Running gun violence thread

The Malaysian Airlines beat ain't gonna cover itself, you know.

 

WaPo's Wesley Lowery gives his own account of his arrest in Ferguson:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-ferguson-washington-post-reporter-wesley-lowery-gives-account-of-his-arrest/2014/08/13/0fe25c0e-2359-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html

Draw your own conclusions, folks.

 

Followed by five minutes on Bogie and Bacall.

 

A recipe for more trouble: More suburbs that have experienced profound demographic change (as the nation overall is experiencing demographic changes) while the police force doesn't keep up, either in representing that change or adjusting to it (because they came on as the white residents wanted them to be the front line in keeping that change from coming).

Meanwhile, you have a more militarized and paranoid police force, in part because of military equipment being made available, and also in part because the populace is, collectively speaking, well-armed. (And in some cases -- Indiana for sure -- there have been judicial opinions OK'ing legal shooting of police in certain situations.) Except that the police aren't getting the training need to know how and when to use their new toys.

Add to this the historical antipathy between the police and minorities.

I think a lot of the reactions to Ferguson come because there are a lot of people who believe, who know, that the same thing could blow up in their town. Heck, just look at the comment sections of most news sites to get an idea of how that could happen.

NPR recently had an interview with the head of U.S. Customs and Border protection, who noted that in his experience, police dressing up in "hard" gear to protect themselves actually intensifies a situation, and that often the best course for crowds is police being present, but mingling through the crowd. First paragraph is NPR, second graf is the Customs guy, back and forth (http://www.npr.org/2014/07/18/332286063/transcript-commissioner-kerlikowskes-full-interview):

I want to ask something else about your experience. And this is something I read a short description of, so you'll correct me if I misremember or get any details wrong. I believe it was in about 2001 in Seattle. There was an incident of disorder on the streets and the account that I read said, "The police chief was fiercely criticized for not using enough force." What happened in that case?

So to try and collapse a long story: After the World Trade Organization riots, disturbances, I became the police chief. And in Seattle, they decided to hold the anniversary of WTO. The city was quite nervous given all that had occurred in the city and the damage and on and on. We went through thousands and thousands of demonstrators that November, when I first arrived in 2000, without any problems. Rather than have all of our officers in very hard gear, helmets and masks and on and on, I was with them in the streets in soft gear — and not that we didn't have those resources available.

Meaning just uniformed police officers, looking like police officers.

Right. Exactly. And working with the public and by the end of the night, things had turned a little bit more difficult, but we had the support and the resources. So as the mayor said, he said, "Oh, this is great, you could run for mayor." And four months later, we had a Mardi Gras disturbance downtown in which a young man died. And I was roundly criticized for not using enough force. I think the understanding is that any time a disturbance goes out of control, the police will be blamed, either for causing it by using too much force or by not enforcing the rule of law. And I stick by the decisions that I made that night.

In that case, what happened? Your officers got out of the line of not fire, but the line of violence, I suppose.

What had happened after the WTO anniversary was that the police guild did a survey and said, "You're really putting these officers at risk because they should have helmets, pads, on and on, et cetera." And that stuff was all available, and we had hardened officers available. So when the Mardi Gras issue came up, all the officers were in hardened gear. Well, to tell you the truth, it makes it pretty difficult, when you're talking from behind a face shield with a gas mask, to engage with the public and say, "Look, let's, let's tone this down. Let's calm things down. Let's make sure that those people that need to be apprehended are arrested because of their intoxicated state or their level of violence, et cetera." It's pretty hard to engage in those discussions when you're hardened up. I regret that today. I should've stuck by my decision earlier. I didn't.

Wait a minute. Your decision earlier was ...?

My decision had been, I listened to what the police guild had said, that the officers would be in danger if they weren't in hardened gear.

So you hardened them.

And so they were all in hardened gear. And usually, you don't, you're not all right out on the street, you're back. Well, while you're back, the crowd is brewing, things are getting out of control. This is an alcohol-fueled Mardi Gras — although it's 40 degrees in March in Seattle.

By the time you move in with all of your platoons of officers, things are already in a very, in a very bad state. I would've been smarter to approach it with officers dressed as I was, in soft gear, and deal with them.

Oh, this is so interesting. You're saying because they were hardened up, they were standing back ...

Right.

... like a military force ...

Right.

... ready to strike if necessary.

Right.

And so they weren't involved.

Right.

And things got out of hand.

That's right.

 

Meanwhile, Anonymous has named what is says is the officer who shot Brown (a dubious claim for the moment, because he's not from the Ferguson police), and presumably it's why the St. Louis County web site is down right now.

 

The Twitter last night was up-to-the-second excellence in terms of photos, videos, livestreams, etc.

That said, and what's getting lost in the mix is that -- allegedly -- Michael Brown wrestled the cop back into the car and tried going for the gun, and that facilitated the shooting of an "unarmed teen."

If I wrestled a cop into his car and reached for his gun, he'd be forced to shoot an "unarmed white man."

What has transpired the last 72 hours is insanity of the highest order. But what about the seed that sparked it all?

 

That account is very much in dispute.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/eyewitness-michael-brown-fatal-shooting-missouri

 

Looks like you can't embed tweets here. Anonymous IDs the police officer as Bryan Willman.

 

Another journo who wants a gold star on his forehead for doing his job.

 

No statement yet from Ferguson native Michael McDonald.

http://nocostl.com/2010/07/music-legend-michael-mcdonald-helps-launch-fergusons-wall-of-fame/

 

Maybe the officer is a Tony Stewart fan.