[BRAH]

The local NAACP chapter is adding fuel to the fire by encouraging people to go out and protest because it's their right, Rev Al stirring the pot with his "No Justice no Peace", the anarchists coming out who thrive on situations like this and Anonymous posting the name and addresses of police officers who have nothing to do with this case things are getting worse.

[ShepherdsDog]

$1:

IMHO the police are acting and dressing as if they're engaging an enemy instead of the population they're supposed to serve and protect.

sounds like they are engaging a segment of American society you've often portrayed as being the enemy of law and order. Seems to me, that the militarization of the police has been a lagging response to the increase in firepower and weapons that criminal organizations and anti government 'militias' are now wielding.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

That's why I used the word "alleged".

I find it amazing that you now complain about "treating their own citizens as the enemy" when you specifically adhere to a social conservative movement and ideology that's done far more to demonize and turn Americans against each other over the last forty years than any other phenomenon in your nation's history has since the outbreak of the Civil War. The paramilitarization of American police was done by conservatives who generally see a hammer as being the only solution to all problems, not by moderates and liberals who see things as far more complex and subtle. I'm sorry, and none of this is meant personally, but American social conservatives deliberately created and stoked this runaway hatred Americans now apparently have for each other. You don't cavalierly get to walk away from it and put the blame on someone else, Herr Doktor von Frankenstein.

The SWAT thing has been the signature of statists and neo-cons.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the average patrol cop having an AR-15 available just in case he needs it. I also see the place for urban police departments to have SWAT teams available for dealing with proportionate threats.

And SWAT teams were a correct response to the heavily armed drug cartels of the 1980's and 1990's.

But then they started militarizing these guys after 9/11 and that falls squarely on the statists of both neo-con and neo-liberal alignments. Both sides have long favored increasing the power of the state at the expense of the people.

Clinton allowed his Department of Justice to oversee wild injustices, the worst of which was at Waco where the ATF ran a massive cluster to arrest David Koresh, a guy who went jogging every day at 8:30am. Instead of quietly arresting him when he went jogging they did what they did to put on a show.

Then Bush came along with 9/11 and the horribly misnamed Patriot Act which has eviscerated our Constitution to the point that the thought of limits on government power are a laughing matter.

As for myself, I've consistently opposed a police state and no end of folks on here over the years have called me paranoid for contemplating possibilities that are now considered common knowledge.

[martin14]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

In any case, the Governor of Missouri has ordered the TWB to stand down and he'll probably order in the National Guard or state police to maintain order and to help settle things down.

It will be the Missouri State Highway Patrol taking over Ferguson.

[Goober911]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/1 ... ref=canada

FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Highway Patrol will take over the supervision of security in the St. Louis suburb that's been the scene of violent protests since a police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, the governor announced Wednesday.

Gov. Jay Nixon said security will be overseen by Capt. Ron Johnson of the Highway Patrol. Johnson, who is black, said he grew up in the community and "it means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence."

"Ferguson will not be defined as a community that was torn apart by violence but will be known as a community that pulled together to overcome it," Nixon said at a news conference.

[BRAH]

What about the Boston Police response after the bombings, was it over the top? They were also charged with the Police State label.

[BartSimpson]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

$1:

IMHO the police are acting and dressing as if they're engaging an enemy instead of the population they're supposed to serve and protect.

sounds like they are engaging a segment of American society you've often portrayed as being the enemy of law and order. Seems to me, that the militarization of the police is been a lagging response to increase in firepower and weapons that criminal organizations and anti government 'militias' are now wielding.

Black folks do commit a disproportionate number of crimes. It's undeniable.

It's also undeniable that the police in Ferguson (not necessarily the Ferguson PD) are aiming loaded weapons at unarmed civilians, they're employing military antipersonnel munitions against unarmed civilians, and they're illegally attacking the media even outside of areas that are contested.

Even President Obama is now taking issue with the behavior of the police.

As to those anti-government militias they were just a fringe until recent years and now they've grown to the point that they could raise up 5,000 people to go defend the Bundy Ranch. That kind of thing didn't happen in a vacuum.

And if the response is for law enforcement to further militarize and become a force of occupation then the case is made that we'll need those anti-government militias to defend us from militarized police agencies that even offend Obama.

[BartSimpson]

Goober911 Goober911:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/jay-nixon-ferguson-security_n_5679774.html?ir=Canada&utm_hp_ref=canada

FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Highway Patrol will take over the supervision of security in the St. Louis suburb that's been the scene of violent protests since a police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, the governor announced Wednesday.

Gov. Jay Nixon said security will be overseen by Capt. Ron Johnson of the Highway Patrol. Johnson, who is black, said he grew up in the community and "it means a lot to me personally that we break this cycle of violence."

"Ferguson will not be defined as a community that was torn apart by violence but will be known as a community that pulled together to overcome it," Nixon said at a news conference.

Good news.

[BartSimpson]

Something I think everyone will find worth reading at New York Magazine:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... agree.html

I am just posting the link as NY Mag aggressively enforces their copyright in both the USA and Canada.

[BRAH]

That's going to help.

[xerxes]

The bleating of Internet sheep. Whatever.

[Thanos]

Twitter comments are about as helpful to any situation as YouTube ones are, and YouTube comments are usually at the bottom of the toilet along with 4Chan. 140 characters max, minus all the retweets to one's buddies, usually leave enough space left for adding yet another insult to the heap but certainly not enough for anything useful.

[xerxes]

Even though I just dissed twitter, here some interesting tweets from ex-service members.

https://storify.com/AthertonKD/veterans-on-ferguson

[BRAH]

Twiter is a useful tool but lately that seems to less true with actions like this or the harrasement of Zelda Williams, the comments from ex service members are interesting.

[xerxes]

It`s the internet in a nutshell: good stuff when you can find it, but you wade through a lot of shit too.