The Ferguson, Missouri thread

[Aksannyi]

So where's the Tea Party fury here? I mean, cops are basically militarized, going around on an overreach spree and the loudest advocates for a clawback of big gummint are quiet as church mice.

I guess the right demographic cocktail hasn't been met to trip the alarms huh.

Well one of my coworkers didn't even know about the murder of Michael Brown, she thought people were just rioting for nothing and looting and that's why the riot police are out there. She thinks (and I nearly quote, this is not how I feel AT ALL) black people are just being black people and trashing their city for ... god only knows what for. When I told her they were upset and had started peacefully protesting about the shooting of an unarmed teenager, she looked up and read the article and then looked at the picture of his friend, the witness who was with him, and said that he looks like a gang member and a thug and we shouldn't believe his story about what happened. And "were there any other witnesses?"

And she's probably the closest I know to an actual tea party member, so they probably just look at it similarly and think there's absolutely nothing wrong with how the police are reacting because they just think this is apparently par for the course for American blacks.

Disgusting.

[Gokku]

what underbelly are you talking about all black people have known cops will shoot us for little to no reason. shit when i get pulled over i make sure rap music isn't playing last thing i need is lil wayne and a fake gunshot to get me killed.

[Bregor]

I think at least once a week there's a news story where my initial reaction is, "Fuck this shit, moving to Canada."

[The Blackrose]

Breakdown of DoD's 1033 program and what's been distributed - http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us...ents.html?_r=0

Military people have been going "WTF" too - http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/c...e-in-ferguson/

EDIT: Also find it simultaneously amusing and disturbing that Neenah, of all places, has an MRAP. That and they actually try to justify it.

[6souls]

More looks at the Al-Jazeera crew getting hit and additional footage provided by CNN of SWAT taking down their equipment;

[Callisto]

So where's the Tea Party fury here? I mean, cops are basically militarized, going around on an overreach spree and the loudest advocates for a clawback of big gummint are quiet as church mice.

I guess the right demographic cocktail hasn't been met to trip the alarms huh.

Here you go: http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police/

It's all big government's fault.

At least he admits that racial bias is a major issue in this.

[Talint]

Usually my facebook feed is clear of controversy.

But they have really crawled out of the woodwork to defend the cops here, on every step of the way.

plz send halp

[Callisto]

Most people don't even see anything about this on FB, it appears FB's news feed algorithms are for the most part actively or passively censoring the whole story.

[Cantih]

Maybe it's time to arm reporters with guns to defend their right to report, and their cameras with guns to defend their right to shoot.. visual images.

Spoiler: show

[Aksannyi]

Most people don't even see anything about this on FB, it appears FB's news feed algorithms are for the most part actively or passively censoring the whole story.

I have seen nothing about this on Facebook. Twitter and Tumblr have been the two places I have gotten most of my information. Tumblr is generally always outraged about things but there has actually been a lot of good information about what's going on.

This entire thing screams coverup and that disturbs me.

[Callisto]

I have seen nothing about this on Facebook. Twitter and Tumblr have been the two places I have gotten most of my information. Tumblr is generally always outraged about things but there has actually been a lot of good information about what's going on.

This entire thing screams coverup and that disturbs me.

https://medium.com/message/ferguson-...e-6d2f3db51eb0

It may not be intentional tbh, I've never really seen Facebook whitewash particular things before. Just a product of the algorithm being applied rather than it being an open stream of posts.

[Quicklet]

The press conference being given right now by the governor and officials is a complete embarrassment. St. Louis mayor praising the cops who were out in Ferguson, the governor not addressing the state law that makes incident reports part of the public record and not subject to withholding, and just a general lack of acknowledging the brutality that was exerted upon a civilian populace with no justification.

[6souls]

This entire thing screams coverup and that disturbs me.

It's more about the protests that had happened in England and how social media was used greatly to spread information. It worked too well and now they have coded against it. There are probably red flags whenever "protest" is mentioned and gets removed from the feed. We saw FB's timeline control earlier this year when it was discovered how they were testing people's moods by allowing only positive or negative posts within someone's feed.

[Aksannyi]

https://medium.com/message/ferguson-...e-6d2f3db51eb0

It may not be intentional tbh, I've never really seen Facebook whitewash particular things before. Just a product of the algorithm being applied rather than it being an open stream of posts.

Fascinating read ... personally I can't stand that Facebook thinks I want to see the same story from three days ago because it has more likes or comments, rather than a chronological ordering. I do set my feed to chronological, but it often resets itself and I have to fix it.

It does make me wonder what kind of shit went down in places throughout the world before the internet became the fastest way to spread information through multiple outlets.

[Callisto]

Governor is totally smart, brought out his black friends for the presser so everyone knows he's not a racist

[Andalusian girls]

Here you go: http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police/

It's all big government's fault.

At least he admits that racial bias is a major issue in this.

wat how is this mock-worthy it's the best thing about any politician has written on the situation, a lot better than Obama's tepid both sides bullshit, and what we're seeing in Missouri is the definition of big government acting like dickheads

i don't agree with the Pauls on most things but come on

When you couple the militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury—national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture—we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.

Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth.

dude is SPOT, ON

RAND 2012

[Gokku]

I thought they only hated federal big gov?

[Callisto]

I wasn't actually knocking it, I think it's good that at least one of the Tea Party/Sovereign Citizen/NRA wackypants actually stuck to their ideals when it involved non-whites and it's a good article. The only thing that bugged me was the "It's all big government's fault and just a friendly reminder I'm against those guys!" wrapper but I still think highly of him for putting this out there.

[Quicklet]

The thing about Rand Paul is that you can't really be sure if he's saying these things now because he's genuinely changed his mind on them, or if he's saying them because he thinks he can win the presidency. Dude won't even acknowledge that he's flat out contradicting things he's said previously before he became a national figure. It's good that he's putting himself out there but it's hard to believe this isn't just political posturing for his own personal gain.

[kuronosan]

No no, you see, it's okay to do this if you're suppressing liberals and minorities.