Comments

1
If they leave too quickly they'll probably be shot for "suspicious behavior"
2
Do it, Anonymous.
3
This is out of control. It just keeps getting worse. It's making me sick to my stomach. These play-acting fake-soldier cops are so far in over their head it's unbelievable, but no one can make them stop.
4
It's always a problem when the police become the enemy. I hope somebody has a clear head.
5
Maybe the National Guard can be sent in to disarm the local militias that are terrorizing citizens.
6
Time to fire the entire fucking police department and start over.
8
Anna, you missed the bit where the arresting officer growls to the reporters, whom he assaulted, that the police chief was "doing them a favor."

Not really understanding how assaulting a credentialed reporter, especially one whose made several trips to Guantanamo without incident, is "a favor", but I'm not a Missouri cop.
7
Can we have some discussion about this aside from the "MILITARIZATION OF POLICE CITIZEN YOU ARE NOW THE ENEMY" circlejerk? Like you know, if this is even legal or not?
9
@8 It's not. Discuss?
10
@ 7, link?
11

"The chief thought he was doing you a favor" - police officer tells me about release. With no charges, no police report

— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014

12
Thanks. Fuckers.
14
Annndddd now we've reached the stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets being shot into the crowd stage.
15
How is this not like Apartheid South Africa where police would brutalize Black protesters for not dispersing quickly enough? This is disgusting.
16
This is disgusting. Luckily, the reporters were eventually accorded a slim margin of protection due to their profession. Though I'd sure like to know what crime they'd committed while on the premises of a private establishment that was not disputing their right to eat and use the recharging/wifi facilities. If we can accept the Chief's responses at face value, then he's lost control. And that's a terrifying prospect of worse things to come.
18
Private property?

Like the private property of the US citizens home the police fired tear gas into?

Like that?

Corporations aren't Citizens

Or People

Or Taxpayers
19
#17: not quite. The police don't have a duty to arrest until a crime is being committed. It's not "the managers wanted them out", but "the managers wanted them out and gave them notice that they needed to go and were trespassing." People on the premises of an open, public establishment can't get bounced out by cops just because the manager tells the cops to do it. Given that these are reporters, I'll give the reporters the benefit of the doubt that if the manager had given such an instruction, they'd have mentioned it.
20
Curious how all those 2nd amendment supporters aren't out there fighting literal jackbooted tyranny.
21
Well, they were outside agitators. What did they expect?
22
This whole police force needs to be fired immediately.
23
@21 What exactly are reporters from well-known newspapers agitating from inside a McDonald's? (Besides their cholesterol count).
24
sorry if this sounds insensitive but I really hope that the cop turns out to be black. This will help to define the real emerging issue here; the state itself. [not white men trading things]
26
@23 - I think that @21 neglected to use his/her snark font, I don't think it was a serious rwnj response.
27
@20- I suspect you know the answer: The skin color of the victims.
29
@24 I think I've seen maybe one or two black officers in any of the photos so far. And by all accounts Ferguson is a place where blacks are highly disenfranchised.

@28: NPR had an interview earlier with the lone black county council member and she was asked about the Chief's refusal to name the officer. She said it was no secret to those in the community and that he had a reputation as an asshole who jacked people up. No mention of race, but I think you're right.
30
Lowery has filed his report. I couldn't tell for sure in the Twitter avatar, but googling him reveals that he's black (he was roughed up).

@23
According to Lowery's report, journalists have using that McDonald's as a staging area.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i…
31
Too much noise, too many agendas, too many battle-stations talking points, too many narratives, too many blog posts, too many strawmen, but too few facts.
32
@31 - "too few facts"

That's what ya get for watching Fox, darlin.
33
Missouri? The location speaks for itself. The republican voter base lives there, need I say more? This is where the country is headed if we let ANY republican get into office.
34
@24, Ferguson has three black officers out of 54, in a village that's 70% black.

These cops are obviously stuck in a situation they have no ideas about, oversupplied with military garbage they have no idea how to use, no de-escalation training, no nothing. See a guy in the street with "attitude", the only thing they can think of is to shoot and kill him. Now, they've got a problem, and the only thing they can think of is ways to make it worse.

This is a town of 20,000 people, remember -- smaller than Mercer Island. If only Missouri was a real state, and could send someone in who knew something, anything, about angry crowd control.

This is going to keep getting worse, just watch. More people are going to die. Fucking disaster.
35
@31 yeah you're right there are too few facts at the moment to dissect what has/is happening in Ferguson MO. However there is one glaring known FACT this is day 4 and the situation is escalating not deescalating. That is a failure of both the Police and local Government.
36
@32: By and large, all major news outlets get the same facts about developing news stories and report them, whether it be ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, or, yes, even the FNC. All of their newsrooms monitor wire services, other networks, and utilize their own news gathering infrastructure. Essentially, you cam review all major news outlets to get an overview of the facts. Some might have more than others at any particular time. Then zero in on the opinion pages of your favorites to tickle your preferred dispositions. Got it?
37
per St Louis Post Dispatch:

"St. Louis City Alderman Antonio French was among about 10 people arrested Wednesday night."

and:

"Late Wednesday night, Brian Fallon, director of the public affairs office for the U.S. Department of Justice, tweeted his support for the two detained reporters. "DOJ is lucky to have a gutsy reporter like (Ryan Reilly) on our beat. We knew that even before tonight. Glad he and (Wesley Lowery) are okay." Fallon's Twitter profile announces: "Opinions are my own.""

Fnarf is right, this is a department (Ferguson) and an area (St. Louis) that is in totally over their head. They don't have a clue about what they're doing and as long as they're in control the situation will only get worse.

Time for Obama/DOJ to remove local law enforcement from the job.
38
@34 hmmm @31 as well.

This caught my eye.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/…

The map and stats... seems to me we've been here before and will be here again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GkdY5_6…

39
It's been interesting following some of the Twitter compilations of veterans watching this, noting that the cops are better equipped and have more on their persons than the vets ever did in Iraq or Afghanistan.
40
@36- by and large, all major news outlets obfuscate and hide the same facts in obeisance to the agenda(s) of their employers, whether it be ABC, NBC, FAUX, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc.
Essentially you can ignore all major US news outlets and get an overview of the facts from European media, Al Jazeera and Democracy Now.
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver are also helpful in discerning some truth from the media chaff.
41
Help! It's the police!
42
@40 - They fall under etc.
43
Boycott stupid McDonald's#
44
@34 How many of these cops have done tours in Iraq/Afghanistan in their 20's?

We're bringing home a lot of guys who grew up on "shoot everything" games, became "men" by going house-to-house looking for bad people to shoot, then come "home" to jobs that allow them to keep the same mentality. (They aren't getting jobs outside law enforcement and private security.) We've raised an entire generation of sociopathic jackbooters, and there's nowhere left to send them but Main Street USA.
45
Honestly, I think cops doing this crap has ALWAYS happened, its not any worse today. What we do have is Twitter, Cell Phones, and technology to actually RECORD the systematic racism and civil rights violations.

Oh, and someone above said the entire police force needs to be fired. I disagree. I think the entire police force needs to be put on trial for criminal assault and individual police officers need to be put on trial for murder, manslaughter, false arrest, etc.
46
Can't the federal government intervene? Can't the president fucking shut this down? I don't understand how this is happening.
47
@20 exactly. This is exactly the sort of tyrannical government action you hear as justification for the 2nd amendment. What is happening in Ferguson pretty much proves that argument to be null when you're up against well-armed police.
48
Another small voice seconding rejemy's ( @20 ) Second Amendment comment:

"Curious how all those 2nd amendment supporters aren't out there fighting literal jackbooted tyranny."

Also, @39, Chris B, I hadn't seen those. That's interesting.

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