“FERGUSON EFFECT”

Trevor Noah took aim at what has been described as the “Ferguson Effect” on Monday, sarcastically telling viewers that police are merely afraid of being treated unfairly because of whom they are and how they look.

“People following them around with cameras watching everything they do, suspicious that they’re always afraid to break the law, leaving police afraid to even get out of their cars for fear that someone might whip out a phone and brutally film them. Who can imagine how that must feel?” he said. “If you listen carefully, all the police are saying is, ‘Phones down, don’t shoot.'”

The term has been used to explain violent crime increases in some US cities, arguing that officers have been cowed into not doing their jobs “proactively” for fear that they would be recorded by witnesses and subsequently accused of using excessive force.

Last week, FBI Director James Comey described it as “a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement,” a statement that led to him being rebuked by President Barack Obama. Earlier in the day, Obama told NBC News that Comey was using “anecdotal” evidence, and that there was no statistical evidence backing up his theory.





Similarly, Noah cited a study by the American Psychological Association that stated that it is “too soon” to blame any crime increases on increased scrutiny of police, since crime has been declining for the past 20 years.

“But these are just facts,” Noah warned. “They don’t count. It doesn’t matter what the facts are. The only thing that matters is how the police feel.”

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Roger West

FERGUSON REPORT IN

On Monday, the 16-member Ferguson Commission created by Governor Jay Nixon released its report about how race and economic inequality exacerbate problems within St. Louis’ criminal justice system — and how to go about fixing it. Citing previous findings from the Department of Justice reports about racist policing, the use of excessive force, and the broken court system in Ferguson and St. Louis County, the Ferguson Commission outlined 189 specific policy solutions for lawmakers to consider in the near future.

But the commission’s report goes far beyond the policing and court issues that first inspired the investigation, painting a much broader vision to improve not only the criminal justice system but schools, public health, and poverty.

Counting police reform among its signature priorities, the commission details crucial steps to ensure “justice for all” in Missouri. It calls on police departments to direct their officers to use minimal force when protecting public and officer safety. It also suggests that the Attorney General take on use of force cases as a special prosecutor, and that a database of excessive force cases be created for public consumption.

With regard to the region’s high incarceration rate, the commission calls on courts to prohibit incarceration for minor offenses and make nonviolent offenses civil, as opposed to criminal, violations. It recommends the establishment of justice centers, where people who cannot pay off their violations can participate in community service projects instead. Moreover, the commission concludes that judges and prosecutors should not be involved in court proceedings when there is a conflict of interest.

While the report outlines policies in direct response to DOJ findings, it also delves deeper into the systemic disparities in education, public health, and economic opportunities that create problems for black and brown communities and increase the likelihood of interacting with law enforcement.

A key tenet of the policy outline, for example, is investment in a holistic childhood development model that includes comprehensive education reform. All schools, it says, should have in-house health centers that provides mental and reproductive health resources, as well as trauma services. State and local officials should also be at the forefront of ending childhood hunger, by connecting kids in need of free and reduced meals with food providers during school breaks and making Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment easier for families.

For adults, economic opportunity is imperative. The commission points to the need for a higher minimum wage, and recommends the creation of financial empowerment centers that offer “community development banking, multi-generational financial education, and convenient financial services with reasonable interest rates.” Collaboration between educational institutions and potential employers can also improve job-readiness and access, in addition to specialized job training programs.

Although the new policy guide addresses Missouri, specifically, it follows a similar set of national policy proposals released by Black Lives Matter (BLM) in August, shortly after Hillary Clinton implored BLM activists to develop a concrete policy proposals.

“There has to be some positive vision and plan that you can move people toward,” she replied, after she was confronted by BLM representatives about police brutality and mass incarceration. Explaining that former civil rights movements had action plans, she told them that making specific policy asks is the way to make change. “The people behind that consciousness-raising and advocacy, they had a plan ready to go.”

Weeks later, proponents of law enforcement reform and racial justice launched Campaign Zero, a comprehensive guide for federal, state, and local officials to follow.

While less focused on economic and health factors that contribute to discriminatory — and deadly — policing that the Ferguson Commission put forward, the campaign narrows in on national law enforcement issues that the Ferguson team overlooked, such as broken-windows policing and police union contracts that make accountability near-impossible to achieve. For instance, Campaign Zero offers specific changes to policing tactics, such as stopping people who look like they are acting nervous or people who match a generic description of a suspect, which disproportionately entrap people of color in the criminal justice system. It also calls on the removal of officer contract provisions that prevent civilians from questioning officers and leaves the power to discipline officers to police chiefs.

In addition to the Ferguson Commission report and Campaign Zero, presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley released their own criminal justice solutions in the last two months, including the enactment of ban-the-box laws, scrapping for-profit prisons, and the establishment of a national use of force standard.

[Crossp-posted from thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

DORIAN JOHNSON SUES FERGUSON POLICE GETS ARRESTED FOR HIS EFFORT

This past Tuesday, Dorian Johnson filed a lawsuit against the Ferguson Police Department alleging that they assaulted him, inflicted emotional pain, and violated his constitutional rights during and after the incident in which he witnessed the shooting death of Michael Brown. The following day, Johnson and his brother were arrested by the neighboring St. Louis Police Metropolitan Department — for allegedly interfering with an arrest.

Police said they reported to the scene after they received a tip about a “large group possibly with firearms.” But he was also reportedly suspected of illegal narcotics, because he was holding a drink believed to be a mix of cough medicine and other illegal drugs. The mixture later tested negative for narcotics.

Lauren Trager, spokeswoman for the circuit, told the Riverfront Times that “A drug charge was brought to our office. It was refused by our office.”

Johnson was nonetheless arrested on misdemeanor charges of “resisting or interfering with arrest/detention/stop.” The charging document stated that Dorian, “ran toward PO N.S. and demanded that PO N.S. remove his hands from Demonte Johnson.”

“Dorian Johnson further stated that the police could not arrest any of them,” the officer’s probable cause statement explains. “I was then able to grab Dorian Johnson before he could make contact with PO N.S. Dorian Johnson then struggled with me and tried to pry himself away from me. I had to physically struggle with Dorian Johnson until I was able take him to the ground and get handcuffs on him.”

Johnson’s arrest fits with a pattern of witnesses to prominent police brutality incidents facing arrest, and many on Twitter immediately called it out as “predictable,” questioning the source of the original tip.

Just last week, the man who filmed the police arrest of Freddie Gray was arrested without police offering an explanation or stating what the charges were. He was released later that night, but the two friends arrested with him from the group Cop Watch remained in custody.

And the man who filmed the police chokehold of Eric Garner was likewise arrested shortly after that video became public. Eric Orta was charged on two counts of criminal possession of a semiautomatic handgun and trying to give the firearm to a teenager on the street, and just released from jail last month, after supporters raised enough money for his bail through a crowd sourcing site. Both men say they were arrested in retaliation for their filming of the police. Orta even went on hunger strike in jail because he was afraid the staff would poison his food.

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Roger West

JOHN OLIVER ON FERGUSON PD: “FUC* THOSE FUCKIN* ASSSHOLES!”

Last Week Tonight's John Oliver didn't hold back when discussing the racist emails being sent by the Ferguson, MO police department and court officials which were discovered during the Department of Justice investigation of racial prejudice in the city's police and judicial system.

About says it all. 

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STAFF WRITER

FERGUSON PROTESTORS WERE RIGHT

YOUR LIFE AS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN IN FERGUSON MISSOURI

Jon Stewart observed on The Daily Show on Thursday that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) findings regarding the shooting of Michael Brown and police in Ferguson, Missouri last year had something for everyone — including Fox News.

“Let the self-vindicating gloating begin,” Stewart said before showing clips of Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity saying the federal investigation exonerated Officer Darren Wilson, who killed Brown.

But while the department opted not to charge Wilson in connection with the shooting, Stewart pointed out, it also described an institutionalized system of racially-biased policing in the city as a whole.





The story reeks - and is utterly fucking disgusting! Merica, you have a long way to go.

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Roger West

DOJ LETS DARREN WILSON WALK EVICERATES FERGUSON POLICE AND COURT SYSTEM

FERGUSON PROTESTER BEING TREATED FOR TEAR GAS

Yesterday the Department of Justice announced they would not charge former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown last August. The Justice Department said that they could not prove that Wilson’s decision to shoot Brown was “objectively unreasonable.” To find that he was guilty of a civil right violation, they would have also had to prove that his actions were motivated by racial bias.




But the Department of Justice, in a separate investigation, did find a plethora of evidence of systemic racial bias throughout the Ferguson Police Department and local court system. Here are the 9 most egregious examples.

An African-American man lost his federal contracting job due to trumped up charges:

For example, in the summer of 2012, a 32-year-old African-American man sat in his car cooling off after playing basketball in a Ferguson public park. An officer pulled up behind the man’s car, blocking him in, and demanded the man’s Social Security number and identification. Without any cause, the officer accused the man of being a pedophile, referring to the presence of children in the park, and ordered the man out of his car for a pat-down, although the officer had no reason to believe the man was armed. The officer also asked to search the man’s car. The man objected, citing his constitutional rights. In response, the officer arrested the man, reportedly at gunpoint, charging him with eight violations of Ferguson’s municipal code…because of these charges, he lost his job as a contractor with the federal government that he had held for years. (2)

An African-American man was arrested because his wife asked officers a question:

In June 2014, an African-American couple who had taken their children to play at the park allowed their small children to urinate in the bushes next to their parked car. An officer stopped them, threatened to cite them for allowing the children to “expose themselves,” and checked the father for warrants. When the mother asked if the officer had to detain the father in front of the children, the officer turned to the father and said, “you’re going to jail because your wife keeps running her mouth.” (27)

An African-American man was tased for 20 seconds even though he made no aggressive movements and was unarmed:

In January 2013, a patrol sergeant stopped an African-American man after he saw the man talk to an individual in a truck and then walk away. The sergeant detained the man, although he did not articulate any reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. When the man declined to answer questions or submit to a frisk…the sergeant grabbed the man by the belt, drew his ECW, and ordered the man to comply. The man crossed his arms and objected that he had not done anything wrong. Video captured by the ECW’s built-in camera shows that the man made no aggressive movement toward the officer. The sergeant fired the ECW, applying a five-second cycle of electricity and causing the man to fall to the ground. The sergeant almost immediately applied the ECW again, which he later justified in his report by claiming that the man tried to stand up. The video makes clear, however, that the man never tried to stand—he only writhed in pain on the ground. (34)

A 14-year-old African-American girl who got into a verbal altercation with a classmate was tased by a School Resource Officer:

In one case, an SRO decided to arrest a 14-year-old African-American student at the Ferguson Middle School for Failure to Comply when the student refused to leave the classroom after getting into a trivial argument with another student. The situation escalated, resulting in the student being drive-stunned with an ECW in the classroom and the school seeking a 180-day suspension for the student. (37)

A Ferguson officer told an African-American man: “N*****, I can find something to lock you up on,” then slammed his face into a wall:

This documentary evidence of explicit racial bias is consistent with reports from community members indicating that some FPD officers use racial epithets in dealing with members of the public. We spoke with one African-American man who, in August 2014, had an argument in his apartment to which FPD officers responded, and was immediately pulled out of the apartment by force. After telling the officer, “you don’t have a reason to lock me up,” he claims the officer responded: “N*****, I can find something to lock you up on.” When the man responded, “good luck with that,” the officer slammed his face into the wall, and after the man fell to the floor, the officer said, “don’t pass out motherf****r because I’m not carrying you to my car.” (73)

Ferguson officers dismissed concerns about bias, blamed disparity on lack of “personal responsibility” among African-Americans:

Several Ferguson officials told us during our investigation that it is a lack of “personal responsibility” among African-American members of the Ferguson community that causes African Americans to experience disproportionate harm under Ferguson’s approach to law enforcement. Our investigation suggests that this explanation is at odd with the facts. (74)

A Ferguson officer called an African-American man standing outside of Wal-Mart a “stupid motherf*****,” while police lieutenant watched and did nothing:

In December 2011, for example, an African- American man alleged that as he was standing outside of Wal-Mart, an officer called him a “stupid motherf****r” and a “bastard.” According to the man, a lieutenant was on the scene and did nothing to reproach the officer, instead threatening to arrest the man. (80)

At the courthouse, a Ferguson officer mocked an African-American man as “hooked on phonics”:

In June 2011, a 60-year-old man complained that an officer verbally harassed him while he stood in line to see the judge in municipal court. According to the man, the officer repeatedly ordered him to move forward as the line advanced and, because he did not advance far enough, turned to the other court-goers and joked, “he is hooked on phonics.” (80)

Officers, court officials, and supervisors regularly exchanged blatantly racist emails:

• A November 2008 email stated that President Barack Obama would not be President for very long because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”

• A March 2010 email mocked African Americans through speech and familial stereotypes, using a story involving child support. One line from the email read: “I be so glad that dis be my last child support payment! Month after month, year after year, all dose payments!”

• An April 2011 email depicted President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee.

• A May 2011 email stated: “An African-American woman in New Orleans was admitted into the hospital for a pregnancy termination. Two weeks later she received a check for $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, ‘Crimestoppers.’”

• A June 2011 email described a man seeking to obtain “welfare” for his dogs because they are “mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddies are.”

• An October 2011 email included a photo of a bare-chested group of dancing women, apparently in Africa, with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s High School Reunion.”

• A December 2011 email included jokes that are based on offensive stereotypes about Muslims. (72)

Hey Chief Justice Roberts, thought you said racism was over in America? 

Ferguson Police Department, you are this weeks worst people in the world! 

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

DOJ REPORT DUE OUT TODAY IS TO BE A SCATHING REPORT ON FERGUSON POLICE AND COURT SYSTEM

The Department of Justice will release a report on Wednesday that finds Ferguson City Police had a pattern of racial bias and excessive force, multiple outlets are reporting. The report will also detail that police made racist jokes on city email accounts, The New York Times reported.

Ferguson, which was the location of a white officer shooting unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, spurred nationwide protests over police brutality. At the time it was reported that Ferguson police were disproportionately targeting the city’s African-American population, and that finding is confirmed by the Justice Department’s forthcoming report.

African Americans make up 67 percent of the city’s population, but they made up 85 percent of vehicle stops and 93 percent of arrests, even though blacks were less likely to possess contraband like drugs or illegal guns. The AP also reported that blacks were 68 percent less likely to have their cases dismissed by the municipal judge, and that 95 percent of the people kept in jail for two days or more were black. Huffington Post reported that 88 percent of use-of-force cases were against African-American suspects.

FBI Director James Comey recently candidly addressed unconscious racial bias in policing, which might be progress for the law enforcement agency but long-running research and many activists have pointed out that police officers are biased in their work.

Attorney General Eric Holder has threatened to sue Ferguson police if it finds a pattern of racial discrimination. This threat may serve as an incentive for Ferguson police to change its practices.

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Roger West

The Suborned Perjury

PROSECUTOR SAYS HE IS OK WITH WITH LYING WITNESS

Robert McCulloch In His Pompous Ignorance Says Has No Regrets Letting Non-Credible Witnesses Testify:

After the news broke that a witness lied under oath to the grand jury that did not indict Officer Darren Wilson of the death of Michael Brown, St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch had admitted that while she should not have testified, he didn’t regret letting her onto the panel.

“Clearly some were not telling the truth,” he said to local radio station KTRS 550, referring to Sandra McElroy, known as “Witness 40.” McCulloch acknowledged that this “lady clearly wasn’t present,” and that “she recounted a story right out of the newspaper,”

Video Courtesy of MSNBC

However, “early on I decided that anyone who claimed to have witnessed anything would be presented to the grand jury,” and therefore he let McElroy testify.

Earlier this week, The Smoking Gun revealed that not only was McElroy nowhere near the neighborhood where Brown was shot by Wilson on the day of his death, but that McElroy had an extensive history of lying to police about witnessing high-profile cases. She also has a history of mental illness, and admitted to the grand jury that a car accident left her with faulty memory. Nevertheless, her testimony was not only allowed, but cited by many as credible proof that Wilson’s story was correct — despite evidence that she was simply repeating media reports of his account.

McCulloch was heavily criticized for his handling of the Brown case, specifically for taking it to a grand jury in the first place, and in an unprecedented move, releasing all the available evidence to the public after the grand jury failed to indict Wilson.

Fact: McElroy was the only witness with a record of lying to the police about being a witness to shootings. Yes, she is pathological with lying to police. She was disproved by the feds and McCullough put her on the stand anyway. McElroy's testimony muddied the waters.

McCullough's job was to present factual evidence, either for or against. His job was to work ethically without malice aforethought. McCulloch operated more like Wilson's defense attorney rather than being an impartial entity. 

This prosecutors malfeasance ebbs into the absurd. McCulloch should be stripped of his elected office and he should be disbarred from ever being able to operate in the court of law again, that is unless he himself is being prosecuted for his wrongs. Sleep well Robert McCulloch, sleep well.

They ultimate suborned perjury.

Robert McCulloch, congratulations Einstein, you are today's worst person in the world.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

KEY MICHAEL BROWN WITNESS, #40 - WAS NEVER NEAR THE MURDER SCENE.....

SANDRA MCELROY HAS SOME SPLANNIN TO DO

A bombshell investigative report at The Smoking Gun claims to have unmasked “Witness 40″ as Sandra McElroy, and alleges she was nowhere near the scene of the fatal shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer, as she testified under oath. Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown was not indicted in a controversial grand jury decision in late November, sparking nationwide protests. Wilson described Brown as a hulking menace ready to kill him with his bare hands. Some witness testimony supported this while many others described Brown as surrendering as he was shot.

Fox News' Sean Hannity's favorite witness has come under scrutiny. In meticulous detail, the report eviscerates her credibility as a witness. The Smoking Gun says that it uncovered her identity through social media messages, statements in her testimony and details of her life, and that she then confirmed that she was the witness. The report explains that McElroy,

“…waited four weeks after the shooting to contact cops. By the time she gave St. Louis police a statement on September 11, a general outline of Wilson’s version of the shooting had already appeared in the press. McElroy’s account of the confrontation dovetailed with Wilson’s reported recollection of the incident.”

The report describes how McElroy’s testimony was essentially a description of information already available in the media due to leaks by the Ferguson Police Department. This amounted to a rehash of Wilson’s testimony that Brown reached into his car and punched him, and that he later rushed him. Her alleged reason for being in the neighborhood raised red flags with investigators, but was used in grand jury testimony anyway,

“McElroy’s tale was met with skepticism by the investigators, who reminded her that it was a crime to lie to federal agents. When questioned about inconsistencies in her story, McElroy was resolute about her vivid, blow-by-blow description of the deadly Brown-Wilson confrontation. ‘I know what I seen,’ she said. ‘I know you don’t believe me.’

When asked what she was doing in Ferguson–which is about 30 miles north of her home–McElroy explained that she was planning to ‘pop in’ on a former high school classmate she had not seen in 26 years. Saddled with an incorrect address and no cell phone, McElroy claimed that she pulled over to smoke a cigarette and seek directions from a black man standing under a tree. In short order, the violent confrontation between Brown and Wilson purportedly played out in front of McElroy.

Despite an abundance of red flags, state prosecutors put McElroy in front of the Ferguson grand jury the day after her meeting with the federal officials. After the 12-member panel listened to a tape of her interview conducted at the FBI office, McElroy appeared and, under oath, regaled the jurors with her eyewitness claims.”

After providing this testimony, she returned to the grand jury the next day with a spiral bound notebook, supposedly containing her observations that she wrote down after the shooting. When presenting the notebook, she changed her story.

WHO KILLED MICHAEL BROWN Video courtesy of Mark Fiore

“Before testifying about the content of her notebook scribblings, McElroy admitted that she had not driven to Ferguson in search of an African-American pal she had last seen in 1988. Instead, McElroy offered a substitute explanation that was, remarkably, an even bigger lie.

McElroy, again under oath, explained to grand jurors that she was something of an amateur urban anthropologist. Every couple of weeks, McElroy testified, she likes to ‘go into all the African-American neighborhoods.’ During these weekend sojourns–apparently conducted when her ex has the kids–McElroy said she will ‘go in and have coffee and I will strike up a conversation with an African-American and I will try to talk to them because I’m trying to understand more.'”

Her journal entry account of what she was planning to do the day of the shooting is,

“Well I'm gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks Niggers and Start calling them People.”

The report details legal trouble she has run into in the past, including writing fraudulent checks. Once when she was in bankruptcy court, her lawyer asked to be removed from her case because McElroy

“repeatedly used profanity when speaking with Counsel’s secretary which escalated to the use of racial slurs.”

After local police rescued a boy held captive for years, McElroy called local media and claimed to have told police where the boy was. Police stated,

“The Kirkwood Police Department has investigated her allegation and we have no record of any contact with Mrs. McElroy in regards to Shawn Hornbeck. We have found that this story is a complete fabrication.”

The report describes that McElroy testified that she has a faulty memory stemming from a 2001 car accident in which she was launched through the windshield. She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was a teenager, and not has not taken medication to treat it for 25 years.

Before she spoke to police and claimed to have witnessed the shooting, she made comments on social media logically inconsistent with the perspective of someone who had seen it. On social media, McElroy posted an image of a police officer standing over Mike Brown’s dead body with a caption that read,

“Mike Brown already received justice so please, stop asking for it.”

Finally, McElroy launched a Facebook page to raise money for Darren Wilson. When questioned about it, she said it was for Ferguson first responders dealing with the riots. But the page claimed to have sent money to the Darren Wilson Trust Fund.

The report is incredibly damning of the entire Justice proceedings of the case. It especially calls into question the conduct and conclusion of the grand jury. If this detailed, researched report is even remotely true, McElroy’s legal history and overt biases should have disqualified her ludicrous story from being taken seriously. She should have been torn to pieces by the prosecutor. And in a regular trial, her testimony would have been demolished under cross-examination. That someone with such a troubled past, whose story was so problematic, was allowed to stand as a witness, virtually unchallenged, is scathing evidence that the grand jury was woefully inadequate. It underscores the validity of the nationwide protests pleading with the nation that something is very wrong in our Justice system.

Racist, bi-polar and not near the murder scene, nothing to see here, move on!

Let's stop focusing on facts for a while and just put our faith in the white police officer.
~Republican Jesus


RELATED:

I KNOW I SEEN THE SHOT

CNN Witness credibility

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

"SHITTY WHITE PEOPLE" AND "RACE-A-HOLICS"

JON STEWART AND LARRY WILMORE DISSECT THE FERGUSON "RACE" PROBLEM  

"Isn't it interesting how witness testimony is so unreliable." ~ Jon Stewart

The daily Show host Jon Stewart and correspondent Larry Wilmore rebuked conservatives on Tuesday for harping on crime statistics in response to the Ferguson demonstrations.

“What would you say to those people?” Stewart asked Wilmore, who will debut as host of the Nightly Show next month.

“I would say they can go fuck themselves, Jon,” Wilmore said. “First of all, can we quit calling it ‘Black-on-Black’ crime? It’s just crime, ok? I mean, ‘Black-on-Black’ just makes it sound like a category on Redtube.”

The conversation about “Black-on-Black” crime, Wilmore argued, is already happening within Black communities.

“Do you think people are using this argument as a way to invalidate the righteous nature of any of the protests?” Stewart asked next.

In response, Wilmore played a clip of Fox News host Bill O’Reilly accusing protesters of “aiding and abetting” looters by not leaving demonstration sites, and saying that violence during the protests had increased bias against African-Americans.

“I have a dream, Jon,” Wilmore said. “That one day, the actions of a few sh*tty white people will be seen as discrediting their entire race.”

Stewart also mocked the St. Louis County Police Association for misstating on Monday that the NFL’s St. Louis Rams had apologized after five of its players took the field this week making the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture that has characterized protests in Ferguson and around the U.S.

“I see the confusion,” Stewart said. “The Rams made the ‘Sorry if you were offended’ non-apology that no one ever believes is an actual apology. And instead of rejecting the non-apology outright like a normal group, the cops confused things even more by accepting it, forcing the Rams to clarify the passive-aggressive nature of their non-apology. Which means at least, finally, in this country, we’re having the important national conversation about semantics we need.”

Before you watch Stewart's clips, it should be noted that "white-on-white crime is 84 percent, six points lower than Black killings. Let that sink in before you ever throw another stone at African-Americans. If this number is not just as disgusting as the black-on-black violence, then you are a special kind of stupid!

PART ONE Video Courtesy of Comedy Central

The Daily Show
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PART TWO Video Courtesy of Comedy Central

The Daily Show
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Final word, racism is an easy fix - how do we eradicate racism, outlaw it, you want to wipe out racism, outlaw racism. Put a memory so deeply entrenched in the minds and souls of any bigot - so deep, that the next 40 generations of these idiots will remember what happened to their ignorant family members.

RELATED:

St. Louis PD has two police associations, one for whites and one for African-Americans.

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Roger Wesr

JON STEWART TAKES ON "ISOLATED INCIDENTS", "RACIAL ARSONISTS" AND "RACE INSTIGATORS"

JON STEWART LAMENTING FOX NEWS ON FERGUSON PROTESTERS

Jon Stewart just back from a week off, laments Fox News and it's "paid" commentators for its views on the Ferguson protests.

The unrest inspired by the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and a grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in his death have nothing to do with race. Or so Fox News would have you believe.

Stewart looked at the skewed framing of the Ferguson protests by one particular network, Fox News. And then Stewart methodically ripped their posterior. He called out Fox News' hypocrisy, their blatant ignoring of "systemic injustice,” and Fox News' insistence that the protests were incited by "race arsonists."

Video Courtesy of Comedy Central

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Nothing more to say other than "nailed it"!

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Roger West

"IT DOESN'T ADD UP"

NANCY GRACE OBLITERATES DARREN WILSON AND BOB MCCULLOCH

Nancy Grace joined CNN’s Brooke Baldwin to discuss the Ferguson grand jury decision Wednesday afternoon and she had a lot to say about Officer Darren Wilson’s version of the story, which has finally come out through his testimony and interviews. According to her, the whole thing “doesn't add up.”

“When people say, it does not add up, I will tell you what doesn't add up, these photos,” Grace said, holding up copies pictures of Wilson’s face after the shooting. “I’ve looked at a them, I’ve studied them, and I was expecting to see his face mangled.” She added, “He doesn't even have a bruise. right? It’s red. He’s got a red mark!”

“Look, do you know how many times I have sided against a cop?” Grace asked. “Never. But to me, this is bigger than a badge. And I don’t like speaking out against a cop, but this doesn't add up.”

Later, when Baldwin asked Grace if the grand jurors should have questioned Wilson’s story more, she said it was the prosecutor who failed, not the jurors. “The grand jurors are like sheep, they’re babes in the woods. The prosecutor’s duty is to seek the truth,” she said. “I am telling you that the prosecutors, if they want an indictment, they will get an indictment.”

Finally, Grace questioned Wilson’s assertion that all he wanted to do in the moment of the shooting was “live.” She said, “If you wanted to live, then put the pedal to the metal and drive when the guy is trying to jump in your car and grab your gun!”

GRACE SLAMMING WILSON

I can't ever remember ever agreeing with Nancy Grace, but in this instance, she is spot on.

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Roger West

BOB MCCULLOCH

FERGUSON PROSECUTOR BOB MCCULLOCH

McCulloch has been widely criticized for burying the long-awaited announcement in a lengthy press conference, revealing the outcome only after he criticized the role the media and social media played in the public perception of the case. “The most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle and the sensational appetite for something to talk about, following closely behind with the rumors on social media,” he said.

Rachel Maddow outlined [Like we blogged yesterday] how St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch discredited the witnesses in the case while announcing the grand jury ruling.

Video Courtesy of MSNBC

Ben Trachtenberg, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri School of Law, said the entire announcement “read like a closing argument for the defense,” while Susan McGraugh, an associate professor at the Saint Louis University School of Law, said she was “furious” when she watched it.

“Bob McCulloch took a very defensive posture,” McGraugh said. “It was a poor choice to be so confrontational in presenting a grand jury verdict that he had to know would upset a large number of people. He should have left out the editorializing.”

Marjorie Cohn, a professor of criminal law and procedure at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, said the way McCulloch presented the facts to the public was unlike anything she had ever seen. 

“In 98 percent of cases, the prosecutor would just announce the grand jury decision and that’s it,” she said. “He would not characterize the evidence defensively, or attack the media.”

One common critique of McCulloch’s prosecution of Wilson was his use of the grand jury process. Typically, grand juries exist to determine if there is probable cause to charge a suspect with a crime, a fairly low legal threshold that allows for some uncertainty. But McCulloch, attorneys said, treated the grand jury proceedings as a criminal jury trial by presenting them with all available evidence both for and against charging Wilson.

Leipold said he thinks McCulloch made the decision to “not hold anything back” because of the intense media scrutiny.

“This is an example of the prosecutor saying…no matter what the outcome is, if we don’t present witness X or present the forensic reports, people are just going to say this is an inadequate investigation and either we’re railroading the police officer if we indict or we’re covering up if we don’t,” he said. “Let’s just present it all and let the chips fall as they may.”

But the presentation of all of the evidence to the grand jury struck other legal experts as inappropriate.

“[McCulloch] put the grand jury in the role of being a try-er of fact, which is not its role,” Cohn said. “The grand jury was put in the position of basically being a jury, but in a one-sided, closed proceeding. The only people inside the grand jury room are the grand jury and prosecutors.”

In contrast, she said, “In a trial, there are lawyers on both sides, witnesses, and the evidence is presented in an adversarial way.”

Making the grand jury weigh evidence and question witnesses also shrouded that process in secrecy—a factor that led to the “rampant speculation” McCulloch criticized in Monday’s night press conference, McGraugh said.

“People could do nothing but speculate because he was using a secret grand jury proceeding,” she said. “He didn't acknowledge that people had to speculate as a result of his own actions.”

She added that even within the realm of grand jury proceedings, the case spoke to a lack of “equal treatment under law.”

“The law was not applied to Officer Wilson the same way it would be applied to someone who wasn’t a police officer,” said McGraugh, who previously worked as a trial attorney and spent eight years at the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office. “If my client killed someone tomorrow and claimed it was in self-defense, he would be arrested and required to post bond while awaiting a grand jury decision. Then, the prosecutor would not be allowed to bring both sides of the story into the building.”

I am glad I am not the only one who found this prosecutors actions as grandiose showboating for the officer.


RELATED: Bob McCulloch has ties to Officer Darren Wilson fundraising

The Ferguson grand jury was never intended to bring an indictment

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

SEASON GREETINGS FERGUSON

SEASON GREETINGS FERGUSON FROM BOB MCCULLOCH AND FERGUSON GRAND JURY

As we all know by now, unless you live under a rock, Ferguson's police officer Darren Wilson, the murderer of Michael Brown was cleared by a grand jury - to be free man last night.

I knew from the beginning that Wilson would walk, all an officer has to do is invoke "I feared for my life" - now enters the fat lady singing, "the parties over".

Below we have enclosed several sites that provide either PDF's or links to the full grand jury testimony, caution its 4,799 pages in length.

While listening to prosecutor Bob McCulloch last night, while I expected a non-indictment, I wasn't ready for a prosecutor to be blaming social media, more exclusively Twitter, I wasn't prepared for this man to be acting as a defense lawyer for the murdering defendant [Darren Wilson] and again, assassinating Mike Brown for a second time.

We heard McCulloch tells us how inconsistent witnesses were, we heard stories of grandeur, like that Darren Wilson never stood over the dead body of Mike Brown. The picture below indeed shows the murderer standing over his fresh kill, like a hunter in the woods.

OFFICER DARREN WILSON STANDING OVER THE DEAD BODY OF MIKE BROWN

We were told that this murderer had a broken eye socket, below photo clearly shows little evidence of any violence let alone a broken eye socket.

MIKE BROWN'S WOUNDS VERSUS DARREN WILSON'S

Below is the transcript on why Michael Browns death scene was not captured for evidence

Seriously? WTF! Batteries dead? Are medical examiners really this incompetent? I would expect this examiner to fired immediately! 

Instead of this prosecutor ensuring a indictment against the murdering Darren Wilson, he indicted twitter and Michael Brown.

Three months of waiting, ten seconds of verdict and forty minutes of pure unadulterated bullshit patronizing the masses of on how social media was to blame. The injustice of America for all the world to see.

I doesn't take one hundred days to decide if a murder is a crime readers, it takes 100 days to figure out how to spin the bullshit so that the masses find it believable.

I reiterate from previous blogs;

"Jeffery Dahlmer, Timothy McVeigh, Jarred Loughner, and the Colorado Movie theater killer James Holmes, all mass murderers, were taken alive after their actions. Recent Pennsylvania cop killer Eric Frien, was indeed taken in alive".

The fundamental danger in this Ferguson non-indictment is not more riots, it's more Darren Wilson's.

And so it is readers, the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man - he was not even worthy of a trial. If you're skeptical of the government when it inspects workplace chemicals, imagine how you'd feel if you could be shot dead with no trial.

Michael Brown's case is not noise, its a signal, a signal that every 28 hours in this country, an African-American is killed by a police officer.

Hey black people, remain calm. Trust the cops who murder your unarmed kids, trust the laws that fail you, and the justice system that discriminates against you.

Season Greetings Ferguson!


All 4,799 pages can be viewed in a PDF here via the NY Times.

The Washington Post organized the voluminous document into small sections here.

The Guardian broke the testimony up into 76 different documents here.

View just the testimony of Darren Wilson here.

Also, we've embedded the entire PDF below (may load slowly, it's a huge file):

Grand Jury Testimony in the case against Darren Wilson

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

Anonymous Threatens KKK Again Along With The Ferguson Police

ANONYMOUS WARNS FRANK ANCONA'S DUNCE CAP SOCIETY MEMBERS

On Thursday, News2Share received a video from Anonymous. This new video responds to Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan's (TAKKKK) threats to use "lethal force" against peaceful Ferguson protesters. The video warns both the Ku Klux Klan and Ferguson police to remain peaceful and nonviolent toward those expressing their dissent.

Recently, the hacker group "unmasked" Klansmen associated with Frank Ancona's merry band of dimwitted sheet-wearing dumbasses shortly before taking down numerous Klan web sites and stealing the hood-wearers' Twitter account.

ANONYMOUS

I like Anonymous, but if they want to remain anonymous, they should get someone with a less recognizable voice than Steven Hawking to read the their threats.

Seriously though, may Anonymous unleash hell of the knuckle dragging KKK members!

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson In Talks To Resign

While this resignation may tamper the burning beast that is the Mike Brown protesters, nothing less of indictment - will satisfactorily end this fiasco of a cop killing an unarmed African-American.

I wonder when Wilson resigns, will the Ferguson Police Department be wearing "I am Darren Wilson" patches and bracelets in a show of support?

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

ANONYMOUS EXPOSES ST. LOUIS KLAN MEMBERS - TO INCLUDE POLICE IN OPERATION #HOODSOFF

ANONYMOUS TAKES CONTROL OF KKK TWITTER PAGE

So many hoods to remove, so little time. 

Unless you live under a rock, you have to be aware of the cyber war that is occurring as we speak. 

After the racial hate group Ku Klux Klan said it would use 'lethal force' on Ferguson protesters, a skirmish with Anonymous has erupted: Anonymous has now seized two primary KKK Twitter accounts by carrying out "Doxing Attacks" . 

Backfill: 

Last week, a Ku Klux Klan group based 75 miles south of Ferguson, Missouri began distributing flyers threatening "lethal force" against Ferguson protesters in any aftermath of the upcoming grand jury decision regarding Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

The Riverfront Times reported that the St. Louis, Missouri KKK group passed out pamphlets starting, "Attention: To the terrorists masquerading as "peaceful protesters"!"
The announcement stated further, "We will use lethal force as provided under Missouri law to defend ourselves."  

KKK leader Frank Ancona went on MCNBC Wednesday to back up the threat and claim support from Ferguson locals; the head of Missouri's KKK told media that his organization's threats to protesters had boosted KKK recruitment. 

The Missouri group behind the threats -- Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan -- is listed as an active hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

KKK FERGUSON [NOTICE THE TEA PARY FLAG IN BACKGROUND] 

                       

On Friday Anonymous began doxing (publicly revealing identities and personal information) of KKK members in the Ferguson/St. Louis area. 

This ‘doxing’ of the Ku Klux Klan — is outing members by name — with screenshots of social media profiles. Reports say that Anonymous even doxed ‘Ghoul Squad’ members — those who donate to the group, but don’t participate directly, either for fear of being unmasked, or because of other obligations. 

ANONYMOUS RESPONSE TO THE WHITE RACISTS 

RELATED: KKK threatens Liberal Blogger

There is a reason why these knuckle draggers dawn dunce caps. There is a reason why they hide "anonymously" [pun intended] . These chicken-shit fucktoids are the bottom of the barrel scum to which life has to offer. KKK members are the men and women who attend family reunions to find their next spouse. 

I hope anonymous keeps taking the # hoodsoff of these cowards - even when Ferguson's nightmare ends, let this be a mission of Anonymous until they are all exposed - and I hope, now that their identities are exposed, that the entire globe trolls each and every member. 

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

DARREN WILSON VIDEO SHOWS NO EVIDENCE OF "EYE SOCKET FRACTURE" OR ANY OTHER INJURIES FOR THAT MATTER

All the hyperbole over whether Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson had a "broken eye socket" from his "brief" encounter with Michael Brown - all claims can now be quashed as unequivocally false!

Below is Darren Wilson, his union lawyer Greg Kloeppel, and two police officers leave the Ferguson police station for the hospital at 2:08 p.m. on Aug. 9, the day Wilson shot Michael Brown Jr.

THE MURDERER JUST AFTER THE KILL




WILSON RETURN BACK TO STATION




The brief encounter with Brown happened at 12:02 noon time, the first video above with Wilson is exactly two hours and six minutes removed from the killing. Either Darren Wilson cleans up very well or his healing powers are immaculate.

Often if a story smells like shit, it is shit.

NFTOS

Blogger -In-Chief

Roger West

BLACK KIDS MORE LIKELY TO BE KILLED BY POLICE THAN WHITE KIDS

Who knew?

There’s a lot we don’t know about how many people have actually been killed at police hands in the United States, thanks to woefully inadequate transparency and federal record-keeping. But there’s one thing we do now know: Among those we do know were shot by police, black teens were 21 times more likely to be shot dead than their white counterparts.

“The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police,” a new ProPublica report explains, noting that if whites were killed at the same ratio there would have been another 185 white deaths, just during that three-year period, just of those in that narrow age range.

To arrive at this statistic, ProPublica analyzed the list of 12,000 police shooting deaths that were self-reported by agencies to the Federal Bureau of Investigation between 1980 and 2012. Because this data is self-reported and departments are not required to submit information, this data likely significantly ucounteractsthe number of shootings. Florida departments, for example, haven’t submitted data since 1997 and New York City hasn't submitted data since 2007. And the FBI asks only for “justifiable homicide ”figures, meaning in those instances where the shootings are most overtly viewed as unjustified or the litigation is ongoing, departments are less likely to report.

Still, assessing available data may provide the best insight we have into how grave racial disparities in police violence are, particularly when it comes to young black men, who were stopped by NYPD officers in 2011 more times than the total number of young black men in New York City. Unsurprisingly, past analyses have also found disproportionate violence against blacks, including a 2007 investigation by Color lines and the Chicago Reporter in 10 major cities. An NAACP report of Oakland, California, found that 37 of 45 police-involved shootings were of blacks, while zero were of whites. “Although weapons were not found in 40 percent of cases, the NAACP found, no officers were charged," Mother.

Studies of human and police behavior suggest that racial bias is baked into policing, particularly because individuals mis-perceive the threat posed by African Americans. Nonetheless, a 2012 poll after the George Zimmerman verdict found that that the gap between whites and blacks who think the justice system is biased was greater than ever.

portions of blog from thinkprogress

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REIGNS IN FERGUSON POLICE

A Department of Justice letter sent to the Police Chief Tom Jackson of Ferguson, Missouri on Friday instructed all officers to stop wearing “I Am Darren Wilson” bracelets. Another letter issued on Tuesday ordered members of the police department to wear readable name plates, after officers were seen wearing unidentifiable tags or none at all.

Protests have not stopped in Ferguson since officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed, in August. And in response to civil unrest, which gained steam again after Brown’s memorial was burned to the ground on Tuesday, and the use of the slogan “I Am Mike Brown,” officers were photographed wearing the bracelets supporting the officer who killed him.

The DOJ letter sent to Jackson explained that the bracelets contributed to an “us versus them” mentality and “upset and agitated” others.

In a separate letter, the DOJ also said that officers must stop violating name tag protocol by obscuring or altogether not wearing their name tags. The practice, DOJ said, “conveys a message to community members that, through anonymity, officers may seek to act with impunity.”

Ferguson police previously drew national attention for the militarization of officers, which made the town look like a war scene and resulted in the arrest and attempted censorship of journalists on the ground. And clashes between police and protestors haven’t stopped.

Although Jackson gave Brown’s parents a video apology and joined protesters in the streets this week, Darren Wilson still hasn’t been charged, raising questions about the justice system and politics in the town. Ferguson has a history of racial tension, and research shows that justice is hard to come by for victims of police brutality. For example, a Supreme Court ruling gives police legal deference to determine “reasonable” force. But protesters say civil unrest will continue until the officer is held accountable.


RELATED:

FERGUSON OFFICER SHOT

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West