Rampant Police Brutality and Media censorship in Ferguson Missouri

[Ratty]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/15/statement-from-michael-browns-family-and-attorneys-beyond-outraged/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

From the Brown families legal representation.

Michael Brown?s family is beyond outraged at the devious way the police chief has chosen to disseminate piece mil information in a manner intended to assassinate the character of their son, following such a brutal assassination of his person in broad daylight.

There is nothing based on the facts that have been placed before us that can justify the execution style murder of their child by this police officer as he held his hands up, which is the universal sign of surrender.

The prolonged release of the officer?s name and then the subsequent alleged information regarding a robbery is the reason why the family and the local community have such distrust for the local law enforcement agencies.

It is no way transparent to release the still photographs alleged to be Michael Brown and refuse to release the photographs of the officer that executed him.

The police strategy of attempting to blame the victim will not divert our attention, from being focused on the autopsy, ballistics report and the trajectory of the bullets that caused Michael?s death and will demonstrate to the world this brutal execution of an unarmed teenager.

Indeed, it will be interesting to see what the autopsy/ballistics report shows. Particularly if it's analyzed by the FBI.

 

[Majinash]

So it looks like the Ferguson Police Force can't even make a convincing cover story

That isn't skeptical, that's sarcastic dismissal. The tumblr post had pretty much zero interesting assertions, he seemed to misunderstand everything he read (or chose not to read) or straight up post incorrect information. He can name the exact item stolen (swisher sweets) but then states the amount listed was $2.50 when the report clearly states it was worth $48.99. His interesting assertion of "So how did Officer Wilson FIND OUT about the robbery" is clearly answered in the report where the responding officer states he radioed the description of the suspect. He even lists the time between the robbery and the shooting as "moments" which is clearly not true.

The irony of the statement that the police are trying to vilify Michael Brown in a post that could be summed up as "vilify the police" is painful.

We have seen: The Ferguson Police Fire on non-violent protestors. Fire tear gas at journalists. Arrest and detain reporters without charge. And we know they've fired tear gas at a group that included a state senator. I very much doubt she was among a violent crowd of looters when that happened.

Your post is incredibly misleading. The one good point you make (Firing tear gas at journalists) is buried in misinformation. The Journalists were arrested under the charge of trespassing, after a ridiculous number of warnings. The police fired non-lethal weapons (the term "fired on" without another qualifying statement implies normal bullets, at least here in St. Louis) on violent protestors (because throwing rocks and bricks and Molotov cocktails at police is non-violent?) And they fired a LOT of teargas, at many different groups. Just because they weren't looting doesn't mean they were non violent. All it takes is 1 or 2 people in a crowd attacking the police for the crowd to seem violent.

The point is that you yourself complain about the lack of transparency and yet when they do release information, you meet their information with dismissal.

For anyone who wants to actually read the incident report I found this Washington post link [http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/ferguson-police-department-incident-report-on-aug-9-robbery/1256/] that has the pages. They are a bit confusing due to the redacted information but it even includes the pictures. The dispatch recording I found was the one posted by Anonymous on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-HkNxxLvSA] and wasn't very helpful.

I'm sorry if I seem blunt but I'm really just tired of these witch hunts.


EDIT: and of course the family attorney is just doing his job. If that quote was about any other topic escapist posters would tear it apart for the flawed logic, straw-man argument and the dozen other things wrong with it.

 

[Ratty]

So it looks like the Ferguson Police Force can't even make a convincing cover story

That isn't skeptical, that's sarcastic dismissal. The tumblr post had pretty much zero interesting assertions, he seemed to misunderstand everything he read (or chose not to read) or straight up post incorrect information. He can name the exact item stolen (swisher sweets) but then states the amount listed was $2.50 when the report clearly states it was worth $48.99.

I think they said $2.50 for 2 sheets and a substantial amount were taken? I don't smoke so I don't really know. I am a bit dismissive but as I outlined the police haven't given any reason to trust them here, and plenty of reasons not to.

His interesting assertion of "So how did Officer Wilson FIND OUT about the robbery" is clearly answered in the report where the responding officer states he radioed the description of the suspect. He even lists the time between the robbery and the shooting as "moments" which is clearly not true.

The irony of the statement that the police are trying to vilify Michael Brown in a post that could be summed up as "vilify the police" is painful.

You're right there. But I think the police have done a pretty good job of vilifying themselves.

We have seen: The Ferguson Police Fire on non-violent protestors. Fire tear gas at journalists. Arrest and detain reporters without charge. And we know they've fired tear gas at a group that included a state senator. I very much doubt she was among a violent crowd of looters when that happened.

Your post is incredibly misleading. The one good point you make (Firing tear gas at journalists) is buried in misinformation. The Journalists were arrested under the charge of trespassing, after a ridiculous number of warnings. The police fired non-lethal weapons (the term "fired on" without another qualifying statement implies normal bullets, at least here in St. Louis) on violent protestors (because throwing rocks and bricks and Molotov cocktails at police is non-violent?) And they fired a LOT of teargas, at many different groups. Just because they weren't looting doesn't mean they were non violent. All it takes is 1 or 2 people in a crowd attacking the police for the crowd to seem violent.

None of the people in the video linked earlier in the thread were throwing things at police before they fired tear gas, none that I saw. And again, I doubt that Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal was with a group of ruffians when she got gassed. This is at the very least a gross overuse of tear gas on non-violent civilians, which shows a general lack of concern on the part of this police department.

The point is that you yourself complain about the lack of transparency and yet when they do release information, you meet their information with dismissal.

I view it as hear-say until it can be corroborated by an outside source.

For anyone who wants to actually read the incident report I found this Washington post link [http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/ferguson-police-department-incident-report-on-aug-9-robbery/1256/] that has the pages. They are a bit confusing due to the redacted information but it even includes the pictures. The dispatch recording I found was the one posted by Anonymous on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-HkNxxLvSA] and wasn't very helpful.

I'm sorry if I seem blunt but I'm really just tired of these witch hunts.

Bluntness is good. I think we're both tired of this but it is not an incident that we should quietly let die. Like even if he did rob the store it wouldn't make it ok that he was shot while unarmed with his hands in the air, if that is indeed what happened.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/35B1D336021112295272240795648_23b5bbc8fec.2.1.16866296389575403351.mp4?versionId=lo29s1AIKcWQUXnGV8WIsyKbhfDtsljC

Police have apparently remilitarised in fergusson, the short peace is over apparently although looting is confirmed before the tear gas was deployed and i can only find one tear gas example. Its possible this is a reasonable response to the looting that is occuring.

Looting has begun again, and community members are taking it upon themselves to prevent it according to journalists:

Spoiler

So apparently police are mostly keeping to themselves and letting the community anger burn itself out.

https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery

For comprehensive coverage.

 

[Ratty]

So the crowds are stopping the looters while the re-militarized police sit back and do nothing. It does sound to me like the cops were hoping the looting would continue so they could throw their hands up and act like their previous violence was justified.

Someone made an image of the protestor throwing back one of the many tear gas cans that were fired at the protestors.

Strange you haven't seen this photo more places considering.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

The US is becoming a police state where only the extremely wealthy are free. And it's not happening slowly either. It's a very rapid occurrence. And for some reason there are still people who defend these fascist ideas that are being served to them in the media. The US is not a land of the free or the home of the brave. It's the land of the enslaved and unequal and home of the most fearful people on the planet. And the police treats regular people like enemies. Only the wealthy are protected by the law. I couldn't be happier that I moved to Europe. It's not even a question of if, but when will the US society completely collapse. Because this shit isn't sustainable in the long run. And I'm not talking just about the situation in Ferguson. That's but one example of a million things that are wrong with a country that should fuckin' know better.

So the crowds are stopping the looters while the re-militarized police sit back and do nothing.

In one of the videos you can hear one of the cops say "Bring it you fuckin' animals. Bring it!". These are the professionals that are supposed to be keeping the peace. But they can't wait to get a chance to use their weapons. They want to escalate the situation. They're not helping AT ALL.

 

[Erttheking]

So the crowds are stopping the looters while the re-militarized police sit back and do nothing. It does sound to me like the cops were hoping the looting would continue so they could throw their hands up and act like their previous violence was justified.

Someone made an image of the protestor throwing back one of the many tear gas cans that were fired at the protestors.

Strange you haven't seen this photo more places considering.

Funny thing. Apparently that guy isn't throwing tear gas at the police. He's just throwing it away from some kids who had been gassed. If you squint hard enough you should be able to see one of two of them on the left side of the picture.

 

[Vegosiux]

Okay, this is bad. Not only are those cops a bunch of racist tossers, they're also a bunch of complete bird-brains with zero foresight. The people policing themselves? That's commendable, but the fact it's necessary is just really bad.

Even if this ends, it's going to simmer. Whatever higher instance has the authority to intervene needs to do it fast, effectively, and especially in a way that will (slowly, painstakingly, and arduously, mind) restore the community trust. Otherwise, we're going to read about it soon again.

 

[B5Alpha]

http://news.yahoo.com/photos-fergus...police-award-earlier-this-year-021255893.html
Just my two cents. They gave the guy that started this an award, and I have no idea why. Reading through the whole article though, it's clear that the police chief has a "us against them" mentality, as he's working so hard to cover Wilson's ass.

 

[MrMan999]

The Ferguson Chief of Police is clearly a complete and utter moron. He had to have known that releasing the alleged robbery tapes would only make everyone everywhere angrier at them. What did he think would happen?

 

[Thyunda]

Rather closely resembles a UK police 'Land Rover'. Armoured 4x4s (unarmed) used in Northern Ireland, with good reason. When's the last terrorist organisation Ferguson endured? Why do they have that?

 

[Ratty]

So yeah the KKK are raising money for a reward for this "hero cop" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ferguson-riots-ku-klux-klan-raises-reward-for-officer-who-shot-unarmed-teen-michael-brown-9673385.html wonder why most of the news stateside seem to be ignoring this.

The Ferguson Chief of Police is clearly a complete and utter moron. He had to have known that releasing the alleged robbery tapes would only make everyone everywhere angrier at them. What did he think would happen?

The fact that the information has been so staggered is particularly appalling. "So he was a suspect in this robbery" let a day go by "but the cop who shot him when he was unarmed didn't know that."


Not so much in this thread, but I find the below image unfortunately true of the reaction the last day or so in a lot of places.

Spoiler

 

[EternallyBored]

Rather closely resembles a UK police 'Land Rover'. Armoured 4x4s (unarmed) used in Northern Ireland, with good reason. When's the last terrorist organisation Ferguson endured? Why do they have that?

They have it mostly because of the war on drugs and 9/11 which intensified various police departments desire for things like this. The 90's saw the authorization of various U.S. police departments to buy military surplus gear on the cheap. Both the police and military benefited from this as it allowed the military to get rid of surplus gear and the police could arm themselves both effectively and cheaply.

The police found it easy to justify to their local and state governments due to incidences like the Hollywood shootout in the 90's where the robbers were so heavily armored that the police had to confiscate rifles from a local hunting store to penetrate their vests, so large city cops began arming themselves with surplus military long rifles in order to compensate.

After 9/11, many police departments found themselves with massively increased budgets in order to find and fight potential terrorist plots, this lead to police departments using that money to buy things like military bomb disposal robots, and a lot of riot control gear, justified as necessary in case of rioting due to another 9/11 style event. The way government spending works also encourages this behavior as, if they don't spend the budget, then they lose it the next year, which encourages them to max out their budget as often as possible so that they receive the same amount of money next year.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan also left the U.S. military with a lot of surplus gear to sell off as pork hungry congressman pressured the military into buying and using items made in their districts, the military ended up with a lot of gear it didn't need, and sometimes, this political lobbying also often caused a shortage of gear they did need. The various police departments were the perfect target for selling that surplus gear, as well as offloading other specialty items for riot control and anti-terrorism, all sold on the paranoia and suspicion that developed after 9/11.

There was especially a period in the early 2000's where anti-riot gear was in fashion, so many new riot control methods and gear arrived on the back of 9/11 doomsday scenarios, and military needs for controlling civilians in the middle east, which is where police got things like those riot control sound systems that play ear-shattering noise to disperse crowds.

 

[Thyunda]

snip

Oh, no, I know how they got it and the reason they were able to, but I was asking in a more...moral sense. The Land Rovers show up in Northern Ireland because civil disturbances have resulted in explosions in the past. On that location. Somehow I doubt APCs would've done anything to prevent 9/11.

 

[EternallyBored]

snip

Oh, no, I know how they got it and the reason they were able to, but I was asking in a more...moral sense. The Land Rovers show up in Northern Ireland because civil disturbances have resulted in explosions in the past. On that location. Somehow I doubt APCs would've done anything to prevent 9/11.

Ah well, more likely, a lot of large city police departments justify it to themselves in order to keep their anti-terrorism/ drug war budgets. As I mentioned, U.S. government spending tends to take a "use it or lose it" line of thinking when it comes to budgeting, so these police departments received all this money after 9/11 by panicky paranoid politicians and voters, then they kept finding ways to spend that money so they wouldn't lose it, which is true enough, a lot of the small town police departments did lose most of that money because they couldn't justify spending it.

Some large town and city police departments were more ethical with their anti-terrorism budgets, I know our city police lost a lot of their extra budget because once they got the bomb disposal robots and some other random gear the police departments didn't think they needed the vehicles, so they mostly spent the money on sending police officers to training camps and seminars rather than gear. Ferguson seems to have taken their anti-terrorism budget and blown it all on gear.

It also probably depends on politicians putting pressure on various police departments to use gear produced in their states, the police get extra money and discounts, and the politicians and lobbyists responsible get nice kickbacks from the companies making all the gear.

So yeah, a lot of it likely comes down to greed and paranoia, some police departments probably were generally worried about the country falling apart after 9/11 and geared themselves accordingly, the main reason is still likely greed though, the country basically gave police departments a blank check and told them if they didn't spend the money then they wouldn't get it next year, so they just start buying anything they can possibly think they might want because the money might not be there next year. Like a kid in a candy store with their mother's credit card

A lot of this stuff after 9/11 is a pretty good example of why just throwing money at a problem doesn't always make it better.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Some helpful tips for anyone wishing to avoid getting in trouble with the police.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/tips-for-being-an-unarmed-black-teen,36697/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1efault

 

[omega 616]

Hey, I'm not American but whats the second amendment? Something about "you're allowed guns to defend yourself against a tyrannical government" or something? I'm not saying lets turn this into IRL COD buuuuut .....

I'm not sure what constitutes a tyrannical government but with spying on countries, spying on it's citizens and now being even more brutal than usual than shoot first and questions later or just straight up beatings and profilings.

I'm not saying march up to the steps of congress and piss on the lawns of the white house but I'd say that your government is pretty tyrannical.

 

[Something Amyss]

Hey, I'm not American but whats the second amendment? Something about "you're allowed guns to defend yourself against a tyrannical government" or something? I'm not saying lets turn this into IRL COD buuuuut .....

Black people arming themselves is part of what pushed California to its gun laws. The thought of black people owning guns is so scary that even Republican SuperJesus Ronald "Peace Be Upon Him" Reagan signed the open carry law.

The second amendment is largely used to ensure that white folks have access to guns. You know, to protect themselves from scary dark-skinned people.

 

[BOOM headshot65]

Just because there isnt enough gasoline on this fire yet.......

You think the police aren't too militarized? Look at this picture.

Nope. I dont see anything wrong with this picture. Nothing whatsoever. I dont see a problem with cops having armored cars, assault rifles, and bullet-proof vest (and I couldnt car less what color said vest are).

So needless to say: I side with the cops almost exclusively...including this one.