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Ferguson’s Unasked Questions: In MO city & elsewhere, media clings to predetermined conclusions
City Journal ^ | October 6, 2014 | Heather Mac Donald, contributing editor

Posted on 10/08/2014 3:34:03 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old named Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, this August triggered weeks of riots and looting, as well as nonstop media coverage. The press quickly developed a formula for reporting on the “unrest,” as the media still call such violence: select some aspect of Ferguson’s political or civic culture; declare that feature racist, by virtue of its being associated with Ferguson; disregard alternative explanations for the phenomenon; blame riots on it. Bonus move: generalize to other cities with similar “problems.”

Some examples: Ferguson’s population is two-thirds black, but five of its six city council members are white, as is its mayor. Conclusion: this racial composition must be the product of racism. Never mind that blacks barely turn out to vote and field practically no candidates. Never mind that the mayor ran for a second term unopposed. Is there a record of Ferguson’s supposed white power structure suppressing the black vote? None has been alleged. Did the rioters even know who their mayor and city council representatives were? The press didn’t bother to ask. But this “problem” is disturbingly widespread, in the media’s eyes: MOSTLY BLACK CITIES, MOSTLY WHITE CITY HALLS, announced a New York Times front-page story on September 29, complete with a sophisticated scatter-graph visual aid.

Example: Ferguson issues fines for traffic violations; 20 percent of its municipal budget comes from such receipts. If people with outstanding fines or summons don’t appear in court, a warrant for their arrest is issued. Conclusion: this is a racist system. The city is deliberately financing its operations on the backs of the black poor. The only reason that blacks are subject to fines and warrants, according to the media, is that they are being hounded by a racist police force....

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: blacks; crime; ferguson; lawenforcement

1 posted on 10/08/2014 3:34:03 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“Ferguson’s population is two-thirds black”

If they were smart and ambitious, they could have been running that town.

2 posted on 10/08/2014 3:58:17 AM PDT by MRadtke (Light a candle or curse the darkness?)
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To: MRadtke

“MOSTLY BLACK CITIES, MOSTLY WHITE CITY HALLS”

This is just a variation on the theme that was making the rounds a few years ago, in which welfare reservations were complaining about how much of their current revenues were going to white retirees.

As far as running the town, they can’t keep a tax base when so many of the population are defenders of thuggery. Businesses and taxpayers quickly exit. “Urban sprawl” is a euphemism for “urban decay”...


3 posted on 10/08/2014 4:04:55 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why, do you suppose, black teenager is always the description of the Ferguson victim? He was a victim of his own behavior.

Black teenager is an apt description of the killers of other blacks in our cities each day of each week. Everyone knows it, yet somehow the media seem to think it will magically go away if only they refuse to say what it really is.

The sad truth is a large percentage of black people are unsafe every day of their lives in part because excuses are always there when the victims and the killers are of the same race.

All people deserve better.


4 posted on 10/08/2014 4:07:38 AM PDT by billhilly (.Have you heard the latest Joe Biden whopper?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Has the St. Brown statue been erected yet?


5 posted on 10/08/2014 4:37:04 AM PDT by YourAdHere (I just took a big Obama.)
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To: MRadtke

But the fact is they cried and moaned about a white city council they elected (or elected by default) and recently when a voting drive occurred, only 128 out of the entire city of Ferguson signed up.

Now, the police department and others around it are under fire because the police department does not reflect the population they serve. My agency recently went to a recruiting drive in Ferguson.

Four people showed up.

Now the rabble rousers are pushing for officers to live in the city limits of any city they police. If that were true in Ferguson, Darren Wilson would have been killed by now.

Further, agencies are going to for all intents and purposes write a report completely documenting in minute detail why a black candidate was turned away from being a police officer. To be fair, every candidate will have to have that report written and every agency will have to do the same. This puts an undue burden on the police department and will only open the agency up to dispute about qualification.

As a topper, a recent statement by the Berkeley Missouri Mayor complaining about why felons are banned from working in some fields. He didn’t say police work but in light of the Michael Brown incident and disparate representation of the police force, you could see where he was going.


6 posted on 10/08/2014 5:03:42 AM PDT by Molon Labbie (Prep. Now. Live Healthy, take your Shooting Iron daily.)
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To: MRadtke
“Ferguson’s population is two-thirds black” If they were smart and ambitious, they could have been running that town.

something doesn't fit?

7 posted on 10/08/2014 5:55:38 AM PDT by showme_the_Glory ((ILLEGAL: prohibited by law. ALIEN: Owing political allegiance to another country or government))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We’ve seen this experiment before. Voters replaced the Detroit city government “white boys” with a monochrome coalition of black politicians under Andrew Young that continues to this day. The whites fled Motown and the result is there for all to see: bankrupt, decaying, population shrinking, corruption . . . a total disaster. Now we’re being told the solution is for Ferguson, MO to become a miniature version of Detroit? Really?


8 posted on 10/08/2014 1:09:55 PM PDT by MasterGunner01
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