We Are All Ferguson Now

[William769]

In the aftermath of the stunning verdict in the Ferguson, MO case of police officer Darren Wilson and the unarmed black teenager Michael Brown whom he shot to death on August 9, millions of Americans have been galvanized to respond.

We are still at war in Afghanistan. Last week the Obama Administration quietly announced, to almost no media fanfare, that it was continuing that war, when it was supposed to be ending at the beginning of next year. President Obama is also sending more troops back into Iraq. This too was met with a shrug by Americans.

Revving up America’s two longest wars has not spurred a single protest march in this country, but the failure of a grand jury to indict Darren Wilson on even the charge of involuntary manslaughter has brought thousands into the streets, from Ferguson itself to New York, LA, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston and beyond. Record numbers of tweets have gone out over Twitter, which many consider responsible for drawing attention to the case of Michael Brown and subsequent events in Ferguson after his killing.

The breadth of the protests versus the crickets over Afghanistan and Iraq makes cleat that the real war America is fighting, the one that many of us feel threatened by, is the fight between marginalized communities and law enforcement. The real war for a huge swath of Americans and their allies is the war against a militarized police force that often sees status–race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, gender identity–before it sees human beings.

http://www.shewired.com/opinion/2014/11/26/op-ed-we-are-all-ferguson-now

[NYC_SKP]

1. Yes, we are.

When will we learn?

The first police SWAT teams were formed more than 40 years ago in Baltimore?

QRT Baltimore Quick Responce Team began forming in 1974/75 when members of Tactical Units realized a need for better training and better equipment, to handle riots, and hostage situations, following in the footsteps on other agencies they were going to name their team SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) But the department found the word SWAT to be too harsh (Political Correctness circa 1975)

Remember the MOVE action in Philadelphia in which rows of housing were burned to the ground?

Police actually dropped BOMBS on the housing units.

In 1981, MOVE relocated to a row house at 6221 Osage Avenue in the Cobbs Creek area of West Philadelphia. Neighbors complained for years that MOVE members were broadcasting political messages by bullhorn at all hours and also about the health hazards created from piles of compost. On May 13, 1985, after the complaints as well as indictments of numerous[quantify] MOVE members for crimes including parole violation, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making terrorist threats,[9] the police department attempted to clear the building and arrest the indicted MOVE members. This led to an armed standoff with police.[10] The police lobbed tear gas canisters at the building. MOVE members fired at the police, and the police returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.[11] A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter then dropped two one-pound bombs made of FBI-supplied water gel explosive, a dynamite substitute, targeting a fortified, bunker-like cubicle on the roof of the house.[12]

The resulting fire ignited a massive blaze that eventually destroyed approximately 65 houses nearby. The firefighters who had earlier deluge-hosed the MOVE members to evict them from the building, stood by and watched the inferno caused after the military grade C-4 bomb engulfed the first house, refusing to intervene.[3][12][13] Eleven people (John Africa, five other adults and five children) died in the resulting fire.[14] Ramona Africa, one of the two survivors, claimed that police fired at those trying to escape the burning house, while the police stated that MOVE members had been firing at police.[15]

It's getting worse, it's had a long time to get bad and it's just getting worse.

[sheshe2]

2. This~

Watching the same process play out now with the criminalizing of Michael Brown and John Crawford and Eric Garner and 12-year-old boys in parks is just breaking my heart all over again because there is still no justice for our marginalized communities who are marginalized solely by this system that others us and points a finger and waits for us to maybe do something wrong like run a stop sign or shoplift some cheap cigars or pick up a toy gun and point it or just be black or gay or not a white man in America.

If we can’t see William Cradle as our uncle or cousin or Michael Brown as our brother or son or a 12-year-old with a toy gun in a park as playing a game most of us played as kids, then we are breaking this country in two, we are creating schisms and hatreds and demarcations that people like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and everyone who was at Stonewall or who was ever shoved in a van by police when a gay bar was raided have worked hard and even given their lives to erode.

Exceptional article William, thank you so much for posting. Tears~And the Truth

PS, I sent you a pm at your site.

[William769]

3. I am ashamed of the profession I worked so hard to help uphold.

P.S. I replied.

[sheshe2]

4. Don't be ashamed, not all are bad, you weren't, William.

I say the same thing, I am ashamed of America. Yet I am not that part of America.

There is a corrupt system out there and it is getting worse. Far worse. They seem to feel the need to destroy anything that is good in this country. It makes my heart weep. I want to say more yet I cannot right now.

Yes, I know you did, I started a response, just haven't finished yet.

Love you~

[William769]

5. Thanks sheshe.

I have been retired for awhile now. but it still hurts.

[sheshe2]

6. Kick This~