Another Ferguson News Fail: Headline AP: " #Ferguson unrest could cost taxpayers millions" Corrected: Murder of Mike Brown to Cost Millions

Street art above is actually in Cambridge MA but references the Ferguson action.

While that is certainly true that payments for extra "enforcement" and to businesses whose shops were damaged in the unrest, the reason for the unrest, a murder by a police officer of a young man who was surrendering was the absolute cause of of the disturbances that resulted in damaged properties and overtime pay for various cops.

And secondarily, dragging out the military equipment is a magnet for anarchists.  Why Ferguson and St Louis County thought they needed to try to scare upset locals with armored personnel carriers covered with police bristling with high powered weapons and tear gas and smoke canister launchers is hidden in the deeply authoritarian hearts of those who find police forces their military-lite comfort zone for employment.  Maybe we should analyze how police work is much safer than actual military so a chance to shove some weight around on dark skinned people without much danger to the pot bellied bodies of the "knights in blue".

But the cause  was the murder of Mike Brown and the police-state style reaction of the authorities.

By the time that Highway Patrol Chief Johnson was selected to help calm things down it was too late.  The anarchists already had their bags packed and their plane tickets purchased and many were already there. they weren't going to let a good upset go by without their Occupy style blow back. (and to be honest, I'm not sure the addition of the Occupy style didn't help.  Maybe departments should know that hassling validly upset locals when they try to express outrage is going to encourage expansion of tension and arrival of activists from East to West coasts).

There were many locally based activists too and then apparently other people intent on looting. The local activists actually helped or tried to help stop the theft and destruction. But afterwards were once again they were the target of righteous overstuffed officers acting like guardsmen to the queen of white supremacy in Missouri.

That and the murder is what will cost millions of dollars, not citizens validly marching in the streets over another of their citizens unnecessarily gunned down by  a white policeman trained and employed by a local department which doesn't care if their officers are racists.

The report also says the cost will likely be mostly borne in the end by state and federal governments, and that is good, too.  Both state and federal entities have mandates to ensure local governments are not harassing and unfairly criminalizing their citizens. We're not a nation built of fiefdoms, but the United States of America.

BTW, Ferguson is lucky (or more likely filled with better sense) LA's Rodney King riots of 1992 ended up costing a billion dollars for damage and 65 lives. The benefits of protesting, but not rioting should accrue to the good people of Ferguson.

See KSDK 5 AP: Ferguson unrest could cost taxpayers millions

Picture at top was clipped using Windows Snipping Tool and used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to flickr user Chris Ball who has no connection to this blog or blogger

#Ferguson Area Police Learn Why You Don't F*ck With Reporters

An actual picture, apparently of Ferguson, Missouri, I found down below the tractor pics and photos of comedians and other folks with the name. It looks like a business district and therefore was better than people's houses I thought. Attribution at bottom of post.

It was astonishing learning what the Ferguson police thought was appropriate behavior towards journalists.

As a non-journalist, even I was shocked, but now members of FPD are finding out what happens when you push around reporters.

They have tools  to dig stuff up on you and your past, and they have connections to have that information published.

Apparently pot bellied cops aren't too smart either, especially the losers hired in Ferguson.

I posted on Twitter about this just earlier, but wanted a permanent like on the web about it, among the other important reports.

See

Ferguson Police Officer Justin Cosma Hog-Tied And Injured A Young Child, Lawsuit Alleges

Picture of downtown Ferguson clipped using Windows Snipping Tool and  used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to flickr user Paul Sableman who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

New Witness Adds to the Evidence on Mike Brown Shooting in #Ferguson

What Killed Mike Brown? Try A "Small Town Shakedown" and Drugs.

Small town USA. Does not depict Ferguson itself.
BTW, I do not intend to demean small towns. I've had plenty of family who have lived in them, and all are lovely people. The government of Ferguson though seems to have a problem. A report by Arch City Defenders in a drop box publication accessible here explains their basic thesis of the miserable small towns in the St Louis area that use the Small Town Shakedown (my name for what is happening).  And Ferguson is one of three small cities on their list of aggressive users of the system.

Summary: Not having a large tax base, Ferguson chose instead to target their working class citizenry for regular nit picking fines in a big way.  And yes, you want to pick on the lowest earners as more affluent people will hire lawyers even at twice or three times the cost from a sense of pride and to protect their futures from harmful legal decisions on their records.

So basically cops were profiling as well as passing out massive amounts of citations to promote their agenda and to earn enough money for their better than average salaries including overtime and medical protection (and for nice salaries for the mayor and council).

All it takes is a little illegal policing spread out to grab money from a lot of people who don't have the means to fight back.

This ain't Mayberry RFD.  This is graft city in a small town setting.

It truly needs the feds to come in and straighten things out.

Instead it seems that people are busy hiding the ashes of good governance deep in the soil of the nearest green space.

Nothing to see here, just racism, and graft.  Move along.

 Now about those drugs.

It's telling that Darren Wilson did not stop shooting Mike Brown until 6  (revised count) 10 shots were fired.  The last shots went into Brown head from the top and it's path through back and hands shows he was likely falling to the street at the time.

Over-reaction?  That sounds like some kind of upper, either Meth or even caffeine pills can cause loss of control (Meth I'm assuming.  I've never taken it)  I did use caffeine pills in college a couple of times and found they could push me to snap in unwarranted circumstances.  Luckily I chose to retreat to my room and never had a gun to use.

But one way to cut down on expenses in a police force may be to have your available pool work extra long hours.  Sure it's overtime, but it's the same retirement and health package so that cost is reduced and it probably works out to less than maintaining a larger force.

And Wilson kept shooting a young man who was already falling to the ground, until his bullets ran out.

I hope they did toxicology tests on Wilson.

Another report says that Wilson was working for a private security firm in addition to his city police work.  That might be another reason he'd be using stimulants:

Several in the crowd had connections to law enforcement, including one who said he knew Wilson from working in private security — and got a call from him on the night of Aug. 9. He said Wilson called to say he couldn’t make it to work because of the shooting.

At: Washington Post

Vox was my first source of information on the particular form of corruption I'm calling The Small Town Shakedown.

I tweeted out a link late last night from it and from an LA Times report.

Here's two more from Vox with explanations that are shorter than the original Arch City report:

The cold, hard cash at the heart of Ferguson's out-of-control justice system

How for-profit policing led to racial disparities in Ferguson

Shortened link for this post: http://goo.gl/okx35j
 

Picture above used via Creative Commons License (CC by 2.0) Thanks to Flickr user ellnm1 who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Video Shows Darren Wilson Tromping Around Scene Right After Killing of Michael Brown, Black Eye Missing Though Fox Claims Busted Eye Socket.

One thing the face, is famous for is bleeding when damaged.  Whether under or over the skin, blood comes gushing out causing incredible bruising or frightening blood loss that is hard to tame.

Think of how easy it is to get a nose bleed and the extraordinary measures your mom took and made you take, like staying inside when you got one (if she was like mine).

I guess the face's tendency to bleed internally or externally is due to the tough skull material just below the surface, leaving little cushion a blow before things break.

A punch in the gut may feel horrible, but all those spongy insides reduce the tendency for vessels to break.

Not so with the face, especially around the eye where young skin tends to be pretty taut.

Yet, if you watch the video above you can see Officer Darren Warren pace around Mike Brown's body with normal flesh colored eye sockets.  An orbital blowout has to be much worse than the average cause of a black eye, but Warren shows no sign of one either in looks or actions.

Given that the incident  may point to stimulant use by the officer (in an apparent lack of ability to stop his abnormal reaction, aka aggression until his gun was unloaded into Brown's body) he may well have been walking around, but the bruising of a an orbital blowout should be apparent right away.

There has been a serious problem with how "information" on this case has "leaked out" with officials going on Fox News propaganda system and  telling their "story" to ultra partisan Alex Jones.  People supposedly at a convenience store just happening to catch video of an altercation between a store manager and supposedly Mike Brown lifting some cigarillos, though other video shows him paying for them.

The news system is more a collection of he said, she said than actual digging out of truth.

That's why we citizens have to think without prejudice and find out as much as we can ourselves.

Hint to some: That means turning off Fox News and other right wing sources.

It's kinda disappointing that CNN has just announced that, in fact, Wilson had no such injury, but also validating (though the officer did have swelling on his face).

Charles Johnson has a video on that report here.

Jon Oliver: Last Week Tonight on #ferguson Missouri and Out of Control Cops

Your Lying News Media At Work. Protestors Pick Up Smoke Canister. AP Accuses Them of "Attempting to Light Molotov Cocktail"

I'm going to have to steal viciously from Charles Johnson's Twitter feed. @Green_Footballs
I do recommend people follow him.  You may be more liberal or conservative, but what he says has quite a bit of credibility.

He's the one who caught the AP in a tremendous lie that I'm going to assume was passed by the ST Louis Co cops to them, that Ferguson protesters were creating dangerous incendiary devices.  I guess AP reporters don't want to get arrested like their colleagues at al Jazeera.

(BTW, I believe you need bottles for Molotov cocktails so they'll break and spread the burning gasoline further faster.  The metal  canister shown here would simply burn and maybe leak a little from  from the mouth.)  #SMH

I have set a link under the picture below to go to the AP report in question since a picture of a link doesn't work under normal circumstances. Or try this identical link.  I could only find one picture, so Johnson was looking at another one that I haven't seen, but I find him generally trustworthy.

Sorry, autolinks I've set up through dlvr.it cannot be stopped or started without hours of delay so we will be spamming Johnson's work to Twitter.  I just want this recorded somewhere semi permanently available, which is not something one gets from a Twitter feed.  If LGF publishes a report on this. I will delete links to my report. 

Israel's Propaganda Video to "Educate Australia" Shows Grenades in Playground, Hamas Dragging Tots Through Tunnels.

They must hold extreme disdain of Aussie intelligence abilities.

Veterans Administration Deal and Funding History Proves That Republicans Were Mostly Responsible For Its Problems

Honoring our Veterans requires much more than putting them in a parade.  With deal the GOP tacitly admits it underfunded the VA at every chance for over a decade after it started invasive wars.

As we said earlier the VA was vastly underfunded, with the return to invasive war and the GOP was mostly sitting on funding increases when it got the chance.

And even they must agree, since they just approved $17 billion more dollars to fund the behemoth health system.  See Politico How the VA deal came together for confirmation and horse race politics snore.

We showed in an earlier blog post that despite sending our troops to two new invasive wars, the GOP which controlled the White House and the Congress in the early years of the first decade of the new millennium refused to adequately increase funding for the VA.

As we wrote a month ago:

Except for the years when the Democrats controlled the House and Senate, you'd think that massive injuries were not being produced in Iraq and Afghanistan that would require many years of intense care and innovative remedies for heavily injured soldiers.

Between 2003 and 2004 with the GOP in control of Congress VA funding only increased 4.7%

Massive invasion casualties?  When did those happen?

Between 2004 and 2005 with the GOP in control of Congress VA funding only increased  5.5%

IEDs?  What are those?

Between 2005 and 2006 with the GOP in control of Congress VA funding only increased 2.2%

I guess they were getting tired of paying for those injuries among "deadbeat" vets.

Between 2006 and 2007 with the Dems suddenly back in control of Congress thanks to Mark Foley VA funding increased 8.4%

Who loves our vets?

Between 2007 and 2008 with the Dems still in control of Congress VA funding increased 6.4%.

Still above anything the GOP gave them.

Between 2008 and 2009 with the Dems still in control of Congress VA funding increased 8.3%

Whoever thought that the GOP was the party who loved the our military most.  They just love using them and getting them killed.

Between 2009 and 2010 with the Dems still in control of Congress VA funding increased 12.1%

Need I say anything more?

Between 2011 and 2010 with GOP in control of the House in a division of Congress VA funding increased 8.2% a slowdown now.

Between 2012 and 2001 with GOP in control of the House in a division of Congress VA funding increased 0.8%  You saw that 0.8%.

Oh yeah, remember the great GOP austerity for tax cuts for Koch bros, our new national meme.

Suck on it injured vets say the GOP.

The fact that the GOP approved $17 billion shows they now understand but are hoping to look like good guys for finally acting, instead of the vicious crew that took our young people to war, but refused to adequately treat them when they were injured or disabled.

Picture at top used via Creative Commons' License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user DVIDSHUB who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Israel Hired GOP's Professional Propagandist Frank Luntz to Sell Israel's War on Gaza

View of Jerusalem.

The usual piles of crap from the right to make mass killing and theft of land into a model of compassionate outreach has gone international as Frank Luntz helps Israel with their BS and Hasbara.

He says it is absolutely crucial to exude empathy for Palestinians: "Persuadables [sic] won't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Show Empathy for BOTH sides!" This may explain why a number of Israeli spokesman are almost lachrymose about the plight of Palestinians being pounded by Israeli bombs and shells. In a sentence in bold type, underlined and with capitalisation, Dr Luntz says that Israeli spokesmen or political leaders must never, ever justify "the deliberate slaughter of innocent women and children" and they must aggressively challenge those who accuse Israel of such a crime. Israeli spokesmen struggled to be true to this prescription when 16 Palestinians were killed in a UN shelter in Gaza last Thursday.

Whoa, Dude.  Hitler would be so jealous.  If he'd only not shot himself and lived to be able to avail himself of your complete lack of moral fiber.  He and Eva could be living on the Riviera with your help and getting reparations from the rest of the world.

Avoid talking about borders in terms of pre- or post-1967, because it only serves to remind Americans of Israel's military history.

Um yeah, it just reminds us that you stole your land from others and are still stealing the little the Palestinians have left, and polluting what you don't outright grab.

Luntz also tells Israelis to avoid language that describes reality in Israel because it reminds Americans of the racists in the American South and Apartheid South Africa.

 Instead the American propaganda master says to claim that Palestinians want to demand land from Israelis.

"the right of return is a tough issue for Israelis to communicate effectively because much of Israeli language sounds like the 'separate but equal' words of the 1950s segregationists and the 1980s advocates of Apartheid. The fact is, Americans don't like, don't believe and don't accept the concept of 'separate but equal'."So how should spokesmen deal with what the booklet admits is a tough question? They should call it a "demand", on the grounds that Americans don't like people who make demands. "Then say 'Palestinians aren't content with their own state. Now they're demanding territory inside Israel'.".

Funny how there was no Israel until the land was taken from Palestinians.

Luntz also advises to treat Palestinians who left or were thrown out of Israel as illegal immigrants, not people seeking their homeland.

How about the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled in 1948 and in the following years, and who are not allowed to go back to their homes? Here Dr Luntz has subtle advice for spokesmen, saying that "the right of return is a tough issue for Israelis to communicate...

.... If nothing else works, say that the return of Palestinians would "derail the effort to achieve peace".

 Then again, maybe I should get into this and go demand a place of my own in Northern Sweden, because some of my ancestors were from Lapland with winter digs in France from whence my Huguenot peeps were driven under Louis the 14th.

After all the Israelis have shown that it's all cool.

Picture at top used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user gnuckx who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Pew Resaearch Title "Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East" Hides the Hope In it's Message

Fishing in Lebanon.  The results are likely  be better than invading the nation in a clumsy effort to impose one's will on it and grab land.  The US learned all about that in Vietnam, and remembered it too, until Republicans got control again in the early years of this century.

Maybe there's some real point in making a Danger Will Robinson title for a report on good news like in Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East

I guess the more people you get to read your report, the more people you inform.

It still seems a little like a Medicine Man style huckstering.

In fact, concern is rising because approval of violent activists is subsiding just about everywhere.

Though Israel is portraying its Gaza action as being due to high support of Hamas' Jihadists.among Gazan residents.  That is not shown on the Pew Research polls.  Sixty-six percent of Arabic Israelis say they are concerned about Hamas' extremism. Concern indicates nearly the opposite of approval.

And al Qaeda approval is disappearing like snow in spring if not summer. Interestingly the area where it is almost the highest is in the Palestinian Territories where a muslim population feels threatened by an occupying majority of "others" that is actively practicing land theft where it can.  Even in the Palestinian territories, though, support for al Qaeda is declining.

The highest support for a "terrorist group" is among the Shia for Hezbollah in Lebanon, possibly because the Shia gain the most from associations with the group that may include jobs.

So it seems that the way to reduce terrorism still further is to make sure people have good job and living choices in their own lands, and that they don't feel threatened or impoverished by external or internal sources.

The real terror creating entities could be noted to be greed and interference from outsiders, and the resulting poverty among the masses of people.

Picture above used via Creative Commons License Attribution CC by 2.0 thanks to Mohannad Khattab at Flickr.com.

Chris Hayes Interviews Tariq Khdeir, Beaten Florida Teen Pt2

 

Chris Hayes Interviews Florida Teenager Tariq Khdeir Who Was Beaten by Cops in Israel Pt1

Video: Analyst: Current Conflict Could Bring Down Netanyahu in Next Israeli Election

The only bad news is that the analyst who thinks this conflict could end Netanyahu's future hopes of keeping office notes that the putsch could come from the right, for his failures. That sounds incredibly dangerous for Gazan and all Palestinian children who are suffering enough now.  It could also be dangerous for Israeli families, and Americans.  Surely Nettie isn't the most liberal Israeli that the US could back.

Phil Gingrey Wins Pants on Fire Award for Claims that Migrants Across Southern Border could Bring In Ebola Virus

Notice he's not even speculating.  Dr Gingrey claims he's heard of "reports".  Obviously his constituents and others are supposed to be too stupid to know he's lying.

As a medical doctor he should know how quickly ebola kills, and how debilitating it is.  Did anyone see people rushing a sretcher over the border so a dying soul just flown in from Africa can give up the ghost in the US?

Dr. Gingrey demeans the valiant doctors and nurses fighting to keep people in Africa alive, and sometimes losing their own for it despite extreme care to avoid dangerous exposure.  He demeans Americans as well, thinking they are too stupid to figure this out.

But the Koch bros and other Big Money right wing donors will dump money into his re-election campaign for this attack on the truth and the Obama administration.

That is one thing he does know.

Full Politifact page here.

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