Victor Davis Hanson: Ferguson Postmortem

PJ Media ^ | August 24, 2014 | Victor Davis Hanson

[EveningStar]

The backstory of Ferguson was that out of the millions of arrests each year only about 100 African-American suspects are shot fatally by white police. And yet we were falsely and ad nauseam told that Michael Brown was proof of an epidemic. There may well be an epidemic of blacks killing blacks, of African-Americans engaging in the knock-out game against non-blacks or flash-mobbing stores. But as far as rare interracial gun violence goes, in 2014 it is more commonly black on white. Ferguson is an anomaly that did not warrant hundreds of reporters who gladly skipped the real dramas of a world on the verge of blowing apart as it had in 1939.

In short, the only reason Ferguson erupted was because the police officer in question was white; had he been black and shot either a white or black suspect, there would have been no civil unrest, no visit by Eric Holder, but instead, liberal calls to ensure due process and not to rush to judgment.

[vetvetdoug]

Affirmative action reporting for the race benefiting from affirmative action.

[laweeks]

The gentle giant said a mouthful.

[SoFloFreeper]

....out of the millions of arrests each year only about 100 African-American suspects are shot fatally by white police.

Dare to tell the truth alert!!!

[Responsibility2nd]

Ferguson was an anomaly. White cops shot black criminal all the time. So what set off the riots and looting this time?

Barky Bamma.

Yep. This was yet another staged and contrived event that was not wasted by WH and DOJ operatives who’s intent was to deflect attention away from the Golfer in Cheif.

[MeshugeMikey]

[Molon Labbie]

St. Louis City and County collectively account for probably ten of those shooting by themselves. Chicago had two in two hours recently.

It doesn’t matter, they could shoot them with weapons that cause them to change their evil ways, find God before God finds them, and give them an uncontrollable urge to hand out puppy dogs and candy canes and the police would still be told “you ain’t have to do him like that.”

[bert]

——Mr. Johnson, with a criminal past, should have been arrested as an accomplice -——

I would guess that he was arrested as accomplice but pled to a lesser charge for his eyewitness testimony about precisely what went down.

[tanknetter]

I really like VDH, but often wonder whether he’s really so dense, or just writes that way to make a point.

The reason the reporters are so interested is:

1. Because the world is falling apart like 1939 and Ferguson provides a good distraction.

2. The situation is actually newsworthy because of the riots. If there weren’t any riots this story would have been quickly back-burnered. Regardless of the races involved.

[Carl Vehse]

Victor David Hanson:

It was a hard call whether Missouri Gov. Nixon or Attorney General Eric Holder proved the greater disgrace in their efforts to prejudge the case. The latter of “cowards” and “my people” infamy almost immediately talked up his racial fides among African-Americans while all but damning the police, while the former proved our version of a hapless Ray Nagin, in his jabbering about prosecuting Officer Wilson without an indictment.

Don't forget the continuing disgrace of the fifth-column media, including ABCCBSCNNNBCPBS reporters with their verbal defecations.

[ctdonath2]

According to a private security firm that lent bodyguard services during the ongoing “protests”, the whole scene’s reporting is overblown. To wit: “on direct observation seems media has made protestors out to be more bloodthirsty than they are”. From what I can gather, the entire event covered just a few blocks.

The problem is a whole lotta people WANT something big & violent & outrageous to happen. What happened sure wasn’t nothing, but it’s not the ‘60s’ civil rights marches redux.

[tophat9000]

The bigger question is WHY are they picking, as example of oppression, thugs like Martin and Brown, that can be shown first attacked/assaulted people before they were shot?

[Jack Hammer]

If there’s an ‘epidemic’ it’s the epidemic of Black males dropping out of school and turning to crime and violence.

[Talisker]

In short, the only reason Ferguson erupted was because the police officer in question was white...

Nonsense, the race-baiting came second. Initially the story was about this being the cold-blooded execution of an unarmed man executed by a cop in broad daylight while trying to surrender with his hands up.

Then came the race crap.

Even then though, there are questions, since apparently an audio exists of seven shots, then a pause, then four more, which could easily translate to the execution of the perp once he went down. And the cop's face wasn't broken.

On the other hand, the perp didn't have his hands up and he did rush the cop and attack him, and so by all those indications the shooting seems justified on grounds of self-defense. So the only real question seems to be whether after the thug went down, the cop decided to finish him off once and for all.

[niteowl77]

The bigger question is WHY are they picking, as example of oppression, thugs like Martin and Brown, that can be shown first attacked/assaulted people before they were shot?

It doesn't matter who it is-- they know that eventually one one of these "good boys" will be clean enough (or can be sanitized enough) to make the plan work. Granny Piven wondered a year ago why the hell the riots were behind schedule, and I'm sure she isn't the only one. It's the race riot equivalent of "keep counting the votes until you get the result you want."

They already have the templates, grievance brokers, legal networks, media assets, professional s**t stirrers and the Obama administration ready to go within 24 hours, and they've also learned learned plenty from their mistakes in the Martin and Brown incidents. They'll eventually hit the jackpot.

Mr. niteowl77

[ifinnegan]

Your post is important.

It was almost fully manufactured and presented as a show.

Ferguson™

[ctdonath2]

Because, like with school shootings, those who need such events for their political gain prepare to act and wait until a suitable event occurs, then jump on it to roll out their script.

Problem is, the lack of innocence of their imputed martyr isn’t immediately apparent. Consistently. They live a world-view that earnestly believes good people get randomly gunned down by bloodthirsty race-driven cops ... which isn’t reality, these events happen for a reason, not because of rank viciousness of “them”. The storyline is attractive, but far from real; they’re desperate for vindication, but keep getting burned by jumping on what looks like their ideal case but isn’t.

If they waited to pick, as example of oppression, what they’re really looking for, they’d never advance their agenda because their agenda is based on a perverse fantasy born of psychological projection. _They_ would act that way if the tables were turned, but they don’t grasp that their imputed enemies don’t.

[ctdonath2]

Ya know, one could take the existing video footage and edit it into a pretty good short movie/pseudodocumentary a la “Wag The Dog”.

[Cubs Fan]

only about 100 African-American suspects are shot fatally by white police

And when they are they are nearly always armed.

[GOPJ]

Brown had just committed a strong-armed robbery and was lucky that he was not shot by an armed guard or clerk. He appears on the video as a brutal thug, who uses his size to intimidate and, in cowardly fashion, to bully a much smaller clerk.

The video - the one Holder wanted to suppress - told the truth.

"The Community" wanted the lie to stand - they didn't want the video out either. That tells us what we're dealing with... and we need to get real about it...