Riots in Ferguson, Missouri after police shoot Michael Brown

Dear WG, please keep re-posting twitter and other assorted social media reports because I like them. Thanks.

The stop-posting police must not be mocked for they have an eternal struggle.

Either they stop posting or posting will never be stopped.

I have a question.

Had they arrested and charged the Police Officer, whether he was guilty or innocent. Would the riots have stopped by now?

If they arrested cops then society would fall apart into one big riot.

The only thing keeping the sky from falling is doing whatever cops want.

Man beaten to death with hammers will have funeral in Iowa | KCCI

Police in St. Louis say they've arrested two juveniles, a third turned himself in and they are looking for a fourth in the killing of a man who was beaten to death with hammers.

Police said 32-year-old Zemir Begic was in his car early Sunday when several young people approached and began damaging it. Begic sustained injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth in the attack and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Begic is a resident of St. Louis, but lived in Iowa. He was originally from Bosnia. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper said Begic settled in Waterloo. The newspaper reports his funeral will be held in Iowa.

Source: http://www.kcci.com/news/man-beaten-to-death-with-hammers-will-have-funeral-in-iowa/30001974

Police group wants Rams players disciplined for 'Hands Up' gesture; NFL declines

The head of the St. Louis police officers union and Rams team officials are meeting today to discuss the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” pose some players made they came out of the tunnel for Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders.

The group's business manager, Jeff Roorda, said the meeting is set for 3 p.m. "I really don't want to say anything until we've all sat down and talked," Roorda said.

The group released a scathing statement Sunday night after the players' action, saying it was “profoundly disappointed” in the gesture.

The group consisted of Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Kenny Britt, Jared Cook and Chris Givens. They hatched the idea before the game.

“Kenny Britt told me he was doing it, and some of the other guys were doing it,” Cook said. “So we all just hopped on the bandwagon and came up with the idea of how we were going to do it.”

Coach Jeff Fisher said he didn’t see the gesture and was unaware of it. “I didn’t know anything about it. I was still in the tunnel,” Fisher said.

Britt said he didn’t want to bother Fisher before the game by telling him of the plans.

The “Hands Up” gesture has been used by protesters upset over the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown. Britt said it wasn’t used by the receivers as an indication that they were taking sides. “No, not at all,” Britt told reporters. “ ... We just wanted to let the (Ferguson) community know that we support them.”

The criticism came quick from the St. Louis Police Officers Association on Sunday. Roorda said “it is unthinkable that hometown athletes would so publicly perpetuate a narrative that has been disproven over-and-over again.”

The St. Louis Police Officers Association has called on the NFL to publicly apologize and discipline the five Rams players who stood with their hands raised before Sunday's game. Roorda was set to meet with the Rams Monday afternoon to discuss the issue.

The officers' association released a statement Sunday that said it was "profoundly disappointed" with the players, whose gesture it considered "tasteless, offensive and inflammatory."

"I know that there are those that will say that these players are simply exercising their First Amendment rights," Roorda said. "Well, I've got news for people who think that way, cops have first amendment rights too, and we plan to exercise ours." Roorda announced Monday that he is meeting with Rams officials at 3 p.m. Monday at Rams Park to discuss the controversy.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy gave a one-sentence response. "We respect and understand the concerns of all individuals who have expressed views on this tragic situation," he said in an email Monday.

Continued here:
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_aac1b733-ad65-5b54-a60b-7c616baef983.html

The Ferguson cops probably did it and framed the children.

Jon Swaine @jonswaine · 3h 3 hours ago
Great @daveweigel piece on the disgusting harassment campaign against NYT's Ferguson reporters led by @ChuckCJohnson

How a Conservative Backlash Silenced #Ferguson Reporters for All the Wrong Reasons

By David Weigel, Bloomberg Politics

On August 15, after the killing of Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown had surged into the national consciousness, the Washington Post’s DeNeen L. Brown filed a story from a town up the road. There were “dark blue undercover police cars parked outside the house of Darren Wilson.” That house was located on “Manda Lane in Crestwood.” On August 16, the same details appeared in a story co-bylined by Brown, Jerry Markon, and Wesley Lowery. “Dark blue undercover police cars were parked outside his house on Manda Lane,” they wrote. Both stories made it clear that Wilson, the officer who killed Brown, had taken himself elsewhere.

On November 24, after a grand jury opted not to indict Wilson, the New York Times ran a story by Julie Bosman and Campbell Robertson about how the police officer had “quietly” gotten married while avoiding the press. Wilson and his wife owned a home “on Manda Lane in Crestwood.” The detail was included near the end of a story that briefly included an image of the couple’s marriage license. (It included the address of a law firm, but not Wilson’s address.)

What had been innocuous information became the kindling for a media bonfire. They attracted the attention Charles C. Johnson, the conservative journalist whose previous social media interactions include: tweeting call-in details that allowed activists to crash a Thad Cochran presser; tweeting the name of the Dallas “Ebola nurse” before big news outlets decided to reveal it; and reporting that ABC News paid “mid-to-high six figures” for an interview with Darren Wilson. When both ABC News and Wilson himself denied the claim, Johnson stuck by his “NBC source with knowledge” and suggested that ABC might have made a “backroom deal” as it did to interview Casey Anthony.

The upshot of Johnson’s stories is that the media can’t be trusted. The aftermath of the “Manda Lane” story is a harassment campaign against two reporters who, in the view of conservative readers, risked the life of Darren Wilson. On the right, the story of #Ferguson is that a vile and biased media inflated a simple case of self-defense into a bogus “racism” story. In this storyline, Wilson is the real victim, and his aggressors need to be shamed out of their jobs and comfort.

Continued here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...-ferguson-reporters-for-all-the-wrong-reasons

Here's the author on Twitter: https://twitter.com/daveweigel

All we can do is be black

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/01/justice-respect-ferguson-riots-justified/

Cosby=poundcaek

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/01/bill-cosby-ferguson

Ex-cop behind St. Louis police NFL threat has history of lying, protecting crooked cops

The former police officer demanding the NFL discipline five St. Louis Rams players over their display of “hand up, don’t shoot” before a game on Sunday has a history of controversy, including being disciplined for lying in police reports as well as sponsoring legislation that would shield the names of police officers from public scrutiny unless charged with a crime.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/...has-history-of-lying-protecting-crooked-cops/

Holder announces plan to target racial profiling | Associated Press

Speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta — the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that he will soon unveil long-planned Justice Department guidance aimed at ending racial profiling.

Holder traveled to Atlanta to meet with law enforcement and community leaders for the first in a series of regional meetings around the country. The president asked Holder to set up the meetings in the wake of clashes between protesters and police in Ferguson, Missouri.

"In the coming days, I will announce updated Justice Department guidance regarding profiling by federal law enforcement. This will institute rigorous new standards — and robust safeguards — to help end racial profiling, once and for all," Holder said. "This new guidance will codify our commitment to the very highest standards of fair and effective policing."

Continued here:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1278...083e17/holder-meets-community-leaders-atlanta

Regular Sam Knight ‏@samknight1 17m 17 minutes ago Butte des Morts, WI
I own Bin Laden raid commemorative coins and I'm here to explain why due process means Darren Wilson is innocent and Mike Brown was a criminal.

St. Louis County Police

Regarding statements on an "apology" from Rams COO Kevin Demoff:

Chief Belmar was contacted today by St. Louis Rams COO Kevin Demoff. The Chief never asked for anyone from the Rams to contact him. He said the conversation was pleasant. The Chief sent an email to his police staff and used the word “apologized.” Mr. Demoff is quoted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch story saying “I expressed to both of them that I felt badly that our players' support of the community was taken as disrespectful to law enforcement.” He further stated “I regretted any offense the officer’s may have taken.”

Even though Mr. Demoff stated he never apologized, the Chief believed it to be an apology and the Chief sent the email to police staff to let them know about the call, after he told Mr. Demoff he would share his sentiments with his staff.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=896932560325521&id=122091914476260

Rebelutionary Z @Rebelutionary_Z · 38m 38 minutes ago
Looks like @stlcountypd may charge the @STLouisRams with "Resisting An Apology". Do you need a Livestreamer there?

Dr. Cornel Fresh @WyzeChef · 2h 2 hours ago
What's crazy is that the PD is clueless enough to not realize it wasn't an apology.

Dr. Cornel Fresh @WyzeChef · 2h 2 hours ago
Actually, I believe them shutting the hell up is the best option.

Dr. Cornel Fresh @WyzeChef · 10m 10 minutes ago
The fact that @stlcountypd reacts on Twitter should tell ya'll a lot.

Dr. Cornel Fresh @WyzeChef · 8m 8 minutes ago
You've gotten all of these followers and have become a #twitterhoney. @stlcountypd

https://twitter.com/search?q=twitterhoney&mode=photos

Dr. Cornel Fresh @WyzeChef · 6m 6 minutes ago
Next thing you know @stlcountypd will be live tweeting Scandal.

Jon Stewart Masterfully Skewers Fox News’ Ferguson Race Baiting | NewsHounds

Jon Stewart spent nine minutes discussing Ferguson last night and much of it focused on the hypocrisy of Fox’s white racial grievance industry. If Fox had been around for Selma, Alabama, the headline would probably have been, ‘Relax, Selma isn’t slavery.’” Stewart noted.

http://www.newshounds.us/jon_stewart_masterfully_skewers_fox_news_ferguson_race_baiting_120214

PMbeers @PMbeers · 56m 56 minutes ago
Do you ask if arrests were brutal?
@ABC @NBCNews @CBSNews @RT_com @cnnbrk @CNN @FoxNews @foxandfriends @KTLA

Four Members of Congress Hold ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ Gesture on House Floor



Representatives Jeffries (D-NY), Lee (D-Tex.), Green (D-Tex.) and Clarke (D-NY) referenced the “hands up, don’t shoot” hand gesture that now symbolizes the protests in Ferguson, Missouri against police brutality.

These four members of the Congressional Black Caucus held their hands up during remarks Monday on the House Floor in solidarity with Ferguson protesters.

Continued here:
http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/...d-hands-up-dont-shoot-gesture-on-house-floor/

Man Charged with Making Threats Against Darren Wilson’s Life | Mediaite

A Washington man was arrested and is being charged by the feds for making death threats against Officer Darren Wilson. The information provided tonight by the Department of Justice does not mention Wilson by name, but there are obvious references to a “D.W.” in the criminal complaint that make it beyond clear who this individual was referring to.

Jaleel Tariq Abdul-Jabbaar, according to the complaint, posted this threatening Facebook message directed at not just Wilson, but his family as well:

“Are there any REAL BLACK MEN that would love to go down to Ferguson Missouri to give back those bullets that Police Officer [D.W.] fired into the body of Mike Brown. If we’re unable to locate Officer [D.W.] then We’ll return them to his wife and if not her then his children.”

And no, that is not the only thing that this individual allegedly wrote about Wilson. The complaint also says he wrote “We need to kill this white motha fucka and anything that has a badge on” and “Ready to go and kill some cops” (that one was in reference to a photo of Wilson).

Abdul-Jabbaar is charged with three counts of making interstate threats, a charge that could get someone up to five years in prison.

Source: http://www.mediaite.com/online/man-charged-with-making-threats-against-darren-wilsons-life/

The post seems to have been made in a Facebook group that he has since been removed from.

Here are the groups he is still a member of: https://www.facebook.com/jaleel1968/groups

Here's his YouTube account: https://www.youtube.com/user/jabdulj1968

The touching hug photo from Ferguson protests is a blatant lie

By Jonathan Jones, The Guardian



It’s absurd that a nation’s new, yet old, encounter with its most destructive division can be summed up by this soppy picture of a tearful hug.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/02/hug-photographs-ferguson-protests-lie

How One Woman Could Hit The Reset Button In The Case Against Darren Wilson

By Judd Legum, ThinkProgress

For a week, the airwaves have been filled with news of the decision by the Ferguson grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson. Prosecutor Bob McCulloch gave a dramatic press conference. Wilson hit the interview circuit. Protesters filled the streets of West Florissant Avenue.

But legally speaking, nothing has happened. We are in exactly the same legal position as before the prosecutors made their (extremely unusual) presentation to the grand jury.

If McCulloch wanted to, he could present evidence in the case to a new grand jury and seek an indictment of Wilson. Although a constitutional protection known as “double jeopardy” says you can’t be tried for the same crime twice, the provision has not yet been triggered since Wilson was never even charged.

Of course, McCulloch would never pursue new charges because — as he made clear in his press conference — he vehemently believes Wilson is innocent. It is McCulloch’s vocal allegiance to the defendant that has caused many legal experts to question the process.

So in order for the evidence to be presented to a new grand jury, a new prosecutor would have to be appointed. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has the power to appoint a special prosecutor for the case. But Nixon, through a spokesman, said he would not appoint one. Most people have treated this as the end of the story. It’s not.

There is a provision of Missouri Law — MO Rev Stat § 56.110 — that empowers “the court having criminal jurisdiction” to “appoint some other attorney to prosecute” if the prosecuting attorney “be interested.” (The term “be interested” is an awkward legal way to refer to conflict-of-interest or bias. The statute dates from the turn of the 20th century.)

The court with jurisdiction over Darren Wilson’s case is the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri. That means the power to appoint a special prosecutor is held by Maura McShane, the Presiding Judge of the 21st Circuit.

Missouri courts, at times, have interpreted their power to appoint a special prosecutor broadly, to include not only blatant conflicts — like the prosecutor being related to the defendant — but also subtler conflicts that reveal themselves through the prosecutor’s conduct in the case.

In the 1996 case of State v. Copeland, a Missouri court replaced the prosecutor because the judge “sensed that [the prosecutor’s] sympathies for [the defendant] may have prevented him from being an effective advocate for the state.” The judge “found the adversarial process to have broken down in that [the prosecutor] appeared to be advocating the defendant’s position.”

Continued here:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/20...ial-prosecutor-and-bring-justice-to-ferguson/

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=Maura McShane

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ds-gesture-rams-commendable-article-1.2031197

'Oath Keepers' are back on the rooftops in Ferguson despite St. Louis County ordinance

A volunteer group of security guards associated with the national constitutional rights organization Oath Keepers says it never abandoned its post in Ferguson after being targeted by police for operating without a license.

St. Louis County police confronted the well-armed volunteers early Wednesday as they guarded the rooftops of buildings previously vandalized during unrest in Ferguson.

“The reason the Oath Keepers were not allowed to remain on the rooftops is that the individuals from the group did not adhere to St. Louis County ordinance regulating security officers, couriers, and guards,” St. Louis County police spokesman Shawn McGuire said Tuesday in a prepared statement.

He said ordinance 701.115 lays out the requirements.

“As a matter of public safety, the St. Louis County Police Department must adhere to our policies that ensure security personnel have the required background and qualifications to perform such a role,” he added.

Sam Andrews, a local leader of Oath Keepers who in the original Post-Dispatch story on this topic wouldn’t provide his last name, said Tuesday that the guards returned to their posts after being told of the county’s regulation.

“Once we read the statute, we laughed at it,” he said. “Then, the next night, we were there.”

He pointed out part of the ordinance that describes a security guard as a person who is “employed.” He said the Oath Keepers active in Ferguson include former or off-duty police officers, as well as people with extensive military experience. He said all are unpaid for the work they are doing above a strip of stores and apartments two blocks from the Ferguson police and fire departments.

“This is not America,” he said. “We don’t tax volunteers.”

Since they’ve been back on the rooftops, Andrews said police haven’t tried to enforce the ordinance.

“Now that they know who some of our guys are, I suspect they are a lot less likely to challenge us,” said Andrews, a weapons engineer and former government contractor.

Continued here:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_18757380-b471-5a6f-848c-a4dfe9805ed6.html

Here's a better article about this, by Ryan J. Reilly:

Feds Arrest Man For Facebook Posts Threatening To Kill Darren Wilson

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/02/darren-wilson-arrest-facebook-threats_n_6258484.html

Ferguson Protester's Photo Gets Edited Into Racist Meme, Goes Viral | Riverfront Times





When Jermell Hasson agreed to let Riverfront Times take his photo for a story about Ferguson protesters, he had no idea someone would later turn it into a viral and inflammatory meme.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/da...l_after_being_edited_to_seem_super_racist.php

Nicholas Mirzoeff @nickmirzoeff · 15h 15 hours ago
I've spent the past week writing a counterhistory of the grand jury hearings. It's much worse than you think. Even.
#Ferguson

One Minute of White Supremacy: The Ferguson Transcripts and the Murder of Michael Brown | After Occupy

By Nicholas Mirzoeff

It took “less than a minute” (Grand Jury Hearings vol. V, p.272 [subsequent references by volume and page number]) according to (then) Officer Darren Wilson for him to kill Michael Brown. In that moment, the relations of force that the police—meaning the entire apparatus of social control—try to prevent us from seeing became starkly visible. Ferguson has become a symbol because it depicts the ongoing strength of white supremacy. A majority African-American city is ruled by a white minority, funded by fines and other charges levied on the majority by the police. Unsurprisingly, then, this system is enforced by casual violence that has now been found legal, even when it results in death. The grand jury’s refusal to indict makes this system visible.

As much as we are outraged by what happened, it is therefore vital to display carefully and methodically how unreasonable and illogical those proceedings were, which I do here in substantial detail: these are the kind of talking points we need to win over still more people. For Ferguson matters because white supremacy has become visible at the local and national level, not just to the “usual suspects,” but to a new coalition that connects Occupy veterans with African American networks and people entirely new to activism. It worries the dominant. Even the St. Louis Rams players who performed “Hands Up” at their game with Oakland were at once threatened by St. Louis police. Ferguson provides a means to “crack” white supremacy (Holloway 2010), to break its apparent naturalness and to see ways towards alternatives.

We need to use the grand jury proceedings as a mirror to show them their own system and, by extension, themselves. The twenty-four volumes of their proceedings with supplementary photographs give us, as it were, a picture of whiteness as it actually goes about ordinary business.

After reviewing thousands of pages of grand jury materials, what happened in that minute was this in my view:

A police officer puts his car sharply into reverse after a real or imagined slight from an African American pedestrian. The car almost hits that pedestrian, Michael Brown, causing the car door to hit him as Officer Wilson tried to open it. A brief tussle at the car window followed, causing Wilson to shoot twice, one of which may have fatally wounded Brown. He ran away for no more than 150 feet, bleeding. He was shot again, and by now was fatally wounded. He turned around, raised his hands, staggered back the way he had come perhaps 20 feet. As he died, he falls into a volley of shots. Less than a minute has elapsed.

This simple, terrible story has been obscured because of what we can see in the transcripts:

• the blatant contradictions in statements made by the police
• flagrant improprieties and uncertainties over physical and verbal evidence.
• the suppression of any image or understanding of Michael Brown, even in the manner of his death.

This is a systemic failure, not a local issue in St. Louis. For the election of Barack Obama has not changed the underlying structures of what Joe Feagin and Sean Elias call “systemic racism,” which “refers to the foundational, large-scale and inescapable hierarchical system of US racial oppression devised and maintained by whites and directed at people of color” (Feagin and Ellis 2013: 936). As Angela Davis has argued, the penitentiary system was a vital pillar for the white supremacy created after the abolition of slavery (2007). Legal scholar Michelle Alexander has called her analysis of the New Jim Crow at work in today’s prison-industrial complex, a “racial caste system” which is “creating and perpetuating a racial hierarchy in the United States” (New Jim Crow: 16).

In short, white supremacy and racial hierarchy are not incidental parts of the justice system as we now have it but are constitutive of it. What Ferguson has made visible cannot be simply “fixed” by a review of the grand jury system or other tinkering. White supremacy is the system. Many (white) people are not ready to go there yet. We have to help them.

Continued here:
http://www.nicholasmirzoeff.com/201...-transcripts-and-the-murder-of-michael-brown/

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/12/st-louis-bar-boycotts-rams-after-players-support-ferguson-protests
How will that work for them?

CNN talking head: "if you just obey the police you will survive most encounters"

Erin Robinson @Livelyivy · 2h 2 hours ago
My friend is a teacher in St. Louis. Shared with his permission: a cop harassed his 11-year-old student to tears.

Forgive me if this a respost.
Livestream ny:
http://new.livestream.com/JamesFromTheInternet/events/3634145

They take this opportunity to weigh in on events elsewhere when they are in a shitstorm. Fuck these guys

And, exactly what are you doing, vampire?
Feeding off of turmoil like a vampire.
Feeding into a shitstorm.
Full of shit
Fuck you.

Oh my u hurt my feelers

live occupation of Minneapolis City Hall by ~200 people

http://bambuser.com/v/5126069

https://twitter.com/hashtag/TCShutItDown

Journey for Justice runs into hostile counter-protest, keeps marching | Columbia Missourian

About 50 activists marching from Ferguson to Jefferson City encountered a hostile counter-protest Wednesday in Rosebud.

About 200 people met the marchers as they reached Rosebud around noon, activists said. A display of fried chicken, a melon and a 40-ounce beer bottle had been placed in the street. A Confederate flag flew. Counter-protestors shouted racial epithets.

Rhea Willis of Velda City, Missouri, said she saw a boy she estimated to be 8 years old holding a sign that read, "Go home.”

Somebody shot the window out of the back of one of the buses traveling with the march, dubbed by the NAACP as the Journey for Justice. The outer pane of glass broke. The bullet landed in the windowsill, the driver said.

Two of the counter-protesters drove ahead of the Journey for Justice to meet them outside of Mount Sterling, a little less than 20 miles away, their stopping point for the night.

Doug McQuery of Bland, Missouri, wore a T-shirt stating his support for police officer Darren Wilson who shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown in August. The grand jury's decision not to indict Wilson sparked protests, both nonviolent and violent across the country.

McQuery said he thought it was fine if activists wanted to burn down their own town, but said he wasn't going to stand for that elsewhere. He said he didn't know the NAACP's march would be peaceful.

Willis was marching with her 15-year-old daughter, Cheyenne Willis, who was taking time off from school to participate. She said she plans to write an editorial based on her experience for her school paper.

"I've been brought up to know how to deal with people like that," Cheyenne Willis said of the counter-protesters. "I ignore them and keep moving forward."

Rhea Willis, who grew up in St. Louis, said she was used to racist attitudes and stereotyping. Racism is learned, she said.

As she marched through Rosebud, she said she felt as if she was facing the same attitudes her parents faced as civil rights activists in the 1960s.

Continued here:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a...-into-hostile-counter-protest-keeps-marching/

Anyone with an interest in protests and solutions related to the NYPD chokehold death of Eric Garner can find them being discussed in the thread about police brutality, here:

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/a-thread-about-police-brutality.95426/page-17

Here's the first post about it:

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/a-thread-about-police-brutality.95426/page-17#post-2475381

Charges not recommended after investigation into Vonderrit Myers death | FOX 2 St. Louis

To believe the version of events Vonderrit Myers Jr.`s parents believe, you have to be willing to believe police are staging a sinister cover-up.

http://fox2now.com/2014/12/05/no-charges-for-police-officer-in-shooting-death-of-vonderrit-myers/

St. Louis PD has Investigated Themselves, Found They Did Nothing Wrong in Death of Vonderrit Myers | The Free Thought Project

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/stl-pd-investigated-themselves-wrong-death-vonderrit-myers/