St. Louis Riots

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

There are no riots.  The CBC said so.  Those people are "protesting" and some are just "emotional". 

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I have avoided reading about the case until the results were out. To me it is pretty plain that first he got shot in  the hand fighting the cop, then the kill shot is on the top of his head in the diagram. That is consistent with the charged full speed description, as in an attempt to tackle football style. If after being shot in the arm several times he charges, he is in to the death. If he had knocked down the cop, then killed him, he would still be hunted down as a cop killer. Either way it was his day to die by his own choosing.

The cop is clean IMO.

[Swatter]

There are no riots.  The CBC said so.  Those people are "protesting" and some are just "emotional".

Even our local media stress most of the protests are peaceful. They are so peaceful that 25 businesses were burned and many others looted.

I don't know why the left wants to make these people out as heroes so badly. I think some people are really missing the 60's.

[GDS_Starfury]

fuck crucifixion

obama IS entitlement. 

he's been the worst president for race relations in modern times.

[Steelgrave]

Thanks for the well wishes, guys.

This is a very complicated issue, and tackling complicated issues is completely unsuited to the media. So we are left with rioting and burning based of myths and half-truths.

The prosecutor, Bob McCullough, is a good man and a straight shooter. He has been under intense political pressure from the get-go. People from the protest crowd from day one called on him to recuse himself based on the most flimsy of pretexts. The Governor was called on to appoint a special prosecutor, but decided against it. There is just so much fake, politically correct BS flying around out here, trying to wrap your mind around it just ends in frustration. The media reports on the parents of Mike Brown and everything they say as if they were saints who could speak no wrong. They are questioned and comment often on the situation, their opinions untouchable and of incredible importance. Its such a stupid game the media loves to play. The protestors opinions are similar, passed on without judgment and often endorsed by news anchors. This results in phony clamor against Bob McCullough, accusing him of anything and everything.

McCullough, from what I understand, looked at the evidence and didn't want to charge the officer with anything. The evidence was so strong suggesting that it was a justified shooting that there would be no chance of a successful prosecution. You don't indict someone unless you believe you have the evidence to convict at trial. Under intense political pressure he convened the unusual grand jury, where all evidence was laid out with the intention of making it all public in the end. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. You either cave to political pressure (and mob pressure) or you are a racist covering up a killer cop. It was a no-win situation from the moment of the shooting.

No matter what the facts are, the myth has been created. Mike Brown, the gentle giant, cut down by a racist cop and later killed again by a racist system. Its a myth that will never die and an easy narrative that generates huge ratings for the news media.

That's not even the sad part. The sad part is that there are real problems in African American communities that need to be addressed. I can only intelligently comment about the St. Louis area, but there are large pockets of the metro area that are poor and crime ridden. There have been at least 120 murders this year, 93% of them are blacks killing blacks. Its common place to see multi-homicide drive-by shootings which turn into high speed chases. It common for innocent bystanders to be gunned down in gang violence. One week before Brown was killed, a grandma walking down the street with her grandkids was blown away in gang crossfire, right in front of those kids. That was a 15 second piece on the nightly news, she is now forever forgotten.

The schools in the city and much of North County are a complete shambles, no reformer or set of reforms seems to make much difference. The family unit in these areas is destroyed, the tax base to run the schools is destroyed. Large parts of the city and parts of North County resemble war zones due to the number of abandoned and neglected properties.

And the final and most sad part is that since nobody is willing to address race and poverty in an honest matter- NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Whites will flee Ferguson even quicker than they already are. There will be no businesses, no services. It will become so bad that even the blacks will flee, eventually. The only thing left will be another bombed out swath of St. Louis. I am honestly ashamed of my country. We can't move beyond political correctness or the perceived truths we hold so dear to see the situation for what it really is.

If I had a magic wand that I waved and decreed that tomorrow and henceforth, policing will be perfect. There will be no unjustified shootings, no racial profiling, no harassing of innocents. The sad fact is that the poverty will remain. The gang violence will remain. The failing schools will remain. The utter hopelessness of life in the ghettos will remain largely unchanged. So, burn Ferguson in your mindless rage at the unjust murder of Mike Brown. Tomorrow you will be forgotten and you will be even worse off than before. Mob rule provides its just rewards.

What you've written is more intelligent and honest than anything I've seen in the media anywhere.

[Nefaro]

Thanks for the well wishes, guys.

This is a very complicated issue, and tackling complicated issues is completely unsuited to the media. So we are left with rioting and burning based of myths and half-truths.

The prosecutor, Bob McCullough, is a good man and a straight shooter. He has been under intense political pressure from the get-go. People from the protest crowd from day one called on him to recuse himself based on the most flimsy of pretexts. The Governor was called on to appoint a special prosecutor, but decided against it. There is just so much fake, politically correct BS flying around out here, trying to wrap your mind around it just ends in frustration. The media reports on the parents of Mike Brown and everything they say as if they were saints who could speak no wrong. They are questioned and comment often on the situation, their opinions untouchable and of incredible importance. Its such a stupid game the media loves to play. The protestors opinions are similar, passed on without judgment and often endorsed by news anchors. This results in phony clamor against Bob McCullough, accusing him of anything and everything.

McCullough, from what I understand, looked at the evidence and didn't want to charge the officer with anything. The evidence was so strong suggesting that it was a justified shooting that there would be no chance of a successful prosecution. You don't indict someone unless you believe you have the evidence to convict at trial. Under intense political pressure he convened the unusual grand jury, where all evidence was laid out with the intention of making it all public in the end. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. You either cave to political pressure (and mob pressure) or you are a racist covering up a killer cop. It was a no-win situation from the moment of the shooting.

No matter what the facts are, the myth has been created. Mike Brown, the gentle giant, cut down by a racist cop and later killed again by a racist system. Its a myth that will never die and an easy narrative that generates huge ratings for the news media.

That's not even the sad part. The sad part is that there are real problems in African American communities that need to be addressed. I can only intelligently comment about the St. Louis area, but there are large pockets of the metro area that are poor and crime ridden. There have been at least 120 murders this year, 93% of them are blacks killing blacks. Its common place to see multi-homicide drive-by shootings which turn into high speed chases. It common for innocent bystanders to be gunned down in gang violence. One week before Brown was killed, a grandma walking down the street with her grandkids was blown away in gang crossfire, right in front of those kids. That was a 15 second piece on the nightly news, she is now forever forgotten.

The schools in the city and much of North County are a complete shambles, no reformer or set of reforms seems to make much difference. The family unit in these areas is destroyed, the tax base to run the schools is destroyed. Large parts of the city and parts of North County resemble war zones due to the number of abandoned and neglected properties.

And the final and most sad part is that since nobody is willing to address race and poverty in an honest matter- NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Whites will flee Ferguson even quicker than they already are. There will be no businesses, no services. It will become so bad that even the blacks will flee, eventually. The only thing left will be another bombed out swath of St. Louis. I am honestly ashamed of my country. We can't move beyond political correctness or the perceived truths we hold so dear to see the situation for what it really is.

If I had a magic wand that I waved and decreed that tomorrow and henceforth, policing will be perfect. There will be no unjustified shootings, no racial profiling, no harassing of innocents. The sad fact is that the poverty will remain. The gang violence will remain. The failing schools will remain. The utter hopelessness of life in the ghettos will remain largely unchanged. So, burn Ferguson in your mindless rage at the unjust murder of Mike Brown. Tomorrow you will be forgotten and you will be even worse off than before. Mob rule provides its just rewards.

Great post.

[JasonPratt]

But, but, don't you guys understand that this is like Ghandi and MLK?! CNN HAS SAID SO!

Are people in our country free to protest stupid things? Sure. Which by the way is obvious evidence that we don't live in the kind of police-state dictatorship this is being painted as. (See also: THEY LEFT HIS BODY IN THE STREET FOR 4-1/2 HOURS WAAAH!! -- because they were investigating his death almost immediately, in case the officer had committed a crime.)

But this is a case where peaceful protest was only going to fan the riots, ahem I mean the "unrest". Had there been an indictment that still would have led to riots.

Insisting on our rights is important, but insisting on rights at the expense of personal responsibility leads to, well, this. Which then gives credence for draconian dictatorship measures.

...WAIT YOU GUYS OBVIOUSLY THE GOVERNMENT SENT PEOPLE IN TO START THE RIOTS!! 

[Barthheart]

....OBVIOUSLY THE GOVERNMENT SENT PEOPLE IN TO START THE RIOTS!! 

Oooooo, that's a great one. Plant that around the interwebs and see the conspiracy theorists' heads explode with glee.

[Steelgrave]

....OBVIOUSLY THE GOVERNMENT SENT PEOPLE IN TO START THE RIOTS!! 

Oooooo, that's a great one. Plant that around the interwebs and see the conspiracy theorists' heads explode with glee.

I'm certain that deep in the bowels of Hollywood Michael Moore is stirring his fat ass out of his stretch limo to create a "documentary" even as we speak.

[MikeGER]

If so many protesters (blacks mostly, on my TV new) throughout the USA in 170 mayor cities yesterday feel more loyal to a hidden Black Nation inside the USA then to the USA itself, which gets oppressed by the 'evil USA' by the hand of law and authority, why they just don't resign their apparently unwanted US-citizenship and flee to Liberia and similar countries?
  (Liberia was mend to be the state founded for the freed former slaves, to build their nation - wasn't it? )
There they have it all! A black majority, all black government, black schools and so on...
They can take the responsibility they allways wanted and form a new better society all to their pleasing.
Let's see how this work out ;-)
OK, there maybe bribing, gangs, drugs, crimes, too  ....but that is not a "Mayflower American" responsibility then.

[Bison]

....OBVIOUSLY THE GOVERNMENT SENT PEOPLE IN TO START THE RIOTS!! 

Oooooo, that's a great one. Plant that around the interwebs and see the conspiracy theorists' heads explode with glee.

Actually it's not far fetched when you consider the DoJ and the White House were pushing for an indictment before the facts were known to the public.  They did the same thing in Florida.  Don't think that did not have a major impact on what eventually transpired when the facts didn't support the politically correct, media driven drama of a racist, murdering cop killing a poor, innocent, gentle minority. 

[Gusington]

Swatter is my new hero. Great post. Why the myth will be allowed to continue is beyond me. Who benefits from it?

[Windigo]

I just face palm over the desperate over simplification of the whole affair on both sides. I agree with Biggs ... again, the cop was clean

[Steelgrave]

Swatter is my new hero. Great post. Why the myth will be allowed to continue is beyond me. Who benefits from it?

You already know the answer to that last question, Gus......

The first rule in politics (and believe me, this is politics) is follow the money. A lot of people are suffering because of the riots and unrest, but for other's, it's money in their pocket and more power. Race hustler's gotta hustle, and that mantra extends all the way to the top.

[Gusington]

This may sound naive but my jury is still out on whether Obama is in the same class as other race hustlers.