Still waiting for the prosecutor to say something meaningful.
ETA: Christ. Spit it the fuck out, dude. Still waiting.
ETA 2: Seven minutes into a rambling prebuttle, McCullough finally makes the announcement we all saw coming: no indictment.
ETA 3: President Obama is scheduled to speak at 10 PM ET, just a few minutes from now. Will that clown McCullough still be yammering when MSNBC cuts away to the president? Will Fox keep its camera on McCullough? Probably!
Nashville_fan
blah, blah, blah, blah . . . no indictment . . . . blah, blah, blah
Mustang Bobby
The only indictment so far has been of “the social media.”
Karen in GA
I noted below that this speech isn’t going at all well.
Baud
Apparently Twitter killed Michael Brown.
Poopyman
It’s times like this that I’m happy we cancelled Directv and cable.
lamh36
McCullough blaming the internet…really
Violet
This guy’s picture is in a phrase dictionary next to “the fix is in.”
Pogonip
Sounds like he’s putting it off as long as he can, maybe in the hope potential rioters will get tired of standing around in the cold and go home.
Karen in GA
@Mustang Bobby: Don’t forget the eyewitnesses. All sorts of inconsistent, ya know.
JWR
Sounds like he’s preparing us for a no indictment decision.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Another vote for no indictment, proving that we now live in a post-racial society. Merka, fuck yeah!
Mustang Bobby
He’s building up to say “no true bill” or whatever the term is in Missouri for no indictment.
Violet
@lamh36: Hey, he also blamed cable news. Both sides!
me
Fait accompli.
Karen in GA
@JWR: Yep. It’s ass covering.
guachi
Not watching it – but basically he’s blaming everyone else for his and the police’s incompetence?
mtiffany
Jesustapdancingchrist I think this asshole is going to tell us that Michael Brown shot himself…
PaulW
he’s trying to set up the grand jury’s investigation. He’s trying to let down whichever side isn’t going to be thrilled if Wilson goes free or gets charged.
Either way, we’re still screwed. We need a serious reform effort to reduce the lethal use of deadly force, there are too many unarmed citizens getting killed by the people sworn to protect and serve…
shrillhouse
Well, I’m convinced…we need to outlaw “social media” before it kills again….
lamh36
It this the Dem prosecutor of STL or the defense attorney for Darren Wilson?
MomSense
Longest disclaimer ever.
Baud
And there it is.
Karen in GA
FUCK.
Chris
Sigh.
JWR
Fuck.
Mustang Bobby
Yep. No true bill.
Good night.
Morzer
I guess the best defense really is a mediocre prosecutor.
Violet
No indictment. Big surprise. Wow. Shocker.
beltane
@lamh36: Mubarak also blamed the internet. If people don’t discuss the rottenness of a particular regime, it means the regime isn’t rotten.
Omnes Omnibus
Jesus. Fuck.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Is it bad of me to say that I hope they burn it down?
beth
Heartbreaking.
lamh36
And there you have it…
I’ll await my favorite commenters to tell me how fair this grand jury was and how trustful McCullough has been throughout this process
fuck it all!
trollhattan
Thank Bog that cop riot everybody feared is averted.
Until next time.
beltane
@Morzer: It worked for George Zimmerman and countless others.
TaMara (BHF)
And was anyone surprised?
Elizabelle
I despise this man. He’s fueling the fire. He’s called the community people who can’t keep their stories straight.
He should have recused himself. What a fucking tool.
Patrick
So, all 10 shots were justified. Goodness! Great job, jury!
Morzer
So, what I take from this legalistic cluster-fuck is that white people, self included, need to get off our asses and do a better job of bending the goddamn arc towards justice.
pseudonymous in nc
“Blame Twitter, Facebook and CNN, not municipal segregation and institutional racism.” Got it.
scav
Did anyone really really expect better of Missouri? Hope, possibly, but expect?
Linnaeus
Can’t say I’m one bit surprised.
Elizabelle
I’ve found a candidate for receiving my thrown brick.
Rob
JFC
trollhattan
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
I don’t. I want the bastards who’ve been predicting it for months to be shown wrong, yet again. Not that they’ll bother with self-reflection, but it will be vastly better than a million, “See, I told you so”s.
pseudonymous in nc
I’m sure Darren Wilson will be returning all of his “legal defense fund” any time now, and not keeping it as a bounty, in the spirit it was given.
gwangung
@pseudonymous in nc: What unmitigated bullshit.
Brendan in Charlotte
So essentially, it was a Scooby-Doo CYA speech. If it weren’t for you meddling kids and your social media, we could have swept this under the rug right after it happened…
? Martin
The Grand Jury didn’t need 3 months to reach a verdict, this guy needed it to write his speech.
I think it’s pretty apparent that there’d be no indictment since it’s legal in Missouri to shoot an unarmed person running from police. The problem isn’t the courts, it’s the legislature.
Morzer
@pseudonymous in nc:
So, in sum, Mark Zuckerberg murdered Michael Brown, rather than the worthless thug Darren Wilson who actually, you know, pulled the trigger. Truly, we live in an age of exceeding peculiar institutions.
MikeBoyScout
Michael Brown acquitted of possession of Skittles, but guilty of cigarillos – DA’s thinking
JordanRules
Damnet. It would have been nice to believe justice could be possibly, somehow served – ya know, hope, some hope. A little. But I never had any and it feels like that could be tinder.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
lamh36
McCullough sounded more like the defense attorney for Darren Wilson, but hey, the system is fair and balanced and has spoken so…
This delay was orchestrated to give the Grand Jury time to get out of town.
Guess now Darren Wilson can get ready for his closeup with Fox
Brendan in Charlotte
@Elizabelle: i’ve found my candidate for backpfeifgesicht
Joel Hanes
[ Observing a bit more than 4.5 minutes of silence ]
Timurid
So this guy is going to stand up and pretty much give a summation for the defense of Wilson and/or prosecution of Brown? “The grand jury chose not to indict. End of line” was not good enough?
Rob
“Physical evidence remains constant and as such is a solid foundation” …
when it’s under control of the police of course.
Elizabelle
Has he hit 75 with “physical evidence” yet?
Karen in GA
Christ. I keep thinking about Michael Brown’s family.
catatonia
The gravelly voice of this guy is, I suppose, intended to give his mendacious and self-serving statement gravitas.
Was there an audition?
Darkrose
@TaMara (BHF): Not at all.
skerry
Elizabelle
@Rob: prezactly.
I am white and in Virginia and I’m ready to turn out and riot over this. It’s insulting.
The community lies and does not understand “physical evidence.” Which can be manipulated.
Linnaeus
Funny, normally prosecutors are pretty zealous to put a suspect on trial. What could be the difference here? Hmmm…
MomSense
Devastating.
The Dangerman
Surprised? No.
Sad? Yes. If there was ever a case that needed to go to a public trial, it was this one (since I assume the GJ transcripts will likely remain sealed).
geg6
I’ve never been so ashamed to be a white person. Again. The past few years have just shown me that, regardless of how much progress I might think we may have made in racial issues, white people simply can’t evolve. We suck and I wish so much that we didn’t.
JordanRules
@Karen in GA: Me too. Devastating.
Punchy
Why is everyone so seemingly surprised? Think Nixon brought in the Nat’l Guard to control a Guilty Verdict Parade? This verdict was telegraphed the minute the gubbnah went all emergency whatevs.
BBA
@catatonia: He was just reelected, unopposed.
Botsplainer
Less temperate people would be saying something along the lines of “fuck Gandhi – let’s see if a riot helmet stops a .30-06 round sent from a rooftop 3 blocks away.”
Police and prosecutors are lucky that American people of color are so inexplicably docile.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: I am guessing that comment is at least partly aimed at me. But you should know that I never said that the grand jury was fair or that McCulloch was trustworthy. I said wait for the decision and that I would be utterly outraged if the result you were predicting came to pass. It did and I am outraged. I’ll leave it at that because all our emotions are running high.
kc
Well, this sucks.
Baud
If I were the State of Missouri, I would never use another witness in a criminal trial again. They sound awful.
Morzer
@geg6:
Well, comrade white person, I reckon that the white community needs to pull its pants up yesterday, because as a group we’ve spent far too much of the last 40 years showing America our collective fat asses and I believe the rest of the nation is just a little weary of the sight.
Elizabelle
Why do we need eyewitnesses at all, prosecutor? Isn’t it all “physical evidence.” Collected, curated and corralled by the police.
beltane
@geg6: White supremacism is way more American than apple pie will ever be.
pseudonymous in nc
@Linnaeus:
Ham sandwiches ain’t white cops.
Karen in GA
This man needs to just shut the fuck up already. Seriously.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (BHF):
Nope. Pissed off, but not surprised.
And now I’m sure we’ll get tons of interviews with the grand jurors who are shocked, simply shocked that people would think they did a crappy job. I remember an interview with one of the Rodney King jurors of the original trial (where all the cops were acquitted) who was genuinely totally clueless that, hey, maybe people would be pissed off about cops getting away with beating an unarmed man half to death. Who’da thunk it?
Elizabelle
@Baud: Yes. It’s all physical evidence. And science.
Nothing to see here.
Elizabelle
12 rounds by Officer Wilson?!
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I still haven’t heard why the shooting was justified.
Lolis
White people really refuse to acknowledge/change their own prejudices, and more people of color will continue to die because of it.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Is a Wrongful Death suit still a possibility or are police exempt from that?
BBA
Will no one rid us of this turbulent prosecutor?
mai naem
Basically Mike Brown and Darrell Wilson both needed those Go-Cameras on them for McCullouch to have Wilson indicted. I hope defense attorneys use these new standards.
Mnemosyne
@Karen in GA:
Guilty conscience, or at least a niggling realization that he has now exposed himself as a corrupt asshole to most of the English-speaking world (and probably a lot of non-English-speaking press as well).
Seriously, this has been getting BBC World coverage, so it’s not like knowledge of his actions is going to stay within the boundaries of St. Louis County like they would have in the old days. Hence the blaming of the internet rather than the cop who shot an unarmed man dead.
Heliopause
McCulloch didn’t try especially hard to hide where his sympathies lie, did he?
Wow. I mean, he could have simply said, “no indictment, good night.” Instead of litigating his desired result.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Ask the physical evidence. It ruled the day.
beltane
@Baud: Police actions are always justified in a police state.
Elizabelle
This is not justice. It’s appalling. Don’t wrap yourself in the mantle of justice.
The world sees.
SatanicPanic
Damn, well, no surprise there.
Baud
@efgoldman:
The extensive physical evidence shows that Wilson was in fact white.
MomSense
He is still fucking talking.
This is an outrage.
rikyrah
OF COURSE, there’s no indictment. We knew there would be no indictment. So, all of those who patronized me and lamh, poo-poohing us when we said weeks ago that there would be no indictment…
uh huh
uh huh
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Still? I turned it off after he announced the result.
Josie
They are who we thought they were.
catatonia
This gravelly-voice functionary has the nerve to talk about “political expediency,” when this whole case is about expediency: the expediency characterized by Darren Wilson shooting first and asking questions … well, never.
pseudonymous in nc
If there’s no probable fucking cause, you don’t need to make a fucking 45+ minute speech.
GregB
Has Fox announced their newest program:
Cop Talk with hosts: Fuhrman and Wilson.
mouse tolliver
Remember when Winona Ryder shoplifted $5,000 worth of designer clothes from Saks Fifth Avenue? Good thing she’s not black. She could’ve been shot dead right on the spot.
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
Maybe he’s hoping to bore any potential rioters to sleep. But I’m guessing they’re not simulcasting this speech over the police radios, so his hope will be in vain.
ItAintEazy
If there were no indictments in the Ohio Wal-mart shooting (cameras, prank call, and all), then there wasn’t going to be an indictment here.
Linnaeus
I told my mother back in August that I would not be surprised if there were no trial (though I thought there was a decent chance there would be). My mom said, “Oh, I would be surprised.” Dinner on Christmas Eve is going to be….interesting.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
@geg6:
Thing is, it is not even the majority of white people. Just enough to fill a grand jury in Missouri.
Elizabelle
Reporter asked if there would be perjury charges against some of the witnesses.
Cannot decide if that was meant ironically.
The Grand Jury gave up their lives on this. Gave up their lives.
This man has a tin ear.
JordanRules
@mouse tolliver: All you have to do is pretend a black person stole something, that’s it.
Timurid
@GregB:
Yep. Wilson we be sucking off the Wingnut Welfare teat for the rest of his life.
Mike in NC
So, Wilson promoted to sergeant or assistant chief?
beltane
It’s on the front page of just about every European newspaper website. Maybe the reason we are looked down on is that we, as a nation, insist on slithering in the mud.
skerry
McCulloch: “Grand Jury gave up their lives” for this process.
Seriously?
me
Grand juries are tools of the prosecutor. They do what he/she wants.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Are you going to read the documents?
Morzer
@Elizabelle:
Would that be a Breitbart reporter? Or Chuck Todd? I can’t tell the difference these days.
Nashville_fan
The smugness is suffocating. Seriously. He is most infatuated with the sound of his own voice. The tips for the protestors at the end was the very best part, followed closely by the cold and detailed description of Michael Brown’s wounds.
The fact that the entire state has known what the verdict would be and the clownish boarding of windows and military police presence just reinforces the point that the leaders of this community think that the problem is folks protesting the death penalty being casually administered over stolen cigarillos in broad daylight in front of several witnesses (all of whom were apparently suffering from a mass delusion), instead of officers using deadly force in non-deadly situations.
But I’m not bitter. This is just every day life for us “blacks”. On to the next.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: as you say emotions are running high.
But it was more than just “wait for the decision” commentary from some that I am talking about.
I get it, for some the need to believe that the “system” works is strong, but the history of US justice vis a vis Black victims (especially males) proves(ed) otherwise.
The assumption was that people like me were going on emotion alone rather than the cold hard history of this type of thing in the USA.
The system rarely works for Black folk…period.
But as you say emotions are high, so as I said before, I’m going to go and hug my 16 year old nephew and hopefully try to feel better when my he’s out and about “walking” while Black
The Thin Black Duke
Can you imagine how Michael Brown’s family feels?
The Red Pen
They’re releasing some of the evidence and testimony. I’m sure that we’ll be hearing a lot about countertops.
Karen in GA
@Elizabelle: He’s not helping, is he?
Couldn't Stand the Weather
@mouse tolliver:
I remember that. She was using prescription drugs, as well, as I recall.
catatonia
I’m a white middle-aged guy and at times I get sick of the bashing of my demographic that I read on the net …
And then shit like this happens and I find it hard to get so angry about it.
Of course I’ve always been a loner and have never defined myself as a white hetero. I define myself as an insignificant nonentity of such extraordinary scope that it transcends all demographic categorizations.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
And now the “journalists” are asking questions. One of them wanted to know if any of the black jurors testified that Mike Brown was charging the officer.
This is BS.
Elizabelle
Actual reporter question: Why is it justice, this outcome?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@ItAintEazy: Yup.
The laws are such that it’s very, very difficult to prosecute police for killing people. The laws need to be changed, and people in executive positions in government that oversee police need to understand that this is no-longer acceptable in what we claim is a civilized society.
I’m not holding my breath, though.
:-(
It really is a sad day.
I assume the only hope for getting some sort of justice is via a civil suit. And I expect that to be very difficult as well. (IANAL)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
About the only possible response to shit like this.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: At some point, I probably will. But to me, multiple shots at a distance should have been enough for probable cause to take a case to trial. The rest is important for being able to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Morzer
@MomSense:
Jurors are now supposed to testify?
me
Question: Are police part of the problem? Answer: <shrug>
raven
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country: And the point of posting a page that says “Sorry, you are not authorized to see this status.” is what?
geg6
I am just so weary of this! And because I know that’s what they want me to feel, I have this simmering anger that just has me feeling like I could explode any second. I simply can’t imagine what people of color are feeling right now. I’m not at all surprised by this grand jury decision. I had no faith in McCulloch from the start and I can’t even say that it’s about Missouri, because the same kind of things happen here all the time. Maybe not as horrifying or blatantly racist, but the result is the same. The only two cases here where it was a black victim accusing cops of targeting them due to race that even had mildly satisfying outcomes happened only because the victims lived, albeit one with a brain injury and the other as a paraplegic. I should take hope in those cases, but it’s just not enough to feel justice gets done.
? Martin
From 538:
I’d say two tragedies are revealed by that statistic.
Karen in GA
“They’re not being killed with impunity.” What. The. Fucking. Fuck.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: ok
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@raven:
Gah, dammit. It was working for me before.. Let me see if I can find a non-protected version.
Betty Cracker
President Obama scheduled to speak at 10 PM, according to the MSNBC screen crawler.
raven
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country: Just wondered.
pseudonymous in nc
Impunity? Fuck me. This has been the Impunity Hour, brought to you from St Louis, Missouri and showing on repeat in far too many places.
MomSense
@Morzer:
Sorry. Black witnesses.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@raven:
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country:
Try this.
JordanRules
@Omnes Omnibus: See! And I needed that common sense reminder because I’m questioning everything I know about our system (from a IANAL but an informed citizen standpoint). Why not a trial? I just don’t get it.
Morzer
@Betty Cracker:
If the reaction to that speech is half as ugly as the reaction to his speech on Trayvon Martin, I think we are all going to see far more of America’s rancid racist underbelly than we ever wanted.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36:
If in any way I ever gave the impression that I thought that, I sincerely apologize.
raven
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country: Got it, thanks!
beltane
@? Martin: That statistic shows that it is extraordinarily easy for a prosecutor to get an indictment and that a grand jury is basically a rubber stamp for the prosecution. Perhaps it’s just time to admit that our system is fundamentally broken, an antiquated relic of the middle ages.
lamh36
@Betty Cracker: Good at least that means McCullough will shut da fuck up.
As you said though, NOTHING Obama says aside from a DOJ investigation of McCullough, Ferguson PD and STL County PD will do anything.
I can guarantee you that whatever he says will NOT be enogh.
skerry
@Betty Cracker: Wonder if the prosecutor will stop talking by then.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@rikyrah: was there some prognostication contest of whoch i was unaware?
Nice job, have a cookie!
…
Morzer
@lamh36:
I will also guarantee you that whatever he says will be too much for a large number of older white people.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
I’m gonna take a second to mention the timing of this announcement.
Three days before Thanksgiving, with inclement weather on the way for much of the Eastern seaboard.
Having said that, I truly am sick of watching shit like this. I remember far too many similar killings over the last few years. I hope the protestors in Missouri are smart. The law enforcement in the state probably needs VERY little encouragement to do something drastic at this point.
Lurking Canadian
Holy shit. People have been saying “no indictment”, but…fuck, he shot an unarmed kid in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Seriously, he doesn’t need to present a defense? Once again, my view is reinforced that any black person who goes through a day without rioting deserves a good behaviour medal.
beth
He didn’t answer the question about Wilson’s status. Is he going back on the police force?
Omnes Omnibus
The Brown family is handling this with a great deal of grace.
pseudonymous in nc
@Morzer:
You mean the ones who are the same age Emmett Till would be today?
Yeah, Faulkner was right: the past isn’t over, it’s not even past.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
My cynical answer: they didn’t bring it to trial because they knew a St. Louis jury would automatically acquit the cop and we’d be back at square one. So why not cut to the chase and not have a trial at all?
The Red Pen
KMOV reporting shots fired away from the main protests. No details.
Mnemosyne
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
Let me be the first to invite you to go fuck yourself.
Timurid
Guest commentator on CBSN is riding that prosecutor’s jock like it was a surfboard…
Elizabelle
That was the most insulting press conference I have ever seen. The contempt that prosecutor has for the community was so clear. Trust the physical evidence — you cannot believe a thing these human witnesses have to say.
lamh36
beth
MSNBC showing crowd attacking a police car. Cops respond with guns drawn. I have a bad feeling about tonight.
Omnes Omnibus
MSNBC is focusing on a small number of protestors who are fucking up a cop car, not the larger number who are doing nothing of the kind. Great.
janeform
The local anchors evidently think that it’s their job to defend the prosecutor. /no surprise.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
tell it again, lamh.
after all, we have been Black in America longer than 3 days.
Baud
@lamh36:
Must be the witnesses. They’re the worst.
SatanicPanic
So are we going to see the facts presented to them or will we have to wait for dumbass Gateway Pundit to post them on his website
pseudonymous in nc
@Elizabelle:
“Start by believing” has been the statement that’s echoed across the year. Believe women. Believe minorities. That is too hard when your position and your privilege depends on disbelief.
KG
@Uncle Ebeneezer: depends on the law in Missouri, specifically when it comes to immunity for law enforcement. It is not typically absolute, but usually there’s an early procedural process to determine if it applies
Nellie in NZ
This is being covered live here in New Zealand. The death, by police, of a 12 year old yesterday was front page news. I’m being asked if it is safe to travel to the US. Kiwis travel internationally more than most any other people, but few go to the States any more.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: I expected and sorta kinda predicted this outcome and I am outraged beyond words.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sadly, they have to, because they won’t be allowed a public expression of hurt or anger over this.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Stoking the fears of white people has been the media’s bread and butter for as long as I can remember.
mattH
blahahahaha, “of course, there’s the smell of marijuana in the air”
CNN is terrible.
pseudonymous in nc
White cops lauding it over black communities – don’t feel like you’re getting paid enough? The door has been opened for you to make a tidy profit.
MomSense
@Nellie in NZ:
If you are white, yes.
SatanicPanic
@Linnaeus: just once I’d like to see the family go “this is bullshit. fuck the grand jury and fuck all you media morons. assholes”
lamh36
@Linnaeus: exactly. the Brown family has been gracious this entire process. Same as Trayvon Martin’s family. Same as the unarmed Black kid who was killed before that. Same as before that, same as before that.
It’s cyclical. Black folk have ALWAYS have to appear “graceful” in the face of outright racism and hatred.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@? Martin: So this will be one of those “notably rare exceptions.”
Ugh….God damn America indeed…
beltane
@Nellie in NZ: While relatively unsafe compared to the rest of the developed world, the USA isn’t a terribly dangerous place for white people who at least enjoy the protection of the law.
planetjanet
One thing that puzzles me is the instructions to the jury on the law included the right of anyone in Missouri to defend himself. So, did Darren Wilson stand his ground. All he had to do was say he was afraid for his life and so he can simply kill?
Elizabelle
@Nellie in NZ:
Money talks. If enough people stop visiting Florida with Stand your Ground, and Missouri …
Kiwis rock.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Mnemosyne: whoa, bud. Apologies if i crossed a line or offended you, seriously. I would like to know what i have done to warrent the salutation.
…
Debbie
How quickly can the family file a lawsuit against Wilson?
Elizabelle
PBO asking for “peaceful protests. To repeat Michael Brown’s father’s words:
Hurting others or destroying property is not the answer. No matter what the GJ decides” … he wants his son’s death to lead to change, not to be remembered for riots.
Omnes Omnibus
Obama basically said the Grand Jury result was fucked up.
Comrade Luke
If you’re not white, you’re missing out, because this shit is THOROUGHLY good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87LGmm1M5Is
catatonia
@mattH:
well that would be a good thing to calm people down, n’ces pas?
Course, the hulking negro has THC in his system when he dared to walk down the street in front of the Heroic Darren. Or at least that’s the last I read….
Meanwhile, this looks like it could get ugly in MO. Or maybe that’s just selective media coverage, even MSNBC. Maybe it should get ugly. Or maybe that would be counterproductive. I don’t know.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: He is a wise man. He is right, too.
SatanicPanic
@skerry: oh that’s awful.
Morzer
Well, today showed us yet again that the white police still have their concerned citizens charter to murder with impunity. The same charter that enables white men to stand their ground wherever the racist bastards feel like it.
Heckuva job, Neoconfederates.
The delighted squealing from the GOP trollarium is going to be something to behold.
Belefon
@Nashville_fan:
According to my mom, they could have gotten together to work on their story.
beltane
@efgoldman: I’m like you. Most of this country carries a travel advisory as far as I’m concerned. There is nothing out there I want to see that’s worth being surrounded by hateful heavily armed lunatics.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I might, but I believe the sheer number of shots fired would suffice as probable cause to indict, and that’s what I would have argued when I was a prosecutor, no matter how unpopular it would have made me with local LEOs. In fact, I told them as much in a similar police shooting here. Unarmed male black, fatally shot. I was not presenting to the grand jury, since I worked for a different office, and a special prosecutor was hired for the misdemeanor trail. It was 14 years ago and I can’t recall if the county engaged a special prosecutor to present.
Belafon
Try again:
@Nashville_fan:
According to my mom, they could have gotten together to work on their story.
Tree With Water
“..The laws are such that it’s very, very difficult to prosecute police for killing people. The laws need to be changed..”.
Yup. For starters, an automatic review by a constituted federal authority of any-and-all police shootings anywhere in the country could and should be instituted.
For the love of God, motherhood, and apple pies, we’re talking about a state that recently enshrined Rush Limbaugh in it’s official pantheon of great Missourians.
raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Ya’ll are the lawyers not me.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@efgoldman: ok, have a cookie must have a meaning i was unaware of, and black dude here, and snark metering needs adjustmemt and apparently i am unaware of some internet traditions.
Click my handle will take you to sadly no and my preperatory post for this frustration. Again, midwestern black male writing here.
…
rikyrah
@lamh36:
dropping all kinds of truths tonight, lamh.
Morzer
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
There’s a time to snark at individual people and a time not to snark.
Think about it, please.
mattH
@catatonia: See, that’s the deal, I know MJ mellows you out, and the pissed off angry people he was reporting on aren’t smoking it, but god, he just HAD to point that out right after he talked about the “rioters”, the only context and pretext he had to mention it. It was almost a throwaway line, tossed in just before they went to the President’s address, but he HAD to fit it in before they left him. Aka “they are all just damn dirty lawbreakers, what do you expect”.
Elizabelle
Mr. Cole has a fresh thread up.
Mike in NC
@Nellie in NZ: Our next door neighbors have very good friends in NZ. They’re planning to meet up with them in Italy in March for a cruise, sort of splitting the difference as it were. We met quite a few nice people from Australia and New Zealand on our recent Baltic Sea cruise, and they generally need to take 3-4 weeks off due to the distances involved.
p.a.
Pissed about the non-indictment,and pissed because the non-indictment was so predictable. People will say the cops are getting out of control, but for minorities I’m not sure conditions are any worse than in the past; thanks to new media we’re just more aware of how minorities have always fared when faced with state power.
catatonia
I’m glad we’ve got a black guy as president right now. I’ve never been glad that Obama’s president because he’s black; I was glad he was president because he’d goddamn smart and decent and well-rounded and not a goddamn phony. But I hate that I have to say I’m glad Obama’s president tonight because he’s of color. That fucking shouldn’t matter. But it does, not because of the KKK or even the Beauregard Sessions of the world. It’s because of the McCullochs of the world
Mnemosyne
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
It sounded like you were mocking rikyrah, who is a popular commenter around here. It came across particularly badly since rikyrah is herself black.
Mike in NC
@Tree With Water: Limbaugh is the greatest maggot to ever wiggle out of Cape Giraudeau.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Morzer: so commenting on a person triumphant that he or she was right all along about this outcome, in what i thought a childish fashion is beyond the pale?
Check.
Being told to fuck oneself on the one hand and told to totter off to a racist enclave because i am a racist is hunky dory?
Check.
I will think about it.
…
catatonia
@mattH:
oh, I know that… the media meme is the darkies are smoking it up and since they’re uncivilized generally, if you mix in weed with the aboriginal, then you get either a) masses of rapacious rioters (whenever there’s politics involved) or b) ignorant layabout libertines (if its economics)
Mnemosyne
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
So I’m guessing that you thought there would be a different outcome, since it was “childish” for a black woman to say that she had been telling us for months that this would be the outcome?
DanR2
Burn st. louis to the ground. No great loss.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@Mnemosyne: was unaware of the race of the original commenter, though was aprised of the race of the person to whom she referred.
I retract any previous sugestion of childish behavior on her part and retract the original comment altogether with apologies to any offended.
Looks like i stepped inadvertantly into a pile…
ItAintEazy
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™: Now that you have the context, read your comment again, and see if you don’t vomit a little.
Edit:
All right, I take back this comment too.
Morzer
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
You really don’t know rikyrah if you think she was being triumphant. You screwed up, which happens. Now do the decent thing and stop making excuses for the screw up.
dance around in your bones
@mtiffany:
I thought you said Jesus lap dancing christ and that made laugh. And, of course Michael Brown shot himself – he was blackity blackity blackiyt black, no?
You never know WHAT those people are going to get up to!
/snark off
Cpl Cam
@Baud: They are awful and when you couple that with the countless black men who have spent their entire adult lives behind bars based on eye witness “accounts” well, the rage engulfing Ferguson now is rather understandable…
Mnemosyne
@Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™:
Here’s the problem sometimes with jumping in on an unfamiliar website: rikyrah is the one who brings stories from the black blogosphere over to this blog, where most of us white folks would otherwise be unfamiliar with the stories because they don’t generally make it into the MSM. She has been attacked for this in the past by racist assholes. When you jumped in the way you did, it sounded like you were yet another of those racist assholes popping up to attack her once again (when John banhammers them, they usually pop up a few months later under a new nym). So people responded accordingly, which I can now see probably seemed really strange and out of proportion to someone who didn’t know that history and thought he was just snarking.
We all live and learn.