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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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I watched the interviews with a third witness, an extremely credible young lady, who also had video of the incident. Her story matched Dorian's.
The police claim they were responding to shots fired at them. It is possible that some incidents occurred Sunday, before community leaders organized and formed groups to ensure peace. Monday night was without any incidents and did not provoke the Tuesday night's response.
There are now calls for the government to stop the militarization of the nation's police. Rand Paul is one leading this effort. |
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Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:36 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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THE NEW YORKER
August 14, 2014
Cops Should Be Cops—Not Combat Troops
By John Cassidy
By now, you may well have seen the video of heavily armed cops in Ferguson, Missouri, apparently firing tear gas at a film crew from Al Jazeera America and sending the journalists fleeing. Coming on top of the arrest of two reporters, one from the Washington Post and the other from the Huffington Post, it’s yet another stain on the reputation of the St. Louis police, which has been struggling to handle the protests that have followed the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teen-ager.
My colleagues Jelani Cobb, who is in Ferguson, Amy Davidson, and Jay Caspian Kang have done excellent jobs of covering the fatal police shooting and its aftermath. The teargassing incident was so gratuitous, however, that it demands an additional comment.
In a report earlier today, Ash-Har Quraishi, the Al Jazeera reporter who was hit by the tear gas, explained that he and his colleagues weren’t near the protests or the protesters when the incident took place on Wednesday night. They were about a mile away, on the other side of some police lines, and they were about to do a routine stand-up report when at least one gas canister landed next to them. “We had been in contact with police officers who were just feet away from us,” Quraishi said. “We had had discussions with them; we understood this was just as far as we could get. … We didn’t think there would be any problems here, so we were very surprised. We were very close to where those canisters were shot from. We yelled … yelling that we were press. But they continued to fire.”
“I understand that what it looks like is not good,” Tom Jackson, the Ferguson police chief, said, speaking of the night’s events. But he claimed that some protesters had thrown Molotov cocktails, bottles, and other objects at the police. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Wednedsay, Jon Belmar, the police chief of St. Louis County, defended the conduct of his officers over the past few days. “We’ve done everything we can to demonstrate a remarkable amount of restraint,” Belmar said. “If there was an easy way to fix this, we would have already solved the problem.”
Before dismissing Belmar’s comments outright, it should be noted that dealing with angry protesters, particularly at night, can be a tough task for any police department. On Sunday night and early Monday, following a vigil for Brown, stores in Ferguson and neighboring Dellwood were looted. (So far, nine people have been charged with burglary.) If the police had stood aside and allowed this disorder to continue, they would have been criticized for losing control of the situation.
That said, though, the police reaction appears to have been heavy-handed, and, in some cases, outright thuggish. When armored personnel carriers and rubber bullets are used to break up peaceful protests, when reporters and members of the clergy are arrested and cuffed for no good reason, when cops are targeting film crews a mile from the action with something that is classified as a chemical weapon under the Geneva Convention, it’s surely time to ask what has happened to policing in this country.
In a recent report that Kang mentioned in his post on Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union provided an answer: in the wake of 9/11 and the “War on Terror,” all too many municipalities have turned their police departments into quasi-militarized forces, which, when they deem it necessary, deploy some of the armor, machinery, and weaponry of war. We’ve seen this process at work here in New York, where, during the 2004 Republican Convention and the Occupy Wall Street protests a couple years ago, the N.Y.P.D. deployed some fearsome firepower. We’ve seen heavily armed SWAT teams carrying out drug raids all across the country. And now, in the suburbs of St. Louis, a grand old city, albeit one with a long history of racial segregation and divisions, we are seeing cops who look like troops clad for battle.
Of course, the militarization of the police is not entirely new. SWAT teams date back at least to the late sixties in Los Angeles. During the eighties and nineties, many big police forces armed their officers with automatic weapons, and, partly to prosecute the war on drugs, some police departments acquired some pretty heavy weaponry. But it was 9/11 that really changed things. Under the guise of beefing up their anti-terrorist operations, police forces across the country acquired all sorts of military uniforms and hardware, sometimes using federal grants to pay for them.
Radley Balko, a reporter for the Washington Post who last year published a book titled “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,” points out that much of this new gear has ended up being used not to interdict terrorists or drug kingpins but against low-level miscreants and suspects. “When the craze for poker kicked into high gear, a number of police departments responded by deploying SWAT teams to raid games in garages, basements and V.F.W. halls where illegal gambling was suspected,” Balko has noted. “In my own research, I have collected over 50 examples in which innocent people were killed in raids to enforce warrants for crimes that are either nonviolent or consensual (that is, crimes such as drug use or gambling, in which all parties participate voluntarily).”
Because most Americans don’t participate in political protests, read books about militarization, or get mixed up in police raids, they don’t really notice what is happening. When they turn on their televisions and see “policemen” in military fatigues and gas masks pointing assault rifles at unarmed protesters, they are shocked, and rightly so. That A.C.L.U. report concludes, “The militarization of American policing has occurred with almost no oversight, and it is time to shine a bright light on the policies, practices, and weaponry that have turned too many of our neighborhoods into war zones.” Cops should be cops—not combat troops.
cassidy
John Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995. He also writes a column about politics, economics, and more, for newyorker.com.
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Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:42 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Key Detail Apparently Left Out of Reports on Viral Photo Showing SWAT Team ‘Dismantling’ Al Jazeera Crew’s Equipment
Aug. 14, 2014 6:28pm Jason Howerton
Stunning photos showing St. Charles County SWAT Team members “disassembling” an Al Jazeera America news crew’s camera equipment during unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, went viral on Wednesday night — but police say the circulating images and reports are very misleading.
In a statement on Thursday, the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department said SWAT Team officers were actually “assisting the media in moving their camera equipment and media personnel to a safer area with their consent so that they could continue to cover the event.” The news crew was caught in tear gas and had to leave their position.
The officers reportedly located the journalists and put them into an armored car and proceeded to disassemble and load their equipment. However, people snapped photos and seemingly drew their own conclusions.
According to KTVI-TV, the Al Jazeera reporters even “thanked the officers.”
“On Wednesday, August 13th, video footage was taken of St. Charles County SWAT officers handling media camera equipment,” the statement reads. “The position of the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department is that the media has the right to cover these events and supports the freedom of the press, and the SWAT Team has not been any part of attempting to prevent media coverage |
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Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:51 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| This is not the story Al Zazeera told. |
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Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:53 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:59 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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When The Media Treats White Suspects And Killers Better Than Black Victims
The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing
Posted: 08/14/2014 8:35 am EDT Updated: 08/14/2014 8:59 am EDT
On the afternoon of Aug. 9, a police officer fatally shot an unarmed, black teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. Details remain in dispute. Eyewitnesses have said that Brown was compliant with police and was shot while he had his hands up. Police maintain that the 18-year-old had assaulted an officer and was reaching for the officer's gun. One thing clear, however, is that Brown's death follows a disturbingly common trend of black men being killed, often while unarmed and at the hands of police officers, security guards and vigilantes.
After news of Brown's death broke, media-watchers carefully followed the narratives that news outlets began crafting about the teenager and the incident that claimed his life. Wary of the controversy surrounding the media's depiction of Trayvon Martin -- the Florida teen killed in a high-profile case that led to the acquittal of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman -- people on Twitter wondered, "If they gunned me down, which picture would they use?" Using the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, users posted side-by-side photos, demonstrating the power that news outlets wield in portraying victims based on images they select.
On Monday, Twitter user LordSWVP tweeted out a photo driving home another point: Media treatment of black victims is often harsher than it is of whites suspected of crimes, including murder.
This makes the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown so powerful. It's sad that some people have taken it to another level. pic.twitter.com/oZnLDRRDhN
— Sammie. ™ (@LordSWVP) August 11, 2014
This is by no means standard media protocol, but it happens frequently, deliberately or not. News reports often headline claims from police or other officials that appear unsympathetic or dismissive of black victims. Other times, the headlines seem to suggest that black victims are to blame for their own deaths, engaging in what critics sometimes allege is a form of character assassination. When contrasted with media portrayal of white suspects and accused murderers, the differences are more striking. News outlets often choose to run headlines that exhibit an air of disbelief at an alleged white killer's supposed actions. Sometimes, they appear to go out of their way to boost the suspect's character, carrying quotes from relatives or acquaintances that often paint even alleged murderers in a positive light.
Here are a few examples:
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 1
That's how the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal chose to present the story of Amy Bishop, a former college professor who eventually pleaded guilty to killing three colleagues and wounding three others at a faculty meeting in 2010.
BLACK VICTIM
victim 7
And that's the headline AL.com ran about the shooting death of a 25-year-old black man in Alabama earlier this year.
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 2
This is how the Staten Island Advance covered the case of Eric Bellucci, a mentally ill New York man who allegedly killed his parents.
BLACK VICTIM
trayvon
Meanwhile, NBC News ran this headline during ongoing coverage of the Trayvon Martin killing.
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 3
This Fox News headline quoted friends shocked that 15-year-old Jared Michael Padgett had entered his high school heavily armed and killed a classmate, injured a teacher and took his own life.
BLACK VICTIM
victim 6
But in Florida, this headline in the Ledger focused on a police account that made the death of a black 19-year-old seem somehow expected, or at least unsurprising.
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 5
In the wake of the mass shooting in Santa Barbara, California, earlier this year, the Whittier Daily News offered a headline showing one man's disbelief that Elliot Rodger could have committed such a crime.
BLACK VICTIM
victim 1
Earlier this month, the New York Daily News ran this headline, carrying comments by the Ohio attorney general that appeared to defend police after killing a black man at a Walmart.
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 4
This was the headline given to an Associated Press story at Mlive.com about an Ohio teen who later pleaded guilty to a school shooting in which three students were killed and two were wounded.
BLACK VICTIM
victim 4
But when an unarmed father of two was killed by a police officer while entering a vehicle that contained his own children, the Los Angeles Times served up this claim from officials.
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 7
In 2008, 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger was accused of plotting to bomb his South Carolina high school. Ohio's Chronicle Telegram wanted readers to know that he was a straight-A student, running an AP story with this headline.
BLACK VICTIM
victim 3
And according to the Omaha World-Herald, this is what you needed to know about Julius B. Vaughn, a 19-year-old gunned down in Omaha last year:
WHITE SUSPECT
suspect 6
Kerri Ann Heffernan was charged in 2012 in a string of bank robberies and stores. This headline at Wicked Local wonders how she'd come so far from her days as a smart high school student.
BLACK VICTIM
victim 2
Of 22-year-old black man Deon Sanders' killing in Ohio earlier this year, WKBN's headline said "gang member," and that apparently was enough. |
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Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:06 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Missouri Highway Patrol seizes control of Ferguson
2 hours ago The Associated Press BY DAVID A. LIEB - Associated Press
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Highway Patrol seized control of a St. Louis suburb Thursday, stripping local police of their law-enforcement authority after four days of clashes between officers in riot gear and furious crowds protesting the death of an unarmed black teen shot by an officer.
The intervention, ordered by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, came as President Barack Obama spoke publicly for the first time about Saturday's fatal shooting of Michael Brown and the subsequent violence that shocked the nation and threatened to tear apart Ferguson, a town that is nearly 70 percent black patrolled by a nearly all-white police force.
Obama said there was "no excuse" for violence either against the police or by officers against peaceful protesters.
Nixon's promise to ease the deep racial tensions was swiftly put to the test as demonstrators gathered again Thursday evening in the neighborhood where looters smashed and burned businesses on Sunday and police repeatedly fired tear gas and smoke bombs.
But the latest protests were a world apart from the earlier demonstrations, with a light, even festive atmosphere and no hint of violence. The streets were filled with music, free food and even laughter.
Protester Cleo Willis said the change was palpable.
"You can feel it. You can see it," he said. "Now it's up to us to ride that feeling."
After a particularly violent Wednesday night, Nixon said local police would no longer be in charge of the area, although they would still be present. He said Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black, would be in command.
The change was meant to ensure "that we allow peaceful and appropriate protests, that we use force only when necessary, that we step back a little bit and let some of the energy be felt in this region appropriately," Nixon said.
"Ferguson will not be defined as a community that was torn apart by violence but will be known as a community that pulled together to overcome it," the governor said at a news conference in the nearby community of Normandy.
The governor was joined at a news conference by the white mayor of St. Louis and the region's four state representatives and the county executive, all of whom are black.
Johnson said he grew up in the area and "it means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence." He said he planned to keep heavily armored vehicles away from the scene and told his officers not to bring their gas masks.
By late afternoon, Johnson was walking down the street with a large group of protesters as they chanted "Hands up, don't shoot," a reference to witness accounts that described Brown as having his hands in the air when the officer kept firing. He planned to talk to the demonstrators throughout the night.
"We're going to have some conversations with them and get an understanding of what's going on."
At one point, Johnson spoke to several young men wearing red bandanas around their necks and faces. After the discussion, one of the men reached out and embraced him.
At the burned-out QuikTrip near the shooting scene, children drew on the ground with chalk and people left messages about Brown.
Earlier Thursday, Obama appealed for "peace and calm" on the streets.
"I know emotions are raw right now in Ferguson, and there are certainly passionate differences about what has happened," Obama said, speaking from the Massachusetts island where he's on a two-week vacation. "But let's remember that we're all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes the belief in equality under the law, respect for public order and the right to peaceful public protests."
Residents in Ferguson have complained about the police response that began soon after Brown's shooting with the use of dogs for crowd control — a tactic that for some evoked civil-rights protests from a half-century ago. The county police took over, leading both the investigation of Brown's shooting and the subsequent attempts to keep the peace at the request of the smaller city.
County Police Chief Jon Belmar said his officers have responded with "an incredible amount of restraint" as they've had rocks and bottles thrown at them, been shot at and had two dozen patrol vehicles destroyed.
The city and county are also under criticism for refusing to release the name of the officer who shot Brown, citing threats against that officer and others.
The hacker group Anonymous on Thursday released a name purported to be that of the officer, but the Ferguson police chief said later that the name was incorrect.
Like last year's Trayvon Martin shooting, social media brought international attention to a tragedy that might otherwise have been known only to the immediate community. Ferguson spawned a proliferation of hashtags and was the dominant subject Thursday on Twitter, Facebook and other sites. Journalists and protesters offered real-time pictures, videos and text reports, and the world responded, often in outrage.
Police have said Brown was shot after an officer encountered him and another man on the street. They say one of the men pushed the officer into his squad car, then physically assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the officer over the officer's weapon. At least one shot was fired inside the car. The struggle then spilled onto the street, where Brown was shot multiple times.
The officer involved was injured, with one side of his face swollen, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said.
Dorian Johnson, who says he was with Brown when the shooting happened, has told a much different story. He has told reporters that the officer ordered them out of the street, then grabbed his friend's neck and tried to pull him into the car before brandishing his weapon and firing. He says Brown started to run and the officer pursued him, firing multiple times.
Attorney General Eric Holder has said federal investigators have interviewed eyewitnesses to the shooting. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said federal authorities have interviewed Johnson.
Holder spoke by telephone Thursday with Brown's family to offer condolences and to tell them that the Justice Department was committed to a full and independent investigation.
___
Associated Press writers Alan Scher Zagier and Jim Suhr in Ferguson, Eric Tucker in Washington and Hillel Italie in New York, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner, also in New York, contributed to this report. |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 5:51 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Michael Brown Shooting: How Police Tactical Shift Can De ...
Michael Brown Shooting: How Police Tactical Shift Can De-Escalate Aftermath
www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/08/15/michael-brown-ferguson-ronald...
Huffington Post Reporter Arrested In Ferguson 2014 ... shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on August 9 ... August 15, 2014. #Ferguson … |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:16 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| This is an excellent piece by Huffington Post and illustrates how the different style of policing changed the tone of the protests. Thomas the Train even showed up as protesters brought out their children. |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:19 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Now that Missouri's governor has announced that state police will take over major security duties from local police in the seething St. Louis suburb that's seen such violent protests in the aftermath of the Michael Brown killing, people may wonder whether the new approach will be successful in defusing the anger.
Gov. Jay Nixon's announcement that state Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black, will now be in charge of policing efforts at the protests came after the local police response drew heavy criticism. The fact that Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot multiple times by a white policeman was just the first spark. The aggressive response from the local police force has so far only added to the community's anger.
Nixon said the change is intended to make sure "that we allow peaceful and appropriate protests, that we use force only when necessary, that we step back a little bit and let some of the energy be felt in this region appropriately."
But people are already musing about how to successfully deal with the next chapter in this powderkeg.
Johnson said he grew up in the community where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot last Saturday and "it means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence."
Nixon said that changes will include "peaceful interaction up front with the force at the back," referring to the “militaristic” nature of the Ferguson police force’s response.
"This feels a little like an old wound that has been hit again. It has been a long time simmering. The challenges we face here go much more deep. The key to this is to get control, let voices be heard, showing less force on the front side -- but ultimately getting to some of these deeper problems. Not only in Missouri, but in America. This has clearly touched a nerve."
Laurence Miller, a clinical and forensic psychologist who works with the West Palm Beach Sheriff’s Department and who also teaches law enforcement strategies to police officers, agrees. He told CBC News that explosive situations like the one in Ferguson “don’t happen in a vacuum.”
“A police officer that overreacts in a situation is doing so in an atmosphere in which the police are viewed as kind of an occupational force in the community and the community is acting in a way that is trying to stay out of any confrontation with the police.”
Miller said officers have to understand the difference between being authoritative versus being authoritarian.
“When you are authoritative, you exude calm, strength and authority. People respect you because they know when push comes to shove, you will use appropriate authority,” he said.
Miller said authoritarian types tend to act “cocky” but get no “real respect” from members of the community, who will turn on the officer when given the opportunity. He said he would recommend that the police chief in Ferguson make sure “patrol officers are conducting themselves appropriately.”
'Pick your battles'
Miller said he would tell officers to “pick your battles” and to take the high road, since the situation remains so tense with the community.
“Right now, do you have to give a ticket for jay walking? I mean, still maintain the law, but as officers, they have tremendous discretion in terms of enforcing it.”
Miller adds he often instructs officers to keep their “sense of dignity and professionalism” especially when it comes to people calling them names or yelling at them.
“Your job is to handle the situation. What makes people want to riot is when authority is used unfairly and excessively.”
Miller suggested the police security forces exhibit transparency and create a kind of police citizen’s council – so they can report to the council about what the force is doing.
“The worst thing you can do is go into self-protective mode, it implies you have something to hide,” said Miller. “You don’t necessarily have to open the books, you have to tell people what you are doing [and] explain what steps you’re taking.”
Both of Miller’s recommendations are echoed by Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which has members comprised of police chiefs and sheriffs from the largest cities in the U.S., Canada and U.K. Stephens has more than 40 years of police experience; his last job was chief of police for Charlotte-Mecklenberg, N.C. He retired in 2008.
“The only thing they can do is be transparent and engage the community with respect to their concerns about the police service,” he said.
3rd party help
Stephens and Miller say shifting responsibility from the force is a promising move.
“Like an independent facilitator to manage the conversation,” said Stephens. “Outside help is really critical because people get locked into their positions and their perceptions about things. It often takes someone from the outside to open things up.”
Stephens recalled an incident from his time as police chief in St. Petersburg, Fla., in the mid-1990s
“We had a shooting involving a young African-American man and an officer was killed. We had disturbances and the community relations service of the Justice Department helped us restore confidence.”
Stephens said his force worked with the local faith community and helped develop some economic programs.
“This is a huge problem in urban areas, the lack of opportunity, which creates hostility towards government and those are some of the things the city of Ferguson will have to work on going forward.”
Stephens said any fruitful conversation is “going to take several months.”
David Goldberg, head of the humanities department at the University of California (Irvine) told CBC News there are deeper issues at play when it comes to police shootings and the black community. “Black parents have said, ‘Why is it that I have to explain to my children how to get arrested [safely]?’”
According to Goldberg, who specializes in criminology, race and racism, "at this point, people aren’t looting or throwing things as much."
“The police need to immediately demilitarize [and] get out from behind the barriers, so to speak.”
Goldberg said it's about a big power imbalance.
“A black mother was interviewed recently and said her 12-year-old son was stopped and frisked by an officer on his way back from school,” recounted Goldberg. “He asked her ‘how long will this go on?’ She said she told him: ‘for the rest of your life.’”
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar has said he welcomes race relations training in the St. Louis suburb, where about 70 per cent of the 21,000 residents are black and only three of the force’s 53 officers are black. |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:31 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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HUFFINGTON POST POLITICS
http://huff.to/1Ajq5v6
House Democrat Readies Bill To Demilitarize Local Police
Posted: 08/14/2014 5:05 pm EDT Updated: 08/15/2014 12:59 am EDT
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) announced Thursday that he plans to file legislation aimed at stemming the militarization of local police -- something on full display this week in Ferguson, Missouri, where officers in riot gear have been showering largely peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.
In a letter to his Democratic colleagues, Johnson asked for support for his bill, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act. The measure would rein in a Defense Department program that provides Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, M16 assault rifles and other surplus military equipment to local law enforcement, free of charge.
"Our main streets should be a place for business, families, and relaxation, not tanks and M16s," Johnson says in his letter. "Our local police are quickly beginning to resemble paramilitary forces. This bill will end the free transfers of certain aggressive military equipment to local law enforcement and ensure that all equipment can be accounted for."
Johnson will file his legislation in September. His office said he has been working on it for months but decided to expedite it in light of this week's events in Ferguson. Protests began there Saturday after a police officer killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was walking down the street.
"Before another small town's police force gets a $700,000 gift from the Defense Department that it can't maintain or manage, it behooves us to rein in the Pentagon's 1033 program and revisit the merits of a militarized America," reads his letter to colleagues. "I hope we can work together on this important issue."
The Georgia Democrat isn't the only lawmaker who wants to scale back local police forces' access to military weapons. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Thursday that it's "time to demilitarize this situation" in Ferguson, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote a Thursday op-ed titled, "We Must Demilitarize The Police."
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, joined with two other lawmakers Thursday in calling on chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to hold a hearing to examine the use of excessive force by local law enforcement.
"In Ferguson, why do local police dress in military-style uniforms and body armor, carry short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles based on the M4 carbine, and patrol neighborhoods in massive armored vehicles?" the lawmakers said in a letter to Goodlatte. "In all likelihood, the decision to adopt a military posture only served to aggravate an already tense situation and to commit the police to a military response." |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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St. Louis Police Chief Condemns Military Tactics Being Used In Ferguson
The Huffington Post | By Marina Fang
Posted: 08/14/2014 4:58 pm EDT Updated: 08/14/2014 5:59 pm EDT
The city of St. Louis' police chief condemned the heavy-handed tactics being used by officers responding to the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, a significant departure since the city works closely with the departments there.
The protests have been going on each night since a Ferguson police officer shot Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, on Saturday. Community members have spoken out against what they see as an unjustified killing and the police department's refusal to release the officer's identity or more details about the shooting. The St. Louis County Police Department was brought in to investigate.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Sam Dotson said, if he were in charge, he would not have employed military-style policing such as what has transpired over the past few days. He also stressed that the city's police force will not assist the county's efforts.
"My gut told me what I was seeing were not tactics that I would use in the city and I would never put officers in situations that I would not do myself," he said.
The two forces often work together, but in this case, Dotson explained, "My personal side was concerned about the things I saw transpiring in Ferguson."
Police officers in Ferguson have regularly come out in full riot gear, throwing tear gas and firing rubber bullets at protesters.
In his remarks on Thursday, President Barack Obama also condemned the militarized police response.
"There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism and looting," Obama said. "There's also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights."
Throughout the week, military veterans have also slammed the militarized tactics and excessive amounts of military-style weapons and equipment used by police. Many have said the SWAT officers, like those who arrested The Huffington Post's Ryan Reilly and The Washington Post's Wesley Lowery Wednesday evening, are more heavily armed and outfitted than they themselves were while fighting in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another reason Dotson did not want the city and county police to collaborate was because of the history of racial profiling by county police. In an email to a St. Louis alderman who brought up concerns of racial profiling, he wrote: "I agree and removed our tactical assistance. We did not send tactical resources to Ferguson on Tuesday or Wednesday. Our only assistance was that of four traffic officers to help divert traffic and keep both pedestrians and motorists safe. On Thursday we will have no officers assisting Ferguson."
In a press conference Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon (D) announced that the Missouri Highway Patrol, instead of the St. Louis County Police Department, would now be in charge of security in Ferguson.
Note: The white Police Chief Dotson did join with the Highway Patrol and was taking photos with the protesters last night. |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:49 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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HUFFINGTON POST
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2014 8:45 PM UTC
In defense of black rage: Michael Brown, police and the American dream
I don't support the looting in Ferguson, Missouri. But I'm also tired of "turning the other cheek" and forgiving
Brittney Cooper
Topics: Ferguson, Race, michael brown, Police, police misconduct, police overreach, African Americans, Editor's Picks, Looting, eric garner, Missouri, Politics News
In defense of black rage: Michael Brown, police and the American dream
Marcelle Stewart confronts police officers during a march and rally in downtown Ferguson, Mo., Aug. 11, 2014. (Credit: AP/Sid Hastings)
On Saturday a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager on his way to college this week. Brown was shot multiple times, though his hands were in the air. His uncovered body was left in the street for hours, as a crowd from his neighborhood gathered to stand vigil. Then they marched down to the police station. On Sunday evening, some folks in the crowd looted a couple of stores and threw bottles at the police. Monday morning was marked by peaceful protests.
The people of Ferguson are angry. Outraged. The officer’s story is dubious. Any black kid with sense knows it is futile to reach into an officer’s vehicle and take his gun. That story is only plausible to people who believe that black people are animals, that black men go looking for cops to pick fights with. Absurdity. Eyewitness accounts like these make far more sense.
It seems far easier to focus on the few looters who have reacted unproductively to this tragedy than to focus on the killing of Michael Brown. Perhaps looting seems like a thing we can control. I refuse. I refuse to condemn the folks engaged in these acts, because I respect black rage. I respect black people’s right to cry out, shout and be mad as hell that another one of our kids is dead at the hands of the police. Moreover I refuse the lie that the opportunism of a few in any way justifies or excuses the murderous opportunism undertaken by this as yet anonymous officer.
The police mantra is “to serve and to protect.” But with black folks, we know that’s not the mantra. The mantra for many, many officers when dealing with black people is apparently “kill or be killed.”
It is that deep irrational fear of young black men that continues to sit with me. Here’s the thing: I do not believe that most white people see black people and say, “I hate black people.” Racism is not that tangible, that explicit. I do not believe most white people hate most black people. I do not believe that most police officers seek to do harm or consciously hate black people. At least I hope they don’t.
I believe that racism exists in the inexplicable sense of fear, unsafety and gnawing anxiety that white people, be they officers with guns or just general folks moving about their lives, have when they encounter black people. I believe racism exists in that sense of mistrust, the extra precautions white people take when they encounter black people. I believe all these emotions have emerged from a lifetime of media consumption subtly communicating that black people are criminal, a lifetime of seeing most people in power look just like you, a lifetime of being the majority population. And I believe this subconscious sense of having lost control (of the universe) exists for white people, at a heightened level since the election of Barack Obama and the continued explosion of the non-white population.
The irony is that black people understand this heightened anxiety. We feel it, too. We study white people. We are taught this as a tool of survival. We know when there is unrest in the souls of white folks. We know that unrest, if not assuaged quickly, will lead to black death. Our suspicions, unlike those of white people, are proven right time and time again.
I speak to this deep psychology of race, not because I am trying to engage in pop psychology but because we live in a country that is so deeply emotionally dishonest about both race and racism. When will we be honest enough to acknowledge that the police have more power than the ordinary citizen? They are supposed to. And with more power comes more responsibility.
Why are police calling the people of Ferguson animals and yelling at them to “bring it”? Because those officers in their riot gear, with their tear gas and dogs, want a justification for slaughter. But inexplicably in that moment we turn our attention to the rioters, the people with less power, but justifiable anger, and say, “You are the problem.” No. A cop killing an unarmed teenager who had his hands in the air is the problem. Anger is a perfectly reasonable response. So is rage.
We are talking about justifiable outrage. Outrage over the unjust taking of the lives of people who look like us. How dare people preach and condescend to these people and tell them not to loot, not to riot? Yes, those are destructive forms of anger, but frankly I would rather these people take their anger out on property and products rather than on other people.
No, I don’t support looting. But I question a society that always sees the product of the provocation and never the provocation itself. I question a society that values property over black life. But I know that our particular system of law was conceived on the founding premise that black lives are white property. “Possession,” the old adage goes, “is nine-tenths of the law.”
But we are the dispossessed. We cannot count on the law to protect us. We cannot count on police not to shoot us down in cold blood. We cannot count on politics to be a productive outlet for our rage. We cannot count on prayer to soothe our raging, ragged souls.
This is what I mean when I say that we live in a society that is deeply emotionally dishonest about racism. We hear a story each and every week now about how some overzealous officer has killed another black man, or punched or beaten or choked a black woman. This week we heard two stories – Mike Brown in Missouri and John Crawford in Ohio. These are not isolated incidents. How many cops in how many cities have to murder how many black men — assault how many black women — before we recognize that this shit is not isolated? It is systemic from the top to the bottom.
Every week we are having what my friend Dr. Regina Bradley called #anotherhashtagmemorial. Every week. We are weak. We are tired. Of being punching bags and shooting targets for the police. We are tired of well-meaning white citizens and respectable black ones foreclosing all outlets for rage. We are tired of these people telling us what isn’t the answer.
The answer isn’t looting, no. The answer isn’t rioting, no. But the answer also isn’t preaching to black people about “black-on-black” crime without full acknowledgment that most crime is intraracial. The answer is not having a higher standard for the people than for the police. The answer is not demanding that black people get mad about and solve the problem of crime in Chicago before we get mad about the slaughter of a teen boy just outside St. Louis.
We can be, and have been, and are mad about both. Violence is the effect, not the cause of the concentrated poverty that locks that many poor people up together with no conceivable way out and no productive way to channel their rage at having an existence that is adjacent to the American dream. This kind of social mendacity about the way that racism traumatizes black people individually and collectively is a festering sore, an undiagnosed cancer, a raging infection threatening to overtake every organ in our body politic.
We are tired of these people preaching a one-sided gospel of peace. “Turn the other cheek” now means “here are our collective asses to kiss.” We are tired of forgiving people because they most assuredly do know what they do.
Mike Brown is dead. He is dead for no reason. He is dead because a police officer saw a 6-foot-4, 300-plus-pound black kid, and miscalculated the level of threat. To be black in this country is to be subject to routine forms of miscalculated risk each and every day. Black people have every right to be angry as hell about being mistaken for predators when really we are prey. The idea that we would show no rage as we accrete body upon body – Eric Garner, John Crawford, Mike Brown (and those are just our summer season casualties) — is the height of delusion. It betrays a stunning lack of empathy, a stunning refusal of people to grant the fact of black humanity, and in granting our humanity, granting us the right to the full range of emotions that come with being human. Rage must be expressed. If not it will tear you up from the inside out or make you tear other people up. Usually the targets are those in closest proximity. The disproportionate amount of heart disease, cancers, hypertension, obesity, violence and other maladies that plague black people is as much a product of internalized, unrecognized, unaddressed rage as it is anything else.
Nothing makes white people more uncomfortable than black anger. But nothing is more threatening to black people on a systemic level than white anger. It won’t show up in mass killings. It will show up in overpolicing, mass incarceration, the gutting of the social safety net, and the occasional dead black kid. Of late, though, these killings have been far more than occasional. We should sit up and pay attention to where this trail of black bodies leads us. They are a compass pointing us to a raging fire just beneath the surface of our national consciousness. We feel it. We hear it. Our nostrils flare with the smell of it.
James Baldwin called it “the fire next time.” A fire shut up in our bones. A sentient knowledge, a kind of black epistemology, honed for just such a time as this. And with this knowledge, a clarity that says if “we live by the sword, we will die by it.”
Then, black rage emerges prophetic from across the decades in the words of Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay who penned these words 95 years ago in response to the Red Summer of 1919.
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
I offer no answers. I offer only grief and rage and hope.
Brittney Cooper
Brittney Cooper is a contributing writer at Salon, and teaches Women's and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers. Follow her on Twitter at @professorcrunk. |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 7:10 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Daiily Kos .
Thu Aug 14, 2014 at 01:09 PM PDT.
Rep. Steve King notes Ferguson protestors all have the same 'continental origin'
HunterFollow .
Steve King (R-IA)
This isn't a contest, Rep. Steve King. You don't have to out-vile the next person just because there's a camera in front of you.
King appeared on Newsmax TV on Wednesday where host J.D. Hayworth asked him about the escalating conflict in Ferguson. When asked about the concerns raised by members of the Congressional Black Caucus about the possibility of racial profiling, King said those were unsubstantiated.
"This idea of no racial profiling," King said, "I've seen the video. It looks to me like you don't need to bother with that particular factor because they all appear to be of a single, you know, of a single origin, I should say, a continental origin might be the way to phrase that."
No, that's not the way to phrase that. Not unless you're trying to stop yourself from saying something like "the Negro race" and you have to quickly work out in your mind how you're going to say that without coming off like David Duke speaking at a Klan pancake breakfast. The "continental origin" of the protesters is "North America." They're all citizens. Surprise!
But good news, Steve King knows no racial profiling has been going on towards majority-black Ferguson residents from their almost-entirely-white police force because hey, those folks all look to him to have a certain "origin."
You know, sometimes you get to the point where you think you finally have a nasty person pegged—they're vile, they're xenophobic, they're openly mean—but then, sometimes, they still manage to surprise you. Steve King is like that. No matter how repulsive the man is, he always finds a way to top himself. Every last time.
"Continental origin." Seriously, good representative, go vulgar language yourself. That's the only "rebuttal" necessary, or that suits. You hurt America by existing. |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 8:49 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Odd because the crowds I saw were multiracial. What about the young white girl on a concrete block painting peace signs ? |
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Fri Aug 15, 2014 8:51 am |
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