Locally, I watched that group burn down or encourage others to burn down or loot almost two hundred businesses in one night in Ferguson and Dellwood.
In. One. night.
I was there.
I watched them go from being totally unknown to organizing multiple protests in multiple locations nightly for weeks on end. Direct actions each night, coordinated through twitter and livestreamed and those direct actions went everywhere, disrupted communities everywhere. If there was a black man shot by the police in St. Louis City or County, they took up that mantle to stir unrest, without a care as to the character of the deceased. All that mattered was the police were the enemy.
I watched them continually trot out Dorian Johnson, the damned to hell liar who repeatedly spread his lie that led to millions of dollars in destruction. Never once did they apologize for the support of that monster.
I watched them ingratiate themselves to black law enforcement leaders who led them run wild. You think Baltimores mayor was the first to say, give them room to destroy? Nope that was a Missouri police officer who was brought in to be down with his peeps in the street. He failed miserably.
I watched them oust the two police Chiefs in Ferguson, completely change the City Council, land a consent decree on Ferguson, motivate a president to appoint to the DOJ an obvious ally who has and will continue to shape policy in EVERY police department in this nation, in such a way that will make police completely emasculated and in the end federalized. That itself should make people very afraid.
I watched them create such a toxic environment in St. Louis County and City that finding people to be police officers is even more hard than before and officers are leaving the business in droves, either to go into the private sector or to seek out white exclusive communities so they have to deal with this craze.
I watched them twist a Ferguson Commission into a legislative feeding frenzy that that threatens to paralyze police departments operationally with onerous new training requirements, prohibitively expensive video equipment, new policies that put lives in danger both in civil disturbance situations and normal operations.
I watched them create such deep rooted animosity in some officers by just they way they treated them, they had to be removed from duty. I watched them create such fear in one officer, a damn fine detective that he blurted out some words that were captured forever on video. His career ended that night. And in the course of his career he did more for the black community that most people ever do.
I watched them encourage the vitriol to the point that one young man got out and in front of one hundred officers he shot two down. Both lived, one was forced to retire from the injuries and the stress.
I watched them twist the emotions of those who are Open Carry advocates, who were duped into showing support for an organization that is decidely anti-white, of which nearly all these guys were. I watched them laugh as they treated the Oathkeepers as useful idiots, a foil to the police they exploited for their own gain.
Again that is just locally, and as the third anniversary of Michael Browns death approaches, they will be back again to cause turmoil.
No, they are no JV team, and no people should not be petrified of them. But it would behoove us all to recognize that have grown exponentially, have stimulated deep-seated and long held grudges and are unapologetic about the results.
I am intimately aware of what will happen when, not if, they push too far. They apparently don’t care, and like you, I will probably be one of the first casualties as well.
Very very interesting and informative eyewitness post.
To think that St. Louis and environs started out as a deeply religious and holy community!
I weep.
Ferguson changed me more than any single news event in my lifetime——and it’s been a very long life.
I still have the inflammatory cover of TIME magazine—I was furious when I saw it.
A bad,bad time.
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