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.
Jack
Would you be OK with a KKK member policing this area then?
“Historically, people have been permitted to express their opinions, while not on duty, and not be subject to reprimand or firing.”
Max-1 – I am alright with a progressive policing Ferguson.
I posted an account of man who was arrested in Ferguson… dustbin.
He accounts for his experience yet it appears that it is a systemic problem in the PD down there. Sure there are some good cops… when they look the other way, they are no longer the good cop. No matter the race. Systemic.
Paul C.,
Miami is a little south of Jacksonville, unless you’re the one making the drive. 🙂
anonymous, The police cut off the heads of three protesters. Disturbing if true.
concerned citizen,
Unless the speech is made on duty, most here would say that such speech should have no impact on the persons job.
Historically, people have been permitted to express their opinions, while not on duty, and not be subject to reprimand or firing. If this officer made the same statements while on duty, he should be subject to discipline or firing.
I suggest you look around this blog and you will find that when it comes to speech you will find many hypocrites.
Disturbing, if true:
“Woman shot at Ferguson protest: Police took the bullet and now claim they don’t have it”
http://privacysos.org/node/1504
Taurean Russell, Community Organizer in Ferguson, Recounts Being Arrested
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/08/23/we-finally-got-one-of-those-animals-community-organizer-in-ferguson-recounts-arrest/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9y-bvF5h2A#t=41
Russell said he left the area on West Florissant Avenue, where community has been gathering for nightly demonstrations, and police were following them. And, at some point, police were yelling, “There he goes in the gray shirt! Get him!”
Once he was arrested, according to Russell, he heard the officer say, “We finally got him. We finally got one of those animals and that’s the one we want.”
Russell remembers a young white police officer standing nearby a black county officer. “I was called nigger by a city police officer, a young white guy,” he added. The black county officer just stood by there and didn’t really say anything.
He believes he was targeted for arrest just after he finished a media interview.
“When I came out of an interview, we saw police officers stand directly looking at us. We cross the street and two of them cross the street.”
Jack – 2.5 hours away is a little ways, depending on where you live. Prescott is a little north of Phoenix, about two hours. 🙂
“I do have a client who is a former St. Louis County police officer.” -Jack in an earlier comment
I have one friend on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.” -Jack (linked below)
http://jonathanturley.org/2014/08/20/missouri-governor-calls-for-vigorous-prosecution-before-the-completion-of-the-investigation-into-ferguson-shooting/#comment-1268438
Well, now we know that the number is at least two. If I were a betting sort, I’d say that number is even higher.
Charlie, Ft. Leonard Wood is more West than South of St. Louis, and I think 2.5 hours is more than “a little”. 🙂
LOL, your analysis of his speech is so screwed, bet you think Smokey Bear is a Conservative smoker who stand in the forrest.
Jack:
“Dan Page is clearly the exception. Anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know many police officers from the St. Louis area.”
Historically, these “exceptions” have been known to remain on the job. The good ones need to purge their ranks and yet they don’t, with a few obvious exceptions. Typically, there must be some sort of public backlash/outcry first.
Paul,
The mere proffer that the cop was nervous or scared shouldn’t overcome good evidence of abuse and/or over reaction on the part of the officer. However, the cops can do no wrong so maybe you are right. Or maybe not.
rafflaw – I am not a supporter of cop abuse, however, I have yet to see anything definitive that shows Wilson was abusive.
Ross
I first saw the Jane Elliot experiment (if it could be called that). I call it more an “experience” since it reveals how people become conditioned to see others more as “others” rather than “sameness”. It was an eye opener for me at a young age growing up in an all white community whose parents often referred to black people in derogatory ways. I remember calling my father out for his use of the ‘N’ word one summer when I was about ten. I got the proverbial monopoly ‘do not get dessert’ card that night. Thanks for the video link. It can’t be posted enough…
http://youtu.be/tbud8rLejLM
He likely meant/said Ft Leonard Wood, which is just south of St Louis.
@paulcs
I don’t think all Democrats are race baiters, but I do think the party leaders, and their supporting cast of shills and hacks, tend to run that way because it gets votes and keeps the money flowing. The same reason why the old Southern politicians did it. The thing about “bait” is that you use it to fool something to where you can snag it and reel it in.
I do think a whole lot of Democrats have been reeled in, often because it makes them feel so good about themselves to dress up like a freedom rider and replay the 60’s. The good thing about Ferguson is that more and more middle class blacks are calling the race baiters exactly what they are. . .race baiters.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Paul, LOL! Here is what flabbergasted both me and the teacher, how most of the Madisonians saw the Danny Aiello character in Spike’s flick as a bad racist. I have seen Spike Lee talk about this flick. This is Spike’s neighborhood and he knows Italians. He likes Italians, even though he realizes some are racist. But, based on one outburst by the Aiello character these insular liberals thought he was just as bad as his son[John Tuturro]. Incredible. They see no layers or context w/ these ideologues, just heroes and racists.
rafflaw, It’s always a shame when an otherwise intelligent person is too lazy to do any research before they question something.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/tear-gas-molotov-cocktails-ferguson-protests-24974553
“Where is your evidence of Molotov cocktails hitting any police lines or vehicles or coming close?”
Just how out of touch with reality are you? A Molotov cocktail is intended to cause death or serious bodily injury. You should be commending the police for their restraint in choosing to deploy tear gas. Close? Tell me, how close will you let me throw a Molotov cocktail to a member of your family before you consider it to be a serious threat?
As far as Martial Law goes, the only entity with the ability to declare Martial Law would be the federal government, and only in limited circumstances where the courts would have to be closed. Maybe you just don’t know what Martial Law actually is. It is evident that you are not aware that it is strictly prohibited under the Missouri Constitution.
“I do have a client who is a former St. Louis County police officer.” -Jack in an earlier comment
http://jonathanturley.org/2014/08/20/missouri-governor-calls-for-vigorous-prosecution-before-the-completion-of-the-investigation-into-ferguson-shooting/#comment-1268438
Jack wrote to “anon”:
“anon, I have one friend on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.”
So 1+1 = 1, Jack?