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The Thick Blue Line: More than race fuels the ‘Support Darren Wilson’ campaign
The Pasadena Weekly ^ | August 28, 2014 | Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Posted on 08/28/2014 6:23:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

“Support Daren Wilson.”

These three words emblazoned at the top of the GoFundMe website in support of the Ferguson, Mo, cop who gunned down Michael Brown said it all. In the span of less than 48 hours, nearly 5,000 donations were received and the site got tens of thousands of Facebook looks and tweets. The fund’s beleaguered sponsors pleaded for patience while they tried to respond to the flood of emails that poured in supporting Wilson. The organizers announced triumphantly that they’d raised three times more than their goal.

This was no surprise. The instant Wilson was fingered as the person who shot Brown, the money train rolled into high gear complete with rallies, counterdemonstrations, badge signing parties and pitches to Americans to flash blue lights on their front porches to demonstrate support for Wilson. This was a virtual carbon copy of the campaign two years ago organized to rally round Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman begged, scammed and conned his way to soaking thousands of donors out of cash to bankroll his defense and much more. But as with Wilson, no one squawked about the funds or bothered to ask just where the money was going and for what it was being used. It didn’t really matter. With Wilson, as with Zimmerman, the money is not the issue or concern. It’s the men, their actions and their victims that drive this zeal. The Zimmerman funders unabashedly cheered him on. They railed that he, not Martin, was the victim of public and media bias and deserved all the support he could get. The sentiment is no different for Wilson from his legion of cheerleaders.

The mix of fear, loathing and unreconstructed bigotry are certainly elements in the financial and moral boost for Wilson. But there’s more to it than that. A Huff Post/YouGov poll on public attitudes toward the GI Joe, heavy-handed police action in Ferguson found that less than 40 percent of whites said that police use lethal force too frequently and only 40 percent of whites said they did not trust the justice system to investigate police killings. Blacks expressed far less trust of the justice system and support for the use of lethal force. Despite the unsurprising greater skepticism among blacks about police killings and the fairness of the justice system, public attitudes toward the police are a far different matter. In a Gallup survey that measured overall confidence in law enforcement, police topped out among the three highest-rated institutions out of 17 tested in terms of whites’ confidence, behind only the military and small business. Confidence in the police among blacks, though lower on the scale, still ranked seventh on the list.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, support for police soared. Big and small municipal police departments were egged on by a compliant Congress which passed section 1033 of the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act and, with grants from the Department of Homeland Security, grabbed at the Pentagon’s give away of a dizzying array of battlefield weapons, armor and vehicles. Civil libertarians frantically sounded the alarm that the rush to boost police firepower ignited a frightening expansion of virtually unchecked power in which law enforcement agencies, under the guise of fighting terrorism, had an intrusive license to indefinitely detain US citizens, target US citizens, arrest witnesses for recording police actions, use GPS to track a person’s every move, and use surveillance drones for domestic spying. Aside from the protest of the civil liberties and civil rights groups, and some congressional Democrats, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, there has been no mass outcry against any of these national security state measures.

The longstanding police love fest is nowhere more evident than in the near impossibility of convicting cops that overuse deadly force. On the rare occasions that charges are brought against officers for using deadly force, juries are loath to convict. Despite overwhelming evidence that police actually do profile minorities, lie, cheat and even commit crimes, jurors still are far more likely to believe the testimony of police and prosecution witnesses than witnesses, defendants, or even the victims, especially minority victims.

This is not solely a product of the deep-seated conditioning of the public to respect and even revere authority in order to maintain a lawful and orderly society. Generations have firmly believed that police are the solid line between peace and anarchy in society and anything less than iron-clad public and institutional allegiance to that authority is fraught with peril. To those critics who question that authority, police officials have a standard retort: When your house is broken into or you are the victim of a mugger, who do you call?

Wilson is the beneficiary of the aura of tradition, respect and dependence that police engender in Americans. This ensures that the men and women like him who horribly abuse their authority will always have the cheers of countless people.

**********

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author, political analyst and a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media and weekly co-host of “The Al Sharpton Show” on American Urban Radio Network. He is also the host of the weekly “Hutchinson Report” on KTYM 1460 AM in Los Angeles, and KPFK 90.7 FM and the Pacifica Radio Network. Follow Earl on Twitter at http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; Government; Local News
KEYWORDS: darrenwilson; michaelbrown; trayvon; zimmerman
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1 posted on 08/28/2014 6:23:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
They railed that he, not Martin, was the victim of public and media bias and deserved all the support he could get.

And they were correct.
2 posted on 08/28/2014 6:25:44 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("Moderates" are lying manipulative bottom feeding scum.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“The mix of fear, loathing and unreconstructed bigotry are certainly elements in the financial and moral boost for Wilson.”

What a pantload.

If you don’t agree with the thug narrative, you are a bigot. God forbid you have a difference of opinion from the race hustlers.


3 posted on 08/28/2014 6:26:32 AM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Or, just possibly, more and more people are becoming skeptical of the Left’s tired narrative on race and are beginning to push back.


4 posted on 08/28/2014 6:27:25 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Rope. Tree. Politician. Some assembly required.)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Establishment News think they are the “movers and shakers” of society - their mindset and pass accomplishments in getting people they desire into political office has made them grand in illusions...and now they think they are judge and jury to decide who was guilty and who is innocent...

Time for the EN to be put on the line and smacked down!


6 posted on 08/28/2014 6:31:26 AM PDT by BCW (ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM)
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To: BCW
The Establishment News think they are the “movers and shakers” of society

Why is that? More people will likely attend a college football game in your town this weekend than watch CNN or MSNBC.


7 posted on 08/28/2014 6:36:09 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

8 posted on 08/28/2014 6:39:41 AM PDT by BCW (ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

From author Earl “The Pearl’s” wisdom:

“Wilson is the beneficiary of the aura of tradition, respect and dependence that police engender in Americans. This ensures that the men and women like him who horribly abuse their authority will always have the cheers of countless people.”

Earl, you are a racist pig!


9 posted on 08/28/2014 6:42:35 AM PDT by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, was not there!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Never trust people who find the need to have a made-up middle name, which used to be a made-up surname.


10 posted on 08/28/2014 6:44:22 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The black racists lost in Ferguson.

Deal with it.


11 posted on 08/28/2014 6:49:25 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The evidence already presented certainly suggests the possibility that this was a justified shooting.If the reports of noteworthy (if not serious) facial injuries having been suffered by the cop prove to be true and accurate that would *strongly* suggest a justified shooting.

It ain't rocket science.We *know* that he was a giant.We *know* that he was capable of being anything *but* gentle when it suited his purposes.We *know* that he wasn't shot in the back.We *know* that he had drugs in his system when he died.

And we *think* we know that the cop sustained noteworthy injuries.

12 posted on 08/28/2014 7:06:17 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Rat Party policy;Lie,deny,refuse to comply)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
earl may eclipse al and jesse at this rate...


13 posted on 08/28/2014 7:10:57 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill ...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think he is receiving support becuase the media and the race pimps have already convicted him despite the fact that the evidence to date clearly states that this could be a good shoot and people are worried that there has been a rush to judgement that might deprive him of his constitutional rights to a fair process.


14 posted on 08/28/2014 7:11:10 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: cripplecreek
The Trayvon trial was the beginning of the end for the once great goodwill non-Blacks used to have for Blacks in America.

And Michael Brown and Ferguson (not to mention Obama and Holder) were the end of it.

15 posted on 08/28/2014 7:36:57 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux

“The Trayvon trial was the beginning of the end for the once great goodwill non-Blacks used to have for Blacks in America. “

The Duke fiasco did it for me.

.


16 posted on 08/28/2014 7:42:50 AM PDT by Mears
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To: Mears

Oops, I forgot about that one.


17 posted on 08/28/2014 7:45:54 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: SgtHooper

just another ABM Angry Black Male. and the only Earl “The Pearl” i know is Earl The Pearl Monroe who played for the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA. that was back when the NBA had class, Walt Frazier, Wes Unseld, Jerry West, Kareem, John Havlicek


18 posted on 08/28/2014 8:18:57 AM PDT by bravo whiskey (we shouldn't fear the government. the government should fear us.)
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To: BCW
"...The Establishment News think they are the “movers and shakers” of society..."

Agreed. They fancy themselves as part of the Elite.

They think that when totalitarinaism is fully intstitued they will occupy the top rungs of power and prestige, or maybe the next rung down.

The fact is, the actual Elites will discard them when they are no longer useful. Under the top level of Elites are a subtier, and below that another subtier, and these levels are almost entirely composed of billionaires and 100-millionaires.

Any thinking person would conclude that you can't just insinuate yourself into that demographic.

In Yiddish the term is "shabbos goy". It means a non-jew who toils in the service of jews. It has a negative connotation.

19 posted on 08/28/2014 9:31:18 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Anybody know how much has been donated for the cop so far? I hope he rakes in A mil! !!


20 posted on 08/28/2014 11:35:32 AM PDT by patriot08 (NATIVE TEXAN (girl type))
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