The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[CountDeMoney]

They're not doing it very well, but the DOJ, ACLU and the NAACP knew that.  The rest of the nation is figuring it out now.

[LaCroix]

Where the fuck is the President in this?  It has been over a week.  It took hardly any time at all for Rand Freaking Paul to chime in and he is just some Senator from a state in the neighborhood.  Obama is such a failure I just do not get it.

a senator running for presidency probably has more time to comment on these little events that pop up than a US president. i don't think some people will ever be satisfied with obama. riots over alleged police brutality are frequent. he talks about trayvon, people freak; he doesn't talk about some incident in ferguson, MO[/] and people freak. he doesn't attend a funeral, people are mad. etc.

[garbon]

Obama will be speaking on the subject at 4pm EST.

[Valmy]

he doesn't talk about some incident in ferguson, MO[/] and people freak. he doesn't attend a funeral, people are mad. etc.

This is not just a replay of decades of past trauma and racial violence that has poisoned this nation for centuries but it also a reflection of a crisis brought on by federal policies.  He needs to show leadership here.  I hope whatever he plans to do now at 4 PM EST provides some direction to this.

And yeah being President carries certain burdens.  If he doesn't like pressure and people freaking he should have stayed a Senator.

[Sheilbh]

It is only money, this is a full blown national disgrace and disaster unfolding that threatens the legitimacy of the cops everywhere.
...
  This is about the cops escalating the situation by attacking the protestors and triggering a break down in law and order through their mismanagement and tinear understanding of how to handle a situation where a cop kills a member of a community.  And it just keeps going, it is a miracle nobody else has been killed yet or we do not have riots breaking out in other cities.

Maybe. But isn't the national disgrace that this is an aspect of how policing is and, as importantly, is perceived to be for African-Americans. Isn't the shift that white America's noticed?

Where the fuck is the President in this?  It has been over a week.  It took hardly any time at all for Rand Freaking Paul to chime in and he is just some Senator from a state in the neighborhood.  Obama is such a failure I just do not get it.

I think this chimes with Rand Paul's politics. But he's still working at increasing support for Republicans among the GOP (and I suspect his slightly libertarian version is the best ideological match). Again a reason I like Rand is that he didn't just retreat after that Howard embarrassment. On a number of issues (that disproportionately affect African-Americans) he's right, which is the key. For engagement to work you've got to show up regularly, not just on election years; have a genuine policy basis to talk about; and use the right language. He's lagging on the latter but that's it.

That's why all these shitty little municipal agencies that rub up next to one another--50in one town, 24 in the next adjacent town, etc.-need to all get rolled into larger jurisdictions and made into larger agencies with the staff, experience and resources necessary to deal with this sort of thing.

I think this is true. It's true here too.

A police force is one of those things people get attached to though, like a local hospital or a regiment, even if they're no longer terribly efficient or able to cope.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Putting an officer on administative leave is a normal part of the SOP while a shooting investigation is ongoing. It is not a punishment, or any kind of statement about the suspected outcome of said investigation.

I do think it is a little farcical that these investigations are done by the same department or municipality that is involved - how often is a police shooting ever judged as anything but justified?

I would like to see some kind of independent review of police use of deadly force.

And it seems to me that "He was going for my gun!" is the standard, default, one size fits all reason to use to justify shooting some unarmed guy.

Skip posted an interesting link on Facebook where this was done in Wisconsin for exactly this reason.  Don't think any other states have implemented an external reviewing body yet, though I imagine this is going to push it further toward the top of several politicians' agendas.

Kinda like the IRS asking you to audit yourself.

[garbon]

Obama apparently sending nothing much of note.

As much as all of this is awful, I'm glad to see attention being given to this issue again.

[citizen k]

Protesters march towards Gov Nixon's #StL office chanting "the Nat'l Guard has got to go"
https://twitter.com/StanfordKMOV/status/501473199935479809/photo/1

Protesters aren't being let in, security told me they're not here on "official business" -
https://twitter.com/StanfordKMOV/status/501474294258757633/photo/1

[citizen k]

Getty photographer arrested #ferguson
http://instagram.com/p/r20Wfwssp8/

[Razgovory]

Good.

[CountDeMoney]

The City of Ferguson has hired a PR firm

If you call the City of Ferguson asking for a media representative, chances are your name will instead be sent to a small public relations firm called Common Ground PR.

After more than a week of unrest following Michael Brown's shooting death, the city is overwhelmed with the sheer crush of national and global media on the scene.

Enter Common Ground, a seven-person PR firm based in Chesterfield, Mo. that has been charged with "helping triage media queries," according to Denise Bentele, president and CEO of the firm.

"The city is only trying to be responsive to you guys," Bentele said. "This is a little city and they don't have public relations or media staff."

Bentele couldn't say how long the "short-term" contract with Ferguson will last, but judging by the fact that the city's doesn't have a functioning Web site at the moment, they may well need the extra help.

Some have also noted that in the midst of an enormous amount of racial strife, the PR firm hired by the city appears to be entirely white:  http://www.commongroundpr.com/meet-the-team.aspx

1) First order of business by the white PR firm:  subcontract a minority-owned PR firm.  Or Quicy Jones.  Somebody.  Shit.

[CountDeMoney]

Was reading the autopsy.  Cause of death: lead poisoning.
Apparently the 6th shot, at the apex of the skull, was the Tekken 3 finishing move.  Yeah, I'd say so.

Autopsy's one thing, shooting reconstruction is another.

[CountDeMoney]

The derspiess demographic speaks out:

Nearly half of Americans say race is getting too much attention in the Ferguson coverage

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog-live/liveblog/live-updates-chaos-in-ferguson/?id=6a8f3f7b-4c75-42bb-8ccb-d31bf15a2524

LOL I WONDER WHICH HALF

[Valmy]

Protesters march towards Gov Nixon's #StL office chanting "the Nat'l Guard has got to go"
https://twitter.com/StanfordKMOV/status/501473199935479809/photo/1

Protesters aren't being let in, security told me they're not here on "official business" -
https://twitter.com/StanfordKMOV/status/501474294258757633/photo/1

Good work Raz!

[Razgovory]

The derspiess demographic speaks out:

Nearly half of Americans say race is getting too much attention in the Ferguson coverage

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog-live/liveblog/live-updates-chaos-in-ferguson/?id=6a8f3f7b-4c75-42bb-8ccb-d31bf15a2524

LOL I WONDER WHICH HALF

My liberal gay brother doesn't think it's about race.  Of course, he's a liberal gay stupid brother.