Portrait of a protester in Ferguson, Missouri (Think it's sympathetic to the looters?*)

MSNBC ^ | September 12, 2014 | Trymaine Lee

[2ndDivisionVet]

FERGUSON, Missouri— Just days after 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed in a hail of police bullets, Joshua Williams found himself facing off with a phalanx of heavily-armed officers.

Williams joined the swarm of angry protesters who, in the wake of the teen’s death, took over the streets not far from the scene of the killing. They chanted and yelled and hoisted protest signs in the air. The police responded with snipers positioned on top of armored vehicles and a heavy deployment of officers, many with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders.

When someone from the crowd threw a rock or a bottle, the officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd of overwhelmingly peaceful protesters.

During one emotionally raw moment, Williams, also 18, screamed at officers until his eyes were red and wet. Beads of sweat bubbled from his brow and his body grew tense. His voice strained under the shrill of pain swelling from his throat.

As he stepped closer and closer to the police line, a young pastor, Willis Johnson, wrapped Williams in a hug and pleaded with him to calm down. Williams broke down in the older man’s arms and a single tear tumbled down each of their cheeks.

“I just felt like they were trying to get over on us, trying to push us so that we’d react,” Williams told msnbc on a recent afternoon, weeks after that emotional day. “I was really upset. I saw children, little kids getting tear gassed and stuff. I just couldn’t take it.”(continued)

[workerbee]

We are in agreement.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I could show anybody between 18 and 80+ with even basic English and personal hygiene how to make six figures within a year or two, but there are a few catches:

There's work involved.

You don't get paid until a sale is made.

There's a one-time $99 investment.

There's work involved.

You can't be hangin' wit' your homies all the time.

[sergeantdave]

“Williams, also 18, screamed at officers until his eyes were red and wet. Beads of sweat bubbled from his brow and his body grew tense. His voice strained under the shrill of pain swelling from his throat.”

Hate to be gross, but it sounds like Williams is trying to pass a turd. Eat some spinach with the burger you stole from McDonalds, young man.

[TigersEye]

His brother Romaine writes a decent cooking column.

[Pollster1]

The police responded with snipers positioned on top of armored vehicles and a heavy deployment of officers, many with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders.

I was not aware that "many" police snipers were armed with automatic rifles. MSNBC is full of facts I never suspected would be true.

[Frank_2001]

“Williams is still an unaccomplished, unintelligent, unproductive punk who’s biting off more than he can chew.”

That resume worked perfectly for Obama, why couldn’t it also work for Williams? ;)

[publius911]

Just wondering, which of the foregoing is so difficult?

With an IQ hovering around 50.... just about all of them.

[JimRed]

The police responded with snipers positioned on top of armored vehicles and a heavy deployment of officers, many with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders.

One small problem: they didn't "snipe" a single looter, or diminish the rioters' numbers with automatic weapons fire.

[2ndDivisionVet]

What are the chances that anyone had an “automatic rifle” within that contingent? We used to scare the daylights out of the local capitol city police with the thought that we had M-16s at the base I guarded as a civilian officer and they had only revolvers and shotguns. Rules is rules, though. The Air Force would’ve taken back the aircraft without armed personnel securing them for the Air Guard.