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Offline elan

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Ferguson, MO
« on: August 12, 2014, 10:54:16 PM »
Anyone following this madness?

Where all the Republicans who talk about Police State and Constitutional Rights?


http://instagram.com/p/rn68uHEQUM/


On Twitter #Ferguson  #MichaelBrown
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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2014, 11:02:16 PM »
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Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2014, 01:45:10 AM »
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown

 ... is trending.

Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2014, 11:02:38 AM »
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Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2014, 11:49:56 AM »
USA or Middle East?





« Last Edit: August 13, 2014, 12:00:38 PM by elan »
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Offline ribbit

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2014, 06:22:15 PM »
I've heard and read less than 5 mins of coverage; the main point seem to be the looting. They didn't loot when Trayvon died. Anyway, heavy handed reactions that doh result in hundreds of casualties won't even make news these days. Plenty people getting killed in the world sad to say.

Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2014, 10:30:25 PM »
I've heard and read less than 5 mins of coverage; the main point seem to be the looting. They didn't loot when Trayvon died. Anyway, heavy handed reactions that doh result in hundreds of casualties won't even make news these days. Plenty people getting killed in the world sad to say.

The Police banned news media, journalists, low flying aircraft from that area. What you wrote is what they want you to think, but it's much more than that.

Read this vvvvv



Two reporters arrested in Ferguson, Mo.


Ferguson, Mo., police fired tear gas at demonstrators and arrested two reporters as the St. Louis suburb erupted for a fourth night after a police officer fatally shot an unarmed teen Saturday.

City officials had asked for calm, but police set up barricades and were out in force as the sun went down.

As a protest escalated, officers in riot gear moved in to close a McDonald's restaurant where reporters were writing and charging cellphones.

Reporters Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of The Huffington Post said on Twitter that police told them to stop recording the events, then took them into custody.

Reilly tweeted that police asked him for his ID when he took a photo. He said he and Lowery were arrested for "not packing their bags quick enough."

Lowery tweeted, "Officers slammed me into a fountain soda machine because I was confused about which door they were asking me to walk out of."

Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce tweeted that when he contacted Ferguson police Chief Thomas Jackson and asked about the arrests of the reporters, Jackson responded, "Oh God."

Pearce said he spoke to the chief a second time and Jackson said he asked the riot command to release the reporters.

The Post is "relieved that Wesley is going to be OK" and "appalled by the conduct of police officers involved," Washington Post editor Martin Baron said. "That behavior was wholly unwarranted and an assault on the freedom of the press to cover the news."

Lowery won the Emerging Journalist of the Year award at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists this month. NABJ President Bob Butler released a statement Wednesday night regarding the arrests.


"Journalists have a constitutionally protected right to work without the government interference," Butler said. "We call on -- and fully expect -- the authorities to investigate what appears to be a violation of the First Amendment and to hold the officers involved to account, if necessary."

Ryan Grin, Washington bureau chief of The Huffington Post, told Talking Points Memo, "This is what happens when local police are allowed to become para-military units."

Ferguson police could not immediately be reached Tuesday night.
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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2014, 10:35:43 PM »
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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2014, 10:42:06 PM »
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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2014, 10:47:25 PM »
Police Fires Tear gas at Al Jazeera TV Crew

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Offline Bakes

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2014, 08:43:02 AM »
The Police banned news media, journalists, low flying aircraft from that area. What you wrote is what they want you to think, but it's much more than that.

Read this vvvvv



Two reporters arrested in Ferguson, Mo.


Ferguson, Mo., police fired tear gas at demonstrators and arrested two reporters as the St. Louis suburb erupted for a fourth night after a police officer fatally shot an unarmed teen Saturday.

City officials had asked for calm, but police set up barricades and were out in force as the sun went down.

As a protest escalated, officers in riot gear moved in to close a McDonald's restaurant where reporters were writing and charging cellphones.

Reporters Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of The Huffington Post said on Twitter that police told them to stop recording the events, then took them into custody.

Reilly tweeted that police asked him for his ID when he took a photo. He said he and Lowery were arrested for "not packing their bags quick enough."

Lowery tweeted, "Officers slammed me into a fountain soda machine because I was confused about which door they were asking me to walk out of."

Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce tweeted that when he contacted Ferguson police Chief Thomas Jackson and asked about the arrests of the reporters, Jackson responded, "Oh God."

Pearce said he spoke to the chief a second time and Jackson said he asked the riot command to release the reporters.

The Post is "relieved that Wesley is going to be OK" and "appalled by the conduct of police officers involved," Washington Post editor Martin Baron said. "That behavior was wholly unwarranted and an assault on the freedom of the press to cover the news."

Lowery won the Emerging Journalist of the Year award at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists this month. NABJ President Bob Butler released a statement Wednesday night regarding the arrests.


"Journalists have a constitutionally protected right to work without the government interference," Butler said. "We call on -- and fully expect -- the authorities to investigate what appears to be a violation of the First Amendment and to hold the officers involved to account, if necessary."

Ryan Grin, Washington bureau chief of The Huffington Post, told Talking Points Memo, "This is what happens when local police are allowed to become para-military units."

Ferguson police could not immediately be reached Tuesday night.


The Washington Post's Reporter's version (with Video):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-ferguson-washington-post-reporter-wesley-lowery-gives-account-of-his-arrest/2014/08/13/0fe25c0e-2359-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html?hpid=z1

Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2014, 10:53:44 AM »
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Offline Toppa

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #12 on: August 14, 2014, 05:48:22 PM »
So what's the latest on the killing itself?
www.westindiantube.com

Check it out - it real bad!

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2014, 10:38:05 AM »
Ferguson police NAME officer who shot Michael Brown - but claim dead teen is primary suspect in 'strong-arm' robbery of store for a box of cigars just MINUTES before fatal confrontation

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2725917/Ferguson-police-Officer-Darren-Wilson-cop-shot-dead-unarmed-teenager-Michael-Brown.html#ixzz3ATlaE8eJ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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Offline ribbit

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2014, 12:38:01 PM »
steups
« Last Edit: August 15, 2014, 12:42:59 PM by ribbit »

Offline Deeks

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #15 on: August 16, 2014, 08:16:58 AM »
But seriously, the Black people  in Ferguson are either totally tolerant or totally dotish. Where in America will you find a municpality that 68% white but have the protective service that is 90%Black or  nonwhite, or the city council that is 90% Black or non-white.

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #16 on: August 16, 2014, 10:19:24 AM »
But seriously, the Black people  in Ferguson are either totally tolerant or totally dotish. Where in America will you find a municpality that 68% white but have the protective service that is 90%Black or  nonwhite, or the city council that is 90% Black or non-white.

It has to do with how many of them eligible and motivated to vote.  Read a comment elsewhere, not sure how true it is, that the median age among blacks is 28, and for whites it's 48.  An older more mature demographic is more likely to be politically involved.  Let's see how many participate after this.

Offline ribbit

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #17 on: August 16, 2014, 04:52:22 PM »
But seriously, the Black people  in Ferguson are either totally tolerant or totally dotish. Where in America will you find a municpality that 68% white but have the protective service that is 90%Black or  nonwhite, or the city council that is 90% Black or non-white.

It has to do with how many of them eligible and motivated to vote.  Read a comment elsewhere, not sure how true it is, that the median age among blacks is 28, and for whites it's 48.  An older more mature demographic is more likely to be politically involved.  Let's see how many participate after this.

We already see what happens when black people turn out to vote. They pick the blackest candidate and completely ignore policy.

Offline Deeks

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #18 on: August 16, 2014, 07:03:27 PM »
But seriously, the Black people  in Ferguson are either totally tolerant or totally dotish. Where in America will you find a municpality that 68% white but have the protective service that is 90%Black or  nonwhite, or the city council that is 90% Black or non-white.

It has to do with how many of them eligible and motivated to vote.  Read a comment elsewhere, not sure how true it is, that the median age among blacks is 28, and for whites it's 48.  An older more mature demographic is more likely to be politically involved.  Let's see how many participate after this.

We already see what happens when black people turn out to vote. They pick the blackest candidate and completely ignore policy.

True what you say, Bakes. And also the issue of deny voting rights to Blacks who have prison records. But Ribbit. Care to explain "they pick the blackest candidate and complete ignore" policy.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2014, 07:06:19 PM by Deeks »

Offline Bakes

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #19 on: August 16, 2014, 11:38:51 PM »
But Ribbit. Care to explain "they pick the blackest candidate and complete ignore" policy.

Doh study Ribbit... not like he ever know what he talking about.

Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #20 on: August 17, 2014, 03:53:26 PM »
steups

Ribbit, so what happen if he tief cigars?
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Offline ribbit

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #21 on: August 17, 2014, 03:55:39 PM »
But seriously, the Black people  in Ferguson are either totally tolerant or totally dotish. Where in America will you find a municpality that 68% white but have the protective service that is 90%Black or  nonwhite, or the city council that is 90% Black or non-white.

It has to do with how many of them eligible and motivated to vote.  Read a comment elsewhere, not sure how true it is, that the median age among blacks is 28, and for whites it's 48.  An older more mature demographic is more likely to be politically involved.  Let's see how many participate after this.

We already see what happens when black people turn out to vote. They pick the blackest candidate and completely ignore policy.

True what you say, Bakes. And also the issue of deny voting rights to Blacks who have prison records. But Ribbit. Care to explain "they pick the blackest candidate and complete ignore" policy.

Let's instead spend some time on the under examined reaction to the killing: rioting and looting. Who else does this? Those that don't own businesses or have any stake in the security of their community. Business ownership and representation on the Police (and other civic roles with responsibility) don't have political answers but guarantee political palliatives will be happily swallowed by the black "community ". In fact it's clear from your comments you favour a political response no matter how meaningless it will ultimately prove.

And no I will not "explain" these comments; they're plain enough.]


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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #22 on: August 17, 2014, 05:49:41 PM »
You should probably spend more time examining and appreciating who it is doing the looting before yuh comment next time.

Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #23 on: August 17, 2014, 08:42:51 PM »
But seriously, the Black people  in Ferguson are either totally tolerant or totally dotish. Where in America will you find a municpality that 68% white but have the protective service that is 90%Black or  nonwhite, or the city council that is 90% Black or non-white.

It has to do with how many of them eligible and motivated to vote.  Read a comment elsewhere, not sure how true it is, that the median age among blacks is 28, and for whites it's 48.  An older more mature demographic is more likely to be politically involved.  Let's see how many participate after this.

We already see what happens when black people turn out to vote. They pick the blackest candidate and completely ignore policy.

True what you say, Bakes. And also the issue of deny voting rights to Blacks who have prison records. But Ribbit. Care to explain "they pick the blackest candidate and complete ignore" policy.

Let's instead spend some time on the under examined reaction to the killing: rioting and looting. Who else does this? Those that don't own businesses or have any stake in the security of their community. Business ownership and representation on the Police (and other civic roles with responsibility) don't have political answers but guarantee political palliatives will be happily swallowed by the black "community ". In fact it's clear from your comments you favour a political response no matter how meaningless it will ultimately prove.

And no I will not "explain" these comments; they're plain enough.]



I think is either yuh misinformed, uninformed on the Ferguson situation, or just found an opportunity to spout this rhetoric.
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Offline asylumseeker

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #24 on: August 18, 2014, 05:19:19 AM »
In Ferguson, Black Town, White Power

POLITICS, wrote the political scientist Harold Lasswell in 1936, is about “who gets what, when, and how.” If you want to understand the racial power disparities we’ve seen in Ferguson, Mo., understand that it’s not only about black and white. It’s about green.

Back in 1876, the city of St. Louis made a fateful decision. Tired of providing services to the outlying areas, the city cordoned itself off, separating from St. Louis County. It’s a decision the city came to regret. Most Rust Belt cities have bled population since the 1960s, but few have been as badly damaged as St. Louis City, which since 1970 has lost almost as much of its population as Detroit.

This exodus has left a ring of mostly middle-class suburbs around an urban core plagued by entrenched poverty. White flight from the city mostly ended in the 1980s; since then, blacks have left the inner city for suburbs such as Ferguson in the area of St. Louis County known as North County.
   
Ferguson’s demographics have shifted rapidly: in 1990, it was 74 percent white and 25 percent black; in 2000, 52 percent black and 45 percent white; by 2010, 67 percent black and 29 percent white.

The region’s fragmentation isn’t limited to the odd case of a city shedding its county. St. Louis County contains 90 municipalities, most with their own city hall and police force. Many rely on revenue generated from traffic tickets and related fines. According to a study by the St. Louis nonprofit Better Together, Ferguson receives nearly one-quarter of its revenue from court fees; for some surrounding towns it approaches 50 percent.

Municipal reliance on revenue generated from traffic stops adds pressure to make more of them. One town, Sycamore Hills, has stationed a radar-gun-wielding police officer on its 250-foot northbound stretch of Interstate.

With primarily white police forces that rely disproportionately on traffic citation revenue, blacks are pulled over, cited and arrested in numbers far exceeding their population share, according to a recent report from Missouri’s attorney general. In Ferguson last year, 86 percent of stops, 92 percent of searches and 93 percent of arrests were of black people — despite the fact that police officers were far less likely to find contraband on black drivers (22 percent versus 34 percent of whites). This worsens inequality, as struggling blacks do more to fund local government than relatively affluent whites.

By contrast, consider the city: After decades of methodically building political power, blacks in St. Louis City elected a black mayor in 1993 and black aldermen or alderwomen in nearly half the city’s wards, and hold two of three seats on the powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which must approve all city contracts. Well-established churches, Democratic ward organizations and other civic institutions mobilize voters in black wards. But because blacks have reached the suburbs in significant numbers only over the past 15 years or so, fewer suburban black communities have deeply ingrained civic organizations.

That helps explain why majority-black Ferguson has a virtually all-white power structure: a white mayor; a school board with six white members and one Hispanic, which recently suspended a highly regarded young black superintendent who then resigned; a City Council with just one black member; and a 6 percent black police force.


Many North County towns — and inner-ring suburbs nationally — resemble Ferguson. Longtime white residents have consolidated power, continuing to dominate the City Councils and school boards despite sweeping demographic change. They have retained control of patronage jobs and municipal contracts awarded to allies.

The North County Labor Club, whose overwhelmingly white constituent unions (plumbers, pipe fitters, electrical workers, sprinkler fitters) have benefited from these arrangements, operates a potent voter-turnout operation that backs white candidates over black upstarts. The more municipal contracts an organization receives, the more generously it can fund re-election campaigns. Construction, waste and other long-term contracts with private firms have traditionally excluded blacks from the ownership side and, usually, the work force as well.

But there’s a potential solution that could help Ferguson reinvest in itself and also help African-Americans compete for a bigger share of the pie: consolidation with surrounding municipalities, many of which face similar challenges. The St. Louis region has seen some preliminary support for the idea, with resistance concentrated in smaller political units whose leaders are loath to surrender control.

Consolidation would help strapped North County communities avoid using such a high percentage of their resources for expensive public safety overhead, such as fire trucks. It could also empower the black citizens of Ferguson. Blacks incrementally gained power in St. Louis City in part because its size facilitates broader coalitions and alliances. Another benefit of consolidation is the increased political talent pool. Many leaders just aren’t interested in running a tiny municipality.

In shrinking cities, politics is often a nasty, zero-sum game. But consolidation could create economies of scale, increase borrowing capacity to expand economic opportunity, reduce economic pressures that inflame racial tension, and smash up the old boys’ network that has long ruled much of North County.

When the state patrol and the national television cameras leave Ferguson, its residents will still be talking about how they can move forward. And they may be ready to expand the conversation so that it’s not just about black and white, but green.

Jeff Smith is an assistant professor of urban policy at the New School and a former Missouri state senator from St. Louis.

(Source: New York Times Op-Ed)
« Last Edit: August 18, 2014, 05:24:50 AM by asylumseeker »

Offline Controversial

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #25 on: August 18, 2014, 08:16:24 AM »
In Ferguson, Black Town, White Power

POLITICS, wrote the political scientist Harold Lasswell in 1936, is about “who gets what, when, and how.” If you want to understand the racial power disparities we’ve seen in Ferguson, Mo., understand that it’s not only about black and white. It’s about green.

Back in 1876, the city of St. Louis made a fateful decision. Tired of providing services to the outlying areas, the city cordoned itself off, separating from St. Louis County. It’s a decision the city came to regret. Most Rust Belt cities have bled population since the 1960s, but few have been as badly damaged as St. Louis City, which since 1970 has lost almost as much of its population as Detroit.

This exodus has left a ring of mostly middle-class suburbs around an urban core plagued by entrenched poverty. White flight from the city mostly ended in the 1980s; since then, blacks have left the inner city for suburbs such as Ferguson in the area of St. Louis County known as North County.
   
Ferguson’s demographics have shifted rapidly: in 1990, it was 74 percent white and 25 percent black; in 2000, 52 percent black and 45 percent white; by 2010, 67 percent black and 29 percent white.

The region’s fragmentation isn’t limited to the odd case of a city shedding its county. St. Louis County contains 90 municipalities, most with their own city hall and police force. Many rely on revenue generated from traffic tickets and related fines. According to a study by the St. Louis nonprofit Better Together, Ferguson receives nearly one-quarter of its revenue from court fees; for some surrounding towns it approaches 50 percent.

Municipal reliance on revenue generated from traffic stops adds pressure to make more of them. One town, Sycamore Hills, has stationed a radar-gun-wielding police officer on its 250-foot northbound stretch of Interstate.

With primarily white police forces that rely disproportionately on traffic citation revenue, blacks are pulled over, cited and arrested in numbers far exceeding their population share, according to a recent report from Missouri’s attorney general. In Ferguson last year, 86 percent of stops, 92 percent of searches and 93 percent of arrests were of black people — despite the fact that police officers were far less likely to find contraband on black drivers (22 percent versus 34 percent of whites). This worsens inequality, as struggling blacks do more to fund local government than relatively affluent whites.

By contrast, consider the city: After decades of methodically building political power, blacks in St. Louis City elected a black mayor in 1993 and black aldermen or alderwomen in nearly half the city’s wards, and hold two of three seats on the powerful Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which must approve all city contracts. Well-established churches, Democratic ward organizations and other civic institutions mobilize voters in black wards. But because blacks have reached the suburbs in significant numbers only over the past 15 years or so, fewer suburban black communities have deeply ingrained civic organizations.

That helps explain why majority-black Ferguson has a virtually all-white power structure: a white mayor; a school board with six white members and one Hispanic, which recently suspended a highly regarded young black superintendent who then resigned; a City Council with just one black member; and a 6 percent black police force.


Many North County towns — and inner-ring suburbs nationally — resemble Ferguson. Longtime white residents have consolidated power, continuing to dominate the City Councils and school boards despite sweeping demographic change. They have retained control of patronage jobs and municipal contracts awarded to allies.

The North County Labor Club, whose overwhelmingly white constituent unions (plumbers, pipe fitters, electrical workers, sprinkler fitters) have benefited from these arrangements, operates a potent voter-turnout operation that backs white candidates over black upstarts. The more municipal contracts an organization receives, the more generously it can fund re-election campaigns. Construction, waste and other long-term contracts with private firms have traditionally excluded blacks from the ownership side and, usually, the work force as well.

But there’s a potential solution that could help Ferguson reinvest in itself and also help African-Americans compete for a bigger share of the pie: consolidation with surrounding municipalities, many of which face similar challenges. The St. Louis region has seen some preliminary support for the idea, with resistance concentrated in smaller political units whose leaders are loath to surrender control.

Consolidation would help strapped North County communities avoid using such a high percentage of their resources for expensive public safety overhead, such as fire trucks. It could also empower the black citizens of Ferguson. Blacks incrementally gained power in St. Louis City in part because its size facilitates broader coalitions and alliances. Another benefit of consolidation is the increased political talent pool. Many leaders just aren’t interested in running a tiny municipality.

In shrinking cities, politics is often a nasty, zero-sum game. But consolidation could create economies of scale, increase borrowing capacity to expand economic opportunity, reduce economic pressures that inflame racial tension, and smash up the old boys’ network that has long ruled much of North County.

When the state patrol and the national television cameras leave Ferguson, its residents will still be talking about how they can move forward. And they may be ready to expand the conversation so that it’s not just about black and white, but green.

Jeff Smith is an assistant professor of urban policy at the New School and a former Missouri state senator from St. Louis.

(Source: New York Times Op-Ed)

good article seeker  :beermug:

Offline elan

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #26 on: August 18, 2014, 10:44:58 AM »
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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #27 on: August 19, 2014, 02:26:18 PM »
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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #28 on: August 22, 2014, 12:40:28 PM »
Black America and the burden of the perfect victim

By Touré August 22 at 11:15 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/black-america-and-the-burden-of-the-perfect-victim/2014/08/22/30318ec2-27d1-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html


An information war is being waged in Ferguson, Mo., each salvo meant to shape public perceptions of Michael Brown and Darren Wilson.

Through this war we’ve learned that the 18-year-old Brown had marijuana in his system when he was killed, suggesting he was of poor character, and that police officer Wilson shot Brown six times, a use of force that could seem reckless or excessive. We’ve been told that Brown was a “gentle giant”who would have started attending classes at a technical college this month, but we’ve also seen a grainy convenience-store video in which he does not look gentle. We have seen a video of Wilson receiving an award, looking professional and happy, but we’ve also heard about him cursing at a Ferguson woman who had been maced, weeks before the town began to burn.

Such snippets and images are efforts to shape public opinion about these men. They could influence St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch as he weighs whether to bring charges against Wilson. They could also influence the potential jury pool, showing prejudicial evidence that may not be admissible at trial.

In an information war, the news media is deployed as a weapon, our collective mind becomes a battlefield, and biases are land mines waiting to explode.

I feel confident stating that neither Brown nor Wilson is an angel — because no one is. But that doesn’t matter, because the two men have been reduced to symbols. Information wars suggest that character is destiny and that character is knowable, as if a handful of snapshots or tweets constitute an autopsy of the soul. They are waged in all kinds of legal battles, from civil suits to contract negotiations to public divorces.

But when there’s a black victim involved, the information takes a different and predictable turn: The victim becomes thuggified. This is an easy leap for many minds, given the widespread expectation of black criminality. If you become nervous when you see a young black male approaching on the street, it is not hard to convince you that a kid who was shot was not one of the “good ones,” that he was scary and maybe did something to deserve it. Information wars thrive on America’s empathy gap — the way some people struggle to see any kinship or shared humanity with strangers who don’t look like them.

So after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012, people were told that he had been suspended from school, that he had written graffiti, that he had smoked marijuana. As a result, many saw him as a thug — even though many non-thugs have been suspended from school or gotten high, and those are not violent acts. More important, none of that sheds any light on what happened the night George Zimmerman shot him.

In 2009, after 22-year-old Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a police officer named Johannes Mehserle while he was restrained at a BART station in Oakland, Calif., we learned that, three years earlier, Grant ran from officers after a traffic stop. Similarly, in 1991, after Rodney King was beaten by several Los Angeles police officers, we came to know that 63 days earlier, he was paroled after a robbery conviction.

Did such facts justify Grant’s death or King’s pain? Of course not. But they subtly signal that these guys aren’t good guys. It’s as if a black person must be a perfect victim in order to escape being thuggified, an angel with an unblemished history in order to warrant justice. The burden of the perfect victim suggests that only impeccable résumés may qualify for protection under the law and the support of the community.

We all remember Rosa Parks and how she earned sainthood status within America’s civil rights mythology: On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., and became an icon. But Parks was not the first to defy the rules. Nine months earlier, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. In aninterview last year with Democracy Now, Colvin said that when the cops arrived and ordered her to get up, “it felt like Sojourner Truth’s hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman’s hands were pushing me down on another shoulder, and I could not move.”

So they pulled her up and jailed her. Colvin sued and became one of the five plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, a desegregation case that would reach the Supreme Court. In November 1956, the court ordered the end of bus segregation in Alabama. Parks was not involved in that suit.

But Colvin did not become an icon of the civil rights movement. In a March 2009 interview, she told NPR that civil rights leaders at the time thought Parks would be a better symbol for the movement. Parks “was an adult,” Colvin said. “They didn’t think teenagers would be reliable.” She also speculated that Parks had the right look for the part. “Her skin texture was the kind that people associate with the middle class. She fit that profile.” By “texture,” she meant color, politely tapping into deep and painful associations between light-colored skin and acceptability.

Also, shortly after her arrest, Colvin became pregnant. She gave birth the same month as Parks’s historic arrest. It’s clear why the civil rights leaders did not want to coalesce around an unmarried teen mother. She was not a perfect victim. Her life and image could have distracted from the message. I understand that there was a movement to shepherd and that the wrong standard-bearer could have kneecapped it.

But when individuals arrive in the court of public opinion, or in a court of law, the burden of being a perfect victim in order to receive justice is impossibly heavy. It doesn’t allow for human fallibility. Is there any information from your past that could make you look bad? Any photo that, taken out of context, could portray you as someone you don’t recognize?

Most of us have something in our pasts we would not want revealed. And for black Americans, those facts too often are used to suggest that victims of injustice don’t deserve justice, because they weren’t some sort of credit to their race. In a nation where police often approach black communities with a dragnet, stopping and frisking everyone, marking as many black men as possible with a record, it would be hard to find a black male who looks like an angel.

But it doesn’t matter whether Brown was an angel. He was young and growing and human, and he made mistakes. That’s okay. The real question is not: Was Brown a good kid? The real question is: How are police officers supposed to treat citizens? California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, has put it well: “Our penal code was not created just to protect Snow White.”

Michael Brown was not perfect. But few of us are. And that does not speak to whether we deserve to die.
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Offline ribbit

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Re: Ferguson, MO
« Reply #29 on: August 22, 2014, 01:37:24 PM »
If you were to give advice to a hypothetical young black man if they should run from police during a confrontation, what would the answer be?

 

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