Via TPM:
The order establishes that the St. Louis County police will be in charge of law enforcement in Ferguson in response to any unrest. It will work in coordination with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the St. Louis city police. The order lasts for 30 days.
Nixon also issued an executive order activating the Missouri National Guard to assist local law enforcement.
Remember when George Zimmerman was declared Not Guilty in the murder of Trayvon Martin and protesters burned Sanford, Florida to the ground? Me neither.
How about this? Remember all the talk about how, if Zimmerman was found Not Guilty, protesters would burn Sanford, Florida to the ground? I remember that. I’m sure everyone remembers since the talk of riots and violence filled the airways and internet. You couldn’t escape it.
Remember how, after Zimmerman’s verdict came in, he was a hunted man who was continuously beaten up, shot at and ultimately killed? Wait a minute… that didn’t happen? But I’m hearing the same thing about Darren Wilson’s future, the police officer who killed Michael Brown…
Are you starting to see a pattern? I am, and it’s infuriating.
Now I’m not saying that there won’t be some trouble makers – they tend to exist in all large crowds. And if these people frighten you then don’t ever send your kid to a rock concert. Perhaps a State of Emergency should be declared whenever a large group of people gather for an event? I’m kidding… sorta.
But the underlying message is that the people of Ferguson (just like the people of Sanford) will react violently because they’re poor and black. They are being viewed as criminals before they step out of their front doors. And if you go back and watch all the footage from Ferguson this past summer what you’ll see is a 99% peaceful protest with a few bad apple protesters and a bushel full of badly behaving police officers who arrested people for no reason, who called people names and threatened them, who pointed loaded weapons at people, who removed all identification from their uniforms, etc.. You’ll also see looting being stopped by protesters as law enforcement formed a perimeter around the area and did nothing to stop the looting. As I watched all this footage I kept asking myself why the police were even there? To form a human cage?
We really need to change our ways. But I doubt we will. Remember during Hurricane Katrina when we were treated to two identical pictures of people wading through water with supplies? The white couple’s photo was captioned: “Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans…” The black guy’s photo was captioned: “A young man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans…”
Then there’s the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival… twitter user, AllenGirl1975 broke it down perfectly for us:
There’s Huntington Beach, CA:
A violent crowd raged through Huntington Beach on Sunday night after a surfing competition, clashing with police, toppling portable toilets, brawling in the streets and vandalizing and looting at least one business, according to police and witnesses.
The Huntington crowd was white, btw.
And then there was the riot in our own back yard – University of Delaware. Oh, I’m sorry. Did I say they rioted? I meant “wreak havoc”
Some walked on cars, urinated in public and blocked traffic — transforming what might otherwise have been a sleepy Monday night into what Newark police described as a near riot.
Near riot? Couldn’t quite make the leap? And when you read the articles surrounding this riot it’s funny how most of the discussion is about I’m Shmacked – as if this organization was solely responsible, as if they hypnotized the students and controlled their behavior. Not a word was mentioned about the students’ upbringing or culture. No one asked the white community what their problem was. More importantly, no one at the pumpkin festival, or at Huntington Beach or the UD riots was shot.
All I want is equality in language. Yeah, I know I’m not going to get it, but maybe we can train ourselves to recognize when it’s happening.
For what it’s worth I don’t expect Darren Wilson to be indicted – which just shows how cynical I’ve become. And I really hope the Grand Jury’s decision comes soon. I don’t think I can stand anymore violent prophecies that only ever surface when it comes to the black community. Go back to Zimmerman’s trial and remember all the hysteria over violent prophecies and then tell me what actually happened after the verdict. Can we please stop this?