Show of military force fails to quell accusations of police overreaction

[james_davis_nicoll]

Nothing that happened in Ferguson, Missouri, on the fourth night since Michael Brown died at the hands of a police officer there, dispelled the notion that this is a place where law enforcement is capable of gross overreaction.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

1960s

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not like this sort of thing is part of a larger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer) pattern. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot)

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Could say 1860s as readily. It's a demand for submission without context or limit.

I'm getting round to the view that there should be no male police officers, no white polite officers, and no male judges for the next couple hundred years.

[drcuriosity]

Some relevant reading:
http://www.newsweek.com/how-americas-police-became-army-1033-program-264537

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

There's an entire book on the subject:

www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-Cop-Militarization-Americas/dp/1610392116/

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers

[avitzur.livejournal.com]

"St Louis PD relieved of duty. All of them."

[david wilford (from livejournal.com)]

When the Republican National Convention was held in downtown St. Paul back in 2008, there was also police overreaction:

http://rnc08report.org/archive/712.shtml

Some of my friends were caught up in it as well:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/09/02/582875/-xxx-789-0443#

So yeah, they're more than capable of it.

[justphoenix.livejournal.com]

I apologize on behalf of the entire country :( not that it makes anything better for the Ferguson residents

[david wilford (from livejournal.com)]

When all you have is armored cars and machine guns, every protest looks like a banzai charge.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ferguson-missouri-militarized-police-1033-program

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I saw one of the armored trucks labeled St Charles, which is a small town pretty close to Ferguson. My mom's family is from the area and when I was growing up in the late 70s, St Charles was just getting its second high school. Now they've got armed trucks and heavy military grade weaponry.

I cannot wrap my head around this.

The reasons and the logic and the history make sense, but I'm still just overwhelmed at the very idea of it.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

I saw someone comment that had the police simply not shown up at the protests (or maybe had a regular-uniformed officer in a car simply watching just in case there was a legitimate crime) this would have likely blown over in a day or two and certainly not be receiving the international media attention it has.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Well, sure, but the point isn't to avoid civil unrest; the point is to maintain the police's right to arbitrarily kill black people. If they wanted to avoid civil unrest the police wouldn't be acting like that.

The meta-problem is that you've got a bunch of police who only feel safe if they can just kill random citizens, which is a major social failure. (And pretty obviously not the black citizen's social failure.)

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Looks like Governor Jay Nixon has just relieved St Louis County Police and District Attorney of their duty and is sending in State Police and Federal officials to put a stop to all of this. We'll see how well it goes.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/14/1321549/-Missouri-Governor-announces-St-Louis-County-Police-to-be-relieved-of-their-duties-in-Ferguson

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Next step, martial law and the National Guard?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Wesley Lowery says the state police are doing much, much better:

https://twitter.com/wesleylowery

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

The POTUS is supposed to be making a statement about ... something ... in a few minutes.

Iraq? Gaza? Ferguson?

All of the above? None of the above?

Love, C.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

http://www.shakesville.com/2014/08/president-obama-on-ferguson.html has a transcript of the Ferguson portion.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I'm suspecting the killer cop has some dirt on higher ups, and threatened to squeal if held accountable for his actions.

If I were Obama, I'd tell those local cops that the feds are going to have every one of them under a microscope now. Call in the FBI and IRS, go over everything with a fine tooth comb.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

If you believe the higher ups need to be blackmailed to cover up this sort of thing, you're living in a dream world.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

Nah. The police issued a statement that was just a prettied-up version of "you people better not be seen outside after sundown," so I think we can safely assume that there's what I will politely call an "old South attitude" at work here. No dirt on superiors is necessary.

[(Anonymous)]

Remember when seeing well-armed paramilitary police meant you were in a third-world dictatorship?

Come to that, remember when not making eye contact and obeying all orders immediately meant you were behind the Iron Curtain?

[jwgh]

Nate DiMeo of 'The Memory Palace' posted this three and a half minute bit of audio last month: http://thememorypalace.us/2014/07/weve-forgotten-james-powell/

I've been playing it many times these last few days.

[tandw.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in England, Sir James Peel is spinning in his grave.

[jsburbidge.livejournal.com]

Robert.

[dharawal.livejournal.com]

I was watching the live feed and I have to say if I was in Ferguson, I would be actively terrified and trying like hell to get my family away from the area. The police had better equipment than most of our Australian soldiers on the front line in Afghanistan.


That's god damned scary

[timgueguen.livejournal.com]

There have been a number of US soldiers/ex soldiers online who have said the same thing, that some of the cops are packing more gear than they did in combat zones in Iraq They've also said that cops in Ferguson are behaving in ways they wouldn't have been allowed to.