The Ferguson Market and Liquor store. Police observed from the
protection of armored vehicles, drawing full pay, and made no attempt
to stop them.
Remus has a few words for you about the North Saint Louis dustup. Let's start with some empty calories from DC:
President Barack Obama called the police shooting death of an unarmed black teenager a tragedy and called on Tuesday for thoughtful response after two nights of violent protests, looting, arrests and tear gas in a St. Louis suburb. He promised a full investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the case, which has provoked outrage in the largely African-American town of Ferguson.
Carey Gillam at reuters.com
Isn't that just too precious. Lets look at the "largely African-American town of Ferguson":
Ferguson is about 10 miles north of downtown St. Louis... About two-thirds of residents are now black. Fewer than half of the approximately 9,100 homes are owner-occupied, and about a quarter of residents live below the federal poverty level. Several North County school districts—including the Normandy system from which Brown recently graduated—have lost state accreditation because of declining test scores and other academic shortcomings.
Alan Zagier at sunherald.com
The "unarmed teen", Michael Brown, was a six-foot four, 292 pound
18-year-old
gangsta 
who was wanted, along with an accomplice ,
for a strong arm convenience store robbery committed minutes before his
attempted apprehension and death. Video and stills of that assault and
robbery have been released:
who was wanted, along with an accomplice ,
for a strong arm convenience store robbery committed minutes before his
attempted apprehension and death. Video and stills of that assault and
robbery have been released:
Jim Hoft at thegatewaypundit.com
There is no dashcam video of the subsequent
shooting, perhaps the Ferguson police blew their budget on armored
vehicles and tactical gear and a helicopter, but the first reports
looked bad:
Controversial shooting... You mean the apparent fact that the kid was shot in the back? It is alleged that the deceased assaulted the cop and attempted to grab his gun. However, it appears that the suspect was shot multiple times outside of the vehicle and he was unarmed and leaving—that is, after the confrontation in the vehicle... Shooting unarmed people that are not actively attacking you tends to be a pretty good way to rile up the population. After all the ordinary citizen who does that sort of thing is usually staring down a Murder or Manslaughter charge, but when the cops do it the worst thing that usually happens is that they get paid leave off for a while.
Karl Denninger at market-ticker.org
As always, these early reports may have been more
rumor than fact. They were, after all, based on the story told by his
accomplice, repeated elsewhere and embellished in the social media.
Whether the "suspect" was shot in the back or not will be known soon
enough.
Update, August 18th: Michael Brown... was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed on Sunday found. One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury... Mr. Brown, 18, was also shot four times in the right arm, he said, adding that all the bullets were fired into his front.
Dr. Michael Baden, autopsy, via mobile.nytimes.com
Baden's autopsy found that Brown was shot at least six times—twice in the head—and that all of the bullets struck him in the front, the New York Times reported late Sunday. The bullets did not appear to have been fired from close range because no gunpowder was found on Brown's body, the newspaper reported. Dorian Johnson, a friend who was with Brown and ran from the scene during the shooting, has said through an attorney that Brown was shot in the back.
Brown, Thibodeaux and Markon at washingtonpost.com
A Ferguson police officer tells it this way:
"Josie", Ferguson PD, to Dana Loesch, via Jim Hoft at thegatewaypundit.com
Boiling away beneath this incident is another
problem, the militarized police. We no longer speak of peace officers or
police departments. They've come to be known as law enforcement officers and police forces,
by their own preference and usage. Given their tactics, equipment and
behavior, the police closely resemble the standing army we've rightly
feared—one of the few things liberals and conservatives agree on. Notice
they call us "civilians". Police chose this path knowing, or perhaps
because, it creates a clear cut "us and them" relationship with the
populace, most visible in their routinely botched and often fatal "no
knock" home invasions. The excuses are rarely convincing, as in all
things, you are what you do, not what you say.
That sort of conduct by armed agents of the State is characteristic of war zones: places where no rights are recognized, where the preponderance of force is the one and only standard of ownership, where "you're either one of us or the enemy."
Francis Porretto at bastionofliberty.blogspot.com
But Ferguson is no different from anywhere else.
This has been creeping up on all of us for generations. The police—from
the French word meaning "people", ironically—were something akin to a
paid Neighborhood Watch until the mid-1800s. When police adopted
military ranks and uniforms following the Civil War, it was widely
predicted they would become an army of occupation. Unless we believe the
militarized police of one city is to protect them from the militarized
police of another, an army of occupation is what they appear to be. One
putative reason for all their gee whiz army stuff—to quell large scale
riots and looting—has yet to be demonstrated.
They also confirm multiple businesses vandalized and looted. But the shocker happened when county Police told Fox 2 News that its officers were at the Ferguson Market earlier when looters showed up, but were ordered to “Stand down” by Missouri State Highway Patrol incident commanders at the scene and basically withdrew and allowed the looters to have their way with the store.
Joe Lamie at KTVI fox2now.com
There are no official reports of arrests being made. As looting occurred, police dressed in riot gear mainly stood and watched, apparently under orders not to engage.
kmov.com/news
Looters ran out of shops with boxes stacked in their arms up to their chins. Behind them lay overturned shelves, spilled goods and wrecked displays. All the while, police stayed back by their armored vehicles and observed but did not stop them... Jay Kanzler, lawyer for Ferguson Market and Liquor, said police did nothing to stop the looting in town. "Don't know why the ... police didn't do anything. They were told to stand down and I don't know why," Kanzler said.
Brumfield, Hanna and Prokupecz at cnn.com
The Ferguson Market and Liquor store. Police observed from the protection of armored vehicles, drawing full pay, and made no attempt to stop them.
There was a time when rioters and looters were
shot on sight with every weapon that came to hand, including artillery
in the nineteenth century. The Ferguson and State police were content to
observe them from behind armor and bulletproof glass, even when the
mob used gasoline bombs. The law-abiding citizen may rightly ask, what
are all the military vehicles and weaponry for? Shall they next be
serving pot and donuts to rioters? How are the police not accomplices
if they disregard their sworn duty and announce it in advance? Are they not effectively protecting the looters?
The law-abiding citizen also notices SWAT
teams weren't deployed to take out the looters torching downtown
businesses. Yet they'll do bomb-throwing midnight raids, guns blazing,
often for what was once routine process-serving, even when toddlers and
other innocents are known to be in the house. Their nonperformance in
Ferguson suggests police protect themselves first and the citizenry
maybe. But all of this is a separate issue. Whatever else the police
may be blamed for, the Ferguson riot isn't among them.
Next, cue the celestial chorus for a
kumbaya
from high atop Mount Olympus:
We have been very, very neglectful of the St. Louis community, as in communities all over America, when you look at the urban core. There is an obvious disconnect where we have allowed a subculture to grow and fester within our neighborhoods. And so we have learned that we cannot shut people out. We cannot disregard people’s need to be welcomed into society because it means that the individuals are now angry, and they have the right to be angry. So–so, and we in some way have to thank them for giving us a wake-up call. And now that we have the wake-up call, we must mobilize and go into our neighborhoods and offer them a sense of hope and a sense of purpose.
James Clark, community activist, at MSNBC, via Susan Jones at cnsnews.com
This shuck'n jive doesn't work anymore. Ferguson
was once a middle class suburb of Saint Louis, now, along with all of
North Saint Louis, it's being subsumed by East Saint Louis, itself a
pest-hole rivaling Port au Prince. Maybe even Detroit. "Community"?
Looters, dopers, moronic thuggers, arsonists, activists and other
criminal psychopaths do not a community make. Real communities don't go
from rumors to looting to burning the place down in a matter of hours.
Real communities certainly aren't on international travel lists of
places to avoid. Notice who and what this "community" admires, and how
uncritically they believe each other's lies and rumors. Notice who their
martyrs are and who their spokesmen are. Being "very, very neglectful"
of this 'community' is unwarranted forbearance.
What about the" Rights of Property Owners" to be safe in their Homes & Businesses? What about my property values declining because of burned out, boarded up shops because of these unemployed Rioters? What about the Children, who's schools were closed today for the Chaos?
RJ Chesnut Jr., comment at thehill.com
There seems no reason to treat Ferguson as if it
were an actual neighborhood rather than what it's become, namely, just
another place where civilization goes to die. The current residents have
amply demonstrated their "sense of hope and sense of purpose." There's
compelling evidence outsiders won't impose another. As with any natural
sinkhole, wishing it were some other way is futile.
Ferguson's fate seems decided. Businesses which
escaped the looting and arson will also be abandoned, never to return.
The remaining law-abiding, productive citizens will flee with them. The
tax base will collapse. Schools will teach it's all someone else's
fault. Guess who. City government will fall into the hands of
activists—i.e., looters with big mouths, their sessions featured on YouTube for their comedy value. Mere corruption will be a fond memory. DC
will point to the lack of jobs and green grocers as proof of
oppression. When the streetlights go out because the copper wiring has
disappeared, Ferguson will have finally been looted out of existence.
About then the adjacent town will have its Michael Brown moment, and so
it is these rampages resemble victory celebrations.
This next news article suggests Mr. Clark is
right when he says "we have a wake-up call," but he should also know
tolerance for this stuff is running a couple quarts low:
Gun sales are up across St. Louis since the shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent nights of violence. Sales have quadrupled at ‘Metro Shooting’ in Bridgeton according to owner Steven King. He says sales have mainly been to men, but not all... Nearly all of his sales at the Bridgeton store have been to people in North County. He has a store in Belleville and says, in contrast, sales have been normal there.
stlouis.cbslocal.com
Metro Shooting's customers know this
sort of violence is never far away. Ramping up the hate keeps the
hustlers in business—their audience doesn't do concepts, much less
analysis, so politics has to come with compelling visuals and a payoff.
Their Martyr Selection Committee blundered with Trayvon Martin, too
many unwelcome surprises so, as the Trayvon Martin yarn unravels, the
Michael Brown saga takes its place. But Alinsky-style "personalization
of issues" is a tricky business, and the curve steepens as people
catch on. As with any tale told too often, disbelief is setting in early
on this one.
We're either going to peacefully separate from the blacks or un-peacefully do it. Just a matter of time really. Equality & Diversity will mark the headstone of the former USA.
ReplyDeleteLet's get it right next time pretty please.
with sugar on top. :) Separate by political convictions might work.
Delete