Ferguson, MO is a warzone.

[kaycivine]

Looks like tonight wont be a great night...

[Gravekeeper]

The governor just called on the county prosecutor and state attorney to prosecute officer Wilson.

It came across like a cheap bid for political points. Given that his own state senators have been telling him to go fuck himself on Twitter. Literally, one of them told him to go fuck himself. >.>

[Gravekeeper]

Oh wow, they've arrested a legal observer and are telling the Amnesty International observers to leave the area or be arrested.

Wow. What are they even doing down there?

[Eisa]

Violating people's human rights?

I also saw on Twitter a journalist asked a police officer his name, and the cop told him to go fuck himself.

[Gravekeeper]

I also saw on Twitter a journalist asked a police officer his name, and the cop told him to go fuck himself.

Yeah, on a live stream no less. Another officer on a stream also said "I will fucking kill you" and when asked his name told the guy to go fuck himself. Wonder if its the same officer.

[Racket_Man]

I'm still kind of in awe that there are Communist revolutionaries in small town Missouri in 2014. Word on the ground is one of them in particular is one of the Molotov guys that keeps succeeding in baiting the police into their ape shit responses. If these idiots are there, who the hell else has rolled into town since this started?

Fittingly, it turns out the police have been using tear gas from the Cold War era on them.

The protests have started to spread into Canada now.

Be clear this is NO small Missouri town out in the bonnies. This is in a HEAVILY populated area just north and east of the airport surrounded by affuient suburbs that used to be the "edge" of civilization just a few decades ago.

[Gravekeeper]

Yes, someone pointed that out already.

Also: This is the saddest farking thing.

[Canarr]

Okay... how, exactly, is it possible that apparently EVERYBODY in any position of authority there is a raging moron?

What happened to turning things over to the Highway Patrol? There was that article about some HP captain (from Ferguson) meeting with the protesters, getting all that military shit from the streets, and things had calmed. How did that go back into the crapper so fast?

[lordlundar]

What happened to turning things over to the Highway Patrol? There was that article about some HP captain (from Ferguson) meeting with the protesters, getting all that military shit from the streets, and things had calmed. How did that go back into the crapper so fast?

Some people (and I do use the term loosely) from out of the area decided to take advantage of the protests and provoke the police and loot stores while claiming to be protestors. The original police doing crowd control (there were three different agencies at the time; Ferguson, St. Louis, and Highway Patrol) took the bait and started going after protestors. The Highway Patrol (who were the ones demilitarized) had to gear up when the shit hit the fan and now the Highway Patrol is labelled complicit by the protestors so we're back at square one.

[Gravekeeper]

The Highway Patrol (who were the ones demilitarized) had to gear up when the shit hit the fan and now the Highway Patrol is labelled complicit by the protestors so we're back at square one.

There were 25 different departments on the ground initially. There still is several departments on the ground. All that changed is that the Highway Patrol took command away from the St Louis County PD. So all that's seemingly changed is the cops have a black spokesmen now. There are still an amazing amount of asshole cops on the ground and they're still finding any excuse they can to engage in disproportionate crackdowns after 12am. Even though the curfew was lifted.

Last night's fiasco was triggered / "justified" because someone threw a plastic water bottle at them.

The police also just raided St Mark's church that was being used as a safe spot to treat tear gas victims and confiscated everything they were using to treat tear gas exposure. Amnesty International has now called on the attorney general to officially investigate police conduct during the protests.

[Gravekeeper]

Hey! Its Officer Go Fuck Yourself threatening to kill people. >.>

[Greenday]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ferguson-sh...ry?id=25047905

Interesting latest report. The current police story is that Officer Wilson asked the guys from his cruiser to stop jaywalking. They ignored him so he started to get out of his car to repeat himself. Brown proceeded to shove Officer Wilson back into the car and beat the ever loving shit out of him, breaking bones in his face, before getting shot. The fight went outside the car and Brown started running away. Wilson drew his gun and ordered him to stop running. Brown put his hands up in the air then charged Wilson resulting in getting shot multiple times.

If that's how things actually went down and Officer Wilson was damaged that badly, I can't see how he can be faulted for what happened.

[the_std]

If that's how things actually went down and Officer Wilson was damaged that badly, I can't see how he can be faulted for what happened.

If, sure. If that is what happened, Officer Wilson should not be victimized.

But you seem to fail to grasp what has made Ferguson such a focal point. It is not that Officer Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, justified or not. It is that the law enforcement has an entrenched inability to appropriately handle the ethnic makeup of its community, and then reacted extremely poorly when their years of stupidity blossomed into an outpouring of outrage.

The police have not been transparent, and they seem to be operating under the assumption that the people they have sworn to protect are now the enemy. It is a dangerous way to handle the situation, and now they are dealing with the fall out.

That is why Ferguson is a powder keg. That is why it has gained international attention. It is not because Officer Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown. It is because the system designed to protect Ferguson has failed it.

Edit: I'd also like to include a brief blog post from PopeHat in my post, as I feel it accurately describes the situation here. This is the article in question. Essentially, Sunil Dutta was an LAPD cop for 17 years, and he is speaking about how to let the police do their jobs. He makes a great guilt trip out of it, equivocating some bombastic ideas to lead to the conclusion that you shouldn't lip off to cops, otherwise you might get blown up with a gas bomb. This is his core message:

Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.

It sounds all well and good, until you realise that this guy is asking that you follow his every word, whether it is a request police can legitimately make, or not, otherwise you face seriously violent consequences.

The writer at PopeHat sums it up rather eloquently.

Would we accept "if you don't want to get shot, just do what the EPA regulator tells you"? Would we yield to "if you don't want your kid tased, do what the Deputy Superintendent of Education tells you"? Would we accept "if you don't want to get tear gassed, just do what your Congressman tells you?" No. Our culture of individualism and liberty would not permit it. Yet somehow, through generations of law-and-order rhetoric and near-deification of law enforcement, we have convinced ourselves that cops are different, and that it is perfectly acceptable for them to be able to order us about, at their discretion, on pain of violence.

It's not acceptable. It is servile and grotesque.

The last thing I will add is that, as a non-minority upper middle class woman, living in Canada, I have never once felt the need to distrust the police. Never in my life have I walked down a street and felt the fear of being targeted. I still hold an innate belief that the majority of authority figures with serious power, such as the police, are really serving our best interests. But, man... Fuck the police in Ferguson.

[Hyena Dandy]

If that's how things actually went down and Officer Wilson was damaged that badly, I can't see how he can be faulted for what happened.

Even if he hit you, if you shoot an unarmed person with his hands up, then you're faulted for it. If the direct threat is gone, it doesn't matter. If he was still attacking Wilson when he was killed, then I can't fault him. But if he wasn't actively attacking him or threatening him, then it doesn't matter.

[Greenday]

Even if he hit you, if you shoot an unarmed person with his hands up, then you're faulted for it. If the direct threat is gone, it doesn't matter. If he was still attacking Wilson when he was killed, then I can't fault him. But if he wasn't actively attacking him or threatening him, then it doesn't matter.

If a non-moving person has his hands up, sure. But if he's running at you to attack you, you can shoot him if you have reasonable fear for your life (which it seemed like he did).

A lot of ifs though.