Being one of them, sometimes white people make me discouraged:
Gun sales spiked in the region around Ferguson, Missouri, this week, as police face off with protesters in what until Thursday night was an around-the-clock stand-off many analogized to a war zone.
At Metro Shooting Supplies’ Bridgeton location 9 miles from Ferguson, gun sales were 8 to 10 times higher than at the store’s other locations, owner Steve King told the Huffington Post. “To put it in perspective, the sales we’re seeing now are like what we see around Christmas time,” he said. Another owner of a gun store in Ellisville, Missouri, said guns were selling at double the usual rate this week. “Because of the rioting, everyone’s nervous up here now,” said owner Steve Walsh.
Of all the character flaws, I have the hardest time abiding cowardice. Even dishonesty bothers me less.
Several hundred black people with their hands in the air chanting “Hands up. Don’t shoot.” constitutes a “war zone” for the media.
The biggest coward in question is Darren Wilson, if he is honestly as “devastated” and Chief Jackson says he is.
BTW, how are sales going in Crestwood MO? They were informed yesterday that the media might be focusing on them because of their neighbor Darren Wilson.
Have you heard about the developments today? It’s been a combo of keystone kops and rat f-cking by the Ferguson PD. And the St. Louis County prosecutor hasn’t been any better.
It’s pretty straight-forward rat-fucking. The jury pool is pretty well poisoned at this point thanks to MSNBC nationalizing the smear. You get the feeling that Dorian Johnson and his lawyer were dodging a heavy-handed second degree strongarm robbery charge and did what they had to do. It worked. The Ferguson PD cleared Johnson.
And Jackson clearly sandbagged Ron Johnson and the Gov. Nixon with his announcement this morning and the fact that Darren Wilson is “out of the area”.
One thing about “hick”-lawyer and law enforcement types. You have to count your fingers every time you shake hands with them. They are really slicker than their verbal stupidity makes them seem. It easy to fall for their Keystone Kops routine.
I’m still curious about how deeply the St. Louis DHS Fusion Center was involved in managing the law enforcement team that was and is in Ferguson doing crowd control. The Chief playing them was part of the rat-fucking too—creating a “war zone” where none existed.
The video — unless there is more that we haven’t seen — doesn’t implicate Johnson in the robbery or assault. He clearly put the cigars that Brown handed to him back on the counter and was out of the store when Brown assaulted the store employee and likely didn’t see what took place.
Has there been definitive identification that the person in the video is Brown?
Yes. Johnson admitted that it was; plus the clothes and hat are the same as what Brown was wearing.
Johnson admitted while facing a second-degree strongarm robbery charge. That tends to make one want to cooperate with the police.
I haven’t seen a picture of Brown on the day of the shooting other than person alleged to be him in the store video.
Do you have a link to another picture of Brown (besides the babyface one his supporters put out)?
the only pics of Mike Brown after the robbery is his dead body on the ground after being shot.
Luckily, the body was uncovered for up to 4 hours so if you find the pic, you can see what he was wearing.
The video is the strong evidence that Johnson did not participate in the theft or assault. An easy case could be made that once he understood that Brown would not be paying for the cigars, he put those that Brown had handed to him on the counter and turned to leave the story. I was wrong in stating that Johnson was out outside the store when the assault took place, but he was trying to get out of the store and away from the altercation between Brown and the store employee and he was not in a position to have seen the assault.
You’re correct that the public should be cautious in drawing conclusions from fragmentary published evidence. However in this case, the pictures at The Daily Mail strongly indicate that the man in the store is the same as the man shot and killed. Debating this point seems futile.
That said, we don’t know what what transpired a few minutes later between Brown and the cop that resulted in Brown being killed. It is alleged that Johnson initially reported that he first encountered Brown shortly before the appearance of the cop. If true, it reduces his credibility as a witness. Then there’s this:
Could be true, but the cop must be a really big guy if he “grabbed Brown by the neck.” Brown was taller and bigger than Rodney King and most people will struggle to believe that one cop initiated a physical encounter with Brown. If it’s true that the first shot from the cop’s gun took place in his car, that has to be included in a believable narrative.
Any case against the cop will be stronger if it can’t be demonstrated that he had been informed of the theft/assault. That he had no reason or reasonable suspicion for stopping Brown. Enforcing an ordinance against jaywalking would seem excessive, but a friend of mine (an attorney) was ticketed for jaywalking in LA.
Brown may well have been a generally good kid that wouldn’t seriously hurt anyone. But the portrait the family presented of an innocent, gentle, college bound kid is at best incomplete. To what, if any, extent his size and possible impulsivity when confronted figured into the tragedy must be considered in the investigation. As should all the characteristics and general behaviors of the cop and every iota of forensic evidence. If it indicates murder, the cop should be charged accordingly.
While I understand the sorrow, anger, and frustration of Michael Brown’s family and the community and the rational suspicion that the investigation will not be just because cops all too often do get away with murder, as a nation we seem to be stuck trying individual instances in the court of public opinion without the benefit of enough information and it quickly devolves into hysteria on two sides. Those that view victims as always innocent and those that view cops as always guilty. Rarely do the facts support either position. Is there really no better way for us to handle such instances? To assure victims and law enforcement officers that the investigation and hearing will be swift, fair and just?
Remember there is no audio on the store tape.
Very much aware of that. Whatever was said could have made Brown and/or Johnson seem less or more threatening.
Also note that the screen capture from the video of the the battery is far more intense than the actual event. Completely plausible to me that Brown wasn’t particularly aware of his own strength and at that point perceived the store employee as in the way of his ability to leave the store and not connected to his theft.
LATEST SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS: Claudia Jordan @claudiajordan
So while reporting yesterday in #Ferguson I met a woman who CONFIRMED that video footage of #MikeBrown in the store-was from the DAY BEFORE!
○ Obama, can’t you see black anger in Ferguson?
Additional twitter feeds #MichaelBrown and #BlackLivesMatter and #DarrenWilson.
This is hardly worth noting much less repeating:
And as the Ferguson PD have denied that the cop knew of the theft before the shooting, it doesn’t matter if the theft was ten minutes or ten days before. But did Brown and Johnson know that the cop hadn’t been informed of the theft?
Latest news @St. Louis Today plus Ferguson Police Report of incident.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/dooley-looking-into-special-prosecutor-for-micha
el-brown-shooting-case/article_52c40b84-ad90-5f9a-973c-70d628d0be04.html
I don’t see cowards. I see white people who in their minds are getting ready for a race war and to shoot some black people. I suppose maybe cowardice is a facet, but only if we look into their deranged heads where they see a robber/mugger around every corner. “Coward” just isn’t the word that jumps at me. They’re not so much cowards as paranoid racists.
When did white people become such fans of Charles Manson?
You’re hallucinating.
Most white people who are buying guns have no intention of engaging in a race war.
Precisely. In their heads it’s just defensive. “Hordes of blah people” are going to descend upon their part of town, looting from businesses and homes. So they have to be ready with their guns.
I can’t imagine it’s fear of gun control.
Did they break down the demographics of the sales? I feel it would be interesting to know the following parameters, race, age, sex.
You though were talking about legal gun shops. Unfortunately there is no way to know the amount of under the table private gun sales in the area.
I would also like to know what your personal parameters are for, what makes a Coward?
Example: Is a single woman more or less a Coward than a male, for purchasing a weapon?
Owning a gun doesn’t make you a coward. Seeing some bullshit on television and then going and buying a gun because you’re afraid makes you a coward.
And not so obviously stupid as when the cowards rushed out and bought duct tape and plastic sheeting after 9/11 to protect themselves from Muslim terrorists. Or was it the anthrax terrorist that duct tape and plastic sheeting would thwart?
Just a little mention on supposed rioting. What I have seen is very little examples of any type of rioting. In the mid west, Indiana I witnessed rioting first handed as a young man. It was a war zone. There was no people with hands raised and chanting. Maybe all of the USA needs a refresher course on just what rioting is. What I have seen is protesting the two are very dissimilar.
It seems that more people are paranoid then they were years ago.
I lived perhaps a mile away from some of the LA post Rodney King verdict riots and it never entered my head to buy a gun. The fires made the air difficult to breathe and the curfew was a pain in the ass, but understanding that the anger was legitimate made me feel sad but never fearful.
OT: Have you seen the new present dential poll? HRC has come crashing down to earth with leads of 6-8 points over possible Rs.
Presidential, heh. My tablet auto corrects.
If gun sales are now as high as they are at Christmas, one must wonder what they’re afraid of then. Santa Claus?
Celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace.