State of Emergency Declared In Ferguson: It's Back...

[Paul in Saudi]

So has the "no gun" thing been proved? At this point, you are my main news source on this.

 

[Gary Childress]

Apparently some bozos with rifles are walking around "keeping the peace." They call themselves The Oath Keepers, a vigilante militia opposed to the federal government who claim to defend the Constitution.

I just Googled them and I have no idea how many people subscribe to them, however, I think some people (and obviously "Oath Keepers" at the top of the list) really need to take a "chill pill" and come to grips with reality. All they are going to do is get themselves and any other innocent bystanders around them hurt. Private citizens walking down the middle of the street with a rifle is a recipe for disaster no matter how you cut it. First off, no one knows what the intentions are of the guy carrying the rifle? Is he "protecting the constitution" or is he about to walk into the neighborhood playground or movie theater and take out his frustrations. I say take the rifle away from him before he causes harm. Of course if you try to do that you are going against his 2nd amendment rights and he'll have to resist according to his "oath".

EDITED...

 

[Formaldehyde]

Apparently some bozos with rifles are walking around "keeping the peace." They call themselves The Oath Keepers, a vigilante militia opposed to the federal government who claim to defend the Constitution.

They were ostensibly there to "protect" an Infowars "journalist":

Heavily armed 'Oath Keepers' inject new unease to riot-hit Ferguson

So has the "no gun" thing been proved? At this point, you are my main news source on this.

The police are claiming he was armed with a 9mm handgun from a burglary.

Suspect in Ferguson shooting used gun reported stolen in Cape

But the father still maintains his son was trying to run from the shooters to to police for protection. Of course, none of the police involved were wearing body cameras. And the county police chief was critical that plainclothes detectives were even there.

There are reports that 40-50 shots were fired.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Imagine if The Oath Keepers were young black men carrying those weapons around. They wouldn't even make it out the front door before surrounded by authorities.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Of course, none of the police involved were wearing body cameras.

This is the worst indictment of the FPD to date. They had body cameras for the entire force, donated no less, before the incident last year, but had not put them into service. How they can justify having cops on the street without them at this point is truly beyond guessing unless they just do not want to produce evidence.

 

[useless]

Imagine if The Oath Keepers were young black men carrying those weapons around. They wouldn't even make it out the front door before surrounded by authorities.

They would be "thugs" of course

 

[EgonSpengler]

Imagine if The Oath Keepers were young black men carrying those weapons around. They wouldn't even make it out the front door before surrounded by authorities.

"There’s no reason why, on the street today, a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons."
- Ronald Reagan, Governor of California, May, 1967.

For those who don't take deep dives into US history, Gov. Reagan was responding to the assertion of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, founders of the Black Panther Party. The Mulford Act, which Gov. Reagan signed into law in May of '67, restricted the carrying of guns in public, and I think is still the law in California today.

 

[amadeus]

State of emergency declared in Ferguson

It seems like a knee-jerk reaction to me which is quite similar to the last time.

I agree; why are some people so quick to defend a petty thief who lunged at a cop?

 

[Formaldehyde]

So I'm sure you can show how that directly led to an immediate state of emergency being declared. Right?

And for the record, you have no problem at all with a cop executing yet another black who supposedly "lunged" at him?

 

[amadeus]

So I'm sure you can show how that directly led to an immediate state of emergency being declared. Right?

And for the record, you have no problem at all with a cop executing someone who supposedly "lunged" at him?

Why did the protests turn violent in the first place?

No? What do you expect to happen if you try and run from a cop, punch him, and then turn around and run back at him? If it was an equally stupid white person who did this I'd say the same thing.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Do you think it might have something at all to do with the absurdly silly overreaction? The intentional non-response to potential looting?

Video shows Missouri police officer threatening to kill a journalist

Spoiler :

And even given that it occurred as you claim, which is highly dubious, the cop still could have used his taser. He could have even shot him in the leg instead of wildly spraying him with bullets.

Do you think it is a coincidence that so many blacks and other minorities are executed by cops while very few whites are?

 

[Bugfatty300]

"There’s no reason why, on the street today, a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons."
- Ronald Reagan, Governor of California, May, 1967.

For those who don't take deep dives into US history, Gov. Reagan was responding to the assertion of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, founders of the Black Panther Party. The Mulford Act, which Gov. Reagan signed into law in May of '67, restricted the carrying of guns in public, and I think is still the law in California today.

Yep. A lot of anti-gun laws in the US have racist origins.

 

[amadeus]

What's dubious about it? Mixed-race and black witnesses alike saw it and testified. Wilson was cleared.

No, it's not a coincidence. Areas with high black and Hispanic populations tend to have higher reported crime rates and thus higher rates of police patrols. That means more confrontations with black/Hispanic suspects.

 

[Formaldehyde]

What's dubious about it? Mixed-race and black witnesses alike saw it and testified. Wilson was cleared.

The eyewitness accounts were clearly in both directions instead of "alike". To claim otherwise is disingenuous. And Wilson was "cleared" because there was insufficient evidence to find him culpable. And yet Ferguson cops still all don't wear body cameras.

No, it's not a coincidence. Areas with high black and Hispanic populations tend to have higher reported crime rates and thus higher rates of police patrols. That means more confrontations with black/Hispanic suspects.

That is no excuse for them to be peremptorily executed in so many cases.

5 black crime myths: Which ones did you believe?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The eyewitness accounts were clearly in both directions instead of "alike". To claim otherwise is disingenuous. And Wilson was "cleared" because there was insufficient evidence to find him culpable. And yet Ferguson cops still all don't wear body cameras.

That is no excuse for them to be peremptorily executed in so many cases.

Wilson was cleared because the prosecutor blatantly threw the case, as he has done every time a cop has been accused of a crime in his jurisdiction. Whether the case could have been made had the prosecutor shown the interest he shows in convicting every black person he prosecutes is an open question.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Well, to be fair the FBI came to the same conclusion. But it was really due to lack of evidence and conflicting witness testimony. It is much like claiming that George Zimmerman was completely cleared for his stalking and execution of Trayvon Martin.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Well, to be fair the FBI came to the same conclusion. But it was really due to lack of evidence and conflicting witness testimony. It is much like claiming that George Zimmerman was completely cleared for his stalking and execution of Trayvon Martin.

There is no question that Bob McCulluch has gotten hundreds, if not thousands, of convictions in far weaker cases. The fact that he failed to get an indictment resulted from abusive misuse of the grand jury system, not lack of evidence.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Well, I would agree there was apparently sufficient evidence to get an indictment. That Bob McCulloch completely failed to properly perform his job. But the Attorney General also decided there was insufficient evidence to support an indictment of their own on different grounds. Not to mention that juries are incredibly reticent to find police officers guilty under even the best circumstances.

The justice system in the US is clearly failing due to systemic institutional racism. And it doesn't bother many authoritarian conservatives one bit.

 

[Oruc]

Imagine if The Oath Keepers were young black men carrying those weapons around. They wouldn't even make it out the front door before surrounded by authorities.

As I understand it they're a militia, you people usually harp on about the amendment referring to militias only having guns. But confronted with a militia you still complain, guess your kind is full of crap as usual.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The justice system in the US is clearly failing due to systemic institutional racism.

+1

This is why I'm not all fired up about individual guys like Wilson. He's just another brick in the wall. Heck, a cop who genuinely wants to be a good person and help his or her community is probably screwed in a lot of places, and should find another line of work before they have to decide whether to back up a colleague who just gunned down someone who didn't deserve it. Be a firefighter or a school teacher instead.