PHOTOS: Police fire tear gas near Al Jazeera crew, then disassemble the gear after they flee. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/It5FOxVWhB
— Cassidy Moody (@CassFM) August 14, 2014
For the past week, there have been protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot multiple times and killed by a police officer for the crime of being a black male teenager. And let’s be honest, if there weren’t mass protests, you and I probably wouldn’t have even heard about the incident. Ferguson is a small suburb of St. Louis, with a police force that is 94% white. The town population of 21,000 is 52% black.
Police further angered citizens by leaving Brown’s body in place for several hours, insisting that Brown was resisting arrest despite eyewitness accounts to the contrary, and refusing to release the name of the police officer who shot him.
And last night, police showed again that their criteria for arrest is somewhat different in Ferguson from what’s in the law books. A St. Louis alderman (who provided constant updates from the protest scene) was arrested. A reporter from the Huffington Post was arrested. A reporter from the Washington Post was arrested. You can read their social media accounts here.
A TV crew from Al-Jazeera was tear-gassed while prepping a report. Ferguson's state senator reported that she was tear-gassed on Monday.
And regular citizens of Ferguson? They got tear gas and rubber bullets. Is this any way to run a democracy?
5 comments:
Respectfully, who believes anymore that this is a democracy? You have imperialist leaders thumbing their nose at the Constitution they used to teach, entrenched pols only intent on re-election and promising stuff to people, promises to various lobby groups to get votes, and a general militarization of local police.
It's a shocking story. The actions of the police are under international scrutiny and won't be swept under the rug.
Protesting is one thing, looting is another. I'm not saying that the heavy handedness of the police is justified, in fact you missed one, the no fly zone so news helicopters can't report.
It never was a Democracy. We are a Republic.
But this is a symptom of how we train police. Every police academy in the country trains Officers that they have to be in full control all the time, or their lives are in danger.
In this case, Mr Brown was resisting arrest by running away. Refusing to cooperate with police orders is "Resisting without force" in most jurisdictions.
If a cop gives you an illegal order, you don't have the option anymore of refusing to cooperate with the order. You have to do what they say, and then sue them in court for giving you the illegal order.
This is just another example of blatant racism. No way a white 18-year-old guy would have been killed. It's taking way too long to change people's hearts and minds, so in the meantime, the County, State or Feds will have to step in. Too bad they can only step inn after the fact.
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