They each get just one bullet, and the have to keep in in their pocket until they’re ready to use it.
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Thanks, Fight Club. Got anything to say about the activities in Ferguson?
He was braying like a stuck pig. Not quite sure what symbolic overture you’re making by referencing Fight Club, but okay?
I have plenty to say. But what would be the point? Just so I could get into a heated platitudinous argument with some stranger over the vagaries of our respective privileged removal from the fact of militarized oppression to civil protest? Are you the direct victim of racial profiling? If so, you have a great deal more to say on this issue than I do. If you are not, then what is the basis for your indignation here? I am deeply concerned with police militarization. Happy?
And, as I think you have already demonstrated, any attempt at inciting some kind of political action in this context would be met with swift cynical disdain. People hate rhetoric, don’t they? Rhetoric is the enemy. Language ought to be utilitarian and serviceable. Likewise, let’s all corral ourselves into neat little boxes and proceed dutifully onto the next cutesy post about bananas.
There isn’t if you realize they’ve had trouble every night. It just hasn’t been reported here. Only the peaceful protests have. At night there are people on the street in masks throwing things - like lit bottles - at cops. That isn’t all. They had the looting and burning on Sunday and then Tuesday night some guys were out running around with guns and one of them got shot. That was not related to the protests. However, police have encountered guns at night in Ferguson.
Police on Monday and Tuesday responded with tear gas and in some cases fired “bean-bag rounds” to disperse groups. After mostly peaceful protests Tuesday, a 19-year-old man was shot and wounded by police near the demonstrations after allegedly pointing a handgun at an officer. Belmar said that shooting has not been tied to the protests, but he said officers have been shot at several times since the civil unrest began.
Xeni posted the other thread about the tear gas - she didn’t say that the cops had announced that the protest had become un-peaceful, and asked the crowd disperse before they released it.
EDIT: Believe it or not - I’m just echoing the the POTUS (who said it after me). I’m not saying that the cops should be there in these elevated numbers - I’m saying the looters and violent nighttime protestors give them the excuse to be there. Both need to quit it.
Agreed.
YES! well said. I wish we ALL could change our views of what “winning” looks like. Instead of being on top? winning should be about working together, able to talk, and respecting each other. Winning should be our society, all people, not afraid.
and? just watching myself type this? I’m like? HOW?
I’m hoping and praying that what is happening in Ferguson MO outrages the American people at the degree in which our nations police forces have become militarized. It’s ridiculous to think that a town like Ferguson needs a police force with tanks and a swat team. Something must be done to stop this escalation of these armed for combat police forces. If that kind of force is truly needed couldn’t the National Guard be brought to the area, this response is overkill and incites the population, and the people watching. I understand the need for a presence at a peaceful demonstration, to make sure it stays peaceful but this sort of display only makes things worse. Why don’t they see the obvious? Why is it that a citizen from 1000 miles away can tell it isn’t needed and those in the area can’t see. The need for the National Guard in this instance would be to require the local police to stand down.
What are you talking about? Can’t you make an argument without slandering others? Must you put someone else down to push yourself up?
Libertarians have not only been warning about the police for years, they’ve supported gay marriage, ending the War on Drugs (which fuels most of the police actions), against war, against immigration laws. It goes on and on.
Oh, libertarians also support gun ownership. Note businesses that didn’t get looted were stopped by gun toting business owners, not the police- who from what I read on this site are the only ones who should have firearms.
Libertarian philosophy can basically be summed up as “don’t mess with other peoples bodies and stuff”. For some reason this scares people.
The police in their current incarnation are a result of the state. More state power more power needed to be ceded to the police. Every ban, ought-to-be a law, every regulation is enforced by these police. This is basically a definition for messing with other people’s bodies and stuff.
Please direct your criticisms at the people and policies responsible. Not a varied group that just wants to support individuals.
Yes, just about every libertarian news site and commenter are specking out. In fact they’ve been doing it since day one.
In fact Rand Paul (not actually a libertarian but holds some similar views) addressed not only the militarization of police but the racial discrepancy in how laws are enforced and punished.
Any progressive politicians speaking this way?
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Is that an LRAD on the vehicle in jbouie’s image? Or a very similar looking sonic beam weapon? I thought that we were still pretending to have scruples about those…
Makes me wonder when Silent Guardian is going to show up for a demo.
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So there was looting - at night, not at the protest sites - and the police show up with ARs pointed at the crowd during the day at peaceful protests. That’s a little too disconnected to count as a “response.” (And you can’t really say that “both” need to stop their behavior if the police are using unrelated events as justifications for their actions. Sure, whoever is being violent needs to knock it off, but that’s always the case.) Not to mention that as a response, it’s a complete clusterfuck. I think the best you can say for the police is that they went in looking for trouble and they found it - at no point did they feel the need for an excuse.
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“You have twenty seconds to comply…”
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Its the WTF States of America.
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And I stand corrected … it took AG Holder and the highway patrol Captain Ron Johnson, both African American men, to squelch this.
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Good to see.
Are you implying there is an elaborate “liberal press” conspiracy?
How do you square this with the cops desire to prevent filming of the protests? If this is happening, why are the cops trying to stop the reporting?
Preston, don’t be like that. You know full well that’s not what I’m not saying - so don’t pull that nonsense with me. I just got done writing a post about Robin Williams’ diagnosis with Parkinsons’.
You added a sarcasm tag. Maybe Eksrae needs to add one?
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It’s a weird day when Reason and Boing Boing are on the same side of an issue.
Then why are you here?
Yes, I am.
I am cynically disdaining your post right now, thanks. See also my first question.
You first, thanks.
