St. Louis Riots

[bayonetbrant]

I honestly wanted/expected an indictment. Not that I think he's guilty in any way. I wanted the trial with a full open disclosure of every fact before a jury. I wanted the kid to get his day in court and every bit of evidence to point to what a stain on society he was and for it to be broadcast to 80 countries in 24 languages.
And when he came back "not guilty" there's no way anyone can say there was a coverup or a conspiracy or anything else. The evidence was all on the table for a jury (and the world) to clearly see that Officer Wilson was 100%in the right

[LongBlade]

I honestly wanted/expected an indictment. Not that I think he's guilty in any way. I wanted the trial with a full open disclosure of every fact before a jury. I wanted the kid to get his day in court and every bit of evidence to point to what a stain on society he was and for it to be broadcast to 80 countries in 24 languages.
And when he came back "not guilty" there's no way anyone can say there was a coverup or a conspiracy or anything else. The evidence was all on the table for a jury (and the world) to clearly see that Officer Wilson was 100%in the right

That's supposedly why they released so much evidence given to the grand jury. It appears as this point that facts are irrelevant to the protesters/rioters. I doubt a trial would have produce a different outcome.

The best we can hope for is a nasty snowstorm or two to shut down the city for a few days. Let the temps drop into the teens with some solid wind behind them. When it's too cold to riot, they'll simmer down.

[Gusington]

*RANT*

What really gets me...and anyone can call me racist if they want to...is where do these rioters get the time to riot? Don't they have jobs to go to? Oh, they don't? Are you telling me they are living on welfare and in government subsidized housing, paid for by tax money? And then they go out and burn their own dump of a town to the ground? Inconceivable.

Sure there are some blanket statements in what I have said above but I can assure you that it describes many if not most of the Ferguson rioters. Give me a break at how 'oppressed' you are while living on the government dole.

I understand history and know that the civil rights movement was necessary and noble. But this isn't 1964. There aren't 'white only' restaurants and 'white only' restrooms. They did exist, but they don't anymore.

It's time for perennial victims to STFU, stop blaming everyone but themselves, and get on with building true communities. Until they do that, I could care less how the police treat them. Give no respect and you should expect none in none in return.

*RANT*

[Staggerwing]

Maybe it's time to field-test those 'super stink bomb' crowd control measures that the feds have been working on.

[BanzaiCat]

*RANT*

(yelling)

*RANT*

+

[bayonetbrant]

I've seen lots of reliable reporting in different places that many of the rioters are NOT the locals.

[BanzaiCat]

I've seen lots of reliable reporting in different places that many of the rioters are NOT the locals.

I heard that in some cases there were more news reporters than cameras. The news certainly has some culpability in this matter.

[Staggerwing]

I've seen lots of reliable reporting in different places that many of the rioters are NOT the locals.

I think that's probably a given. 'Agent Provocateur' would seem to be 'de rigueur'.

[bayonetbrant]

This is what the NFL would call "indisputable video evidence". At the 2:30 mark, Michael Brown Jr's stepfather clearly - CLEARLY and UNEQUIVOCALLY - incites the riot that just engulfed Ferguson.

[BanzaiCat]

SMH.

Bastard needs to go to jail.

[LongBlade]

I understand there is frustration and anger.

What I do not understand is why they feel they need to burn down their own city.

If they'd direct that anger at the drug dealers and kids who drop out of school they might actually improve their conditions.

[Steelgrave]

It seems like a chunk of the people just wanted a lynch mob.  Their minds were already made up and no amount of evidence would persuade them otherwise.

This.

It wouldn't have mattered if Jesus Christ sat on the jury. Nothing short of the public hanging of the cop would satisfy the mob. And then they would still have looted rioted anyway, just because.

Speaking of Messiahs,  it kills me to know for the rest of my life, Obama will be there, flapping his piehole as an ex-President, weighing in on shit he knows nothing about (remember the questions of if he was "black enough"?), and generally fanning the flames. Seriously, I despise the s.o.b.

As a footnote, the church the Brown family attends was torched and burned to the ground. I doubt that's what he had in mind when he encouraged the mob to "burn the b%%ch down".

[LongBlade]

A female manager of Papa Johns defends her store.

Starts about the 1:10 mark.

That, my friends, is called bravery.

[Gusington]

That was pretty stupid, IMHO.

[Swatter]

Thanks for the well wishes, guys.

This is a very complicated issue, and tackling complicated issues is completely unsuited to the media. So we are left with rioting and burning based of myths and half-truths.

The prosecutor, Bob McCullough, is a good man and a straight shooter. He has been under intense political pressure from the get-go. People from the protest crowd from day one called on him to recuse himself based on the most flimsy of pretexts. The Governor was called on to appoint a special prosecutor, but decided against it. There is just so much fake, politically correct BS flying around out here, trying to wrap your mind around it just ends in frustration. The media reports on the parents of Mike Brown and everything they say as if they were saints who could speak no wrong. They are questioned and comment often on the situation, their opinions untouchable and of incredible importance. Its such a stupid game the media loves to play. The protestors opinions are similar, passed on without judgment and often endorsed by news anchors. This results in phony clamor against Bob McCullough, accusing him of anything and everything.

McCullough, from what I understand, looked at the evidence and didn't want to charge the officer with anything. The evidence was so strong suggesting that it was a justified shooting that there would be no chance of a successful prosecution. You don't indict someone unless you believe you have the evidence to convict at trial. Under intense political pressure he convened the unusual grand jury, where all evidence was laid out with the intention of making it all public in the end. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. You either cave to political pressure (and mob pressure) or you are a racist covering up a killer cop. It was a no-win situation from the moment of the shooting.

No matter what the facts are, the myth has been created. Mike Brown, the gentle giant, cut down by a racist cop and later killed again by a racist system. Its a myth that will never die and an easy narrative that generates huge ratings for the news media.

That's not even the sad part. The sad part is that there are real problems in African American communities that need to be addressed. I can only intelligently comment about the St. Louis area, but there are large pockets of the metro area that are poor and crime ridden. There have been at least 120 murders this year, 93% of them are blacks killing blacks. Its common place to see multi-homicide drive-by shootings which turn into high speed chases. It common for innocent bystanders to be gunned down in gang violence. One week before Brown was killed, a grandma walking down the street with her grandkids was blown away in gang crossfire, right in front of those kids. That was a 15 second piece on the nightly news, she is now forever forgotten.

The schools in the city and much of North County are a complete shambles, no reformer or set of reforms seems to make much difference. The family unit in these areas is destroyed, the tax base to run the schools is destroyed. Large parts of the city and parts of North County resemble war zones due to the number of abandoned and neglected properties.

And the final and most sad part is that since nobody is willing to address race and poverty in an honest matter- NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Whites will flee Ferguson even quicker than they already are. There will be no businesses, no services. It will become so bad that even the blacks will flee, eventually. The only thing left will be another bombed out swath of St. Louis. I am honestly ashamed of my country. We can't move beyond political correctness or the perceived truths we hold so dear to see the situation for what it really is.

If I had a magic wand that I waved and decreed that tomorrow and henceforth, policing will be perfect. There will be no unjustified shootings, no racial profiling, no harassing of innocents. The sad fact is that the poverty will remain. The gang violence will remain. The failing schools will remain. The utter hopelessness of life in the ghettos will remain largely unchanged. So, burn Ferguson in your mindless rage at the unjust murder of Mike Brown. Tomorrow you will be forgotten and you will be even worse off than before. Mob rule provides its just rewards.