Ferguson police PLANNED night riots, used incendiaries, lit fires and kept them going, all for show.

[NYC_SKP]

.
• The timing is absurd. Had this been a morning presser, protests would have been in broad daylight and easier to manage.


• Nighttime protests are scarier, they increase the odds of chaos, make it easier to use agents provocateurs and give cover to shooting black people.


• Police carry fire extinquishers and could have put out the initial vehicle fire but chose not to.


• They wanted the fire and the spectacle.


• The city should have had fire fighting equipment on hand and been able to respond to the building fires, but did not.


They have had MONTHS to prepare for this and what we got is what they wanted.


It's no accident. "Rioters" didn't do this. Ferguson did this.





Welcome to the police state.

[steve2470]

1. I saw the fires burning and kept wondering....

is it really that dangerous, that the fire department can't respond ? The car lot on fire, same thing. Maybe it was that dangerous, but amazingly enough, no cops or civilians were hurt by gunfire.

[Historic NY]

45. By most accounts there were at least 25 + structure fires...

thats a lot some twitter feeds mentioned gun fire so they were kept out.

[billhicks76]

56. Cops Lied

Chris Hayes kept saying not that many people on street contradicting what the Homeland Security directed Police Chief said. It wasn't too dangerous. They planned this farce. Bullets were probably in cop car on fire going off.

[NYC_SKP]

104. One hell of a lot of something was in that car, more than would typically be in a police cruiser.

Typically, ammunition in a cruiser is limited to what the officers have on their person, a magazine in the handgun and two more on the belt, maybe two more in the car and a dozen rounds of shells for the shotgun, if they have one.

Handgun cartridges don't go off the way we witnessed happening in the car. If they pop at all it's kind of a dull bang and it's over, no flares and fireworks.

I don't know WTF was going on in that car.

[dumbcat]

111. Maybe flashbangs and tear gas

grenades?

[NYC_SKP]

115. Could be. Pretty negligent (or convenient) if these were left in a police vehicle like that.

No investigation will be conducted, of course.

[Clint0n]

114. Those police cruisers appeared to me to be staged,

I also, was amazed by the firework show, must have been leftover from July 4th.
I agree this was all planned out in advance.. got to get out there and destroy the message..

[notadmblnd]

89. I imagine that now is a good time for some failing business in Ferguson to suffer an unfortunate

incident.

[frazzled]

2. The timing was certainly suspect

I don't know about incendiaries, but my first reaction when I saw the first police car being rocked and then window-smashed was: what the hell was an empty police car doing there? It seemed to me immediately that this was bait to lure (justifiably) angry protesters to one spot so that the riot police could gather everyone in one area. I still believe that's true today.

[Dustlawyer]

48. I said the same thing! They clearly wanted what they got. Everything from the No Bill, to the

release of the of the findings at 9:00 p.m., none response to the property damage and fires, and police being careful not engage protestors to look bad themselves, was orchestrated to make the protestors to be the bad guys!

Our country as we knew it is lost! This is not hyperbole, BP has bribed the Plaintiff's Steering Committee (friends of the Judge who appointed them) with a $660,000,000 "Common Benefit Fund" if they make sure that this one-sided, terrible, Class Action Settlement goes to completion without being overturned. BP spends so much in advertising that the media will not report the truth or follow up.
Wall Street got off Scott Free for the largest swindle of all time, crashing the global economy in the process and being paid their losses by the tax payers they screwed. No mention of re-instituting Glass-Stegall.
Politicians representing Donors instead of Constituents with the media complicit in it all. You pay off the Congress and they write what you want in the way of laws/regulations!
The media distorts, omits, distracts, and can legally lie to us. Gone are the days when the government required 30 minutes of news, real honest news! They have consolidated into an Oligarchy, but no talk of busting them up and they control the message. They have whipped up Partisianship and pretend that what our supposed elected officials do in Congress is on the level and a real battle, when it is also an orchestrated game to make us believe it is all real!
We elect most of our Judges so there goes your justice. Activist judges and justices abound without repercussion for clearly partisian rulings.
Our tax dollars go to the 1% while they starve the regulatory agencies in charge of keeping them honest and us safe!

Meanwhile, most of our fellow citizens are in their glamour, or to apathetic to do anything about the massive, all encompassing, corruption. I will not give up, but sometimes I feel I am the one tilting at windmills. I am glad for the ones here at DU that see through all of this shit too! Never give up and keep spreading the word! Don't fall for their crap of voting for the most electable Democrat when you know they are owned by the Plutocrats, just to avoid the evil Republican Bogeyman, it's all still their game, their rules, and their players! Go for the ones who don't take the corporate money EVERYTIME!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving I hope!

[frazzled]

53. No, our country is not "lost"

That's where you lose me. Apparently, you did not live through (or do not accurately recall) earlier times. The hoses and dogs and murders of the 1960s, entire cities in flames. Maybe you don't remember Iran Contra or Watergate or a million other things.

This incident in Ferguson needs to be judged on its own merits, not as part of big stew pot of your government complaints about the federal government (especially when this grand jury decision was a local event based in local practices and even local laws.) You are hyperbolizing. And that's not helpful one little bit.

[jwirr]

54. There is one way in which Ferguson MO does represent the whole of the country. Police shootings

of people who are helpless to fight back. People of color, homeless, handicapped, etc. They are not separate cases. It is a new police attitude that carves out certain groups of people that are expendable and goes around shooting them and then saying "Oh, I felt threatened." All over the US we are seeing more and more unarmed people shot for small insignificant violations of the law. Ferguson MO fit into that pattern.

[truedelphi]

123. And those they cannot yet bring themselves to shoot -

Small children who disrupt a classroom, or shoplift some petty toy, can be imprisoned inside a garment that is mostly a body bag, with only a nostril hole for breathing, no eye slits, no mouth holes. totally swddled and encased, like a mummy, and this is being done to seven year olds and nine year olds!

[jwirr]

129. That is horrible. The institutions used to do that to disabled people and it is one of the reasons

we who advocate for them closed as many institutions as we could down. When I say disabled I am talking about developmentally disabled.

[Spazito]

3. I have come to the same belief...

The timing of the announcement/press conference, the tone and tenor of the prosecutor which was arrogant, callous and deliberate in his intent to inflame the already high tension.

This is what the Governor and the prosecutor wanted so they could justify the injustice done to Michael Brown and his loved ones.

It is beyond appalling.

[KingCharlemagne]

5. "Beyond appalling" - I could not put it more eloquently myself. The authorities should

heed Mao's observation that "all oppression breeds resistance."

[Spazito]

12. From the killing of Michael Brown and EVERY step taken afterward was...

all done with the intent to defend wilson, convict Michael Brown and inflame the community. Every damn step taken.

[PatrynXX]

43. no doubt what the police state did tonight

will just kill us oversees. We can't tell China what to do with Tibet , can't tell Russia to do with Ukraine, can't Tell Iran what to do either. cause we are worse.

[ReRe]

55. Especially since there was no...

... "no-fly" order last night in the sky. Do I remember a "no-fly" order back in August? Or is all this American injustice driving me out of my mind?

[Spazito]

65. There was a post last night, late in the night, that a no-fly order had been issued but...

I have seen nothing confirming that as of yet. Everything done by the police and city of Ferguson last night merits condemnation, imo.

[ReRe]

69. Yes, they did call a no-fly....

... (for travel at the airport) after the fires started, but I was talking about the helos with the cameras recording everything. They were up there all night long filming away. They filmed like I wished they had been able to back in August, to record the brutality from up above.

[Spazito]

70. Ahhh, yes, now I get what you meant...

and you raise an important point as to why a 'no-fly' previously yet none last night. It smells very badly.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

93. i remember that, too.

Suddenly it's rescinded? Just in time for the circus planned by the PTB'S.

Your theory fits too well to ignore.

[greatlaurel]

4. Wondering the same, especially the police car left sitting by itself with no one around, looked odd.

The inability of the public officials to plan and prevent property damage, when the family of Michael Brown called for nonviolent protest, looks very suspicious to anyone who thinks about this. The fires seem very suspicious and done in such a way to take away from the actual facts of the killing of Mr. Brown.

In Cleveland a 12 year old black child was shot and killed by a policeman because he had a toy gun. That terrible act is being ignored because there was a fire in Ferguson. There have been a number of these killings since Michael Brown and the news media ignores these acts of violence against people the police should be working to protect. Something is very wrong.

[NYC_SKP]

9. The first car, especially, being left to burn got my attention.

It was a hazard, you might have noticed ammo, or something, exploding as it burned.

Fires spread and need to be taken out right away.

Regardless of how it started, any fool would know that on this night of all night, be prepared for things like fires.

Yet, nothing was done. That's not an accident.

AND: Flash bangs and other devices are incendiary: they can start fires.

Earlier this year, a flash-bang critically injured a two-year-old baby in Georgia when a police special response team threw one into a crib while entering a home on a narcotics warrant.

According to Sgt. Colby Dolly, St. Louis County's 18-member tactical unit used the 7290 CTS flash-bangs for the first time three nights after Michael Brown's death and has continued to use them periodically in the subsequent days.

It's not clear how many people may have been burned or hit by flash-bangs in Ferguson. S.W.A.T. teams typically use them to temporarily paralyze suspects and prevent them from destroying evidence while carrying out search warrants and no-knock raids. They are less commonly used for crowd control and inside prisons.

http://www.propublica.org/article/less-lethal-flash-bangs-used-in-ferguson-leave-some-feeling-the-burn

[greatlaurel]

22. When I saw the car being rocked, I wondered why it was parked and left unattended.

The aerial view of the car on fire showed nothing around it. It seemed an odd place to leave an unattended car. Some real journalist should request the records on that car. Was it involved in a wreck or in need of maintenance. Was it an old car? It looked like an older model car.

I did not watch any more "news" after that. Could not take the propaganda anymore.

The fires made a cunning way to not discuss the fact there was no indictment. The fires also distract from the killing of a 12 year old boy in Cleveland on a playground with a toy gun who did not point the toy gun at the policeman who killed him.

[jwirr]

57. I also wondered how old that car was. I thought there was two cars - that one and another one

that burned.

[ReRe]

58. I think the cars were soaked inside...

... with lighter fluid. Probably cars that were being retired, so no loss. They just flamed up to spectacularly, as if they had been bombed. Like in an action movie. I don't think they had much gas in the tanks, as if they had, there would have been some dangerous explosions that would have killed some protesters and /or police.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. Not only was that police car place there strategically, but then agents

provocateurs then began to attack that police car in order to draw protesters in to help them destroy it.

[Alittleliberal]

19. I saw a stream of some fucks attacking a car

and many protesters telling them to stop. In the 9 or 10 streams I watched last night I saw pretty much exclusively peaceful protesters. How did this get so out of control without a mob behind it? 70+ armored cops couldn't control the 20-30 people who seemed to be fucking everything up? Something smells strange and it's not my weed.

[jwirr]

59. I was watching on The Last Word and the first "thing" was thrown by one man standing on the

sidewalk and others immediately went over to try to stop him. As the others went to stop him someone else threw something and then it was too late. But what I saw very clearly was ONE man started it. I almost flew out of my chair yelling "stop him."

[LP2K12]

75. Michael Brown's stepfather at rally: 'Burn this bitch down!'

Michael Brown's stepfather consoled the dead teen's distraught mother after Monday's controversial grand jury announcement and then turned to the crowd of demonstrators, saying, "Burn this mother f---er down" and "Burn this bitch down," according to a New York Times video.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/us/michael-brown-stepfather-video/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

[jwirr]

82. Is this the same father who is calling for peaceful demonstrations? NYT is crazy if it is.

[LP2K12]

85. That was my question.

They mention it is his step-father. I'm assuming his father promoted the peaceful demonstrations.

[truedelphi]

124. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^n/t

[lonestarnot]

6. this is merika

[yallerdawg]

7. And the guard had been called up...

and a State of Emergency declared?

Then when small groups of hooligans looted businesses and set fires, and the police did nothing, were we not being taught a lesson for being so critical in August?

Bad media, bad social network! See what happens without law and order?

[Ineeda]

30. We'll never know, but

taking all these 'anomalies' into consideration, I wonder about the identity of those 'hooligans.' Agent provocateurs, maybe?

[yallerdawg]

35. And the mysterious...

gunshots that kept the fire engines away but never seemed to hit anyone or keep the police from slowly wandering around.

Almost like it was choreographed.

[2naSalit]

105. From the video

that I watched of the car attack, it appeared to me that the provocateurs were white. I saw no persons of color joining in on that event. I wondered precisely the same things about who they were and why that car was in that spot unattended. Doesn't add up unless the suspicions regarding TPTB are included in the process.

[jwirr]

61. The guard should have been used to protect those businesses. They could have stood in front of them

like the protesters did in August.

[bahrbearian]

8. Overtime $$$$$$

[yuiyoshida]

10. I seriously had not

thought of this, or perhaps shoved it out of my mind. You know how DU is about conspiracy theories.. PEOPLE go nuts..and poo poo it. You may have the truth, or not.. I don't know what to think about this, but I can just hear some people screaming "Conspiracy Theorist!!"...

That scares me, frankly.

[jwirr]

62. Many of us have been here before - 1960s.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

101. Yes we have.

I was in a group of persons that went into the Watts Riot in Aug. 1965, 46 square miles of action, watched the National Guard using automatic weapons on people, while they denied on TV that they were using them.
Tom Wolfe reported our exploits in his book The Pump House Gang, in true Tom Wolfe style he changed our stories to make his writing more flowery.
But the riot was like a war and many more people lost their lives than the official death toll.

[NYC_SKP]

64. For all the attention this has had, either sheer stupidity or deliberate grandstanding are evident.

The police and DA had every opportunity to consult with the FBI and others as regards the best way to go about releasing the news that was sure to provoke reaction.

Of all the different ways they could have done it, they chose the worst, in my opinion.

They leaked inaccurate times for the statement, putting the MSM on alert and guaranteeing maximum coverage and hype.

These leaks also gave the community of protesters plenty of time to get there and to get mad in advance of the statement.

There is no evidence, except that some businesses were boarded up, that anything was done to address potential fires of looting. Indeed, these were allowed to occur.

After dark is when those who would choose to become violent might decide to liquor up or get high and come out and cause trouble.

The smart move would have been to have the statement take place at about 9:00 am, and with no advance notice to the media.

That the failed to do so many obvious preventative things tells me it was planned to fail.

[yuiyoshida]

74. But SkP you know what they are gonna say....

That this all sounds like Alex Jones.... haiiiyaaa... You are probably right. But, you know DU better than I do. I have only been around for a short time. Once you say stuff like this.. all the poo pooers start shaking their finger back and forth.. like this:

IF I said it, they would run me out on a pole, tar and feathered.

[NYC_SKP]

78. You're right, yuiyoshida.

In fact, a hater could, if they wanted to, alert on my OP and have a jury find it in violation as a wacky conspiracy theory.

Fortunately, so far, that hasn't happened.

[yuiyoshida]

80. psssst... but but but...

aren't we all wacky here??

[MineralMan]

13. Or stupidity. Stupidity would explain announcing

the Grand Jury's decision after dark, too. Since I'm not there, I have no way to know whether it was planned or just stupid. Either way, the timing was disastrous.

[NYC_SKP]

16. Yes, it was planned. They didn't spontaneously decide to announce after dark.

Of course there's no way to prove that they actually lit any fires, but they made choices. All along choices have been made:

Wilson chose to confront Brown about walking in the street, probably in a very assholish way.

Ferguson chose to keep Wilson on duty despite prior bad acts.

Ferguson chose to use incendiary devices; smoke grenades and flash bangs can start fires.

Ferguson chose to let the first car burn and burn and burn.

And, to be sure, they had a choice of whether to announce last night or this morning.

You know what they did? Let me tell you.

First, they leaked to the media all these phony possible times for an announcement, giving the media time to really drum up interest and the community time to become angry.
Then, they got all their fun toys together, trucks and bombs and guns and stuff, but no fire fighting equipment, I guess.
Finally, they break the news after dark, after plenty of people are already forming to protest.

BULL SHIT

They should have stayed as quiet as possible and made the announcement nice and early so that protests would take place during daylight.

[MineralMan]

17. I did not say it wasn't planned. I suggested that if it was,

it was a stupid plan. I appear to be correct in that. It was a stupid plan.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

67. At least one other person here besides myself

heard on the radio that a day announcement also had drawbacks because many more people would be out - including people who were going to and from work, grocery shopping, kids out, more businesses open, etc. A night announcement would mean fewer people involved.

[Rebl]

108. That was

my thought exactly. People would have time to get home from work, etc. and not get caught in the middle of the demonstrations.

[PatrynXX]

46. what a flash bang GRENADE does to a house

when actually thrown in the front door (ie if it's in ones hand they'd lose most of their arm

the first one went off fine second one skewered the ceiling

[jwirr]

66. I thought that it was strange that they kept putting it off until later. However, I remember Chris

Hayes commenting that the crowds were just beginning to assemble during his program. At that time they were going to have the press conference at 8 central time. They put it off until 9 when the crowds were larger. Deliberate? I do not know but that just occurred to me. First 4 or maybe 7 and then 8 and finally 9. Why all the changes?

[Ecumenist]

127. I have a friend who is a lawyer who works for the DOJ. We were chatting last night before

the "situation" and she said that she was "INTRIGUED" that a prosecutor would wait until after 9 pm eastern to announce the findings of the Grand jury, that it made absolutely NO SENSE. I told her that I felt it was because they were setting up chaos, kill people, arrest INNOCENT people and be able to claim that everyone who was contradicting them was lying because it was dark. You would also have trouble seeing the skin colour of the people involved because well, it would be dark. She was raised in the UK and is amazed by the BLATANT racist attitudes of so much of American government and LEO's. I responded, "Welcome to America".

[Retrograde]

60. I have to go along with stupid, along with incredibly naive and insular

[world wide wally]

14. The magicians old misdirection trick. Distract them with riots, an they won't talk as much about

the deliberate incompetence of the prosecutor to assure Wilson walked free.

[Avalux]

15. I remember watching, and wondering why those fires were allowed to burn unabated.

The national guard was there for christ's sake, and there weren't gobs of people clogging the streets. I wholeheartedly agree with your post. The whole entire thing was orchestrated.

[cstanleytech]

97. Is the Missouri national guard even trained for putting out structural fires?

[Agschmid]

18. No the rioters did this.

[SCantiGOP]

52. you are right Agschmid

Posts like the original one here are often quoted on other forums to show how ridiculous some of the opinions here are.

[Mbrow]

20. My Wife and I marched in Seattle,

And I was talking to a Journalist there, one of the main channels, (no , I don't remember which one, memory is the second thing that goes) He was telling me about how he and the rest of the main news groups were at a restaurant watching the police drive by shooting out windows of buildings. This was witnessed by dozens of news reporters. Funny how some things just never make the news.

P.S. sorry that was in Seattle in 1999 against the WTO>>>

[NYC_SKP]

23. Thank you. And, IIRC, nobody was ever investigated around these crimes.

That was a scary time, and things aren't getting any better.

[TBF]

21. There is no way they would've announced

on a weekday because the large companies, law firms & banks wouldn't have allowed it. They would've sued the city for forcing them to shut down business for a day. That is zillions of dollars in business lost.

Why didn't they announced on a weekend morning? For exactly the reasons you've described above. They didn't just let a murderer go free - they put on a show to go with.

[NYC_SKP]

24. I don't know, is it better to shut your business for a day or have it burned to the ground?

I believe a municipality is free to do business during business hours.

They could have deployed staff at critical areas and the very fact that it was daylight would have ensured better behavior, IMO.

[TBF]

26. I agree with your OP

just thinking what might have prevented them from doing so. I agree with you that it was mainly deliberate and they wanted a fight.

[maced666]

25. LOL sure!

Omg the responses to the looting and riots are...a riot!

[logosoco]

27. That first cop car that was burning...

my daughter was there at Ferguson PD right when that happened (she left when the tear gas started)...based on what she saw, what I saw on the live feeds and on TV, it certainly looked like a plant to me.

Hundreds of cops, the Mo. National Guard, Homeland Security and the FBI...they left a county cop car sitting RIGHT there, no one watching it?

Call me a CT if you want, but I know what I saw and what I am seeing.

Aside from the slap in the face to justice, this whole thing, starting with the choices made by ONE cop, is going to cost the county, the city and the state so much money. Money that could have been used to actually help the people!

My mother lives in St. Louis county, but I am so hoping for a HUGE snow storm this year! The county is not going to have the resources without going in the hole and then they can explain to the tax payers WHY! (Those who have not figured it out by now may see).

[Moostache]

33. I cannot be the only one who SAW the guy spraying the car with lighter fluid...

I distinctly saw on the TV footage a guy spraying down a cop car with lighter fluid. Maybe it was a different car...this was the one on the live feed that had its windows smashed out...but I remembered thinking to myself at that point - "That is really weird to see a guy THAT close to uniformed police and riot police and to be actively dousing a squad car with flammable liquids?"

Smells funny sometimes for a reason...

[arthritisR_US]

83. I saw the guy spraying the car too. It was

spraying out like a lighter fluid bottle does.

[zeemike]

28. All the world is a stage

And we are watching a puppet show...they pull the strings and things happen...and it is all scripted for TV.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

29. I heard an interview on BBC4 radio

(I think that's what I was listening to at the time.)

Anyway, the powers that be in control felt there were pros and cons to a day statement, as well, because more people would be out, traveling to and from work, shopping, etc.

[Moostache]

31. Reminds me of a few slogans...

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”
― George Orwell, 1984


There are none so blind as those who will not open their eyes...the majority of people who think this was "justice" are overcome with images of "demons", just like Murderer Wilson.

[Gin]

32. L.Odonnel said he heard Wilson

Was shopping networks for an interview. Brazen prick.

[mwrguy]

34. MIHOP or LIHOP?

[NYC_SKP]

36. Media leaks all day long provided time for media hype and for groups to come from miles away.

All day long, dribs and drabs of a possible statement.

It's like they hired Rove or Dick Morris or some PR firm to ensure the greatest coverage and most drama.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that any members of the community who get high and like to riot aren't out and about at 8:00 am.

So why would they NOT want to announce at, say, 9:00 am, giving time for people to get to work, and then block of the streets where the last protests occurred and strategically post peace officers where most needed?

It's pretty clear that some of this is MIHOP, they had months to plan.

Plan what? That's the question.

They sure didn't plan for peace, but then neither did Wilson that sad day.

[valerief]

40. LIHOP is left to chance. Definitely MIHOP. Their KKK wanted this. nt

[yeoman6987]

37. I am not sure time of day changes anything

I was watching the View and the reminded everyone that Rodney King and OJ Simpson were during daylight and the situations were worse then last night.

[valerief]

38. Absolutely correct. It's the St. Louis KKK Pyrotechnic Extravanga, months in the making. nt

[justice1]

39. It's a matter of perspective.

I thought the reason to make the announcement during a cold evening, in the middle of the week, was they did learn from this summer, and the LA riots. When you compare them, last night was minor. Had law enforcement acted the way they did a few months ago, the situation would have escalated. Nobody lost their life, and a couple of dozen buildings were destroyed. In LA, the rioting started during the day, and over 50 people were killed, over 2000 injured, and over a 1100 buildings destroyed.

[NYC_SKP]

42. LA population: 12,150,996 Ferguson population: 21,111

For me, the worst of it was how much heads-up and timing was provided by the DA's trickle out of possible statement times, I was ready for the news at 1:00 PST and it didn't come until 5:00 PST.

All the while the MSM and social media are hyping it, and those few who would riot or loot getting high, and any trouble makers from out of town (government or citizens) get some time to travel.

It's as if it was designed to go wrong and look as bad as it possibly could.

Ask any law officer if they'd prefer night duty to day duty if protests are on the agenda.

[damnedifIknow]

41. These fascist parasites

need to go!! Get the hell out of OUR country and never darken our doorstep again! Killing unarmed citizens here in the USA? Fuck you and those who support you!!

[angrychair]

44. as soon as I saw the time

The wheels started spinning in my head as to "why?" Seemed very late for such an announcement. If there had been so much planning, where were the fire department and EMTs? So BS.

[Initech]

47. Welcome to police state America. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

[LiberalArkie]

49. Ask any of the tea heads why they have so many guns - for the coming race riots.

That is what sells the guns.

[PeoViejo]

50. Urban Renewal

Furguson Style.

[VA_Jill]

51. Of course they did

Self-fulfilling prophecy and all that.

[KT2000]

63. the attention is now on the aftermath

not the decision - by design. This is what Eugene Robinson speculated last night and I agree.

[jwirr]

72. He is a smart man. If the attention stay on the so called "riot" there will be not change to the law

to make this mess with the police change. Like so many other things happening in the USA today the public gets distracted and nothing gets done.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

68. Before the shit hit the fan, msnbc was reporting the air was filled....

..... with what was first assumed to be tear gas but turned out to be smoke deployed by the police. The cops said something like it is there to confuse the protesters (I could be wrong on the wording)... But anyway. My first thought was WTF. They are trying to incite a riot. Nothing like turning the area in to a battle zone to calm the crowd

[NYC_SKP]

71. They did an excellent job of setting the stage and the expectations for a riot, fires, all of that.

And the media was abuzz with it, too.

The city of Ferguson craftily baited the media with early announcements of a statement, and then kept postponing it (it seems) which only made it all more dramatic.

Then they wait until dark, which makes it utterly impossible to see what is going on and provides cover for all kinds of mischief.

How they didn't see this coming is beyond me, unless they say it coming and wanted it to go this way.

I suppose it could have been worse, but it did what they wanted it to do, make the community look bad and distract from the real problem.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

73. Leading protesters asked for 48 hours advanced notice

but the media has been hyping a decision any day now for a month whipping everyone into a frenzy.

[arthritisR_US]

76. Also, police presence was very heavy in

areas where there were only a few protesters and very small in the areas of large protest groups which also happen to be lower income black neighbourhoods.

It sure smells fishy to me. If they didn't plan it then they sure let it happen.

[ybbor]

77. And why were there police cars on the street?

As the OP says, something is fishy here.

[jillan]

79. As Amy Goodman said earlier today - It looks as if they let Ferguson burn.

[NYC_SKP]

81. They very carefully wrapped up the Police Memorial monument.

[grahamhgreen]

84. Also, note that night means less probality the cops would be filmed accosting small children.

[certainot]

86. they know they can count on 1200 radio stations to spin it 'properly'

like cheney/bush/rove withholding help for the new orleans superdome refugees because they were waiting for black on white violence they could use for years.

talk radio is the enabler for these kinds of strategies, and the left has no organized opposition to it

[Spitfire of ATJ]

87. I saw cars burning for hours that could have been put out easily.

[larkrake]

88. I'm pretty sure it was pre planned

how conveniently that squad car was sacrificed. no big box stores burned, just local stores probably owned by blacks.

[uppityperson]

90. I agree the police were involved in the timing, but do you really think they set all the fires?

mihop vs lihop?

[NYC_SKP]

95. My first thought was that they brought the fire-making devices into the neighborhood.

... and the protesters took it from there.

They were launching these devices into the crowd, just as they'd done before, and people sometimes toss them back.

Unsure how the unusually unguarded police car's rear window was busted, but this would present a great opportunity for someone in the crowd to toss one of the smoking canisters into the car.

It might be more accurate for me to say that they "set the stage" for the fires, but you know how subject lines run out of room.

Having said all that, I think it's quite possible for a rogue cop to have helped at least one of the fires along and, if not, they sure didn't seem to do much to prevent them.

[uppityperson]

96. Thanks, lihop seems very likely.

[Darkhawk32]

91. Watched the protest from the inside via live stream. Tear gas canisters were causing fires. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

92. And they made sure the announcement was at primetime

so the whole country was tuned to see the verdict and subsequent destruction...

[sabrina 1]

94. There were very few people left when the fires started. Most of the protesters had gone home.

This is exactly what happened in Oakland CA, when OWS protesters marched all day, nearly a quarter of a million, AFTER the Police Shooting of an Iraq War Vet. The public turned out in huge numbers that day. The police kept their distance as NO ONE wanted them there.

There were NO INCIDENTS of violence throughout the day, despite the huge turnout.

At the end of the day, most of the protesters went home, most thrilled that the world would see how calm things are WITHOUT THE COPS.

A small number remained, the cops showed up and stayed near where they were assembled, peacefully.

Then suddenly, there was a disturbance a few blocks away, a fire was started, people in Black were seen throwing furniture on the fire. The cops did not go there.

The following day the media showed sensationalist photos of what was actually a small fire.

The narrative was changed from 250 k peaceful protesters in Oakland etc to 'Violence and Riots as OWS protesters set fires'.

We KNEW the cops were responsible. The media as always, played along.

What happened in Ferguson last night reminded me so much of that night in Oakland.

I agree with you. Let them prove otherwise.

The peaceful protesters were working hard all day to keep things calm.

The narrative changed from the GJ's unfair verdict, to FIRES and Liquor Store riots etc. It is so pat that one has to wonder why ANYONE believes a word they say anymore.

[PatrickforO]

98. It's what the establishment always does when confronted with

mass demonstrations where there are legitimate grievances. They engineer violence so that they can say violence against the demonstrators is justified. In the meantime, their pets in the media dutifully mouth words that describe the violence only, not the cause of the demonstrators.

That's how it works.

But on a cheerful note there's a lot of anger against the establishment, and the occupy protests have only been nascent. Now, the establishment is faced not only with that specter, but a whole new and revitalized civil rights movement. I saw that kid on MSNBC last night, and he made some really good points - he said that he and his friends are tired of being stopped by police because of their skin color, and that the shootings by police had to stop. You know, all these kids want is the civil rights that we white people have enjoyed for many years.

They don't want to have to worry about getting shot for nothing. Their parents don't want to have to worry about their kid going to the store to buy some candy and never coming back because some clown decided they didn't belong in the neighborhood.

[NYC_SKP]

103. Um, your point is that Mike Brown asked to be killed in cold blood, is that your point, goatmilker?

I think it's settled that no robbery took place.

Come here often?

[blackspade]

102. Good point.

A totally orchestrated riot.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

106. K&R

The abandoned and soon to be burning police car tactic was also used at in the Toronto G20, it makes for great kodak moments, used by rightwingers and authoritarians everywhere.

[lexington filly]

107. Strongly disagree cause I don' think the protesters are puppets.

I think black people have been pushed and pushed and pushed and belittled and trapped in an indifferent system until they pushed the hell back. And hard.

[NYC_SKP]

110. IF any black citizens of Ferguson were responsible for any of it, they are NOT representative...

...they are not representative of American blacks or of Ferguson blacks, most of whom prefer peaceful demonstration, I'm quite sure.

One of the things the police knew is that mainstream blacks and others are peaceful, many of them up early to work and early to bed.

The kinds of folks who might want to riot and loot, that handful among thousands, aren't likely to be up in the morning so a morning announcement would be a waste to them.

No, they knew what they were doing and they came with the very tools needed to start fires, in fact they threw them at the protesters.

How convenient.

None of which is to say you aren't right about anger over indifference; that's very real, but it doesn't compel many to become destructive.

And, even if citizens did the damage, police set the stage, laid out the fuel and the tinder and brought the matches.

Literally.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

112. There were dozens last night

Not a handful, but they are a tiny, tiny fraction of the black community. Most members of the black community weren't even there, so you can't compare the number of non-peaceful protesters to peaceful protesters. Even if half of the protesters were violent, that still doesn't say much about the black community. In a town of the size of Ferguson, with a black population of its size, you know most black folks were working or at home with their families...and watching events on tv.

[woo me with science]

109. K&R

[roody]

113. Yup.

[ecstatic]

116. It was basically Rosewood, just that they cleverly shifted the blame

to the community members (unfortunately with the help of some clueless teens).

[Rex]

117. Yes it was a total stage show by the racist PDs. We all know they had the resources

to put out the fires. I think some of these cop-klan members were hoping for a race war to start.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

118. I did think it was strange that the police left an empty car nt

[NYC_SKP]

120. Yes, apparently there were explosive things in there, too.

Judging from the explosions coming out of it as it burned.

Pretty sloppy of them, if not intentional.

[truth2power]

119. k&r so I can find this later. n/t

[Cracklin Charlie]

121. I saw those cars burning on the news tonight.

They looked like they were spontaneously exploding, with no people nearby. Rows of cars exploding and then burning a huge fireball.

Would that many people have parked their car in that area, with everyone expecting large protests in the event of an announcement? Would the police have parked those cars there, and then loaded them with explosives that they could set off later, to push the idea of violence from those gathered to protest?

It looked fake.

[NYC_SKP]

122. Never underestimate the evil that can be done.

http://www.propublica.org/nola/story/nopd-order-to-shoot-looters-hurricane-katrina/

[Puzzledtraveller]

125. Tin foil.

I would be laughing if it wasn't so pathetic.

[blkmusclmachine]

126. I sure believe it. This was planned.

[The Green Manalishi]

128. Follow the money, Skip

I can't help but thing that the agenda here is far more devious, subtle and complex than some stupid racist crackers tying to cover their corruption.
Something is happening that doesn't fit all the facts of even a very suspicions/cynical person such as myself.... far too much effort and complexity if a mere race riot was what they wanted.

Anyway K&R