The Death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri

"Robbery suspect," huh? That's a new one.

Yeah, apparently they didn't leet hack their way into the Ferguson PDs personnel files after all.

"Robbery suspect," huh? That's a new one.

― Andy K, Friday, 15 August 2014 10:01 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a bit convenient, at that

OH, wait -- I forgot about the chatter about a candy bar.

Can't remember where that chatter came from, though.

probably Y0ungC0ns3rv4tiv3s.c0m, who are touting new pics that paint a 'diff pic' of Michael Brown cos he's pictured flipping the bird in one pic. they were the first hit I got when searching for the name and "candy bar".

don't go there btw. in fact, can a mod googleproof that so those assholes don't come here, either

Waiting for the appearance of an additional "witness" who was hanging behind a bush and overheard the murderer say, "Get the fuck on the sidewalk...you strong-arm robbery suspect who is about to reach for my weapon."

getting fatigued of watching people go 'we should withhold judgements until alllll the facts come out, we don't know what happened' as if a magical Evidence Wizard is going to show up with unedited video of the whole encounter which clears everything up.

I mean yes, by all means, familiarize yourself with all available details as they arise and map your opinion accordingly, but the disingenuous "oh this story is just media-slanted, wait until the facts come out" is such nonsense. In the end, it's going to be the witnesses' words against the police, with some other circumstantial evidence tossed in.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

Was listening to Steve Harvey this morning, and in as much as a teachable moment can be made of this tragedy, he really emphasized the importance of registering to vote, which not only gives citizens a say in the composition and diversity of their local government, but also betters the chance of a more diverse jury pool. Because what are the odds that the jury this trial eventually gets will be just as unrepresentative as the police force?

Jeez didn't Anonymous tweet a different guy? That's really shitty

Anonymous never gets anything right fwiw. Me OTM

Josh plz see upthread re: the impossibility of full time workers being able to take the time to vote

Missouri has also been trying to implement voter ID laws since 2006

Oh, I know all the reasons people don't vote, or can't vote, or are prevented from voting. But voting is part of the solution to several broader problems. This is something well-meaning observers who *do* vote, down in MO and elsewhere, can push for and/or through. Better laws, fewer bad laws, voter registration, helping people vote, etc.

Also, just registering to vote is enough to get placement on jury lists.

Which is something else folks with full-time jobs struggle with. That five bucks a day or whatever doesn't make up for the work they miss.

I mean, I get your point Josh and agree with you, but we need better laws to protect EVERYONE's ability to vote and serve without negatively impacting their livelihood.

I think voting is important but I also think it's a smokescreen for the issue that, no matter who is in charge, cops should not be murdering unarmed black kids. Like it is not acceptable for anyone to run on the "let's shoot em" ticket.

they're saying he allegedly stole a 48.99 box of cigars now. wtf

Like it is not acceptable for anyone to run on the "let's shoot em" ticket.

But all tickets are that ticket, unless/until they take explicitly take the position AGAINST being that ticket as a signature issue. That's what it means for white supremacy to be the default setting. That's why the term "anti-racism" is purposefully different from "not racist," because it has to be intentional or else things fall back to status quo, which is that black lives matter less.

I mean you're right, and I think you meant to say basically the same thing I did, I just wanted to be really clear about that point.

ot

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In orbit science BOOM.

just want to repost this bit from the black girl dangerous post, it's been haunting me, feel like it does a good job of really explaining how and why it is NOT true that "There's a difference between being "not human enough to live" and being part of a discriminated and unfairly treated group in present day America.". They are the same, dehumanizing a group of people is discrimination, is unfair treatment, discrimination and unfair treatment ARE EXACTLY dehumanization, a "little bit" or "a lot" is where the excuses of convenience bear their wearying weight, your euphemisms are lies that allow this deep wound to fester.

I understand how hard it is to accept that as a Black person your life means so little in this country that you can be killed by police for nothing. That walking down the street while Black can be the only reason your life, or the life of your son or daughter or father or partner or friend, ends. You want there to be another reason, any other reason.

Yesterday on Twitter, @prisonculture wrote, in response to a tweet suggesting Black people can dress better to avoid being murdered by the authorities:

…”looking the part” doesn’t help you brother…I’m so sorry. I feel so much compassion for you. How do you absorb & internalize that you are killable, always killable? You create your own fictions. To survive, to live. I understand.
I, too, understand that it’s hard. Almost too hard to bear. Who wants to have to carry these things? Especially when you’re young and dreaming of a life without barriers based on your skin color. But pretending we can “respectable” ourselves out of racism is dangerous. And it will not save you.

Please don’t let respectability politics distract you from the issue. The issue, again: yet another unarmed Black teenager murdered by police. His name was Mike Brown.

yourour euphemisms

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench/status/500316380063748096

local PD strikes back, if u ask me

not sure i understand the issue here, didn't everybody want the name released?

they released the name of the officer, with zero details about the shooting

except for their side of events leading up to the shooting: there was a robbery of a convenience store, and brown "fit the description"

please correct me if that's not what just happened.

also: anonymous fingered the wrong guy

FOX News reporting, of course, that Brown did the robbery.

How could the Ferguson PD even know?

They left his body in the street for hours without collecting any evidence

FOX News: We mislead. You decide.

Voting might not mean much for local politics when city council positions and the like aren't full-time jobs, meaning you have to have a career that allows you the time to also serve on the city council. Voting is kind of moot when you get to pick between different people who do not have your interests in mind.

it doesn't matter if he stole a box of cigars or not

what matters is white cop murdered an unarmed black man

Except the (often unconscious) racist formula goes:

(black man = dangerous) + (theft = criminal) == dangerous criminal

And, of course, dangerous criminals may be shot on sight by the cops, who protect and serve us by shooting dangerous criminals on our behalf.

Has this been linked yet? http://grantland.com/features/ferguson-missouri-protest-michael-brown-murder-police/

The chant went strong for 30 seconds, until protesters grew weary of saying the same thing over and over again. And then, moments after the chant had died down, I heard glass break and the sound of a loosed gas canister.

“THIS IS NO LONGER A PEACEFUL PROTEST WHEN YOU TRY TO INJURE PEOPLE,” said the voice from the tank.

A man sitting near me was the first person I saw start to run. Then, suddenly, we were all running. I remember looking over my shoulder as my legs churned beneath me. The police were shooting flares and I didn’t want to get hit in the back. But I didn’t stop running, because I didn’t want the smoke to catch up. There was also the sound of weapons firing. And this siren. This terrible, terrible siren.

At some point, I fell. And, for a moment, I could feel the smoke in my lungs. The mix of the weapons firing and the smoke and the sirens froze me for a second, and then I got up to hide behind a tree. There were screams — “LET’S GO!” Some yelled at the cops: “Come lock me the fuck up!” “On the side of y’all car it says ‘to protect and serve’ and y’all ain’t protecting shit!” “There’s fucking kids out here and you throwing smoke bombs!”

Eventually, they’d pushed the majority of the crowd back to the nearest intersection. But most people weren’t leaving. And then the voice from the tank spoke again:

“RETURN TO YOUR VEHICLES AND RETURN TO YOUR HOMES, YOU MAY NO LONGER BE IN THE AREA. IT IS NO LONGER A PEACEFUL PROTEST. YOU ARE NOT PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLED. YOU MUST LEAVE OR BE SUBJECT TO ARREST.”

The more that voice from the tank spoke, the more agitated those that hung around became. And the less interested many were in following its orders.

“Y’all made this unpeaceful. That’s your fault. We was peaceful until y’all did that shit. Smoke bombs and people got their kids out here? Really?”

Reaching into my pocket for my phone, I realized that when I fell, I’d landed on it. It was done.

I wanted to leave, but I needed to send some type of message indicating that I was OK. I was at least an hour away from being anyplace where I could text or tweet.

As I searched for someone with a phone, everyone around me was ready to fight.

“Oh, y’all want us to shoot back. We’ll shoot back, just wait.”

“Tonight’s the last peaceful night. Know that.”

Shit, I immediately thought. Someone is going to die tonight.

Eventually, I met Michael Calhoun. He works at KMOX, the CBS radio affiliate out of St. Louis. He still had some juice in his phone and let me send a few tweets. Then we returned to the main street to see what was up. It seemed calmer than when we’d headed to the car. Smoke was in the air, but it wasn’t new smoke.

And then what felt like a bomb went off.

I don’t know what it was, but it sounded like a bomb. I don’t know what I was talking about when the explosion happened, but I ran. I caught Michael’s eye as he ran back to his car, letting him know he didn’t have to wait up.

I kept running. I didn’t know where I was running, but I was running. Now there were explosions and sirens and smoke and gunshots and a helicopter shining its light through the neighborhood. We scattered like roaches, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the cops thought of us that way.

And I kept running.

I can’t believe I didn’t call my mom.

After weaving through the streets, realizing that I’d gone in some sort of circle, I ran into a camera crew. One of the men let me attempt to charge my phone in his car. I laid down on the grass briefly, but then propped myself up because I couldn’t get the smoke out of my throat. A man walking down the street stopped and we stood there, coughing and spitting for 10 seconds.

And then what sounded like another bomb went off.

As we ran across the street, away from the sound of the explosion, a helicopter shone its light on us. We instinctively ducked, as if a prison watch guard had caught us trying to break out. And I grabbed my stuff. We told each other to be safe, and I started running toward the main street. I figured if I could just get up this one block, I’d find my way to the car blockade, and then I’d be safe.

Then I froze. I could see the soldiers marching up West Florissant. They looked like monsters.

At that moment, I didn’t feel like a journalist. There was nothing about this event that I felt the need to chronicle. There was no time to find out what the bombs actually were and what was actually coming out of the guns and what type of gas was coming out of the canisters. In this moment, there was nothing I felt the need to broadcast to the world. I didn’t even have the desire to communicate my safety or lack thereof.

I was just a black man in Ferguson.

I could imagine this shit happening at almost any moment in almost any town and city in America, that's how fucked up it is.

Oh it looks like Brown and probably is – didn't Dorian Johnson admit Brown took the cigarillos (I thought I heard it a few days ago? The officer who confronted Brown wasn't aware of the shoplifting accusation, I don't think. The video is timed to conflate two discrete incidents. What does Brown's stealing the cigars have to do with the confrontation or murder?

the problem is that it gives some people an imaginary "excuse" for the shooting, I would guess? I hope I phrased that right.

iow shakey otm

if some kid shoplifting from a convenience store is an excuse for shooting them, then there are a loooot of people I know who would have never made it to adulthood

i'm pretty glad i wasn't caught putting sales sticker on expensive CDs at tower records back in the day

And there are people deathly afraid of Sharia law.

wouldn't the barcode still have triggered the real price?

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/itemizing-atrocity/

For blacks, the “war on terror” hasn’t “come ‘home.’” It’s always been here. How then might we consider the emphasis on the militarization of policing as the problem as another example of “the precariousness of empathy”?

if some kid shoplifting from a convenience store is an excuse for shooting them, then there are a loooot of people I know who would have never made it to adulthood

this made the rounds this morning