Riots in Ferguson, Missouri after police shoot Michael Brown

Do you think before you post?

The article said nothing about harassment. Peacefully handing out flyers ian't harassment in itself (unless the flyers are). There's nothing in the report text that specify whether they were harassing or not.

Perhaps this is cultural. I come from a country where it is not unheard of to actually bump into national politicians on the street, so talking to politicians or top civil administrators here isn't necessarily being creepy. Heck, I'm a nobody, but I ran into H.M. the Queen here last year and had a pleasant conversation.

They didn't "accidentally bump" into the judge. They sought out her (likely unpublished) address and went to her personal residence with a list of demands. A bit different. She doesn't hold a position like your queen, either, who is protected by a palace, gate, guards, protocol, etc. I doubt the queen has neighbors to be disturbed, as well.


Again, my opinion, which no one asked for.

It's ironic that you can talk to a Queen while in the US it's impossible to talk to the president. No one runs into nationally elected officials in the US. It's not gonna happen. I guess our system is more 'regal' than Sweden.

Congress Just Passed a Bill Addressing Police Killings While No One Was Looking

After watching nationwide protests unfold against police brutality, members of Congress did what they have seemed incapable of doing for years: something.

A bill passed by both chambers of Congress and headed to President Barack Obama's desk will require local law enforcement agencies to report every police shooting and other death at their hands. That data will include each victim's age, gender and race as well as details about what happened.

"You can't begin to improve the situation unless you know what the situation is," bill sponsor Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) told the Washington Post. "We will now have the data."

It's not the first time Congress has tried: The same law was actually passed back in 2000, but was allowed to lapse in 2006 and was never reauthorized (despite repeated attempts by Scott). Because it takes years for enough local departments to start submitting all that data, the original law barely yielded anything before it expired.

While it will likely take a long time once more to get a usably large picture of police killings across the country, the federal government has an enforcement mechanism to make sure agencies submit: The Department of Justice can withhold federal funds from any states that don't comply.

There's other legislation in the pipeline aimed at combating police brutality following the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, including bills that would require police departments to comply with federal racial profiling standards and stop local agencies from receiving military weapons and equipment. "It's not a new issue ... it's not isolated incidents by rogue police," Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said during a Capitol Hill briefing featuring mothers of son who were killed by police. "We have a lot of work to do."

Continued here:
http://mic.com/articles/106392/cong...sing-police-killings-while-no-one-was-looking

This should have been the norm all along.
It's sad that so many people lost their lives in order for something to be finally done about it.

2014 Was a Banner Year for Injustice in America | VICE

This was not a good year for the American criminal justice system. With violent crime rates lower than than they've been since the 1970s, we still saw a fresh deluge of attacks by police against unarmed people of color, from New York to Ferguson to a ​Walmart in Ohio. Making it all worse is that the cops involved avoided criminal prosecution, and militarized responses to the resulting unrest sent the message that the long arm of the law can do whatever it pleases. Meanwhile, ​white-collar criminals like Wall Street bankers continue to duck punishment for mercilessly fucking the global economy. The only question is if all of the ​protests and ​rage that have bubbled to the surface these past few months ​over two justice systems — one for the rich and white, another for the poor and brown — will amount to anything.

Given all the ​money and political capital invested in the prison-industrial complex, it's not very likely. But amid the bevy of depressing shit done in the name of public safety this year, there were some signs of hope.

Continued here:
http://www.vice.com/read/what-we-learned-about-crime-in-2014

How Sandy McElroy and Prosecutor Bob McCulloch colluded to destroy the case against Darren Wilson

By Shaun King

Excerpt:

Sandy McElroy was never near Canfield Drive on August 9. She completely fabricated her entire story weeks after Darren Wilson killed Mike Brown. During their interrogation of her, Sandy McElroy was completely shredded by the FBI as a racist, a liar, unstable, and more. They proved in their own interview, with evidence, that McElroy lied about ever being there, about how she left the scene, about key details of the case that she claimed she witnessed, and more.

Furthermore, Sandy McElroy, beyond being a convicted felon, had a record in St. Louis of interfering with investigations and making preposterous claims about connections she had to cold cases. All of this was known to St. Louis officials. Her extreme racism was not private, but public, and was discussed at great length with the FBI before she was ever allowed to testify before the grand jury.

You must understand, then, that Sandy McElroy, whose testimony matches that of Darren Wilson's better than any witness who testified, was only called to the grand jury, not once, but twice, and allowed to present concocted physical evidence at that, because she was a neutron bomb for this case. Not ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE proving that she was there could be found and scores of evidence that she made the entire thing up was presented weeks before she was ever allowed to testify before the grand jury, but it was all deliberately ignored.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/...ed-to-destroy-the-case-against-Darren-Wilson#

Prosecutor Says He Knew Some Witnesses Were Lying To The Ferguson Grand Jury

St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch says he knew some of the witnesses who said they saw Michael Brown get shot were lying, but he let them testify to the grand jury anyway.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/st-louis-prosecutor-says-he-knew-witnesses-lied

LIVE #BlackLivesMatter protest in defiance of private property arrest laws at Mall Of America in Minneapolis

http://bambuser.com/v/5164928

Police Killings Of Unarmed Black Men Voted Top News Story Of 2014 | Associated Press

The police killings of unarmed blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere — and the investigations and tumultuous protests they inspired — was the top news story of 2014, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

In a year crowded with dramatic and often wrenching news developments around the world, the No. 2 story was the devastating outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, followed by the conflict in Iraq and Syria fueled by the brutal actions of Islamic State militants.

Among the 85 voters casting ballots, first-place votes were spread among 15 different stories. The Ferguson entry received 22 first-place votes, Ebola 11 and the Islamic State story 12.

Continued here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...-police-killing-unarmed-blacks_n_6365260.html

Here's a live stream from Berkeley, Missouri, near Ferguson, where Antonio Martin has just been shot and killed by a cop.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/stackizshort

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

Another black man reportedly shot dead in St. Louis area, police blamed on social media | RT News

A black man has been shot by police officials in the St. Louis area, according to reports from numerous Twitter users. The victim was identified in tweets as 18-year-old teenager Antonio Martin.

http://rt.com/news/217243-black-man-ferguson-police/

I agree..

Michael Brown -- LAPD Launches Investigation Over Parody Song | TMZ

The LAPD is conducting an investigation to determine if cops currently on the force attended a dinner at the Glendale Elks Lodge which featured a horrible parody of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," making fun of Michael Brown's death.

TMZ broke the story -- retired LAPD Officer Joe Myers threw a charity golf tournament a week ago Monday, and then threw a dinner afterward at the Elks Lodge. As 50-60 people watched, Gary Fishell -- P.I. and former federal law enforcement officer -- sang the parody, with lyrics that included, "Two men took to fightin' And Michael punched in through the door, And Michael looked like some old Swiss Cheese, His brain was splattered on the floor."

We're told LAPD's Internal Affairs will conduct an investigation to determine if current LAPD cops were at the event. We're told there were some active police officers at the dinner, but we do not know the specific agencies.

If active officers were at the event, I.A. will determine if they exhibited "conduct unbecoming of a police officer," which could subject them to discipline.

Source and video: http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/23/michael-brown-song-lapd-investigation-parody-elks/

LA police investigate song mocking dead black teen at ex-cop's party | Reuters

A song poking fun at the killing of black teenager Michael Brown by a white policeman, performed at a retired officer's party, has prompted the Los Angeles Police Department to launch an internal investigation, its chief said on Tuesday.

<snipped>

Commenting on the song, Chief Charlie Beck said on Twitter: "Like many of you, I find it offensive & absurd. It does not reflect the values of the #LAPD."

"I have directed our Professional Standards Bureau to look into this and determine if any active department employees were involved."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-usa-police-song-idUSKBN0K20JF20141224

Black teenager 'shot dead by police' close to scene where Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-Michael-Brown-killed-Ferguson-Missouri.html

Berkeley Police Statement Drastically Different From Friend Of Shooting Victim Antonio Martin

http://www.inquisitr.com/1701876/be...rom-friend-of-shooting-victim-antonio-martin/

unbelievable

Antonio Martin shooting: surveillance video shows victim raising a gun — live updates | The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-shot-dead-by-police-in-st-louis-live-updates

In the 70s I had long hair when very few did. If I was walking down the street with a group of friends every cop car would come at me. It happened so often I would say to anyone near me “watch that cop car it will turn around and come right at me” it happened every time. Consequently I have been severely beat-up by cops twice. In the video it looks like the patrol car picks this kid out. This is where we should start the conversation, that kid should not have been confronted in the first place. Do we have the freedom to walk our streets or not.

WTF

If you point a gun at a cop the only way you won't get shot is if you shoot first and stop the cop or the cop freezes and doesn't shoot you like they are trained to.

Some people try way too hard for suicide by cop.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...s-officer-to-face-charges-in-canada-1.2881642

Forcing someone to kill you is a cowardly way to end your life and this creep didn't even succeed. I hope he receives proper suicide lessons before he is released.

Berkeley suspect's grandmother: 'I want to see the gun in his hand' | LA Times

Berkeley, Mo. shooting suspect's grandmother skeptical of grainy video: 'I want to see the gun in his hand'

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-berkeley-grandmother-20141224-story.html

Anon Cop Watch @AnonCopWatch · 8 hours ago
This GIF image appears to show #AntonioMartin holding a cell phone in his hand with a lit screen, not a gun.
http://i.imgur.com/lT5q3DA.gif

He seems to be making an instinctive gesture with his lower arm while talking. That could be anything white, silver or light colored in his hand such as a napkin etc.

And if he was right handed it would make him less likely to be holding a gun in his left hand.

The gun he was said to have was a 9mm Hi-Point, I couldn't find any silver images of it.

This looks nothing like the video that the police say shows the man pointing a gun at the cop, we need dox that this has anything to do with the other video that shows a man raising his right arm in a gun aiming like manner:


This is the gas store video that shows the man raising his right arm in a gun aiming like manner in the upper left corner at the end of the video:

Close up zoomed in view of the surveillance video. Martin acts as if he is leaving then quickly turns around facing the officer and then raises his gun. See what you think.

- See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2014/12/...a-gun-at-police-officer/#sthash.vkrQlSN4.dpuf

"LibertyNews.com is pro-actively joining the call made by the late Andrew Breitbart, seeking to diminish the power and influence of state-run media."

(Close View of CCTV......)

It's extremely hard to see what's really going on with the intended subject as the video is too blurry do to it being blown up.

This has turned into a mega thread about killings by the police and community response. Maybe divide into separate threads for Ferguson, Eric Garner, Cleaveland thread. Maybe response to police violence thread? It's getting hard to find info in this heap of postings.

Since the events mentioned in this thread and their results are all related, I think the thread is fine the way it is.

Almost all of the posts about Eric Garner are in the police brutality thread, starting with this post:
https://whyweprotest.net/threads/a-thread-about-police-brutality.95426/page-18#post-2486862

Ferguson officer placed on unpaid leave after calling Michael Brown memorial 'a pile of trash'

http://news.yahoo.com/ferguson-poli...reet-154823869.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory

It's a start

The guy was a police spokesman. It wasn't a frustrated over worked tired cop. It shows the depth of the problem in Ferguson.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/post_1048.html

America tweeted about Ferguson more than any other news story in 2014 | Vox

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/29/7463663/twitter-news-2014

Grand Juror Sues McCulloch, Says He Mischaracterized The Wilson Case | St. Louis Public Radio

A grand juror is suing St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch in an effort to speak out on what happened in the Darren Wilson case. Under typical circumstances, grand jurors are prohibited by law from discussing cases they were involved in.

The grand juror, referred to only as "Grand Juror Doe" in the lawsuit, takes issue with how McCulloch characterized the case. McCulloch released evidence presented to the grand jury and publicly discussed the case after the grand jury decided not to indict Wilson, then a Ferguson police officer, in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American.

“In [the grand juror]’s view, the current information available about the grand jurors’ views is not entirely accurate — especially the implication that all grand jurors believed that there was no support for any charges,” the lawsuit says. “Moreover, the public characterization of the grand jurors’ view of witnesses and evidence does not accord with [Doe]’s own.”

“From [the grand juror]’s perspective, the investigation of Wilson had a stronger focus on the victim than in other cases presented to the grand jury,” the lawsuit states. Doe also believes the legal standards were conveyed in a “muddled” and “untimely” manner to the grand jury.

In the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri argues that this case is unique and that the usual reasons for requiring the jurors to maintain secrecy should not apply.

In this specific case, “any interests furthered by maintaining grand jury secrecy are outweighed by the interests secured by the First Amendment,” the lawsuit says, adding that allowing the juror to speak would contribute to a discussion on race in America.

As the grand juror points out in the lawsuit, the Wilson case was handled in a very different manner than other grand juries. Instead of recommending a charge, McCulloch's office presented thousands of pages worth of evidence and testimony before the grand jury. At one point, McCulloch's spokesman characterized the grand jury as co-investigators.

“From [Doe]’s perspective, although the release of a large number of records provides an appearance of transparency, with heavy redactions and the absence of context, those records do not fully portray the proceedings before the grand jury,” the lawsuit says.

McCulloch has done several interviews since the grand jury decision was announced on Nov. 24, but the grand jurors have been prohibited from speaking about the case. The county prosecutor admits that some of the witnesses were lying, but said the grand jurors were aware.

The 12 people who could say for sure are currently sworn to secrecy.

Although the county released redacted transcripts of witness and expert testimony, the grand jurors deliberated without a court reporter or member of the prosecutor’s office present.



State law says that grand jurors shall not “disclose any evidence given” nor “the name of any witness who appeared before them,” adding that any juror who violates that is guilty of a misdemeanor. The ACLU is asking a judge to grant an injunction that prohibits enforcing those laws (or threatening to) in this case.

The laws “prevent [the grand juror] from discussing truthful information about a matter of public significance,” the lawsuit says. “As applied in the circumstances of this case, the challenged laws act as a prior restraint on [Doe’s] expressive activity.”

We have reached out to McCulloch’s office for comment and will update when we hear back.

Continued here:
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/grand-juror-sues-mcculloch-says-he-mischaracterized-wilson-case

That's a brilliant legal strategy. I'm sure the prosecutor depended on grand jury silence when he started lying ( again). Now they all will testify. Wtf is it in St. Louis county? Other places are not this bad, I wonder what financial shenanigans they get up to.

What I see is a prosecutor who didn't want an indictment, and didn't want to admit it, so he did a CYA, using the Grand Jury as his shield.

The Rockford Files did an episode about how DAs manipulate grand juries. That was in the mid
1970s. There's a saying even older: A DA can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. It's not a new issue, nor is the corruption limited to one jurisdiction.
Here's another issue:

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/14/7539649/ferguson-protests-twitter

On the bright side, the reverse side to the "all it takes for evil to triumph" thing is that evil quite often rely on good men doing nothing. Seems they forgot there might be someone in there with an actual backbone.

Ferguson prosecutor accused of racial bias over deaths at police hands by family of ANOTHER unarmed man shot by cops who were cleared by grand jury in case almost identical to Michael Brown

• Ronald Beasley was shot and killed by police at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in Berkeley, a St Louis, MO, suburb in June 2000
• He was with Earl Murray, another unarmed black man, who was being investigated over drugs by police and who was giving him a lift
• Murray backed his car into undercover officers' SUV and they sprayed his car with at least 21 bullets, FBI probe found
• Cops claimed Murray was driving towards them but FBI found car was always in reverse as they shot round after round
• Grand jury cleared officers - who are still serving - after case led by Robert McCulloch, who 14 years later led Michael Brown death case
• June Beasley exclusively tells DailyMail.com that McCulloch cannot be trusted to tell truth and backs bid to overturn Grand Jury secrecy
• Says Michael Brown's killing by Officer Darren Wilson was like losing her brother all over again

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-grand-jury-case-identical-Michael-Brown.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ate-echo-chamber-drive-national-protests.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/14/george-soros-funds-ferguson-protests-hopes-to-spur/

"Healing the Wounds in Ferguson and Staten Island"

From Soros Open Society Foundations website:

http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/healing-wounds-ferguson-and-staten-island

Read and enjoy. I did...

..."$2.9 million" may not be "$33 Million" for Ferguson, but still not too shabby.

Ps..Repubs like to embellish things.

If You Want To Understand The Ferguson Prosecution, You Should Know About The Jack In The Box Case

By Alan Pyke, ThinkProgress

Legal experts have accused Ferguson, MO prosecutor Robert McCulloch of mishandling the grand jury process that failed to yield charges in the August police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. One of the grand jurors in that case has flagged many of those errors in a new lawsuit against McCulloch. The anonymous juror’s suit also cites another case from nearly 15 years ago which suggests McCulloch has a history of demonizing the victims of police shooting, and skewing the evidence in favor of the police.

While the suit doesn’t delve into the details of the 2000 case, known locally as the Jack in the Box shooting, investigations by federal officials and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporters reveal familiar-sounding details about McCulloch’s strange use of the grand jury process and inflammatory public statements following the ultimate exoneration of police.

In June of 2000, federal Drug Enforcement Agency officers and local law enforcement conducted a joint drug sting in the parking lot of a busy fast food restaurant in Berkeley, MO. The target was a small-time drug dealer. In a matter of seconds, two officers had fired 21 shots through the target’s windshield, killing both the alleged dealer and his passenger, a personal friend who was not involved in the investigation at all. The officers who killed the two men testified that they shot because the suspect’s car moved forward toward them, something that was later proven false by physical evidence and expert testimony. But in McCulloch’s hands, news reports from the time reveal, the facts of the case took on a particular slant. In both the private grand jury setting and later public statements, McCulloch seriously misrepresented the key facts of the day and the background of one of the two victims.

Here are the four key takeaways about McCulloch’s conduct from that 2000 case, known locally as the Jack in the Box shooting.

Continued here:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/20...secutor-mcculloch-whitewashed-police-killing/

Judge rejects request for new Ferguson grand jury | Associated Press

A St. Louis County judge has rejected a request by the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund to convene a new grand jury to consider charges against the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The civil rights group says a court administrator responded on behalf of St. Louis County Circuit Judge Maura McShane, whom it had asked in a Jan. 5 letter to also appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the case.

The group had cited concerns about the decision by Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch to allow a witness to provide false testimony, as well as erroneous legal instructions to grand jurors.

http://fox2now.com/2015/01/21/judge-rejects-request-for-new-ferguson-grand-jury/

^ county judge. When does it get pushed upstairs so an adult can look at the problem?

Justice Dept. to Recommend No Civil Rights Charges in Ferguson Shooting | New York Times

The Justice Department has begun work on a legal memo recommending no civil rights charges against a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., who killed an unarmed black teenager in August, law enforcement officials said.

That would close the politically charged case in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The investigation by the F.B.I., which is complete, found no evidence to support civil rights charges against the officer, Darren Wilson, the officials said.

A broader civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open, however. That investigation could lead to significant changes at the department, which is overwhelmingly white despite serving a city that is mostly black.

Continued here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/us/justice-department-ferguson-civil-rights-darren-wilson.html

at least thats something.

Isn't shooting to death an unarmed black child discrimination?

anonymous on this yet?

Four Ferguson Activists Are Asking a Judge for Help Kicking McCulloch Out of Office | Riverfront Times

Four Ferguson activists want to oust long-time St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch from office after the grand-jury investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, and they're asking a St. Louis circuit court judge for help.

The activists filed a lawsuit earlier this month asking judge Barbara Wallace to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate McCulloch with hopes that the investigator will find enough wrongdoing to get McCulloch kicked out of the office he has held since 1991.

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

Skirmish Erupts Between Police Supporters, Protesters During Hearing | Riverfront Times

A St. Louis city meeting about police oversight devolved into a skirmish between police supporters and citizens seeking reform Wednesday in yet another sign of how overtly factious the St. Louis region has become since the police shooting of Ferguson teen Michael Brown.

The meeting stayed relatively calm for the first hour as attendees testified to the aldermanic public-safety committee about a proposal to create a civilian oversight board, which would review complaints against police. Both Kansas City and Columbia already have similar review boards.

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

Historians Sift the Ruins for Ferguson’s Legacy | New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/u...rchivists-move-to-preserve-what-was-lost.html

Live now, @romonaga_ discussing big money interest's effect on small grass roots organizations and the situation in Ferguson http://www.blogtalkradio.com/joeprichradio2/2015/02/01/episode-34

Can't listen, but ask them what they think about this:

Apparently, the racial divisiveness was manipulated with funding.
That really is quite a turn-off.

I won't waste my time

St Louis Police Threaten to Quit or Slowdown If Civilian Oversight Passes | The Free Thought Project

By Cassandra Rules

A bill to create a seven-member civilian oversight board for the St. Louis Police Department is looking like a sure bet to pass next month. The majority of the Board of Aldermen and even Mayor Francis are attaching their names to it.

As the bill was being discussed on Thursday, Jeff Roorda, a spokesperson for the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association, assaulted a woman while wearing an “I Am Darren Wilson” bracelet. His violent outburst may have stolen the headlines for the day, but there was also some glorious news to come from the union rep.

Roorda announced that St. Louis police officers will quit the department or do only the bare minimum on patrol if the city creates the proposed civilian oversight board.

“They’d answer their calls when they got them, but as far as interrupting criminal behavior on their own, why in the world would they do that when their employers aren’t even supporting them?” Roorda said, he continued on to say that “nobody wants to be the next Darren Wilson.”

Well, Jeff Roorda, nobody wants to be the next Mike Brown either.

Considering the fact that much of the brutality we see begins with officers stopping and harassing people for no reason, his “threat” would actually be a major win for the city.

Continued here:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/st...time-quit-slowdown-civilian-oversight-passes/

Missouri attorney general urges changes to deadly force law | Associated Press

Missouri's attorney general proposed Friday that it be illegal for police to use deadly force unless a suspect committed a violent felony or poses a serious threat to others, as part of recommendations responding to the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old in Ferguson that sparked national protests.

Attorney General Chris Koster also recommended a new scholarship program to promote diversity in law enforcement, that police departments be required to report data on the race of their employees and the formation of a task for to review state traffic stop data. Most of his recommendations require legislative action.

<snipped>

Koster also proposed changing state laws governing the release of video collected by police cameras. His proposed legislation would make footage from police body cameras a closed record under the state's Sunshine Law, limiting public access. The change is needed to encourage police departments to use the cameras while protecting personal privacy, according to the report.

Missouri is one of at least a dozen states where lawmakers are proposing to mandate or expand the use of cameras attached to officers' uniforms in an attempt to avoid disputes about exactly what happened during police conflicts with citizens. Several states are also considering more training for officers, tighter limits on using deadly force and the appointment of special investigators when police kill people as a result of Ferguson and the police chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York.

More than 50 bills have been introduced in Missouri alone related to the shootings. Bills to limit public access to footage taken by police were filed last week by two Republican lawmakers. Other bills would require police to wear body cameras.

Current Missouri law provides justification for deadly force during an arrest or against a fleeing suspect when an officer believes they've committed or attempted a felony or when they may pose a serious threat of danger to others. Koster's proposal requires the felony in question be a violent one.

Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, participated in protests in Ferguson after Brown's death. Her bill, heard by a Senate committee this week, includes changes to the use of deadly force law similar to those suggested by Koster but is more limited. Her version would only allow for deadly force if the officer believes a person poses a clear danger to anyone.

Tightening the justification would bring Missouri in line with U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the use of deadly force, she said.

Koster's report also addresses the issue of traffic fines collected by Missouri cities. Some residents of Ferguson have said they felt harassed by police because of the way traffic laws are enforced. Current state law limits the portion of revenue cities can get from traffic fines, but that has not always been enforced. Koster has sued some municipalities over the issue, but the report says cities should not have to face lawsuits before complying with the limits.

More here:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b70c...torney-general-urges-changes-deadly-force-law

Missouri cities sued over municipal court practices | The Washington Post

Civil rights lawyers filed federal lawsuits Sunday night accusing authorities in Ferguson and Jennings, Mo., of running the equivalent of debtors’ prisons by illegally jailing hundreds of mostly poor, black residents for unpaid debts, many of them from traffic tickets.

Local plaintiffs represented by lawyers with Washington-based Equal Justice Under Law, Arch City Defenders of St. Louis and Saint Louis University School of Law sought class-action status in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, charging that the two cities’ municipal court policies violate the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits jailing those too poor to pay and allows the punishment only for those with means who willfully refuse.

Continued here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...6da2d2-ae4f-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch...s-attorneys-sue-ferguson-over-debtors-prisons

Civil Rights Attorneys Sue Ferguson Over 'Debtors Prisons'

Ferguson and Jennings Sued for Throwing Poor People in Debtors' Prisons | Riverfront Times

Some call them America's debtors' prisons. Some call it the new Jim Crow. But for the poor of St. Louis' north county, the exploitative web of municipal courts and predatory police departments represent burdens of everyday life.

However, six months since a Ferguson cop shot and killed unarmed teen Michael Brown, little has been done to fundamentally reform court systems that many see as emblematic of the divide between north county's black communities and police. On Sunday, civil-rights lawyers took the fight directly to court by filing two lawsuits against Ferguson and nearby Jennings. They accuse the cities of violating the U.S. Constitution by jailing defendants without checking to see if they lack the ability to pay.

"The City's modern debtors' prison scheme has been increasingly profitable to the City of Ferguson, earning it millions of dollars over the past several years," reads one of the lawsuits, echoing the criticism that these municipal courts merely serve as money generators for flagging city budgets. "It has also devastated the City's poor, trapping them for years in a cycle of increased fees, debts, extortion, and cruel jailings."

The two lawsuits include fifteen total plaintiffs, described as "impoverished individuals." Some endured multiple stints in jail as they were shuffled between municipal lockups and forced to come up with fees for each one. For the most part, these defendants were being jailed over traffic tickets, fees and bench warrants.

The lawsuits, which seek class-action status, were filed by attorneys from Washington-based Equal Justice Under Law, Saint Louis University Law School and the ArchCity Defenders, which provides legal help to St. Louis' poor. The suits seek a court order to halt the cities' practices of jailing those who cannot pay fines, as well as compensation for the plaintiffs.

Technically, defendants aren't jailed simply for being unable to pay court fines and fees. Municipal courts allow defendants to set up payment plans when they can't afford court costs. But in practice, poor defendants say they're unable to take off work, find child care or access transportation to get to court dates or they're sometimes afraid they'll be jailed for being unable to pay. That's when a judge issues a bench warrant for their arrest.

Continued here:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/da...r_throwing_poor_people_in_debtors_prisons.php

St. Louis Police & Mayor did everything they could for you to not see this video of police brutality

By Shaun King

On April 10, 2014, four months before Ferguson teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by St. Louis area police, another 18 year old, Cortez Bufford, was pulled over by police in St. Louis for "making an illegal u-turn." Within a few minutes, a full fledged scandal ensued and the the mayor of St. Louis has worked for months to keep it from the public.

The video is below, but let's break down the key facts.

Let's start with the strange reality that all charges were dropped against Cortez Bufford.

Before they were dropped though,

1. Police alleged that Bufford was a suspect in an area shooting.
2. Police alleged they saw marijuana in the car.
3. Police alleged they recovered an illegally owned gun from Bufford.
4. Police alleged that Bufford made an illegal u-turn.
5. Police alleged that Bufford kicked officers and resisted arrest.

Now, think for a moment, and ask yourself why in the world would all charges be dropped against a young black with all of those things stacked against him?

If it doesn't add up, the video will make sense of it for you.

Continued here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/...you-to-not-see-this-video-of-police-brutality

Justice Department's Ferguson PD Probe To Conclude In Days, Black Lawmakers Say | Hands Up United

The Justice Department investigation into the Ferguson Police Department should conclude "within a few days," members of the Congressional Black Caucus said Tuesday after meeting with President Obama.

"The DOJ investigation is ongoing and should be completed within a few days, and we can see the report and draw our own conclusions from that report," CBC chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) said after the meeting.

The federal government has been examining the police department in the aftermath of the police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, which sparked mass protests and accusations of racial profiling.

The Justice Department is weighing allegations of civil rights violations against both Darren Wilson, the officer involved in Brown's death, and the police department as a whole. Investigators are looking at if there exists evidence the Ferguson police engaged in systematic discriminatory traffic stops and excessive use of force.

Continued here:
http://www.handsupunited.org/blog/2...probe-to-conclude-in-days-black-lawmakers-say

Mods, several of these articles should probably be moved to the Police Brutality section/thread, as they have nothing to do with Ferguson/MB. Thanks. Probably doesn't matter since WWP will be going away after Saturday for who knows how long.

No, the thread polluter can. I'm too busy.

pretty much this

Justice Department: Ferguson police routinely discriminated against blacks | LA Times

The Justice Department has found that the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, at the center of national tension over perceived racial bias in policing, routinely discriminated against blacks, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the findings.

The department's Civil Rights Division found that the combination of using routine traffic stops to generate revenue and an ingrained bias against blacks resulted in a profound effect on the city's policing and a pattern of unconstitutional enforcement, the official said Tuesday.

Continued here:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferguson-justice-case-20150303-story.html

Ferguson Official Stated President Obama Wouldn't Last Long "Because What Black Man Holds a Steady Job for Four Years”

By Jaeah Lee, Mother Jones

New details have emerged about the Justice Department's forthcoming report finding patterns of racial discrimination among officials and police officers in Ferguson, Missouri. Among the findings is an email saying that Barack Obama wouldn't last long as president because he's black and data showing that for years, traffic stops, use of force, petty crime charges, and affronts by police canines disproportionately targeted the city's black residents.

Here are more findings as reported by the Associated Press's Eric Tucker and PBS NewsHour:

• Ferguson's black drivers were more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to be stopped and searched, according to records over two years. Black drivers were also 26 percent less likely to be found in possession of contraband.
• According to the police department's internal records concerning force, 88 percent of those cases involved force against blacks. All 14 canine bite incidents involved blacks.
• Blacks were 68 percent less likely than others to have their cases dismissed in municipal court. An arrest warrant was more likely to be issued for blacks.
• The Justice Department found that the court uses petty crime charges to pad the city's budget. As of December 2014, 16,000 out of Ferguson's 21,000 residents have outstanding warrants for minor violations, including traffic tickets.
• A 2008 message in a municipal email account stated that President Barack Obama would not be president for very long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years."
• Over a six-month period in 2014, 95 percent of inmates who spent more than two days in the Ferguson jail were black.
• Petty offenses disproportionately target black citizens. 95 percent of all "Manner of Walking in Roadway" charges were against blacks.

The DOJ's full report is expected as early as Wednesday.

Source:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/here-are-more-details-about-dojs-investigation-ferguson

Justice Department Announces Findings of Two Civil Rights Investigations in Ferguson, Missouri

Justice Department Finds a Pattern of Civil Rights Violations by the Ferguson Police Department

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justi...civil-rights-investigations-ferguson-missouri

Read a full transcription of Eric Holder’s press conference on the DOJ Ferguson report

http://fox2now.com/2015/03/04/read-...-press-conference-on-the-doj-ferguson-report/

The Ferguson Report Shows Exactly What Living in a Police State Is Like | VICE

On Tuesday, several media outlets began leaking bits of information from the report from the federal probe on the Ferguson Police Department, which has been eagerly awaited since the probe was launched last September. Today, the report was officially released, and it details how city officials and police officers systematically and routinely violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights of citizens, motivated both by the desire to increase revenue and, of course, straight-up bigotry.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-ferguson-report-shows-exactly-what-living-in-a-police-state-is-like-304

Why the Feds Can’t Charge Darren Wilson | Slate

They should, but the Supreme Court gutted the civil rights law he violated when he killed Michael Brown.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...darren_wilson_supreme_court_gutted_civil.html

Except...

One could argue that if this weren't true...

...then Wilson would never have stopped Dorian and Michael in the first place to tell them to get out of the middle of the street, there would have been no altercation...etc.

Michael Brown's Parents Plan Lawsuit Against Darren Wilson, Ferguson | NBC News

Lawyers for the family of Michael Brown said Thursday they are gearing up for a wrongful-death lawsuit against Ferguson, Missouri, police and Officer Darren Wilson — a day after federal prosecutors cleared the ex-cop in the unarmed teenager's fatal shooting.

The suit will be filed "very shortly," lawyer Anthony Gray said at a news conference, and will include evidence that will present a "more clear, more accurate picture about what took place that day."

Continued here:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mi...awsuit-against-darren-wilson-ferguson-n318076

The Gangsters of Ferguson | The Atlantic

The residents of Ferguson do not have a police problem. They have a gang problem. That the gang operates under legal sanction makes no difference. It is a gang nonetheless, and there is no other word to describe an armed band of collection agents.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/The-Gangsters-Of-Ferguson/386893/

Pretty sure that article just ripped off a Leftover Crack song.



At least LOC had catchy ska hooks.

People have been ripping that phrase off of each other on Twitter for months now. Nice of you to notice, dear.

Yeah, stupidity tends to spread fast on the twitter. Sup rere.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/adamserwer/...o-go-to-court-in-ferguson-missouri#.oerPJRvEB

Ferguson Officials Suspended After DOJ Report Have Resigned, City Confirms | NBC News

Two city officials in Ferguson, Missouri, have resigned after a Justice Department report highlighted racist emails sent by police and court employees, a spokesman for the city said Friday.

The officials, whose names were not immediately made public, had been placed on administrative leave. Jeff Small, a spokesman for the city, confirmed their resignations to NBC News.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mi...oj-report-have-resigned-city-confirms-n318836

Stunning Ferguson report revelations: Why a complete overhaul is needed, now

By Lisa Bloom

http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/lisa-bloom...revelations-complete-overhaul-needed-now.html

Jon Swaine @jonswaine · 3 minutes ago
Grudging ref to our story on Ferguson judge's taxes with no credit/wrong figures by @stltoday
Ferguson judge criticized as revenue generator who helped bring in millions
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_82ee6ece-248a-5073-a9f9-a3eecbaf073b.html

Yeah, they're probably gonna have to end up dissolving that department and starting over. Wonder how it got so messed up.

Hey Herro! Nice to see you around, Yes I agree they are going to have to dissolve the department and hire more black officers to better have the police force represent the people they are supposed to serve. It would also be good for them and all police departments to get rid of the military style weapons and tactics.

New judge to hear Ferguson court cases after federal probe | Reuters

A Missouri state appeals court judge will take over all current and future cases assigned to Ferguson's municipal courts following a scathing U.S. Justice Department report that found systemic abuses, the Missouri Supreme Court said on Monday.

The court said the transfer of Judge Roy Richter would take effect on March 16 and was aimed at helping restore public trust and confidence in the courts. Richter will also have the power to implement needed reforms to court policies and procedures.

"Extraordinary action is warranted in Ferguson, but the Court also is examining reforms that are needed on a statewide basis," Chief Justice Mary Russell said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/09/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKBN0M52DI20150309

as long as cops have qualified immunity and prosecutors have absolute immunity, no reform is possible. Any attempt to hold them accountable will fail on that basis alone.

Keith Rose ‏@KWRose 12 minutes ago
#FergusonCCM just said #Ferguson City Manager #JohnShaw was just removed from his job effective midnight tonight!

ShordeeDooWhop ‏@Nettaaaaaaaa 38 seconds ago
John Shaw, the #Ferguson city manager JUST RESIGNED.

The Associated Press @AP 1 minute ago
BREAKING: John Shaw out as Ferguson city manager following Justice Department report.

Ferguson city manager out after Justice Department report

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ERGUSON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

This is HUGE. He had much more power than the mayor, who is basically just a figurehead.

It was Shaw all along.

I knew it.

There's a related thread here:

Fair Justice Act would ban enforcing criminal or traffic laws to raise revenue

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/fa...inal-or-traffic-laws-to-raise-revenue.124259/

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson just resigned. He tried negotiating that if he left there would be a guarantee that the PD wouldn't be disbanded. I'm sure, at least behind closed doors, the DOJ facepalmed and laughed their asses off at his arrogance.

I know I did.

Ferguson police chief resigning | CNN

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said in a letter Wednesday that he is resigning, effective March 19 to "provide for an orderly transition of command."

"It is with profound sadness that I am announcing I am stepping down from my position as chief of police for the city of Ferguson, Missouri," Jackson said, adding that serving the city as police chief "has been an honor and a privilege."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/us/ferguson-police-chief/

At 6:30 pm Eastern time, the Ferguson Police Department is holding a news conference. It will carried live on CNN, and on several online sites that include the CBC and NBC.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fergus...ckson-resigns-after-scathing-report-1.2990912

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mi...i-police-chief-thomas-jackson-resigns-n321676

bu the fucking bye
Thank you for playing TOM!

Just About Every White Person In Ferguson Resigning For Being A Racist Disgrace | Wonkette

The fallout continues in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, following the Justice Department’s report on how the city pretty much ran its police force as a revenue-collection operation aimed at transferring money from black citizens to the city’s general fund. On Wednesday, Chief of Police Thomas Jackson announced, “with profound sadness,” that he is resigning, effective March 19.

Jackson’s the one who entertained the nation with his whimsical versions of press briefings, which contained no information. He took nearly a week to release the name of the officer who shot Mike Brown, then claimed that reporters had been demanding that he also release video surveillance tapes of Michael Brown taking cigarillos from a convenience store.

It turned out nobody requested the tapes since no one knew they existed. Jackson also helped calm frayed nerves by telling Ferguson citizens to stay off the streets after dark if they knew what was good for them.

On the other hand, he apologized for letting Brown’s body lie in the street for hours, so surely that counts for something.

Oh, yes, and then there were also the years and years of shaking down black residents of Ferguson — and travelers passing through town — for traffic tickets and fines and stuff, too. The Justice Department didn’t like that either.

Continued here:
http://wonkette.com/579319/just-abo...erguson-resigning-for-being-a-racist-disgrace

Ferguson Police Chief to Finally Resign. Bye. | Jezebel

Ding dong the racist asshole is dead (professionally)!

Goodbye, Tom Jackson and a hearty fuck you for good measure.

http://jezebel.com/ferguson-police-chief-to-finally-resign-bye-1690892796

I'm glad to see some improvements made in Ferguson.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...f-resigned-now-fire-the-rest-of-the-cops.html

Reports of Police shooting today BBC

Police Accused of Confiscating Camera as "Evidence" After Two Cops Shot in Ferguson | PINAC

A wheelchair-bound live streamer said police confiscated her phone as “evidence” this morning after two cops were shot during a protest in Ferguson.

But the footage ended up online, capturing the sounds of gunshots and what appears to be the cries of a man in pain, apparently one of the cops who had just been shot.

The grainy footage also captures what appears to be the flash of a muzzle, but it does not capture the actual shooter nor does it capture the two cops who were shot, one who was shot in the face, the other who was shot in the shoulder.

<snipped>

The live streamer, whose name is Heather De Mian, posted the following on Twitter, where she goes by the username, @MissJupiter1957.



As of this time, she has not responded to interview requests from PINAC for further details. Here are clips from her live stream channel of the protest prior to the shooting.

Under the law, police can only confiscate cameras without a subpoena if it has been used in the commission of a crime or if there are perceived “exigent circumstances,” meaning there is probable cause to believe the footage will be destroyed, which is a habit that police mostly practice.

They are also supposed to ask the citizen for a copy of the footage if they believe it contains evidence, giving the citizen the opportunity to provide the footage without having it subpoenaed.

Continued here:
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/b...-as-evidence-after-two-cops-shot-in-ferguson/

VIDEO: Two Officers Shot Near Ferguson Police Department | Riverfront Times

Two police officers were wounded early Thursday morning after being struck by gunfire near the Ferguson Police Department.

One of the officers, from the Webster Groves department, is a 32-year-old, 7-year veteran of law enforcement, according to a press release. The other officer is a 41-year-old,14-year veteran from the St. Louis County department.

The Webster Groves officer was shot in the face, while the St. Louis County officer was shot in the shoulder. Officials described the injuries as non life-threatening, although both officers are being treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and are in serious condition.

The gunfire followed a night of renewed protests outside the Ferguson Police Department. Bradley Rayford, a freelance videographer who has reported extensively from Ferguson, said he saw three or four muzzle flashes coming from the top of a tree-shaded hill on Tiffin Avenue, which intersects with South Florissant Road, where the police department is located.

Continued here:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/da...cers_shot_near_ferguson_police_department.php

Two Officers Shot During Protest Near Ferguson Police Department | NBC News

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mi...-shot-near-ferguson-police-department-n321926

Two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri, after chief quits | Reuters

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/uk-usa-missouri-shooting-protest-idUKKBN0M80CL20150312

Two Officers Shot Outside Ferguson Police Department | Wall Street Journal

http://www.wsj.com/articles/two-police-officers-shot-outside-ferguson-police-department-1426145841

Several Taken in for Questioning in Shooting of Two Officers in Ferguson | Riverfront Times

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

Raw Video and Tweets from Eye Witnesses of Ferguson Cop Shooting

http://theantimedia.org/raw-video-and-tweets-from-eye-witnesses-of-ferguson-cop-shooting/

Why Was an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Tracking a Black Lives Matter Protest? | The Intercept

Members of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force tracked the time and location of a Black Lives Matter protest last December at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, email obtained by The Intercept shows.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/...e-informant-track-black-lives-matter-protest/

It had to be a rifle, right? 500 feet away ain't close enough for a pistol. Yeah, I'm sure there's going to be a very thorough investigation....right....

After Suspension, St. Louis Cop Indicted for Delivering Shotgun to Drug Dealers | Riverfront Times

Amid a renewed national fixation on Ferguson, you may have missed the dramatic scandal now brewing inside the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

News outlets citing anonymous police sources report that the indictment of a recently-suspended SLMPD officer is just the tip of the iceberg of a criminal investigation into a local drug ring. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that as many as twenty civilians and several officers may be involved. So far, the investigation has focused on one former SLMPD patrolman: Don McGhee.

According to an indictment handed down Wednesday in federal court, McGhee maintained connections to individuals distributing crack and marijuana from of a house on the 3800 block of Cottage Avenue.

On March 2, 2014, McGhee transported a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun with a pistol grip to the drug house, the indictment continues. Two days later, the shotgun, along with ammunition and several other firearms, were recovered during police raid on the property.

McGhee now faces one felony charge for delivering the shotgun while "knowing, believing, or having reason to believe that the drug dealer would use the shotgun in relation to and in furtherance of the drug trafficking." On Thursday, he turned himself in to authorities, pleaded not guilty and was released on $20,000 bail.

<snipped>

If that weren't enough to raise eyebrows, McGhee was reportedly the target of a December drive-by shooting that put him in the hospital for a week with wounds to his leg. During the shootout, McGhee returned fire and killed Terrell Beasley, and hours later Beasley's body was discovered in a burning car. Dominic Lamont Irons, a parolee, was later charged for driving the vehicle from which Beasley shot McGhee, but no motive has yet been established for why they targeted him.

More here:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/da...ed_for_delivering_shotgun_to_drug_dealers.php

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_ef2b57fb-a1e6-52f0-8ab5-6c3c8e51d286.html

What a bizarre story- drive by shooting of criminal cop by criminal, criminal cop kills criminal and someone drives the car away, sets the kid on fire. Brilliant. That must have been a coverup.

Arrest made in shooting of Ferguson, Missouri, police officers - police | Daily Mail

An arrest has been made in connection with last week's shooting of two police officers during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, the St. Louis County Police Department said on Sunday in a press release.

St. Louis County officials will hold a press briefing at 1:30 pm CT on the arrest, according to the statement.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Ferguson-Missouri-police-officers-police.html

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 5 hours ago
As he's told everyone else, Bishop Derek Robinson tells me Jeffrey Williams told him he had never attended a protest prior to Wednesday.

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 5 hours ago
Per Robinson, Williams claims he was robbed and "shot in the air" at robber. Regrets that shots hit police officers.

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 5 hours ago
According to Robinson, Williams was beaten by police last night, and his chest and body covered in bruises that the minister says he saw.

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 5 hours ago
Robinson - who is one of the most frequent protesters - says he's seen Williams once before, at a church event. Never at a Ferguson protest.

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 5 hours ago
Disclaimer for bloggers who don't understand this: this is me reporting what a named source said in interview, not me weighing in personally.

Matt Pearce @mattdpearce · 5 hours ago
Jeffrey Williams' girlfriend talks to the Post-Dispatch. Consistent with what I'm seeing.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_a25d4fc3-5889-5f15-a8fe-2995af5962ac.html

Chris King @chriskingstl · 4 hours ago
Fact: STL County Police chief and prosecutor are not authorities on who is or isn't a protestor, but protestors are.

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 19 minutes ago
Our latest on Jeffrey Williams, the 20-year-old in custody for the shooting of 2 police officers in Ferguson:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...3140c2-cb38-11e4-8a46-b1dc9be5a8ff_story.html

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 20 minutes ago
Was he a protest regular? Prob not. Did he target the officers? We don't know. Will this hurt the protests? We'll see.

Pictorial evidence on Williams and his girlfriend's failbook pages has since come out that he was, in fact, at Wednesday's protest and other protests, as well. In fact, he was standing next to one and/or more than one known/popular protest-supporter livestreamers in said pictures. He also allegedly claims to have participated in looting during the protests from as early as the riots immediately following Brown's death and along with pictorial evidence discusses it on more than those social media forums mentioned, above. As for the tweets not crossed out above, time will tell. Pearce actually interviewed the girlfriend and others who actually spoke with witnesses. Lowery just went by hearsay, and admits it.

As far as protestors who were "surveyed" as to whether Williams participated in protesting or asked if they knew him, they are part of the "core" group of well-known protestors. The majority of them are NOT residents of St. Louis/Ferguson, and most of them travel extensively, so do not protest in Ferguson on a regular basis, but rather travel frequently to destinations such as DC, NYC, Chicago, Selma, Minneapolis, Atlanta, etc. They seriously are unable to reliably determine who is protesting on each occasion since August, 2014. Even back then, most of them did not attend the protests daily, and weren't on the front lines.Protestors come and go. If one is not there for every single protest, and at every single venue, and speaks with every single individual, well then...Also, remember many mask up, wear bandannas, etc.

I wouldn't put much credence into their recollections (media whoring withstanding), or what their "friends" in media have to say at this point. After the evidence that Williams, indeed, HAD been protesting in Ferguson was blasted on Twitter, each of that core group's Twitter accounts went interestingly and immediately silent either completely or on the topic itself, unlike earlier this morning when conspiracy theories ran rampant <KKK, COINTELPRO, police shooting themselves, McCullouch is a liar, etc.>

There is a feeling of panic beginning to spread among the core protestor community, as one streamer had gone so far as to dox a white pro-LEO Twitter "troll" last night as the probably shooter, committing outright libel on one and possible two innocent individuals. Perhaps some of this fear is that some possible are relying on the gofundme gravy train of sorts, and between Josh Williams <confessed arsonist> and now Jeff Williams <confessed shooter> the protestors aren't looking to be as peaceful as they'd like the world to view them. Just some people's view...

So, let's just wait and see what comes out in the wash over the next few days/weeks before we copy/paste everyone's Twitter feeds PLEASE.

As an aside, this streamer fashions herself a wannabe anon, is communicating with anons who (according to respecting long-time anons have put them in some dangerous situations) and is a whack job of epic proportions. I have spoken with respected, long-term anons from high places who have expressed concerns about the rag tag newbie Anons who are "helping" some of the Ferguson protestors.

I know, I, personally, don't want to spread someone's assumptions/gossip/moonbattery. Pearce (LA Times) was trying to give Lowery (Wash Post) basically the same advice.

Gotta be careful what's spread/put in print because libel under the law can even be considered when spreading info from one printed site to another.

Maybe just put a link to the tweeter and let people go look for themselves? Just a thought.

Wesley Lowery @WesleyLowery · 50 minutes ago
Darren Wilson spoke on Friday night at a fundraiser held for him by a STL-area law enforcement legal support group.

This is from the Hunt For Justice page on Facebook:



Thank you Darren Wilson for being our guest and speaking to the HFJ Trivia crowd. You inspired the crowd and we are truly grateful! It was an honor to stand with you and we look forward to the future!

https://www.facebook.com/HuntForJus...078616.104609.476110642412451/895342547155923

https://www.facebook.com/HuntForJustice

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...to-take-the-ferguson-report-seriously/387835/

And a good thought at that! I want to read people's own ideas about what is going on. If I want a run down of tweets I would go to Twitter. Fortunately after two locked account incidents I'm out anyway.
My thoughts on Ferguson and the wider issues? They'll keep until I have collected all the info I need to make an informed decision.

Dr. Cornel West Interview - David Letterman

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...n-learned-from-the-shooting-of-michael-brown/

In those early hours and early days, there was more unknown than known. But this month, the Justice Department released two must-read investigations connected to the killing of Brown that filled in blanks, corrected the record and brought sunlight to dark places by revealing ugly practices that institutionalized racism and hardship. They have also forced me to deal with two uncomfortable truths: Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...n-learned-from-the-shooting-of-michael-brown/

Mall of America Security Catfished Black Lives Matter Activists, Documents Show | The Intercept

Documents obtained by The Intercept indicate that security staff at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota used a fake Facebook account to monitor local Black Lives Matter organizers, befriend them, and obtain their personal information and photographs without their knowledge.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/...k-lives-matter-activists-collect-information/

Here's a press release from today:

Following Ferguson DOJ Report, National Lawyers Guild's Anti-Racism Committee and The United People of Color Caucus Demand Immediate Overhaul of Racist Law Enforcement Systems in the U.S.

Contact: Tasha Moro
NLG Communications Coordinator
212-679-5100, ext. 15
communications@nlg.org

In light of the Department of Justice’s recentscathing report on law enforcement practices in Ferguson, MO, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) of the NLG, and the NLG Anti-Racism Committee (ARC), join communities impacted by police violence to condemn the actions of the Ferguson Police Department and call for increased oversight and accountability for law enforcement systems nationwide. Furthermore, the recent killings of 19-year-old Tony Robinson by a Madison, WI police officer, and 43-year-old Charly “Africa” Leundeu Keunang in Los Angeles, CA, are a reminder that the Ferguson PD is not exceptional. Rather, the violations highlighted by the DOJ are systemic and national in scope, resulting in a reality where one of every threeBlack men in the United States will spend time in prison and every28 hours, a Black person in the country is killed by a police officer or private security; .

The DOJ report highlights a number of egregious violations on the part of the Ferguson PD. First, review of correspondence between city officials and interviews with police officers show that “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs.” As a result, policing assignments are geared toward “aggressive enforcement of Ferguson’s municipal code,” and both stops without reasonable suspicion and arrests without probable cause are ubiquitous in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments. The municipal court aggravates the devastating impact of theseunconstitutional policing practices by using “its judicial authority as the means to compel the payment of fines and fees that advance the City’s financial interests.” In 2013, there were 1.5 times the number of offenses as Ferguson residents, a number even Ferguson PD admits is “staggering.”

Moreover, the racial bias is undeniably rampant. Data in the report shows that African Americans account for 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests made by Ferguson PD officers, despite comprising less than 70% of Ferguson’s population. African Americans are more than twice as likely to be searched during vehicle stops than white people. Nearly 90% of documented force used by FPD officers was used against African Americans, including every documented incident of a canine bite. These statistics demonstrating racial bias are hardly shocking; rather they mirror statistics showing racially discriminatory stop and search practices in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and elsewhere around the United States.

The NLG stands in solidarity with communities harmed by widespread racial bias and aggressive law enforcement tactics like those revealed in the DOJ’s Ferguson report. These practices are not only morally unacceptable—they are illegal and unconstitutional. In the context of increasingly betterfunded, militarized, and technologically advanced police departments, such practices perpetuate state violence against communities of color rather than protecting public safety. TUPOCC co-chair Oren Nimni states, “The NLG stands in full support of those actively resisting these policies and practices. We are encouraged by the work of Black Lives Matter activists in Ferguson and nationwide which has brought much needed public attention to the racially discriminatory policing practices that caused the deaths of Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tony Robinson, and countless others. While we can and should continue to push for legal reform, it is also abundantly clear that the legal system sanctions and incentivizes the repression of Black communities, and that resistance is required.” ARC co-chair Hannah Adams adds, “the NLG Anti-Racism Committee condemns any use of the legal system to perpetuate systemic racism and violence against communities of color. NLG members join the Black Lives Matter movement in calling for an immediate overhaul of law enforcement systems that enact racial violence."

The National Lawyers Guild was formed in 1937 as the nation's first racially integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human, and civil rights. To learn more about the work of NLG's ARC and TUPOCC, follow them on Facebook here and here.

https://www.nlg.org/news/announceme...-nlgs-anti-racism-committee-and-tupocc-demand

Hannity is an asshole!

A Message From AnonIntelGroup (By @88blackhatss )
Posted on March 19, 2015



My brothers and sisters please take a look around you . Do you see it ? Do you see the countless lives being stolen from us at the hands of a justice system that was designed to enslave the very souls of men and woman who dare even speak its name ? Do you see the murders being committed by the very people sworn to protect us? When the fuck did the value of a human life become so cheap?

They hide their sins behind a badge and call us terrorists when we protest. We march for peace and in return we get arrested , pepper sprayed and harassed. They clearly have no emotion towards us yet when one of them get murdered we sympathize. Sympathize with our very own murderers because we have heart.

We respect life. But if keep looking around you will also see the people of this nation banding together. Growing tired of the injustice and swarming the streets , together . Black , white , young and old . From all four corners of the globe . Our message so simple and oh so clear “we are tired” . Continue looking around and you will see a that which appears to be a ghost in the crowd. The ghosts they created in their search to implement their police state . That pale face in the crowd with that unforgettable grin , staring in the face of these tyrants. Fist held up high with not an ounce of fear , doubt or cowardice inside.


We will not stand by while your government and police officers slaughter us like cattle . We are united . We are together . We are an idea. You cannot arrest an idea. Your bullets , badges and political ties cannot contain this idea. We are a Hydra . You cut off one head and two will grow. Anonymous does not condone violence or acts of violence . We are peaceful . And we being the message of peace.

But do not take our kindness for weakness . Do not believe we will stand by while you conduct business as usual. We are lurking on every computer server , government website and cloud service you can think of. We are also on every street corner whether inner city or suburbs . We are your co workers , your neighbors , your sons and daughters. I am writing this piece to request the support of every man woman and child in the fight against police brutality .

I am seeking the help from every single person reading this off of a screen wearing his or her Guy Fawkes mask . There are numerous operations going on with anonymous , all I ask is you find the one that hits closest to home and fight . Fight for the Tamir Rice’s of the world . The Jesse Hernandez’s , Kendrick Johnson’s , Eric Garner’s , and please do not let our sons be the next Mike Brown’s .

And while I can continue to name the names of so many many more my heart will not permit me. Anonymous does not seek money . Thank you but keep your funding . We offer our services free of charge . We need no recognition . We are content living in the shadows. All we seek is freedom and equality for all. We are happy to simply be the change this world needs . We are voice for the voiceless . We are a circle within the circle . We Are The Anon Intel Group. #ExpectUs


Source - https://anonintelgroup.wordpress.com/



https://twitter.com/AnonIntelGroup

Ferguson Shootings - Which Ones Are Murder?

http://www.ashtarcommandcrew.net/fo...-revolution-of-consciousness-this-is-the-time

Russel Brand is a twat.

The only "twat" around here is you.

Play nice, people!

"All we seek is freedom and equality for all." - anonintelgroup - above.
There you have it!
That's what we strive for
That's what we encourage others to strive for
That's what we petition local and national government for
That's why we are!

Man who posted Facebook threat to shoot Darren Wilson is sentenced in Washington state

By Martha Bellisle, Associated Press

A Washington state man who posted Facebook comments threatening to shoot former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will avoid prison but has been ordered to stay off social media sites in a case that is part of a broader legal debate about when social media rants go beyond hyperbole and become a crime.

Before U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik handed down Jaleel Abdul-Jabbaar's sentence Thursday, he said it was one of the hardest he has had to decide. He noted that in a separate case — the recent killings of two New York police officers — the gunman posted Facebook threats before shooting the officers.

But Lasnik accepted the defense argument that Abdul-Jabbaar's comments were simply a strong reaction to the unfolding events in Ferguson, and he had no intention of following through on his threat to shoot Wilson.
Abdul-Jabbaar told the judge he made a mistake, "and it won't be repeated."

The judge agreed that the two months Abdul-Jabbaar already spent behind bars was enough and ordered three years of supervised release.

In arguing for government monitoring of Abdul-Jabbaar's computer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said: "It's OK to be frustrated, it's OK to be angry about current events, and it's OK to express that frustration. But our society cannot tolerate the type of violent threats the defendant made."

Abdul-Jabbaar pleaded guilty Feb. 2 for posting a threat against Wilson on Facebook that included a call to "give back those bullets that Police Officer Darren Wilson fired into the body of Mike Brown."

Federal prosecutors said Abdul-Jabbaar posted inflammatory messages for months after the Aug. 9 killing of Brown sparked protests nationwide. Assistant Federal Public Defender Kyana Givens said each note was in response to the news of the day out of Ferguson.

Continued here:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_2e984f30-7062-546c-8d84-17cc22a40c1a.html

The Daily Show - Mighty Morphin' Position Changers



Published by Comedy Central on March 20, 2015

Fox News fails to provide coverage of the DOJ report that revealed widespread, systemic racism in the Ferguson, MO police department.

Trial set for videographer arrested covering Ferguson | Associated Press

A video journalist arrested while covering the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after Michael Brown was fatally shot last summer plans to fight the charges at trial.

St. Louis-based videographer Mary Moore said she wants her reputation, and her criminal record, cleared. Moore was among 13 people taken into custody during a demonstration outside Ferguson police headquarters in early October, and was charged with municipal violations.

Protests have continued since Brown, who was black and unarmed, was shot and killed Aug. 9 by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Moore is one of an estimated two dozen journalists from around the world and among the hundreds of people who've been arrested in Ferguson.

Moore, whose videos have been used by The Associated Press, TV networks and other news organizations, is among the few journalists to actually go to court. She was charged with failure to comply, failure to disperse and resisting arrest. She said she was not part of the protest, but was simply documenting it on video.

Ferguson's city attorney said Tuesday that Moore was "was participating in the protest and attempted to interfere ... by locking arms with other protesters."

"There was no resisting," Moore said Monday in a phone interview. "I'm not an idiot."

Moore's case was set for trial in late June at a brief hearing Tuesday morning in Ferguson's municipal court - the same venue singled out in a withering U.S. Department of Justice report that found the St. Louis suburb operated a profit-driven system that heightened tensions among black residents for years before Brown's death.

The Missouri Supreme Court appointed a state appeals court judge to hear cases in Ferguson's courtroom following the ouster of the private-practice attorney who previously presided there. Moore said she is considering whether to seek a change of venue to St. Louis County Circuit Court.

The San Francisco-based Freedom of the Press Foundation tracked 19 journalist arrests in August - including two at a McDonald's just days after Brown's death - one in September, two in October and two in November. Trevor Timm, executive director of the foundation, said charges were not filed in most cases.

Continued here:
http://www.kfvs12.com/story/28602479/trial-set-for-videographer-arrested-covering-ferguson

St. Louis Reserve Cop Blames DUI on Ferguson | NYMag

A part-time reserve officer in the St. Louis suburb of St. Ann was recently arrested for a DUI, but he has a reason for his bad behavior: Ferguson made him do it.

Twenty-two-year-old Jacob Klaus was arrested on Saturday for operating a motor vehicle while impaired after he drunkenly crashed his Dodge Dakota into a St. Louis house. Klaus was reportedly apologetic about the accident, and claimed he started drinking after the stress of volunteering with the Ferguson police department began to get to him.

“That’s what he said, and we had zero problem with him before,” St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez told the St Louis Dispatch. “He was not a drinker and had no substance abuse when he took the lie detector test."

Klaus hasn't been charged for the DUI, and authorities say he likely won't be.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/st-louis-cop-dui-ferguson.html

Ferguson grand jury wanted to make public statement, documents reveal | Yahoo News

A week before the Ferguson grand jury chose not to charge police Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown, it was denied a request to make a public statement about the controversial case, court documents filed Friday reveal.

It’s unknown what the 12 jurors wanted to say or what prompted them to seek an opportunity to be heard after the case was decided. The refusal came from St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Carolyn Whittington.

The surprising request surfaced in an ongoing federal lawsuit of a grand juror against St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch. The juror, identified in court papers as Grand Juror Doe, seeks the court’s permission to speak publicly about his experience and wants immunity from prosecution.

On Friday, McCulloch filed arguments and exhibits to bolster his motion for U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel to dismiss the case.

Continued here:
http://news.yahoo.com/ferguson-gran...lic-statement-documents-reveal-230443110.html

Settlement reached: Police must warn before use of tear gas or other chemical agents | St. Louis American

The three agencies that made up the "unified command" during protests in Ferguson over the summer will have to provide warning before using tear gas or other chemical agents to disperse peaceful crowds.

The requirement settles a lawsuit Ferguson protesters brought against the St. Louis County police, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The agencies were sued for their use of tear gas and pepper spray during the protests that followed both the shooting death of Michael Brown in August, and the November announcement that former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson would not face criminal charges in Brown's death. The plaintiffs alleged that officers acting under the orders of the unified command violated their right to free speech and assembly by indiscriminately using chemical agents against peaceful protesters who were often given no way to escape.

"It was an extreme situation, but frankly it's something that we may see again in the future if there are continued protests," said Thomas Harvey, the executive director of the Arch City Defenders and one of three attorneys who represented the protesters.

The lawsuit cites several incidents in which police used tear gas, Mace or pepper spray indiscriminately, but the one that garnered the most attention was an incident the night of the grand jury decision at MoKaBe's, a coffee shop in Tower Grove South that had become a headquarters for protesters. The lawsuit alleges that without warning, police fired several tear gas canisters at the cafe, which filled with tear gas. Protesters who tried to leave through the back were caught in an alley that was also filled with gas. St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson denied all the charges, and said the gas was being used against individuals attempting to destroy property along South Grand Avenue.

Continued here:
http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/article_b01be0b6-d487-11e4-9b71-fbabb434fc36.html

http://fergusontheplay.com/

Ferguson The Play? Documentary Filmmaker Staging Michael Brown Case Grand Jury Testimony

Audiences in Los Angeles will soon get to judge the merits of the Michael Brown case in dramatic readings of the grand jury witness testimony in the controversial police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, Deadline Hollywood reported Sunday. Theater Verite Collective will preview “Ferguson” for four nights next month at the Odyssey Theatre after which the audience will act as grand jurors and decide if former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson should have been indicted in Brown’s death last year.

In the play, the audience will hear witness testimony exactly as the Ferguson grand jury heard it after the Aug. 9 shooting. Brown, an 18-year-old African-American who was unarmed when Wilson fatally shot him, became the lightning rod for violent protests and demonstrations around the nation. The Ferguson grand jury decided against charging Wilson in November. Findings of federal investigation, while also clearing Wilson of civil rights violations, disputed several witness accounts of Brown surrendering with his hands raised before he was shot.

“There are 5,000 separate documents in the grand jury testimony and there are 20 different perspectives from law enforcement and forensic experts, but a lot of it was from eyewitness testimony and even Brown’s friend,” said Phelim McAleer, who is the playwright and a regular New York Post columnist. “There were liars on both sides and everyone I’ve shown the script to were shocked by the details of it that they didn’t know.”

The theater group plans to tour the play and will eventually stage it in Ferguson, Deadline reported. The play is being crowdfunded through Indiegogo, much like McAleer’s previous projects. His most recent success was with last year's campaign for the documentary “Gosnell,” about the abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. The Indiegogo fundraiser for Gosnell became site’s most successful ever, raising more than $2.25 million in 45 days.

Continued here:
http://www.ibtimes.com/ferguson-pla...chael-brown-case-grand-jury-testimony-1863088

Journalists file US lawsuit against Ferguson police | AFP

Three German reporters and an American journalist are suing police in the Missouri town of Ferguson over their treatment during racially charged riots last year, a press watchdog confirmed Wednesday.

Reporters Without Borders said it "fully supports" the legal action against the Ferguson Police Department by the journalists who allege battery, false arrest and unreasonable search and seizure.

<snipped>

The four journalists are American reporter Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept and Germans Ansgar Graw (Die Welt), Frank Herrmann (Der Standard) and Lukas Hermsmeier (Bild).

The four filed suit on Monday, with two alleging police shot at them with rubber bullets before detaining them in jail for a night.

"It may sound naive, but I never assumed the possibility of police officers shooting at journalists in a manageable situation like this," Hermsmeier told The Intercept, which published the full complaint.

http://news.yahoo.com/journalists-file-us-lawsuit-against-ferguson-police-232239575.html

Intercept Reporter Files Suit Against Ferguson Police | The Intercept

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/...porter-files-suit-ferguson-police-department/

I read comedian Chris Rock has been taking selfies of himself being pulled over by cops.
Three times in the last 7 weeks (I think that is what he said)

so....
what constitutes a proper warning? "hey"?
And what is the wait time before they take "action"?
It is specified? How can it be when each incident is different?
I think this will be just another case of the cops saying "yes I did" and the victims saying "no you didn't" and the cops will use their spin as usual as to why they did what they did.
But at the VERY least, at least it's not another step backwards.
And they are not rolling this out completely until Aug 15th? WHY the wait?

edited: also
in some incidents, how can there be enough time to get away from tear gas and or pepper spray?
Just because someone warns you that they are going to do something, doesn't mean you have ample time to get away from it. This is where the problems will be.

Chris Rock: "Driving While Black" Repeat Offender



Published by The Young Turks on April 2, 2015

"Stopped by the cops again wish me luck."

That's the message Chris Rock paired with a selfie on Monday, capturing what is apparently the third time in just seven weeks the comedian has been pulled over by police. It's not known why police stopped Rock during these three separate incidents, but the succinct caption alone sums up what's clearly a routine event for him as a black man in America driving what we can assume is a nice car.

Rock has long been a vocal critic of racial profiling. In a December interview with New York magazine, Rock talked candidly about the everyday racism he encounters with his family, despite being one of the most well-known and respected comedians in the country. "I mean, I almost cry every day," he told Frank Rich. "I drop my kids off and watch them in the school with all these mostly white kids, and I got to tell you, I drill them every day: Did anything happen today? Did anybody say anything? They look at me like I am crazy."

Read more here:
http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2015/04/chris-rock-selfies-police

Ferguson Killings Empower Police Accountability Advocates Seeking Change

If you have a cell phone you too can be the media.

You don’t need a press pass or a degree, you just need a desire show the truth as it happened.

Get out there and be prepared to video what goes on around you, to video record not just for likes but for your ability to tell the truth.

Get out there and “Be the Media.”

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/o...s-american-dialogue-on-police-accountability/

Take it as it is...but I think this dude is really opening up!

This is not what I thought he was going to say, just looking at him.

"The police confused her with another woman who shared her name - sans the middle initial. She was jailed for two days."

How St. Louis Police Robbed My Family of $1,000 (and How I'm Trying To Get It Back) | The Intercept

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/08/how-st-louis-police-robbed-my-family/

Thanks for this story I hadn't seen.i hope he gets the $1000 back and clears his mothers name.
It's a very clear example of the stuff police and the courts get away with in that area

Fox News Says ‘Minority Communities’ Need To be ‘Trained’ To be ‘More Sensitive To The Police’


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Unfucking believable. More moronic bullshit from the FOX NEWS fuckwits!





During an episode of Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News, the show’s host Jeanine Pirro asked her viewers whether the problem is with police officers or with “minorities.” In an “Instapoll” conducted by the show, she asked whether cops need to be retrained to be more sensitive to the needs of so-called “minority” communities, or whether those communities need to be “trained” to be “more sensitive” to the police.
Can you guess the results of the “Instapoll”?


Continued - http://theantimedia.org/fox-news-minority-communities-need-to-be-more-sensitive-police/

Missouri Guard on Ferguson protesters: 'Enemy forces' | CNN

By Barbara Starr and Wesley Bruer

As the Missouri National Guard prepared to deploy to help quell riots in Ferguson, Missouri, that raged sporadically last year, the guard used highly militarized words such as "enemy forces" and "adversaries" to refer to protesters, according to documents obtained by CNN.

The guard came to Ferguson to support law enforcement officers, whom many community leaders and civil rights activists accused of using excessive force and inflaming an already tense situation in protests that flared sporadically from August through the end of the year.

The National Guard's language, contained in internal mission briefings obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, is intensifying the concerns of some who objected to the police officers' actions in putting down riots. They broke out after the August 9 shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by city police officer Darren Wilson. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in the case.

"It's disturbing when you have what amounts to American soldiers viewing American citizens somehow as the enemy," said Antonio French, an alderman in St. Louis.

The documents obtained by CNN also detail that the Missouri National Guard was concerned about perceptions of its deployment, with superiors later telling troops to stop using heavily militarized language to describe protesters.

Continued here:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/17/politics/missouri-national-guard-ferguson-protesters/

Michael Brown Memorial Tree One of Two Destroyed in Ferguson | Riverfront Times

On Saturday, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association dedicated a memorial in January-Wabash Park in Ferguson honoring Michael Brown.

By Sunday, the memorial had already been destroyed -- the tree planted in Brown's honor damaged, and the stone memorial missing, KMOV (CHannel 4) reports.

As it turns out, however, two trees at the January-Wabash Park were damaged this weekend, and now two plaques are missing, says activist Tony Rice, who visited the site this morning. The tree featured in the KMOV report that was completely destroyed was dedicated to someone else -- the Michael Brown tree was damaged but still has some leafy green leaves on top.

However, both trees are missing their plaques. Brown's had said simply, "In Memory of Michael Brown Jr. Dedicated tree 4/15."

Continued here:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/da...ael_brown_memorial_vandalized_in_ferguson.php

Tweekers

Michael Brown family to file wrongful death suit against Ferguson, Mo. | LA Times

Michael Brown's parents will sue Ferguson, Mo., on Thursday for the wrongful death of their son, their attorneys confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.

The specifics of the suit will not be released until after a news conference, which the family will hold at 10:30 a.m. local time in front of the St. Louis County courthouse, said Adner Marcelin, a spokesman for the Brown family attorneys, late Wednesday.

Continued here:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-michael-brown-civil-suit-20150423-story.html

Michael Brown's Parents File Civil Suit Against Ferguson And Former Officer | NPR

The parents of Michael Brown, the unarmed man whom a Ferguson, Mo., police officer shot and killed last August, have filed a civil lawsuit against the city, along with former police chief Thomas Jackson and Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, 18.

The lawsuit was filed by Michael Brown, Sr., and Lesley McSpadden at the St. Louis County Courthouse this morning. It says Wilson "unjustifiably shot and killed" Brown, using "an unnecessary and unreasonable" amount of force.

You can read the lawsuit at the St. Louis Public Radio site. It says that Jackson was responsible for hiring, training, and supervising Wilson.

Continued here:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...-will-sue-ferguson-over-police-shooting-death

Parents of Michael Brown to file wrongful death suit | St. Louis Public Radio

The full court filing is below:

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/parents-michael-brown-file-wrongful-death-suit

Michael Brown’s Family Files Civil Lawsuit Against Ferguson | Wall Street Journal

The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive damages, $75,000 in compensatory damages and the appointment of a monitor to oversee the city’s use-of-force practices for up to five years. The plaintiffs in the suit include the city, former police chief Thomas Jackson and former officer Darren Wilson.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-browns-family-files-civil-lawsuit-against-ferguson-1429804290

A look into Ferguson's pricey pick to negotiate DOJ settlement

By Christine Byers and Stephen Deere, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 2, 2015

In the days following a Department of Justice report accusing Ferguson’s police and municipal court of widespread abuses, the city made a series of conciliatory moves. Three employees involved in racist emails were forced out. The city manager stepped down. So did the police chief and municipal judge.

Less than a month later, on March 27, a City Council that’s been grappling with declining revenues voted unanimously in a closed meeting to hire one of the nation’s most distinguished and highest-price trial lawyers to navigate what could be a prolonged and expensive reform process.

His name is Dan K. Webb. The city of Ferguson is paying him $1,335 an hour.

<snipped>

Webb’s hourly rate is nearly double the highest billing rate in Missouri in 2014, which, according to Missouri Lawyers Weekly, was $700 an hour.

The city fought to keep the engagement letter secret. For two weeks, it refused to release a copy of the letter to the Post-Dispatch, arguing that it was privileged communication that could reveal the city’s litigation strategy. After the Post-Dispatch argued that it was illegal to keep the document secret under the state’s open records law, the city council voted in a closed meeting Thursday night to release it. Still, the city did not turn over the letter until just before 5 p.m. Friday.

Webb will play a key role in working with the Justice Department, which spent seven months investigating Ferguson’s police department and municipal court after the death of Michael Brown. The department concluded that the police shooting of Brown was justified, but said the city had tolerated a culture of police brutality while pressuring the police chief and court officials to increase traffic enforcement and fees without regard to public safety.

Now it’s up to the two sides to negotiate an agreement for reforming the police department and municipal court. Then, if the process plays out as it has elsewhere, the city will pay for a federal monitor to ensure that Ferguson keeps its promises. In other places, the process has taken years and has cost police departments across the country millions.

Ferguson is already reeling from financial setbacks, and has already had to dip into its reserves.

<snipped>

None of the council members who voted to hire Webb returned phone calls from the Post-Dispatch.

The costs may become an issue in Ferguson, where city officials are already worrying about bankruptcy.

Brian Fletcher, a council member who was elected in April, after Webb was hired, said Ferguson has lost sales tax revenue from businesses destroyed in the riots last year, collected less in court fines and fees, paid officers more in overtime and had higher-than-normal legal bills.

He said that the city is facing a $2 million to $3 million deficit for the fiscal year that ends on June 30, and will likely face a similar deficit next year. That’s without the cost of implementing any reforms or paying Webb’s legal bill.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_05a6800b-e525-5392-94eb-cbf7b68a1830.html

TC @tchopstl · 1 hour ago
Wow, I can't believe StL Metro Police shot the wife of a white sheriff's department lieutenant. This is going to get insane.

Woman disputes account of sister's shooting by St. Louis police

The sister of a 38-year-old woman shot by St. Louis police officers responding to a Friday night report of an intruder at a Chippewa Street home is disputing the law enforcement account of the incident.

Becky Morgan, of Cedar Hill, on Sunday accused police of firing 16 bullets into the back of her sister, Jennifer Morgan-Tyra.

Morgan said the wounds paralyzed Morgan-Tyra, the wife of a lieutenant with the St. Louis city sheriff's office. The couple had plans to celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary later Friday night. Morgan-Tyler is being treated at St. Louis University Hospital.

Officials announced on Sunday that prosecutors filed warrants charging Morgan-Tyra with second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and armed criminal action.

According to the St. Louis police account, officers observed an unidentified screaming male fleeing the residence when they responded to a disturbance call in the 4200 block of Chippewa at approximately 7 p.m. Friday. Inside the home, officers encountered a "female armed with a weapon," the report says. Police said the woman refused an order to drop the firearm and "began to raise the weapon toward the officers. Fearing for his safety, one of the officers fired his department-issued firearm at the suspect, striking her in the chest." Authorities say it "appears" the woman fired "at least one shot."

Morgan said her sister summoned police after encountering an intruder in the residence, which is occupied by a disabled brother. Morgan claims the gun was not loaded. Morgan-Tyra and other family members assist in caring for the brother on a rotating basis, Morgan said. The injured woman has a room in the residence, which was owned by her late mother, but does not reside there.

Morgan-Tyra, according to her sister, was holding an intruder at bay with a 9-millimeter handgun when the police entered the home. Morgan said she has been told her sister responded to the demand that she drop the weapon by pointing the barrel toward the floor. Morgan accused police of firing the shots as as Morgan-Tyra turned away. Morgan-Tyra, the daughter of a former Manchester police officer, is an accountant.

The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave. The police Force Investigation Unit is examining the circumstances.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_2a8fed76-ac19-5b76-aee9-a917b3a32c86.html

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=Morgan-Tyra

SIXTEEN bullets into her back?
wtf
Administrative leave? no fire those fuckers and press charges!

Dozens of Ferguson-related reforms were proposed in Missouri. Just one passed

By Niraj Chokshi, The Washington Post, May 16, 2015

The Missouri legislature ended its session Friday night having passed virtually none of the reforms activists sought in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown.

Activists had been tracking more than 60 bills related to criminal justice and policing, but just one of substance had made its way out of the legislature.

“This was such an opportunity for the Missouri legislature to step up and do the right thing. The people of the state called on our lawmakers to fix this broken system,” said Denise Lieberman a senior attorney for the Advancement Project, a civil rights group, and co-chair of the Don’t Shoot Coalition, a group formed to address policy reform after Brown’s shooting.

When the session began in early January, advocates had high hopes for, at the very least, a fruitful discussion. They were encouraged, they said, by word from the legislative black caucus that legislative leadership and the governor were supportive of their efforts. But, in the end, several expressed frustration with the course the legislature took.

“To now, at this point, see every piece of legislation that they put forward get stifled, get choked out, it’s disheartening,” said Montague Simmons, chairman and executive director of the Organization for Black Struggle, a black political empowerment organization.

The scores of bills — introduced mostly by the legislature’s few Democrats — offered a menu of reforms. They would have developed standards for eyewitness identification, required body cameras, restricted police from racial profiling, required diversity and sensitivity training, and modified state rules governing the use of lethal force, something Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon threw his support behind in his State of the State address.

The legislature did pass one bill advocates had been calling for, which was aimed at limiting municipal reliance on fines for revenue, a practice highlighted in a scathing Justice Department report on Ferguson released earlier this year. The bill lowers the cap on how much revenue a municipality can generate from traffic tickets from 30 percent to 20 percent statewide and to 12.5 percent in St. Louis County, which is plagued by excessive traffic violations and is home to Ferguson. The bill also bans courts from throwing individuals in jail over minor traffic offenses.

Continued here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...he-dozens-of-ferguson-related-bills-proposed/

Missouri lawmakers quit early, failing to pass Ferguson-inspired changes to deadly force law

By David A. Lieb, Associated Press, May 15, 2015

Missouri lawmakers concluded a tumultuous annual session Friday, ending their work ahead of a deadline while failing to pass a bill rewriting the state's deadly force standards for police in response to last summer's fatal shooting in Ferguson.

The House quit about 10 minutes early, and the Senate nearly three hours ahead of the mandatory 6 p.m. adjournment — conceding that there was nothing further they could pass because of partisan divisions.

Democrats stalled virtually all Senate action as a show of displeasure after the Republican majority used a rare procedural motion to shut off debate and force a vote earlier this week on a right-to-work bill barring the mandatory collection of union fees.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon said Friday that he will veto the bill and gave no indication that he would call a special session for any of the unfinished business.

Democrats briefly relented from their blockade Friday to allow approval of a bill reauthorizing $3.6 billion of annual health care provider taxes for the state's Medicaid program. That was the only bill they let come to a vote.

The House spent its final day voting to send 31 measures to Nixon, often stripping off their own amendments to avoid sending the bills back to the clogged-up Senate.

But the House had its own drama. House Speaker John Diehl resigned Friday morning, two days after a news report that he had exchanged sexually suggestive text messages with a Capitol intern. House Majority Leader Todd Richardson then was elected by colleagues to take over for Diehl and pledged to get the chamber back to its businesses of passing bills.

"Obviously, over the past weeks and months, it has been a rather difficult session at times for a variety of reasons," Richardson, of Poplar Bluff, said, "but as we've had a chance to take stock of it, we are excited about what we were able to accomplish this session."

Before their troubled final week, legislators had passed a $26 billion budget, approved a bonding plan for state building improvements and overridden Nixon's veto of a bill cutting the length of time low-income families can receive welfare benefits.

They also passed a bill limiting the powers and revenues of municipal courts — prompted in part by concerns raised by protesters and a U.S. Justice Department report that said the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson has used its law enforcement system as a revenue-generating machine.

One bill that died Friday would have redefined when police can use deadly force — a response to the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black, by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The bill needed one final vote from senators, which did not occur.

Continued here:
http://www.usnews.com/news/us/artic...lature-enters-final-day-of-session-in-turmoil

Let’s have fun contrasting John Diehl’s public opinions on sex and gender with his sexts with a college freshman

By Amanda Marcotte, Raw Story, May 14, 2015

Anti-choice, anti-gay, generally all-around gross guy claiming his hatefulness is “Christian” John Diehl has been, to absolutely no one’s surprise, caught sexting with a teenager. And probably fucking her, though there’s always a very slim chance that she and he were just engaged in an elaborate erotic role-play by phone. (Kidding. He says in the texts that he’s fucking her, so I think it’s safe to say there’s an upwards of 90% chance he did.)

Obligatory response to the inevitable conservatives claiming hypocrisy because of how they assume I must feel about Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky: Sorry, you’re wrong. The direct quote you’re looking for: “icky, borderline predatory behavior”.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff. Because John Diehl is the speak of the Missouri House of Representatives, one of the state legislatures that is most swept up in the nationwide right wing panic over the fact that straight women and gay people are having sex and must be stopped. Unless they are nubile 18-year-olds sucking the cocks of important homophobic Republicans, of course. And so, I give to you some fun compare-and-contrast how John Diehl thinks sex is terrible for you — and you must face consequences — but good for him, and certainly nothing that requires consequences.

Continued here:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/let...ender-with-his-sexts-with-a-college-freshman/

Hey, I'm just going to throw this out here. I made fun of all you asshats several months ago for a reason. If you want to keep going with a bullshit narrative and keep saying bullshit that isn't backed up by any facts (zero, zip, nada) well then be my guest...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...nds-up-dont-shoot-did-not-happen-in-ferguson/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/15/myths-and-facts-on-ferguson-shooting/19085451/

Christ, I didn't even know I was posting in the Occupy Wall Street (I'm a cry baby, thank you daddy) forum. Sorry....

I'll refrain from having any common sense. Please continue to protest against capitalism with your iPhones.

No charges against St. Louis officer who killed VonDerrit Myers

"Given all the available facts, witness statements, physical and forensic evidence" prosecutors "have determined a criminal violation could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, charges will not be filed in this case."

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_5641ecfd-4b37-54c1-b717-1a7d84500892.html

someone just told me that Obama just signed a bill to demilitarize police forces.
Any police force who wants crazy weaponry and gear will have to go through a lot of red tape to get them?
Don't know if this is what was signed, too tired to look it up.

Yes, there are a couple of posts about it, starting here:

https://whyweprotest.net/threads/a-thread-about-police-brutality.95426/page-23#post-2535156

excellent. Hopefully taking away some of their "big toys" will help.
Police forces need a mandatory retrain and should be warned about the consequences of excessive and deadly force and that it will not be tolerated.
hey I can dream can't i?

http://theantimedia.org/why-obamas-new-equipment-ban-does-nothing-to-demilitarize-the-police/

As a matter of fact, the recommendations about the restricted items are noteworthy for what isn’t included: firm and thorough rules for law enforcement agencies which would mandate when and how to use military equipment which has previously been distributed.

Michael Brown Is Getting A Permanent Memorial In Ferguson

The announcement came on what would have been Brown's 19th birthday, and followed a press conference announcing that Canfield Drive, the street where Brown was shot, would be repaved within the week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/20/michael-brown-memorial_n_7345690.html

The street's being repaved now.


The dove was placed into the concrete this morning



and the memorial plaque was dedicated yesterday yesterday.

Seriously; why? And why does anyone here think he should have a pavement memorial. Everything that was pointed at the office doing "wrong" has been proven to be bullshit. Micheal Brown was a thug who robbed a local business 15 minutes before he got shot for assaulting a police officer.

Why the fuck do you think we should honor this shitbag?

Not trolling. Asking a serious question. Do you people not know the facts?

I can throw out some racist gifs too. Doesn't change the facts of the matter or what I'm asking about.

Why are we honoring someone who literally robbed a store 15 minutes before he got shot for assaulting a police officer?

Silly facts.

deray mckesson @deray · 5 hours ago
So, I woke up to this. Hate is organized in America. And yes, I take this as a serious threat.


Operation Ferguson @OpFerguson · 47 minutes ago
Some self-styled "journalists" are about to discover that when you threaten the lives of protesters you lose the Anonymous media protection.

Operation Ferguson @OpFerguson · 12 minutes ago
Chucky boy may be suspended, but that doesn't mean Anonymous can't reach out and touch his life. We're coming Chuck, we're coming. | #vengence

Operation Ferguson @OpFerguson · 6 minutes ago
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck....man, dude you done fucked up so bad. Anons live to destroy dumb fucks like you. Good luck with what comes next, dick.

Operation Ferguson @OpFerguson · 1 minute ago
No one threatens our Ferguson Family. Not even journalists. Not even the motherfucking President. No one. | #Anonymous #Vendetta

Operation Ferguson @OpFerguson · 14 seconds ago
Chuck C. Johnson is about to learn why they call Anonymous "The Internet Hate Machine". | #Anonymous #BOO X-P



Operation Ferguson @OpFerguson · 2 minutes ago
We'll have an initial "Targeting DOX" on Chuck Johnson in about 15 minutes. Start charging your lazers & warm your cell phones. | #vengence

I, also, would like to hear why this young man should get a dove embedded in a sidewalk. What, exactly, did he do to deserve this. Show your work.

I don't. I agree with you. Those plaques are supposed to be for heroes. It's disgusting. It's also been proven by DOJ's report that the "hands up/don't shoot" was a lie. Also, the Ferguson protestors have been funded by $33 Million dollars of Soros' money, and many of the paid agitators have since gone on to create riots and race-baiting in Baltimore and other places.

Serious answer: I know the facts. I posted the pics real time because I thought the wrong precedent had been started in Ferguson and that it was ridiculous.

Now, at page 55 of this thread you finally say this?

Kinda late.

If it was all based on a lie, it means that black people are really racist and bigoted towards white people.

Judge Defers Ruling on Probe Into Handling of Ferguson Case | Associated Press

A judge on Friday deferred ruling on a request by activists for an independent probe of a prosecutor's handling of grand jury proceedings in the Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown, but he again gave strong indications he might toss the lawsuit.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Joseph Walsh III heard an hour of arguments over the lawsuit by four activists pressing for a special prosecutor to review St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch's handling of the process. Walsh said he would take the matter under advisement and start working on a ruling after his vacation planned for next week.

The hearing Friday continued one the judge began a month earlier, when he told the activists' attorneys an outside investigation might be unnecessary since the U.S. Justice Department declined to charge the white officer who shot and killed the unarmed, black 18-year-old. The county grand jury already had chosen not to prosecute officer Darren Wilson, who later resigned.

Lawyers for the activists argued that the grand jury decision in November was inappropriately influenced by McCulloch's conduct.

"Mr. McCulloch put his thumb on the scale," attorney Maggie Ellinger-Locke told the judge Friday. "I'm arguing the process was skewed from the beginning."

Walsh countered that McCulloch had assistant prosecutors run the grand jury proceedings and "wasn't the one asking the questions." The judge also pointed to the Justice Department probe that cleared Wilson. The federal agency did, however, release a scathing report that cited racial bias and racial profiling in Ferguson policing and in a profit-driven municipal court system that frequently targeted blacks.

"The Department of Justice doesn't take issue with anything that was done (during the grand jury process), and they came to the very same conclusion" as the grand jury, Walsh said.

He then told Ellinger-Locke: "You're just nitpicking at certain things that were done or not done."

Ellinger-Locke said the federal findings are irrelevant to the push for a special prosecutor. She insisted the scope of the U.S. government's investigation was merely to determine whether Wilson violated Brown's civil rights.

"These proceedings are about whether the grand jury process was conducted appropriately," she said.

Walsh retorted that the Justice Department did an independent probe that included FBI interviews of the same witnesses who offered grand jury testimony, and roughly a dozen of them corroborated Wilson's account.

Ellinger-Locke disagreed, saying, "I think he would have been indicted had this process been aboveboard."

The grand jury decision touched off angry, sometimes violent, protests in Ferguson similar to the unrest that occurred in the St. Louis suburb immediately after Brown's death in August. His shooting also led to demonstrations in other cities and spawned a national "Black Lives Matter" movement seeking changes in how police deal with minorities.

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/05/29/us/ap-us-ferguson-prosecutor.html