Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Time to Calm Down Protest About Brown

Related: St. Louis Police Murdered Michael Brown

I firmly believe that if AmeriKa's lovingly protective but sometimes fatally brutal security services kill a citizen they deserved it and the police have done the whole community a favor

It is not a black or white issue, and the attempt by the government and its agenda-pushing mouthpiece media to make it into one with the agent provocateurs leading the charge is really a distasteful try at diversion, distraction, and division.

"Police won’t name officer behind Missouri teen’s shooting" by Julie Bosman and Timothy Williams | New York Times   August 13, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. — The chief of police here said Tuesday that he had reconsidered his decision to release the name of the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager and would not do so because of concerns about the officer’s safety.

The Ferguson Police Department had said it would release the officer’s name by noon Tuesday, but then it reversed itself after it said that threats had been made on social media against the officer and the city’s police.

More false flag, mind-manipulating, propaganda crap.

“The value of releasing the name is far outweighed by the risk of harm to the officer and his family,” the police chief, Thomas Jackson, said in announcing a decision that was quickly criticized. The officer has been placed on administrative leave.

The chief’s change of heart came amid another day of protests in the St. Louis suburbs where the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, was shot several times Saturday by an officer as he and a friend walked from a convenience store. The circumstances of the shooting remain in dispute. The police say Brown hit the officer and tried to steal his gun; Brown’s family and friends deny that.

The attention this is getting is raising suspicions as well. My agenda-pushing press covering a protest for three days running after they ignored anti-Israel, pro-Gazan protests around the world and at home the last month?

The FBI has opened a civil rights inquiry into the shooting, and the case is being investigated by St. Louis County police. The results of an autopsy on Brown have not been released.

The FBI getting involved offers no solace whatsoever.

The protests against the local police have at times turned violent — stores have been looted and at least one business was set on fire. The police have made more than 40 arrests since Sunday night and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators.

During a peaceful protest march Tuesday to the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office in Clayton, Mo., the county seat of St. Louis County, demonstrators chanted “Don’t shoot!” and raised their hands over their heads — the position they say Brown was in when he was shot.

Also Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration barred aircraft from flying below 3,000 feet over Ferguson. The county police department had asked the agency to issue the ban Monday after its helicopters were shot at “a couple of different times,” said Brian Schellman, a department spokesman.

???? 

Are the drones flying, and what are the police preparing that they don't want anyone to see?

President Obama, in his first comments about the shooting, called the death of Brown heartbreaking but urged residents to remain calm.

“I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions,” the president said in statement Tuesday, “but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Mo., and across the country, to remember this young man through reflection and understanding.”

Of course, when it is a private citizen involved in a shooting or some staged and scripted hoax like Sandy Hook they are the first ones out there exploiting it to grab your gun. When it's the thin blue line protecting and serving authority it is calm down, think a minute, chill out, didn't mean it, sorry, was a mistake, won't happen again, working on reform, are investigating, will get back to you with a report, will monitor, looking out, working for you, protecting the public, doin' good.... 

In an interview Tuesday with MSNBC, Dorian Johnson, a friend of Brown’s, gave the following description of the shooting: He said he and Brown had been walking in the street when an officer drove up and told them to get onto the sidewalk. The two stayed in the street after telling the officer they were close to Johnson’s house. The officer, who had passed them, then backed up, almost hitting them in doing so. He then tried to open his door, which hit Brown, and when the door bounced shut, the officer reached out and grabbed Brown.

“Mike was trying to get away from being choked,” Johnson told MSNBC. At that point, he said, the officer pulled a gun and fired, striking Brown. Brown “did not reach for the officer’s weapon at all,” he said.

Johnson said he and Brown began to run, and while he ducked behind a car, Brown kept going. After Brown was shot a second time, Johnson said, he turned to face the officer with his hands up, the officer fired several more shots and Brown fell.

Benjamin Crump, a lawyer representing the Brown family, said Tuesday that Johnson had yet to be called in for questioning by the police and that Johnson wanted to speak only to federal authorities.

“He does not trust the local law enforcement community,” Crump said. “How could he? He saw his friend executed.”

Crump, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager who was shot and killed by a neighborhood-watch volunteer in Florida in 2012, criticized the Ferguson police’s decision.

It's the same old cast of characters!

Ferguson is about two-thirds African-American but has a police force that is predominantly white.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, at a press conference Tuesday in St. Louis with the Brown family, called for an end to the violence in Ferguson.

“Some of us are making the story about how mad we are,” he said. “To be become violent in Michael Brown’s name is to betray the gentle giant that he was.”

So how much is the government paying you these days, Al, and how much of it is being funneled through MSNBC?

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An average of eight citizens a day are killed by cops; why is there no focus on those victims? What is special about this case? 

NEXT DAY UPDATE:

"Missouri teen and officer scuffled before fatal shooting, chief says" by Jim Suhr and Jim Salter |  Associated Press   August 14, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. — Protests in the St. Louis suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death turned violent Wednesday night, with some people lobbing Molotov cocktails and other objects at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

You mean the kind of stuff this government criticizes in other nations?

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, who has been the public face of the city torn by Saturday’s death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, told reporters earlier in the day that the St. Louis County investigation of the shooting could take weeks to complete.

It may take even longer.

Related: The Man Who Murdered Ibragim Todashev 

The FBI is now involved, right?

In the meantime, he said, his department welcomes Justice Department training on racial relations in the suburb, where two-thirds of the 21,000 residents are black while all but three of the police force’s 53 officers are white.

‘‘Unfortunately, an undertow [of racial unrest] has bubbled to the surface,’’ said Jackson. ‘‘Race relations is the top priority right now.’’

Gee, all of a sudden authority is concerned.

While Jackson said he wanted to mend fences with the community, protesters were on the streets of Ferguson again Wednesday, facing heavily armed police who at times trained weapons on them from an armored truck. Two reporters said they were detained by police while working at a McDonald’s in the area.

They must not have known who you were. Now you know what it feels like to be the rest of us.

The situation became more tense after nightfall, with police ordering people to go home and then using smoke bombs and later tear gas after some people threw Molotov cocktails and other things at them. Most of the crowd then dispersed. Journalists who witnessed the events included an Associated Press photographer.

St. Louis County police spokesman Brian Schellman said he had no immediate information about the situation.

Earlier, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of The Huffington Post said they were handcuffed and put into a police van after officers came in to quickly clear the fast-food restaurant where they were doing some work. The Post reported that Lowery, a former Globe reporter, said he was slammed against a soda machine and plastic cuffs were put on his wrists.

Reilly told MSNBC that an officer slammed his head against the glass ‘‘purposefully’’ on the way out of the restaurant ‘‘and then sarcastically apologized for it.’’ The reporters were subsequently released without any charges.

Martin D. Baron, the Post’s executive editor, issued a statement saying ‘‘there was absolutely no justification’’ for Lowery’s arrest and said the organization was appalled by the officers’ conduct.

Maybe you guys will stop carrying water for authority, but I doubt it. I've seen this movie before.

Ryan Grim, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for The Huffington Post, said in a statement that ‘‘compared to some others who have come into contact with the police department, they came out relatively unscathed, but that in no way excuses the false arrest or the militant aggression toward these journalists.’’

And if journalists are not safe, none of us are.

Jackson did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday night from the AP seeking comment about the arrests.

And that is the advantage the propaganda pre$$ has as opposed to blogs: they hold authority accountable. 

Jackson has faced mounting demands from protesters, clergy and even hackers to reveal the identity of the officer who shot Brown.

Jackson argues that revealing that detail could bring retribution to the officer. 

Cops closing ranks. Maybe he deserves some retribution.

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. In their initial news conference about the shooting, police didn’t specify whether Brown was the person who scuffled with the officer in the car and have refused to clarify their account.

Jackson said Wednesday that the officer involved sustained swelling facial injuries.

Dorian Johnson, who says he was with Brown when the shooting happened, has told a much different story.

Guess who I am believing?

He has told media outlets that the officer ordered them out of the street, then tried to open his door so close to the men that it ‘‘ricocheted’’ back, apparently upsetting the officer.

Johnson says the officer grabbed his friend’s neck, then 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. Johnson and another witness both say Brown was on the street with his hands raised when the officer fired at him repeatedly.

Some protesters Wednesday raised their arms above their heads as they faced the police. Others held signs asking for answers about Brown’s death. The most popular chant has been, ‘‘Hands up! Don’t shoot!’’

Brown’s body remained on the street for hours — a span Jackson deemed ‘‘uncomfortable’’ but justified, given that ‘‘you only get one chance at that crime scene’’ to process it correctly.

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"Scrutiny grows over police response in Ferguson, Mo." by Alan Scher Zagier and Jeff Roberson | Associated Press   August 14, 2014

FERGUSON, Mo. — Police and politicians in the St. Louis suburb where a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager have vowed to reach across the racial, economic and generational divide in a community in search of answers.

Look at the PANIC!

In the streets of Ferguson, though, the polite dialogue heard at community forums and news conferences is nowhere to be found.

Instead, officers from multiple departments in riot gear and in military equipment have clashed nightly with protesters after the weekend shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

This is why they got all that surplus military gear from the federal government.

Wednesday saw more tense confrontations and further volleys of tear gas — this time paired with police smoke bombs in response to Molotov cocktails and other objects lobbed from the crowd. Protesters faced heavily armed police who at time trained weapons on them from armored trucks.

Two reporters said they were detained by police for not clearing out quickly enough from a McDonald’s where they were working, near the protests but away from the more volatile areas. The two, who work for The Washington Post and The Huffington Post, were released without any charges. Both say they were assaulted but not seriously hurt.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that about 10 people had been arrested, including St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, who has been chronicling the protests on social media. Police had said earlier they would not have arrest information until early Thursday.

Not even your position of privilege in the political cla$$ will protect you from police.

Residents in Ferguson have complained about what they called a heavy-handed police presence that began with the use of dogs for crowd control soon after Brown’s shooting — a tactic that for some invoked the specter of civil rights protests a half-century ago. The county police force took over leading both the investigation of Brown’s shooting and the subsequent attempts to keep the peace at the smaller city’s request.

The newspaper loves to get us back to the 1950s and 60s. The fact they they are pushing RACE so hard here is a tell.

County Police Chief Jon Belmar, though, said his officers have responded with ‘‘an incredible amount of restraint,’’ as they’ve been the targets of rocks, bottles and gunshots, with two dozen patrol vehicles being destroyed.

Yeah, it's always the poor oppressor being picked on.

‘‘It’s pretty amazing how impressed I am and inspired by these officers,’’ he said. ‘‘This is a very difficult circumstance.’’

Police had also asked earlier that people assemble in ‘‘an organized and respectful’’ manner and disperse before evening.

The city and county are also under criticism for refusing to release the name of the officer involved in Brown’s shooting, citing threats against that officer and others.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson called improving race relations ‘‘the top priority right now’’ but also said he won’t be pressured into publicly identifying the officer — despite, he said, mounting demands from clergy, computer hackers and protesters.

‘‘We have the right to know, and the family has the right to know who murdered their son,’’ said Sahari Gutierrez, a 27-year-old Ferguson legal assistant.

And it was murder.

Jackson said he also welcomes Justice Department training on racial relations in the suburb, where two-thirds of the 21,000 residents are black while all but three of the police force’s 53 officers are white.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon cited the ‘‘worsening situation’’ in Ferguson in saying he would be in the area Thursday. He asked community members to be patient and calm while the investigation proceeds and urged law enforcement agencies to ‘‘keep the peace and respect the rights of residents and the press.’’

Jackson said the investigation remains weeks away from completion.

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. In their initial news conference about the shooting, police didn’t specify whether Brown was the person who scuffled with the officer in the car and have refused to clarify their account.

Jackson said Wednesday that the officer involved sustained swelling facial injuries.

Dorian Johnson, who says he was with Brown when the shooting happened, has told a much different story. He has told media outlets that the officer ordered them out of the street, then tried to open his door so close to the men that it ‘‘ricocheted’’ back, apparently upsetting the officer.

Johnson says the officer grabbed his friend’s neck, then 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. Johnson and another witness both say Brown was on the street with his hands raised when the officer fired at him repeatedly.

Among the protesters critical of the police response has been state Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal, a Democrat from nearby University City

‘‘I just want to know if I’m going to be gassed again, like I was on Monday night?’’ she asked Jackson at a press conference. ‘‘And I was peaceful. And I’m your state senator.’’

‘‘I hope not,’’ he replied.

Yeah, most of the protest were peaceful, and yet my agenda-pushing, government mouthpiece is focusing on race and violence!

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I gotta calm down.

As always, the solution is to be found in my Boston Globe:

"Technology will hold future police accountable" August 14, 2014

In the not-too-distant past, the tragic shooting of an unarmed teenager by police in Ferguson, Mo., on Saturday might not have attracted much national attention — and if it did, the officer’s account of the killing might have gone unchallenged. Police departments, especially in smaller municipalities like Ferguson, often have little effective oversight and enjoy a cozy relationship with the prosecutors who investigate potential misconduct. But the reactions to the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, along with the national furor after other similar incidents recently, underscores how police are entering an era of greater public accountability because of social media and omnipresent smartphones.

According to police, Brown was involved in a physical confrontation with the officer, whose name has not been released. But their description of the incident has been contradicted by at least two eyewitnesses, who said Brown had his hands up when the officer approached him and opened fire. Those accounts have been amplified by social media, and the FBI has stepped in to investigate possible civil rights violations.

So far, no video of Brown’s shooting has emerged, the way a clip came out in New York City recently when 43-year-old Eric Garner died after police placed him in what appeared to be an unauthorized chokehold. Still, as smartphones with video-recording capabilities proliferate, the odds are growing that investigators in many police brutality cases won’t have to rely on conflicting stories, a situation in which police often get the benefit of the doubt. The case in Ferguson still demands a full and independent investigation. In the long term, though, technological trends should increase accountability for law-enforcement agencies — both clarifying incidents that might otherwise appear ambiguous and deterring excessive force by police.

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Seede Blasio Endorses Death Squads

Message: he cares.