DOJ v Ferguson

     I listened to Eric Holder's DOJ Findings on Ferguson press conference. I listened from the perspective of someone living just a few miles away and one who's seen some of the same abuses firsthand.

     My wife got caught up in one of Ferguson's neighbor's aggressive traffic enforcements. In Missouri, city police can write tickets on Interstates going through their city, and the burg's cop got my wife.  She swears she wasn't speeding... much. And I believe... well, I... I take the Fifth. She also got tagged for other violations. It was exactly like Holder depicted.

     She was ordered to appear in the city's court, a seedy little justice mill in an old bar. It was in a really sketchy area, so I was dragged along as the sacrificial meat shield. With about 90-110 other defendants, we waited while the judge described her town's particular version of jurisprudence. To paraphrase mightily: You're probably guilty. You could ask for a trail, but it would be expensive, inconvenient, and most likely futile. It would be so much easier if you threw your wallet on the mercy of the court. Justice takes cash, checks, American Express, Visa or Master Card, and easy payments at reasonable rates can be arranged. See the cashier in the back.   

     It was all as Holder described. More than 95% of the defendants were African-American. The condemned awaited their fate with surly resignation. Justice was curt, perfunctory and cynical. The defendants were separated from their money as efficiently as a pig from it's blood in a slaughterhouse.

     It was exactly as Holder described: an abusive, grasping, uncaring, racist system.

     Except, it wasn't. Not completely.  

     The judge was African-American. All but one of the many court officers and workers were minorities. The police commander was Black. The police security team was entirely Black. Furthermore, the city itself boasts an African-American Mayor and a totally Black City Council.  

     Abusive? Yes. Money Hungry? Certainly. Racist? Are you serious?

     Holder made much of Ferguson's unjust city justice system. In this I believe he's correct. However, to damn all of Ferguson as racist - based on behaviors that can be shown as being anything but, is fundamentally incorrect.  I haven't read the 110 page report yet, but it's seeming reliance on simple, unnormalized statistics and unsupported conclusions is troubling. Given the history of Holder and the Obama administrations willingness to play on race, this may be just another instance of their  elaborate racialist posturing. 
 

Ferguson Follies

It now looks like the Ferguson/ Michael Brown crisis is largely behind us. Thankfully, we’re mostly past the press conferences, the racial hucksters, the street theater, oh so concerned officials and the overly earnest activists. We’re over the continuous coverage, the breathless reporterettes, bored Nation Guard troops, morons in Guy Fawkes masks, violence-addicted thugs, opportunistic looters, their fellow opportunistic politicians, oily lawyers, and family members of every stripe.   

Thankfully, the Ferguson riot was no more than a mere shadow of the ‘60s Days of Rage or the Rodney King riots. One possible death as opposed to hundreds, a few buildings burned instead of thousands,  a hundred arrested instead of many thousands. Ferguson was nowhere near as bad as it was implied.

We’ve been fooled. 

The “movement” was self-contradictory from the start. Within weeks, Michael Brown could be seen as closer to a garden variety thug than an angelic teenage victim. As a result, this issue seemed to never have gotten any lasting traction within the greater African-American community. The protest had to be outsourced to the professional agitators of Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, New York and DC. The media continued their drumbeat of misconceptions, fear -- and outrageous lies. Meanwhile, millions of ordinary citizens, much more alike than not, continued to happily interact. We -- I -- defamed Black Americans by believing they would stoop to violence over this issue.  

When the Grand Jury findings were finally revealed – it was largely a non-issue: a play-date for the unstable, politicians, and cameras. There never were the overwhelming numbers of protestors that we were led to expect. The most publicized confrontation featured an estimated 250 protestors – and 250 media. Within hours, normal life resumed as reality reasserted itself.

Leaving a lot of us feeling a bit foolish. Leaving me feeling like a bit of an idiot.

There’s a lesson here, an important one: there’s profit in wedge politics; in dividing the whole against one another. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panthers, Lesley McSpadden, Senator Chappelle-Nadal, Jay Nixon, Barack Obama, et al, and their sycophantic media all cynically, dishonorably furthered their own interests by dancing on Michael Brown’s grave. They traded in division and fears for their own ends.

Ferguson shows that we, as a city, state, and nation, are better than that.  We have our differences, we’re human after all, but in the main, we’re a integrated, just, striving, happy people. Much, much more alike than different.  And we shouldn’t let the hucksters and the wedgers tell us any different.  

Work remains to be done. There never should have been the immediate, pervasive assumption that the police assasinated an innocent. Something is obviously wrong. But as a society, we should be aware of just how far and how fast we've come. In societal terms, America's recognition of the error of racism and its largely successful correction has been completely unprecedented in human history.
 
Today, perhaps now more than any other time, we can see just how much we should be thankful for.  

Happy Thanksgiving. To all of us.

Grand Jury Findings Summary

Everyone who wants to understand why the St Louis Grand Jury did not indite Officer Darren Wilson must listen to Prosecutor Bob McCullough's deft summary. 

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Understanding Grand Jury Ruling Michael Brown's Death

Listen with an open mind. Pass the link around.

Highly recommended.  

HT: PBS

Waffle House Life

Took the wife out to a Waffle House breakfast. She's never had the pleasure. It was the usual good time: fast, friendly service, tasty food, unique atmosphere, and amenable fellow patrons. Americana at its finest.

Mid waffle, my wife asked me to look around. There were about 50 people packed into the little coffee shop: a broad range of ages, demographics, colors, native languages, etc. All pleasantly rubbing elbows with one another. A melting pot, with syrup.

This is the real St Louis, the real America.

We shouldn't forget that.

"It's déjà vu all over again".

Massad Ayoob

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."    Winston Churchill

DÉJÀ VU IN MISSOURI by Massad Ayoob

In his post, Massad Ayoob explores the apparent similarities between the treatment of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown as public opinion is effectively, however cynically, shaped.

Answering Why? To what end? is left to the reader...   

Title from one of the great thinkers of our age: Yogi Berra

Ruminations on Riots

I’ve lived through two - two and a half riots. I was just a spud during LA’s Watts Riots. I barely remember my grandparents suddenly appearing in our backyard and everyone staring at a thick tree-trunk of smoke in the sky. I wondered why my Grandmother sobbed, not understanding that their house was only a few miles from the flames. I also remember my Father putting a target pistol in the car on our way to church. 

Twenty seven years later, I stood in my own yard, staring at three solid walls of smoke surrounding my newly purchased house. I had helped guide some company employees out of downtown Long Beach, pulled my girlfriend out of her trendy, but sketchy, apartment, then came home to stare at the encroaching smoke with an equally black pit in my stomach. 

I remember it was eerily quiet – no one was on the road. Civilization had abandoned us; most everyone, including the cops, crouched inside their stucco huts. The only sounds were occasional sirens – and gunshots. Lots of gunshots.

I had never felt so alone, so utterly exposed. Fires raged less than a city block away, but there were no firemen, no cops, no National Guard. Just me. Stupid me. I didn’t know any neighbors; but I did have a few firearms. However, they were better suited for busting clays or bunny-rats. I didn’t even have enough ammo to fill the few magazines of my wildly inaccurate Mini-14. If push came to shove, I was going to get it sideways. 

Fortunately, the Rodney King Riots ended after three - four days; too late for 53 people. The cops reappeared in a rush when a copter’s searchlight pinned a car to the curb near the head of our street. Cruisers and HMVs came out of nowhere and the six young male occupants were quickly cuffed and stuffed. The cops took at least two long guns into evidence and then vanished again. However, the smoke walls were losing their solidity and eventually vanished, too. The smell of smoke took a very long time go away.   

Now, twenty-two years later, I’m living through another riot – virtually. The GF – 'scuse me, The wife – is in St Louis, while I’m in LA. Thankfully, so far at least, the Michael Brown Riot isn’t anywhere near as vicious as the Watts or Rodney King riots. However, the locals are very aware of the tensions that course beneath the city. 

Again, I’m helpless – unable to protect the one I love. However, she lives in a neighborhood of deer hunters, has her Cowboy Action Shooting guns, and we moved some of my mil-surps with her. (Parlez-vous Mosin? SKS? Sardine cans?) The neighbors have organized for protection and truly appreciate my wife’s contributions (not without a raised eyebrow or two.) She's as safe as anyone can be in St Louis.  

I’m left 2600 miles away to ruminate on riots.

It can get ugly when civilization’s leash is slipped. No one is truly safe; cars can deliver the insanity anywhere. TV, Twitter, Facebook, whatever, can excite the unstable far away. Your putative protectors may go missing; overwhelmed or simply busy defending their own. And it can all happen in a heartbeat: you’re there with yourself and what you’ve got. Ready?

When the smoke suddenly engulfs you, you might have to fight very hard to stay alive. A mob is a heartless, cruel beast. One of the firearms that our Dear Leader is so desperately trying to eliminate is uniquely suited for self-defense in a riot. Light, handy, capable, accurate, easy to shoot, limited penetration, with a large magazine capacity: carbines like the AR-15 just might be the best choice available. Our readers need to have something to resist the anarchy.

Although mindless, the mob can be reasoned with. Pointing intimidating pieces of hardware at it seems particularly effective. Stories abound of home and shop owners facing down rioters with their SKS, AK-47 and AR-15 rifles. Often, the mob turns tail without the need to fire a shot: a Win-Win. Some of their neighbors, without such communication tools, died.

There are predictions of increasing social disruptions and riots, with all the ongoing demographic shifts, racialist expectations, employment participation rates, and the overarching economic problems. The possibility of a political shift with the Nov 14 elections is upsetting to some elements. It seems prudent to look at your particular situation and prepare. 

Several interesting webpages:

Social Unrest
Prepare for a Riot
Preparing & Reacting To Riots 

Best advice: Don't Be There. If You Are, Be Strong.  
 
The possibility of having to face rioters alone, however remote (if you are lucky) is just one of a host of excellent reason to fight for all of your Second Amendment rights - without compromise.