Special Edition 8-15-14
©2014 All Rights Reserved
Due to personal circumstances as well as lacking Internet access 24/7, this writer normally posts several days before the usual Monday 'official' publication date. The 8-18-14 Newsletter was posted Wednesday 8-13-14 prior to all hell breaking out in Ferguson later that evening, necessitating this Special Edition.
What happened last night, 8-13-14, in Ferguson was appalling. Indeed, prima facie evidence of a fascist police-state. A war zone. Armored vehicles. Officers on the roof of those vehicles with high-powered weapons mounted on tripods. Pointed at demonstrators. Despite the indisputable fact the First Amendment guaranties freedom of speech, assembly, redress of grievances. -- The bastards, out of uniform. No swastika armbands.
Excessive force, gleefully executed. Citizens jailed for lawfully exercising First Amendment rights. What business, that is, what right did law enforcement in Ferguson have to enter a McDonalds restaurant and order Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowry to leave the establishment? By what authority? What exigent circumstances? The jackbooted thug ordered him to stop recording the encounter. In direct violation of the First Amendment. Nazi America.
Worse, both Lowry and fellow Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly were arrested and physically assaulted by law enforcement before being released, -- courtesy of intense pressure brought to bear against the police, -- courtesy of social media. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened to both?
"Afterward, Reilly wrote in a Facebook post that a police officer "in full riot gear" "purposefully banged my head against the window on the way out and sarcastically apologized."
Do these bastards, are these bastards, provoking a second unwanted, dreaded second American revolution?
"Reilly added, "I'm fine. But if this is the way these officers treat a white reporter working on a laptop who moved a little too slowly for their liking, I can't imagine how horribly they treat others. And if anyone thinks that the militarization of our police force isn't a huge issue in this country, I've got a story to tell you."
"Martin Baron, the executive editor of The Washington Post, said in a statement Wednesday night that "there was absolutely no justification" for Lowery's arrest.
"Baron noted that the reporter was "illegally instructed to stop taking video of officers. Then he followed officers' instructions to leave a McDonald's -- and after contradictory instructions on how to exit, he was slammed against a soda machine and then handcuffed. That behavior was wholly unwarranted and an assault on the freedom of the press to cover the news."
"During this time, we asked the officers for badge numbers. We asked to speak to a supervising officer. We asked why we were being detained. We were told: trespassing in a McDonald’s.
“I hope you’re happy with yourself,” one officer told me. And I responded: “This story’s going to get out there. It’s going to be on the front page of The Washington Post tomorrow.”
"And he said, “Yeah, well, you’re going to be in my jail cell tonight.”He was illegally instructed to stop taking video of officers. Then he followed officers’ instructions to leave a McDonald’s — and after contradictory instructions on how to exit, he was slammed against a soda machine and then handcuffed. That behavior was wholly unwarranted and an assault on the freedom of the press to cover the news. The physical risk to Wesley himself is obvious and outrageous.
"After being placed in a holding cell, he was released with no charges and no explanation. He was denied information about the names and badge numbers of those who arrested him."
Nazi America. A goddamned fascist police-state. The same goddamned thing goes on here in nazi Llano County. It's been weeks. Still haven't been able to confirm the identify of the jackbooted Llano County Sheriff's Deputy who criminally assaulted Llano County resident Todd Jones.
Law enforcement fired tear gas and rubber bullets against an Al Jazeera America television crew in Ferguson. Jackbooted thugs, clearly out of control. Determined to make sure their outrageously criminal behavior would not be recorded. Did so even after the crew repeatedly shouted "Press!"
Reportedly, Al Jazeera had their equipment seized by police. Nazi America. Why would hopelessly corrupt, abusive, jackbooted law enforcement respect the Constitution? They're thugs. With a gun and a badge. A license to wantonly kill.
Retired military are not happy about military tactics used against American citizens in Ferguson. Consider it inappropriate and ineffective. It's time to demilitarize law enforcement. Now. Why were these goons ever militarized in the first place? Why? Alderman Antonio French of St. Louis claims protesters did nothing to provoke law enforcement. Claims the police started the violence and protesters responded with Molotov cocktails.
Jackbooted law enforcement thugs had their weapons pointed against protesters. They're out of control. Even the armor worn by law enforcement goons was far in excess of that worn by our troops. Military veterans don't consider the supposedly 'military' response of Ferguson law enforcement to be indeed, military. It's not. It's jackbooted nazi.
Why has the Pentagon given police nearly a half billion in equipment last year? Why? Why are these bastards militarizing police departments across our formerly great country? Why? How is this constitutional? How? A goddamned fascist police-state. Police showed up at a peaceful protest in Ferguson with armored vehicles and weapons. Abused the citizenry engaged in peaceful, lawful, constitutional protest. Indeed, Nazi America.
"The mayor of a St. Louis suburb roiled by police and protester clashes after an officer there shot an unarmed teen to death over the weekend defended his police force's actions on Thursday. "We're having a difficult time, especially at night, discerning between those who wish to peacefully assemble and lawfully protest and those who wish to infiltrate and hide among the people who wish to demonstrate," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told msnbc, adding that police have shown up to vigils and protests in SWAT trucks with their weapons drawn because "what your cameras aren't showing is gunfire is erupting all around." Arrests and tear gas have been necessary to quell the violence encircling the demonstrations, he said.
"Knowles denied a history of racial tensions in Ferguson, and said police relations with young men "is not a Ferguson problem. This is a national problem. Ferguson's become the point of eruption for this." Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was killed, was black; the identity and race of the officer involved hasn't been made public. "The prosecutor's policy is not to produce the name of anybody of any crime who has not been charged," Knowles said in response to calls for the officer's identity to be released."
Clearly, the mayor is out of touch. Clueless. State Trooper Capt. Ronald S. Johnson has been placed in charge of security in Ferguson by the governor.
... Another difficulty with trying to do this on the cheap without financial support and 24/7 Internet access is keeping this publication up to date, at the cutting edge.
-- Apparently, American intelligence is so poor it didn't know some supposedly 20,000 remaining Yazidis on the Sinjar mountain top are no longer there. None of this makes any sense. Someone's lying, -- or outrageously incompetent, uninformed. This government is amazingly good at spying, tracking its citizens. Has so little clue what's going on in Iraq?
Tim Chorney