Missouri lawmakers filed more than sixty bills inspired by last year’s protests, but only court reform passed into law, according to an Associated Press analysis. One of the bills that failed to move through the statehouse sought to make Missouri’s use-of-force laws compliant with a 1985 US Supreme Court decision. Other bills would have made body cameras mandatory and require special prosecutors to investigate officer-involved shootings. Last year, activists accused county prosecutor Bob McCulloch of being too close to law enforcement to objectively handle Wilson’s case.

Furthermore, the Washington Post reports that:

So far this year, 24 unarmed black men have been shot and killed by police – one every nine days, according to a Washington Post database of fatal police shootings. During a single two-week period in April, three unarmed black men were shot and killed. All three shootings were either captured on video or, in one case, broadcast live on local TV.

Those 24 cases constitute a surprisingly small fraction of the 585 people shot and killed by police through Friday evening, according to The Post database. Most of those killed were white or Hispanic, and the vast majority of victims of all races were armed.

However, black men accounted for 40 percent of the 60 unarmed deaths, even though they make up just 6 percent of the U.S. population. The Post’s analysis shows that black men were seven times more likely than white men to die by police gunfire while unarmed.

The latest such shooting occurred Friday, claiming Christian Taylor, 19, a promising defensive back on the Angelo State University football team. Police said Taylor crashed an SUV through the front window of a car dealership in Arlington, Tex., and was shot in an altercation with responding officers. The case is under investigation.

The disproportionate number of unarmed black men in the body count helps explain why outrage continues to simmer a year after Ferguson — and why shootings that might have been ignored in the past are now coming under fresh public and legal scrutiny. (Emphasis added)

One year after the death of Michael Brown, the Black Lives Matter Movement has failed, for the most part. People are still marching, protesting and engaging in civil disobedience in Ferguson and around the country. That proves that the movement has not achieved its objectives. The End Racial Profiling Act has not been passed. In fact, a bill to protect lions and other wild animals is a greater priority in Congress than the End Racial Profiling Act. That is an obvious sign of failure. While unarmed movement members are arrested for engaging in civil disobedience, killers like Darren Wilson and George Zimmerman continue to walk free and armed white militia patrol the streets of Ferguson looking for trouble from the black natives. That is not success. That is failure. As previously stated, the brutal police continue to harass and kill unarmed black people. Recent examples include the killing of Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and Sam DuBose. Our lives still don’t matter.  Again, the movement has failed miserably.

Parents of Michael Brown, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden listen to a speaker during a rally, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, for their son who was killed by police last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo. Brown’s shooting in the middle of a street, following a suspected robbery of a box of cigars from a nearby market, has sparked a week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Certainly, the movement’s catch phrase “Black Lives Matter” has become a popular slogan. That slogan has generated a much needed national discussion. Even that discussion has detoured into discussion about how “all lives matter.” More importantly, slogans alone are a poor substitute for actual substantive reforms. Discussions are just that, discussions. Discussions are not actions. Clearly, the movement has gained publicity. Nonetheless, publicity without a focused purpose, other than 15 minutes of fame, is meaningless. Publicity for the stake of publicity accomplishes nothing.

For example, this past weekend, purported Black Lives Matter activists Marissa Janae Johnson (a former Sarah Palin supporter) and Mara Jacqeline Willaford interrupted Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ speech. Ms. Johnson’s “I don’t give a f***” attitude is childish and unsophisticated. Unfortunately, that is not the first time that Black Lives Matter activists have interrupted a program. They also interrupted Al Sharpton’s Justice for All march.

It is just plain stupid to attack, alienate and discard allies, especially when your movement is funded by the same white progressives that you criticize. By the way, black organizations should be funded primarily by black people. Anyway, the Black Lives Matter Movement should collaborate with Al Sharpton and other prominent civil rights leaders and organizations. Potential allies like Sanders have the power to pass laws to address the problems of police brutality and racial profiling. Instead of interrupting fellow progressives, the movement should be interrupting the police who harass and kill black people. Instead of interrupting organizations that have the same goals and objectives, the movement should be interrupting a Congress that is more concerned about slain lions than slain black people.

Marissa Janae Johnson’s and Mara Jacqeline Willaford’s actions expose another fundamental flaw of the movement, its leaderless and decentralized nature. Such a structure breeds chaos and rogue action. If it is to be successful, the movement needs more structure and more discipline. Otherwise, it will be another short-lived moment just like the Occupy Wall Street movement. It will be here today and gone tomorrow. Rather than having an arrogant “know-it-all” approach and attitude, the movement should learn effective strategies from civil rights veterans and black power veterans.

Instead of engaging in such juvenile publicity stunts, the movement must present a clear set of demands to elected officials and candidates. The movement must demand that all politicians pass legislation that is in accord with those demands. Instead of just tweeting and marching, the activists should be conducting effective and massive voter registration and education drives. If we do not vote, we cannot complain about politicians not implementing reforms. If we do not vote, we cannot complain about juries and grand juries letting killers like Darren Wilson and George Zimmerman go free. Through the vote, we are able to serve on juries and render justice.

[Originally posted at New Possibilities]

The post One year later, the #BlackLivesMatter Movement is a Failure appeared first on Madness & Reality.

I went home for the holidays and went over a family friend’s house for Kwanzaa, a tradition that seems to have been birthed in my early childhood and has truly grown and expanded beyond what I could even imagine, and I brought this up with close family and friends asking “Where is the movement?”  I kept hearing a lot of people describe things in motion, but I never heard a movement.  In cities across the country I watched churches and other groups march from here to there carrying signs, and I also saw them do it with police protection as they gathered or walked.  Something about that just didn’t sit right with me.  I kept searching for the end-game as I watched these rallies. While people could print t-shirts that read “I Can’t Breathe” (the famous last words of Eric Garner) or construct placards with “Black Lives Matter” on them and show up at a time and place and join a rally of like-minded people, for me that does not constitute a movement.

I wrote an open letter to the Church of God in Christ, the historically black Pentecostal denomination, asking that they stage a protest in St. Louis last November as their annual convention was taking place a mere 12 miles from protests in Ferguson.  Suffice it to say, they focused on other things. Part of that open letter stemmed from the fact that I was yearning for some type of coalescence around a few good actionable ideas.  As the conversations around police wearing body cameras came about, I remember thinking that this is a pretty simple demand and that protests be geared for something like this: demanding a state legislature mandate that all police departments across the state have body cameras within the next three years.  Again, I never saw that either.

It bothered me that I never saw, and still haven’t seen, any tangible actions emerge from this so-called movement.  It bothers me because while I agree with the sentiments and the ideologies of Black Lives Matter, I can’t see how any of it has any staying power.  And by staying power, I don’t see it as a change agent for the revolution of the system.  One of the reasons the protests surrounding the Jena 6 were so effective was because there was a very clear goal: the charges against Mychal Bell and others need to be reduced from attempted murder and they need to be tried as juveniles, not adults.   And simply, the protests ended after that goal was accomplished.

Part of the issue with the protests surrounding Black Lives Matter is that the name itself isn’t an actionable phrase nor is it easily accessible phrase to the masses.  In the not so distant past we’ve seen instances of citizens founding movements, political and cultural in nature that don’t fall into the trap of Black Lives Matter.  One of the earlier one’s from this time period was the Christian conservative movement of the Moral Majority.  While I fundamentally disagree with the politics and found that their ideologies stands in direct opposition of black lives mattering, their organization and mobilization is worth noting.  For one, they had a generic name that allowed accessibility of the masses.  Inherently, words like “moral” have a wide appeal and in a populist culture, who doesn’t want to be part of the “majority.”  This was part of why the Tea Party movement actually has a few wins in their column.

The Tea Party, unlike the sentiments around Black Lives Matter, understood what leadership could do for a movement.  The energy behind the Tea Party allowed them to crown political popes like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and even regular citizens like Joe the Plumber to be titular figureheads as use outlets like that of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to spread their ideology.  The recalcitrant and oft repeated thinking that Black Lives Matter is a “leaderless movement” is the example of cognitive dissonance over what really is required of a movement.  Their effectiveness is also helped by the singular anti-focus on Barack Obama.  From the moment he was sworn into office, there was a contingent that was laser focused on opposing his every turn.  Even when the move to make him a one-term president failed, the ways in which they assumed office with each mid-term election completely flipped congressional control from blue to red.  There is no laser focus associated with Black Lives Matter.  From one moment it focuses on police brutality and the next moment it’s focused on the broad problems associated with poverty.

Part of what makes a movement is that there is an end goal by which the motions are moving toward.  In 2008, Barack Obama did something that the country hadn’t seen since the Moral Majority buoyed Ronald Reagan to re-election in 1984 and formed a political movement from one of the country’s major two parties.  The sheer mass of people who came together to vote for him was simply astounding.  “Yes we can” was a rally cry that allowed for a rainbow coalition of people from varying walks of like to get what that meant and to be a part of that “we.”  Rightly so, the conservatives tried to punch holes in such a nebulous slogan, but at the end of the day, you can’t take away the good feeling that saying “Yes we can” provides.

Chanting “Black Lives Matter” is a statement of anger.  While anger can fuel protests, anger doesn’t have the emotional sustainability for a movement.  To declare “I can’t breathe” is echoing the death knell of people who are about to expire and they don’t exist as life-giving words that can propel the inner-workings of a movement.  The righteous indignation of Black Lives Matter is very righteous; a noble ideology whose consciousness is revolutionary in and of itself.  However, the problem with it is that it requires a type of creative rhetoric that refuses to engage the masses for the sake of what appears to be personal aggrandizement.  I think it’s hard to say that the leaderless leaders of Black Lives Matter are in it for themselves, but it does bear questioning just how much are they in it for the long haul.

Not having institutional buy-in with Black Lives Matters creates a space where people can fill up TV and radio time to make monuments unto themselves while still claiming a movement.  Part of this has been performed in the way the institutional Black Church has not been involved tangibly in Black Lives Matter.  While there are numerous black churches across the American urban landscape who have been on message about the ideology behind it, none of them have made the next step in laser focusing on very specific issues in the communities from which they are located.  It stands to reason, however, that many of these churches have already been doing some of the work prior to last summer and they may very well continue doing that work, but none of them have emerged on a national level leading the charge.

My ultimate disappointment with Black Lives Matter is that it doesn’trequire people to change their level of consciousness, it only asks them to do so.  Hashtags and tweets to hundreds of followers only goes so far, most times its preaching to the choir.  Personally, I support hashtag activism because it is a way in which one can display personal sentiments.  But at the same time I recognize that a hashtag doesn’t have staying power.  While yes Black Twitter has had the power to actually get someone fired from the job, at least up until this point, it hasn’t displayed the power to effect systematic change.  Social media operates on the notion of partial anonymity and anonymity is not the hallmark of a movement: a movement needs a face.  This is why the comment sections on message boards and trolls flourish; they are disembodied thoughts that float throughout the ether seeking whom they may devour.  But the inverse is true as well, making a difference still requires the individual to personify themselves.  Tweets and Facebook status updates don’t have the power to be sacrificial lambs;  none of us can truly embody that black lives do matter if the only thing we offer up to sacrifice is our timelines.

This millennial generation that I am a part of seems to be more interested in claiming a movement with only less than 12 months of motion.  There seems to be a strong desire to stand in the tradition of the modern civil rights movement, yet divorce themselves from the institutional structures that supported that movement.  This dissonance exists because of the ways in which larger-than-life figures such as Jesse Jackson, Charlie Rangel, Bobby Rush, Al Sharpton, Andrew Young and others who exist on the local level have stood as impassable gatekeepers preventing institutional access favoring respectability speeches toward the youth rather than giving them tools of empowerment.  Rather now, we have a class of leaderless leaders in this generation who have inherited the wind; standing as gatekeepers to transient institutions whose building blocks are hashtags, retweets and likes.

Black lives mattering is bigger than social media.  It always has been, and it would do good for more people to realize that.  Social media is merely a tool to advance that ideology, it isn’t the movement itself.  Twitter strategies only go so far in the furthering of a goal, but as I’ve noted before, these protests have no real goal behind them.  It exists to memorialize the ones who have fallen by the side of the road either physically or spiritually as a result of institutional racism that fails to see that black lives matter.  For me, right now, Black Lives Matter is nothing more than the upheaval of lament and therefore it does have it’s place.  However that place is not as a movement, just a prolonged moment.

The post #BlackLivesMatter: Waiting on the Movement appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.

A decision by the Justice Department would bring an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.

But a broader Justice Department civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open. That investigation could lead to significant changes at the department, which is overwhelmingly white despite serving a city that is mostly black.

Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer for Mr. Brown’s family, said he did not want to comment on the investigation until the Justice Department made an official announcement.

“We’ve heard speculation on cases before that didn’t turn out to be true,” Mr. Crump said. “It’s too much to put the family through to respond to every rumor.”

At this point, bloggers, activists and civil rights organizations must escalate and intensify our demand that a special prosecutor be appointed in Ferguson. We must relentlessly continue to demand that a new grand jury be convened. We must blog, petition, march, agitate and disrupt until that happens. This grave injustice cannot stand.

The post No Civil Rights Charges Against Darren Wilson appeared first on Madness & Reality.

I must admit: lately, our relationship has been pretty awful.

These past few years have been tumultuous at best. What the world has seen is the utmost disdain for anyone claiming to be African American. What is worst is the acceptance of the murder/manslaughter/slaying ofAfrican Americans with very little judicial recourse. Even worse, there have been more conversations to either shut us up, derail our concerns, or unrightfully incriminate us to make these actions justified. It seems that this “freedom” you promised through my bravery may be a broken possibility.

Then again, you did enslave my ancestors and only “emancipated” us through a dubious proclamation. I am still not sure I am legally a full human being.

What is worse than that lack of love is the unrequested and unexpected support that we have seen worldwide. It says a lot when there are Palestinians holding up signs in reference to being shot over skin color. You have different races that have demonstrated empathy for our condition. Beyond them seeing Americans, they see human beings. And no human being should be subjugated to the conditions we have dealt with.

And I am not saying that there hasn’t been support for Black people here: there has. There have been plenty of demonstrations for the sake of justice. Most recently, there has been a demonstration where tear gas was used to calm a “violent” crowd in Berkley, California (sigh). So, there are more than just Black people taking a stance in America. Plenty of Americans see what the issue is and want it to be resolved.

But we have to agree on this: Black people are seen as the problem of America and not as the victims of America’s problems. Our race is seen as the scourge of the nation and the plague of the plain. The collective condescension for our skin color is not something to be bottled up as “complaining”. Sometimes, the “race card” is being played because the spades game being played with our lives calls for isms. In short, Black people will forever be seen as the cause of our own problems.

In short: America hates Black people. And no relationship should exist with hate. Thus, Black people in America desire to be divorced.

Now, how this divorce is going to work will be dicey. Plenty of us will opt to leave the country altogether. There are many of us that will go to another country just to live and survive. Heck, plenty are quickly considering “going back to Africa” like Pino in Do The Right Thing said we should do. So, many of us just plan on outright leaving.

Still, it makes no sense for us to keep trying to deal with a society that does not value us. The police brutality cannot be a surprise when you have historically used the police to lynch us, murder us, and destroy our communities. Historically, police have assisted in the death and character defamation of Black people. Also, there are times where policemen were KKK members. It is extremely hard to feel safe in a society where the law upholders can/will kill you without recourse.

Remember that time where we have our own successful communities? Remember that moment when we had Rosewood (before you burned it to the ground)? Remember Black Wall Street (before you burned it to the ground)? Remember the mass exodus of Blacks to East St. Louis that led to a massacre? Of course you don’t. You have worked hard to rewrite history to favor Black people being inferior.

And it is more than the killing of our people: it is the overall inconsiderate treatment of Black people. There are numerous problems:

• Economic disenfranchisement
• School-to-prison pipeline
• Elimination of historical significance through lacking documentation
• Media misleading many minds

And plenty of other issues that I didn’t take time to name.

There are those that want to hold onto this “American dream” that you have promised them. You can keep those Black people. You can keep Charles Barkley, Ben Carson, Larry Elder, and the rest of their ilk. The rest of us? We know that you don’t want us. So, we would like to be allowed to be left alone and live our lives separate from these issues we never asked for (nor deserve).

I’m not sure HOW we are going to do it. But, I know it needs to happen.

No reason to be in a relationship built on making Black people, like me, miserable.

No Love Lost Cause No Love Was Given,

Mark A. Harris

The post Dear America: Black People Want A Divorce appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Somebody needed to say it…..

The post Rev. Al Sharpton Gets Called Out By Ferguson Protestors appeared first on Madness & Reality.

But then, you have the usual oppositional comments from those who likely don’t know what it’s like to be a part of “the other”. From the obviously racist to the naive hypocrisy glaring in the phrase “Violence never solves anything.”

Yeah. Violence never solves anything per sae, but it’s a hell of a sure fire way to get what you want. Besides, if you use that phrase to condemn the protesters against a racist, oppressive system, but stand behind Darren Wilson, you’ve proven to be the biggest hypocrite since Bill Clinton.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or have allowed to school system to brainwash you, you would know that violence gave birth to this country. America, as you know it, would never be what it is without the genocide of the First Nation people, the brutal kidnapping, enslavement and holocaust of Africans and their descendants, the bombing of other nations, including those in Asia and the Middle East, the oppression of Blacks, keeping out immigrants from below the southern boarder and all forms of systematic violence against poor people, including whites.

But alas, I’m not supposed to bring all that shit up, because that would be blaming the ever-innocent white man. It’s all ancient history. So, that doesn’t matter. There’s no need to bring it up. Funny, how some people consider the past irrelevant whether it’s 500 years ago, 50 years ago or five minutes ago when it concerns forms of white racism.

Crime and violence are not exclusive to black culture just like terrorism is not a part of the Islam faith, nor is the word “illegal” is not used as an adjective against a person of color from another nation. History shows that white culture – like it or not – throughout history has been the leader in those sins. Maybe it’s past time to own up and pay up.

And if you think this is another case of blaming the white man, go ahead and think that, because that’s probably what needs to happen. White men are not as innocent as they proclaim themselves to be. If you’re stupid enough to link terrorism with Islam, then don’t be shocked when we link the KKK with Christianity.

So, pardon me and other folks when we tell you to stuff that fake pacifist shit up your ass when you support government actions that take the lives of so many people. Violence is an American as apple pie, and so many of us are ravenous for it. Do yourself a huge favor, and deal with that shit and own up to it before you make a colossal ass out of yourself.

P.S. I almost forgot. Some of you lose your shit after sports events like Hockey or mundane things like pumpkins, as it seems. You have a problem with violence going on in your community with murder-suicides, serial killings and sexual assault. So, how can you tell us that violence doesn’t solve anything when your people are still using it for insignificant events and pathological hatred against your own?

Go ahead. I’ll wait for your weak-ass argument.

The post #Ferguson: The “Violence Never Solves Anything” Argument appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Darren Wilson resigned as a police officer. Why do people think this is some kind of victory? Did you really expect him to go back to work as a Ferguson police officer? Seriously? And why would he bother when he can now make six figures for an interview? This is America folks. Where you can kill a black kid and justified or not (NOT!) you will then become a millionaire through interviews and book deals and film rights. Not to mention the right wing talk radio show Wilson will probably be offered as he fits in perfectly with all of the talentless slobs in that business.

This is your capitalist system at work. No laws that make this illegal. A cop can actually kill someone on purpose if they want, because they get away with almost anything, with the knowledge that they can then quit their shitty job that nobody with a brain would want anyway, and become rich. What a country! These are the times when I want to get the next flight available and head to any other country. I truly need to get out of this lunatic asylum.

There were reports that Wilson may have received a half million for the ABC News interview with George Stuffituphisass. Georgie boy asked the obvious questions, feigning true emotions as he inquired about Wilson’s actions and if he would do anything differently. He went through the motions of asking about Brown being far away from Wilson when he shot him several times or with his hands up, but basically he just allowed Wilson to tell his side. Hey, who else did that without question? Oh yeah, Bob McCulloch!

The interview with ABC wasn’t an exclusive. Meaning the killer, Wilson, now has an agent who negotiated the deal, and other news agencies can also pay six figures for future interviews. It’s just that ABC was the most aggressive whore this time. To think I used to work for them. Makes me feel like I need one of those showers they gave to Karen Silkwood at the nuclear power plant.

But there will be other media whores that will throw big money at Wilson. Meanwhile Michael Brown’s family is left with nothing. No son and no justice. Yes the more money Wilson makes the more they can get from him in a civil suit but that’s even a long shot since a jury won’t side against a cop even in that setting. Against O.J. Simpson yes, a cop no. Funny how all of those white people who were up in arms about Simpson getting off are so joyous about Wilson getting off.

Meanwhile this sham of a verdict with the Grand Jury, which every legal scholar has torn apart especially since the transcripts were released, has really brought the usual right wing vicious scum out of the closets. None worse than Rudy Giuliani who continues to live in 1990’s New York City when his police department was regularly violating the civil rights of blacks. He won’t stop talking about black on black crime which he incredulously correlates to the need for an all white police force. Also he won’t talk about how the people who commit those crimes almost always go to jail, unlike cops who commit crimes. Black on black crime, which has gone way, way down takes place in black neighborhoods as white on white crime takes place in white neighborhoods. Makes sense no?

Look, let’s remember who Rudy is shall we? He is the guy who bullied the New York City emergency response center into One World Trade Center after the first terrorist attack there even though the people who knew better were against it. We know what the result was of his power grab. He also took away vital firefighting gear which led to the deaths of many fire fighters on 9/11. Because you see Rudy always gets what Rudy wants.

But wait there’s more. He is also the guy who hired Bernie Kerik as police chief. Kerik the felon. He also recommended the soon to be felon for Homeland Security Director! This is Rudy Giuliani. A man who is still worshiped by some idiot New Yorkers yet despised by his own children. A guy who cares more about the welfare of the New York Yankees than  Americans.

Anyway I truly digress. Darren Wilson is becoming rich. Rich off the killing of Michael Brown. Can you just imagine what Brown’s parents are going through? I can’t. They have to hear about these interviews, maybe even watch them. I hope they don’t. Wilson’s story would be given zero stars by any reviewer if it were made into a film because it is that unbelievable, actually laughable if the result wasn’t so tragic. But seriously folks, even if you are brain dead enough to buy his depiction of the events that led to him killing Brown, you can’t believe that he should become rich over someone else’s death. To make money that he wouldn’t make in a full career as a cop from one or two interviews.

Or maybe you are so brainwashed by the out of control capitalist system you live in that you think it’s all just fine and dandy. If so I feel sorry for you and have disdain for you in equal measure. This is one of those things that truly would never happen in any other country.

A uniquely American disgrace.

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

The post Kill a Black Kid and Get Rich: Uniquely American – #Ferguson appeared first on Madness & Reality.

This is my first reaction to what just happened in Ferguson. My stomach is in knots. Buildings are burning. There are people who have criticized the title of my blog “America The Not So Beautiful.” They wanted something more optimistic, softer. Can you argue with the title now? I mean can you really? We are retreating in this country. As other nations forge ahead, we are back in the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s Selma all over again and watts and even further back, into the dark ages. This is where we are now. No justice and certainly no peace.

We all sat together, watched, listened together. Listened as the corrupt St. Louis County Prosecutor named Bob McCulloch, told the nation, told all of us, from San Francisco to Chicago to New York to Miami and to the heart of the tragedy, Ferguson, Missouri, that Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown, will not face charges. Yes, most of us expected it, dreaded it. But now it was real, it had actually happened. Justice denied, again. Again.

McCulloch stood there, and described an execution, then in the next breath said there was nothing to see here. He didn’t sound like any prosecutor I have heard before. He sounded much more like a defense attorney, the defense attorney for Darren Wilson. A prosecutor wants an indictment when they go to a grand jury so therefore in the almost non-existent cases where they don’t get one, they are distraught, just as they are when they lose a case in court. McCulloch hardly seemed upset about the decision, in fact he seemed vindicated, just like a defense attorney would be after they got their client off.

I’m not surprised at all. I expected this decision. We all did. But like everyone else, I was dreading this moment. I knew the fix was in. There was something disquieting about watching McCulloch throwing that fact in our collective faces. He threw it in our faces and hid behind a grand jury. I don’t blame them at all. As all legal experts have said, the grand jury does what the prosecutor wants. This time he didn’t want an indictment so he stacked the deck to get the result he wanted. McCulloch is a coward, and just like a defense attorney who does not put everything on the line for their client, McCulloch should be forced out of office and not be allowed to practice law ever again. He put nothing on the line for Michael Brown, in fact, Brown, the VICTIM wasn’t represented at all.

Look, this is what it comes down to. A cop can kill who they want. If they kill a black person they will get off 100 percent of the time. If they kill a white person that probably drops to about 95 percent. This is why whites shouldn’t think they are safe. WE are not. They say a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, but police officers aren’t ham sandwiches. In the minds of too many they are filet mignon. They are the top of the line and can do no wrong. If they shoot and kill it’s always because they have to. Whether it’s a kid walking in the street, or a man with a fake gun at his side in a toy store or a 12 year old with a gun that even the guy who called 911 knew was fake but the trained cop didn’t, it simply does not matter. They can kill you if they feel like it that day. There is no recourse.

McCulloch admitted that Wilson shot 12 times, that’s a dozen shots. Once again though, nothing to see here. No question from the idiot reporters in the media pool, about how far away Brown was when Wilson shot at him several times, including the fatal shot to his head. No question to McCulloch about the need for a cop to justify each and every shot, all 12 in this case. What McCulloch painted was the picture of a hulking black thug charging at Wilson, after he was already shot at least twice, charging AT BULLETS. That Wilson needed all 12 shots against an unarmed 18 year old kid in order to save his own life. Incredulity doesn’t describe it well enough.

McCulloch didn’t present a case. He dumped a case file in the hands of 12 people who were not legal experts and said have at it. He knew there were inconsistencies in testimony, because guess what…there ALWAYS is. If that were a reason to not indict, most of the people in prison wouldn’t be there. This was a game for McCulloch, a game he knew he could manipulate and win. He didn’t want to indict a cop and he knows that juries don’t want to either. So a little prod here and there is all he would need.

Scumbag Rudy Giuliani continues to spew at the mouth about “black on black” crime. But when a black person kills another black person they go to jail in about 23 seconds. As we have seen once again, when a cop kills someone, no matter what the evidence, no matter how many witnesses, no matter what, there is no justice.

Yes Ferguson is burning right now. But the entire country continues to smolder. None of us are protected from the flames.

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

The post Bob McColloch: The Fix Was in All Along in Ferguson appeared first on Madness & Reality.

And no, I’m not surprised. I’m actually glad that my TV switched back to Dancing With The Stars. You know, a show that I have never watched in its entirety before tonight. You know, a show that I will never watch again due to my busy schedule and lack of desire. Then again, I had even less desire to listen to this grand jury no-indictment either. It seemed that the stars were aligned for there to be no indictment in the first place.

Darren Wilson Wasn’t Going to Be Indicted In The First Place

I need for all of us to remember this fact: Darren Wilson was not going to be indicted in the first place. You had a better chance of witnessing Tyrone Biggums kick his crack habit then actually watch Michael Brown receive any sort of justice. Most of the witnesses were practically discredited. Then again, they didn’t give a damn about Michael Brown when his body laid there for hours. So, this “decision” was made as soon as we realized that Michael Brown was less than human. This “decision” was made when Darren Wilson earned six figures from a funding campaign for his “hard work”.

Meanwhile, Sadie and Mark dance to their Super Mario Bros. freestyle dance routine as my timeline explodes with disgust. The utter irony. The utter fucking irony of it all.

Darren Wilson, Rudy Guliani, and the Racism of America

I hope we do know that even a ham sandwich can be indicted, right? Right. So, let me continue.

I knew things weren’t going to be such a great situation when Rudolf Giuliani showed his prejudiced ass colors on TV. In such an “interesting” debate, Michael Eric Dyson slightly read Giuliani is asinine ass rights about his prejudices. Although Dyson should have mentioned the facts against Giuliani’s bullshit “93 percent of blacks killing black” crap, he decided to “take it easy on him”. Personally, I would have told him that “87 (or so) percent of whites kill whites and most of those whites prefer their cucumbers pickled, you presumptuous fuck”. Then again, I am not Michael Eric Dyson for that reason: I lack the proper filter for such debates.

And Dancing With The Stars plays on in the background.

Darren Wilson and The Lack of Justice

https://twitter.com/THEREALBANNER/status/537075294864044032

Paying attention to David Banner’s tweet, we get to understand that America did send a brutal message to Black America. That message read like this: we don’t give a fuck about you. And honestly, this message would hurt. In fact, this message SHOULD hurt. But the problem is that this narrative has become so commonplace that we can’t be totally shocked anymore. Policemen vs. Black people usually ends with Black people losing. Call it socially conditioning. Call it me being a pessimist. Call it what you want as long as you don’t call me collect cause I’m not accepting charges if you start talking stupid.

And people wonder if this is what democracy looks like? My answer is “of course”. Democracy isn’t made for a race considered chattel that could be hung for whistling at white women. Democracy isn’t for those that is blamed for society’s ills while society has given us the syndrome to live with. Democracy is not for a people that will place the blame on ourselves for the condition being wrought upon us. Democracy wasn’t made for us.

Darren Wilson and the Endgame

As expected, there is no justice for Michael Brown. This cannot become the surprise of the century. This should be the expected outcome. At some point, Black people need to figure out how we are going to police the police and hold them accountable at all times. As such, the justice system is working perfectly because it wasn’t meant for us in the first place. Thus, we have to move accordingly and construct a system that works for OUR benefit.

And just like that, Dancing With The Stars is off my TV. No more dancing and smiling in the midst of societal madness.

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I have actually and quite literally been following the events in Ferguson since day one I was actually online when the information started coming in about Mike Brown and have watched each night praying for the safety of all the residents who are at this point, and rightfully so “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”

The fireside chat is a conference call that provides a forum and dialog for those on the ground ever day to speak to their experiences and as was stated during the call tonight to just have some family time with each other. Although tonight’s call was so incredibly profound – more so than I believe the organizers had realized it would be going into it.

The initial part of the call we were introduced to some of the names behind the tweets and the images that have come out of

Ferguson. I was struck by how main stream media has not even made the slightest attempt to show the humanity of the people out there literally risking their lives every day seeking justice and imparting the message that ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER. The media would have you believe that those  who have been on the ground faithfully  every day making their voices heard are nothing more than a bunch of misguided thugs who are just looking for opportunities to loot and vandalize.  It is so far from the truth as to be downright appalling. It is part of the framing that takes place to disconnect public sentiment from  these events in order to make them more palpable and justify the inexcusable.

Listening to these young people in Ferguson tell their stories of how they came to be involved and why they still fight would bring tears to the eyes of the most hardened heart. The sacrifices they  have made and continue to  make, the constant fear of danger which does not discourage them but instead fuels their fire and purpose.

Listening to these young black men and women discuss freedom and what it means to them…what this whole movement feels like to them is totally powerful in a historical sense. Listening to them discuss how they have prepared mentally and or spiritually for the things to come including a possible non-indictment is the stuff of legend.

Main stream media wont tell you that though. The ratings only go up when the black folks in their Ferguson stories are acting up or doing  wrong.  There is a reason why the meme relative to African Americans being on the news usually for no good reason exists. There is no profit evidently in the truth about young leaders spearheading a movement and taking their place in a struggle that has gone o for years and still does to this very day.

There is no Protest Movement For Dummies Book or manual of any kind to show these young people the way. The status quo has not shown much of a predilection  to help much or assist much. They are finding their own way and forging their own path in the face of things not seen since the days of the KKK and Jim Crow.

Listen to the entire conversation Here:   Ferguson Fireside Chat Nov 5, 2014

This definitely is NOT a moment – it is a much needed movement

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