Mike Brown: Trayvon Part 2

[WiregrassTiger]

It seems to me that the bigger problem for most black America is the inability to separate real racial issues and problems from crimes and tragedies. Even for most of the educated.

Black leaders, news anchors, politicians, clergy, that I have heard are on the same page. Ferguson is a travesty to them. All because: 1. the prosecutor is white. And: 2. The policeman is white.

It's idiotic. And if you think that, you are a moron.

Their decision was made well before any of the grand jury testimony was made available. How? That's racist to me. That's as flagrantly racist as one can be. It's basing the decision of a man's life totally on his race. He's white, therefore, he's guilty. Now, let's go bash in the window at the liquor store.

You can't condemn the man on those two facts. And the prosecutor brought it all in front of the grand jury, probably more because of the racial nature. I'm questioning whether he should have even presented it, based on the feeling I get from the testimony that I've read.

We have to live together. Crying racism ONLY because a white cop shoots an unarmed black man only cheapens the word. There was more to the story than that.

 

[WiregrassTiger]

As for the police, I say again for the 100th time. If a policeman stops you, tells you to step to the curb...whatever...the answers are yes sir and no sir (Or mam)  They have tazers, big flashlights, guns and dozens of others just like them one call away.  You give them shoot, there will be trouble...for you.  You cooperate fully, you will NOT get shot, tazed bro or otherwise have the hell beaten out of you.  There are asshole cops, asshole attorneys, asshole ditch diggers, asshole pro athletes...assholes in every walk of life.  If a cop acts like an asshole, take it up with his supervisor or in court.  Try to be bad ass and you lose.     

I agree this is a good strategy for you. In your situation, I would act like a bitch too. Personally, I've bitch slapped a lot of cops that got out of line with me. But you shouldn't try that.

[dallaswareagle]

  Those that remained were there only to loot and act like the thug, punk ass bitches they truly are.

Now, now, our fine Pres says these folks were only mis-behaving.

[GH2001]

As for the police, I say again for the 100th time. If a policeman stops you, tells you to step to the curb...whatever...the answers are yes sir and no sir (Or mam)  They have tazers, big flashlights, guns and dozens of others just like them one call away.  You give them shit, there will be trouble...for you.  You cooperate fully, you will NOT get shot, tazed bro or otherwise have the hell beaten out of you.  There are asshole cops, asshole attorneys, asshole ditch diggers, asshole pro athletes...assholes in every walk of life.  If a cop acts like an asshole, take it up with his supervisor or in court.  Try to be bad ass and you lose.     

Like how the kid from Prattville did in Phenix City at the playoff game last weekend? He did everything right, was respectful - yessir and no sir, didn't committ a crime and somehow got drug out of the stadium and pepper sprayed. And was never charged with ANYTHING or accused of doing anything that warranted that action. Now his parents are suing the shit out of the PC PD. This is a middle class kid from a good family in Prattville - this wasn't racial. This is bad no matter what races are involved.

There are bad cops who have issues. Ive had my encounters with them as well. There is no crime in expressing your opinion or view of a situation to a cop as long as you aren't threatening anyone. But some of them seem to think it is. BUT...that is also why I think this stuff in Ferguson is non sense and Cops overstepping bounds from time to time isn't usually racial. Thats an overzealous cop problem, not a racial problem. Im white. The couple of cops ive dealt with negatively have been white. There was no race in play there - just asshole cops who knew they were in the wrong.

These people in Ferguson are morons for their behavoir. Many are just using it as an excuse to practice anarchy without consequence. If the cop were black and the kid were white, I would feel no different. In fact, in a couple of local stories where it was flip flopped (black cop taking down some drug head white trash), Ive said just as much.

[Snaggletiger]

Like how the kid from Prattville did in Phenix City at the playoff game last weekend? He did everything right, was respectful - yessir and no sir, didn't committ a crime and somehow got drug out of the stadium and pepper sprayed. And was never charged with ANYTHING or accused of doing anything that warranted that action. Now his parents are suing the shit out of the PC PD. This is a middle class kid from a good family in Prattville - this wasn't racial. This is bad no matter what races are involved.

There are bad cops who have issues. Ive had my encounters with them as well. There is no crime in expressing your opinion or view of a situation to a cop as long as you aren't threatening anyone. But some of them seem to think it is. BUT...that is also why I think this stuff in Ferguson is non sense and Cops overstepping bounds from time to time isn't usually racial. Thats an overzealous cop problem, not a racial problem. Im white. The couple of cops ive dealt with negatively have been white. There was no race in play there - just asshole cops who knew they were in the wrong.

I have a strong feeling there may be a bit more to it than cops just arbitrarily deciding to drag a kid out and pepper spray.  But, I agree my statement sounded like I was saying unnecessary shit never happens when you fully cooperate.  Obviously, that's painting with too broad a brush on my part.  In the kid's situation, the parents should sue and I hope they're successful if the cops were just being assholes for the sake of assholishness. 

[Townhallsavoy]

Here's the Obama speech transcript:

THE PRESIDENT:  As you know, a few moments ago, the grand jury deliberating the death of Michael Brown issued its decision. It’s an outcome that, either way, was going to be subject of intense disagreement not only in Ferguson, but across America.  So I want to just say a few words suggesting how we might move forward.
 
First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law.  And so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make.  There are Americans who agree with it, and there are Americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry.  It’s an understandable reaction.  But I join Michael’s parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully.  Let me repeat Michael’s father’s words:  “Hurting others or destroying property is not the answer.  No matter what the grand jury decides, I do not want my son’s death to be in vain.  I want it to lead to incredible change, positive change, change that makes the St. Louis region better for everyone.”  Michael Brown’s parents have lost more than anyone.  We should be honoring their wishes.   
 
I also appeal to the law enforcement officials in Ferguson and the region to show care and restraint in managing peaceful protests that may occur.  Understand, our police officers put their lives on the line for us every single day.  They’ve got a tough job to do to maintain public safety and hold accountable those who break the law.  As they do their jobs in the coming days, they need to work with the community, not against the community, to distinguish the handful of people who may use the grand jury’s decision as an excuse for violence -- distinguish them from the vast majority who just want their voices heard around legitimate issues in terms of how communities and law enforcement interact.
 
Finally, we need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation.  The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.  Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country.  And this is tragic, because nobody needs good policing more than poor communities with higher crime rates.  The good news is we know there are things we can do to help.  And I’ve instructed Attorney General Holder to work with cities across the country to help build better relations between communities and law enforcement.
 
That means working with law enforcement officials to make sure their ranks are representative of the communities they serve.  We know that makes a difference.  It means working to train officials so that law enforcement conducts itself in a way that is fair to everybody.  It means enlisting the community actively on what should be everybody’s goal, and that is to prevent crime.
 
And there are good people on all sides of this debate, as well as in both Republican and Democratic parties, that are interested not only in lifting up best practices -- because we know that there are communities who have been able to deal with this in an effective way -- but also who are interested in working with this administration and local and state officials to start tackling much-needed criminal justice reform.
 
So those should be the lessons that we draw from these tragic events.  We need to recognize that this is not just an issue for Ferguson, this is an issue for America.  We have made enormous progress in race relations over the course of the past several decades.  I've witnessed that in my own life.  And to deny that progress I think is to deny America’s capacity for change.
 
But what is also true is that there are still problems and communities of color aren't just making these problems up.  Separating that from this particular decision, there are issues in which the law too often feels as if it is being applied in discriminatory fashion.  I don't think that's the norm.  I don't think that's true for the majority of communities or the vast majority of law enforcement officials.  But these are real issues.  And we have to lift them up and not deny them or try to tamp them down.  What we need to do is to understand them and figure out how do we make more progress.  And that can be done.
 
That won't be done by throwing bottles.  That won't be done by smashing car windows.  That won't be done by using this as an excuse to vandalize property.  And it certainly won't be done by hurting anybody.  So, to those in Ferguson, there are ways of channeling your concerns constructively and there are ways of channeling your concerns destructively.  Michael Brown’s parents understand what it means to be constructive.  The vast majority of peaceful protesters, they understand it as well.
 
Those of you who are watching tonight understand that there’s never an excuse for violence, particularly when there are a lot of people in goodwill out there who are willing to work on these issues.
 
On the other hand, those who are only interested in focusing on the violence and just want the problem to go away need to recognize that we do have work to do here, and we shouldn’t try to paper it over.  Whenever we do that, the anger may momentarily subside, but over time, it builds up and America isn't everything that it could be.
 
And I am confident that if we focus our attention on the problem and we look at what has happened in communities around the country effectively, then we can make progress not just in Ferguson, but in a lot of other cities and communities around the country.
 
Okay?
 
Q    Mr. President, will you go to Ferguson when things settle down there?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let’s take a look and see how things are going.  Eric Holder has been there.  We've had a whole team from the Justice Department there, and I think that they have done some very good work.  As I said, the vast majority of the community has been working very hard to try to make sure that this becomes an opportunity for us to seize the moment and turn this into a positive situation.
 
But I think that we have to make sure that we focus at least as much attention on all those positive activities that are taking place as we do on a handful of folks who end up using this as an excuse to misbehave or to break the law or to engage in violence.  I think that it's going to be very important -- and I think the media is going to have a responsibility as well -- to make sure that we focus on Michael Brown’s parents, and the clergy, and the community leaders, and the civil rights leaders, and the activists, and law enforcement officials who have been working very hard to try to find better solutions -- long-term solutions, to this issue.
 
There is inevitably going to be some negative reaction, and it will make for good TV.  But what we want to do is to make sure that we're also focusing on those who can offer the kind of real progress that we know is possible, that the vast majority of people in Ferguson, the St. Louis region, in Missouri, and around the country are looking for.  And I want to be partners with those folks.  And we need to lift up that kind of constructive dialogue that's taking place.
 
All right.
 
                         END              10:18 P.M. EST   

I thought his speech was great except for the bolded part.  In the context of this particular story, the race problem was made up.  In fact, the prosecution and grand jury found that the majority of the "eye witness" testimony was just that - made up.  It was made up by black people of the Ferguson community to incite rage and violence towards a police officer who was doing his job. 

I understand that there's distrust between some black communities and law enforcement and yes, shady shit goes down from the law enforcement end as well.  But when you have a white police officer following protocol, it's not applicable to bring up race relations.  Obama should have mentioned the FACT that Michael Brown put himself in danger of being killed by committing two crimes - one earlier in the day and the second reaching for a police officer's weapon and then charging that police officer immediately after.   

[AUJarhead]

Obama should have mentioned the FACT that Michael Brown put himself in danger of being killed by committing two crimes - one earlier in the day and the second reaching for a police officer's weapon and then charging that police officer immediately after.   

But that won't get the Democrats any votes.

[smooth_operator]

This isn't the country I was raised to believe it was as a child. This is now a country where a large segment of the population seems to want an "american idol" style vote-for-decision popularity contest rather than rule of law backed by science.

I watched CNN last night. The whole time. I just wanted to see if I could be enlightened. Unfortunately I saw the opposite. I saw a "panel of experts" going over the released grand jury evidence. That panel initially stuck with the scientifically proven to be false eyewitness accounts, but at one point they swapped to another expert who said something like: "Anderson, it looks like Wilson's account was backed up fully by the forensic analysis of the scene and Mike Brown's autopsy, which may be why the grand jury reached the decision they did". Guess what? No more panel of experts. Didn't see 'em again.  One lady said something that didn't fit their narrative so they stopped showing them.

The reporters on the scene were even more confused. They spoke of police creating more problems with their response to the rioting and looting, but whenever a reporter got in front of the lines they would immediately advise him or her to move back to the safety of police presence. When scenes of burning or looting were shown they would wonder aloud "why are there no police?"

My biggest problem with the whole thing is of all powerful people shown including the president, news anchors, legal experts, the prosecutor over the case, civil rights leaders, the Brown family attorney, none of them mentioned that the best way to not get killed by police is not cause them a reasonable fear for their own, or someone else's life. Everyone acted like it was a failure of police tactics or the legal system that deadly force was used after a gun grab was attempted and a possibly incapacitating assault was initiated. The contact by the police officer, by the way,  was not random response to race but firmly in the line of duty. The news ticker at CNN continued to say "black teen" and "white cop" as if those were relevant facts rather than "questions about police tactics" or "deadly force application questioned". That, my friends, is not the country I was told about when I was a child.

Several pseudo-celebrities have come out with statements expressing "disappointment" about the outcome of the trial. Disappointed about what? Science? legal processes? Legal self defense? Disappointed that this case isn't what you were told it was? Disappointed that a community in the United States was ravaged by lawless rioting? Disappointed that that same rioting was referred to as "understandable anger" by a news outlet? 

I agree that there is a huge problem in the inner cities of this country. But that problem, by and large, ain't the police. Its crime. Pervasive criminality.  In fact, enlightened, educated, "community style" policing would no doubt help the problem but guess what? Because of reactions like this against someone attempting to legally enforce the law myself and other educated, enlightened police professionals flee to the whitest, richest suburbs we can find. I would rather die a thousand deaths than live through, and put my family through, what officer Wilson has been through.

[WiregrassTiger]

^^^WTF do you know? You're a smokey. You don't have to fight gangs and storm Crack and meth houses like Token.

You write little old ladies speeding tickets. I've heard.

I thought you had to be black to be a trooper in Alabama.

[AUJarhead]

I think what scares me the most about all of this, is that I believe our federal government is going to neuter our police departments the same way that they've neutered our military.  Make it so that you can't fire unless you are fired upon first.

[WiregrassTiger]

I think what scares me the most about all of this, is that I believe our federal government is going to neuter our police departments the same way that they've neutered our military.  Make it so that you can't fire unless you are fired upon first.

Well, it does start with an n but I don't think neutering it up is what Obama has planned.

[Townhallsavoy]

Several pseudo-celebrities have come out with statements expressing "disappointment" about the outcome of the trial. Disappointed about what? Science? legal processes? Legal self defense? Disappointed that this case isn't what you were told it was? Disappointed that a community in the United States was ravaged by lawless rioting? Disappointed that that same rioting was referred to as "understandable anger" by a news outlet? 

Bassem Masri - a pseudo-celebrity journalist - was on the scene.  He was one of the live feeds offering his pseudo-intellectual commentary on everything, trying to portray how there were peaceful protests with a few knuckleheads. 

Then this happened:



The action starts at about 2:30.  But it's annoying to get through, so here's the tl;dw: Masri has his phone stolen by a knucklehead.  Knucklehead runs off with the phone.  Someone along the way asks him what he has.  He responds with, "iPhone 6 off some nigga." 

Masri later claims the thief was an undercover police "agitator" hired by law enforcement to incite more violent protests and rioting.   

That's the type of celebrity that has a voice now.  You should have seen Twitter last night.  Couldn't believe it.  One guy on my feed - and confirmed by how many times he's posted since last night - said he stayed up all night and he's still going off on the fact that Wilson described Brown as a demon and the incredible hulk, which is racist somehow.  I guess black = green? 

[Snaggletiger]

One of the most outrageous comments, made numerous times by several "experts", was how they thought surely Wilson would be charged with something to appease the protesters and in response to government pressure. 

Not because he was guilty of anything or did anything wrong.  We just need to charge him with something. 

[GH2001]

One of the most outrageous comments, made numerous times by several "experts", was how they thought surely Wilson would be charged with something to appease the protesters and in response to government pressure. 

Not because he was guilty of anything or did anything wrong.  We just need to charge him with something.

A scapegoat must be made if one cannot be found.

[Token]

^^^WTF do you know? You're a smokey. You don't have to fight gangs and storm Crack and meth houses like Token.

You write little old ladies speeding tickets. I've heard.

I thought you had to be black to be a trooper in Alabama.

Not a trooper.

[Catphish Tilly]

That's the type of celebrity that has a voice now.  You should have seen Twitter last night.  Couldn't believe it.  One guy on my feed - and confirmed by how many times he's posted since last night - said he stayed up all night and he's still going off on the fact that Wilson described Brown as a demon and the incredible hulk, which is racist somehow.  I guess black = green?

This is what I was alluding to in my earlier post as well. Folks like us, sensible folks with the capacity to absorb facts, can easily choose to turn this propaganda off and go about our lives making sound decisions.

But over the decade, social media has allowed an ever growing number of individuals abilities to proliferate their skewed and dangerous agendas, while granting millions of willfully dumb sponges the medium by which to absorb their narratives. This is a new and dangerous trend.

Messages like Masri's skewing what was an obvious crime into an infiltration by a "police agitator" is just one example of a narrative that becomes true to these people the more they post, tweet, and retweet it. Enough people want to believe it, so its true. So while you and I scoff at idiots on a livestream, a virtual lynch mob becomes a physical one in the bat of an eye. Then it torches the Mcdonald's and demands vengeance upon the innocent justice for a corrupt system.

[Snaggletiger]

This is what I was alluding to in my earlier post as well. Folks like us, sensible folks with the capacity to absorb facts, can easily choose to turn this propaganda off and go about our lives making sound decisions.

But over the decade, social media has allowed an ever growing number of individuals abilities to proliferate their skewed and dangerous agendas, while granting millions of willfully dumb sponges the medium by which to absorb their narratives. This is a new and dangerous trend.

Messages like Masri's skewing what was an obvious crime into an infiltration by a "police agitator" is just one example of a narrative that becomes true to these people the more they post, tweet, and retweet it. Enough people want to believe it, so its true. So while you and I scoff at idiots on a livestream, a virtual lynch mob becomes a physical one in the bat of an eye. Then it torches the Mcdonald's and demands vengeance upon the innocent justice for a corrupt system.

[dallaswareagle]

Every chance he has to be a President who is happens to be black, he once again is just a black president.

[Tiger Wench]

Ben Shapiro NAILS IT.

On Monday night, the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri freed Officer Darren Wilson from the possibility of indictment over his shooting of 18-year-old black man Michael Brown. The prosecutor before the grand jury, Robert McCulloch, explained why the indictment had been rejected: the evidence, both physical and eyewitness, supported Wilson’s case that he had acted in self-defense.

McCulloch added pointed criticism of the media that drove the case in the first place, ripping the “insatiable appetite” of social media and “non-stop rumors” driven by it. The initial accounts pushed by social media, McCulloch said, were “filled with speculation and little, if any, solid or accurate evidence.” But he saved his harshest criticism for the media machine itself: “The most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for something, for anything, to talk about, followed closely behind with the non-stop rumors on social media.” McCulloch finished by stating that evidence mattered, and that no one’s life should be decided based on “public outcry or for political expediency.”

The lecture was well-deserved.

Just as the media did during the George Zimmerman trial and in the aftermath of Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin, the media attempted to cram the square peg of the Wilson-Brown shooting into the round hole of white police racism. That meant portraying Brown as the latest sainted racial victim; this time, rather than the Trayvon Martin narrative of hoodies, Skittles, and iced tea, the media hit upon the notion that Brown was a “gentle giant.” The Brown family, Al Sharpton, MSNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, and other major media outlets ran with the story that Brown was a “gentle giant” who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Then, it turned out that Brown had robbed a convenience store minutes before his altercation with Wilson.

Similarly, the media trotted out the story of Dorian Johnson, Brown’s friend, who said that Brown held his hands up in surrender after being shot in the back, and that Wilson executed Brown. The entire media ran with that one originally; the lie spawned an entire “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” movement. Of course, it later turned out that Johnson had helped Brown rob the store, and that all available autopsy evidence contradicted Johnson’s story.

But never mind: the media had somehow turned the true story of Michael Brown – the story of a 6’5”, 289-lb. 18-year-old strong-arm-robbing a convenience store, confronting a police officer and attempting to take his gun, running away, turning back to charge that officer, and being shot multiple times – into the story of Emmett Till. Never mind that there was not a single shred of evidence suggesting that Wilson targeted Brown based on race; never mind that Brown matched the description of the robbery suspect because he was the robbery suspect; never mind that Brown attacked an officer twice. No, this was a pre-ordained narrative for the media: white racist police officer strikes down young black unarmed man. The result of that overwrought and outright false media-generated controversy: extended riots in Ferguson.

The story beat the facts. So the media ran with the story.

So did President Obama. In 2013, Obama told America that Trayvon Martin could have been his son; in this case, Obama told the United Nations that riots in Ferguson represented America’s nasty racial legacy.

As the grand jury verdict neared release, the media built up the story. We were warned of riots if Wilson escaped indictment; Erin Burnett of CNN said that such a verdict would be the “nuclear option.” Nancy Grace of Court TV helpfully added that Michael Brown’s height did not “mean he was a violent teen.” And the Brown family attorney, Benjamin Crump, openly stated that the grand jury was corrupt, long before the verdict.

Predictably enough, the Michael Brown case fell apart the moment it hit the legal system. It turns out, as Robert McCulloch said, that evidence still trumps media hype in the legal system – at least sometimes.

Now the media, humiliated yet again, riot. Ezra Klein of Vox.com asked, with the legal insight of a mentally malfunctioning goldfish, whether Michael Brown had an advocate in the grand jury hearing (the answer: that’s not how grand juries work). Fellow non-lawyer Chris Hayes of MSNBC lamented that the grand jury procedure was “so far removed from normal criminal procedure it’s unrecognizable.” The New York Daily News considered this obscene first mock-up headline: “Killer Cop Goes Free.”

With the media breathlessly covering the riots they helped to stoke in Ferguson, rioters set the city aflame. Shots were fired; protesters threw batteries, rocks and bottles; stores were looted. The media feigned head-shaking rue. Meanwhile, President Obama explained that Americans who ignored all the evidence to convict Wilson were reacting in “understandable” fashion – because, as always, evidence means nothing the left when in conflict with feelings and perception of victimhood.

Truthfully, the angry and sullen reactions of those who wanted Wilson tried are understandable. They’re understandable because most Americans live in the evidence-free narrative created by malicious media liars, and the politicians they enable. They live in the evidence-free world of the political left, which maintains that America remains deeply racist, that every white cop is Bull Connor, and that every black man shot by police is a Selma marcher. So long as they live in that world, racial reconciliation will remain a dream, and racial polarization will remain a tool of the political and media elite to sell papers, raise cash, and drive votes.

[Catphish Tilly]

Necessity is the mother of invention.