Ferguson

Why It’s Almost Impossible To Indict A Cop

November 26, 2014 Chase Madar, www.billmoyers.com Educate! Ferguson, Gun Control, police brutality, Police the Police, Social Change

Wanton overpolicing had poisoned relations between the people and their government well before Darren Wilson shot dead Michael Brown. Less mediagenic than police militarization and far more insidious is law enforcement’s daily harassment of citizens for petty offenses. The local government in Ferguson has been treating its residents and neighbors less like free people with rights than like revenue milk-cows to be exploited to the max. Citations and fines for petty offenses are profligately inflicted on residents, particularly black residents. According to a blockbuster report issued by St. Louis’s ArchCity Defenders advocacy group, over 20 percent of city revenue comes from municipal courts (making them the city’s second-largest source of revenue), which issued enough warrants last year to slap three warrants, $312 worth, on every household in the town.

Ferguson: Systemic Racism Requires Systemic Solutions

November 26, 2014 John A. Powell, www.ourfuture.org Educate! Ferguson, police brutality, Racial Justice, Social Change, Social Justice

What we are witnessing is a reflection of a systematic failure in our society that is revealed wherever we are willing to look—schools, health care, employment, housing, life expectancy, poverty, and the list goes on. The problem is persistent, cumulative, and deeply debilitating. The arrest rate or murder rate between African Americans and whites, as evidenced by a recent set of studies, cannot be explained by the “behavior of blacks,” as some will quickly suggest. Nor can it only be explained by explicit racism in the police department or other systems that fail to serve the black community. What we are seeing is the consequence of a systematic failure at every level, and a political response that ranges from hostility to neglect.

Media Inflames Fears Instead Of Informing Viewers

November 25, 2014 Peter Hart, www.fair.org Resist! Ferguson, Journalism, Media, Racial Justice

Every day brings news reports that tell us the city of Ferguson remains "on edge" or "tense" awaiting a grand jury decision about whether to indict police officer Darren Wilson over the killing of Michael Brown. The expectations of violent uprisings have left some wondering if a lack of violence would be viewed as some kind of disappointment. In this environment, one would hope journalism could serve to inform without inflaming the situation. Media have been known to stoke panic about violent and disorderly protests. Ahead of the 2004 protests at the Republican National Convention in New York City, media hyped the threat of protester violence.

Legal Experts Explain Why The Ferguson Grand Jury Was Set Up For Failure

November 25, 2014 Judd Legum, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Ferguson, Law, Protests

In this video, two experienced attorneys explain what, in their view, are serious flaws with the grand jury process in the Darren Wilson case. The lawyers, St. Louis University law professor Susan McGraugh and Jerryl T. Christmas, a defense attorney and former prosecutor in St. Louis, are unsparing in their criticism of county prosecutor Bob McCulloch. (Christmas has participated in protests following Brown’s death.) Specifically, McGraugh and Christmas question McCulloch’s unusual decision to present “all evidence” to the grand jury. Typically, prosecutors present to the grand jury only the evidence necessary to establish probable cause.

Protests Across US In Response To Grand Jury Decision

November 25, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.or Resist! Ferguson, killed by police, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

Across the United States, the grand jury's decision sparked mainly peaceful protests as Americans spoke out on racial bias and police violence, issues so raw and emotional that they are often like a tinderbox waiting for a match. In New York marchers chanted "Black lives matter" as they snarled traffic in Times Square. In Chicago, demonstrators walked up Lake Shore Drive carrying banners that read "Justice for Mike Brown" - the 18-year-old who was shot and killed in Ferguson on Aug. 9 by police officer Darren Wilson. In Seattle, protesters blocked a downtown street in a "die-in" protest as they lay down on the ground. Protesters in both Boston and Seattle observed the 4.5 minutes of silence that the Brown family requested after the decision was announced, with protesters in Boston then marching from City Hall to the statehouse. Police in Ferguson used smoke canisters and trucks to force waves of violent protesters down the street away from the police building soon after sporadic gunshots were heard. Flames from a burning car rose into the night sky.

Day After Grand Jury Take To The Streets

November 25, 2014 Hands Up United DC, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Ferguson, killed by police, Michael Brown, Police abuse, Racism

Day After Verdict Rally/March -- 7:00 p.m. Mt. Vernon Square Park, Washington, DC The Hands Up Coalition DC will peacefully assemble at the Justice Department every Monday at 4:00 PM, beginning December 1, 2014 Hands Up CoalitionDC Condemns Ferguson Grand Jury Findings Calls on Justice Department to Intervene and Adopt 6 Urgent Demands November 24, 2014, Washington, D.C.—The Washington-based Hands Up CoalitionDC condemned the findings of the Ferguson Grand Jury that exonerated white Police Officer Darren Wilson for his August 9, 2014 shooting and killing of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. "The entire Grand Jury process was abused from day one in this case," said coalition spokesperson, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo. "The system is anti-black, the policies are anti-black, shooting first and asking questions later is anti-black and slandering slain black men and women in choreographed leaks to the press after these people are dead and can no longer speak for themselves is anti-black."

Narrow-Minded Focus On Military & Weapons Makes Us Less Secure

November 23, 2014 David J. Ragland, www.theportlandalliance.org Educate! Ferguson, militarism, Nonviolence, Violence

Researchers for some time now have been able to understand how freedom from violence and the threat of violence, community-based economic development, authentic democratic processes and transparency increase human security. Violence and security have often been linked; human security research suggests they are mutually exclusive. Choosing violence to attain security precludes that very security for anyone who critiques violence, as thousands have learned in Ferguson. Clanging claims that we live in a great democracy that protects everyone’s rights sound awfully hollow to an unarmed protestor who has just been injured and arrested by a jack-up cop strapped with an official lethal sidearm and a legal system that affords him every benefit of every doubt. Democracy is not just a system of voting but an approach to governing that recognizes obstacles to participation and development and listens, trying to hear what communities need.

Judge Upholds Right To Record Police In Ferguson

November 23, 2014 Igor Bobic, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Ferguson, Media, Police abuse

A federal judge in Missouri issued three court orders on Friday upholding the rights of the public to record and document law enforcement officers on duty, after several violations of a previous agreement between the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the County of St. Louis and the City of Ferguson. The announcement comes ahead of a grand jury decision on whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. District Judge John A. Ross granted three court orders against the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the County of St. Louis and the City of Ferguson in response to a preliminary injunction by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ferguson And The ‘Us Vs. Them’ Illusion

November 23, 2014 Robert C. Koehler, www.commonwonders.com Educate! Ferguson, Nonviolence, Police abuse

The political, governmental and media consensus of who we are — is blind and deaf to history and locked into us-vs.-them thinking. Security, whether domestic or international, is a game played against presumed and, often enough, imagined enemies. Thus, prior to the governor’s decision to call out the Guard, the FBI had issued an intelligence bulletin warning local officials that “the announcement of the grand jury’s decision … will likely be exploited by some individuals to justify threats and attacks against law enforcement and critical infrastructure,” according to the Washington Post. If nothing else, this sort of consciousness remains utterly unaware of its own contribution to the trouble. As law enforcement ups its level of militarized authoritarianism, it agitates the elements predisposed to regard it as the enemy and seek its humiliation and defeat. This is a small segment of the protesters, but no matter. Preparing for war requires, first of all, an oversimplification of the social context in which the preparers operate. Once this is accomplished, the warnings become self-fulfilling prophecies. In other words, what matters is that there’s an “enemy” out there.

Protests Against State Violence Go Worldwide

November 23, 2014 Resist! Ayotzinapa, Ferguson, killed by police, Mexico, Police abuse, police brutality, US, Violence

Mexican activists were joined yesterday by solidarity protests in the United States and around the word. Under the banner of “Todos Somos Ayotzinapa – Todos Somos Ferguson,” a number of demonstrations in the States were intended to stand with Mexican organizers and the 43 students abducted, along with the U.S. community of Ferguson, Mo. Any day, a grand jury there is expected to decide whether or not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. At a rally in New York’s Union Square last Sunday, protesters held signs in Spanish saying, “Your son could be number 44” — eerily reminiscent of an earlier rallying cry: “I Am Trayvon Martin.” Protesters also called attention to the role of U.S. policy and trade agreements — including the proposed and controversial “Plan Mexico” — in fueling the drug war that has terrorized the country over the last several years, and was accelerated under the presidency of Felipe Calderon, beginning in 2006. Simultaneous protests for Ayotzinapa were held in France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries.

Popular Resistance Newsletter: No Rest Yet

November 22, 2014 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, Ferguson, Net Neutrality, Police abuse, Students, TPP

The end of the year is turning out to be among the busiest times since the early days of the occupy encampments. Many Popular Resistance campaigns are coming to fruition and key conflicts around the country and world are at critical moments. After mid-December and through mid-January there should be an opportunity to reflect and plan for 2015, but for now, we are running at full speed on issues that impact all of us. If you can get involved – we need you. The Grand Jury's announcement in Ferguson is expected imminently and many have issued a nonviolent call to action. The FCC has its next hearing on Dec. 11. The TPP negotiators are coming to Washington, DC on Dec. 7 and campaigns to stop the extreme extraction of fossil fuels are in critical moments. All of this and more means that your involvement is needed however you are able to participate.

Ferguson Grand Jury To Announce Decision Sunday Morning

November 22, 2014 Staff, www.sparrowmedia.net Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Racism

A St. Louis County Grand Jury returned Thursday and with them a decision whether or not to levy charges against Darren Wilson for the August 9th shooting of Michael Brown Jr.. Despite having the decision, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, for logistical purposes, has opted to announce the jurors’ conclusions on Sunday morning. Area schools have responded by announcing closures for next week, and over the next 48 hours, the media, who has once again descended upon Ferguson, MO, will repeat iterations of the same lede, variations of hysterical accounts, or ominous foreshadows of impending violence. Few will ask how locals about their desires to create a more equitable Ferguson and even fewer will provide a platform to those who already laying the foundation for that prospect. We set out to fill this void.

Lawyers Descend On Ferguson Ahead Of Grand Jury Decision

November 22, 2014 Tim Reid, www.dailymail.co.uk Resist! Civil Rights, Ferguson, Law

Hundreds of civil rights lawyers from across America are descending on Ferguson, Missouri as police and protesters prepare for a grand jury decision on whether to charge the officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in August. The attorneys are arriving in Ferguson as talks between protest groups and police have stalled over a refusal by officials to rule out the use of riot gear, tear gas and militarized equipment if demonstrations turn violent should a grand jury decide not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, protest leaders say.

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