Anyone else seeing the logic in complaining about militarized police using military gear and then sending in the military (the Missouri National Guard)? Obviously, this will lead to policified military, right
Please keep this discussion civil.
Anyone else seeing the logic in complaining about militarized police using military gear and then sending in the military (the Missouri National Guard)? Obviously, this will lead to policified military, right
Please keep this discussion civil.
#RESIST
Exactly. Mean old militarized Ferguson PD, let the troopers talk tenderness. Which worked for three choruses of Kumbaya and then back to looting. Then lo and behold the state troopers brought in armored cars, no change. So now it's to the Guard.
I dunno. I think when it comes to riots, the old ways are best. FLATTEN them. The rule of law should never retreat in those situations. Now the majority of Ferguson residents have had their city razed.
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
Nicely said, LL
Reserving real judgment for 6 months after, when we have any idea what portion of the media reports were true.
I think the local PD absolutely kittened up any attempts to de-escalate the situation. Whether they had a chance to be more successful, I don't know. Given that some idiot decided to arrest the press, and the first thing the police chief heard about it was during a press interview, it sounds like they're maybe a little disorganized.
The pictures make me angry, but I know they're calculated to make me angry. I know I don't see what happened before the picture was taken.
There's a point where maybe this could have been resolved at protests and some arrested looters after dark. Now I don't know being nice is an option short term. But ratcheting things up is going to be a bloated mess long term, too.
There is a place and time for militarization. IMO the local PD yoinked it big time when their response to what was then (mostly?) peaceful protesting was sending out guys in camo, perched on top of armored cars and pointing rifles at everyone.
John Hearne had a really excellent post about gear...speaking as a non-LE observer, gear isn't the problem, it was the time and place and manner of the gear's use. Have it ready to use, keep it close at hand, have cops in reserve ready to go, but until violence and looting breaks out tear gas, rubber bullets and pointing rifles at people should not be part of your crowd control plan. Once violence and looting break out, then they should definitely be part of that plan.
I don't know. This whole thing is such a mess and was handled so badly by everyone involved I'm not sure where to begin. I will say that I am disturbed at how the media has come down unquestioningly on the side of the protesters and that nobody is challenging those moronic claims that this officer "executed" Mr. Brown in cold blood when this may well have been a justifiable use of force against a 6' 4", 300lb man who had just committed a "strong arm robbery"... Everyone on the morning news shows and in government are falling all over themselves to feel everyone's pain and condemn a shooting that could well have been appropriate.
The one-sided reporting, complete lack of knowledge and even curiosity about police equipment, use of force, and etc., on the part of the press is disheartening. Not unexpected, but disheartening.
What I was trying to say, is that from what I have read, the initial protests appeared to be peaceful. Peaceful protests deserve one kind of response. A response that will not antagonize some idiot in the crowd into turning it into a violent protest.
At this point, they are not peaceful, and they do not deserve a peaceful response. Riots definitely deserve riot gear.
Food for thought from last night:
I pulled up St. Louis County Dispatch on my phone and listened for a little while. Numerous shots fired, "FYI, multiple burglaries in progress", fires, shooting victim at ER, ER requesting more police due to a large number of people arriving and causing a disturbance, Ferguson PD unit hit by another vehicle at a high rate of speed, and of course the normal suspicious persons and domestics calls. Oh, and the ambulance and fire department will be escorted by an armored vehicle statement.
#RESIST
That's where I'm at. Glassing crowds with hot weapons and painting unarmed people with lasers is a no go in my opinion. Does nothing but escalate tensions. Arresting media at McD's and shooting rubber bullets and gas canisters at the press was frickin' stoopid from a PR perspective. I would think you'd want the media on "your side" and don't want to alienate them in order to get as much pro-police airtime as possible.