Tag: ferguson

closet-keys:

a-little-bi-furious:

natashiyaa:

shatteredchrystal:

runaon:

a-little-bi-furious:

asherehsa:

samjoonyuh:

Perspective. 

“Looting? I thought these were supposed to be nonviolent protests”

I know it’s incredible! People are literally coming out of the woodwork to comment on this photoset to focus on the looting headline with “well yes it is nice they were helping people hit with the tear gas, but stealing is still wrong uwu” as if they’re back to kindergarten morality.

Like everyone who’s gone to boot camp I’ve been tear gassed. They put about 50+ of you in a gas chamber and toss it in. You have to stay there until your rank is allowed to exit. Before that though, you have to say your name, rank, and social security number. You then exit and file into ranks (again) outside and are not allowed at any point to rinse your face or eyes for the entire day.

That right there? Easily the worst part of boot camp. My eyes were literally swollen shut. I was blinded for a good 30 minutes and my chest hurt for days.

I have zero problem and not and ounce of judgement for people raiding a mcdonalds that can easily afford to repair damage for ANYTHING to help ease the shittiness that is being tear gassed. Esp because every one of us in boot were medically sound to deal with tear gas. Children, asthmatics, people prone to panic and anxiety attacks, the elderly as sooo many more are NOT going to handle tear gas well at ALL.

Or that smoke the police use either.

It’s easy to sit there and judge someone from the safety of your home and say things like “it’s just tear gas” or “it can’t be that bad”.

Fuck you. As someone who HAS been gassed, you need to stfu.

I remember all the preparation they did to get us ready for the gas chamber in boot camp. We were taught how to handle ourselves, how to control our breathing, not to touch anything, how to avoid the worst of the gas. But it still didn’t matter. I remember taking in that first breath and feeling like I had just been kicked in the chest. I remember a few guys in my platoon falling down and vomiting. We knew the gas wasn’t as bad on the floor but we were the fifth platoon through and the vomit kept us from bending over more than absolutely necessary. I remember a few guys, guys in peak health training to be infantrymen, breaking ranks and running for the door only to be dragged back in kicking and screaming until they said name, rank and serial. They were expecting it, trained for it, bragging about how it wouldn’t bother them.
I remember standing there with all of the mucus from my nasal cavity on the front of my ACUs and thinking to myself “This is the nonviolent option?”
Covered head to toe and my skin still itching I looked down at the silver wedding band hanging next to my dog tags and realized that the gas had eaten little pits into its surface.
I stood there and thought of all the news reports I had seen over the years. The uprisings and revolutionaries being gassed, the crowds running from men in masks.
That’s the moment I got it, staring at my ruined wedding band, that’s the moment I realized terrorism isn’t about bombs or who is using them. It’s about controlling people through fear. It’s about removing their ability to act reasonably, to make them seem like the monsters. Terrorism is about triggering people to fight or flight then blaming them for not being rational. It’s about power. Remove someone’s power to act with reason, and you remove their humanity.

Oh fuck

My god this commentary is perfect. Also a reminder that it turned out this “looting” was not that at all, the police bust that window with a bullet and the staff were gracious enough to hand milk out it seems, the protestors did not break in but even if they did just look at what they were trying to do with that milk, look at what they went through. The immense endurance that’s been shown by the people of Ferguson in the face of all this is incredible.

“It’s about controlling people through fear. It’s about removing their ability to act reasonably, to make them seem like the monsters. Terrorism is about triggering people to fight or flight then blaming them for not being rational. It’s about power. Remove someone’s power to act with reason, and you remove their humanity.”

Source: samjoonyuh

feministsexed:

revolutionarykoolaid:

Civil Rights Attorneys Sue Ferguson Over ‘Debtors Prisons’
Joseph Shapiro
In a new challenge to police practices in Ferguson, Mo., a group of civil rights lawyers is suing the city over the way people are jailed when they fail to pay fines for traffic tickets and other minor offenses.
The lawsuit, filed Sunday night on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown, alleges that the city violates the Constitution by jailing people without adequately considering whether they were indigent and, as a result, unable to pay.
The suit is filed on behalf of 11 plaintiffs who say they were too poor to pay but were then jailed — sometimes for two weeks or more.
NPR got an advance look at the lawsuit, filed by lawyers from Equal Justice Under Law, ArchCity Defenders and the Saint Louis University School of Law. It charges that Ferguson officials “have built a municipal scheme designed to brutalize, to punish, and to profit.”
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in court fines and fees, mainly on traffic violations and other low-level municipal offenses. That was the city’s second-largest source of income, or about 21 percent of its total budget.
The lawsuit challenges the practice of jailing people when they can’t afford to pay those fines. When tickets go unpaid, people are summoned to court and usually offered a new payment plan. If they fail to show up or make the new payments, the city issues an arrest warrant.
In 2013, Ferguson, a city with a population of 21,000, issued nearly 33,000 arrest warrants for unpaid traffic violations and other minor offenses. Many of those were for people who lived outside the city.
READ MORE (and prepare to be filled with rage…)

If you think Ferguson is the only city this kind of injustice is occurring in, think again. It’s probably happening in your own city, if you live State-side. The criminal justice system has been increasingly criminalizing poverty over the last 3 decades, and with the boom of the private prison system, it’s only going to get worse. The time for action is now. More than just protesting, we have to start attacking the laws and policy that allows these miscarriages of justice to occur. #staywoke #farfromover

Upfront: I am passing white so my situation wasn’t nearly as bad.  But I got a speeding ticket in bumfuck Texas ten years ago, 2 days after my insurance had lapsed due to non payment.  The highway patrolman also pointed at a solitary orange cone and said I was in a construction zone so it came out to over $3k with all the multipliers.  I was a waitress living paycheck to paycheck with no way to pay that.  So I attended the trial date they set for me to try to contest the ticket.

At the courthouse I waited in line for an hour to have a judge tell me “nope you are at fault and since you still haven’t renewed your car insurance—” (with what money???) “you’re paying the ticket.”  

Outside, I was ushered to a line at the cashier window.  Once I got up there I explained myself to the woman. Said I wasn’t contesting that I was speeding and I know my insurance was lapsed because I couldn’t afford it but I had to use my car to get to work.  So I was willing to pay the ticket off, but I told her I need some sort of payment plan.

She then told me there was no such thing, no payment options.  You just had to pay in full.  I argued that I know for a fact they have payment plans because I had driven friends and family to this very courthouse to make payments on tickets.  Then she looked me over and said “you don’t look like someone on welfare, so you don’t qualify.  You options are jail time or payment in full.”  I was upset and nearly crying at that point.  She told me I had 30 days to come up with the money or I would be arrested.

So of course I didn’t make $3000 in 30 days (remember I had to eat and pay bills and still get myself to and from work).  If I knew how to make extra money that fast, I would have.  And all my friends and family are broke.  So I came in, turned myself in and served 3 days in jail.  It was humiliating and degrading and yes, it was 100% because I was broke.  It felt so wrong that I was literally being punished for being poor.  

On one hand I feel relieved knowing I wasn’t alone in this, because at the time I did feel alone.  I didn’t understand why some people were allowed to make payments and I wasn’t.  And no one would talk to me or explain.  But on the other hand, I got off easy.  3 days was nothing compared to what PoC have had to deal with.  Classism alone is painful.  But racism and classism together ruins lives every day.

Source: revolutionarykoolaid

think-progress:

Ferguson Grand Juror Sues Prosecutor To Lift Gag Order

A Ferguson grand juror who heard the case of Darren Wilson previewed potentially scathing criticism of St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, in a lawsuit alleging that McCulloch skewed the views of jurors when he delivered a lengthy public presentation to announce that the jury wouldn’t file any charges against Wilson for killing Michael Brown.

The juror filed a federal lawsuit Monday anonymously to challenge a gag order that prevents him from talking about the grand juror proceedings at all. But even in this lawsuit seeking more permission to speak publicly, the juror dubbed “Grand Juror Doe” reveals a host of significant concerns about the case, and asserts he would have a whole lot more to say if permitted.

Among Grand Juror Doe’s concerns are that Wilson’s case was treated dramatically different than hundreds of other cases he heard during his grand jury service. In addition to prosecutors devoting exponentially more time to the case than most, Grand Juror Doe also believes McCulloch made the “insinuation that Brown, not Wilson, was the wrongdoer” and placed much more emphasis on the victim than in any other case he heard.

THIS | Follow ThinkProgress

How Sandy McElroy and Prosecutor Bob McCulloch colluded to destroy the case against Darren Wilson

yungmethuselah:

Sandy McElroy was never near Canfield Drive on August 9. She completely fabricated her entire story weeks after Darren Wilson killed Mike Brown. During their interrogation of her, Sandy McElroy was completely shredded by the FBI as a racist, a liar, unstable, and more. They proved in their own interview, with evidence, that McElroy lied about ever being there, about how she left the scene, about key details of the case that she claimed she witnessed, and more.

Shaun King provides a great summary of Sandra McElroy’s role in Bob McCulloch’s grand jury debacle. There are links to King’s previous piece on Witness #40 and to The Smoking Gun’s exposé (mind the “bipolar” BS, though) and source documents; all are worth reading as well. All of this should, must, lead to charges.

How Sandy McElroy and Prosecutor Bob McCulloch colluded to destroy the case against Darren Wilson

kimyadawson:

“Spoke all weekend with representatives for family of Tamir Rice. So many awful details about his murder that I just didn’t know. Very thankful that A and Cleveland attorney Walter Madison will be representing the family of Tamir Rice. Immediately police need to release the video of the aftermath of Tamir’s shooting. The negligence is way worse than we knew.”

– Shaun King

Source: kimyadawson

coffeeandniall:

hungerpunch:

R.I.P. DeAndre Joshua

y’all are we just not going to talk about this? this 20 year old was found murdered inside a car at the same apartment complex Mike Brown was killed in front of. he had been shot in the head & set on fire. he was the best friend of Dorian Johnson—the guy who was with Mike Brown when he was killed & key eyewitness. y’all think this is a coincidence? mainstream media has barely covered it; there’s almost no information; it’s unclear whether an investigation is actually even happening and if it is, what the fuck it’s revealing. y’all seen the reports going around of how many KKK members there probably are in the ferguson police department. this doesn’t sound outside their ballpark. we need to boost this, to draw attention to the strategic murder of this young man, and, god, demand some kind of safety measures be taken for not only the leading figures of the movement in ferguson but their loved ones as well—because apparently it’s fucking open season on black people here.

[x] [x]

Well. Shit.

Source: hungerpunch

rosethomass:

if you, like me, get so angry when discussing or debating current issues with ignorant/bigoted people that you can’t articulate your thoughts, here is a list of arguments i’ve seen so far defending darren wilson or going against the ferguson protests, with suggestions as to how to counter and links to helpful posts to support your argument:

1. “It’s not a race issue!”

2. “The officer feared for his life. It was self defense.”

3. “Michael Brown stole from a convenience store. He was a thug and a thief.”

4. “The jury saw all the evidence, they know better.”/Something about insufficient/unreliable evidence.

5. “The riots and protests are out of hand and unnecessary. It’s just an excuse to be violent and steal things.”

6. “You can’t fight violence with violence, what would Martin Luther King say?”

If after all this, they’re still arguing in defense of Darren Wilson or the jury, just give up because there’s no way you can change the mind of such a complete fucking bigot.

Some masterposts I used that also have more information: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

If there’s anything I should add or fix, please let me know