Does “Burn This Shit Down” Qualify as Inciting a Riot?

Finally after months of waiting, shameless race-baiting and media exploitation the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting case came down Monday night. Police officer Darren Wilson was not charged with any crime in the August killing of the “gentle giant” and anyone who thought that he would be based on the evidence is a damned fool.  This was a cut and dried case ever since that convenience store video of young Brown showing a hulking goon roughing up a clerk was released. It is in my personal opinion pretty certain that even if Brown wasn't taken out by Wilson that he was on a collision course with the law sooner rather than later.

Ferguson is complex and it all pretty much boils down to that we will never know exactly what happened during that fatal encounter back in August. As was previously seen with a pudgy, wanna be neighborhood Dirty Harry named George Zimmerman who gunned down a black kid armed with a bag of Skittles - dead men tell no tales. Officer Darren Wilson should have deescalated the situation but in the post 9/11 U$A the police have increasing impunity to shoot first and ask questions later. This is especially so if the target is a young black man. Wilson acted as judge, jury and executioner and as a result did his part to move along the transformation of cops into members of what can only be recognized as death squads. 

On the other hand, Brown was caught on camera in the act of committing a crime which makes him far from the perfect martyr for the cause. The real tragedy is that the race card was immediately played and only benefited a corrupt system and it's police state in that attention to the militarization of the cops was flushed down the memory hole. Many, especially those on the right fail to understand that while they see the Brown vs. Wilson incident as a small piece of the greater race war in their minds that the big red, white and blue jackboot could just as easily be kicking their heads in as well. 

The words had no sooner left the lips of St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch on Monday night than the mob violence commenced. This had been anticipated given the calling up of the National Guard by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon last week as well as additional civic precautions such as school closures. There is no excuse whatsoever for the actions of the troublemakers who took to the streets in Ferguson to destroy the property of others and they are nothing more than lawless hooligans of the worst type.

What has really not been reported is that Louis Head, the stepfather of the deceased Brown came out and actually called for a violent response in the aftermath of the announcement. This is just not something that is acceptable in a civilized country and borders on inciting a riot. As reported the Pierre Omidyar venture The Intercept, one of the few people who could have helped to contain the unrest only served to soak the streets with gasoline and throw down a match.

As reported by Juan Thompson of The Intercept in a piece entitled “BURN THIS SHIT DOWN”: MAYHEM AND PROTESTS ENGULF FERGUSON” that provided a narrative of last night’s events:

Standing outside the Ferguson Police Department headquarters, the mood of the crowd of a few thousand was initially jubilant and brimming with anticipation, but around 8 pm, when the announcement of the grand jury decision was made, all hell broke loose. Michael Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden addressed the crowd as McCulloch was speaking, apparently already informed of what the decision was going to be. She broke down sobbing in tears and agony saying, “they took my baby,” and “we’re sick of this.” After that, the stepfather of Michael Brown, Louis Head, shouted through tears, “burn this shit down.” At that, some of the crowd got agitated and very aggressive with police.

AND

After the police formed a line, the crowd began chanting various slogans: “hands up, don’t shoot,” “f*ck the police,” “no justice, no peace,” etc. Some members of the crowd then dispersed south on South Florissant Road. The protesters who remained started throwing rocks at the police. Others damaged a police cruiser. Police then told protesters they were assembled unlawfully and to disperse or face arrest.

When the protesters didn’t disperse, police confronted them, shooting multiple tear gas or smoke canisters into the crowd and pushing the crowd north on South Florissant. The protesters reacted by shrieking, running, and washing their eyes out with milk and water. Some of the protesters were randomly shooting guns into the air, feeding into the chaotic environment. As the crowd moved north, a few protestors looted a small number of stores on South Florissant, including a Second Time Around resale store. But they were the minority by far. Most of the protesters were peacefully assembled, chanting slogans, but there was a minority who decided to loot, to set fires, and to torch two police cars. The protesters were angry, they were hurt, they were disappointed, and some of them used violence as a way to vent their frustration. One of the other protesters, a woman, said to the looters, “don’t do this, this isn’t who we are.”

The crowd was pushed further north. At South Florissant and Airport Road, protesters set a Walgreens on fire. Protesters also looted a T-Mobile store and an Aaron’s furniture outlet. Over on West Florissant Avenue, a different crowd had set multiple fires only a block or two from where Mike Brown was killed. Looters also hit up the McDonald’s that became infamous as a location where reporters camped during the first round of riots immediately after Brown’s killing.

The scene was chaos. In addition to the looting, cars were running into each other, people fighting on the street, and were guns being shot off. As I was leaving, I saw more fires being set.

The comments attributed to Head did nothing but further inflame the already volatile situation. While he and Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden were understandably grief stricken at the moment, there is zero excuse for such a grossly irresponsible statement. Were there deaths last night - fortunately there weren’t - Head would have blood on his hands today.

What remains of the U.S. Constitution after Emperor Barack Obama has wiped his ass with it for nearly six years guarantees Americans the right to protest in a peaceful manner and if they have a grievance let them do so. There is however nothing in the Constitution that protects calls for mob violence nor even dances on the farthest perimeter of condoning anarchy. Some choose to respect these rights as well as the safety and property of people and others like Mr. Head only serve to fire up low-minded thugs like his dead son in law. This is America and we are supposed to be above crap like this that normally would be associated with some third world African shithole. The violence only feeds into the racially charged narrative and keeps the victims of a cruel and oppressive system at each other's throats based on tribal bullshit rather than against their shared enemy that is the gangster state. Never forget that the pigs who run this star spangled sty have all the guns and the most sophisticated high tech surveillance machine in human history and they will use them. Resistance MUST be non-violent and focus on ideas. 

Now I may be mistaken but I sure as hell don’t remember reading anything about Martin Luther King shouting “Burn This Shit Down” in the history books.

(IMAGE: AP)

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.

Weapon of Mass Distraction: More Ridiculous Redskins Team Name Hogwash

With the NFL season less than two weeks from the official opening games, the political circus over the  Washington Redskins team nickname is back in the news. After all, it isn’t as though there are more pressing issues like wars and rumors of wars, a dismal economy teetering on the brink of collapse, the militarizing of the American police, spiking food prices, rampant political corruption and any number of other problems. The political class - especially the worthless swine in the U.S. Congress who are on their latest taxpayer funded vacation -  see opportunity in pimping racism and identity politics because after all, it is an election year.

The newest front in the attack against the Redskins comes from the editorial page of the neocon flagship Washington Post. The paper has taken a break from shilling for the wars that keep the money flowing into the local economy to support the armies of worthless bureaucrats and other tax teat sucklers employed to proclaim that the paper’s editorial section would no longer use the term “Redskins” in team coverage.

I excerpt the following from “Washington Post editorials will no longer use ‘Redskins’ for the local NFL team”:

This page has for many years urged the local football team to change its name. The term “Redskins,” we wrote in 1992, “is really pretty offensive.” The team owner then, Jack Kent Cooke, disagreed, and the owner now, Daniel M. Snyder, disagrees, too. But the matter seems clearer to us now than ever, and while we wait for the National Football League to catch up with thoughtful opinion and common decency, we have decided that, except when it is essential for clarity or effect, we will no longer use the slur ourselves. That’s the standard we apply to all offensive vocabulary, and the team name unquestionably offends not only many Native Americans but many other Americans, too.

How convenient the Washington Post is capitalizing on the raw sore of the national racial dogfight over events in Ferguson, Missouri to stir the pot. Hell, the WAPO is a for profit corporation and as such needs to be able to draw attention via page views and selling papers. It is also, after all, an election year. There will be no end to this stupidity and the war will be on between those who traffic in racial outrage, whether it be the co-called conservative talking heads on Fox etc. or the political correctness Nazis on the left. Neither of which ever let an opportunity to whip out the race-bait like shovels of bloody red meat to their particular consumers and acolytes in order to remain relevant and keep the money flowing in. Racial issues in America are a tragic and complex societal problem that only continue to worsen, only a part of it is due to systemic inequality and institutionalized racism and the trivializing of race issues by the agents of outrage is not only insulting but does nothing to address the real problems. 

Obama’s Democrats are about to get crushed at the polls come November 4th, and by sundown on the day after they will have been washed off of the streets and into the gutters like leftover vomit. They know it too. Obama is one of the worst presidents in U.S. history and his ratings are mirroring Newton’s Law of Gravity as they careen into the abyss. El Presidente,  in addition to being a thin-skinned narcissist, a fascist and an incompetent fool only continues to do damage to this feckless party. This being the case there is a good deal of politics in the ginned-up outrage over the Redskins team name. It energizes what remains of their base - anyone with any common sense who neither stupid nor willfully blind has become an independent and bolted the party. This leaves only the myriad of squabbling identity groups seeking government redress for long-running grievances. They will all of course be promptly shit on after their votes have been nailed down but that’s just the name of the game and they are gluttons for punishment.

The weeping and gnashing of teeth directed at the Washington Redskins previously included the U.S. Patent office stripping the trademark of the team name. Then a gaggle of Democrats lead by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to force the team to change names - no Republicans were asked to sign it.  More recently the sainted moral icon of the football world Tony Dungy (himself an anti-gay bigot) along with fellow analyst Phil Simms have announced that they will refuse to refer to the Redskins as the Redskins while on air. The pitchforks however are out for former NFL coach Mike Ditka who is always entertaining in a way that only Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry can be and has blamed the phony controversy on "politically correct idiots". Now as fantasy football drafts are taking place and participants in betting pools rushing to get their entries in the Washington Post editorial board chimes in add fuel to the fire. 

As for the actual team name, is it politically incorrect?  Sure, I guess it may be. But why only in an election cycle when cheap political points can be scored by charlatans like Harry Reid who is also inclined to make racial jabs on occasion? Do the descendants of Native Americans have every right to be offended? Well, I can't speak for them but I would think that having your ancestors slaughtered and their land stolen by John Wayne hammerhead prototypes under the pretense of Manifest Destiny would be a far more serious grievance than what the hell some football team calls itself. Especially when the team has used the name ever since relocating from Boston back in 1937 where it used to be called the Boston Redskins.

Good God - get a life people.  I don’t see Harry Reid and the other professional race-baiters whooping up the liberal lynch mobs to go after the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for that negative stereotype so this is all just more of the same politics of divisiveness that are used as a distraction while everything collapses.