Thursday, March 12, 2015

Police shot in the face in Ferguson (video)

Police state uses pretext of shooting to clampdown on all civil liberties and expression (AP).


Eyewitness to Ferguson police shooting: gunfire did not come from area of peaceful demonstration
Police state: Fergistan
Two police officers have been shot -- one in the face -- during a peaceful demonstration outside the Ferguson police headquarters early this morning. Both of the wounded officers have serious injuries. The shooting came just hours after Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson quit following last week’s Justice Department reports (headed by corporate-friendly black Attorney General Eric Holder) reports finding widespread racial bias in the city’s criminal justice system.

"Black Lives Matter" banner seen during recent Ferguson, Missouri demonstration, with law professor and author Michelle Alexander inset (democracynow.org. 3-12-15).
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Disgraced Jackson is the sixth corrupt Ferguson official to be forced out in the wake of the report, including the city manager and the top municipal judge. Democracy Now! is joined from Ferguson by Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, who witnessed last night’s shooting and Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is part of the Ferguson Legal Defense Committee. More
Institutional "racism" in Ferguson?

Michelle Alexander
The U.S. [in-]Justice Department [DOJ or "dodge" for dodging its duties] has concluded that the police and city courts in Ferguson, Missouri, routinely engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against African Americans. Despite comprising about 66 percent of the local population, African-Americans accounted for:
  • 93 percent of arrests,
  • 88 percent of incidents where force was used,
  • 90 percent of citations, and
  • 85 percent of traffic stops.
The New Jim Crow (newjimcrow.com)
The DOJ, which launched its report after the police killing of unarmed teen Michael Brown, also uncovered at least three municipal Ferguson emails containing racist language or images.

"The report does not give me hope. What gives me hope is that people across America are finally waking up," says Dr. Michelle Alexander, author of the best-selling book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
 
The militarization of U.S. police (rall.com)
"There is a system of racial and social control in communities of color across America.… What we see now is that we do have the power to make things change. The question is are we going to transition from protest politics to long-term, strategic movement building?” More
 
UC Berkeley vandalism at anti-Ferguson police brutality student demonstration (AP).

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