The nation is still aflame over the killings of two black men by police in seemingly non-threatening situations. This is as it should be but if you are reading this you will have to realize that I am guilty of exactly what I am ranting about in this piece, because none of us still know enough to be commenting about what happened and who is at fault, especially in the case of Michael Brown of Fergusson, Missouri.
What has happened, at least what we have been told has happened, is unacceptable. The killing’s of two unarmed men by police officers has raised the hackles of the nation. And it should.
But what about the rest of the country? How did this miasma of misinformation and conjecture get so far out of hand? Well, it started here in New York, with Al Sharpton, opening his mouth again, forgetting his own personal history and jumping blindly into the fray. Al is not the dumbest guy on the block, but it seems that when presented with an open mike or a live TV feed he is like a drunk with a bottle of Wild Turkey.
Not seeming to have learned anything from the affair, Tawanna Brawley, Al immediately buried himself in half-truths and complete falsehoods referring to the bully Brown as a gentle giant, murdered by ruthless cops. Then, of course the gentle giant was shown on video brutalizing a little guy one-third his size as he stole from the guy’s store. Then other guy, Garner, according to his wife, told her that he was fed up with the cops harassing him and wasn’t going to take it anymore. Did it ever occur to him to stop being a petty criminal and do some honest work for a living? Apparently not. But like Ted Cruz, Al has never been silenced by the truth. He will go on shouting into any open mike he can find, rabble rousing and causing trouble without having a clue as to what is really going on.
In that same regard, the rest of the media, because Al is now a member of the media, have all followed his lead. We have gotten 24/7 coverage of what is going on in Ferguson by every news station extent. MSNBC has wasted some of the best young talent on the air, by having them go over and over the same false leads, produced by regularly unreliable sources, all day every day. The fact of the matter is that our current news stance is to discuss all the details of a story before anyone actually knows whether or not they are even close to accurate.
We must have every incite, regardless of accuracy, immediately, not one minute later, and to accomplish this goal, which they never do, all the reporters replace knowledge with conjecture. Conjecture is the easiest information to obtain because every asshole in the world has an opinion, and while most of them have no real information on which to base said opinion, they all want to be on TV. The only thing accomplished by this kind of reporting, is to work the less intelligent members of the audience into a lather, which drives them into the streets where they do something even dumber than Brown or Garner or more dangerous than the cops that killed them.
When that happens we get the next big problem. We get the army instead of the police. Back after 911, when all the cowards in the country were panicking about a rag head invasion from countries that didn’t even have planes, the government decided to institute a brain dead program, referred to, as #1033, that would supply local police departments with the kind of weaponry and equipment they would need to repel the projected invading hordes.
Of course there were no invading hordes, so where did such a idiotic program get its momentum? Well, it was mainly from our failed drug wars and the DEA, with a definite push from the military industrial complex, the weapons manufacturers and local police departments that wanted to play soldier when they grew up.
It seems that the DEA had run into a couple of situations where they had actually been outgunned by drug gangs and this was such a startling situation that it had spread like wildfire across the law enforcement universe. Thusly small towns with ten or fifteen cops soon found themselves the proud owners of armored personnel carriers, anti-tank weapons, 20mm cannons, heavy duty machine guns and uniform equipment that made them look like video game star wars figures. Why would an urban police force wear camo? Because it makes them feel like real soldiers, raises the testosterone levels to overflowing and makes them forget that they are responsible to the constraints of the constitution; and, oh, yes, it also makes them forget that these citizens that they are confronting pay their salaries and if they kill enough of them there won’t be enough money in the till to allow their salary checks to clear the bank.
So here we have the overwhelmingly black citizens of Ferguson, MO who have heard that a black guy was killed by the cops, even though he was unarmed and it’s a beautiful summer night just perfect for an indignant demonstration so they take to the streets, What do they encounter, a bunch of men in blue trying, with constraint, to keep them in some kind of order so nobody gets hurt? No. They find a bunch of combat equipped pseudo soldiers, armed to the teeth, backed up by heavy artillery and spoiling for a fight. Some of the demonstrators push back and the rubber bullets and tear gas fly.
So what was wrong with this picture? To start with, too many TV commentators, talking about events without facts in evidence; too much conjecture and not enough evidence. A little patience from the media would have helped a lot. These kinds of investigations take time, especially when the Feds get involved. Yes, the people of Ferguson want the cop who shot Brown arrested. That was the initial cause of the demonstrations – they said. What they really want is a sense of justice being done. Instead they get a faux First Airborne in attack mode. WRONG!!!
Yes, there is too much military in our civilian law enforcement. With all due respect to the police, and most of them are great; many of them are on the job for all the wrong reasons and those reasons easily lead to bad decision- making. Giving big guns to these kinds of men and covering them in armor is a serious mistake. It gives them a sense of superiority and invincibility that leads to unnecessary aggression. A little fear is good for the decision-making gene.
Interestingly enough, the crowds in Ferguson have pretty much, been models of good behavior. After all the stupid hype by the media, the self serving statements by the politicians and the paramilitary appearance and demeanor of the police, the local people have done an excellent job of acting calmly and maturely. Yes there were incidents of looting but that was by small group of thugs, the kind found around many demonstrations, and it was quelled, for the most part, by the people and not the police, who were getting paid to stop it, but didn’t. All in all, the police leadership in Fegusson has been either missing or incompetent. One cop stood out. His name was Captain Ron Johnson and he is local and he seems to have taken control after the over reaction the first couple of nights.
The politicians have been less than adequate. Governor Nixon, (Why is that name such a blight on the nation?) has been five days late and many dollars short. When he speaks it seems he can’t decide whether to be conciliatory or tough so he is just ineffectual.
One would also hope that what has happened here, the self serving reporting of the media, the rabble rousing interference of politicians, the incompetence of the local cops and the few instances of rowdy crowd behavior will not be repeated in another town, but that is a fruitless hope. All these mistakes have happened before and they will all happen again because in cases like this someone sees something to gain by pursuing their own self- interested goals and forges ahead regardless of the circumstances.
On another note, it must be mentioned that the Ku Klux Klan is raising money for the police officer that shot Michael Brown. If there is anything that puts this cop on the negative side of the ledger, this is it.
The people of Ferguson have been pretty good models of behavior, given the released details of what has happened. Left to their own demonstration rights and not harassed by robo-cops bent on starting a riot, things could possibly have remained very calm. Things could still return to that place. It would take two things to accomplish that. First, get the Star wars cops off the street and replace them with regular boys in blue.
We have all seen dozens of pictures of the over armed cops pointing weapons at local people. Anyone who knows anything about weapons knows that you never point a gun at anyone you don’t intend to shoot. This is a principal that doesn’t come close to existing in Ferguson or many other places in our country.