Beyond appalling.
Please post useful links, pics, videos. I will update this post with more.
Video of demonstration, police firing teargas and rubber bullets.
Ferguson Is 60 Percent Black. Virtually All Its Cops Are White.
Google News Realtime coverage of Ferguson
So, from what some of what I’m reading in comments and articles and tumblr (I remembered my old password) the pro-police people are saying the protesters were gassed because they had begun to loot a McDonald’s, which locked down and called for help. What the protesters were ‘looting’ is milk to cleanse the eyes of tear gas victims.
My blood. It is boiling. As an activist myself, I am so sick of only seeing the side of those in power represented on the mainstream media. The people who are defending those cops don’t even know what they are talking about.
The video is dark and hard to see but it apparently depicts police throwing gas at people who are in their own yards. https://vine.co/v/M3iWetEFMPu
Just watched the video, and that is very obviously an armored vehicle rolling through a residential neighborhood and launching either smoke bombs or tear gas at people. That is just unconscionable.
Also, in my Tumblr adventures tonight, I have found this quote by Charles Clymer and I have to share: “White people might be afraid of being accused of racism, but people of color are afraid of being killed because of it.” (Note: I also appreciate the line this is a play off of. The oppression of all minorities are so closely intertwined that the concept of choosing to fight for only one group doesn’t even make sense to me.)
“Looting” is such a disgusting, racialized term. Look at the way it was used in the wake of Katrina, where white people were described as having “found” food and other necessities while black people were described as having “looted” them. Except same images, person towing stuff through flooded city, but difference descriptions of what they were doing based on race.
I remember in the wake of the LA uprising following the Rodney King verdicts, I was visiting my fairly conservative relatives in San Diego and we got into a discussion (which was probably a mistake) about “looting” — and I got totally unexpected support from my Baptist cousin-in-law. She said, “I saw a man on TV, and he was coming out of a grocery store with a big box of Pampers and a jug of milk. I can’t begrudge any parent doing what they need to do to take care of their babies when all heck is breaking loose outside.” I’ve always been fond of her since that day.
And not to be too ominous, but I hear “calling in the National Guard” and it evokes US labor history for me. Traditionally, the National Guard was called in when the powers-that-be expected to have to use violence against strikers and were afraid their local police would be reluctant to shoot at the people they saw every day.
On the other hand, it appears that local law enforcement are all too willing to shoot at the people they see every day, as long as they’re Black.
Maybe it’s just not possible to be too ominous about this situation.
I don’t see how the way this has unfolded can cause anyone to think otherwise. You know what’s sad? The moment that I had some genuine hope that things would get better is when that senator got tear gassed. I thought (with no small amount of disgusted cynicism) that here was something that can’t. and won’t, be ignored. And yet, here we are.
When the press are being so blatantly and openly threatened and suppressed and things still don’t change, everyone really has to take a long, hard look at the Land of the Free.
So, while the reddit crowd was initially fairly sympathetic towards the protestors, the hivemind has taken a strong turn the other direction. Just like with the Martin shooting, the physical size of the murdered teen keeps growing (I saw a highly upvoted comment claiming Martin was over seven feet tall) and the racism keeps getting stronger and stronger.
The whole thing looks like a tragic version of the ending of the Blues Brothers, where the “law enforcement” attempts keep escalating and escalating to absurd heights totally out of proportion to what is actually going on and creating more and more havok in the process.
So, women can’t be allowed to care about a black guy being shot? Well, fuck that noise. This woman (a pastor!) was shot with a rubber bullet while praying for peace and justice at a demo. (And yes, she’s also white!)
Social justice is a feminist issue, even if a given issue doesn’t immediately concern women. And racism is an issue that white people can and MUST deal with, along with sexism, LGBT-phobias, etc. These issues are all not only parallel, they are intersectional. So dealing with them intersectionally and in parallel makes perfect sense; after all, bigotries tend to cluster, so why shouldn’t the responses to them? All anyone has to do is make the mental connections…and do what they’d want someone else doing for them if they were in the same boat. (Which we all are, of course — even if it doesn’t appear that way at first.)
If a woman gets blamed for a man raping her, an LGBT person gets bashed for “upsetting” the homophobes, Palestinians are getting bombed out of house and home in Gaza because Hamas this and that, and a black kid gets blamed for a white cop shooting him, it’s obvious that there are things in common here. The problem is victim-blaming, either way. That’s an injustice by definition, and it cannot be left unaddressed. Or unprotested.
BTW: This is from the Onion, but it hurts too much to laugh…this sort of mindset is all too likely exactly what kids like Mike Brown and Trayvon have to deal with all the time. All the same, it points up just how ridiculous and impossible it is to go blaming victims. If you have the stomach, or just need a sardonic laugh, go ahead and read.
Otherwise, there’s this:
(Apologies if anything I’ve linked has been posted already; I’ve been offline for the last few days due to a lightning strike that fried my phone line and modem, and just got back on last night. I’ve been skimming the threads and playing catch-up. Hope I haven’t stepped on anyone’s toes!)
I wish I had the money and support network that would allow me to travel to protest, but I don’t. Even if I did, as an asthmatic I am afraid of dying from being tear gassed or pepper sprayed. That or just getting shot to death by cops. One day, I’m going to have to get over that and just do it anyway. Things have gotten so out of hand in this country.
That little boy could have died. These nonlethal weapons aren’t nonlethal in all cases and our police force does not care.
The grocery store has released the video showing Brown paying for the cigars.
The store owners are very concerned that they are going to be targeted by the police.
It was a brave move on their part from everything I have read … I applaud them for it.
This past weekend, our older son went to visit a friend of his. When it was time to come home, his dad (my husband) was away and couldn’t pick him up. So he walked home.
When he got home, I made sure to text my husband to let him know he’d gotten home all right. We were both quite relieved.
This is how we live today. We don’t teach them fear, but the fact that they don’t leave the house that often doesn’t seem like the biggest problem.
The grocery store has released the video showing Brown paying for the cigars.
Wow – do you think anyone in the police force will be held to account for lying about the situation?
Yeah – I can hear the cynical laughter from here…
[Content note: violence, medical ickiness]
Aaaaand the (external) autopsy report appears to show no signs of a struggle and matches more closely with eyewitness reports that Brown had his hands up and his head down, then it does with the police account of the incident. The lawyers are saying it’s proof that he was surrendering when shot, but the medical examiner is hedging his bets and saying it’s not impossible he was charging into the cop with his head down.
Source: Michael Brown shooting: family says autopsy shows teenager was surrendering when killed
No wonder the authorities didn’t release all the info at once. None of it seems to be helping them much.
Is there a link for that, bewilderness? If that’s confirmed it pretty much destroys the entire police attempt to circumstantially incriminate Brown after the fact.
Oh boy, would I ever love to see that. Gonna see what teh googlez coughs up for me.
I thought I saw an article confirming that Michael Brown paid for the cigars last night, but I was so exhausted and burnt out that I went to sleep instead of following up. Now I can’t find any of the links. For the sake of those who might be following along, could you post a link thebewilderness?
For anyone who enjoys biting wit in these troubled times, here is John Oliver’s take on this.
Here’s one take of the video of Brown apparently paying: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017210083
Here’s Popehat talking about why the alleged robbery may or may not matter if Wilson is ever charged: http://www.popehat.com/2014/08/17/lawsplainer-how-mike-browns-alleged-robbery-of-a-liquor-store-matters-and-how-it-doesnt/#more-22589
In sum: it’s irrelevant, and serves only to muddy the waters, at which it may succeed.
And here’s an article about the problems with Ferguson PD’s need for cash and how it contributes to harassment of black people. On top of the other background stories that have come out about the town, this definitely contributes to the picture of a place where black people have a reason to fear the police overstepping their authority.
Ho
Lee
Shit
I thought it was shameful and dishonest that they used shoplifting as an excuse for killing a teenager. These cops are scum. They shouldn’t be putting people in prison. They show be put in prison.
The video of Michael Brown paying for the cigars is irrelevant to the case, true. But it does prove just how dishonest the police have been in their dealings during this case and that is important evidence. Everyone should know just how deeply their manipulation and lies run. I couldn’t even find an article about Michael Brown’s innocence when I googled it, and that just infuriates me. One of these mainstream news sites need to be on top of the truth.
All right, I’m going to read the rest of these links now.
I meant to say the video was irrelevant to Michael Brown’s murder, but not irrelevant to the actions of the police. Just to clarify.
It gets better (and by better, of course, I mean much worse). The prosecutor who’d ultimately make the decision about whether to charge Darren Wilson, and what with, is the same guy who’s worked closely with the police for 23 years and whose father was a cop, killed in the line of duty. Oh also he slammed the decision to replace the local PD cops with State troopers, claiming it was an insult to the police officers.
Funnily enough there’s a big push from the community to try and get a special prosecutor appointed, and take this guy off the case. For some wacky reason they think he might be a little biased in favour of the police.
Source: Justice for Michael Brown Rests Almost Entirely in the Hands of This One Man.
Jon Oliver said it well. Even if he stole the cigars, it would be completely irrelevent. Theft does not get the death penalty. Literally the only reason it was brought up at all was because the police needed to find some way to subtly hint that Michael somehow deserved it.
Basically this.
I’m white. I was given a small sword by a friend that I carried home one night. I was swinging it around for fun (I know), and somebody driving by must have called the police. Not only was I not shot (or even cuffed or really threatened), but after explaining what I was doing and being called an idiot, the police officer drove me home and gave me back the sword without filing a report.
Fuck. The. Police.