Tell that to the cops at Birmingham. A few little news reports on egregious human rights abuses and all of a sudden they’re impeded from using attack dogs and fire hoses against peaceful protesters.
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It appears boingboing bbs membership increased ~600% in the last hour. Keep that in mind when responding to trolls.
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It’s a matter of degree. No major media organization is immune to gross corruption when it comes to covering the hand that feeds them. In the U.S., the corporate-fear complex gets a pass from our media (which Al J covers reasonably well). In the Gulf plutocracies, Al J is pretty much entirely unable to remove their tongues from the toes of their masters.
This kind of cross-coverage doesn’t always work out well. Look at what’s happened at RT in the last year. They’ve turned into the kind of blatant intelligence operation that the CIA operated in the sixties.
I could be wrong, but I think the point BigSky was making is that these cops don’t have the training to go with the toys. They’ve got the weapons and the scopes, but (apart from the assault on the news crew) their behavior shows that they haven’t a clue what they’re doing. If they actually DID face the sort of opposition that would justify the ridiculous armament they carry, they would be dead before they knew what hit them.
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A bio-diesel-fueled commie tank loaded with glitter bombs, rainbows, and a kickin’ speaker system?
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Well, no. I seem to remember the wingnut line at the time was that all the cops and veterans of the country were going to join Bundy in pushing back the federal troops. So they are probably already counting on the national guard showing up, then defecting, then …? Then profit, of course, after the revvalootion through privately contracted urban revitalization.
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It’s interesting how it’s only the Jewish neighborhoods where we find all this violence, while the rest of the normal citizenry seem to get along with their local Nazi officials quite well. Oh wait, I think I see the problem. /s
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Why would they show up for another media manufactured circus?
“Ferguson police deny the targeting was intentional.”
OK, no matter how many times I read this, it still sounds like the police thinks armed police officers accidentally shooting at random people without identifying a target first were any better than a deliberate attack.
But that just can’t be right. Since that would in fact be much worse, I must have misread somewhere…
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Come on people. They are just securing the “Home Land”, one tear gas canister and 450 million rounds of hollow point .40 caliber ammo at a time.
Just gonna toss this in here, as a perspective from ACTUAL military vets:
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Imagine if it had been Godzilla!
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wait so that was wishful thinking and not pro-police trolling?
confusing thread
PLEASE PASS ALONG BEFORE WE ARE TURNED INTO A POLICE STATE,VALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATORS AND DEMADE THAT THYE SUPPORT THIS BIL!!
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, introduced HR 4934, also called the Regulatory Agency De-militarization Act or RAD, in late June, and it has since gained more than 30 co-sponsors in the House
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/congressman-on-mission-to-disarm-federal-agencies/#BC5TL3qWkUjYD4Tb.99
Are the feds involved in Ferguson? How would this disarm the St Louis police? The Ferguson Police? The state authorities who are turning this town into a war zone?
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If you look at the SWAT van that pulls up, it’s clearly marked “St. Charles County SWAT.” Doesn’t mean that the police are from there. So far, the riot response has involved Ferguson Police, St. Louis County Police, City of St. Louis Police and, apparently, Missouri Highway Police. Not sure if the St. Charles County Police are involved too or if they just supplied the van, but this is showing that a lot of police from a lot of municipalities are running amok and intentionally blocking news coverage.
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Personally, at this point I’d recommend people exercise their 1st amendment rights behind their 2nd amendment rights.
There’s only 245 police for every 100,000 people in the US. That’s 2.45 per 1000. And we think they have the power why precisely?
2 against 1000. Those are really really bad odds if you are up against people that refuse to back down and will shoot back. The key being that people would need to stop letting the police walk all over them.
Interesting article
Why there’s no accountability for the police in Ferguson
… What that means is that at least four different people, from different police departments, have made the decision to tear-gas protesters: one for each night tear-gas canisters have been fired. That means that the problem isn’t just with the St. Louis County police, or with the Ferguson police. (Ferguson mayor Jay Knowles said on Thursday that the St. Louis County police had been in charge “tactically” since Sunday, which conflicts with Jackson’s account — but raises further questions about who is really in command of what’s going on.)
More importantly, it makes it impossible for one police chief to be held accountable for what officers are doing in Ferguson. It’s not clear what the relationship is between an “incident commander” who’s making decisions at the protest site, and the chief of his police department. But because the public doesn’t even know which agency the “incident commander” is with, it’s impossible to demand that that police chief restrain his officers. When Ferguson chief Jackson gave his press conference Wednesday, he was asked whether there would be tear gas used on Wednesday night. He said, “I hope not.” But he honestly couldn’t make any promises, because it turned out that the St. Louis County police were the ones in charge.
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They’d have to get charged with something to get a conviction, and that immunity they’ve got prevents that.
