By Charlton S. Stanley, Weekend writer
We should have seen this coming. I believe it is going to get worse before it gets better, if ever. At some point there is going to be a “pitchforks and torches” backlash.
It may be starting in Ferguson, MO. Take a look at one of the latest stories to come out of there. It’s sad that we have to look overseas to get reliable and up to date news about what is happening in the good ol’ US of A. Because of the great sucking sound that is the US corporate mainstream media, people who want to get a more balanced read on the news check sites such as Al Jazerra, The Guardian, RT, The Epoch Times, and Der Spiegel.
This is a brief clip from a story posted yesterday on RT (Russia Today). Emphasis is mine:
Nearly four years to the day before Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson opened fire and killed Brown, 18, a complaint filed in federal court accused the same law enforcement agency of violating the civil rights of a man who says he was badly beaten after being wrongly arrested, then later charged with “destruction of property” for bleeding on the uniforms of the cops alleged to have injured him.
It gets better. Reading the court filings, we learn that on September 20, 2010, Henry Davis missed his exit and found himself in the the St. Louis County community of Ferguson at 3:00 AM. As it happened, there was a warrant was out for a Henry Davis, but the wanted man has a different middle initial, different birth date, and different Social Security number.
However, Davis, a 54 year old African-American welder was assaulted by four officers (one of them female). The records show that he was thrown forcefully into a one-person cell, but the one-person cell already had an occupant. He would have had to sleep on the concrete floor, because the one bunk was already occupied. There was a pile of sleeping mats near the cell, so Davis asked for a sleeping mat. Because he asked for something to sleep on, he was called disobedient. At that point, Davis was thrown to the floor, and put in restraints. During this assault in the jail, one of the officers kicked Davis in the head.
After being restrained and kicked in the jail cell, paramedics took Henry Davis to the hospital where he insisted that his picture be taken before he was treated (photo and story at the link). The Emergency Room doctor diagnosed him with a concussion and stitched him up before releasing Davis back to custody of the Ferguson PD.
He was released 3 days later on a $1500 bond for “destruction of public property.” If they kick and beat you, you better not dare bleed on their uniforms.
Davis sued. When the four officers were deposed, all four denied that they had blood on their uniforms as they had signed on their affidavit of complaints. What does this mean? They either perjured themselves at trial or had falsified affidavit. That level of perjury is a felony. The county prosecutor declined to prosecute because he claimed Davis’, injuries were de minimus.
Let’s take a look at the prosecutor. The St. Louis County Prosecutor is a man named Bob McCulloch. He has a reputation of being extremely harsh in his prosecution of offenders. However, McCulloch has some personal baggage which calls both his judgement and racial neutrality into question. You see, Bob McCulloch is the son of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer Paul McCullouch. Officer Paul McCullough was killed in the line of duty on July 2, 1964. Officer McCullouch was 37 years old at the time. His son, current prosecutor Bob McCulloch was 12 years old in 1964. I remember that cop killing, because we lived in St. Louis, and it happened not far from where I was working at the time. Officer McCullouch was responding to a kidnapping call at the infamous Pruett-Igoe Housing Project when he was shot in the head by the fleeing kidnapper. His killer was a black man.
Bob McCullouch wanted to become a police officer like his father, but lost a leg as a teenager. That eliminated him from joining the police force, so he went to law school and became a prosecutor, a position he has held for the past twenty years. His tenure as a prosecuting attorney has been marked by controversy. He has a reputation as being almost fanatical about prosecuting alleged perpetrators, but turns a blind eye to even the grossest misconduct by law enforcement officers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a story about him.
Mr. Davis’ injuries were de minimus, and according to McCullouch, not worth pursuing, yet Davis’ spattered blood on the officer’s uniforms did warrant charges. Maybe somebody smarter than me can explain that logic.
Henry Davis sued the city for civil rights violations, but late last year Magistrate Judge Nannette A. Baker ruled in favor the city. His attorneys filed a notice of appeal in March, and the case is currently slated to be considered later this year by the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals.
A PDF of the filing to the Eighth Circuit is embedded in the RT article.
–ooOoo–
I just listened to the radio, where they had audio from one of the Ferguson protests. It went, “Who do we want?” “Darren Wilson!” “How do we want him?” “Dead!”
So bears the fruit of playing the race card and fanning the flames of violence.
Here are the facts:
1) A police officer shot an unarmed black 18 year old man 6 times from the front.
2) The victim was 6’4″ 300 lbs
3) It has been verified that there was indeed a scuffle inside the police vehicle, and the first shot was fired inside
4) The victim had just committed a strong arm robbery for some little cigars
That is literally all the information we have right now. This could be any number of things, including a hate crime, poor police training (such as a shaking hand continuing to fire the weapon after he meant to stop), or a justified shooting if the victim did indeed charge back after the officer after previously trying to take his gun.
We don’t know. None of us do. All we have is conjecture, which is fine here. But I hate to see these lynch mobs inevitably form every time a black man is killed by a white person, as if the ONLY reason is a hate crime. The attorney for the family keeps calling it an “execution” when he doesn’t know the facts yet, either. And I heard members of one of the protests interviewed. They all said that Brown was kneeling, with his hands in the air, back towards the officer, and was shot 6 times in the back. The autopsy we already have shows that to be false; he was shot from the front. Yet that information has not gotten through to the protestors. Nor are they aware that there are eyewitnesses who claim that Brown scuffled with the officer in the car, ran a few steps away, and then doubled back on the officer.
The information they are getting is coming from the rumor mill.
I also heard Obama make a statement today. On the good side, he pleaded for calm and understanding, and he acknowledged that a minority of protestors are not acting peacefully. But then, like every single time in the past, he rebuked the police and claimed that they had no right to keep people from protesting, and that the town is rightfully hurting. Why “rightfully?” What if this turns out to be a justified shooting? Once again, Obama weighed in before the facts were known, and failed to remain impartial. He failed to remark that the crowd was throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the police, that they weren’t just preventing peaceful protests. He should have said people have a right to protest peacefully, but they don’t have the right to throw things at cops. And then he could have urged cops to keep their cool, too, so he was admonishing both sides equally.
This was such a good opportunity to remind people that we don’t know the facts yet. But my impression was that he thought the police were wrong.
@messpo
I don’t think the issue is discrimination. That is the Holy Grail that is searched for in incidents like this. But presumably that search has some sort of basis in figuring out why the poor black community is in the shape it is. That is where I think the search for discrimination is a wasted effort. What discrimination there is, isn’t why one gang banger shoots another. It isn’t the reason why poor blacks are poor. Or why their neighborhoods are places sensible people try to avoid.
In fact, the very search for discrimination or racism just provides cover for the very white folks who bear a lot of responsibility for the state poor blacks find themselves in. Which makes me think the search for “racism” is nothing but a distraction from the Great Society BS which is to blame for much of this.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@max-1
Oops. I confused you with max-cat. Sorry for that. But, perhaps you are better off not dignifying my responses. We sure wouldn’t want any divisiveness, now would we? Things are so much better when everybody agrees with each other! Right?
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky
I’m done dignifying your responses. They’re divisive by nature and stir up latent racism among friends…
“Your group”
No wonder we’re a divided Nation… The term “we” is missing in your vocabulary. The other term that you could learn about and from is disenfranchised.
Squeeky:
“When LaDamion, the thug, is moldering in his grave, is he any less dead than a black guy lynched in 1930???”
*****************
Well, about 45,000 Americans die in auto accidents each year. If African-Americans make up their population percentage of that figure (13%) that means about 5,850 die each year in crashes.Thus you can say with fair assurance that auto accidents cause half many deaths as your “stats.” Do you suppose then that autos are half as bad as gang related murders and lynchings only equally as bad as auto accidents.
The point is that you have no point. The issue was discrimination based on race. Cars and black gangbangers don’t kill because of discrimination and to use your analogy it matters not one iota to those killed and moldering in the ground what killed them … but it matters to us as a society.
John:
“LINCOLN WAS RIGHT OR LINCOLN WAS WRONG.
THE CIVIL WAR WAS RIGHT OR THE CIVIL WAR WAS WRONG.”
****************
Let me deflate this false dichotomy. You should define clearly what you mean by “right” or “wrong,” but assuming the usual meanings of doing the most good for the most people as “right,” and doing the opposite as “wrong,” the following may answer your question:
Lincoln was right on some things — like preserving the Union and emancipating slaves — but wrong on some things like suspending habeas corpus and promoting a slave exodus. That, of course, makes Lincoln human.
The Civil War was surely “right” for the Union as it gave us the nation we have today and quashed the silly notion of rights to secession by the states. It probably is regarded as “wrong” by Southern slaveholders and those predisposed against African-American citizenship and their civil rights for the obvious reasons of self-interest in the case of the former and racism in the case of the latter.
Where shall we count you?
@messpo
I read somewhere that there were less than 5,000 lynchings. I estimated about 10,000 murders per year times 50 years. If I am off, then the number of murders still far outweighs the number of lynchings.
When LaDamion, the thug, is moldering in his grave, is he any less dead than a black guy lynched in 1930???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Beldar has my computer routing address. That was not me.
PCS, Lincoln planned to fight the Civil War to end slavery and compassionately repatriate the ex-slaves. Were both plans right or were both plans wrong? Lincoln was brilliant and the war occurred, therefore, it must have been right. Given Lincoln’s brilliance, the ex-slave repatriation plan must have also been right; unless it was wrong. What say you? There seem to have been a considerable amount of racial strife and irreconcilable differences over the past century. What say you?
History is interesting. Perhaps the Civil War should have never occurred and the inherent “labor wage dispute” (i.e. free labor) should have been resolved employing economic tools such as the boycott. Perhaps Lincoln could have repatriated the ex-slaves. Try this history on your mind, Kennedy lost to Nixon and the mob fixed the election. There NEVER should have been a Kennedy Presidency, Camelot, Marylyn Monroe trysts, Cuban Missile Crisis, Chappaquiddick, assassinations, pictures of John Jr. at the funeral – none of that should have ever occurred if the ballots in Illinois and Texas had simply been counted correctly. Absolutely ZERO Kennedy era, Camelot or anything related to Kennedy. Maybe no Vietnam war. Weird to think of that, huh? How about that history stuff, huh?
John – I do not believe that Lincoln was brilliant, if he were he would have dumped McCellan early on. I refer to it as the War of Northern Aggression. Now the question is was the war of Northern Aggression right or wrong?
Suqeeky:
“The fact is, black gangbangers have killed a 100 times as many blacks as were ever lynched by the Klan.”
********************
Improbable … as that looks like a “pulled from the caboose” kind of stat, but the relevant inquiry is just how many of those African-Americans killed by so-called “black gangbangers” were killed because they were African-Americans. Virtually all those killed by the Klan were.
slohrrs29, The National Guard troops are there to assist under the control of local law enforcement.
OK… speaking for the laymen (laypeople, layfolk….) here, what happens now with all these officials in charge with guns??
To be clear, while it is possible for the federal government to declare martial law, it can only do so in limited circumstances when the courts are unable to be open.
There has been no declaration of martial law in Missouri. In addition, the Missouri Constitution specifically prohibits abandonment of the civil law.
Thanks Paul C. Sounds like a recipe for disaster if there is no real chain of command. Heck they might all end up shooting at each other before this is said and done.
@Max-1
So says a northern liberal, as you described yourself. But your group hasn’t had a new thought since 1966, which is why you say stuff like that. The fact is, black gangbangers have killed a 100 times as many blacks as were ever lynched by the Klan.
But you can’t see it. You are still living the Freedom Rider days. Nor can you see your own hand in this, in the creation of the “Great Society.” Hey, like LBJ said, “We’ll have the n—–s voting Democratic for the next 200 years!” Isn’t that what matters most to you—not the fate of real people, but your party staying in power?
Gee, try thinking some new thoughts.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Beldar here. Ferguson excursion. Last night left the good bar and restaurant on N. Florissant Rd. over in Ferguson proper near Calverton Park. Went to a meeting. Everyone serious and yet hopeful. Watched on tv the service at the church with Jesse Jackson. That was up lifting. Went over to the east side of town to West Florissant Rd and hence south to the crime scene of the story robbery. Lot of people moving about for sure. A lot of nuts too. Went to the Northland Shopping Center where the cops camp out. We were there when someone pushed into the cops and they responded. We left. Went back to old Ferguson to a bar called Green something at the corner of Suburban and N. Florissant. Talked with locals of white and black stripe all night until midnight. Went home with my pals to S. Clay Ave. in Ferguson. I can report that it is a nice town with a fringe on the east side where the kids go to a different school district. That was the crime area. People want the autopsy report.
http://uneditedpolitics.com/pathologist-cyril-wecht-brown-couldve-felt-pain-before-he-died-81814/
Where is the toxicology report on dead guy? Why are they withholding it? Was this kid on Crack? Speed? Pot? Heroin?
Squeeky
In 1914 black men were lynched by rope…
… In 2014 it’s by gun.