Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
A verdict was returned, and Ferguson burned. Anyone who was really paying attention was hardly surprised.
It brought back memories of similar scenes; the 1965 Watts Riots, the Rodney King verdict and the subsequent 1992 LA Riots, and most recently the aftermath of the Zimmerman-Martin verdict in 2013. But this time it made little, if any sense.
Monday evening in Clayton, Missouri, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced that a Grand Jury had delivered its decision for Officer Darren Wilson vs. Michael Brown. Five indictment charges were presented and the jury found “no probable cause” and returned a “no true” bill for all five charges. Tremors began to shake the streets almost immediately after…
See Full Ferguson Time Line Here
Professional street agitator of Freddy’s Fashion Mart fame, FBI supergrass, and (somehow) now a White House ‘advisor’, Al Sharpton, wasted no time getting in front of TV cameras and claiming that street outrage, rioting and looting were somehow ‘warranted’, and proceeded to deliver a veiled threat to the prosecutors office stating, “This is not our first rodeo McCulloch, we will deal with this in a way civil rights leaders have”.
STEPFATHER LOUIS: “Burn this bitch down!”
CNN reported how last night, Louis Head, the stepfather of “gentle giant” Michael Brown, married to Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, was on the streets outside of Ferguson Police Department Headquarters screaming to the angry mobs, “Burn this bitch down!”, following prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s announcement of a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict.
Head himself should be charged with reckless (and brainless) endangerment after such an incitement – at a time when the mob was assembling and ready to boil over. As an ex-con himself, now inciting street violence, Head might just be in violation of his parole. Nonetheless, Head’s approach pretty much embodies the mentality and politics of everyone who jumped onto the cultural Marxist bandwagon for this latest joy ride; lynch mob rules, and to hell with rationality. More balkanization of American society. Divide and Rule. Welcome, to another addition of Thunderdome…
Flash Mobs ‘In Solidarity’, For Solidarity’s Sake
Late last night, St. Louis Police confirmed over 150 gunshots were fired last night – from protesters – towards police, including shots fired at police helicopters. Fire fighters who arrived to put out flames set by Ferguson arsonists also took gunfire from the mob and were forced to retreat, leaving fire hoses laying on the streets at midnight.
We are continuously told the following from activists and community organizers: “the community is shocked and angered by the decision (verdict)”, but if you actually review the facts and full transcripts of the testimonies (read the full PDF below) in what was seems to be a very thorough investigation, then it’s hard to see exactly what the community would be shocked about. In general, protesters cared little about witness testimonies and seemed uninterested about in any evidence presented.
Because the verdict went the wrong way, the mob seems to have even brushed off the testimonies of black witnesses, who were also local residents.
With all the mindless media rhetoric and the flaky ignorance of legal due process, one can only conclude that mobs are not mourning for Michael Brown, nor are that concerned with justice either, and are certainly not interested in the rule of law (that should be pretty obvious by now). They saw a big colorful bandwagon, all gassed-up and ready to go. Another opportunity to ‘organize’...
The politically correct, favored media narrative paints Michael Brown as a ‘civil rights martyr’. It’s a tale of an unsuspecting black teenager walking along on his way home from the store when an angry, racist white police officer gunned the boy down in cold blood.
The real story couldn’t be any more different – where Michael Brown and friend Dorian Johnson had just committed a strong-arm robbery at a convenience store, Ferguson Market and Liquor, stealing a $48 box of Cigarillos, after which time the store keeper phones 911, and Officer Darren Wilson matched the 9/11 description before pursuing him as a felony suspect, and where the suspect then assaulted Wilson and tried to wrestle the officer’s gun from him, then two shots were fired, then Brown was repelled by the officer before he eventually charged back at Wilson one last time before being shot and fatally wounded by Wilson.
As far as activist ‘anger’ goes, anyone who understands lynch mob dynamics can tell you that the mood of the mob is not determined by logic or facts, but rather by irrationality and emotion. Still, pundits and street mob participants maintain a belief that feelings somehow equal common sense. It seems to be the way of the 21st century leftist dialogue on any major case where political correctness has been inserted. This psychodrama was reinforced early on by the White House, but also by media outlets like MSNBC.
Now it’s O.J. 2.0 in reverse. Now that Wilson has been found innocent, liberal media outlets like MSNBC are pouring over endless arguments over what’s now known as “the process” – of how the prosecution did not ‘properly handle’ the Grand Jury proceedings, the forensic evidence, the blood, or any other bit of minutia surrounding the case. Also, the media will be pouring over every detail of the case, after the fact, and every commentator will be putting their own two cents in on what they think should’ve happened immediately after the shooting took place on Aug. 9th.
Still, once again and overnight, a throng of Americans who have never studied law are suddenly transformed into amateur legal experts, and are now calling for the abolition of grand juries altogether – claiming that Grand Jury is not due process. Weekend legal eagles fail to grasp the basic point of this Grand Jury and that is: probable cause is a lower standard than ‘reasonable doubt’. Any trial lawyer will tell you that Michael Brown’s family would’ve had an even tougher time if this case went to trial, as the defense for Officer Wilson would have taken apart every witness in cross examination, making it even harder for the prosecution to establish guilt, beyond a reasonable doubt.
Ferguson: Mob Rule
How did we get this far into this PC Twighlight Zone? The media played its role in reframing the story from the onset, regularly reinforcing the narrative of the ‘child victim’ by posting old photos of a 13 year old child in Michael Brown, instead of showing available images of the 18 year old contemporary Michael Brown, all of 6’4″ (1.93 m), 292 lbs (132 kg) – the same dimensions as an All-Pro NFL lineman.
YOUNG AND OLD: A young Michael Brown on the left wearing headphones, and the 18 year old man in the right-hand photo.
The exact same media technique was employed with shooting victim Trayvon Martin in 2012, with national media incessantly posting old images of a 12 and 13 year old boy, when in reality Martin was a 17 year old, who stood 6’0″ tall, and weighed 160 lbs.
TWO TRAYVONS: Media framed Trayvon mythology with 13 yrs old’s football photo on left, while concealing an older 17 year old Trayvon in the right-hand photo.
Both shootings were tragedies in themselves, but the bigger disappointment was how media and feral political animals shamelessly cherry-picked and customized their narratives, always with the same result: emotive public outrage and street riots. This technique alone should demonstrate the media’s willful manipulation and power to deceive on a mass scale.
The media narrative of Brown as a “gentle giant” was spun in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. This narrative held during this initial stages of the media campaign and provided the spark of excitement for activists, left-wing groups and Democratic Party interests to seize on it and launch a new ‘social justice’ movement around it. But the narrative of the gentle giant then collapsed in the following days, when CCTV footage was released, which depicted Brown and his accomplish committing a robbery at a local convenience store. The footage (see video below) was shocking in that it showed the level of deception and pure intimidation that the 6’4″ 292 lb, 18 yr old young man was willing to exert in order to get what he wanted. Watch…
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Suddenly, the ‘gentle giant’ story became a hard sell, but it was too late – mobs had already been mobilized and the left-wing media had already committed to the original gentle giant narrative. Instead of changing course, however, the media and the mob proceeded to dig their heals in, determined to craft a mythology around Brown’s death.
Mob Justice
After the verdict was rendered by the jury, the public was then left with two main choices. Either they accept the due process and decision by the jury, and acknowledge justice served, or they reject the verdict and choose mob justice instead. Events in Ferguson show that many have chosen the latter.
Mob justice can be ugly. Chaos always follows. As with previous death threats to George Zimmerman, activists and digital mobs on social media have been calling for the death of Darren Wilson.
Looking back at the incident, it’s hard to find an easy resolution. From Michael Brown’s perspective, the initial altercation with the officer could have been avoided. Unfortunately for those insisting Brown was a helpless victim, the Grand Jury concluded that Officer Darren Wilson would’ve had a very hard time avoiding the assailant Michael Brown, and his friend who had also set upon the officer, leading to a struggle, and Brown’s death.
Arguably, Officer Darrin Wilson had just two options – to use force, or not to use force. That decision is normally taken depending on whether or not a police officer believes that his life is in jeopardy. Opponents of this logic will argue that the officer had a third choice at his disposal: if his life was threatened then he should have made a decision to wound the assailant, and not kill him. Such a third option may sound reasonable within a theoretical bubble (or in a Hollywood film), but in the real world a fast developing situation involving close hand-to-hand (or hand-to-gun) combat rarely affords anyone the luxury of knowing whether any application of force will be lethal, or nonlethal in the end. Instead, from the onset, the media painted the incident as Officer Darrin Wilson ‘abusing his power as a policeman’ and that of a man who ‘gun downed an innocent child’.
Above all this, neither protesters, nor their dutiful defenders on MSNBC or CNN, are yet to mention this one word: responsibility. Their silence is deafening, but their message is clear: no one is responsible for anything, except for Officer Darren Wilson, of course. The mob has Michael Brown is absolved posthumously for any role in his own demise, but so are rioters, looters and arsonists in Ferguson, too. Leftist, politically correct cheerleaders insist that any and all manner of radical and criminal behaviour is simply OK – because they feel it’s OK, and fair.
This was not a simple bar room brawl, or a street fight. The problem is, Micheal Brown was still responsible for his own demise in this particular case. Multiple testimonies and forensic evidence clearly show that he was the aggressor, therefore, he had a choice. Unfortunately for him and his family, that choice cost Michael Brown his life. This is a regrettable tragedy for sure.
Darren Wilson had a choice too, but the difference between Brown and Wilson is that Wilson’s choices were more limited, as he was bound to by the rules of engagement to use deadly force, where Brown was not. Unfortunately, Darren Wilson will have to live with his decision for the rest of his life – the repercussion are, and will be, massive – and may even cost Wilson his life (he’s already received death threats), but as any cop will tell you, that goes with the job.
IMAGE: Ferguson gangs lighting Molotov cocktails (Source: Christen Cleveland)
Meanwhile, in the run-up to the Verdict, the city of Ferguson was besieged by thousands of outside mainstream media, bloggers, ‘Occupy Activists‘, federal agency-managed New Black Panthers and many others – who either drove, were bused in, or flew in to St. Louis. All the groups who traveled into Ferguson made it abundantly clear that if they did not get the justice “they demanded”, then they would riot and “burn the city down”, and that’s exactly what happened. Will DOJ Attorney General Eric Holder also bring Federal charges against out-of-town agitators, and prosecute them under the Riot Act? Don’t bet on it.
In the end, dozens of local businesses vandalized, looted and burned. The morning after, the police had taped off the burnt out area of downtown Ferguson and Dellwood, treating it, as they should, as a crime scene. The police have said that those who took part in illegal activities the night before will be tracked down and prosecuted. Those sympathetic to rioters and looters may feel compelled to defend them, saying that they are ‘political victims’. Actually no. Those who take advantage of civil unrest to acquire a few boxes of cigarettes, a cell, phone, a stack of phone vouchers, a pair of sun glasses, or a case beer – are society’s bona fide losers, rank opportunists and common criminals.
If you take a step back and look at the scenes of unrest, you can then ask the question, qui bono, or ‘who benefits’ from this situation? In the end, none of these ‘activists’ cared too much for the details of the case itself, or the verdict (as evidenced by the mob reaction), only that their group or political identity was recognized as a collection of causes, or as a collective. In this paradigm, it doesn’t matter who is innocent, or who is guilty, because a cacophony of various and sundry groups have already assembled themselves in front of this legal case. They include an endless list of Democratic Party-linked, left-wing, community organizer, ‘social justice’ and ‘minority’, civil rights, anarchist, socialist, communist and gender groups – all pinning themselves to the Michael Brown case, and more often than not, in order to somehow maintain their ‘profile’ and political relevancy through a major national news phenomena.
Some people never learn. Like with Sanford in 2012, Ferguson should have been a local issue, but Washington’s race crusaders couldn’t resist another chance to be a big fish in a little pond. Most Americans would agree (black and white) that having such a divisive agitator in the White House is not a very good thing for the country.
On Tuesday, with smoke still billowing from buildings in Ferguson, Obama strolled up confidently and cocky to the podium in Chicago, cracking a few jokes on his way, and then began his feverish back peddling, again avoiding the role he himself played in revving-up Ferguson street mobs. On November 5th, the day after US midterm elections, Obama met with Ferguson ‘activist’ leaders, telling them to, “stay on course”. What exactly did the President mean? Did he mean, ‘stay on course for the rioting’?
In his Chicago speech, he attempts to rewrite history saying,”It’s not my job as president to comment on ongoing investigations and specific cases…”, which is what he has already done, albeit unsuccessfully, on this and two other occasions with Trayvon and in Cambridge. Obama’s retreat continued. In the ultimate cop-out, he infers that white police officers should not be policing black communities when he says,“You know, when we have a police force that represents the communities it’s serving – well, that makes a difference”.
It’s actually the third time he’s pulled the race card, bluffed and lost. From day one, both Barack Obama, and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, intentionally inserted themselves into this Brown-Wilson Affair, putting the focus on race but using the ‘civil rights’ wrench to loosen the lug nuts on the wheels of justice in this case. In the face of a Grand Jury verdict, Holder still plays to the mob, insisting ‘there are still other avenues to pursue’ in order to nail Officer Wilson. In reality, there is no civil rights case that can be proven here, and Holder knows it, but the White House will keep throwing gasoline on the fire until it has burned itself out.
Obama and Holder have inferred here, as they did during the Trayvon Martin affair, that Darren Wilson had ‘racially profiled his victim’, even though, as lawyers, they both knew full well that it was impossible to ever prove such a case, let alone find any evidence that racial discrimination was ever involved. When Obama used his office to say on national television in 2012, saying, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon (Martin)”, it would go down in history a one of the political low points in White House history.
He also fumbled the race ball with the Cambridge Police, where back in 2009, the American police unions demanded an apology from Obama after he accused an officer of “acting stupidly” by arresting black scholar, Prof. Henry Louis Gates. In the end, Obama refused to apologize, denying any personal responsibility for his fatal gaffe, in lawyerspeak stating, “In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically.”
In the end, the Cambridge incident was only a cheap smokescreen to obscure the real Obama and his flaky past. According to WND, “According to the Somerville Times in 2007, as a Harvard Law School student, Obama got 17 parking tickets during 1989-1991 from the Cambridge Police Department that he left unpaid until just weeks before he announced his bid for the presidency.”
Dennis O’Connor, chairman of the Cambridge Superior Officers Association, accused Obama of getting involved in things he knew little about, explaining, “When you don’t have all the facts, your next words should be ‘I have no comment’. O’Connor is right, but sadly, what Obama and his Alinsky crew are really doing is working the crowd, which is what any good agitator or community organizer does.
It’s worth noting here, how on the eve of the inauguration of America’s first ever ‘black’, or African-American president, millions of voters (and non-voters) and minorities said to themselves, “We’ve finally done it, we’ve got one of ours in power, some one who understands us – who’s one of us, and everything’s going to be better. Things are finally going to CHANGE”. The irony of that 2008 psychodrama couldn’t be any more uncomfortable; not only has nothing changed, but the Messiah figure that was Obama, has actually intensified political race-baiting and racial division in the United States. Eric Holder, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, have all dutifully served as his sidekicks in this bold new cultural exercise. Even party operative Van Jones was busy behind the White House’s media rat lines, using CNN’s television platform to try and discredit Officer Wilson after the fact.
Without missing a beat, already ‘charity groups’ are calling for donations “to help rebuild Ferguson”. Isn’t it ironic how the same people that help to stir up the riots are now asking for handouts to fix it.
Street actions and protests have since gone nationwide, to New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, Oakland, and Seattle. Flash mobs were also burning American flags in Minnesota. It has the potential to accelerate and become Occupy 2.0, and if it does, then the President will be blamed as an instigator.
Could this be the “change” Barack Obama was talking about in 2008? Not a very good thing for a US President to have on his record.
Marcia Fudge, Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), released this statement today, saying:
“This decision seems to underscore an unwritten rule that Black lives hold no value; that you may kill Black men in this country without consequences or repercussions. This is a frightening narrative for every parent and guardian of Black and brown children, and another setback for race relations in America.”
Again, no mention of Michael Brown’s responsibility for the actions which led to the confrontation, or the mob’s responsibility for burning the city. And not a word from Fudge about the agitators, looters and arsonists – who hit out at local and black-owned businesses first, effectively devastating the economy of Ferguson for years to come, making the city a non-performing economic zone. Likewise, residential property values will continue to plummet as well. Even if you wanted to sell up and leave, you cannot expect to get your asking price.
One female resident inspecting the damage late last night was heard saying, “This is gonna be a ghost town now”.
“Ferguson isn’t about black rage against cops. It’s white rage against progress”, was the Washington Post’s headline for a piece written by left-wing academic and ‘race relations authority’, Carol Anderson, and it stands as as good an exhibit as any, revealing the twisted language and strung-out logic routinely deployed by social engineers in order to steer Marxist herds, or just to sell more seats at ‘diversity training’ seminars.
The political reality here is that antiquated operators like Fudge, academics like Anderson, and fellow travelers like Obama, Holder, Sharpton and other so-called ‘race experts’, can also be blamed for degrading of race relations in America. Their obsession with race reinforces their ideological ghetto of 20th century ideas, which in this case, only serves to dehumanize both Darren Wilson and Michael Brown, as well as society at large by reducing the world to a politically correct color palette. It’s cheap and easy – and it seems to be the only currency that career race experts have to barter with in order to amass their political fortunes.
This latest exhibition by so-called ‘activists’ demonstrates just how social justice mobs do not, in actuality, have the public’s best interest at heart at all. No, in their drive for political recognition and super-affiliation they’ve shot way past that. Any street agitators claiming they have Michael Brown’s, or anyone else’s interests at heart – are lying to themselves. Just look at the fruits of their labor – burning buildings, lives ruined, communities torn apart and a country divided.
Once again, the mob is lured in by the same radical academics, and career Marxist agitators – and then coaxed into backing another faux ‘social justice’ cause. All they’ve done is reinforce leftist identity politics, further confusing and dividing American society. They incite the mob by using race as the battle cry, but history shows that assembling these kind of national protests is not just about triggering race warfare – although that’s one convenient byproduct for race-baiters fighting to stay relevant in the 21st century. . No, where this is leading is where every street Marxist wants to take it, and that’s class warfare. When the street mobs are done terrorizing society, then the Fascists step in with a heavy version of ‘law and order’.
Worse yet – they’ve given the federalized machine all the ammunition it needs to further ramp-up an already bloated police state. As we speak, 2,200 more Missouri National Guard reinforcement troops have been deployed in Ferguson.
Once again, the mob does the government’s work for them.
READ MORE FERGUSON NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Ferguson Files
Read full transcript of the Grand Jury here:
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