"Riots are the language of the unheard"~Martin Luther King Jr. #Ferguson #riots #humanlimits

#MikeBrown
Trayvon Martin
#TamirRice
#KajimePowell
#TonyRobinson

"We need to go out there and make this country into a place where #BlackLivesMatter"

JoeScarborough calling an unarmed dead teen a "Thug" was the last straw for me

Poor joe Scarboroug, as  a Southern white male he is used to black football players just playing for massa& shutting up.#handsuprams
— thefieldnegro (@fieldnegro) December 1, 2014

So, University of Alabama Alum, red, republican, right wing, congress critter turned Talking TeeVee Pundit Head Joe Scarborough used the public airways to spew misinformation, and smear Michael Brown after some members of the St. Louis Rams football team dared put their hands in the air before the game on Sunday in solidarity with protesters in Ferguson,

Scarborough’s bloviating was unrelenting and exhausting. The talk show host believes the black people supporting the Ferguson based protests are using a poor example by taking up the cause of the “thug” named Mike Brown. As an aside, I think I would like that word to go the way of b*tch, f*g, and ni**er. When do you ever hear that term used against anyone except people of color?

After you watch the video read 8 Thoughts on Joe Scarborough's Ferguson Rant.

 1) There is nothing more insufferable than a pompous white guy telling black people how to act. This should be so damn obvious. Even Joe himself points out the unfairness to black people on the streets and in the courts of this nation. The system is rigged and only a white fool doesn’t know that. The difference is, black people live it. Considering that, imagine having a rich white guy going on television and letting you know what you have the right to be outraged over? A man who can hail a cab with ease, can shop in a retail establishment without being watched, and has many fewer worries about getting shot just because of an accident of birth. At least moderate your damn tone.

#BringBackImus
#JustSayNoToMorning Joe

All #Ferguson All the Time

Watch this amazing video that truly captures what #Ferguson is about.  Fist Dap to Molly Crabapple,  an artist and writer living in New York.



Read this passionate Open Letter to the People of #Ferguson

 

 Stop the Media's reckless provocation of violence in Ferguson.

FBI Warns Ferguson Decision May Lead to Violence Against Cops

abcnews.go.com

NEWS: As the nation patiently waits to hear whether a Missouri grand jury will indict #Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing #MikeBrown 102 days ago, the FBI is warning law enforcement agencies across the country that the "decision “will likely” lead some protesters to threaten and even attack police officers or federal agents."

This type of dangerous and inaccurate narrative only serves to criminalize the victim and peaceful protestors and fails to acknowledge a longstanding crisis of violent policing. The fact is; it's not civilians that are clad in riot gear, firing rubber-coated bullets, launching flash grenades and perched on top of armored trucks with military style rifles, making unjust arrests and leaving hundreds injured -- it's law enforcement. 

You won't see this on TeeVee because it doesn't fit the false narrative.  KKK Threatens Liberal Blogger for reporting on Anonymous unmasking of Hate Group

Willis says she will not let a threat from small-minded racists to dissuade or intimidate her, though. "Here is how this works. I'm not stopping anything that I do, ever. I am going to get up every day for the rest of my life and do what I think is right - just as I have every single day prior to this one," she wrote. "Threaten me and you're just going to make me even more determined. Please understand that I'm one of those crazy liberal b*tches who is willing to die for what she believes in. Do you really think an anonymous threat is going to deter me?"

Gov. Nixon's Pre-Emptive Strike threatens to stir up tensions:

 Hands Up United organizer Tory Russell noted on Twitter that Nixon does not have the authority to declare a preemptive state of emergency, as Missouri law mandates that a disaster of "major proportions" must have actually taken place before such a declaration can be made. Russell quoted a state General Assembly statute that reads, "The existence of an emergency may be proclaimed by the governor or by resolution of the legislature, if the governor in his proclamation, or the legislature in its resolution, finds that a natural or man-made disaster of major proportions has actually occurred within this state[.]"

Psst!  Governor Nixon! This is what a state of emergency looks like.

Black on Black crime my Donkey.

Now THIS right here is what a riot looks like....#FergusonOctober

Hours of unrest at #pumpkinfest results in far more property damage than months of protests in #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/2iNRgnmMsb
— Khaled Bey (@KhaledBeydoun) October 19, 2014

And not one tank, tear gas, assault rifle, or police in riot gear in sight.

@bassem_masri so when the no bill comes down on #DarrenWilson remember this is not rioters #FergusonOctober pic.twitter.com/S90uV1hosJ
— PamS (@PamSchep) October 19, 2014

I wonder why?

Well Well Well! So trolls are these thugs? #Ferguson #FergusonOctober pic.twitter.com/8b2v7EgNoK
— Mrs B (@Iam_LadyB) October 19, 2014

#FergusonOctober#
#JusticeForMikeBrown
#ArrestDarrenWilson

#VestorVote

Post by Dream Defenders.

Update~ Throwback Thursday #Ferguson Round Up

How ppl in the media look when you turn down interviews bcz racial justice isn't abt more white talking heads. pic.twitter.com/BfHsjqJ5ei
— Brian Dominick (@BrianDominick) August 28, 2014

The fickle, white, male dominated, mainstream media is bored with #Ferguson and #MikeBrown. They have shut this story down tighter than a drum, and moved on to the next, bright, shiny object.  The Revolution may not be televised, but it will continue to be blogged about on RedEye's Page.

 In order to halt any real conversation, one of the tools often used by right wing media is to cast every issue as an either/or. Media Matters has been doing a pretty good job lately of showing how Fox News edited the remarks of President Obama and AG Eric Holder about the situation in Ferguson by eliminating the balance in their statements. They aired only the side of these remarks that was sure to inflame their audience and eliminated the side conservatives might have agreed with.

I  must say Fox News is doing their part.

 It didn’t take long for people to start rallying to Darren Wilson’s defense.  In less than a week, several hundred thousand dollars had been raised on his behalf — with a healthy smattering of hateful racist messages in support, such as “I would have donated double this amount, but you missed his accomplice” — and Fox News had run a flood of false, unsourced stories, claiming that Wilson’s eye socket had been broken, implicitly “proving” that he had been in a heroic struggle for his life.

Only in America can you kill a black teen and earn 6 figures.

When you shoot and kill an unarmed Black teenager, you can expect the racists of America to crack their piggy banks open and reward you a six-figure sum.
Over the weekend, Darren Wilson’s supporters gathered for a rally, and sadly, they had much to celebrate now that it’s being reported that they’ve managed to best supporters of Michael Brown’s family in online fundraising. Indeed, the page in support of Wilson raised $235,010 from 5,902 people before organizers stopped accepting donations on Friday. They surpassed their goal of $100,000 in just four days. They have since opened another fundraising page, which has already amassed more than $100,000.
Meanwhile, a fundraising page in support of the Michael Brown Memorial Fund raised $214,000. According to Brown family laywer Benjamin Crump, “the funds will assist his family with costs that they will acquire as they seek justice on Michael’s behalf.”
What exactly does Darren Wilson need money for? He’s on paid leave, and wherever he is, I presume it’s on the state’s dime. After all, Darren Wilson was concealed long enough to get out of town before the national media arrived.

An Open Letter to the People of Ferguson, Mo.

 "We have felt your frustration at the uncomfortable realization that your protestors have been unfairly branded as looters, vigilantes, and rioters by segments of the ignorant, sensationalist news media".

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.  It's a good thing it wasn't held 50 years later because protesters would have been greeted (snark) with tanks, guns, snipers with assault rifles, dogs,tear gas, and police masquerading as the military.  It's not like the #Ferguson protestors were protesting against  paying taxes or something.

#nojusticenopeace
#BlackLivesMatter

The Power of the Press #ItsTheMedia

“This idea that every time a black person does something, they automatically become a ‘thug worthy of their own death?’ We don’t own drug crimes. We’re not the only ones that sell and do drugs all the time, we’re not the only ones who steal, we’re not the only ones who talk crazy to cops. There’s a complete double standard and a complete different experience that a certain element of this country has the privilege of being treated as human beings. And the rest of us are not being treated like human beings. Period. And that needs to be discussed, that is the story…we’re not making this up.”

7 Cynical Ways Police and Media have smeared Micheal Brown and the Black People of Ferguson

The unrest and protests following Brown’s killing have put the militarization of local police forces in the national spotlight, especially as police who look like soldiers are facing down protesters on Ferguson’s streets. But the most important issue that’s not getting widely discussed transcends the horrible specifics of Michael Brown’s death: the continuing trend of police officers shooting and killing black men, instead of using other tactics to deal with confrontations.
(On Tuesday, St. Louis police shot and killed another man, apparently wielding a knife, several miles from Ferguson.)

Thank you social media for being the kind of media we wish we had, instead of the media we have.

We ARE the media. We are in the middle of the second Information Revolution. The people with satellite uplinks and klieg lights will still have their place. But they will not be the main witnesses. All of us can hold power to account. And we must, if we are to have any kind of decent life.
Mike Brown should never have been killed. His young life was snuffed out for no good reason. But the reaction to his murder is proof that humans still strive for justice, still strive for freedom, despite what those in authority will.
Walter Cronkite narrated the Civil Rights struggle for middle American homes in the Sixties. Today, it could be me. It could be you. And that is power.

#Ferguson

"What part of the First Amendment does it say, "Keep it moving"? #Ferguson

My Tiananmen Square: African American woman facing down armed vehicles and teargas in Ferguson MO. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/jXhD9clz0t
— madison (@maddyjrbrown) August 18, 2014

Ten Things You Need to Know about Ferguson that the media won't tell you.

 #MarieChappelleNadal "there has only been one murder in #Ferguson this year and that was the death of #MichaelBrown #LetThatSinkIn

The #MikeBrown shooting may have been about race, but the #Ferguson military police crackdown on protestors is about all of us.

This is what democracy looks like in the land of the free and the home of the brave~Update

Rise and Shine http://t.co/uztTgo6Mjt pic.twitter.com/lWblDBlcCJ
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) August 18, 2014

@jesseberney: Call this “looting,” I dare you. RT @ShaunKing: Protestors broke into McDonalds to get milk for tear gas victims

Being the object of unwarranted deadly force by police officers is part of what it means to be black and poor in America. But, as Hamm said, no matter how much blacks raise their voices against indiscriminate police violence “the killings keep coming.”

The Latest from #Ferguson

Earlier today, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called in the National Guard:

Gov. Jay Nixon said the National Guard would help "in restoring peace and order" to Ferguson, where protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer entered their second week. Police said they acted in response to gunfire, looting, vandalism and protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails. "These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes," Nixon said in a statement.

Nixon didn't comment on the unprovoked attacks by police against peaceful protesters. And a preliminary private autopsy report, requested by the Brown family, has been released:

Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a police officer, sparking protests around the nation, was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed on Sunday found. One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury ... It was likely the last of bullets to hit him, he said.

And yet we keep hearing about black on black crime because it fits the false media narrative 

Missouri Congressman Clay on #Ferguson: "facing down innocent protesters w/sniper rifles & machine guns is totally unacceptable in America."

#HandsUpDon'tShoot

#HandsUp #DontShoot #Ferguson #RIPMikeBrown #RIPMLK pic.twitter.com/GBlgVgeNKB
— Flac Billi (@Billionsburg_F) August 17, 2014

Just because "some media reported the police were attacked by protestors", doesn't mean police were attacked by the protestors

Warning, this is live-feed raw coverage of the events as they happen in #Ferguson, Mo. May contain graphic language.

#HandUpDon'tShoot
#MikeBrown
#FergusonPolice
#NoJusticeNoPeace
#KnowJusticeKnowPeace

Is This is My Country? #WarOnWhites

#ferguson Hey, @TIME This US citizen throwing gas can back at police while draped flag is THE PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2014 pic.twitter.com/IhB9JN0HbI
— LiNCOLN PARK (@linc0lnpark) August 14, 2014

It's important for people to understand that the man is this photo was throwing it BACK at police who shot it at him.~Antonio French

Some people don't think we have the right

To say it's my country

Before they give in they would rather fuss and fight

Than say it's my country

I've paid 300 years or more

Of slave driving sweat and welts on my back

This is my country

Too many have died in protecting my pride

For me to go second class

We've survived a hard blow, and I want you to know

That you must face us at last

And I know you will give consideration

Shall we perish unjust or live equal as a nation

This is my country

This is my country, The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield)

Some people think we don't have the right To say it's my country Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight Than say it's my country I've paid three hundred years or more Of slave driving, sweat, and welts on my back This is my country

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/t/this_is_my_country.lyrics.php

This Is My Country The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield)

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/t/this_is_my_country.lyrics.php

Some people think we don't have the right To say it's my country Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight Than say it's my country I've paid three hundred years or more Of slave driving, sweat, and welts on my back This is my country

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/t/this_is_my_country.lyrics.php

"He was shot like an animal" #MikeBrown

"When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son,"

President Obama finally issued a statement regarding the death of Michael Brown, asking people to remember Micheal Brown  with reflections and understanding.


Oh, OK.

Reflect on THIS:

 By all accounts, [Michael] Brown was One Of The Good Ones. But laying all this out, explaining all the ways in which he didn't deserve to die like a dog in the street, is in itself disgraceful. Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed.

 Understand THIS

Officers have tanks now. They have drones. They have automatic rifles, and planes, and helicopters, and they go through military-style boot camp training. It's a constant complaint from what remains of this country's civil liberties caucus. Just this last June, the ACLU issued a report on how police departments now possess arsenals in need of a use. Few paid attention, as usually happens.

The worst part of outfitting our police officers as soldiers has been psychological. Give a man access to drones, tanks, and body armor, and he'll reasonably think that his job isn't simply to maintain peace, but to eradicate danger. Instead of protecting and serving, police are searching and destroying.

If officers are soldiers, it follows that the neighborhoods they patrol are battlefields. And if they're working battlefields, it follows that the population is the enemy. And because of correlations, rooted in historical injustice, between crime and income and income and race, the enemy population will consist largely of people of color, and especially of black men. Throughout the country, police officers are capturing, imprisoning, and killing black males at a ridiculous clip, waging a very literal war on people like Michael Brown.

THIS is why we're mad about the shooting of Mike Brown.

As a black person in America, it's getting exhausting to still have to explain, in the year 2014, your right to exist in this country. To explain that you are a human being whose value sits no lower than anyone else's. To explain our basic humanity. And perhaps worst of all, to explain exactly why we are outraged.

Hey America!  Can you please stop killing our (usually) innocent black male children now? 

#MikeBrown

#Trayvon Martin

#Ferguson

 #I'mGonnaVote

"This is What Domestic Terrorism Looks Like"

Thought I was looking at a pix from Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 but nope I was looking at #Ferguson Missouri 2014 smh pic.twitter.com/V3vuwlNBFF
— Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) August 13, 2014

 H/T Mack Lyons

This and other acts of state-sanctioned terrorism is a cancer. This is the cancer that is slowly but surely killing this nation. It metastasized early on, up to the sloppy and life-threatening surgery that was the American Civil War. It went into remission with Reconstruction, but flared up in its full glory with Jim Crow. Chemotherapy came in the form of the Civil Rights movement and after that, everyone thought it would finally stay in remission and eventually disappear.

And then the country had the nerve to elect, and  re-elect Barack Hussein Obama President of the United State of America and all hell broke lose....

#MikeBrown
#Ferguson
#TrayvonMartin
#EricGarner
#OscarGrant
#SeanBell
#JordanDavis
#RenishaMcBride
#I'mGonnaVote

#WarOnWhites my Donkey

This Aggressive Police Force Approaching Unarmed, Hands In The Air Individuals With Guns Pointed At Them #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/XvRYKPtioL
— Lnon (@Lnonblonde) August 12, 2014

The Ghost of #MikeBrown: why must a dead black child defend his right to life?

Why was he in the police car?, people will ask. Why did he run? If he’d just been a pliant enough, wouldn’t he still be alive?!
Brown’s prosecutors in the court of public opinion will nonetheless demand he defend himself against these charges because he was a black teenager. His killer will remain presumed innocent. But for Mike Brown, there was a collective presumption of his guilt by the Ferguson police ... and that of the Ferguson citizens who gathered to air their grievances about the shooting long before any rioting started – and the timing of this is important. As a St Louis community activist who talked to me on Monday put it, he knew something was amiss when the police stationed K-9 units at the protest at 9am protest on Sunday.

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown  It's the white, male, dominated media driven racial stereotypes.

The hashtag demonstrates that the narrative the media continues to portray regarding black people isn’t always truthful.

The Men on the Right, who employ the Men on the Left, want #JusticeForMikeBrown and no more dead #MikeBrowns pic.twitter.com/97M5jGPbmi
— Randy Prine (@randyprine) August 12, 2014

I don't support the looting and violence in #Ferguson, but I understand the looting and violence in #Ferguson

It is that deep irrational fear of young black men that continues to sit with me.  Here’s the thing: I do not believe that most white people see black people and say, “I hate black people.”  Racism is not that tangible, that explicit. I do not believe most white people hate most black people. I do not believe that most police officers seek to do harm or consciously hate black people. At least I hope they don’t.

 Riots make news in #Ferguson but not the peaceful protest.