supremebve Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 I really think we should address the fact that Michael Brown was the first "murder" in Ferguson this year...yet the police department has tanks. That is incredibly troubling. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 So if you want to know just *how* a small town Police Department is more heavly armed than some Army Recon units... http://www.newsweek.com/how-americas-police-became-army-1033-program-264537 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrag Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Looks like the county police will be relieved of command soon... .http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/08/how_are_law_enforcement_strategy_decisions_being_made_in_ferguson.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Anonymous has leaked the officer's name and picture. (and within the last few minutes @TheAnonMessage, which had the info on it has been suspended) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Yeah, that'll calm everything down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 People still don't quite understand how these groups work. They'll have the personal info of every officer on the force posted up somewhere if they have to.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 So if you want to know just *how* a small town Police Department is more heavly armed than some Army Recon units... http://www.newsweek.com/how-americas-police-became-army-1033-program-264537 If you want to go a bit more in depth, this was published last year to pretty good reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-Cop-Militarization-Americas/dp/1610392116 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilwaldo Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 So if you want to know just *how* a small town Police Department is more heavly armed than some Army Recon units... http://www.newsweek.com/how-americas-police-became-army-1033-program-264537 When the drug gangs are armed like a militia the cops need more than standard issue pistols. The saddest part is that you could put a stake in the heart of The Constitution with the way this has been handled by the government. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fresh Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 So if you want to know just *how* a small town Police Department is more heavly armed than some Army Recon units... http://www.newsweek.com/how-americas-police-became-army-1033-program-264537 You're absolutely right, except just to clarify, Ferguson ain't a "small town". It's part of St. Louis, for all intents and purposes.EDIT: The only reason I think it's important to bring that up is it helps paint the picture on why this is happening here. Racial relations in St. Louis have been shit for a long, long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 This is another one of those evils of housing discrimination cases. This is a suburb that is something like 70% black and like many other mostly black communities the police treat the population like an enemy, even when they aren't doing anything at all. Things like this happens all of the time, but since it happens to "them" or "over there" nothing ever happens. I hope they shut the entire city down for months if that's what it takes for things to change. These are American citizens being killed by police, isn't one of the reasons we went to Iraq because Saddam was killing his own people? Why is this different? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 Trying to read between the lines it sounds like Obama spoke to Nixon and told him "I will let you handle this but you better not FUCK IT UP" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 A lot of people are mad at Obama because they think he should do more. While Nixon seems like a dope, he's still Missouri's governor and cutting in front of him to do his job--especially since Nixon is a fellow Democrat--wouldn't go over well, either. I think the FBI are being sent to Ferguson anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Federal police powers are limited, and there would have to be a state of martial law to send federal troops in, which there isn't. Also, replacing overly-militaristic cops with the actual military isn't necessarily an improvement. It could very well escalate things. Obviously the local clowns have bungled it, but the next step has to be at the state level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Fresh Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Somebody needs to tell the cops that. I hate to say this, really hate it. But stuff like Ferguson really makes me see why more people need to be armed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 This whole thing is so screwed up. I am a very apolitical person but this has me angry like I haven't been in years.1) Let's separate the term media. Their are awesome reporters -- the WaPo guy who got arrested, the local St. Louis print folks -- doing a great job. The big three TV 24/ cable networks suck. Is this a surprise? They have sucked for years. But the Internet lets us pick and choose who we want to provide us with information like never before. Just don't watch those guys and read/watch the people who know what the hell they're doing, as opposed to the dumb-ass talking heads. But there has been a lot of really good reporting with this.2) This is such a good example of what local and county government can and will do to us. But this is also the easiest level of participatory government to watch and actually impact. Want to prevent this from happening where you live? Go to your local council and ask what sort of weaponry their police forces have and tell them you want that stuff out of your community. Maybe they'll listen. If not, go to the local press, tell your neighbors and go to every meeting with the same message. I used to work at local newspapers covering this sort of stuff -- it actually works sometimes.I'm also a member of my neighborhood's civic association. We largely focus on things like zoning ordinances. It can be sort of boring, but we've done stuff like gotten rid of an illegal boarding house that had shady characters living in them, prevented a developer from circumventing the proper process so he could turn a single family house into a duplex (which adds in parking and the like), etc. We're working on building a dog park and planning neighborhood events.An aide to our city council person usually comes to these meetings. I've also e-mailed him directly. The community liaison from our police ward comes to talk about local crime issues.It really takes just a few hours a month. Own your democracy. If this pisses you off and you want to do something about it, then you can. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Somebody needs to tell the cops that. I hate to say this, really hate it. But stuff like Ferguson really makes me see why more people need to be armed. Except...I don't care how armed you are, there is nothing you can do to defend yourself against a police force with military weapons and vehicles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Somebody needs to tell the cops that. I hate to say this, really hate it. But stuff like Ferguson really makes me see why more people need to be armed. So Mike Brown could've been killed on sight? Or so the cops can whip up a believable story as to why he deserved to die? Or so the crowd can turn into a militia and a peaceful protest can turn into the Battle of St. Louis? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 This is also what happens when you have really awful leadership.The St. Louis County PD is structured so horribly.Most counties have an elected sheriff or something similar to run law enforcement. SLC does it differently.They instead have a Board of Police Commissioners that hires the Chief of Police, approves funding and purchases and the like. The County Executive handpicks who should go on the board. The county council then votes yay or nay.This board has been a mess for years. Last I can tell, they don't even have a full board. They had a bunch of people resign because of various turmoil -- one commissioner's company won a $3 million bid from the board and is being investigated for it by the FBI, for instance. The county chairman fought forever with the old Chief of Police and forced him to resign. But they didn't have enough members for a while to even hire someone to replace him. When they finally did, they promoted from within and ended up with the guy they have now.If this was an elected position, whoever ran would have to go out and campaign and meet people he's sworn to protect. He'd probably hear a lot more directly (as opposed to lawsuits and academic studies, which SLC has had) about racial disparities in the county. In a county that's roughly 25% African-American, he'd have to listen to some leaders from that community in order to garner votes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Somebody needs to tell the cops that. I hate to say this, really hate it. But stuff like Ferguson really makes me see why more people need to be armed. Except...I don't care how armed you are, there is nothing you can do to defend yourself against a police force with military weapons and vehicles. That would not make me want to give up a weapon. At the very least you can take some of the pigs with you. I do not own any guns. But at this point I can't tell other people they should not be armed, when the cops are killing young people for sport. So Mike Brown could've been killed on sight? Or so the cops can whip up a believable story as to why he deserved to die? Or so the crowd can turn into a militia and a peaceful protest can turn into the Battle of St. Louis? They already murdered the kid. They do not need an excuse. They are attacking protesters already. They are sitting ducks. I don't like saying this, but this is the world we live in. There is no reward for being peaceful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Let's not. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 So Mike Brown could've been killed on sight? Or so the cops can whip up a believable story as to why he deserved to die? Or so the crowd can turn into a militia and a peaceful protest can turn into the Battle of St. Louis? They already murdered the kid. They do not need an excuse. They are attacking protesters already. They are sitting ducks. I don't like saying this, but this is the world we live in. There is no reward for being peaceful. ... Yeah, I can't. Seacrest out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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