Discussion for article #226378
Jay Nixon needs to come in on this now. He looks like the aloof Pete Wilson during the LA riots at the moment. There are lots of things that can be done to de-escalate the situation.
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Funny, when I was watching this live last night the protesters were not the ones that escalated things.
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When all your tools are hammers, all your problems look like nails.
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“…in the wake of the shooting of the unarmed 18-year old…”
This is what Second Amendment remedies look like. Right, conservatives?
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Another example of using American militarized policing to crack down on dissent. We seen this at the Occupy protests and at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. An interesting, informative article titled: “11 Eye-Opening Facts About America’s Militarized Police Forces” has this:
at least $34 billion in DHS grants have gone to police agencies to buy military-style equipment. This money has gone to purchase drones, tactical vests, bomb-disarming robots, tanks and more.
According to the ACLU, Arpaio’s Maricopa County department has acquired a machine gun so powerful it could tear through buildings on multiple city blocks. In addition, he has 120 assault rifles, five armored vehicles and ten helicopters. Other law enforcement agencies in Arizona have obtained equipment like bomb suits and night-vision goggles.
The trend towards police militarization has given military contractors another lucrative market where they can shop their products. Companies like Lockheed Martin and Blackhawk Industries are making big bucks by selling their equipment to agencies flush with Department of Homeland Security grants.
To “protect and serve” is so yesterday. Intimidate and terrorize is the new motto.
There’s more:
In 2007, Clayton County, Georgia — whose sheriff once complained that the drug war was being fought like Vietnam, and should instead be fought more like the D-Day invasion at Normandy — got its own tank through the Pentagon’s transfer program. Nearby Cobb County got its tank in 2008. In Richland County, South Carolina, Sheriff Leon Lott procured an M113A1 armored personnel carrier in 2008. The vehicle moves on tank-like tracks, and features a belt-fed, turreted machine gun that fires .50-caliber rounds, a type of ammunition so powerful that even the military has restrictions on how it’s used on the battlefield. Lott named his vehicle “The Peacemaker.”
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Not releasing the name of the officer is needlessly inflaming the situation. Protecting him against threats is a rather lame excuse, since it places all the other officers under suspicion and exposes them to threats,
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I see the MSM is getting a “VERY RUDE” awakening here in Ferguson.Mo.
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Anonymous is reportedly going to name the officer: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/anonymous-ferguson-police-killing-unarmed-michael-brown
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The National Guard needs to round up every last one of these filthy cops and get them off the streets. And if one of them so much as twitches, do to him what they did to Michael Brown: shoot first and ask no questions later.
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JFK and Bobby Kennedy wouldn’t sit idly by with so many obvious civil rights breakdowns happening in our large urban areas…the country is near the tipping point. Most whites (none Republican whites anyways) in America realize this is a huge problem.
IN the meantime, Obama is on the Vineyard golfing and acting like a white man Vs working for his people who have been getting screwed for years! Is Eric Holder playing golf with Obama? What the hell is wrong with Obama…when will he ever grow a pair?
What’s even worse, indicated by your second quote, is there is essentially an arms race going on between various police departments. Clayton County wanted their tank because…Cobb County already had one.
I mean in what scenario would cops in a metro area, or any area for that matter, need a tank? The military doesn’t even like to use them in urban fighting because that’s when they are most vulnerable.
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These leaders don’t care about the problems in the black community. They only care about getting 90-95% of their vote every two years and they are rewarded election after election. Yet, conservatives are suppose to answer the question, “What are you going to do for the black community in this country?” But it hasn’t been conservatives that have been running these cities for the last 40+ years, it has been liberal democrats.
So when will the black community who keeps giving 90-95% of their vote to this same political party, start asking them, “What have you actually done for us in the 40+ years?”
Except for driving middle class and upper middle class people into the suburbs.
What the hell is he suppose to do? As soon as he steps into this he is no longer the President, but an uppity black man barging in. It’s like some of you haven’t been around for the past six years and have not a clue how the political world works today when it comes to the President. Oh yeah I forgot, any reason to bash on Pres. Obama, no matter how idiotic the argument.
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“It’s pretty amazing how impressed I am and inspired by these officers,” he said"
They have absolutely no clue how tone deaf they are. None. Quite frankly the best thing both of these police chiefs could do is STFU at this point. Every statement the makes is exasperating the situation. I am just waiting for the repeat of the Kent State quote, which was something like…we spend x amount of dollars training this national guard and they only killed 4 of the sobs??
and then there is this…
“Jackson said Wednesday that the officer involved sustained swelling facial injuries.”
Aww…how sad. They are so concerned that the officer got a boo boo but they still won’t even release how many times Brown was shot. Let alone Mr. Boo Boo on his face’s name. At least it looks like Anonymous is going to take care of that little oversight today.
And, finally…this:
"urged law enforcement agencies to “keep the peace and respect the rights of residents and the press.”
Arrest the national press corp and suddenly Governor Nixon has an interest in the situation. Enough that he is even going to find time in his oh so busy schedule to pay a visit.
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Have the police said what law gives them the right to evict all the customers from a McDonald’s?
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The story Michael Brown’s friend tells is all too believable, and the story the police tell isn’t believable at all. It’s no wonder the town erupted. I don’t know what the police can do to regain the community’s trust, and it may be that another entity, like the state or the Justice Department, has to take over and do an independent investigation. And then this society has to make up its mind that we can’t have irrationally fearful and violent people, whether cops or civilians, killing young black men for no reason and getting away with it. That’s real tyranny, and nobody should tolerate it. Police don’t need tanks and SWAT teams to keep a community calm. They just need to be trusted.
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I hope the body has a federally supervised second autopsy done to verify that any marks on victims hands were done before death.
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" crowds who threw Molotov cocktails"
I’m sorry, but I want two sources on this.No media outlet that I Know of has said anything about this, and with the pasting the cops have been taking in that same media, if someone was tossing gas and wax around, I’d be pretty willing to bet that the cops would have been screaming about “provocation” and all that.
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Not just reporters: (KMOV.com) –St. Louis Alderman Antonio French has been released from police custody after being arrested Wednesday night during a protest in Ferguson.
French’s wife told News 4’s Matt Sczesny he was charged with unlawful assembly and would be in jail for 24 hours.
French has been using social media to document the events happening in Ferguson in the wake of the officer-involved killing of Michael Brown.
French was released from police custody Thursday morning around 7:10 a.m.
In fact, one of the police demands before the ear -splitting riot sound device, tear gas and rubber bullets is for all cameras and video cameras to be shut off.
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