Police are out of control in MO. General Assembly member shares vid of the violence last night

[bigtree]

MariaChappelleNadal? @MariaChappelleN 6h6 hours ago

WATCH: Police in STL drag women on their backs, freely mace individuals already under arrest & BEAT livestreamers.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[classykaren]

1. This is heartbreaking.

[pangaia]

6. No it is not heartbreaking. It is excessive use of force.

[socialist_n_TN]

13. It's only heartbreaking if you still have illusions about the police......

and their function in capitalist society. I have no illusions left, so this is expected.

[gopiscrap]

21. totally agree

cops are chosen for their Nazi like personalities to be sycophants for the rich and powerful

[lark]

23. You mean the SS?

That's what Sessions and Drumpf want to turn them into, an unaccountable force to keep any uppity brown folks or women in their place and put them in jail. They want this to be done for their own personal profit as they get lots of $ from the private prison industry and for generalized hate for minorities and women. The private jail industry is Sessions top donor. Bet they have some kind of a deal, the more people incarcerated, the more money they'll give to Sessions - under the table of course. Sessions is definitely on a mission to incarcerate everyone who's not a white male by hook or crook.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

24. Exactly. And, their fans--millions of Americans--think this is just fine.

Otherwise, it would not be allowed to happen.

[vkkv]

36. " The private jail industry is Sessions top donor" I'm no GOP fan, but this is not accurate.

https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00003062&cycle=2016
( check all heading tabs as well...)

Defense and Oil & Gas are the top two with no private prisons being listed by Open Secrets.

McWane and subdivisions are not in the private prison business.

Sorry, I was hoping that you would be right.

[lark]

55. Facts can be pesky things.

I read that somewhere and it was logical considering his actions. It even named the privatized jail industry and said they had given millions to Session. Still bet they are paying Sessions one way or another. Now I have to do some digging, Sessions absolutely wants to jail the max # of folks and it seems to be about more than hate.

[vkkv]

65. Hold on. 'they' are not "facts" until they can be proven.

Big difference.

I've never liked idiot Sessions, but to post unproven "facts" does not help our cause.

Please, by all means, "dig".

[lark]

66. Don't want to post alt-facts

so will dig into this some more and see if I can find real facts.

[Alice11111]

53. !!!

[oasis]

2. Shame. It's clear police are arresting peaceful protestors. nt

[Old Vet]

25. Bullshit, My cousin has been peacefully protesting the last few nights....

He told me theres certain outside groups dead set on destroying shit and violence against cops. I have no reason to not believe him, hes a straight up dude who hates injustice. Iam just saying cause that's what Ive heard and my cousin is witnessing.

[oasis]

26. I'm not okay with pepper spraying people sitting/ laying down.

Looks like blue fascism run amok.

[Old Vet]

29. I fully understand BUT if the police say get down, Get the fuck all the way down...........

Sorry but peaceful protesters don't fling paint and acid at the cops, Ive been involved in many protests and theres always a certain bunch of cops and protesters that take advantage of tense situations. IMHO

[oasis]

30. Acid?

[maxsolomon]

33. Beaten while under arrest? "You only have to yourself to blame"!

Got a link for that Acid accusation?

[Old Vet]

35. Well No link, just a relatives eyewitness account of what he did and what he saw......

[DK504]

38. If the police say get down, they damn well have a reason

other than we don't like people having the balls to protest us killing people. The cops DO NOT have the right to beat the shit out of people complying with their orders, they are also breaking the law by macing and abusing people while in custody.

Exactly when will the cops be held responsible for beating and killing citizens?

[Weekend Warrior]

59. Link for the acid? Transparent.

I can provide you with a link as to who was spraying painful agents at peaceful people. It doesn't jive with your position.

Link?

[Duppers]

3. THIS IS HORRIBLE!

Needs major media attention.

K&R

[TexasTowelie]

5. How are things at the library this morning?

[mopinko]

9. another beautiful day in chi.

i'm sure the library is pretty empty.

[pangaia]

7. Just imagine the scene if the protesters were not white of skin.

[dalton99a]

8. Bingo.

[cwydro]

10. How in hell will they justify arresting reporters?

Have they released them yet?

Strange that CNN is not covering any of this to the extent I thought they would.

[LiberalArkie]

14. CNN and most national media rely on local stations for most of the coverage. However

Local stations can not cover this as they would loose their access to local government agencies.

[certainot]

39. the university of missou broadcasts sports on 6 limbaugh stations and i'll bet they're all

making excuses for the cops, like they did for killing michael brown and trayvon martin and for the police violence at ferguson

i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cops listent to rw talk radio in their cruisers.

so the uni is a good place to protest this until they start looking for apolitical alternatives.

[justhanginon]

62. You are wrong. Local news is covering it as it happens. Channel 4 CBS affiliate,

Channel 2 Fox and Channel 5 NBC have given it extensive coverage canceling their regularly scheduled show and staying on till the end usually around 11 p.m. Channel 4 has had at least four reporters on the ground at the demos the whole time.

[LiberalArkie]

67. I wonder if they are feeding it up the line.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

28. I suspect Jeff Zucker is very much pro the pResident, their feud trumped up for

the sake of ratings. He allows just enough negative coverage of the Trump and the RW to seem legit, but not enough to change anyone's mind.

[snort]

11. I really don't like pigs.

The more they are infiltrated by Nazi pieces of shit, the worse they're going to get.

[gopiscrap]

22. totally agree

[ancianita]

12. MO's state-sponsored structural fascism prioritizes power and order over constitutional rights.

Mine are obvious questions, but I'm not reading any reactions from these leaders:

Where is the Democratic mayor, Lyda Krewson, in all this, who influences the lives of some three million people around the STL area.

Where are the Republican governor and lieutenant governor have obviously turned a blind eye to this policing pattern.

Where are their congressional Republicans (seven) and Democrats (three) in all this.

[Gore1FL]

15. What amazes me is that having accountable police who follow the law is a controversial issue.

I'm from St. Louis. The vast majority of my friends and I believe #BlackLivesMatter. There are many who are supportive of the police despite the video evidence of aggression (not to mention the video evidence of the acquitted officer (Stockley)).

There is one person on my feed more upset that U2 canceled and the Billy Joel might cancel than the fact that the police are abusing their power.

It's astonishing.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. Even worse than people not really caring is that many are cheering this on.

You could tell things were getting bad when you saw gleeful cheering after the murder of Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, etc.

Not just people saying, "Well it's a tragedy, but the police had no other choice for their own safety," (which is BS, of course), but people actually happily excited to see cops behaving this way, thrilled to see these men and women killed.

A lot of the blame for this must go to the dedicated RW media and the MSM who fail to adequately debunk them, in creating the myth that Blacks, Latinos, and Liberals are all so evil that they deserve no better.

[Gore1FL]

45. The stuff I see on facebook is quite telling

I have acquaintances on Facebook that are more concerned about canceled concerts and broken windows than black lives. Some of the comments I have seen posted on local news articles make those people look sane and supportive.

[malaise]

16. The Con and Sessions America

Glad the General Assembly is seeing the values.

[byronius]

17. Animalistic savagery.

[onit2day]

18. St Louis gestapo, white supremacist KKK They

make all policemen look bad and untrustworthy. Where are the cops telling on the bad cops? The people did not give them permission to act like thugs. Who will cry for them now when they are shot and how many will think they deserved that as do the ones who refuse to hold them accountable. Bunch of unlawful thugs with guns and badges. They act like they are above the law and unstoppable.

[jcmaine72]

19. Making America great again....one act of police brutality at a time.

[gopiscrap]

20. i have said it so many times ALL COPS ARE ASSHOLES

you don't become a cop unless you have some sadistic rage driven authority complex with in you

[BigOleDummy]

31. Yeah ..........

........and these guys need MORE military equipment?!!? We have very few if any "Police" forces anymore, just occupying troops. SMH

[downeastdaniel]

32. ALL OF THOSE SO SAVAGELY TREATED NEED TO GET AT LEAST ONE COMPETENT ATT0RNY NOW

[Honeycombe8]

34. Well, I don't see any inappropriate behavior by the police.

The police ordered the protestors (who the locals called agitators who were destroying and vandalizing property) into one area and told them to get down on the ground. Any who did not do that were maced. That's just p.d. protocol. How would you get people to obey instructions, if they weren't following instructions?

This is what happens when groups of people damage property. That is anarchy and has to be stopped. That's why we have police. If it were your property being destroyed, you'd probably appreciate it more.

I'm all for protesting, definitely. But not damaging property or harming anyone, or not following the law. There are laws for protesting, both state and local. And this was the point of the protest: to get on the news. Which they did.

[bigtree]

41. there was absolutely no need to mace anyone

...They were sitting on the ground, obviously no threat to the police in riot gear at that point. This was brutality for brutality's sake. People completely innocent of vandalism are certainly in this web of humanity they've corralled on the ground.

I'm trying right now to imagine how your statement is any way progressive or even remotely reasonable. I'm left wondering how viewing police macing people sitting on the ground would lead anyone to conclude the police were right.

[Honeycombe8]

50. They just sprayed a few times generally in mid-air...not in face, because...

a few of the people weren't down on the ground, as instructed. I'm always amazed that people think following police instructions is optional. It's not. The guy filming it says he is maced, at one point, because his camera is on. But if you pay attention, that's not it. He is UP, instead of being down on the ground, as instructed. They had to tell him several times, and spray the mace in his area, before he followed the instruction.

The police were trying to get control of crowds that were breaking windows & damaging property.

That's what I saw in the tape. (disregard what people are saying is happening; pay attention to what you can see and what's going on; this goes on all the time; in my view, it's a group trying to get national media attention)

Protesting is an excellent way to express opinions, but damaging property is a crime and goes beyond protesting.

[bigtree]

60. police were engaged in intimidation tactics toward peaceful protesters

Last edited Tue Sep 19, 2017, 07:38 AM - Edit history (1)

...it's a familiar tactic to define the protesters by the actions of a few agitators among them. Thing is, I fully expect that sort of reasoning from those dead set against the protests... surprised to see such strident defenses of police brutality here on a Democratic board.

There was no need to mace people already subdued and no threat to anyone. This police behavior is a pattern in STL, ironically the very thing folks were protesting against. Apparently that's too difficult a concept for some to get a hold on.


Kevin McDermott? @kevinmcdermott
Harrowing account by arrested P-D reporter @Mike_Faulk, who experienced a questionable police tactic 1st hand.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/as-arrests-are-made-protesters-question-the-tactics-used-by/article_e58481b7-f7c2-541e-91d2-31a6379f272c.html …

[Honeycombe8]

63. Your post is full of conclusions and subjectivity. "Police brutality"? Seriously?

I saw police calmly walking around, telling people to get on the ground, as they tried to control a mob that was damaging property. They walked around them and occasionally sprayed mace into the air (not into faces) when people were not down on the ground as instructed.

I saw no police brutality. As for "Faulk," there is no video or objective description of that. Only what Faulk says. I repeat: I go by reality, facts, and videos. We don't know about Faulk, since we only know his description. Safe to say that police would have a different version. That's why I go by objective facts.

Point out in the video where there is a police officer hitting someone or spraying someone directly in the face, when they were already down on the ground, as instructed. Please point out the precise moments in the video, the time point.

I'm surprised to see people supporting criminal activity, because they sympathize with the people damaging the property or their cause. Protesting = good, a civil right. Criminal behavior including breaking windows and damaging property = bad, a crime, sometimes a form of terrorism (where you harm innocent people for a cause unrelated to the people or the property).

If someone were breaking the windows on your car, I'm pretty sure you would be in favor of the police stopping it, including spraying mace if they didn't comply with instructions to get on the ground.

[bigtree]

64. lol

...I'm not going to spend another minute on this with you.

[benld74]

37. Check his twitter to see step by step of what happened

[pintobean]

40. Chappelle-Nadal is the idiot state senator

who wished Trump would be assassinated on her twitter. Rioters vandalized dozens of businesses in her district Saturday night.

[bigtree]

42. that invalidates the police violence against already subdued protesters

...how?

Pathetic deflection.

[pintobean]

54. I support my police department arresting vandals

and putting an end to the riots. I don't want St. Louis to look like Ferguson. Chappelle-Nadal seems to approve of the destruction of businesses in her district.

[bigtree]

56. you're no better than the violent, abusive police

...if you're defining the protest as a riot, and you can't distinguish between rioters and people sitting on the ground, shopping, or peacefully protesting.

Downtown resident Christian Misner, who watched some of the street scenes unfold in front of his home, said he was taken aback by the tone of the police response.

“It was militaristic, coordinated, antagonistic and intimidating,” he said. “They were chanting and hitting the ground and their shin guards in unison with sticks.”

Misner said there was a disconnect between the behavior of the crowd and the response of the police officers.

“I saw no bottle-throwing, spitting or anything else,” he said. “Everyone was hanging out, talking, taking photos and video. Only two people were loudly vocalizing their frustration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/18/militaristic-and-intimidating-st-louis-police-criticized-as-protests-stretch-on

[pintobean]

58. Funny thing

Cops are getting injured but the "peaceful protesters" aren't.

[bigtree]

61. you're content defining everyone there as some sort of threat

...that's pretty standard for those who have more interest in defending the police than standing up for the terrorized black folk who live there.

You know well that not every protester was engaging in vandalism or throwing things at police. You know well (or should) that vast majority of the 120 or so arrested were not violent agitators.

Blurring those lines suits those who work to discredit the movement of black residents to hold police there accountable - as much or worse than the few agitators (likely paid plants) serve to discredit the movement.

Link to tweet

[Gore1FL]

44. She is somewhat reactionary at times. Nonetheless she works for District 14.

I didn't like her statement about Trump. But that has little to do with what happened over the weekend.

What happened over the weekend was due to a lack of justice, a long history of race issues in St. Louis, and an out-of-control police department.

[loyalsister]

52. She is committed to justice

I was really upset by her comment because it gave people a reason to not take her seriously when she has so much to give.

[Gore1FL]

43. The City Police are acting like the dystopian "Peace Keepers" from Hunger Games.

I heard that when the militarized cops finished playing Imperial Stormtrooper they started chanting "“Whose streets? Our streets!”

They just don't give a fuck. The people are protesting because they are out of control and then they go on to prove it. The optics of this whole thing has been so bad for them, but they don't seem to have a clue.

There was a demonstration at UM-St. Louis today in the Millennium Student Center, around the library and towards Natural Bridge. (I only saw the Student Center, myself). I'll have to hand it to the UMSL Police. They were on hand, but were dressed normally and didn't act Like the St. Louis City counterparts (at least from what I heard and witnessed).

[Daninmo]

46. I wonder why

why didn't E Holder or L Linch under Obama press charges against this cop when the killng happened 6 years ago?

[Gore1FL]

49. Some of the evidence evidence came out later.

He wasn't charged with first degree murder until May of 2016.

[Jakes Progress]

47. Jack Booted Thugs.

The only problem is that these knuckle draggers will take that as a complement. They like being compared to Nazis.

If the decent men and women of law enforcement don't start "policing" their own, they are complicit and/or cowards.

[The_Casual_Observer]

51. Cambodian justice right here in the good old USA

Dystpoian trumpland

[Warren DeMontague]

57. I read on DU that the First Amendment is the real problem, here.

That we'll never get rid of this sort of totalitarianism as long as we have all this annoying "free speech"

.... it makes a strange sort of sense, I mean I suspect the 1st Amendment is part of the reason we are seeing these videos.