A demonstrator raises his hands in front of of a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 11, two days after Michael Brown was shot and killed. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
Ferguson is on fire and the situation was clearly avoidable. Looking at the scenes on TV it’s easy to blame everyone and explain away the chaos as racial unrest. This is not the case. Although there may be racial elements in play, an examination of the facts tells a different story.
The truth is rarely obvious, and often a step back from the scene can get people to see the forest for the trees. A couple of things to note about the sad situation in Ferguson:
1. A store owner was the victim of “strong-arm” robbery who was clearly outmatched physically. The store owner had no defense other than the police who apparently were not coming quickly. If the owner had a gun and defended himself, then none of this would be happening and, furthermore, the police did not stop any crime from originally happening. Most people would be hailing him as a hero.
2. While the store owner did the right thing and called the cops (according to leftists) and allowed the police to handle it, they clearly did not. For his trouble, the store owner was then looted again a few nights later which the police were both unable to stop or prevent. So far the suspects are all still at large. Owners who defended their property by arming themselves — both in Ferguson and 20 years ago in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots — were untouched. No retaliation has been taken against those store owners by the mobs. It should be noted that some gun owners in LA after the riots were charged with weapons violations. No looters or rioters were. It remains to be seen who will be charged with what in the aftermath of Ferguson.
3. Clearly, the local population’s relationship with the heavily armed police is what led to this sad state of affairs. Had police been lightly armed and not been using deadly force with regularity in Ferguson, then the situation might not have been explosive. Store owners and other townspeople who are heavily armed were not seen at the riots, nor did they use such weaponry against the police. Rather, it was mostly homemade weaponry that was ineffectively used by the rioters. The townspeople who were armed used their guns for defense — not against the local police, nor to rob their fellow-citizens.
4. Although some people have been arrested, the looting and rioting have not stopped nor have they lessened, despite extensive hi-tech gear like armored vehicles and sonic artillery. None of it has proven effective in Ferguson and, in fact, may be contributing to the tension at the heart of the violence. No justice has been carried for either injured party on both sides. However, this gear has proven very effective in killing people in cases where citizens have armed themselves legally and barricaded themselves inside homes against the police. This is the complete opposite of how we are told this gear is intended to be used.
5. The situation in Ferguson is based on a lie. The autopsy clearly shows medium to close range impacts from a police revolver as Brown was hunched or stooped over the policeman– not in the back as multiple eyewitnesses reported. The officer was also injured from a blow or blows by the perpetrator and, therefore, Brown’s death was likely the result of a justifiable shooting. The media have repeatedly shown videos and eyewitness accounts expanding on this lie, but not on the officer’s behalf. They have shown Brown allegedly manhandling the clerk, but emphasized in reports the officer in question was not responding to any call, nor did he know Brown was even a suspect. Who was? Why wasn’t he? Did the police just not care? Or, are there so many police in Ferguson that there was no need to care, as someone else was handling the case? Note that the officer was able to handle the situation with nothing more than a service revolver.
People should be aware that while the arming and expansion of police forces in this nation has made cursory sense, a careful analysis of the problem will show it to be a false narrative. The police cannot protect you, are slow to dispense justice, and more typically will use this paramilitary, “non-lethal” gear in non-life threatening situations where more often than not, it is deadly to the target. Arming yourself, however, is very effective, defuses situations and removes both a financial and social burden from society. As shown in this case, it is not the source of crime or unrest.
While the police are not guilty of any crime here, we should be aware of the many causes of rioting, looting, civil unrest and the dangers of militarizing the police forces of this nation.
We should examine this from a position of intellectual clarity and not emotion or bias.
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Any cop will tell their children: "Do NOT aspire to be a policeman; it's a crap job, dealing with crap people (many of whom are fellow cops), and it's very difficult to hire 'good cops' for the salaries offered. Those cops that don't come into the job with a chip on their shoulder will eventually develop one from working with the people they must try to control."
And anyone will advise: 'don't mess with someone carrying a gun, unless you have one too.'
That applies in this case, and certainly applied to the Oscar Grant shooting in Oakland CA, where he was shot while face down, refusing to put his hands behind his back... and the officer carried two arms, one a gun, and the other an gun-shaped taser. You would think dear Oscar was a 'total innocent' in this case, but this was only the second time that Oscar had angered police to the point of them having to tase him into submission; he got off on angering police, and picked a dumb armed cop the second, and last time to mess with.
As for riots: there are organized groups that follow 1970's anti-american tool of attempting to: a) Create distrust in the American Political System (which at this point is REALLY easy to do), b) Create distrust in the Police; c) Fill the courts with as many cases as possible, and d) Create as many Photo-Ops and testimony's as possible that support a) and b). The most popular of these groups (an extension of the 70's Irananian Student Organization) is called RuckusSociety.org. (But if you visit their site, the NSA will be on you like glue... welcome to the new Amerika).