It’s a dramatic illustration of law enforcement attempting to subvert the emerging narrative of Black youth energized and engaged, flooding the streets of this country in demonstrative displays of their anger. The multiracial “die-ins” and marches across the country had largely erased from the public’s mind the images of riots and lawlessness that were sparked by the grand jury’s decision on Nov. 24.
But from the St. Louis police we get a reminder: They’re not politicized young people fiercely exercising their first amendment rights; they’re just criminals and thugs stealing stuff.
The video of the looters, in addition to nearly 200 images of their faces, was big news on Fox News and the Sean Hannity Show, where he interviewed the store owner.
Meanwhile, as most observers expected, the U.S. Justice Department will not be bringing civil rights charges against officer Wilson for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown, according to a story in the New York Times quoting anonymous law enforcement officials. Though the recommendations of the Justice Department lawyers who were investigating the shooting still must be accepted by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, the lawyers will be reporting to him that there’s not enough evidence to bring civil rights charges against Wilson.
To bring federal civil rights charges would require proving that Wilson willfully intended to violate Brown’s rights when he opened fire—meaning he knew that it was wrong to fire but did so anyway.
The Justice Department is still probing the entire Ferguson Police Department to see if officers are violating the civil rights of Black residents with discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force. That investigation could lead to the kind of large-scale changes the Justice Department is mandating in places like Cleveland and Albuquerque.
There are currently more than 20 such police department civil rights investigations nationwide, according to the Times.
St. Louis County Police have released other surveillance videos in recent weeks but still haven’t made any arrests—though they claim to have positively identified six suspects from video of a gas station and a liquor store being looted.
The video released yesterday shows a huge crowd of people flooding in and out of the Dellwood Market on Chambers Road. The police also released nearly 200 pictures of looters, with arrows helpfully pointed to any faces that are visible.
Shawn McGuire, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department, told USA Today the suspects identified in the video are wanted for questioning and will be taken into custody if they come into contact with police.
So it’s not enough of a priority for the police to go looking for them—they’ll be arrested if police happen to stumble across them—which is further evidence that the videos are serving a larger purpose of propagating the department’s narrative of the criminality of these Black youth.
“We really want to take the time for the public to look at each video each week,” McGuire said. “We are giving every business an opportunity for the public to help them and to help us.”
The police posted the video on Facebook and YouTube.
No job, heavily ticketed, shunned, victimized, criminalized, despised, murdered…… all because of the color of your skin.
Sounds to me like your human and civil rights have been LOOTED, already.
Thieves are always the first ones to call others, 'thieves'.
So what do you call people who enter a privately owned, locked building by force and make off with someone else's private property? Good Samaritans?
They don't own the earth. Perception is all they can use now. The need for a scapegoat is real. A collapsed economy existing this way is fuel for the fire.
Good thing that progressive rent-a-mob looters are adverse to actual video footage showing criminals in their midst.
By the way…did a single one your "social justice" looters, I mean protesters…ever once stop by the convenience store which Michael Brown robbed and then your rent-a-mobs looted after the Grand Jury verdict….then attempted to burn to the ground…….to say sorry?
We know that Obama, nor Al Sharpton nor Eric Holder have no idea of the name of the only real victim in this fiasco…..and neither did ANY of your rent-a-mob.
If you do not want to be thought of as criminals and looters…….don't act like criminals and looters.
Uh, these thugs (yes, thugs) were decidedly NOT protesting anything, nor was there anything noble about their actions. They busted through a wall on somebody else's property and stole things which were not theirs. Period.
I'm a life-long white guy and yes, a Republican, but have said for years that police need oversight. While I believe that the overwhelming majority are honorable men and women who seek to indeed serve and protect, there are some for whom the John Wayne Syndrome is in full swing. It is also evident that in order to protect police in general, police will protect ANY policeman/woman and cover-up wrong behavior. Organizations that police themselves do it poorly. Look at lawyers and doctors…
I'd like to see a civilian review board in every community that looks at every claim against the police. Not to act like a "gotcha crew", but to keep an independent eye on them. Just like locks keep honest people honest, a board like this will keep good cops from getting stupid and can be used to weed out the bad ones, those who think they are above the law, or harass others without cause.
Now about locks keeping honest people honest, anybody who looks at this video and claims these idiot thieves were anything other than that is too busy twisting reality around to fit an agenda to engage in a rational discussion. If that's you, you've already ignored this, and probably anything else that you don't like. Boo hoo.
Cecil Max-George Excuses, sir. And that, I'm afraid is part of the problem that is too taboo to admit. Not all of it, maybe not most of it, but indeed an important part.
"It’s a dramatic illustration of law enforcement attempting to subvert the emerging narrative of Black youth energized and engaged, flooding the streets of this country in demonstrative displays of their anger."
Ah yes, the TRUTH is a bad thing that should be suppressed, and you as a part of the media believe suppressing the truth to promote the narrative is a good thing?
So you're openly saying you think lying to the people is good, letting the people have any truth is bad, and you're opposed to factual information.
Well that's all I needed to know about you. Nick Chiles, against the truth, for lies that he wants to spread. I guess this is what journalism has come to.
Hermann Munster I prefer the term, 'Robin Hoods' – they take from racist thieves, like you, to feed themselves and their families.
Besides, the, 'property' is insured.
Try growing up.
“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”.
― Booker T. Washington
The writer seems happy that the "die-ins" and protests "had largely erased from the public’s mind the images of riots and lawlessness that were sparked by the grand jury’s decision on Nov. 24." But why should anybody be happy when truth is concealed. Yes, there are people protesting peacefully around the country (or were, until the weather got cold). But there also were looters. We need all of the story to be told – the protests and the riots – and none of it "erased" just because it doesn't fit your political agenda.
The riots happened. The people in this video used the grand jury decision as a pretext to destroy buildings and steal stuff. They do not deserve to have this history erased.
Persecuting the so-called looters is a mere pretext to generate municipal revenue to accumulate funding for the massive lawsuit that will hit Ferguson for the terrorist execution of Mike Brown by the police state of Ferguson… For anyone who feel so-called looters are thugs and criminals, you should ask yourselves what these businesses in that deprived community do to help elevate the infrastructure or the economic stability of that community? What did they do to provide employment opportunities for the residents of Ferguson? What sort of respect did the business owners there have for the people in that community? Did their business help to improve the streets? Did they raise the property value of that community by operating honorable and respectable services? Ask yourself why would anyone want to loot or rob a business where they are employed and are receiving a living wage? if you can't answer any of these question, just STFU and research the dynamics that compel people to do the things they do.
To Chris Bracco: Bravo on your first paragraph. Those videos were released to identify criminal thugs. Any attempt to explain away their actions by the lamestream media is just more PC propaganda.
As for your suggestion on independent review: I personally know of one officer who has as "incident file" of negative interactions and complaints that's thick as a phone book. Police already keep tabs on officers via Internal Affairs departments, and the officer I referred to is now relegated to a desk job. Adding yet another layer of "civilian oversight" will do more harm, especially in black neighborhoods, because police will simply be more hesitant to make arrests, criminals will run (more) rampant, and peaceful, hard-working blacks will be the ones to suffer. It's already happening: read the blog fredoneverything.com, especially his section on cop articles, to see what I mean.
We have got to find a way to protect the White Community from the violence and thuggery of Blacks rampaging through our country. Maybe some kind of Persons of Whiteness Only areas where Whites can live and shop without the distress of Black dysfunction and chaos?
They risked their own investments to actually GO into those hell-hole communities in the first place and open businesses. You people are amazing. If businesses decide NOT to open in a sketchy neighborhood, they're called "racists" and blacks bitch and moan about living in a "food desert", yet if they DO decide to risk their money (and their lives) by opening a business in the ghetto, then they're "not doing enough for the community". The "dynamics" that compel people to "do the things they do" is called deeply-ingrained DNA, lack of impulse control, and low IQ.. It's one thing for them to go looting diapers and formula, but quite another to loot alcohol, cigarettes, Air Jordans, and wide screen TV's. That's not "need", it's GREED.
I actually taught in an inner-city school years ago, and can appreciate the risk those business owners take every single day. I bought beautiful, plentiful materials for my very first class: lots of art stuff, comfy beanbag chairs, rugs, and lamps, books for the reading corner, posters for the walls. Within TWO WEEKS, it was all vandalized, broken, ripped up, scribbled on, destroyed. I provided in good faith, and they promptly set out to ruin it all. Why? Because they COULD. I saw many, many such incidents in my years there, yet liberal politicians keep blabbering about "putting more money in" to those schools. They're crappy schools not because of a lack of funds, but because blight and destruction follows them wherever they go. Name ONE SINGLE safe, clean, successful majority-Black country or community ANYWHERE. They don't exist, because blacks as a group refuse to rise above their base impulses, then blame others for messes of their own making. Those students avoided any kind of work like the plague, and delighted in yelling, laughing like hyenas, and fighting. One of my former students is now serving a life sentence for shooting his drug dealer. A "living wage"? Give me a break. We HAVE "done our research", many of us by first-hand experience, and we're sick of being lectured about how everything is our fault, our responsibility, and never enough. Take your own advice, STFU, and tell those young people to quit screwing around in school, learn something, and then EARN a "living wage" THEMSELVES, although I can't imagine what employer is excited to hire someone named LaQuin'atta, Bunshellda, or Shitavious. You don't like it here? Go somewhere else. You want "a piece of this land", as Farrakhan says? Fine. We'll be happy to hand over 13% of America's land for your 13% of the population. It would be all yours to run how you like. Then you can quit your bellyaching, and will have no one else to blame when it, too, turns into another Detroit, Camden, Gary, or Baltimore (but I'm sure the Eternal Grievance Committee will find a way to blame us for THAT failure as well). White America owes Blacks nothing.
Video be rayciss, gnome sane.
If this is how the black intelligentsia react to what was a clear case of vandalism and looting — justifying it as legitimate expression — then no wonder black neighborhoods are dangerous places to be — even for blackfolk.
If this is how the black intelligentsia react to what was a clear case of vandalism and looting — justifying it as legitimate expression — then no wonder black neighborhoods are dangerous places to be — even for blackfolk.
Bwire Vincent I prefer the terms thieves, looters, vandals, arsonists. More than half of the businesses destroyed in Ferguson belonged to blacks, and no business deserved the damages it got — especially the convenience store that "Gentle Giant" robbed. These people fed their families, so to speak, using other people's stuff. The Bible has a whole set of rules about that kind of behavior, under the headings "coveting" and "stealing".
Bwire Vincent I prefer the terms thieves, looters, vandals, arsonists. More than half of the businesses destroyed in Ferguson belonged to blacks, and no business deserved the damages it got — especially the convenience store that "Gentle Giant" robbed. These people fed their families, so to speak, using other people's stuff. The Bible has a whole set of rules about that kind of behavior, under the headings "coveting" and "stealing".
Imagine how many Whites will go flat broke overnight, if racism was to end. Now, imagine a system that thrives on the business of racism…
That quote only addresses the small fish, and diverts attention from the big picture.
If by, 'our country', you mean the U.S, you are a pathetic idiot.
You are the only race that can never live side by side with other races, yet, you think you are can speak for all the other races.
See how stupid you are?
These morons never cease to amaze me.
Doesn't matter now what the business of ferguson did to help the infrastructure( whatever that means) previously. They will not return
Whether they return or not, who gives a damn. I they weren't helping that community grow or they weren't benefitting the residents of that community in no way other than taking their money out of their community and never putting a dime back into it, WTF.
what do your friends want, "dead cops"! you're a perfect example of stupid is, as stupid does!
how much did you take?
Big picture, idiot. Focus— focus. Keep up with the thread.
Looting ain't a civil right.
It's a civil wrong.
Also, straight out violates one of the Bible's Ten Commandments.
Another one is adultery.
Since the illegitimacy rate in the American Black Community is over 70%, some black folks are also committing adultery.
Go sleep it off, wino.
Bwire Vincent Well, it's just that White people are the founding and traditional demographic of America and preference and considerations should be made?
Bwire VincentShe wasn't speaking for anybody. She was speaking about black ghettos, which she's perfectly entitled to do. Since black crime affects everyone, everyone gets to have an opinion about it. See how that works?
Do you really not know the difference between 'persecuting' and 'prosecuting', or is that just some glib wordplay?
Mstr Rick Railey I forgot; white people discovered all the continents of the world…
What an imbecile you are.
Bwire Vincent Sean Hannity was mentioned in the above article. If he had nothing to report he'd probably go back to his old job, construction or contracting, I forget which. So what did Rev Al Sharpton do for a living prior to Tawana Brawley? Nothing? How's he going to pay that $4.5 mil he owes in back taxes?
"It’s a dramatic illustration of law enforcement attempting to subvert the emerging narrative of Black youth energized and engaged, flooding the streets of this country in demonstrative displays of their anger." Make that false narrative. The police chief sharing the convenience store footage of St. Michael probably saved heroic officer Darren Wilson much more misery and needless suffering. It simply appears some are being judged on "the content of their character" and it's not looking good. It's time for blacks to clean up their thug culture and join the human race. Whites have made their move, it's your turn.
"…this problem can be solved and solved forever just by sending our people back to our own homeland or back to our own people, but that this government should provide the transportation plus everything else we need to get started again in our own country. This government should give us everything we need in the form of machinery, material, and finance-enough to last for twenty to twenty-five years until we can become an independent people and an independent nation in our own land. He says that if the American government is afraid to send us back to our own country and to our own people, then America should set aside some separated territory right here in the Western hemisphere where the two races can live apart from each other, since we certainly don't get along peacefully while we are together." – Malcolm X
Negro logic is quite entertaining.
Bwire Vincent Ok, first thing, back off. Look at who commits violent crimes. If you want to sort by race, and I do NOT, the one near the bottom of that list would be caucasians. But of those that do, against whom are they committing these crimes? Ain't blacks. White-on-black (violent) crime is near el zippo. Black-on-black crime is rampant (a "not to be discussed" topic, apparently), and black-on-white crime is way out of whack with the demographic proportions. Let's keep this to the topic at hand, cops and the black community, eh?
Nancy Groff Slagle – thanks for that, but I can have rooms of file cabinets stuffed with binders full of reported issues, but if they are never acted upon, the message is heard loud and clear, "We, as cops, need never worry about acting above the law."
There is no group which effectively self-police. Any of them need an independent review board to at least look at complaints coming in and make sure that actions taken are, at least in the aggregate, have a realistic correspondence. One-to-one? No, of course not. Most complaints are probably spurious, and too high a rate of (re)action would only encourage that.
What keeps people from robbing banks? I mean, that's where the money is. Among other factors is deterrence. The very same principle would keep good cops from crossing a line they might otherwise cross if they knew (as they do now) that whatever action taken, if any, would be for show with very little effect.
I admit the danger of these review boards running amok is high. The keys would be wise guidelines on their makeup, strictly observed, with the power of a veto of any action(s) made/recommended. But that must also be made with a high degree of transparency, mandated by those same guidelines.
RRailey- Please tell me you are being sarcastic. Otherwise your views have no place in a civil discussion.
Chris Bracco Only idiots buy that, 'Blacks commit violent crimes' BS.
It reminds me of one of Richard Pryor's 'jokes', about Arizona having the Blackest prisons, despite being the whitest state, back in those days.
I don't know how old you are, but your reasoning is outdated; stop relying on crap that has been handed down to you by your racist forefathers. Most of your baby boomers were raised by Black women, because your so called, 'mothers', were busy out there, doing nothing.
Your race lacks mental maturity, suffer from inborn ADHD, are paranoid, in denial and possess a kind of inferiority complex that drives you to mock other races and cultures, to make you feel relevant; your kids are way smarter than you, until you plant the seed of hatred in their hearts.
See how your sissy boy, Georgie Zimmerman, now as we speak, is laughing at you, as he pees in your faces, while showing you his middle finger and pointing the guns you so 'generously donated' to him. to your women?
As far as I am concerned, your laws were not made with the Black man in mind – he was still a slave, remember? Which means, it's illegal, for you to use those same laws to accost, or apprehend him. So, spare that, 'thug' stupidity for your white audience.
You want to focus your attention on, 'Cops' and 'First 48', but turn a blind eye on the elephant, which is, 'American Greed', it's your problem and funeral.
Yes, I still stand by my assertion. Good luck with your binders.
Hurri Cane Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and their likes, may not be necessarily be racist, but they make millions off racist fools.
I have my own reasons for not liking Al Sharpton, but I hate it, when a non Black tries to tell me that the guy is bad for me. Keep your white opinions to your white selves; they are not practical in the world you know nothing about.
Bwire Vincent who said I was white? http://allenbwest.com/2015/01/tacitly-condoning-ferguson-looting-activists-now-upset-video-showing-actual-looting-video/
So Malcolm X once said this. So what?
American Blacks ain't going to go back to Africa or to Haiti. Why would they?
For every one Black American who agrees to go back to Africa, over 1,000.000 Black Africans will try to come to the United States.
Do you think regular,ar Black Africans want to stay in a place with Ebola? No sanitation? Black Africans and Black Americans might have lower IQs than Whites but they ain't stupid . We are stupid.