Bucking the Backlash

off topic open thread racism

No indictment: Open thread to discuss Ferguson

Post author By David Futrelle
Post date November 24, 2014
123 Comments on No indictment: Open thread to discuss Ferguson

Not photoshopped. Police gather under holiday sign in Ferguson tonight.

Open thread on Ferguson. No trolls, no MRAs, etc.

Post useful links in the comments; I’ll add some to the post.

EDIT: Links after the jump.

Protest planned in Toronto

Petitions:

https://www.change.org/p/robert-p-mcculloch-prosecute-officer-darren-wilson-for-the-unlawful-shooting-that-killed-18-year-old-michael-brown

http://iam.colorofchange.org/petitions/governor-nixon-remove-mcculloch-and-appoint-a-special-prosecutor-in-the-case-against-darren-wilson-1

Bail and legal fund for the protesters:

http://antistatestl.noblogs.org/post/2014/08/11/bail-and-legal-fund-for-those-arrested-during-ferguson-anti-police-demonstrations/

Articles on what’s going on:

http://journolist.tumblr.com/post/94563772619/michael-brown-remembered-as-a-gentle-giant-st

10 ways you can help the people of Ferguson:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/19/how-to-help-ferguson_n_5688541.html

Grand juries indict 99.99% of the time (literally)

Darren Wilson’s “injuries?”

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-photos-of-darren-wilsons-injury/383155/

Transcript: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/11/24/darren-wilson-testimony-snippet.pdf

The full grand jury report: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2014/nov/25/darren-wilson-not-indicted-ferguson

Home-made tear gas mask tutorial: http://black-culture.tumblr.com/post/94529711883/hey-guys-i-need-your-help-spreading-this-on-social

Petition #HandsUp: We Demand National Change to Protect Citizens and Communities from Police Violence and Misconduct: https://www.change.org/p/president-barack-obama-we-demand-national-change-to-protect-citizens-and-communities-from-police-violence-and-misconduct

Donations to collaborate with the legal fund for the people arrested in protests in Ferguson: https://secure.piryx.com/donate/mS25KFCe/MORE/mikebrown

Edmonton protest: http://allthecanadianpolitics.tumblr.com/post/103532910989/edmonton-protest-for-justice-for-mike-brown-and

A letter from the forensics office complaining that they had not been given adequate access to the crime scene evidence to make a ruling

Update on the situation in Ferguson: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/11/25/3596782/ferguson-the-morning-after/

THE NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION RESPONDS TO THE GRAND JURY’S DECISION NOT TO INDICT POLICE OFFICER DARREN WILSON

http://gawker.com/the-shooting-in-darren-wilsons-words-michael-brown-loo-1663023343

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/25/i_am_utterly_undone_my_struggle_with_black_rage_and_fear_after_ferguson/

A list for donations you can give to Ferguson’s schools:

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/search.html?bigMap=true&nwLat=38.92064&nwLng=-90.75600&seLat=38.43068&seLng=-90.03502

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Cthulhu's Intern

9 years ago

Have you seen Darren Wilson’s “injuries?”
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-photos-of-darren-wilsons-injury/383155/

I had worse injuries that time I hit my head on the top of a door frame (It’s a long, embarrassing story…)

mildlymagnificent

9 years ago

I suppose I’m like everyone else. Disappointed, sad, horrified, resigned, near to tears, all at the one time.

The most amazing thing of all that underlines this, is that this expression of community outrage is so uncommon. A young black man, even a kid occasionally, is killed by police somewhere in America about every 28 hours.

White Americans should thank their lucky stars that their black communities are so disheartened and defeated that these kinds of things aren’t happening all the time.

mildlymagnificent

9 years ago

As for the no indictment. Ppfffft. They had 5, FIVE, possible options for indictment. And they couldn’t bring themselves even to go with the weakest option among them, even as a token gesture towards accountability.

Johanna Roberts

9 years ago

I have family on face book reminding me why I hate facebook. And dislike members of my family. :/ “Black Lives Matter” was met with a lot of racist shit from family.

katz

9 years ago

Stop the planet, I want off.

weirwoodtreehugger

9 years ago

I wonder if my racist right wing Christian fundie uncle will be at thanksgiving. The last time I saw him about a month ago he brought up Trayvon Martin and started talking about what a thug he is. I have to imagine he’ll bring Ferguson hope. Maybe he won’t be there. Sometimes he has to work on holidays.

friday jones

9 years ago

Yeah, the red mark on the right side of the face could very well have come from wildly firing his service weapon in his car without a good grip on it. Was Brown even left-handed?

CirceMoon

9 years ago

I’m going to crawl into a hole and hibernate for a few thousand years. Wake me up when humanity doesn’t suck so unbelievably horribly and we have neat things like equality and no more hunger and starships and, you know, no young men getting murdered because they were born with the wrong skin color.

Not only is the lack of indictment insanely distressing, but the fuckers who are now gloating about it rub salt in the wound, wash it out with rubbing alcohol, and then set it on fire. In short, they make it infinitely worse. Like katz, I want off of the planet. Or at least to go into hibernation.

ignorantianescia

9 years ago

Todd Kincannon (a Gater) being horrible:

http://www.donotlink.com/cnkl

9 years ago

ParadoxicalIntention, you nailed it.

Cthulhu's Intern

9 years ago

Well, I’m reading his testimony right now, friday, and unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to tell exactly what he’s saying, since it seems that he used gestures to indicate where he was hit and what hand was used, but he says that Brown used his right hand first to punch. The only way he would’ve hit Wilson’s right side of the face was if he was entirely turned around. Yet there isn’t even a mark on that side.

…Seriously, there needed to be a trial here.

Cthulhu's Intern

9 years ago

Here’s the transcript, by the way. That’s where I found it: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/11/24/darren-wilson-testimony-snippet.pdf

lkeke35

9 years ago

I’m mostly just baffled. I’m mostly baffled at certain subsections of the American public who are so full of bile against Black people (and it’s specifically Black people, as no other groups of people seem to get this level of ire) that they will celebrate anything-absolutely any behavior- that they think will hurt us. People who hate us so badly, they they will harm themselves and vote against their own self interests if they think that somehow they can hurt us while doing so.

I think most black people are baffled at the narratives that have been created around our lives- that we are, somehow, so vile and such a bane on human existence, that we deserve to be treated like vermin. What’s baffling to me are the people who fully support such arguments, like WWTH’s uncle, for example.

Why!

Everytime I think I have no more tears left..I keep screaming why? How can a group of people be so hated that there are people will advocate for the death of our children? That no matter where we are,or what we do, we deserve to die?What kind of person can you be to say such things? Does someone like that even know what they’re saying? What they’re being when they say such things?

I just don’t understand! I don’t understand that level of hatred and indifference.

mildlymagnificent

9 years ago

…Seriously, there needed to be a trial here.

Yup. It hadn’t occurred to me but the commenters at Pharyngula, some of them being lawyers, have pointed out that the mere, simple fact that the grand jury sat for 70 hours considering evidence means — all by itself — that there was enough evidence for a trial to consider. That 70 hours they spent considering and arguing over the evidence, that the prosecutor is so proud of, means that the grand jury has already gone way beyond the scope of a grand jury proceeding.

9 years ago

I also don’t have anything smart, or we’ll reasoned to say.

I just know that my heart is breaking for the Brown family, and for your country as a whole which, to an outsider, seems so tragically and fundamentally broken.

paythepiper (@demonsthenes13)

9 years ago

http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k620/demonsthenese13/2014-11-25_042756_zps7eb9fc0d.jpg

Somebody took the opportunity to not only try to make this about Gamergate, but to make a fake tweet screencap about the one who made the Gamergate blocklist. I just made this current screencap as it popped up in the livefeed. As if I didn’t have a bad enough headache before.

9 years ago

The full grand jury report: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2014/nov/25/darren-wilson-not-indicted-ferguson

Home-made tear gas mask tutorial: http://black-culture.tumblr.com/post/94529711883/hey-guys-i-need-your-help-spreading-this-on-social

Petition #HandsUp: We Demand National Change to Protect Citizens and Communities from Police Violence and Misconduct: https://www.change.org/p/president-barack-obama-we-demand-national-change-to-protect-citizens-and-communities-from-police-violence-and-misconduct

Donations to collaborate with the legal fund for the people arrested in protests in Ferguson: https://secure.piryx.com/donate/mS25KFCe/MORE/mikebrown

Michael Lindsay

9 years ago

I sort of knew this would happen but it doesn’t make it suck any less.

palmedfire

9 years ago

I’m sadly, not surprised. Not happy at all, but not surprised.

I think what pisses me off… not more, but more personally is the friend of mine who is a police officer who’s said they’re taking a break from the internet ’cause they can’t handle the vitriol being thrown at people like them. Which, on the one hand I can understand, esp. since said friend is dealing with depression at the moment and I know people making blanket condemnations of your job can be hard to deal with.

On the other hand it feels a whole lot like #NotAllCops >.<

DL

9 years ago

This makes me feel ill right to the core. I can’t even imagine the feelings of the people this affects the most, I can only hope the best for them.

And then there are people who have the audacity to say that this isn’t about race when the actual KKK is walking down the streets. It’s disgusting

titianblue

9 years ago

Thanks for putting up the links, folks. I will donate to the bail & legal fees fund when I get to my home laptop.

Although I lived for 7 years in the US, with my white, English-accent privilege, I have no real understanding of what it must be like to be there without those protections. But I can try and help in some small way because otherwise I shall be crying in anger at what has been done to people in Ferguson and everywhere else, for that matter.

9 years ago

I read in several places how the prosecutor was using the Grand Jury to avoid charging the officer. I strongly suspect he and the judge made sure the jury was weighted in favour of the police as well as not emphasising the critical facts.

ralmcg

9 years ago

I’m mostly just baffled. I’m mostly baffled at certain subsections of the American PUBLIC who are so full of bile against Black people (and it’s specifically Black people, as no other groups of people seem to get this level of ire) that they will celebrate anything-absolutely any behavior- that they think will hurt us. People who hate us so badly, they they will harm themselves and vote against their own self interests if they think that somehow they can hurt us while doing so.

I think most black people are baffled at the narratives that have been created around our lives- that we are, somehow, so vile and such a bane on human existence, that we deserve to be treated like vermin. What’s baffling to me are the people who fully SUPPORT such arguments, like WWTH’s uncle, for example.

Why!

Everytime I think I have no more tears left..I keep screaming why? How can a group of people be so hated that there are people will advocate for the DEATH of our children? That no matter where we are,or what we do, we deserve to die?What kind of person can you be to say such things? Does someone like that even know what they’re saying? What they’re being when they say such things?

I just don’t understand! I don’t understand that level of hatred and indifference.

I’ll try to answer your question. At least some of the White people believe themselves to be members of the master race, entitled to most, if not all, of the good things in life (i.e. good paying jobs, living without fear). They see others, especially Black people, as threats to their good life. So they would use, or applaud, any means, including police shooting unarmed Black people, to prevent the other people from having a good life.

That’s my humble opinion, anyway.

ralmcg

9 years ago

Sorry, I blockquoted my response.

9 years ago

Been following this all night, this prosecutor is no prosecutor and should be disbarred. There were peaceful protestors in Ferguson but you won’t hear about that unless you look for it. Community leaders and the ACLU were tear gassed in an enclosed space. The protests were facilitated by a militarized preemptive response and delaying the announcement so that provocateurs could function under cover of darkness. I feel there were surely those who went out there intending to burn; I also believe there were whites and KKK present to do the same so black protestors would be blamed.

The way the county and city have handled this is utterly disgraceful and shows how little respect they have for the citizens. The decision was known midday and should have been announced before dark. I think the dacision was a foregone conclusion with this prosecutor and a 9/3 white jury.

I am so ashamed to be an american today.

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