Live From Ferguson
By Mitch Berg
According to Don Lemon on CNN, his sources say that officer Darren Wilson will not be indicted.
I’m watching CNN tonight for the first time since probably 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan.
I know – I feel dirty too.
UPDATE: Van Jones expresses an easement the Tea Party opposes police brutality.
Nope. No bias there.
UPDATE: Is anybody but me betting that the media is hitting its knees and praying for a major riot?
UPDATE : and here comes the press conference…
UPDATE: Dist. Atty. takes a not remotely muted whack at the mainstream media. Good.
UPDATE: “No probable cause exists to indict Officer Wilson”.
UPDATE: As the grand jury report continues, CNN is showing footage of demagogues… well, demagogue in.
UPDATE: Observation of the crowd as presented on CNN: lots of black people with visible faces; lots of twentysomething white people with bandannas over their faces.
It looks like some stuff is being thrown around – and some people are running hither and Jan. Hard to tell if anything is actually breaking out yet.
UPDATE: Shrill media woman asking the district attorney if the police will in the future be required to shoot for hands and legs, went under attack – or not shoot on armed suspects.
Somebody’s been watching too many movies.
UPDATE: Reporter who looks like he was from the Pacific Network asks: why are there no laws protecting the likes of Michael Wilson?”
UPDATE: Oh joy. The oresident is next.
UPDATE: CNN talking head – I think it’s Jeffrey Toobin, but I can’t tell for sure, knows what really matters whether; defending the media against the district attorney’s complaints about their wretched performance in this whole case.
UPDATE: Mark Garragos is a disgrace to the legal profession, and to America.
UPDATE: reports of gunfire. Good news – the reports are coming from the mainstream media, so they’re probably BS.
But it did take CNN precisely 10 seconds to put it a screaming “Gunshots Heard in Ferguson” banner.
UPDATE: President Obama opens with “this nation is built on the rule of law”. I couldn’t help but laugh.
UPDATE: at first blush, Obama’s speech is not a bad one. It’s not exactly soaring rhetoric, and that’s probably okay.
Related news – wow, that’s a lot of teargas.
UPDATE: oh, goody – cars burning, teargas in the air.
UPDATE: a very winded sounding Jake Tapper is reporting bricks being thrown, looting, cars overturned.
UPDATE: reporters are getting to your guest. So at least there’s some good news.
UPDATE: Van Jones assures us of the vast majority of the crowd is peaceful – but there is apparently quite a bit of teargas. And that’s where the media are, naturally.
UPDATE: Don Lemon apparently needed to pay attention during gas mask training. He tried to don his mask, but was overcome.
UPDATE: I don’t know what makes for worse television – Don Lemon gagging on tear gas, or Don Lemon psychoanalyzing the crowd.
UPDATE: i’m not going to say that there’s no justification for black anger with a white police department – but if I hear Don lemon rationalize the crowds violence anymore, I’m a grab a teargas lunch for myself.
UPDATE: cNN’s Chris Cuomo needs to shut up and put a gas mask on.
UPDATE: Jake Tapper is on the scene of extended vandalism and looting.
UPDATE: Cuomo is reporting handgun fire in response to teargas launchers.
UPDATE: producing live spot news broadcast is difficult. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. But I get the impression that the wheels are coming off cNN’s production the moment.
UPDATE: numerous reports of protesters firing handguns at the police. This is incredibly ominous – in the entire history of American protest, that has been extremely, extremely rare, especially in a nation that is as relatively heavily armed as the United States is.
November 24th, 2014 at 9:45 pm
I heard somebody say burn baby burn, disco inferno
Burn baby burn… burn that mother down….
November 24th, 2014 at 9:49 pm
I note that USA today reported earlier in the evening that malefactor Brown’s family were notified of the decision by the prosecutor prior to the public announcement, nonetheless:
“Michael Brown’s mother collapsed in tears as the verdict was announced – as the victim’s stepfather screamed ‘Burn this b**** down'”.
could this all be staged for the benefit of the MSM?
November 25th, 2014 at 12:25 am
Black people are now demanding the lynching of a white person.
God, I love Progress!
November 25th, 2014 at 8:56 am
Why didn’t you watch Fox? Are you a masochist?
November 25th, 2014 at 9:02 am
Speaking of Van Jones, before we knew what the Grand Jury decision was, Hugh Hewitt told his listeners Van Jones made some reprehensible statements, I think Hewitt said Van Jones had already drawn some inflammatory decisions on the grand jury even before the decision of “no bill” was reached.
On Fox, that argument between Megan Kelly and the Fox reporter on the scene, Richard ?? was interesting. It also crossed my mind that maybe they got into it, I don’t know, for the audience.
November 25th, 2014 at 9:04 am
This is what happens when political/community pressure influences the decision to bring a case to a grand jury.
November 25th, 2014 at 9:39 am
I hope those hair extensions, cell phones and cold 40’s gave those poor people some small feeling that justice has been served.
As for me, I see an real opportunity to confront police abuses flushed down the toilet.
November 25th, 2014 at 9:40 am
Emery, I’m thinking that in this case, the grand jury was exactly the right decision. Now the decision comes months too late, as from the leaks it appears that the case was pretty straightforward, and the police department bobbled a lot of things too, but given the tension, it was exactly the right decision.
What could be even better; release all the evidence presented to the grand jury to the family and their attorneys with minor redactions to prevent retribution against witnesses.
And the media? Good grief. At first I was troubled by the testimony of Mr. Brown’s friend,and then I heard that everything else in the case contradicted him. That’s how it works a lot of times.
Going forward, it would seem that one of the key issues with reaching out to the black community would be to persuade them that tearing apart their own homes to get bricks to throw at police officers tears down their homes and dreams, and that sometimes it’s a good thing when criminals are taken out of their midst.
November 25th, 2014 at 9:45 am
I imagine the prosecutor looked at the facts and likely decided there was no probable cause. However, he did not want to be responsible for the decision. Thus, he figured it would be better if the grand jury was responsible for deciding whether there was probable cause. The fact remains that if the media had not hopped on the race train, this would have been an open and shut case of a cop protecting himself.
November 25th, 2014 at 9:48 am
It’s weird how the media jumped on the race train all by themselves, without any prompting from prominent Democrats who needed to inflame the Democrat base right before the elections.
November 25th, 2014 at 12:07 pm
Emery, agreed, but it’s always good to do your best to silence the conspiracy activists as much as possible (arguably not very possible) by simply providing the data you based your decision on and by involving others in it.
Unless, of course, you’re a guy who thrives on using one scandal to divert attention from other scandals that might otherwise get legs. Not to name any (Barack Obama) names, of course.
November 25th, 2014 at 12:10 pm
As for me, I see an real opportunity to confront police abuses flushed down the toilet.
Yep.
November 25th, 2014 at 12:42 pm
As for me, I see an real opportunity to confront police abuses flushed down the toilet.
I’m of a different mind: I saw a real opportunity to face the cultural assumptions that lead people to think that robbery and rioting are ever acceptable behavior has been squandered because too many well-meaning people think what happened in Ferguson is because of police abuses.
It’s not. There’s a problem of a lack of personal responsibility and standards of behavior that lead to one young man being shot by a police officer and dozens of others burning and looting their community.
That’s the problem that needs to be confronted.
And every time we allow the usual grievance mongers to change the subject to “what about the police” we’re just enabling the problem to continue and grow.
November 25th, 2014 at 1:02 pm
I’d slightly rephrase Swiftee’s comment to “we missed a real opportunity to prevent police abuses”. There’s no clear evidence of abuses here, but there is the reality that if the confrontation had been on camera/microphone, the issue would have been resolved very quickly.
November 25th, 2014 at 2:27 pm
The story isn’t over, of course, since the race victim industry has such a head of steam and they got the dog whistle from Obama last night. Yes, liberal friends, we know you have dog whistles too. So expect a Federal civil rights violation as a parting gift from Brother Holder and the usual One Billion Dollar wrongful death suit filed by the grieving parents. We know for sure Michael’s lifetime earnings potential was right up in the eight figure range and there is all that pain and suffering if the book deal doesn’t go down.
November 25th, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Bubba, you’re right, I phrased my thoughts poorly…again.
From all evidence, that copper shot a 6’2″, 300lb thug that tried to grab his gun while being arrested after robbing a store. No problem there.
The problem I allude to was evidenced by the paramilitary show of force the cops put on afterwards. APC’s, tripod mounted AR’s, K-Bar’s slung in their body armor. Today’s coppers believe they are Judge Dread, and if you’re not one of ’em, you’re a potential enemy.