Desperate Hours Tick By in Ferguson as FBI Allegedly Thwarts Bomb Plot

In the desperate waning hours leading up to the grand jury verdict in the Michael  Brown shooting case there are multiple stories of ominous developments. School closings have been announced locally for the upcoming week and as reported by multiple news outlets gun sales are way up. There are stories that actual members of the Ferguson Police Department are encouraging citizens to arm themselves as well. 

Increasingly restive protesters are being arrested on a nightly basis again and local police are refusing to rule out the use of tear gas and rubber bullets on the day when the shit hits the fan. But the real indication that things are about to get truly ugly and escalate into Thanksgiving Day riots is the federal government’s dispatching of squads of FBI agents to the St. Louis area.

Things are getting very serious now and news has broken that the FBI has busted two members of the so-called “New Black Panther Party” who were allegedly planning to detonate bombs amid the coming unrest. Reuters reports in a story entitled “FBI arrests two would-be Ferguson bomb suspects: law enforcement source”:

Two men suspected of buying explosives they planned to detonate during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, once a grand jury decides the Michael Brown case, were arrested on Friday and charged with federal firearms offenses, a law enforcement official told Reuters.

Word of the arrests, reported by a number of media outlets Friday, came ahead of the grand jury's widely anticipated decision on whether the white police officer who fatally shot Brown, an unarmed black teenager, should be indicted on criminal charges.

The Aug. 9 slaying of 18-year-old Brown under disputed circumstances became a flashpoint for U.S. racial tensions, triggering weeks of sometimes violent protests in the St. Louis suburb by demonstrators calling for officer Darren Wilson's arrest.

He was instead placed on administrative leave, and Ferguson has been bracing for a new wave of protests, especially if the grand jury chooses not to indict Wilson. An announcement was believed to be imminent.

Against this backdrop of heightened tensions, according to a law enforcement source, two men described as reputed members of a militant group called the New Black Panther Party, were arrested in the St. Louis area in an FBI sting operation.

As initially reported by CBS News, the men were suspected of acquiring explosives for pipe bombs that they planned to set off during protests in Ferguson, according to the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

The foiling of a potential bombing plot really takes this to the next level in that such an act would represent a major escalation and result in a good amount of dead bodies. Then again, given the FBI’s fondness for “sting” operations in which they entrap morons and the mentally ill it could just be more of the same. The feds are rather adept at such setups where they can then swoop in to bust the dupes in order to justify their existence. These type of operations seem to have become common practice, especially in the era of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). So who really knows whether the story is legit or not although there are indeed many outside agitators descending on Ferguson like starved vultures dive bombing a freshly decomposing corpse.

Were actual bombs to be detonated it would give the feds a perfect opportunity to initiate a crackdown on legitimate political dissent nationwide. Such a thing would bode ill for many groups but in particular conservative or more flagrantly right-wing types that are routinely targeted when Democrat presidents are in office. A battered but unbowed Obama would probably like nothing more than to send his various alphabet soup Gestapo forces on a divine mission against domestic “terrorists” and wrap it in the flag. It’s not as though such groups haven't already been singled out by Obama in consideration of the infamous MIAC Report as well as the unleashing of the IRS against tea party affiliated groups. There is also something called the “Ferguson National Response Network” that is planning “events” in over 80 U.S. cities after the grand jury results are announced.

The perfect storm may be about to break in The Homeland.

Dispatch from Ferguson: “They’re going to burn the city down”

The unrest is beginning again in Ferguson, Missouri - not that it ever really ended. Following up the shooting of a police officer on Saturday night there were eight people arrested Monday for allegedly throwing rocks and bottles at cops in a protest outside the police station. Despite what should have been a cooling off period after last month's protests/riots over the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, the tension remains and could explode into violence at any time. It is being predicted that the entire thing could blow if the grand jury investigating the shooting exonerates Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown. In an interesting development it was reported that Wilson is now the subject of a second grand jury investigation for alleged brutality during a 2013 drug arrest.

According to a story from the website of the Los Angeles Times entitled "A tense Ferguson fears the worst is yet to come" I excerpt the following:

A tense Ferguson fears the worst is yet to come

Beauty Town has an elaborate video surveillance system that displays 16 angles of the store, but the cameras are better at capturing crime than at preventing it.

The beauty shop has been looted multiple times since a white Ferguson police officer shot an unarmed black man Aug. 9. Last week, during another round of unrest on West Florissant Avenue, a group of young men broke the front windows and raided the shelves and cash register.

Owner Shawn Kim thinks 99% of the people who live around his shop are good people.

For the rest, he’s bought a gun. Just in case.

If the grand jury fails to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown, almost everyone here thinks things will get worse.

“They’re not going to be looting next time,” said Kevin Seltzer, 30, who lives at an apartment complex near where Brown, 18, was shot. “They’re going to burn the city down.”

AND

Tensions rose further Saturday night, when officials said a Ferguson police officer on routine patrol was shot in the arm during a foot chase behind the community center. The unidentified officer was treated and released; the shooter escaped.

A few hours later, not far outside Ferguson’s city limits, an off-duty St. Louis police officer was ambushed on the freeway by one or more gunmen, who shot his car multiple times and escaped, officials said. The officer was injured by broken glass. He was not in uniform and was in his own vehicle; it was unclear whether he was targeted or the victim of a random assault.

Ferguson fears the worst is yet to come, especially if the grand jury does not indict Officer Darren Wilson. A decision is expected in November.

It has been speculated that the grand jury is unlikely to charge Wilson and the objectivity of the group has already been called into question by some.  This sets the table for a conflagration of mayhem and violence of which the August turbulence after Brown's shooting was only a preview. Such a blowup will ultimately be futile, serving only to destroy the property of locals and bring about violence and death as well as to feed the enduring racial resentment in America. There is the question of whether a brutal response by the militarized police will be brought to bear after much criticism over their previous heavy-handed crackdown. This would be a lose-lose situation for all involved and in this writer's personal opinion is unlikely. Some names that come to mind are Rick Perry, Al Sharpton and Ted Cruz. 

There will probably be no choice other than to call out the National Guard to restore order but there is the timing of when the grand jury findings will be announced. The first week in November is when the mid-term elections will be held and with the Democrats fighting pitched battle to hold onto the Senate any ugliness in Ferguson will become yet another political football. Obama will do what he usually does which will be nothing and the resulting vacuum of leadership will rapidly be filled by demagogues and race-baiters of the worst type.

Then there is the outside chance that a failure to charge Wilson will spread beyond the St. Louis area into an ugly explosion of pent up anger nationally. We could very soon have a situation similar to the late 1960's and early 1970's where race riots plagued the country. Mix in the growing discontent with a system gone rotten and it could be the perfect storm.

Strange days indeed.