Free Republic

....a dozen people have been shot across Chicago since Sunday afternoon, according to authorities...

Neurosurgeon and rising GOP star Ben Carson phoned in to Fox News Sunday (due to technical difficulties) this morning and debated Reverend Jesse Jackson over whether race was the predominant factor in the shooting death of Michael Brown and subsequent unrest in Ferguson, MO. Jackson had called Brown’s death a “state execution” and linked it to a pattern of law enforcement violence against African Americans, violence that almost always goes unpunished. Carson responded that the incarceration and violence in black communities was largely a matter of personal responsibility, not racial disparities. “If you take race out of the issue altogether...

In one of the most famous passages of the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes to the Christians of Corinth, employing a complicated series of metaphors on the theme of transformation: from childhood to adulthood, from ignorance to knowledge, from sinfulness to a state of grace. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,” the epistle runs, in the memorable rhythms of the King James Version. “But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face...

A few days after 18-year-old Mike Brown was gunned down in Ferguson, Missouri, White House officials enlisted an unusual source for on-the-ground intelligence amid the chaos and tear gas: the Rev. Al Sharpton, a fiery activist who became a household name by provoking rather than pacifying. Sharpton—once such a pariah that Clinton administration officials rushed through their ribbon-cuttings in Harlem for fear he’d show up and force them to, gasp, shake his hand—arrived on the scene 72 hours after the shooting at the request of Brown’s grandfather, who had admired his advocacy on behalf of the family of slain Florida...

Among the demands of the "protesters" in Ferguson is that the investigation and prosecution of police officer Darren Wilson be taken away from St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch. McCulloch is biased, it is said. How so? In 1964, his father, a St. Louis police officer, was shot to death by an African-American. Moreover, McCulloch comes from a family of cops. He wanted to be a police officer himself, but when cancer cost him a leg as a kid, he became a prosecutor. Yet, in 23 years, McCulloch has convicted many cops of many crimes, and has said that if...

Looking at the non-stop unrest in Ferguson reminds me of what so much of America has become. Our ideology and unsettled grievances result in a tension that is keeping us apart from reason and if left unresolved will lead to even worse consequences and ramifications. I see reasonable people in Ferguson who are willing to see due process play out. After all, 99.9% of us were not there when Michael Brown was shot by police office Darren Wilson. The facts are yet to be determined and that will take a reasonable amount of time. Every news report or sound bite...

ABOUT RED BULL SOAPBOX RACE Not to be confused with the youth soapbox derby, Red Bull Soapbox Race is a national race for amateur drivers, which is fueled by creativity and competitive fun – not to mention the need for speed. This unique non-motorized racing event challenges both experienced racers and amateurs alike to design and build outrageous, human-powered soapbox dream machines and compete against the clock in a downhill race. Teams are judged on three criteria: speed, creativity and showmanship. This criteria has inspired a piano, a baby carriage, a rodeo clown, a massive cob of corn, a jail...

The shooting of Michael Brown and its turbulent aftermath have renewed an old question: Why does the black community raise a ruckus when a white person kills a black person, which is rare, but not when a black person kills a black person, which is far less rare? It's a complaint perennially lodged by conservative commentators. Jason Riley, an African-American editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal, criticized the Rev. Al Sharpton's appearance in Ferguson, Missouri. "The problem is not cops shooting blacks but blacks shooting each other," he asserted. Yet "so-called black leaders are much more interested in making...

The details about the death of Michael Brown and the actions of the Ferguson, Missouri, policeman who shot him remain very much at issue. There are too many theories and longstanding feelings, ranging from race relations to support for law enforcement, for any columnist to properly take a stand on the matter. But one thing seems clear. The entire national media and hundreds if not thousands of people have taken to the streets of Ferguson to protest or report on a potential injustice. At the same time, in Georgia, a young child, whose face was left hideously scarred from...

Why have the protests and riots lasted so long in Ferguson? Why have out-of-town agitators and opportunists like the Communist Revolutionary Party and the New Black Panthers flocked to a St. Louis suburb? Why, 12 days after Michael Brown was shot to death by a policeman, do the good people of Ferguson who want to see a fair and just investigation into the facts surrounding Brown's death still have no peace? It's the national news media, stupid. It's the ratings-hungry, pot-stirring, sensationalizing TV media that never misses a chance to milk - and perpetuate -- a white-on-black news story. Ferguson...

Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson is neither Mark Fuhrman nor Barney Fife. Based on what has been presented so far in the media, not even an O.J. Simpson juror would find Wilson guilty of murder. Many simply have chosen to believe that teenager Michael Brown was "executed" or "shot several times in the back" -- the evidence can wait. Witnesses who definitively assert that officer Wilson "shot him in the back" have been contradicted by the Brown family's own medical expert, respected pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who conceded the wounds could be consistent with Brown charging toward Wilson,...

New York dignitaries....held a joint press conference...on Monday....at the exact site where a young Jew was violently assaulted...

Residents of Ferguson “are struggling to find peace in the chaos” that has followed the shooting death of an unarmed teen by a police officer and “as people of Christ, we are struggling to find direction in the unrest,” said Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis. “We are all aware of the turmoil and tragedy our St. Louis community is experiencing,” he said in an Aug. 18 letter to Catholics of the archdiocese. After visiting Ferguson, about 11 miles from downtown St. Louis, and offering prayers at a memorial there to 18-year-old Michael Brown, Archbishop Carlson said he has...

......over a month after signing the controversial saggy pants ordinance, Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn said Tuesday he no longer supports it..... His stance comes after criticism by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The groups claims to be taking direct action against the city, which can mean a lawsuit, according to Dale Landry, with the NAACP Florida chapter. "I'm sorry, it's going to be black males that are the subject of this," Landry said.

The events in Ferguson, Missouri, have launched a familiar spectacle: the race to be wrong first. Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American man, was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The Washington Post had more on the story about what one witness called an "execution-style slaying": "Lawyer Freeman Bosley Jr. said Dorian Johnson, a friend of Brown's, has told the FBI that Officer Darren Wilson confronted the two because they were walking in the middle of the street. "Wilson cursed at the pair and ordered them onto the sidewalk, Bosley told The Washington Post. When they refused to comply,...

Hackensack residents were warned to be alert as police hunted for a man who randomly approached and punched three others Monday night in what may be the first local incidents of “the knockout game.” The activity has resulted in one North Jersey death...... .... the assailant was described as a 6-foot-tall or taller black man with an athletic build who was wearing a black V-neck short-sleeved T-shirt, black pants and a Brooklyn Nets cap.

It may be the most cold-hearted case of the knockout game yet. A 33-year-old punk punched a pregnant woman in the face so hard that she lost consciousness. But the creep was quickly arrested, just blocks away, cops said Friday. Jannatul Ferdous — two months from her due date — told the Daily News she was horrified for her unborn child.

A South Florida mother who knows the pain of losing a son firsthand has written an open letter in support of the family of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old killed by a police officer in Ferguson, MO earlier this month.... “They both were unarmed. They were both teenagers. They both were African Americans and the both were shot and killed by a non-African American,” Fulton said.

Since the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, the nation and the world have witnessed the unrest that has gripped Ferguson, Mo. At the core of these demonstrations is a demand for answers about the circumstances of this young man’s death and a broader concern about the state of our criminal justice system. At a time when so much may seem uncertain, the people of Ferguson can have confidence that the Justice Department intends to learn — in a fair and thorough manner — exactly what happened.

The “Angry Black Man” (ABM) is angry again. Civil insurrections are flaring up in various parts of the country because ABM is angry. The implied message in these riots is that it is time for the greater society to ante up more free stuff. The free stuff ABM has gotten for 4 and 5 generations has long since been taken for granted. The Society’s largesse elicits no thanks, just fresh demands accompanied by threats. ABM believed the Ministry of Information’s “Gentle Giant” (GG) mask would cover the fact that their latest Trayvon Martin was apparently a strong arm robber. Now...