecting their ability to report this story as their reporters on the ground are driven away by either tear gas or police.
Thanks Inaji and chigau. I’m stopping for the night – so worn out that I’m catching myself making egregious meaning-changing typoes, and that’s going to be bad if I let one slip.
BillO: “You can’t explain that!”
I’m adding to the general thanks for Pteryxx and inaji.
may you both get good rest.
I was getting full-time Ferguson on three channels, here. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
Fox had one studio reporter that actually seemed to be getting a clue, but Bill O’Rielly and Sean Hannity are still assholes. Fox’s on-site reporter was talking about the LRADs as if the police were only using them as sirens and loudspeakers, and the protesters are whiney babies — those fuckers will damage you forever when cranked up to 11.
Chris Hayes was in a fence, getting a few rocks tossed at him, but doing a fair job talking to passers-by.
The CNN guy was out showing the line of cops, not as heavily armored as some have
been, and really making a point that there was absolutely no need for them.
My point is that several people said on the national TV that this isn’t just about Mike Brown, this is about civil rights and the first amendment, and that the police are causing the tension and the trouble. And the cameras showed no looting, instead the community was policing its own behavior in a non-violent way. Some of the angriest folks were moved back by the rest, but it was clear that their anger at the police invasion was justified.
That’s just the TV, but I thought it was a step up. Thanks to all for the internet info.
You’ve done yeoperson’s work, Pteryxx. Thanks.
second take:
Does it depend on how excited the police are?
This may be of interest…
Apparently my link was borked. Here it is again without HTML https://twitter.com/sdkstl/status/501592381473308672/photo/1
Here’s another police shooting of an unarmed black man:
(hat tip to Jason over at Lousy Canuck)
Yeah, ripping press badges off, looks like they’re being sooo accountable and transparent!
Amnesty International is calling for an investigation – probably even more so after last night, when their observers were escorted out.
Sorry for linking one by one right now, has this been linked? Advice for those arrested/jailed, with numbers to call for assistance. And a donation link at the bottom!
On this livefeed right now they’re apparently showing molotov cocktails supposedly recovered from protesters.
Again, link to legal defense fund for those arrested in Ferguson.
Even Sarcastic Rover on Mars has heard of Ferguson.
His expression is priceless. The two of them together are a perfect picture of the racial divide.
Letter from Trayvon Martin’s mom to Mike Brown’s mom.
And even community service is outlawed in Ferguson right now.
Did I miss a thread-shift again?
Freedom of the press? First they shoot them, then they arrest them (Awesome photo, by the way.), despite having an agreement not to arrest the press. I don’t think I’m going to believe any ‘official’ results or ‘witness statements’ out of Ferguson that come from the police…
Ugh, this was supposed to be the awesome photo.
So the revolutionary communists apparently showed up last night. And the residents of Ferguson, once more, show who really cares about the community and the property of its residents.
From an hour ago, the tear gas is still out. Cornering people and shooting (teargas) into residential backyards.
Yeah. And they opened that last press conference with a prayer. A reaction.
That seems to have been a running theme, doesn’t it? People clearly have no way to get out and the police go “welp, totes not dispersing fast enough” and start lobbing tear gas.
Also, that Vine of the two news anchors. You can almost hear what he’s thinking.
This.
It’s all you need to know about how the media treats white suspects vs. black victims.
Ferguson in haiku.
Good protester / Bad protester dynamics and why they are naht gooood.
Cross-posting from the ‘Why would you’ thread: lawyers say autopsy shows MB was surrendering when shot. I presume those are lawyers with some experience in this kind of analysis.
Ergh, I had a tweet where #Ferguson thanked #Palestine for the advice to use milk on teargas, instead of water. Lost it now, but it was… wow.
(Also what dianne said on the other thread about Palestinians even having the time and energy to notice what’s happening in Ferguson…)
Joel Anderson in Ferguson.
Damn, I lost another tweet (Firefox keeps crashing when I open Vines), but it was one of the reporters, saying how, when they were packing up to leave, a young woman grabbed his arm and begged them not to leave (I believe they were being kicked out) because she was afraid of what would happen, she wanted them to stay to make sure the world sees. He said it wasn’t the first time he’d heard the fear that, without the media present, a lot more violence would be unleashed.
People <a href="http://www.kmov.com/news/editors-pick/Protester-talks-to-News-4-after-being-hit-by-tear-gas-271783891.html are going to Ferguson, and being arrested for helping.
Readers at Love Joy Feminism share their experiences. As if we needed any more proof of the ubiquity of the problem.
Five AM and Trymaine Lee checked in from the ground – said it was an improvement that cops didn’t fire tear gas *immediately* when a bottle or two was thrown. AM anchors quote Captain Johnson saying police came under “heavy fire” during the night. (Seriously?) Also that there were 30 arrests due to violence, while showing footage of those dozen people pulled out of the truck bed who were just trying to find a way out of the area and get home.
I’m disappointed in Trymaine this morning, in Captain Johnson, and by MSNBC’s morning news anchors. They’re laughing while the lone black man on their crew tries to explain Obama being accused of “Cosbyism”.
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Making sure I didn’t hear Trymaine wrong. I guess corralling the media away from the people trying to tell what’s happening had an effect.
(twitter)
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To recap from above, the live coverage last night showed that tear gas WAS fired immediately when the few folks determined to be violent did anything more than yell, if that even. They just didn’t blanket the entire area with tear gas all at once. So they bottled up and gassed *fewer* people indiscriminately, and the people were allowed to “keep protesting” while being herded about and arrested?
It’s still a residential neighborhood and that was day 9 of protests that started at noon with witnesses of Brown being shot and his body left lying in the street. How are these people and their kids ever supposed to get any sleep?
MSNBC’s recap. Whoa.
Pteryxx
I’m just wondering that for them, on the ground, maybe last night did seem like an improvement over the previous couple of nights. Not that it looks like it from where I am, plus it just seems like they (the police) have altered a few tactics (no blanket teargas, just individual backyards :P).
Adding my thanks to Pteryxx, Inaji, rq, and everybody else reporting on what’s happening and boosting the signal. It’s at the very least keeping me informed and aware of the situation, and quite probably a lot more who also might not have heard much beyond local news coverage.
I may only be able to do little to carry on the stories and boost the signal myself, but I at the very least know about it now. Thank you.
Without everyone here who has been posting coverage about the events in Ferguson, I would have a very hard time getting informed information that I could trust. Thank you for doing the coverage round up and the minute-by-minute updates.
More journalists arrested. One of them (@rdevro) tweeted last night: “Police have informed us there is a “public safety issue”. Unclear if they’re referring to the suffocating cloud of tear gas they unleashed.”
Related: Obama is the biggest enemy to press freedom in a generation. Judging from his silence on the silencing of reporters, I could agree.
Oooooh, CSIS! Amnesty International has a point, you know!
(Also, no, that’s not the Canadian CSIS.)
The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) really ate that one.
Also, CSIS is pretty Orwellian as a name. Surely the also considered calling themselves The Center for Manifest Destiny?
Thomathy
Depends… how do you pronounce it? (I say ‘see-sis’. Related to ‘big bro’?)
The Saga of AI in Ferguson, in three pictures.
Haha. Well, I didn’t mean the abbreviation, but that works too! I was thinking more along the lines that an American think-tank called ‘strategic’ and ‘international’ that tweets that American intervention internationally has saved lives is a clever(?) stand-in for ‘manifest destiny’.
_____
Those are some poignant photos.
Reports from this morning:
(twitter)
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Article for that last: Hedy Epstein arrested at Ferguson protest
Pteryxx
Heh, I saw photos of Hedy Epstein, and she looks pretty damn defiant for 90 years! Wow.
Racism: less plausible than ghosts. It’s like two completely over-lapping yet different worlds out there. A lot like China Mieville’s The City, as a matter of fact.
Twitter commentary:
(twitter)
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…David Sirota is just unloading in his twitter feed. Warning for hateful racist crap.
(twitter)
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So why was the National Guard there, if it wasn’t at the scene of the protests and police violence?
A general re-cap of why the community has lost faith in Ferguson police. Both articles from the Toronto Star, be warned: they only allow 10 free articles per month without subscription, I’ve been trying to link to the unlocked articles, but not all of them are!
A bit from rq’s second Star article in #335:
(Warning for police brutality)
Collection of tweets from the ground via Feminist Batwoman:
Pteryxx @337
Is that from the same series where they had trouble getting back to their car because of police blocking off streets? :/
A message from Anonymous ( for what it’s worth, I’ve been getting a lot of info from their twitter feed).
Some photos of racism at work: one, two. The second one has humour.
Via BBC, Egypt gets a word in. Egypt!! <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28855811?ocid=socialflow_twitterThe article. Now for a word from Iran…
Also, tips on how to livestream. Don’t know if the photo will show up, it’s a bit wonky for me though that could be my personal browser issues.
How the US would cover it if Ferguson was elsewhere in the world. A bit of perspective. :P
What the cops are thinking.
USA Today reports on support spreading for officer in Ferguson shooting.
From the article:
Except Michael Brown. He doesn’t get to live in a safe world. Or the people being tear-gassed. They don’t get to live in a safe world.
The room temperature in my apartment just plummeted.
Still learning,
Robert
How the US would cover it if Ferguson was elsewhere in the world. A bit of perspective. :P
What the cops are thinking.
Worth a repost.
And this. Locals instigating violence, heh. Right.
Dammit some other links in moderation because I thought I deleted the extra one. But here’s the one about Egypt that just seems… ironic.
THANK YOU!
Hey look, it’s the watergun challenge!
The caption says it all.
In response to the CSIS Tweet Will MCAvoy says:
They’re running out of the new stock, apparently. I just want to laugh-cry at the movie-ridiculousness of this whole developing situation, but unfortunately it’s too real for that.
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/08/19/3472962/washington-football-players-honor-michael-brown-with-hands-up-protest/
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/08/18/3472402/the-rams-invited-ferguson-high-school-football-players-to-their-preseason-game-this-weekend/
rq – well that destroys one of my pet sarcasm theories, namely that the Ferguson and STL PDs brought out all that riot gear because they needed to use the ammo up before its shelf life expired.
Pteryxx
Long shelf life?
Overnight arrests, a list.
Overnight events, with stunning photograph.
Yup, more journalists arrested.
What they mean when they say peace.
Ophelia Benson is chiming in with news from Amnesty International.
The white guy on the left is the one who was trying to incite a riot last night. He came here from Chicago. Via #Antonio French
Cop Being Sued Over Beating Is Now a Ferguson City Councilwoman
This claim is now popping up all over #Ferguson:
[The only photos accompanying this claim are stills from the robbery video]
JustFYI, I’ve been teargassed four times.
Twice in demonstrations, and twice in the Canadian army, which used (uses? don’t know, this was 1983) CS or tear gas as a demonstration vehicle for chemical warfare training. We had to put on our NBC ‘bunny suits’, with gas masks, then do calisthenics and running while wearing the full gear, before taking off our masks, and being required to attempt to sing ‘O Canada’ while being gassed. I did this twice: once in Basic, and again as refresher training when I was posted to the NATO base in West Germany.
It’s extremely unpleasant, and the name doesn’t do it justice. It’s not tears but inability to breathe that is caused. Eyes and exposed mucosa burn painfully for hours, and if you’ve got any respiratory ailments, it can completely incapacitate and disable.
It was less awful when I experienced it outdoors, as the concentration was much lower – sadism being endemic in military trainers, they often dangerously overdid the use of CS in gas huts – but it’s still a less-than-lethal (NOT non-lethal) form of chemical warfare, outlawed in war by the Geneva Conventions.
That they’re using it on unarmed protesters is thoroughly outragepus, and should be completely illegal. But who’s going to stop the police from using it? Not other police, that much is sure, especially when the victims were foolish enough to Breathe While Black.
Apparently, tear gas is popular in the US.
CSIS apologizes for that ‘suck it’ tweet to Amnesty.
Inaji
People should listen to Antonio French more.
Tweeted as an exercise: replace ‘cop’ and ‘police officer’ with ‘man’ everywhere in this article and see how it sounds. :/
CDC statistics on asthma in the USA.
African Americans have the highest rate of asthma in the US, 11.9%. If the police don’t stop, it’s only a matter of time before the tear gas is killing people.
Someone’s against those voting booths, for some odd reason.
Mayor James Knowles: “There is not a racial divide in the city of #Ferguson” http://on.msnbc.com/XychPK
Another list of Ferguson arrests, and – another shooting in St Louis.
rq:
Yeah, they should. I made sure to include the pic & link of the white agitator in today’s blog post.
rq:
Jesus Christ, it’s Cops Gone Berserk!
As the news goes world-wide, some regimes will never let the US forget its hypocrisy. Going to be tough to recover from this one.
Oh, and forgot this one – the KKK denounces the KKK. Now what does that tell you?
Front page of St Louis Post-Dispatch. Impressive. *urk*
I’m with him ^. So, someone is stoned. I’d buy their being aggressive…toward a package of oreos or a bag of doritos. A cop? Not so much.
Reefer madness? In 2014? Really?
I just learned recently about the history of why we call it marijuana and not hemp. It was an attempt to racialize it by calling it by its Spanish name- to associate it with people’s racist ideas about Mexico & Mexicans.
More on that other shooting.
And was this ever on CNN?
Police officer threatens Al Jazeera journalist- on film
rq:
Just talking with Mister about that. Why in the hell wasn’t he tased? A cop can fire a taser from a distance, wouldn’t be in danger from a knife. Mister says: it costs around $90 to fire a taser. Bullets are cheap.
Fuck, I hate events that drive such god awful cynicism. I feel like it’s killing me.
Damn. A friend just passed this on to me at Facebook. It’s not directly related to the killing of Michael Brown, but it is definitely an example of the lack of oversight for police departments across the country. It’s also another case of parents losing a child due to the actions of police officers:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/what-i-did-after-police-killed-my-son-110038_Page2.html#.U_OdZvldWeM
Aaaaaaand speaking of cops, there’s this: Georgia officials refuse to pay medical bills of toddler hurt in SWAT raid
Ferguson unrest: Egypt urges US to show restraint
Please Know, World, Black Lives Do Matter
From Inaji’s link @373:
Hell yes. ↑This↑
Michael Brown shooting: The poignant signs of protesters in Ferguson and beyond
On Twitter: ‘Black lives matter too’: The powerful signs behind the violence on the streets of Ferguson
What Happens When Police Officers Wear Body Cameras
Tony:
Yeah, that. I included it in today’s blog post. Powerful words, but you know, they shouldn’t have to be said. That those words have to be said, in so many ways, by so many people, and that those words are ignored by substantial amounts of white people in 2014? Fuckin’ bad.
Hedy Epstein on Ferguson:
Furious crowd at scene of officer-involved shooting four miles from #Ferguson.
New video shows Mike Brown paying for his cigars.
best comment there:
Trayvon Martin’s Mom: ‘If They Refuse to Hear Us, We Will Make Them Feel Us’
Around the world, US now a failed state (and yes, in Russia, ‘Afromaidan’ is now apparently a thing).
Who called the human shields tweeters? PZ himself? Dang. What does he win?
The Army and Civil Unrest, a primer.
Funny, yet so not funny.
Some questions about the kill-switch in phones. Verdict: unclear.
More in a bit.
Inaji
Yeah, I linked to a BBC article about Egypt upthread (or in the other one?), pretty freaky stuff. Plus, apparently China is getting all smug about the situation here and US hypocrisy on human rights. This is going to be a tough one to forget, internationally speaking. :/
So, in the last 24 hours:
(1) Police in Ferguson tear gassed unarmed peaceful protestors, including children. Again.
(2) Police in Ferguson driving a MRAP (because IEDs are a problem in suburbia?) played chicken with a group of people on foot.
(3) Police in Ferguson fired teargas into people’s yards and houses. Again.
(4) Police in Ferguson harassed/threatened media.
(5) Police in St. Louis arrested a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor for standing in a doorway.
(6) A CNN anchor wondered on air why the police in Ferguson weren’t using water cannons. She got an epic side-eye from her (black) co-anchor for this.
I’ve said it from the beginning; the Ferguson PD is entirely corrupt, and they’ve known it for at least a decade, tried to replace the police chief in 2010 to start curbing it, but that’s simply not good enough.
the entire police department, ALONG WITH the county prosecutor’s office, needs a complete overhaul from the ground up.
with federal monitoring for several years afterwards.
rq:
Oh, I don’t think it will be forgotten. We’re gonna reap the whirlwind on this one.
Here’s a photo from the other shooting in St Louis, I’m hearing twitter-rumours of increasing unrest. Any news on that?
75 arrested last night for “failure to disperse.” 6 reporters arrested doing their job. 1 amendment killed. (That photo is worth 10,000 words).
Arrested for being out at night without Free Papers.
One of the people being arrested is EyeFloodPanties, the young man in the iconic photo throwing the tear gas canister away from himself and other protesters. The woman in the other photo, she gets a rifle in the face, and a line of fucking cops converging on her.
Dragging out the white man’s burden:
Missouri lt. gov.: We need ‘Anglo-American’ justice in Ferguson, not racial protests
This is 2014, right?
Just ordered two shirts from http://teespring.com/operationhelporhush1
I just saw a meme go by. Truly gorgeous.
The image shows a burnt-out storefront, with a white man (identified as the owner) standing in front of it, with this text (identified as a quote from him):
(a twitpic version of this image can be found here)
Shop owner in Ferguson speaks, accurately for once.
The real looters in Ferguson, a summary of the financial situation.
Governor of Missouri – doxed?
With that, I’m out for the night. I’ll pick up the baton tomorrow morning again. Wishing for a peaceful evening/night out there is probably futile, right?
G’night, rq, stay safe, and thank you for the continued curating.
Good night, rq. So appreciative of all your work. No dreams.
i’m glad to see the American media finally starting to look at the underlying issues.
oh, wait.
Michael Brown shooting: help the world hear your police racial profiling story
Good night rq and great job. I’ve taken to updating my blog twice a day (maybe more today) with the various updates provided by you and everyone else.
my prediction:
Wilson will not be convicted on felony charges in criminal court.
He will be sued in civil court for violating Brown’s civil rights, and lose there instead.
corollary: Initially at least, the Ferguson PD will be included in the civil suit. Also just as likely will settle out of court with victim’s family before it reaches full court.
What I’m interested in is whether the entire PD can be brought to trial somehow for their ridiculous behavior during the protests for the past week. But that’s probably a pipe dream.
anteprepro
They can probably be sued. Hey, maybe they’ll have to sell all that fancy equipment to settle!
A volunteer and a young girl play Sorry! at the Wellspring Church. They’re in need of games for older kids #Ferguson
CNN anchor: National Guard in #Ferguson used the N-word (VIDEO) http://bit.ly/1oZC1K0 pic.twitter.com/lqwj96tXA5
She gave out FREE water & other stuff to protestors & press only to get maced by police. #Ferguson
Why are white people scared of black people’s rage at Mike Brown’s death?