It’s been hard for me to gather my thoughts. But, our newest Ferguson post was old and getting full of replies.
It’s hard because it’s difficult to put into words the level of rage that I feel.
I keep on going back to the following pictures:
These were the pictures that were on my mind as I went to sleep.
That pain.
The unimaginable pain that their child isn’t even worth a trial.
Not worth a trial.
The entire proceedings were a farce. An absolute farce. From beginning to end.
These White folks have been so used to killing Black people and being unchallenged by it, that they are actually offended that they are being challenged.
I have one that believes in voting, and I still believe in voting.
But, sometimes, people have made themselves unworthy of the vote.
Claire McCaskill and Jay Nixon are two such people.
Black folks have never been folks going for the unicorn. We’ve never had the luxury of finding the ‘perfect candidates’. We’ve never been on that tip.
But, when you get from your supposed allies is utter bullshyt, one must make a stand.
Who the phuck cares if the alternative is a Republican, when, in the basest of cases, your ”allies’ can’t stand for basic right?
Your ‘ allies’ can’t affirm your humanity.
Your ‘ allies’ can’t affirm your rights as a citizen.
And make no mistake, Claire McCaskill and Jay Nixon didn’t absolutely NOTHING to stand for the basic rights and humanity of Michael Brown and his parents. If they want to get elected further, they should do it without BLACK VOTES. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for any Black person to ever vote for them period.
I would never tell someone to not vote. But, you can pull a ballot and leave offices blank.
The Republican elected would be MORE HONEST than McCaskill and Nixon have been.
Phuck both of them with their mealy mouthed inaction, and support of that racist McCullough.
There are bare minimums that Black people should expect for their votes….
McCaskill and Nixon have failed that test.
http://youtu.be/Gw4nQd6lryw
Thanks for this.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Tamir Rice and unarmed white men.
then there was Tamir Rice. Truly a sad story. Kid playing with a toy gun in the park; there is a 911 call to the po po, and the next thing you know an 12 year old is dead after two gun shots to the abdomen. (Watch)
This case is tragic on so many levels. First, the police officers who are not properly trained. Second, the same police officers who have color arousal issues. Third, the irresponsible parents who purchase toy guns for their children to play with in the first place.
But field, it’s not only black children who accidentally get killed by police officers.
I know, little Mexican children get shot as well.
But field what about all the unarmed white men who get shot by black police officers?
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2014/11/tamir-rice-and-unarmed-white-men.html
How Robert McCulloch Hoodwinked The Ferguson Grand Jury
By karoli November 26, 2014 9:02 pm –
A shocking deception on the part of the St. Louis County Prosecutor taints the entire Grand Jury verdict.
This is how the Grand Jury arrived at their verdict. Early on in the proceedings, Assistant District Attorney Alizadeh handed out copies of a law that was ruled unconstitutional in 1985. In essence it set the bar for use of excessive force lower than is permissible. Simply put, ADA Alizadeh told the jury that it was permissible to shoot a fleeing suspect.
Tennessee v. Garner made the statute Alizadeh distributed to the Grand Jury unconstitutional, but that didn’t stop her from distributing it to grand jurors at the outset in order to set their minds in a place where Darren Wilson was justified in what he did.
Then, at the very end of the proceedings on November 21st, Alizadeh “corrected” the record. Sort of.
For the entire proceeding, jurors weighed the evidence in light of a law that was deemed unconstitutional almost 30 years ago. Then they corrected the record at the very end, but by then it was too late.
To me, this invalidates the entire decision. While I believe jurors acted in good faith, the prosecutor did not, and intentionally confused jurors as to the applicable law. Correcting it at the end is not adequate or acceptable.
Unfortunately, there is no way to force Bob McCulloch to prosecute Darren Wilson. But Eric Holder has promised an aggressive investigation of Ferguson police. That’s good, but he might want to broaden that investigation to include St. Louis County prosecutors.
How can anyone believe this Grand Jury proceeding has a shred of integrity? I don’t blame the jurors; I blame the prosecutor.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/how-robert-mcculloch-hoodwinked-ferguson
In America, black children don’t get to be children
By Stacey Patton November 26 at 7:16 PM
Stacey Patton, a senior enterprise reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, is the author of the memoir “That Mean Old Yesterday.”
Black America has again been reminded that its children are not seen as worthy of being alive — in part because they are not seen as children at all, but as menacing threats to white lives.
America does not extend the fundamental elements of childhood to black boys and girls. Black childhood is considered innately inferior, dangerous and indistinguishable from black adulthood. Black children are not afforded the same presumption of innocence as white children, especially in life-or-death situations.
Note officer Darren Wilson’s description of his confrontation with Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Mo. In his grand jury testimony, Wilson described Brown as a “demon,” “aggressive,” and said that Brown had taunted him by saying, “You are too much of a p—y to shoot me.” (Similarly, George Zimmerman told police that teenager Trayvon Martin threatened him during their fight: “You’re gonna die tonight.”)
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Wilson told the jury, “I felt like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. . . . That’s how big he felt and how small I felt just from grasping his arm.” Wilson claimed that Brown charged at him through a hail of bullets before he shot him in the head. The official history of that night paints Wilson as an innocent white child was so threatened by a big, black beast that his only option was to use lethal force.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-america-black-children-dont-get-to-be-children/2014/11/26/a9e24756-74ee-11e4-a755-e32227229e7b_story.html?tid=trending_strip_6
Only4RM @Only4RM
Convinced McCulloch & his team THREW the case so badly that @TheJusticeDept will find it HAS to take the case to a Fed grand jury. @lawrence
Strongly agree.
chauncey devega @chaunceydevega
Where are the mentions of the racist white juror who was going on a “spirit quest” to learn that blacks are human? http://bigstory.ap.org/article/078c82ad45ff4ec6aa1c7744dfa7df14/grand-jury-documents-rife-inconsistencies …
Officer fires at unarmed suspect during traffic stop
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Days after an unarmed man dodged a bullet during a traffic stop, it’s still not entirely clear what led a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officer to open fire.
The man’s supporters took to social media on Wednesday to share his side of the story, saying the man had been holding his daughter’s asthma inhaler when the officer fired Monday night.
Officer J.C. Garcia hasn’t been placed on leave in the wake of the shooting, a JSO spokesperson said Tuesday.
The officer drew and fired his weapon under the mistaken belief that the driver was holding a gun. In fact, Brian Dennison, 29, was unarmed, and had his 6-year-old daughter in the car with him.
According to the police report, Garcia spotted a green Ford Focus driven by Dennison speeding through a parking lot near West University Boulevard and St. Augustine Road. Garcia began following the car, and said it blew through a stop sign as it turned onto DuPont Station Road, nearly hitting another car and heading the wrong way toward St. Augustine Road.
That’s when the officer switched on his lights and siren, following the car until it turned into Plantation Apartments in the 7000 block of South Old Kings Road and parked.
At a media briefing early Tuesday, Assistant Chief Chris Butler told reporters the officer initially believed the suspect was armed so he pulled out his own weapon and fired. At some point, Butler said, the officer realized he was not armed, and shifted his fire so as not to wound Dennison.
Dekierian Cook, Dennison’s cousin who said he overheard the commotion at the scene, was puzzled by the shooting. “I think he just shot to shoot, you know. There’s really no reason.”
According to Cook, Dennison was speeding after 9 p.m. because he was rushing home to get medication for his daughter, who had begun suffering an asthma attack. “She’s got really bad allergies,” Cook said.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/2014/11/25/officer-opens-fire-traffic-stop/70100748/
Michael Hargrove @MichaelHargrov1
Name one thing Cornel West has done this year to help our community other than going to Ferguson for a photo op.
Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid
Violence works. Nonviolence does too.
Ta-Nehisi Coates Nov 26 2014, 12:52 PM ET
In the case of Michael Brown, this is more disappointing than enraging. The genre of Obama race speeches has always been bounded by the job he was hired to do. Specifically, Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America. More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist country, erected upon the plunder of life, liberty, labor, and land. This plunder has not been exclusive to black people. But black people, the community to which both Michael Brown and Barack Obama belong, have the distinct fortune of having survived in significant numbers. For a creedal country like America, this poses a problem—in nearly every major American city one can find a population of people whose very existence, whose very history, whose very traditions, are an assault upon this country’s nationalist instincts. Black people are the chastener of their own country. Their experience says to America, “You wear the mask.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/11/barack-obama-ferguson-and-the-evidence-of-things-unsaid/383212/
And none could say they were surprised: on #Ferguson
Posted on November 25, 2014 by infinitefreetime
SeasonsGreetings_FergusonMO_GrandJuryAnnouncement_Cops_112414I keep needing to remind myself of something: I have liked every cop I’ve ever known. The number’s not large, mind you; four, perhaps five people, one of whom’s faces I can remember clearly but whose name has escaped me. At least one is a Facebook friend who may read this. Alternate universe me actually is a police officer; if you Google search my real name most of the results you’ll get are for the other guy since I’m as diligent as I can be about keeping my name off the Web.
But as much as I want to generalize, I keep having to remind myself: I know cops. I am friends, or at least cordial acquaintances, with two of them. They aren’t all bad people, as much as it frequently seems like they are. They’re just embedded in a system that encourages them to be bad people, and if that’s not the most understated use of the word “just” that I see today something has gone terribly wrong. Cops aren’t all bad people. Cop culture fucking sucks. You could say the same thing about gamers, by the way, a group I consider myself a part of. The big difference, of course, is that gamers aren’t shooting young black men down in the street and getting away with it.
I’ve read through some of the grand jury testimony that was released today, and all of Darren Wilson’s testimony in particular. I’m not a news organization and I don’t have to pretend to be objective: Darren Wilson is a liar. He is a liar and a murderer and he is lying in his grand jury testimony and there is nothing that can convince me otherwise. Consider this:
http://infinitefreetime.com/2014/11/25/and-none-could-say-they-were-surprised-on-ferguson/
liza @blogdiva
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9 WHITE GRAND JURORS. 3 BLACK GRAND JURORS. 9 JURORS NEEDED FOR AN INDICTMENT yet #Ferguson is 67% Black. the cards were always stacked…
8:45 PM – 24 Nov 2014
They start stacking the deck from day one, they throw the case, and then they flaunt it knowing full well they haven’t fooled anyone. What they are really saying is, “We can do this and what are you going to do? We control the system.”
Of course, systems can be changed but they try not to think about that.
These murdering cops are going to have to be tried at the federal level, that’s really the bottom line. And the DOJ is going to have to work faster to get this done. These cops who commit murder and voluntary manslaughter need to go down, one after another like so many dominoes, until it becomes commonplace. In other words, until the law is enforced and people accept that there are bad cops deserving of punishment, and their victims deserved to live. When that belief finally takes hold, cops who murder may start getting convicted at the state level.
Nah you good. @shugnice
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Racism is white people destroying property for sporting events while black people must remain “civil” when our children are shot by cops.
7:34 PM – 24 Nov 2014
Jamil Smith ✔ @JamilSmith
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If it wasn’t for Twitter, millions may never have learned Michael Brown’s name.
8:21 PM – 24 Nov 2014
Samuel L. Jackson ✔ @SamuelLJackson
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66 yrs, processing the same Old Shit! It’s supposed to be different… It aint! Sorry for the Brown Family… The rest of us too!
7:37 PM – 25 Nov 2014
https://twitter.com/KimberlyC75/status/537389270823366656/photo/1
https://twitter.com/JRehling/status/537081742293610496/photo/1
As if we really needed Google to present us with these result. STAGGERING….
https://twitter.com/Tink_Therapy/status/537634256789725184/photo/1
All of my comments that link to Twitter are awaiting moderation.
I approved them. Sorry for getting to them so late.
TY.
Oh, what a surprise! Not.
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/537720546822074368
Rikyrah
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/537639749603704832
The pain is just so gutting.
IT’S HEART-RENDING…
thanks SG2.
twitter tells all kinds of truths
I’m posting this but can’t bring myself to watch the video just yet. Saying “this is bigger than Ferguson” is such an understatement. Twelve years old…
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/537708295075528704
OMG!!
https://twitter.com/Meet_Nallah/status/537670019925422080
https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench/status/537687305860165633
…and NO INCIDENT REPORT FILED BY DARREN WILSON.
That MOFO gets to parade around on tv and spew his FILTHY, EVIL LIES.
https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench/status/537685389126168576
Keith Boykin @keithboykin
This is a stunning infographic. How prosecutor Robert McCulloch steered the jury away from indicting Darren Wilson. http://nydailynews.tumblr.com/post/103641366655/a-step-by-step-review-of-the-confrontation-between …
Eric Boehlert @EricBoehlert
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from Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown: conservative writers who explain away the killing of unarmed black teens; http://politi.co/1ruCWoA
11:50 AM – 26 Nov 2014
Elon James White @elonjames
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I’m wrong McCulloch will prosecute a cop: Black St. Louis County Cop Charged For Hit On Hand: http://cbsloc.al/1rucf3x (h/t @shownde)
10:09 AM – 26 Nov 2014
https://twitter.com/ThisIsFusion/status/537686007127502848/photo/1
Those of us who followed this closely knew what the outcome would be without a special prosecutor. We knew the fix was in. Yet, it is one thing to know there is 99.9 percent probability of a travesty and it is another thing when it actually happens. Some of us might have thought we were prepared but then it happens. And we realize once again that nothing prepares you for a state sanctioned murder, and murders committed by cops have been state sanctioned for too damn long.
The white boys and girls who orchestrated this fix think they won this round. But what they really did was cause a lot of folks to wake up. The gibberish from TV and radio gasbags will fade away. But the awareness that is spreading beyond our borders and throughout the entire world isn’t fading. Not anytime soon.
And I couldn’t agree more about McCaskill and Nixon. McCaskill has outlived her usefulness, if she ever had any, and she should be put out to pasture. Nixon should find a new occupation that has nothing to do with public service because he doesn’t seem to understand what that means.
Darren Wilson kills an unarmed kid, lies to the GJ & now goes on a media tour telling his fairy tale cartoon lie. It’s so got damn offensive!
Beyond offensive.
It just hurts the soul.
There are no words. He is George Zimmerman with a badge, maybe worse because he took an oath to uphold the law.
Worse, the media treat him like he was some good samaritan who saved a stranger’s life. To watch and hear, you’d never believe he actually murdered an 18 year old unarmed kid in cold blood and not only got away with it, but asserts that he has no regrets.
Honestly, with what that man has said so far I think he needs a psychiatric evaluation. He never should have been a cop.
zellie @zellieimani
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It’s not rhetoric when we say white supremacy demonizes Black men. Darren Wilson called Mike Brown a “DEMON” in his testimony.
9:47 PM – 25 Nov 2014
November 25, 2014
How Not to Use a Grand Jury
By Jeffrey Toobin
Criminal procedure—the everyday rules of the road—gets a bad rap. It’s said to be rigid, routine, incapable of accommodating the nuances of human behavior. But, as the atypical grand-jury proceedings in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death illustrate, there is a great deal to be said for prosecutors following the customary rules of their profession.
To recap the relevant facts: Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed eighteen-year-old man, on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. Robert McCulloch, the local prosecutor, had the authority to charge Wilson with a crime; that’s how the vast majority of prosecutions in the area begin. Instead, McCulloch said that he was going to open a grand-jury investigation and, in an even rarer development, present every scrap of evidence produced in the investigation to the jurors for their consideration.
In Missouri, as elsewhere, grand juries are known as tools of prosecutors. In the famous words of Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich” if he wanted to. This is certainly true, but it is true, too, that grand juries retain at least a nominal independence. They usually do what prosecutors want, but they are not legally required to.
In sending Wilson’s case to the grand jury, McCulloch technically turned over to them the decision about whether to prosecute. By submitting all the evidence to the grand jury, he added to the perception that this process represented an independent evaluation of the evidence. But there is little doubt that he remained largely in control of the process; aggressive advocacy by prosecutors could have persuaded the grand jurors to vote for some kind of indictment. The standard for such charges—probable cause, or more probable than not—is generally a very easy hurdle. If McCulloch’s lawyers had simply pared down the evidence to that which incriminated Wilson, they would have easily obtained an indictment.
The grand jury chose not to indict Wilson for any crimes in connection with Brown’s death. In a news conference following the decision, McCulloch laid out the evidence that he believed supported the grand jury’s finding. In making the case for Wilson’s innocence, McCulloch cherry-picked the most exculpatory information from what was assembled before the grand jury. The conclusion may even have been correct; based on a preliminary review of the evidence before the grand jury, it’s not clear to me that a trial jury would have found Wilson guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/use-grand-jury
The MEDIA is Darren Wilson’s WITNESS STAND. See how this works, Black folks? that son-of-a-bitch Wilson should have stood trial with a defense, prosecution, and JURY. PERIOD.
But no, he gets to make the media rounds and the GOP-WHTIE SUPREMACY MEDIA OWNED channels will give him a platform to FURTHER stick the KNIFE in ih the HEARTS of Michael Brown Jr.’s family and the citizens of Ferguson!
Fuck Senator Claire McCaskill and Governor Jay Nixon with a rusty ptich fork!
They’re part of the PROBLEM, not the solution.
Why is it that the Zimmermans and the Wilsons get to tell their side of the story but the Trayvons and Michaels can’t, but we’re expected to believe the BS being fed to us by the media and “officials”?
Speaking of which, here is a link to an excellent article from Huff Post which critically examines gaps in the so called “evidence” and “testimony”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/25/ferguson-grand-jury-evidence-mistakes_n_6220814.html
I totally agree with you, Ametia. It’s just evil. It’s all just very evil.
Nothing but evil.
if you’re a sociopath…you have no conscience
…………..
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/537618838482092032/photo/1
That interviewer had the NERVE to ask Michael Brown Sr. if he was inciting the crowd to protest. WHAT IN THE LIVING FUCK?
I know they have to get on tv and share the side of the story, support their son. I just don’t know how they can keep it together and not SLAP the shit out of these jackals..
Why I hate the media.
Here’s another post from Lawyers, Guns and Money, which includes a picture of a page from To Kill A Mockingbird. Please note the final paragraph. I believe Atticus is right.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/11/guest-post-riots-racist
https://twitter.com/TheBaxterBean/status/537372869677056000/photo/1
Why does this not surprise us??
https://twitter.com/GlobalRevLive/status/537622085032366081/photo/1
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Media Mission Accomplished “@JohnJHarwood: Officer Wilson came across pretty well in @GStephanopoulos interview”
Wow!!!
Aaron Whittington @adwmvp
@JohnJHarwood @GStephanopoulos Officer Wilson came across as rehearsed. He was allowed to read other eyewitness accounts & craft his story.
McBlondeLand @McBlondeLand
@JohnJHarwood wow… Not me. H was telling a well prepared story by his lawyer after hearing other witnesses.
I believe #DorianJohnson!
Hugo Kijne @HugoKijne
@JohnJHarwood @GStephanopoulos He had three months to practice and GS didn’t exactly cross examine him.
And coached by a ton of high profile fellow racists with a vested interest in ensuring that they not only protect the murderer, but that the status quo remains. It’ll surprise you to find out just who was in on this; and who’s helping with the bills and this orchestrated media roll-out. His benefactors and the clandestine activities in support of this murderer, go way beyond Missouri.
Lisa Bloom @LisaBloom
Another cross-exam Q NOT asked of Wilson: how’d Mike Brown punch you w his right hand on right side of your face as you sat in drivers seat?
Elon James White @elonjames
I’ve heard of Cops who were haunted by killing someone even when justified. Officer Wilson is cool though… Demons have to die I guess.
Put On Blast: Ferguson Protester Calls Out Don Lemon “You Thugify Black Men Then Hook Up With Them”
Posted on November 26th, 2014 – By Bossip Staff
– See more at: http://bossip.com/1069988/put-on-blast-ferguson-protester-calls-out-don-lemon-you-thugify-black-men-then-hook-up-with-them/#sthash.Btxcl9jM.dpuf
https://twitter.com/Chinonyeezy/status/537279736133980160/photo/1