By Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
Watching the waves roll in here in Duck, NC, I have to admit things seem pretty peaceful and serene. It got me wondering why the folks in Ferguson, Mo. are demonstrating on a daily basis about their policing. Wonderment stopped last evening when I came across this video by 35-year veteran of the St. Louis County Police Department, Sgt. Major Dan Page. Former Green Beret and supervising cop, Dan’s vaguely known to most CNN viewers as the enlightened peace officer who shoved reporter Don Lemon from a Ferguson street corner as he tried reporting on the mass protest of 17-year-old Michael Brown’s police-facilitated killing. Lemon was shoved and then was herded to some “Free Speech Zone” in a remote parking lot. Now street-savvy Page is back … and with a right-wing philosophy and blood thirsty vengeance that you’d have to go to 1970s Cambodia to match — “We can kill you anyway we want!”
Speaking before a group called the Oath Keepers who bill themselves as “a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” (they sure look like a group of Doomsday Preppers to me), Page waxes eloquent and profane about all manner of right-wing blood boilers from his utter revulsion at the “Sodomites” on the United States Supreme Court ( four of ’em, you know) to those “weak” women in the military who are taking elite combat positions away from more qualified men to the race-based mess in Ferguson. By his own admission, Page “don’t trust nobody and I hate everybody. I hate y’all too I hate everybody. I’m into diversity. I kill everybody.”
What’ s even more remarkable is that his audience just loves him. This self-proclaimed group of “military, police and first responders” seems mesmerized by the rant which covers topics from the NDAA of 2012 explaining it’s just like the movie, Escape Plan, with Sly Stallone (That boat’s real. I know”) to domestic violence situations (“just shoot each other and get it over with”.)
Sarg also tells us the word “gay” means happy and that’s it. A pox on those sodomites. He doesn’t like lawyers. Not crazy about women. He reminds us that the President has no control as Commander in-Chief over the Marines or the Air Force since the U.S. Constitution doesn’t say so. (See, gotcha). He calls the Marines the world’s finest fighting force but decries it’s “feminization” (as in allowing women to serve in combat roles) at the hands of Obama and it’s “log-head” commandant. Page even mixes in a little fire and brimstone jurisprudence reminding us that you can’t have the Constitution without the Bible and he stands at the podium thumping the Good Book. Page can’t resist that favorite of all right-wing circus acts that Obama is really an illegal alien from Kenya. All in all it’s quite an audition tape for a pundit job on Fox News.
The video did serve to answer my question about all the fuss in Ferguson, but curiously left unanswered why the whole audience of people Missourians hire to protect all of them didn’t walk out en masse. Maybe they agree is one chilling answer. After all, Page did get a snazzy Oath Keepers patch for his trouble to the vigorous applause of the audience.
My advice to the folks in Ferguson is that if this guy is a core sampling of the prevailing attitude of the public servants in St. Louis County … well, since we’re talking movies here, remember that classic horror flick, When a Stranger Calls?:
Jill, Jill. We traced the call! It’s coming from inside the house! Do you hear me? It’s coming from inside the house! You need to get out! Jill?
If you’ve got the stomach, here’s the video and a play-by-play from Crooks and Liars:
1:07: Talks about all men being created equal then went on to say “That does not mean affirmative action”.
1:26: Rants about hate crime laws
3:22: Black (little?) Perverts [ed. note: I think he said “black robed perverts” but the other way ’round wouldn’t surprise me]
5:25: Talks about doing a fair share of killing
15:40: Calls supreme court justice a homosexual sodomite.
18:30 “If I die I go to heaven… I died a long time ago”
20:30: Talks about St. Louis County schools
26:40: Calls President Obama an illegal alien
27:00: We can kill you anyway we want
31:38: Goes on anti-muslim rant
37:00: Talks about being a Saint Louis County Cop
43:00: Talk about killing people again
46:41: Goes on rant over being briefed about the 9/11 attacks on Aug 1st 1999 then says 9/11 happened 30 days later also talks about no weapons of mass destruction being found in Afghanistan.
49:22: Continues rant about having secret clearance at Fort (Leavenworth?) and training with Russian spetsnaz
52:40: Says people involved in domestic violence should “just shoot each other and get it over with”.
53:15: Somebody like me is going to come in and kill you
56:20: I don’t trust nobody and I hate everybody. I hate y’all too I hate everybody. I’m into diversity. I kill everybody.
58:02: Audience member: So what happens when good men like you are retiring from the military. What kind of military do we have left then?
58:15: Sodomites and females. End of statement.
1:01:00: Rants about female green beret
1:03:00 He’s handed an oathkeeper patch
Epilogue:
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, who immediately defended the shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, issued the following statement about Page via Twitter:
Some of you may have already seen the video of the St. Louis County Police Officer speaking off-duty at an Oath Keepers event. If you haven’t we are sure you will in the coming days as news circulates the release of the video.
Chief Jon Belmar was notified of this video’s existence today and upon a abbreviated viewing of the video was disturbed by the conversation being had. Chief Belmar does not expect this kind of rhetoric from his officers, just like they don’t expect it from him.
Chief Belmar, on behalf of the St. Louis County Police Department, would like to apologize to the community, anyone that video has or will effect, and to the other hard working officers on the detail with the officer in question because they deserve better than that. While the officer has never been involved in an officer involved shooting, the statements made about killing are unacceptable and not what we are about as a Department.
We hold our officers to a high standard of honor both on and off duty. While we as a department do not have an issue with officers expressing themselves, this was disturbing and unacceptable. The officer is a 35 year veteran of this department and has been deployed numerous times in military service. He had passed the evaluations upon returning from deployment and there was no indication of this attitude.
Chief Belmar would again like to apologize to anyone this video has offended and ask any videos of this nature be reported so we can take proper action against any officer not meeting our standards.
Being from Missouri, Belmar should have no problem with my skepticism: Show Me.
~Mark Esposito, Weekend Contributor
By the way and for better or worse, the views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not necessarily those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays of art are solely the author’s decision and responsibility. No infringement of intellectual property rights is intended and will be remedied upon notice from the owner. Fair use is however asserted for such inclusions of quotes, excerpts, photos, art, and the like.
This guy is bat shit crazy and he was never a Green Beret. His rants make it hard to believe that he was even in the the Army, much less SOF. He obviously has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s seen too many movies and read too many conspiracy theory forums.
DOJ wants media barred from Ferguson town hall meetings
By St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) September 22, 2014 6:55 am
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dept_justiceFERGUSON — The news release was emailed to dozens of local and national media representatives earlier this week.
The city of Ferguson was promoting a five-week series of “town hall” meetings beginning Monday to update residents “on changes the council wants the community to consider” and to address concerns about the city.
But by Friday, a little-known unit of the U.S. Department of Justice had gotten involved, and those meetings, originally billed by Mayor James Knowles as a dialogue with the community “so they know exactly where we stand on things with full transparency,” would be closed to the media and nearly anyone else who wasn’t a resident.
In the days after Michael Brown’s fatal shooting Aug. 9 by a city police officer, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder dispatched the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service to the city to help keep the peace and resolve racial tension.
On Friday, Devin James, a spokesman for Ferguson, said that the Community Relations Service was insisting that reporters be kept out of the city’s “town hall” meetings planned for each of three wards because having media present could alter the conversations. The first meetings are scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 110 Church Street; Wellspring Church, 33 South Florissant Road; and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 17 Hawkesbury Drive.
“It allows us to have a more true dialogue,” James said. “It’s for the benefit of the community.”
In an email late Friday, Dena Iverson, a Justice Department spokeswoman, confirmed that the “town hall” meetings were being overseen by the Community Relations Service.
Iverson also pointed to the unit’s mission statement, which says the service “provides confidential mediation, facilitation, training, and consulting services to help communities enhance their ability to alleviate, solve, and respond to future conflicts more effectively.” She did not respond to a question about whether the city’s town hall meetings fit the mediation concept.
The unit was also sent to Sanford, Fla., last year in the aftermath of the slaying of Trayvon Martin and trial of his killer, George Zimmerman.
City Attorney Stephanie Karr said she believed the decision to restrict attendance to residents and certain invited guests at the town hall meetings doesn’t violate Missouri’s Sunshine Law because only two council members would be present at each meeting. Without a quorum, such gatherings of council members do not violate the state’s open meetings requirements, Karr said.
Karr, however, also said that the city would not do anything to keep reporters from attending, but that would be up to the Department of Justice.
After Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Brown on Aug. 9, the city saw a number of protests, some of which county and state law enforcement agencies quelled by using tear gas, rubber bullets and armored personnel vehicles.
A City Council meeting on Sept. 9, held at the Greater Grace Church to accommodate the large crowd, was disrupted several times by angry chants from protesters, some of whom were not from Ferguson.
Another council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. On Friday, Knowles said the city was still exploring possible venues for that meeting.
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Video Shows Witnesses’ Disbelief Following Michael Brown Shooting
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/10/michael-brown-witnesses_n_5801330.html
Excerpt:
In a cell phone video provided to CNN, two men who were doing construction work on a home near the scene react to seeing Brown shot by Officer Darren Wilson.
“He had his f**king hands up,” one man says in the recording.
“Dan Page’s Deeply Disturbing Views on Race, Sexual Assault, and Government”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/08/26/dan_page_reveals_disturbing_views_on_race_military_assault_and_government.html
“St. Louis County Police Officer Dan Page Retires Following Inflammatory Video”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/30/st-louis-police-dan-page-retires_n_5740312.html
“The St. Louis County police officer who pushed a CNN journalist on live television in Ferguson, Missouri, and was earlier suspended from duty after a videotape surfaced in which he threatened to “kill everybody,” has retired.
St. Louis County police officer Dan Page, a 35-year police veteran, had his last day with the force on August 25th, MSNBC reported on Friday night. A representative of the St. Louis County Police Chief told MSNBC that Page is expected to receive a his full pension.
Page fell into the national spotlight when he pushed CNN’s Don Lemon who was in Ferguson covering the unrest stemming from the killing of unarmed teen Michael Brown by a police officer. The engagement between Page and Lemon was shown on CNN.
Lemon would later uncover a video of Page where he threatens violence and also says disparaging things about President Barack Obama, Muslims, and LGBT people. Page was suspended from duty on August 22, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar saying that the comments Page made in the surfaced video, “deeply disturbed me immediately.” “
More Audio Surfaces From Dan Page, the St. Louis County Police Officer Suspended After Racist Remarks
Page says Ferguson, the border crisis, and other events are part of a far-reaching conspiracy.
—By AJ Vicens | Sun Aug. 24, 2014
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/more-audio-surfaces-dan-page-racist-rant-end-times
Excerpt:
More controversial audio has surfaced from Dan Page, the St. Louis County Police officer who pushed CNN’s Don Lemon in Ferguson on August 18 and was put on administrative leave after video surfaced of him talking about being “a killer,” calling President Obama “undocumented,” and disparaging Muslims.
The additional audio, found and highlighted on August 23 by left-wing advocacy and research group Political Research Associates, goes deeper into his beliefs that the United States is in danger of being folded into a one-world government after a series of orchestrated events, and that “99.9 percent” of sexual assault in the military is “bogus.” The audio comes from interviews Page did in July with Rick Wiles on the TruNews radio show, an end-times and right-wing conspiracy-theory forum, and in May with the John Moore Radio Show.
“Alleged New Audio Recording of the Shooting of Michael Brown Surfaces: 11 Shots Audible”
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43775_Alleged_New_Audio_Recording_of_the_Shooting_of_Michael_Brown_Surfaces-_11_Shots_Audible