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.
The protocol is if the officer is in fear for his life he can use deadly force. Pretty basic stuff. The question is WAS the officer in fear for his life. At least show an elementary understanding of the issues if you’re going to enter into a discussion.
raff, is always asking for proof. Well raff, there were numerous arson fires, many caused by Molotov cocktails. Do you need the arson reports? The cause and origin reports? You are predictable and tedious.
rafflaw,
Ferguson PD don’t do police reports… They do hearsay well, though.
anon2121,
Actually, no, I don’t work for the St. Louis PD. I am not their voice, At best, I provide a point of view in opposition to that of some of those commenting here. Like most blogs, that interferes with the narrative espoused by many.
However, I do have a client who is a former St. Louis County police officer.
Twitter is comedy gold sometimes…
https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/statuses/502645597791604736
I recently attended a workshop put on by a screenwriter. UW has some good ones. We analyzed Do The Right Thing and Crash. The screenwriter was from the west coast. She was liberal but not a wide eyed, insular, one. I had made some comments and got a lot of reaction like the comments here. Both I and she were incredulous. She kept giving me WTF looks. Of course, the very liberal Madison has been shown to be the most racially segregated city in the US. These insular liberals pontificated and completely missed the crucial points in both flicks. I worked in Leavenworth, w/ mostly black and Hispanic inmates. I worked in black neighborhoods. I lived in a neighborhood w/ the same demographic as Ferguson. I like black people. I socialize regularly w/ black people. I know, like ALL people, there are good and bad. The insular folks here are “Down w/ the struggle” and like black people in the abstract. They have no idea what it’s like to live in high crime neighborhoods and they have no idea what it’s like to police them. As I said, the more they speak the more obvious it is. There are a lotta “I’s” in this comment. Because I have a lotta personal experience. I’m waiting to hear some personal experiences from others.
Nick – Did you ask the film writer why Mookie was the highest paid pizza delivery man in NYC?
Jack,
No acid flashbacks, but thanks for your incorrect generalization. According to reporters on the scene, the only thing they saw being thrown was water bottles, with water in them. Where is your evidence of Molotov cocktails hitting any police lines or vehicles or coming close? The police claimed that, but I have yet to see or read any verification of that. Or do the commies just have bad throwing arms?
If there is no martial law designation, will blacks in Ferguson, (even the communist ones) be allowed to open carry with their rifles and hand guns in the local Kroger?
I posted this link on a different thread but it is worth reading so I would like to post it again. It is very thoughtful and anti propaganda.
http://time.com/3132635/ferguson-coming-race-war-class-warfare/
rafflaw, Yes. It’s why I linked to Glen Ford’s essay from Black Agenda Report in my first post. I will give the link again!
http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14372
So Paul,
if the policeman was scared it is authorization to shoot an unarmed victim or even an offender 6 times? Viewing the situation from the standpoint of the officer does not defeat the facts of abuse, if so proven in court. Besides, he hasn’t even been indicted yet. The grand jury process can be used by a prosecutor to avoid a prosecution.
Jack is the voice of the St. Louis PD. Read all of his comments.
rafflaw – the answer to your question is YES. All he has to say is I was in fear for my life. You have the same defense available to you. We both agree that grand juries are the weakest way to go, but they sound pretty in the sound bites.
rafflaw, I too have experienced tear gas.
When was the tear gas thrown? A. When protesters started throwing things at the police. Things like Molotov cocktails. Of course we all know you wouldn’t expect the police to use tear gas until an officer was killed or severely burned. Contrary to popular belief, that’s not part of their job. Sure, innocent protesters were hit by tear gas. If you want to blame someone for that, try looking at the non-innocent protesters who were mixed in with the lawful ones. Those thugs are the ones you should be directing your anger towards.
And who was clubbed? Do you have any evidence that anyone was clubbed, let alone unjustly clubbed? Or is that just the result of an acid flashback?
mespo, have you ever wondered why diversity works in Hollywood? And if you have, why doesn’t it work in Ferguson?
If we’re ever going to resolve these huge social problems, we’re going to first have to understand the germination. We do not yet know if the teenager actually rushed the officer, but if he did, why? And we do not know yet if the officer actually abusively provoked the teenager, but if he did, why? The answer would probably be the same one for both questions.
It is wrong for an officer to provoke, just as it is wrong for a suspect to rush, but if both of these wrongs have bases with a larger picture of social and economic injustice, then both the officer and the teenager are symptoms — not causes — and we should accordingly look to understand and rectify the larger issue. So, rather than pointing fingers at blacks in Ferguson, or blaming racist cops, we should all really be demonstrating not in Ferguson but in Washington, the source of corruption that destroys children, families, lives, opportunity, hopes, dreams, really everything.
Jack,
Yeah, I guess you have to have to be a police officer to know when they are abusing their position. How could I forget that? When you watch someone getting clubbed or gassed for lawfully protesting, I do not have to be a cop to know something is wrong. I have felt the sting of the gas and the pain of being hit with a riot stick, albeit many years ago, and it is something that you do not forget easily.
Nick,
Yes, I have read about the commies agitators. I have also seen and read about the multiple instances of police abuse in this past week against non-agitators. As well as the instances of prior abuses in Ferguson.
Paul,
I saw multiple bad actors on the scene in uniform, not just a few bad apples. What do the good cops do when their bosses are some of the so-called bad apples?
rafflaw – there is a Supreme Court case that is going to make the difference here about Wilson. It requires the jury and judge to view the situation from the standpoint of the officer in light of the situation. This is why Wilson probably will not be convicted of anything and it may not get past a grand jury.
LC, Haters gotta hate. The so called liberals answer hate w/ hate. I KNOW that doesn’t work. But, it makes them feel good in the short run. It destroys you in the long run. Save your hate for things, issues, not the people who believe them.
Paul, I DETEST Harry Reid. But, I watched the comments. They were stupid. I am intellectually honest in hating PC. So, I give the a-hole a pass on his comments.
Oath keepers and the Tea Party are real people, just like anything else, you have your good and your bad and the people need to have common sense to know the difference. There is good and bad in everything! Seek out the good.
raff, Read anything about the Communist agitators from Chicago inciting riots???
@jill
I agree that this may still prove to be a bad shooting. Wilson ‘s injuries, the total number of shots fired, the trajectories, residue on Brown ‘s clothing, Brown ‘s fingerprints on the gun, and more are all unknown at this time. Some presume Wilson to be guilty, but they are ashamed to say it outright. Sooo, they peck around the edges with 4 year old Ferguson cop stories, and “Hey I found a right wing extremist!” stories to protect their own psyches from the fact that they have stereotyped Wilson, and are in fact, members of a blood thirsty howling mob, just like those guys in the white robes and masks of years gone by.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
squeeky – If I can prove that one cop in Ferguson is racist, they all are. We all know that Al Sharpton is a race baiter. That makes all Demcrats race baiters. Then we double down with Jesse Jackson. That just proves our point. And then Harry Reid is out this week with racist remarks about Asians at an Asian luncheon (he did lose their endorsement).
Dredd ~
That Map of Military Hardware County by County stuns in its scope. I had no idea how insidious this redistribution had become. Thanks for the link.
Grenade launchers in Sacramento? WTH?