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Merus

Ferguson

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This is from a few days ago, but it's an Al-Jazeera report, and at the end of it they are shooting background footage of abandoned land and a street sign miles from the protests.  A cop shows up and starts barking orders at them, threatening to "bust their ass", and threatens to confiscate their footage.

 

I've got some people on Facebook claiming that any reporters who get in trouble only did so because of something they did.  Hard to argue with this, when there's literally no one in sight other than the cops, the reporters and a cabbie.  On Facebook, I'm focusing on sharing the shit that is happening to journalists for now, because as has been said earlier, if this is how the cops treat reporters on camera, what the fuck has been happening off camera for years. 

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But the injustice dealt to Brown is still the prevailing cause of the actual protesting. If that is addressed, I really think that many people wouldn't be out there putting themselves at risk of being attacked by the police.

 

There's no doubt in my mind that there are more crimes that need to be addressed, but the active cause of people wanting to be out there head to head with police is wanting justice to be served.

 

I'm not positive that this is entirely true.  It was the prevailing spark, and it is still a rallying cry.  But the situation and the crowd is a lot more complex than that

 

In December, the largely white Ferguson-Florissant school board fired Art McCoy, the superintendent, who is African-American. Those who were gathered at the QuikTrip parking lot on Saturday were as inclined to talk about the underlying political issues as they were about the hail of bullets that ended Brown’s life.

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I'm not positive that this is entirely true.  It was the prevailing spark, and it is still a rallying cry.  But the situation and the crowd is a lot more complex than that

 

No doubt, but this Vox interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes suggests that a majority of people he talked to really want justice for Brown first and foremost - http://www.vox.com/michael-brown-shooting-ferguson-mo/2014/8/18/6032891/chris-hayes-ferguson-interview

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No doubt, but this Vox interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes suggests that a majority of people he talked to really want justice for Brown first and foremost - http://www.vox.com/michael-brown-shooting-ferguson-mo/2014/8/18/6032891/chris-hayes-ferguson-interview

 

It's probably absurd for us to debate it either way.  Clearly there are people motivated by a variety of issues and getting justice for Brown is a big one. 

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There's been heartbreak and insanity and heroism and terror in Ferguson for more than a week now, but the fact that Nelly is in the crowd marching with them tonight has also added absurd.

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Another journalist was also arrested today, a photojournalist and former marine.  People seem to now be referring to those arrested as political prisoners, which does not seem inaccurate at this point. 

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I think they're starting to try to invoke the "Free speech zones" concept, which is a huge load of shit because I thought all of American territory was a free speech zone. Or a Sonic the Hedgehog level.

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There's been heartbreak and insanity and heroism and terror in Ferguson for more than a week now, but the fact that Nelly is in the crowd marching with them tonight has also added absurd.

 

But what does Ja Rule have to say about this?

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Had anybody linked to Kareem Abdul-Jabar's piece on Ferguson?  I've spent the last 45 minutes reading through his column.  I feel like I've been missing out not reading his views on things. 

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The BBC News website has an article about this poll of reactions to the events in Ferguson. I'm kind of alarmed how many people either "don't know" whether the police response has gone too far, or are confident that it's "about right". I'm as woolly and look-at-things-from-both-sides indecisive as anyone, but I cannot comprehend how people can look at what's going on and see it as anything short of madness. Are they not seeing the same thing? What's going on?

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White people just don't care about black people nationally here in America. Seriously. White people say a bunch of racist shit, black people get on MSNBC and CNN and talk about how shitty that shit is, and then the one white pundit on the panel talks about how the comment was actually a substantive question about ethics, politics, etc.

 

Multiply that by whatever number you want. Black people beaten and tear gassed in the streets. Oh, lots of the reporters are wearing glasses? Liberal. Black? Biased. Al Jazeera America? Arab fucks we already decided to hate. Liberal media is biased and law-and-order is always right. Police are getting thrown under the bus because they're making some small mistakes. Liberal media is continuing an anti-gun agenda. Oh, months later black people are going to the polls to vote some of these political scumbags out of office? Let's suppress their voter rights because we care about "voter fraud" that takes place nationally in the low thousands.

 

It's systematic, it's hateful, and it clouds the vision of pretty much all white people even when a few white people are pulling those deceptive strings.

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This survey of responses to the situation in Ferguson, broken down by race, just makes me feel awful. I'm not surprised that a huge number of white people think that the amount of force used by the police is appropriate or that "too much emphasis" has been put on race in the media coverage of the event, but that doesn't make me any less angry about it.

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This survey of responses to the situation in Ferguson, broken down by race, just makes me feel awful. I'm not surprised that a huge number of white people think that the amount of force used by the police is appropriate or that "too much emphasis" has been put on race in the media coverage of the event, but that doesn't make me any less angry about it.

 

Man, that kind of logic makes my blood boil.  It is insane to me that a reasonably educated, well adjusted human being hasn't moved past the out of sight-out of mind stage of their development.  It represents this not in my backyard kind of philosophy where problems are only relevant based on one's proximity to them, or even don't exist if they themselves haven't perpetrated them, as evidenced here.

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Also a CNN anchor suggested that perhaps using water cannons was a good idea.
 
There are better videos than this one, but it's the first YouTube one I could embed that I could find:

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They way the dude turns to look at her when she does that suggestion. Says it all.

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Ferguson mayor claims his city is a "model community" for the transition from a mostly white to mostly black city population, 95 percent of the people support the mayor and police and there is no "racial divide" there. 

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With recent supreme court decisions regard corporate money and speech, and I'm baffled (not really baffled) that FREE SPEECH ZONES for reporters has been run up the chain. 

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With recent supreme court decisions regard corporate money and speech, and I'm baffled (not really baffled) that FREE SPEECH ZONES for reporters has been run up the chain. 

Nah, it's fine. Remember that money is speech. If those reporters want to stand there, they just need to buy the property first.

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or like, if you're a woman trying to see an OBGYN, remember the supreme court overturned that law so some maniac can get up in your face all the way the door of your clinic. 

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