Ferguson

[Henroid]

I just want to say that in the film, Casino, a member of the mob is gunned down by cops. It was meant to be a hilarious scene where they realize he was holding a hoagie / hero sandwich.

 

So when I heard that story yesterday, I was like, "Hey, I thought that kinda shit was fiction-only." The world sucks.

[MrHoatzin]

As far as I understand, a lot of the cops who were at Zuccotti park during Occupy few years back were there in private capacity, as it is common practice for our saintly NYC plutocrats to hire off duty cops for events, extra security etc. This hiring process goes through the city PD and is all legit and shit. The more you know.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/nypd-for-hire-cops-moonlighting-banks

[Badfinger]

Obviously both sides are biased and telling half truths. He was carrying a weaponized sandwich.

 

 

...seriously, what the fuck, world? I am continually baffled by how horrifying this shit is. It never occurred to me that police officers would be allowed to work as security when not on duty. As a teacher, if I offer my services as a tutor, it is grounds for dismissal. That's for helping children. Yet some police officers can say "I NEED THIS POWER TRIP TO CONTINUE INTO MY OFF HOURS AS WELL!" and everyone is cool with it. I want to make it clear that I'm sure there are good police officers who don't use their careers as a power trip, but that the world is such that I need to clarify that at ALL is horrible.

 

 

If you did design work at an industrial firm and then on the weekends offered your services as an interior designer, I wouldn't see a problem with it. I suppose I can see your connection between teacher and police as a public to private endeavor, but really the difference between the designer and the cop is the gun.

 

I should point out that on re-reading the person who said he had a sandwich was a family member and not an eyewitness. It's still going to be a long road for me to believe anything STLPD has to say involving fucking shooting people who are not in the act of or fleeing from committing crimes. Or shooting them at all, ever. Ever.

[Gormongous]

Tensions in Ferguson and the rest of St. Louis are still fairly high. On my personal front, the wife of a close friend in my program, who is otherwise very cool and kind, has been sharing every single post made by "Ferguson/Saint Louis Riot Updates" on Facebook. As far as I can tell, this page seems to be a venomously pro-police and anti-black affair that exclusively reposts reports of protesters acting out of line and media taking their side. If I were in doubt, the comments to every single post are about "slaughtering animals" and "exterminating thugs," stuff you'd expect from the nineteenth-century Deep South, not the twenty-first century "model community" of Ferguson. Having to see these hateful posts, even in passing, has become a great source of distress for me, but every other interaction with the person sharing them is positive, so for some reason, I'm hesitating to remove them from my life.

 

Also, the different St. Louis police departments have had at least five recorded instances of planting guns and fabricating firearms charges. In each situation, the officers responsible have sworn that they were acting on their own, which is... I don't know. Whatever the case is, I have so much difficulty trusting the police that I simply cannot understand how so many people are desperate enough to believe that the police can do no wrong, to the point of advocating limited-scale genocide of those perceived to be the "enemies" of law enforcement.

[Bjorn]

I've continued to watch the news most weeks, but hadn't really said much about it. 

 

This doesn't bode well though.  The combined St. Louis county and city police forces have spent a reported $500,000 on riot gear, tear gas, rubber bullets, etc., since August. A big chunk of that has been in acquisitions in the event that Wilson is not charged.

[Gormongous]

I've continued to watch the news most weeks, but hadn't really said much about it. 

 

This doesn't bode well though.  The combined St. Louis county and city police forces have spent a reported $500,000 on riot gear, tear gas, rubber bullets, etc., since August. A big chunk of that has been in acquisitions in the event that Wilson is not charged.

 

You can feel it, not just in the news reports, but in the air of the city itself. Everyone seems to be sure that Darren Wilson won't be convicted and everyone's ramping up for a race war because of that. There seem to be no efforts being made to avert that. The police chief's even stated bluntly that Wilson will be back on duty immediately if/when he's not indicted.

[Badfinger]

The Governor of Missouri has preemptively declared a state of emergency to call in the National Guard in response to the findings that haven't even been released yet of the grand jury on the Mike Brown shooting.

[Henroid]

The Governor of Missouri has preemptively declared a state of emergency to call in the National Guard in response to the findings that haven't even been released yet of the grand jury on the Mike Brown shooting.

I really hope it isn't necessary. I also hope the jury decides Mike Brown was murdered in cold blood and that the cop is a fucking jackoff. That's a thing you can be found guilty of right? Being a jackoff?

[namman siggins]

So anonymous hacked the KKK's twitter account and released their member's information after the Klan made threats to Ferguson protestors.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/anonymous-launches-attack-ku-klux-klan-article-1.2013559

[Bjorn]

Gun sales are spiking dramatically around StL as the Grand Jury comes ever closer to releasing it's decision.

I went to a lecture/discussion this week held by the visiting Langston Hughes scholar at the local University on the intersection of black masculinity, black femininity and Ferguson. I had hoped to have something to write about it, but as interesting as it was, it was mostly a robust, open discussion freewheeling between Ferguson and how black men and women are stereotyped in different ways. Not a lot that's easy to write about since it pinballed around so much.

[Badfinger]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/20/1346374/-BREAKING-VIDEO-Police-Lied-Mike-Brown-was-killed-148-feet-away-from-Darren-Wilson-s-SUV

 

I don't really like the badly written conspiracy theory-style way this is presented, but someone took the simple step of actually measuring the distance between the officer's vehicle and where Mike Brown was ultimately killed, comparing that to the police statement of distance in their reporting, and attempting to corroborate what that means with regards to the official statements and eyewitness reports of how the encounter occurred.

[Problem Machine]

I think conspiracy theory-style writing can maybe be forgiven in the face of, you know, a conspiracy

[Gormongous]

I think conspiracy theory-style writing can maybe be forgiven in the face of, you know, a conspiracy

 

I have speculated several times in mixed company that there is definitely some degree of collusion between police officers in these two shootings and have been treated like a genuine crazy person for it. Forget egregious things like the constantly changing stories of Darren Wilson and the other officer, forget Badfinger's link about the distance at which Mike Brown was shot, forget St. Louis police departments' history of fabricating gun charges, assuming that the police aren't on the level in every way possible is tantamount to being an anarchist for many people here. They're scared that law enforcement might not actually be enforcing laws, so they punch relentlessly downward.

[Henroid]

So anonymous hacked the KKK's twitter account and released their member's information after the Klan made threats to Ferguson protestors.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/anonymous-launches-attack-ku-klux-klan-article-1.2013559

This is the Anonymous that I back fully, when they enact this kind of social justice. Because fuck cowards hiding behind LITERAL masks making threats of violence toward others.

[Nachimir]

I don't think the news coming out of America has ever felt so fucked and threatening before.

 

This part of the article cracked me up though:

 

"Sounds to me like a bunch of kids in their mom's basement whacking off," Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona of the Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK told the Daily News earlier Monday.

 

Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona getting all macho there.

[Merus]

This is the Anonymous that I back fully, when they enact this kind of social justice. Because fuck cowards hiding behind LITERAL masks making threats of violence toward others.

 

They saw a target and went for it, but that doesn't mean that they were doing it for any other reason than they'd make a scene.

[itsamoose]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/20/1346374/-BREAKING-VIDEO-Police-Lied-Mike-Brown-was-killed-148-feet-away-from-Darren-Wilson-s-SUV

 

I don't really like the badly written conspiracy theory-style way this is presented, but someone took the simple step of actually measuring the distance between the officer's vehicle and where Mike Brown was ultimately killed, comparing that to the police statement of distance in their reporting, and attempting to corroborate what that means with regards to the official statements and eyewitness reports of how the encounter occurred.

 

While not directly related to this, I've heard a number of legal experts talk about just how odd the Grand Jury process is being handled by the prosecutor.  I'm not a lawyer myself, so I don't understand these things as well as I should, but from what I have heard it seems as though the powers that be have never had any interest in prosecuting the officer.  Grand Juries are lead by prosecutors, and that prosecutor has authority over what evidence is presented.  Usually this means the prosecutor displays their narrative to the Jury and finds out if they have enough to pursue charges on.  In Ferguson however the Grand jury has been bombarded with all kinds of evidence, some seemingly irrelevant to the case, has not been provided a narrative on what happened (just possible situations), had been presented with conflicting evidence or accounts with no comment, were not given much in the way of instruction, and were not even sequestered during the proceedings.  While I am no expert, this seems like the exact kind of thing you would pull if you don't want to charge him, but also don't want to be held responsible for not doing so.  I'd love to hear someone with more legal knowledge's take on the subject, but from every interview I've seen or article I've read regarding the way this grand jury is being handled leads me to believe it's all just a dog and pony show.

[Badfinger]

^^^^ Before the GJ hearing, people who knew better requested/demanded the prosecutor remove himself from this case due to having some connection with it (maybe being a racist white person in cahoots with the PD, I honestly don't remember) that would conflict with his job, and he refused.

 

 

I think conspiracy theory-style writing can maybe be forgiven in the face of, you know, a conspiracy

 

I realize this is me fiddling with semantics, but I think there's a genuine difference between corruption, incompetence and cover up, and genuine conspiracy.

 

The Ferguson and StL PD (and possibly most PD around the country) are clearly corrupt. Abuse of power, for example, is corruption. They're also clearly incompetent, and are obviously covering up. I don't think it's a conspiracy. That would be purposefully fabricating a situation to kill a young man under uncertain circumstances to incite race rallies. This is "merely" a corrupt organization acting the way it always has and getting caught with 8x10 color glossy photographs with its hands where they shouldn't be, and stupidly acting like its business as usual because they have the badges.

[Problem Machine]

I think it still counts as a conspiracy to cover up a murder even if it wasn't a conspiracy to commit one.

[Badfinger]

I think it still counts as a conspiracy to cover up a murder even if it wasn't a conspiracy to commit one.

 

 

Duh, yes. Absolutely. I was thinking conspiracy in the chem trails and drugs in the water sort of way and not in the law system definition way.

[Bjorn]

The Grand Jury is finished and it is suppose to announce the decision this afternoon sometime.  I'm shocked they aren't holding it until after Thanksgiving. 

[thefncrow]

^^^^ Before the GJ hearing, people who knew better requested/demanded the prosecutor remove himself from this case due to having some connection with it (maybe being a racist white person in cahoots with the PD, I honestly don't remember) that would conflict with his job, and he refused.

He has a history behavior that looks suspiciously like his grand jury presentations in cases of officer-involved shootings are intentionally weak in an attempt to get the GJ to not convict. Basically, he declines to do his job when cops are the ones being accused, which could have something to do with how his father was killed on-duty and he spent his whole life wanting to be a cop but had to settle for being a prosecutor after he lost a leg during HS.

The thing about Grand Juries is that any no bill is basically because a prosecutor is being insane or throwing the case. There's a saying that any half decent prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. This is because the GJ process is basically completely closed to the accused. They can choose to testify in front of the GJ, but they have no right to legal counsel as they do so, which is why basically no one ever does. You might note that Darren Wilson did testify in front of the GJ, signifying that he either has the most incompetent legal counsel of all time, or he felt there was no reason to fear testifying without counsel present to protect him. The accused additionally has no right to present evidence or cross-examine witnesses, and the prosecutor has no burden to present any evidence that is exculpatory to the accused.

The Grand Jury typically is given the most one-sided view possible of a crime and decides if that presentation makes it worthy of going to trial. Every single bit of news about this grand jury is that the prosecutor is doing everything to signal the jury that he isnt truly looking for an indictment short of holding up a giant sign in court that says "No bill please".

There is an argument to be made that this sort of grand jury scheme is more fair. And if this was how every grand jury was conducted, it might result in a more fair system. But, of course, it's not remotely typical of how most people accused of a crime are treated, which means it's preferential treatment for police.

[Dewar]

Seattle is preparing for a riot. Apparently there were some demands issued to the Seattle PD. While I feel for the protesters, I don't exactly know what demands they expect to get from the Seattle PD about a grand jury 2000 miles away.

[Merus]

I don't even know why grand juries exist, other than an admission that the public prosecutors need oversight regarding whether they're wasting the court's time with substandard cases.

 

Then again, the idea that the police can just straight up shoot someone because of a perception that they might turn violent in some unspecified point in the future is not good. My housemate is deeply concerned that the police may misinterpret him holding a butterknife because he has a history of mental illness.

[Architecture]

I feel like we're all just waiting for an immense disappointment.