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’m the only one here who knows real live black people!”
Jack
The image your source uses is a generic X-ray found originally here:
http://www.aapos.org/terms/conditions/28
Somebody’s touchy today–but that’s nothing new.
I didn’t know you were checking up on me. Are you a blog stalker???
Nick, good comments, out of the ballpark.
Facts are still coming in from Ferguson. Regardless of what really happened, police abuse is an epidemic problem, and not just going by all those who have been abused during the aftermath of Brown’s demise, including members of the press. It is likely that the officer provoked the victim who said to himself, I’m not going to take this police horseshit anymore. From there it got out of control.
There are thousands of white victims killed by police each year, but we never hear about them because the press and the SPLC do not care unless the victims are black.
The real tragedy in Ferguson is not that the police killed a black man, but that national attention is never focused on every single case of police abuse. Every time the police assault or kill a white person, rarely do the press or officials challenge the police. It is a dark side of government we never see except in cases such as in Ferguson, in which case the press and the SPLC play the race card.
This blog regularly post stories about police abuse and misconduct. That is a good start. But we are never going to reign in police abuse unless the press begins to focus on police crimes in the same way that it focuses on rape, clergy sexual abuse, and political scandal. As it is, the police continue to assault and kill tens of thousands of us each year because the press is preoccupied with Hollywood, Christian bashing, homophobia, illegal aliens, and itself.
Good quip. Got any substance? Have you discussed this topic w/ all your black friends? How’s the echo over there? I see not much interest in your education polemics. LOL.
“I got kicked in the head playing football…”
That would explain a lot of things.
You stay classy, Elaine.
It takes a solid blow to have an orbital bone fracture. I got kicked in the head playing football[right through the facemask] and broke the orbital bone in my right eye. I had a concussion and saw double for 6 months.
Blah…blah…blah…
Good to see Elaine shilling for another blog.
It is always obvious to me the hand wringers and white guilt people here do not associate w/ black people. Here’s some hard truths from someone who has associated w/ black and Hispanic people his whole life. This may come as a shock, but all black folk are not alike. They are as varied as any other demographic. The vast majority of black folk are troubled by this shooting and want answers. They realize this will not occur this week or even this month.The hoodlums and thugs rioting do not represent them. They are embarrassed by their actions just as white folk are embarrassed by white trash ala Honey Boo Boo, the Jerry Springer crowd, etc. The problems occur @ night when alcohol and drugs come into play. It appears most protestors both day and night are peaceful. The thugs come out @ night. The Justice Dept. will take the lead. It will hopefully be fair and transparent. But, this administration and Justice Dept. has been the least transparent in my lifetime. Everyone’s eyes are on them so hopefully they’ll step up their game. What is PAINFULLY obvious is there is no righteous leader in the black community that can get a handle on the bad element in these protests. Finally, over my 2 years we have had a few semi regular black people comment here. I’m pretty sure none have weighed in on this. What we have are white people commenting on a profoundly black issue. We need diversity here. This is like a Shriner’s Convention.
OT:
Terrible news: journalist- james-foley-reportedly-beheaded-by-isis
http://twitchy.com/2014/08/19/evil-straight-from-the-pits-of-hell-american-journalist-james-foley-reportedly-beheaded-by-isis/
@mespo
Yes, it certainly did on the Gentle Giant. RIP.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky:
I think six bullets would do it.
John:
“Mespo, are you saying that Mespo is right and Lincoln was wrong? There is a Lincoln Memorial but I don’t see a Mespo Memorial.”
******************
There’s a Kim Il Jug Memorial but not a mespo one. I guess he was right and I was wrong, too.
You’re a riot. I’ll be your partner and we’ll hit all the comedy clubs.
@jack
That mean old Darren Wilson! He must have hit the Gentle Giant in the fist with his eye.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Officer Darren Wilson Suffered “Orbital Blowout Fracture to Eye Socket” During Mike Brown Attack
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-report-po-darren-wilson-suffered-orbital-blowout-fracture-to-eye-socket-during-encounter-with-mike-brown/
Amy Goodman from the previous link: Just to be clear on the quote of the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, Bob McCulloch, criticizing Governor Jay Nixon’s decision to bring in Captain Ron Johnson of the state Highway Patrol, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, quote, “It’s shameful what he did today, he had no legal authority to do that. To denigrate the men and women of the county police department is shameful.” That is the prosecutor that has empaneled the grand jury and will decide whether Officer Wilson will be indicted.
Elaine M
Simple racial math… The darker the skin the more one is presumed a threat to society.
Black Panthers open carry = Fear
White separatists carry = what Fear
I’ve been wondering what would happen if the people in Ferguson were to peacefully protest while open carrying.
I just keep coming up with more dead people at the hands of an over aggressive and out of control military police force.
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/19/st_louis_activist_decades_after_1968
“AMALA ROGERS: Bob McCulloch has a very ugly history in terms of the prosecution of African Americans in the St. Louis County. Some of those cases have also come back to haunt him in terms of wrongful conviction. So there’s no confidence in his ability to bring justice to the family of Mike Brown or to the Ferguson community. And so that’s why the growing voices are getting stronger and stronger in terms of him stepping back and a special prosecutor being appointed.
The problem with a grand jury is that anybody who has an understanding of how that works knows that most of the time grand juries are an appendage of the prosecutor. So, when he decided to convene a grand jury, that also escalated people’s anger and outrage that justice was not going to be served.
AMY GOODMAN: Apparently, Mr. McCulloch, the prosecutor, criticized the appointment of Ron Johnson, the highway security captain who was brought in, saying it will demoralize the local police—the police of Officer Wilson, right, in Ferguson. He also comes from a family of police officers. In fact, his father was killed in the line of duty. The questioning of whether he can be objective when it comes to actually investigating a police officer?
JAMALA ROGERS: Well, I think, again, there’s no confidence in Bob McCulloch. And if he really wanted to do the right thing by Ferguson, first of all, he would not have been criticizing Ron Johnson’s assignment to that area. Ron Johnson has a history with Ferguson. He lived there. While he was there, there was calm on the streets the first night.
The fact that there is continued military presence in Ferguson is what’s keeping the fires going in Ferguson, let’s be clear on that. So, the outrage and anger and pain that the community is feeling has only been exacerbated by the fact that you have M-16s pointing at people, you have armored tanks in the streets. So, I keep thinking and wondering what would be the case if that presence was not there, and who would young people be throwing rocks at. And so, if they left the area and if they actually were there to keep peace and calm, as opposed to harassing folks and doing all kinds of things that have been captured not only on social media, but by some of the bona fide media—so, this is a force that has no interest in making sure that this community is safe and calm. They are trying to make a point. And the point is that more military presence is needed as opposed to less.
And so, I can recall an incident where young people were trying to stand in front of a store to keep folks from breaking in and looting, and the police deliberately threw tear gas to disperse them, allowing the looters to continue. So, we see these kinds of things on a regular basis. We see young people being harassed. We see, last night, some young people were beaten by the police. So all of these incidents just continue to mount up. And it’s the same with the situations of police abuse and police murder, that there is rarely a time when the police are going to get their due, and they are beyond the law. And young people in our communities, both black and brown communities, are really tired of seeing our young people be target practice for the police.”