THE DAY AFTER IN FERGUSON - By Charles P. Pierce

[kpete]

"It Looks Like A Demon"

"He looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that's how angry he looked. He comes back towards me again with his hands up...He was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I'm shooting him...And the face that he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn't even there, I wasn't even anything in his way." "

-- Officer Darren Wilson, Testimony To The Grand Jury In The Matter Of The Death Of Michael Brown, 2014.

..................

.......... Darren Wilson cannot be guilty, because then all the institutions of our government are, and we are, as well, because we told Darren Wilson to protect us from people who look to us like demons.

Right from the beginning, when Governor Jay Nixon refused to name a special prosecutor and left the case in the hands of Bob McCulloch, the greasy and hopelessly conflicted local district attorney, this case was headed for the biggest public fix since the 1919 World Series. The people in Ferguson knew it. The police knew it. Even Nixon knew it; he declared a state of emergency a week before the grand jury's decision was handed down. McCulloch simply abandoned his duties as a prosecutor and dumped the evidence on the members if the grand jury without giving them any direction at all. Both of them relied, tacitly, on the fact that they knew the benefits they all would get of the thousand doubts that we give to the people we empower to take another person's life -- "under the color of law," as the legal jargon has it, and in this case that couldn't be more ironic.

And whoever it was that prepped Wilson for his testimony deserves a raise. There is the "hand in the waistband" defense, which you hear in almost every police-related shooting. Wilson was able to convince a grand jury that he was physically intimidated by someone who was exactly the same height. He was able to convince them that he was struck in the head with a closed fist three times, and that he suffered what appeared to be nothing more than a severe razor burn. He was able to convince them that Michael Brown had become something else -- a "demon" -- and that Wilson's actions in killing him was an act of exorcism on behalf of the entire community. He was able to convince them of something that the elected officials of the community already needed to believe.

This is a perilous time for the country, and for many of the citizens living in it. Our police are armed and trained as you would arm and train an occupying army. They are given body armor, and armored vehicles. They have been removed, physically and psychologically, from the people they are paid to serve, the people who invest in them to take the life of another. And there is a reason because there always is a reason, when some citizen winds up dead. The argument always is that you, the citizen, do not know the pressure these people face, that you never will experience a split-second life and death decision, and that the benefit of a thousand doubts is always justified because, otherwise, you will not be made safe by the people you empower to take a life. As regards to all the incidents cited above, not one person ever served one day in jail. This because there were reasons, and there are always reasons.

And the people who complain, and the people who riot, and the people who march and shout and scream for some kind of justice are just ungrateful because it is the job of the people we empower to take lives to keep them safe from each other, and don't they understand that? Don't they understand that Darren Wilson's exorcised the demon on their behalf as well, that Michael Brown died so that they can be safe? That is the reason, and there is always a reason.

..............................



much more:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/There_Is_Always_A_Reason

[noiretextatique]

1. he learned from Zimmerman

literally. demonizing the victim worked so well for that murderer.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. A point CNN seemed eager to make last night

Jeremy Scahill's tweet said CNN had Zimmerman's lawyer on after the verdict.

There is not doubt racism has been allowed to grow and flourish since Pres. Obama was elcted.

[noiretextatique]

5. it really has come out-of-the-closet

one can't help but wonder if these murders are related.

[nruthie]

2. "IT" looked like a demon?

This pretty much sums it all up. Apparently Michael Brown was not even considered a human by his killer. So much easier to gun down an "it". Just a thing to be disposed of. Just another chore to tend to.

[kentuck]

4. Right on target.

K& R

[MineralMan]

6. All true. The line quoted below seemed very pertinent to me:

"Our police are armed and trained as you would arm and train an occupying army. They are given body armor, and armored vehicles."

There is one thing the police are not trained for, and that is a resistance movement. Occupying armies often face a more or less organized resistance force. That has not been the case in the United States for the police. We've armed the police to deal with large groups of people who are poorly armed, primarily. They have the armored vehicles, body armor and semi-automatic rifles that look a lot like military small arms. They have lots of tear gas, rubber bullets and the like. They're very well equipped against mobs of unarmed people.

Resistance movements do not operate as large unarmed mobs. They operate stealthily and act differently than mobs do. Resistance fighters use ambush and sniping as their primary methods. Our police forces are very ill-equipped against such a resistance. Resistance tactics are well known and well documented.

It wouldn't surprise me if, one day, an organized resistance develops in this country and uses those well-understood tactics. That prospect should give police departments pause. Truly, it should.

[KingCharlemagne]

8. Modern statecraft has relied, at least since 1648, on the idea that sovereign states

Last edited Tue Nov 25, 2014, 05:41 PM - Edit history (1)

enjoy a 'monopoly on the use of force.' Of course, that monopoly presumes a functioning social contract that lies beneath it. When the social contract starts to fray and shred, then the status of all 'monopolies' must of necessity come into question.

It is just a matter of time -- or, as Malcolm X said following the death of JFK, of the 'chickens coming home to roost' -- before this country sees the rise of an indigenous resistance movement that employs hit-and-run tactics and a basing strategy akin to other anti-colonial resistance movements.

it won't surprise me either. In fact, the surprise may be that it has taken so long.

[MineralMan]

9. I find the prospect alarming, actually, but am also surprised

that such things have not already begun. We live in a country where arms very suitable for such things are readily available, and most of our population lives in urban areas. It's a wonder that such armed resistance has not already started, I think.

I do not welcome it, but I certainly expect it. I remain alert for signs of it.

[KingCharlemagne]

10. Were I a black comrade contemplating what this country might offer with

regard to my prospects for preserving my life and liberty, I'd at least be considering taking up armed struggle. The ready prevalence of firearms, we might say, is a "necessary but not sufficient" condition. What is required is a sense that only through armed struggle can a better future be forged, that all possibilities for a peaceful, non-violent amelioration of conditions have been exhausted. Ferguson and its racist white supporters are helping to forge that mentality.

Do I welcome armed struggle or advocate that anyone take it up? Hell no. But will I understand if and when people do take it up? Hell yes.

[MineralMan]

11. Well, it's a theoretical issue.

For now, anyway. I think that our law enforcement agencies believe that such a thing will not occur.

[KingCharlemagne]

13. It's called 'whistling past the graveyard." I would like to leave you with a quote

from DU's Feral Child that so stuck with me that I have saved it to quote every now and again:

Like all oppressed people through-out history, they (black people) realize that a mob can't over-run a cohesive force of well-armed, government supported troops, no matter how poorly trained and disciplined those soldiers may be.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014945402

So theoretically, at least for now.

[MineralMan]

14. Yes, for now.

Your quote is very pertinent.

[hifiguy]

19. JFK: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible

make violent revolution inevitable."

There will come a day when the great, impossible-to-imagine wealth of the billionaires and tenth-percenters will not save them from the sort of fate that befell Benito Mussolini, which they will more than deserve. I do not know when that day will come, but it will eventually come.

[Hekate]

21. I hear you, my friend. The article is chilling.

[Vox Moi]

7. 153 feet, 9 inches

The unarmed guy I just shot is mad at me for some reason and he is only fifty yards away.
If I took the time to yell 'Halt', he might be only 30 yards from me.
If then If i yelled 'Halt' again he might be 20 yards away.
If then my gun misfired he might get within 30 feet.
If then my gun fired and I missed he might be only 15 feet away.
If then I hit him three times in the chest, point-blank, his momentum might carry him even closer
And then he might attack me.
-----
But I didn't have time to think about all that. The unarmed guy I just shot was really, really mad at me and he was only 153 feet, 9 inches - 50 yards- half a football field - away. What choice did I have?

[MineralMan]

12. Why did you shoot that unarmed man in the first place.

See, you made him angry. I'd be angry too if you shot me, you know.

It's a bad idea to shoot unarmed people, I think. Your opinion might differ, though.

[Vox Moi]

15. Because I wanted to.

That's what it boils down to …

[MineralMan]

16. Well, there are a lot of things I want to do.

I don't do some of them because I might fact punishment if I did. Now, if I figured I could get away with doing them, it might be a different story, you see.

Maybe we should stop letting people get away with shooting unarmed people. You think?

[Vox Moi]

17. If I was Speaking for the NRA, I would say that if those unarmed people had guns

there would be no issue with unarmed people getting shot.

If I was speaking for the shooter, I would simply say that I was scared. Zimmerman was scared. The cop who shot the kid with a BB gun was scared. I might also advise you that I frighten easily.

If I was the shooter's Lawyer I would point out that anybody standing on a sidewalk (or a road) has a lethal weapon right at their feet.

Speaking for myself, I am appalled that a cop can kill an unarmed man who is over 150 feet away and get off without a public trial, appalled at the firepower that police think is necessary in order to protect and serve the citizens, appalled that these incidents place the burden of proof on the victim.

In order to convict these guys, you would have had to prove that they had nothing to be afraid of even if there is a sidewalk at the ready that could used against them.

[world wide wally]

18. At one time, weren't they called "peace officers"?

I guess that was a long time ago.

I was just thinking; Wouldn't it be good if they could invent something that would stop an attacker and not kill him? Maybe something like a taser or pepper spray?
I wonder if the've ever thought of that.

[greatlaurel]

20. kicked and recommended

Thanks for posting.

Mr. Pierce really hit the nail on the head with this column.

[rgbecker]

22. "He comes back towards me again with his hands up"

Hands Up, Don't Shoot....pretty much sums up the whole thing.