The Death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri

sadly part of the problem in this scenario is that the african american community in ferguson doesnt vote.. hence all the white people runnin/ruinin shit

There are still three of the original agencies operating in Ferguson, and nobody is in charge and nobody is accountable. Sigh.

there is probably a lot on the ground to discourage that from happening xp

Last time I checked police officers weren't elected

jingleberries is that a statement from some evidence or are you inferring low voting rates from the current situation?

that was such an uninspriing damp squib of a "speech", why even bother if you've got nothing to say beyond "children, behave"

seriously that was not good

goole my source was an interview on npr yesterday. let me try to find it.

SIEGEL: We've all heard about how few black police officers there are in Ferguson. There aren't many black elected officials either - 1 councilman in 5. Why is that?

BYNES: Well, anything other than a presidential election there is low voter turnout. And the African-American community has been disenfranchised for a very long time. When you have people who are worrying about can I get a job - can I get to work - can I put food on the table - when election day on Tuesday comes around, that is the furthest thing from their minds. And the whites that live in the community - they participate. And so they vote for who they want for counsel and mayor, and they don't always put practices in place that are best for the majority population there.

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/13/340153388/between-fergusons-police-and-population-a-racial-divide

This is great:
https://storify.com/AthertonKD/veterans-on-ferguson

SIEGEL: But in a place with population 20,000, I'm a little bit surprised that actually most people don't know who the police officer was. I mean...

BYNES: Robert, I was just going to tell you people in the community have told me who the police is. They know who he is. It's about, I guess, releasing it at the much larger level. But people locally know who the cop is. The kids knew him. They told me that he would harass them all the time.

wow

BYNES: I was actually out there the night of the looting. I was trying to help calm things down, and I know that the people that were looting - they don't live in Ferguson. There have been reports that have been released from people who they arrested and they highlighted that, you know, so many of them came from the city of St. Louis, and they weren't actually Ferguson people.

Never underestimate the power of gerrymandering to ensure that only white people get elected. xp

How can we arrange to have FOX News firebombed? Anyone?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qcqRmJLudvY/U-zgG9Ag63I/AAAAAAAATuU/_sjBU9BSByU/s400/enhanced-1267-1408029765-17.png

sometimes i wonder just how different our politics would be if election day were a national holiday. xp

jesus christ, that FOX News still is like one of those Onion editorial comics

because you know it's vote or get fired for a lot of these people who don't vote xp

ppl, Fox News is preaching to the perverted

and trolling the troll-addicts

otoh, the cops have not forgotten H Rap Brown's message, amirite

Why don't you just write it, it's pretty obvious that you're dying to

? i thought people would know it

i'm not dying to do anything. everything's a mess.

Fox News is preaching to the perverted

Yes, and also to relatively well-meaning members of some of our families.

I believe it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said "disperse!"

riot vs. peaceful demonstration becomes a false choice when police are this eager to unconstitutionally suppress lawful free assembly

in other words, I lay the blame for everything at the cops' feet #riotapologist

For those unaware, I am assuming the punchline to Morb's joke is "Die, nigger, die!", which was the title of H Rap Brown's autobiography

yeah I think that was not his message, but a cynical book title, but I may be wrong

I was unaware of that one; was thinking of "Violence is as American as cherry pie." My apologies.

our Nobel Peace Prize winner in action

The Obama administration has defended the use of aggressive, militaristic police actions in court. In the case Avina v. U.S., DEA agents pointed their guns at an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old during a drug raid on the wrong house. The agents had apparently mistaken the license plate of a suspected drug trafficker for the plate on a car owned by Thomas Avina. Obama's Justice Department argued in federal court that the lawsuit should be dismissed before being heard by a jury because the agents’ actions were not unreasonable.

To be fair, the Justice Department almost always defends federal employees from lawsuits. And it seems likely that any other modern administration would do the same thing. But it wasn't always this way. In 1973, even the drug-warring Nixon administration fired, and then criminally indicted, 12 narcotics cops for raiding the wrong homes and terrorizing innocent families. Obama may be no different than Bush, Clinton, or his rivals for the presidency in defending drug cops who point guns at children during botched raids. But there was a time in America when even the original tough-on-crime administration was appalled enough at the idea to hold such overly zealous drug cops accountable.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html

I was assuming Morbz was referring to "violence is as American as apple pie" which is surely his most famous line...?

xxp

cherry pie whatever

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/in-defense-of-the-ferguson-riots/

The key for the Ferguson uprising, as with any unsustainable political moment, is to transition outrage and disruption into constructive political organization. Easier said than done — but it’s a better reaction than dismissing the riots and only making it more difficult for the people to accomplish this herculean task.

Malcolm X reminds us that media is a key instrument of subjugation because it determines which acts are respectable and which are extreme and thus illegitimate. Instead of following that familiar script, let’s push back against narratives about rioters being devoid of politics. Let’s find ways to honestly observe and discuss their political needs, rather than simply criticizing the nature of their response to social violence.

Looks good—I was just rereading the SI article on the Watts riots & thinking about how rioting/looting can be a form of "political organizing"

my gut reaction to Jacobin is basically "blah blah whatever guys"

*scribbles notes* "Yes, yes, very good... & now tell me, what is your gut reaction to a convenience store on fire?"

yes let's focus on the rioters who aren't from the community rather than the peaceful protesters who live there. xp

this is about local political culture imo and finding ways to connect and communicate that are part of daily life not filtered through media channels and ideologies hopefully making it less insane not more so for the non-whites who call these places home to exist there.

the author there is one of the smartest and most thoroughly grounded guys i know--and he's from missouri.

i think, mattress, that in saying "the key...is to transition outrage into constructive political organization" and "honestly observe and discuss their political needs" he's agreeing with your point about local political culture. a figure like chokwe lumumba seemed to get this keenly.

ok cool i will actually read the whole thing

get a little kneejerky about jacobin lately tbh

...and rightly so, the writing in that piece is so terrible and about-me and the author doesn't want to see it, frankly his armchair revolution tone, it may be born from good intentions but it strikes me as irresponsible. i think the npr interview linked above with the councilwoman who represents there is a far more grounded take on a few real obstacles that with a bit more engagement could be loosened improving conditions for disenfranchised people there and in other places like it, if only because of the simple act of engagement not grandstanding, and yes, ignorance of certain people on both sides is always going to be a part of the equation...

like here, i am going to advocate for a connecting bus route between two "sides" of the community (latino and white) as i can in my neighborhood, it seems the ratio of potential connection to alienation is greater than one if it goes through, or even if it doesn't and people have to keep trying in different ways to make the common ground become apparent to others, sometimes their whole life. a lot gets subsumed when you compromise and work within an understanding of the system that surrounds you but isn't that part of the transformational point?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvB1CBaIEAAszeW.jpg:large

<3

heart or angel wings?

or weirder, zip ties??

signed,
not a warrior

zip ties = handcuffs

I was unaware of that one; was thinking of "Violence is as American as cherry pie." My apologies.

Thanks. I apologize for transferring my anxiety about this whole situation onto you.

every time a cop fires a rubber bullet an angel gets his wings

ziptie wings are a crazy metaphor of perspective there

theyre also...................................................
,...............................................................
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white