Friday, August 15, 2014

"Images coming from Ferguson, Mo., reveal unfiltered, uncomfortable truths."

Police brutality, caught on tape so many times now that it is a wonder more communities haven’t erupted in outrage like Ferguson, can only be dismissed if the citizenry is adept at disbelieving what it sees. The video tape gone viral on Facebook or YouTube, we are told again and again, doesn’t capture the context of the beating, the tasering or the shooting. It must be interpreted by professionals; you can’t believe what you see. We’ll form a task force and get back to you . . . after you’re no longer interested, or angry.
Many of us, children of the Cold War and still keenly aware of the great propaganda regimes of the violent 20th century, have been so well trained, for so long, to disbelieve images that we are at the mercy of our own robust sense of suspicion. To be a sophisticated consumer of images, we became reflexive skeptics; that same reflexive skepticism is the thing that propaganda manipulates.
And Rand Paul weighs in: We Must Demilitarize the Police

15 comments:

Meister said...

Even the liberals and progressives see the distinct militarization of police, yet they want to use those same forces on those that agree with them that it's out of control. It amazes me how short sighted and detached they are from reality. The only people with the ability to help them are the ones they want vanquished. The collectivist types are just clueless. When they get one of their own killed by the gestapo, they rail against the force they wish to use against patriots and militia. The only crimes committed by the 3% would be an ideological indifference to their cause. Yet we're the ones to be vilified and have to take the abuse and vile comments of the sheep. If we were half as crazy as they let on, there wouldn't be enough progressives in the country to win a local election for the dems.

Anonymous said...

Last week I had an officer tell me that; "Everything you see on the internet is made up, It's all anti cop propaganda made up by cop haters and the militia, and if you watch it or talk about it you can be reported as a domestic terrorist". He further said; "No officer would ever act like that , and no department would ever stage a cover up" For me the money shot was "If you don't see it on CNN it didn't happen , and besides we're too well trained to make mistakes" Now how can you argue with that?

Anonymous said...

I tend to calculate in the facts of modern day sociology. A dumb, black teen tries to grab a policeman's weapon through the open window of the police car and winds up dead. What would have happened had the kid been successful at getting his hand on the gun? Dead cop? The first shot fired inside the car was definitely justified. I'm not sure about the rest of what happened. But I do know that black witnesses will lie about what they saw.

The bottom line is, the black kid did something off the scale stupid and wound up dead.

Anonymous said...

Mark Twain said that a lie can travel around the globe before the truth can get its boots on. Someone else (maybe several somebodies) said the the truth is unimportant. What is important is what people believe. People can be herded into believing what the "spin doctors" want them to believe, and modern technology makes manipulating still images and video almost as easy as editing the Trayvon Martin 911 call that made Zimmerman look like a racist.

We will need to keep these truths in the forefront of our minds as these events, and others to come, unfold. The truth is that you can't believe everything you read, hear, or even see for yourself.

Why is this person showing me this? Why is this person showing me this now?

Anonymous said...

The People at the Bundy Ranch Were Labeled "DOMESTIC TERRORISTS" by the U.S. Govt... Folks in FERGUSON, MO? Not So Much...

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2618061/pg1

Anonymous said...

And now it comes out that Michael Brown and his buddy were the prime suspects (complete with video evidence) in a strong armed robbery of cigars from a QT down the street something like under 10 minutes before the shooting.

We still need to know what happened at the site of the shooting, but it's looking more and more legit on the cop's part.

Allegedly, Ferguson PD had this report since Saturday....so why wait until now to release it? Why allow rioting to go unchecked that first few days allowing possibly the same QT to be burned down? Was the PD just afraid of disparaging his memory, or were TPTB testing us to see our response and use some of their new military toys?

Anonymous said...

Not saying the cops aren't acting like the SS, because they are, but the kid was a suspect in a strong arm robbery. The cops released pics to prove it. Guess Michael Brown was so innocent after all.

Anonymous said...

I told my wife right after this shooting that the cop will never be held accountable for his actions. now a week later the cops come with a robbery charge possibility agenst this kid. If this were the case that info. would have bin released right away! By the time the cops and powers in charge get done, this kid will be on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.

Anonymous said...

Let me tell you more about Michael Brown. On the day he was shot and killed, he was also a suspect in what is referred to as a "strong arm robbery". What is a strong arm robbery? Remember the movie called Blazing Saddles? Remember the character played by Alex Karis? The character was a huge Mexican named "Mongo". So big, so mean and so strong that the town damn near evacuated whenever he came riding in on his Brahma Bull.

He could knock out a horse with one right cross. He took what he wanted and feared nothing.

Michael Brown was a "Mongo". He was over six feet tall and weighed 290 pounds. So mean and arrogant that he could walk into a convenience store, grab whatever he wanted and just walk out without paying. There's a video that shows the store owner trying to confront him as he walked out. "Mongo" simply turned around and took a step towards the store owner. The store owner was so intimidated that he backed off and let "Mongo" walk out without paying.

Fast forward to later that night and this same "Mongo" character reaching half his body into the police car going for the officer's gun after being ID'd for the earlier strong arm robbery. Just like he had done earlier with the convenience store owner, "Mongo" was simply going to TAKE THE OFFICERS GUN AND SHOOT HIM WITH IT. The officer did the right thing taking this monster "Mongo" out.

Michael "Mongo" Brown was eighteen years old when he was killed. At over six feet tall and 290 pounds, how much bigger would he have been if he had actually grown up? And at eighteen, he was huge, fearless, lawless, unstoppable and would have killed anybody that got in his way, as he tried to do on August 9th. But instead, he got killed himself. Too Bad! The Police Officer did the people of St Louis a favor and took out an arrogant, giant, homicidal pest.

Jimmy the Saint said...

"And now it comes out that Michael Brown and his buddy were the prime suspects (complete with video evidence) in a strong armed robbery of cigars from a QT down the street something like under 10 minutes before the shooting."

Ok, assume that's true. That's not why the cop in question stopped them. He *may* have dumb-lucked onto *possible* criminals, but that wasn't why he initiated the contact.

The timing of this "discovery" is a little suspect, too. If it was true, it would have been released by the police much, much earlier.

Anonymous said...

Philip Kennicott, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Art and Architecture Critic of The Washington Post - gets it right!

It takes a lot more social energy and investment to produce a hostile police force terrorizing its citizens than it does to create a handful of violent protestors co-opting peaceful assembly.

The man with a Molotov cocktail and the military showdown by lethally armed soldiers of the state are both true; taken together, they show us the world we have built, the injustice we have tolerated, the cynicism we have indulged. They show us the most intimate truth: We have come to this.

III

Unknown said...

That town is 70% black, exactly what kind of demographics of suspect is going to be stopped by police, ever?

When the mob is on a rampage, do we really expect the police to just stand back and let them burn, loot and kill?

That's what seems to be happening now.

Anonymous said...

And the question as to why this robbery suspect information was not released sooner has now been answered:

http://www.businessinsider.com/feds-objected-to-the-release-of-alleged-michael-brown-robbery-tape-2014-8#ixzz3AbK3XuN3

Justice Department Reportedly Asked Ferguson Cops Not To Release Alleged Robbery Video Of Slain Teen


Carl Stevenson said...

No surprise that the Feds wanted to hide the tape of the robbery and assault. Like with Trayvon, the truth that he was a violent thug kind of makes it hard to hold him up as a choir boy who spent his free time helping disabled little old ladies cross the street.
Holder needed some time to get the panthers, Sharpton, Jackson et al in place to get the rioting, looting, and burning going.

Anonymous said...

For a long time now, conservatives have bemoaned the amount of arms and ammo being stockpiled by the DHS, and the militarization of police forces in general. Those concerns were met mostly with derision by the Leftist media. The Left demanded that the government steamroll Cliven Bundy……a man who knew his rights and stood up for them……and also the people who came out to support him. But now that it’s a bunch of Blacks in a low-income area rioting and looting, suddenly the Left is screaming about how the police cracking down are too militarized. I guess the only thing that matters is what color the victim happens to be.