Posted on 08/19/2014 11:12:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
America is on trial," said Rev. Al Sharpton from the pulpit of Greater St Mark's Family Church in Ferguson, Missouri.
At issue, the shooting death of Michael Brown, Saturday a week ago, on the main street of that city of 22,000, a neighbor community to Jennings, where this writer lived in the mid-1960s.
Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, was shot multiple times by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer with an unblemished record in six years on the force in Jennings and Ferguson.
From his patrol car, Wilson ordered Brown out of the street where he was walking and blocking traffic. A fight followed. Wilson appears to have been punched in the face. One police report says that there was a struggle for the officer's gun.
According to Brown's companion, however, after he was first shot, he threw up his hands and yelled, "Don't shoot. I surrender." Then Wilson gunned him down.
According to one of three autopsies, Brown was shot six times, once in the top of the head, which may suggest he was charging the officer when gunned down. A second St. Louis County autopsy found marijuana in Brown's body.
What we are witnessing in Ferguson today, and nationally, is not only a collision of reported facts, but also a clash of visions about America.
In Sharpton's vision, America is a country where white racist cops harass, assault and gun down young black males, and Brown's execution is the latest outrage. Many media echo his indictment and accent the facts that support this preconceived narrative.
Disrupting this portrait and particularly outrageous to Sharpton was the release by the Ferguson police chief of a videotape of Brown stealing a $44 box of cigars, 15 minutes before he was shot dead, and manhandling and menacing the store clerk trying to stop him.
Brown was 6'4" and 292 pounds.
Sharpton contends that officer Wilson did not know of the "shoplifting" that was irrelevant to the shooting, and that release of the tape was a moral atrocity to smear the character of the dead teenager.
But while that tape may be unrelated to the shooting, it does testify to the mindset of Michael Brown that morning and to his respect for the rule of law. Ought we not know that?
Then there is the rival vision of America rooted in a separate reality. It is that in America today, police, like Darren Wilson, are the first responders and last line of defense, willing to risk their lives battling the criminal elements that threaten us and our free society.
Moreover, violent crime in America -- assault, murder, robbery, rape -- emanates disproportionately from the black community, and especially the young male members of that community.
Crime rates, conviction rates, incarceration rates all testify to this truth. If cops are more on guard when encountering black males, is it not because, given the crime statistics, they have more to fear from them?
Do not the weekly news reports from Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago, where black-on-black violence is pandemic, also testify to this?
Decades ago, U.S. newspapers, which used to publish the race of both victims of crime and perpetrators, decided to stop doing so. They felt that this was the kind of news people have no need to know.
These conflicting visions are not exclusive to race. Many liberals share Sharpton's vision, while many black folks move out of home communities to escape the scourge of crime.
Indeed, if Ferguson in the North County is a racist enclave, why did so many African-Americans move there from overwhelmingly black North St. Louis?
And if only three of the 53 cops on the Ferguson force are black, is that due to race discrimination? The chief says he has sought to recruit blacks and asked the Justice Department for help. Is this untrue?
We are told that of six members of the Ferguson city council only one is black, while two-thirds of Ferguson's population is black. Yet, last week, we learned that the black voter turnout in local elections in Ferguson in 2013 was 6 percent.
When St. Louis County, to stop the violence and looting last week, sent cops into Ferguson with armored personnel carriers and assault rifles, they were denounced for militarizing law enforcement.
"Tell them to remove the damn tanks," ordered Eric Holder. The county complied and a kinder, gentler law enforcement ensued.
And the looters and rioters went on a three-night tear over the weekend forcing Gov. Jay Nixon to call out the National Guard.
Nevertheless, the violence in Ferguson is child's play compared to Watts in '65, Newark and Detroit in '67, and 100 U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., after Dr. King's assassination in '68. In those riots, great cities were gutted, dozens were killed, and thousands arrested.
Detroit never recovered. And that is the future that beckons us all if our first demand today is not for peace and order, and then for justice for Brown's family and Darren Wilson, according to the rule of law.
Almost lost my breakfast when saw/heard some libs comparing Ferguson to Gaza!
“America is on trial,” said Rev. Al Sharpton”
GUILTY
Pay Up
More "God Damn America" rhetoric from non-religious "preachers" who keep the black community down.
FUAS
Translation: Americans, be ready to LOCK and LOAD.
Why do you think Al Jazeera is in Ferguson covering the “injustices” in America?
The future? Sure if we allow the left to get their way.
No. Mexican/American War II, maybe.
There is a very good reason these riots do not happen in Houston or Dallas.
I suspect that many cities are one match away from Ferguson.
And the looters and rioters went on a three-night tear over the weekend forcing Gov. Jay Nixon to call out the National Guard.
This fact has not been lost on me. When did Fergson have control? When the city (and county) had tanks, tear gas and rubber bullets. But nooooooo.....
The State Troopers moved in, then the National Guad. And they ALLOWED the rioting and looting and things went from bad to worse.
Say what you will about the militarization of your local police force. But clearly the Ferguson PD was handling things. Before Holder and the Fedgov moved in and screwed things up.
I am pretty sure this has been “O’s” goal all along.
As soon as liberal become the majority, anywhere they inhabit collapses rather quickly.
There is a very good reason these riots do not happen in Houston or Dallas.
______________________________________
Out there in the interwebz is a great read. It contrasts Chicago and Houston. Both cities are about the same size, same population, same percentages of blacks.
Yet Chicago blacks are killing themselves at 10 times the rates of Houston blacks. Why is that?????
One major lesson of Ferguson is that suburban and rural howeowners need to continue arming themselves and to stock up on all the ammunition they can get.
Face it. The core reality of racial interactions has not altered since 1965 despite three trillion dollars of social, spending, experimentation and superficial popular culture changes. Generally whites prefer to avoid blacks and blacks have the inherent opinion that whites would kill them off if they could. Politically incorrect to state but true nevertheless.
First, Al has not earned the title "Rev." so let's stop giving him credit for it. He was "ordained" by a DC preacher at age 10. Second, America is not on trial...a bunch of thugs who are only interested in destroying, looting, and stealing are on trial. Whether it is a natural disaster like Katrina or false accusations like Tawana Brawley or the Duke Five, good ole Al has to stick his face on TV and stir the pot. After all, is he doesn't continue to stir the pot, he's got no means to support his new girlfriend. I also find it interesting that it doesn't matter what the issue is...even a hurricane is cause for burning building, looting, and stealing.
And before Al goes around calling everyone a racist, answer me this: Who is safer: A black man walking in an all-white neighborhood or a white guy walking in an all-black neighborhood? To me, the real answer to this suggests that blacks are more violently racist than whites. Why don't you answer that one, Al? The reason is because blacks won't like the answer. They prefer to play the I'm-a-victim than bootstrap themselves out of poverty. The lion's share of $2 trillion going to blacks on the War on Poverty and this is what we get? Seems like a pretty crappy return on investment.
No
Buchanan is a hysterical sensationalist.
He and others are hyping and propping up Ferguson™ It’s in his interest.
Ferguson™ is purely synthetic.
PANIC! PANIC! AWWWWWWWW!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING! PANIC! THE POLICE NEED M777s OR WE CAN’T HAVE PEACE AND LAW AND ORDER!!!!
The answer to the question, btw, is no.
It’s SHARPTON week. There’s blood in the water. We should just be prepared to lose a few business’s and a few white folk. Don’t struggle, don’t fight. It’ll be over soon. Po folk got to get theirs too.
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