Torn here

So I wasn’t going to write anything because well, I’m white and there are other voices we should all be listening to and reading. But then I’m getting angrier and angrier as time passes. I went to bed last night reading my progressive white friends trying to ignore races impact on all of this, and then I woke up to Mike Brown’s father delivering food in Ferguson for Thanksgiving. I’m having some trouble reconciling those two things. But we will come back to the first. Then the National Bar Association is calling on the Department of Justice to do something because they do not understand how the Grand Jury could reach this conclusion given the evidence. I’m not holding my breath on this one.

Let me come back to this removal of race. You can’t do it. The end. See yes, the militarization of the police is a problem. It was a problem at Occupy. It was a problem before that too, and the images of the police in Ferguson are ridiculous. But Mike Brown was murdered by Darren Wilson for being a black man (boy really), and Tamir Rice was murdered for being a black boy by the Cleveland police. Claiming it doesn’t matter because the real problem is the militarization of the police is willful ignorance and the discounting of the black lived experience. It is unacceptable. I expect this from conservatives claiming Wilson was right, but if you’re on our side, then get with it friends. The US condones and defends the right of the police (and anyone else) to kill black men. This is the underlying problem. Racial oppression was one of the ideas on which our justice system was built. The militarization of the police is one consequence of that idea. The criminal justice system doesn’t work for the oppressed it works to keep the status quo. Keep those with power safe from those without it. I mean come on; most of our laws are rooted in property law, even our rape laws. The system isn’t broken; this is how it was designed to work.

Now for the protesting, I’m not opposed to taking to the streets, but I’m tired. I’m tired of the marches in support of rape survivors and murdered children and against war and capitalism run amok. Our society is built on the patriarchy and patriarchy reinforces classism, sexism, and racism. We’re not going to fix this by protesting for a few days or hours. I think we need a full scale revolt. I know that sounds extreme, and I’m not one for advocating violence, but I don’t know what other options are left. But we will get nowhere by reforming one aspect of the justice system. We will get nowhere is the police turn their tanks back over to the military and continue to shoot children. We won’t get very far if the police agree to stop shooting children, but continue the mass incarceration of the same population.  

Honestly, I don’t feel like writing anymore or trying to continue this thought exercise to the conclusion. I’m going to go back to listening to Tracy Chapman.

So we’re going to talk about Ferguson again or a refresher on solidarity

Lean close, Amnesty International has sent a team into the US for the first time as the National Guard has been deployed to protect the police. All the while, repressive regimes around the world are rejoicing.

Things got violent again over the weekend, which honestly is expected given the determination of the police to incite violence. Natasha Culzac wrote for the Independent about Amnesty’s role in Ferguson. Amnesty has said it will be observing police and protester activity while gathering testimonies and training local activists “in methods of non-violent protest.” The executive director of Amnesty International USA, Steven W. Hawkins said the “people of Ferguson have the right to protest peacefully the lack of accountability for Michael Brown’s shooting.” The Amnesty team consists of 13 people including Jasmine Heiss who says the organization has limited access to post-curfew areas, which says something about the lack of transparency and the cover-up in Ferguson.

After declaring a state of emergency, Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon has ordered the deployment of the National Guard to “protect life and property.” But not the lives of black men. I just thought I’d fill in the subtext here. According to Nixon, the military will “maintain peace and order.” See the relationship disintegrated again after the curfew was issued, which by the way is patronizing shit all while perpetuating the myth that black people are violent. Way to go Gov. Nixon in what I’m pretty sure will be your last term in office, someone isn’t getting reelected.

Media outlets are claiming that hours before the curfew, the police opened fire into the crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets, which hit children and members of the media. Seriously, who are these people? Pro-tip, don’t fire on journalists unless your Egypt or Russia. Additionally, black journalists are alleging they have been racially profiled and refused re-entry to the press area while no white press had been.

Of course, there have been protests and vigils all over in support of Michael Brown’s family, but another unarmed black man was shot in LA on August 11, and people were gathering outside of police headquarters to protest there too.

There is only one more thing I want to talk about before I put this down for a bit. Class and race are not the same. And yes, I know we all make white people feel better by talking about this as a class issue or the racists cast Black people as dangerous, but while class plays a factor, Brown was executed because he was black. The National Guard was called because most protesters are Black. Now, do I think a governor would call up the National Guard to suppress the protesting of poor people, abso-fukcing-lutely. Do I think after justice for Michael Brown is achieved we should expand this conversation, maybe find out if police forced in affluent, white neighborhoods have tanks? Yes. We should, but right now I want the police officer who murdered an unarmed Black man to stand trial. That is the priority, and yeah, we might not get to the point where we can have a large conversation about classism and how it is linked to racism. Right now, the conversation needs to stay on the intersectionality of racism, structural racism, and the murder of Black children. We can’t change the narrative to be about class and risk throwing Black concerns overboard. Solidarity bitches, look it up. This is one of those time you have to wait your turn, and I know some of my white men readers have never been told that, but you get used to it.

John Oliver continuing to kick-ass.

Ferguson police are now arresting journalists; I disagree with Warren; and this is our future

This post comes to you in three parts.

Part I: Ferguson police are arresting journalists

Don’t get me wrong the murder of a black man was bad enough, but now, one has to ask. What the fuck are the Ferguson police doing where they feel compelled to arrest journalists? At least two reporters were arrested and then released without charge: Wesley Lowery from the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly from the Huffington Post. I’m guessing that the mass response to social media posts about journalists being arrested might have something to do with this.

Swat teams were called in to deal with the protesters, and they entered McDonalds where the two reporters were working. The reporters went offline at 5pm, which is when other journalists started tweeting that two journalists had been arrested. LA Times reporter than began investigating the arrests. After 45 minutes Lowery and Reilly came back online. You can read Lowery’s version of events here.

There is something truly horrifying that the police can arrest journalists and meet with no consequences.

Part II: I disagree with Senator Warren

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">This is America, not a war zone. The people of href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash">#Ferguson

just want answers. We all want answers.&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) href="https://twitter.com/elizabethforma/statuses/499904279961149440">August 14, 2014</blockquote>

Perhaps I’m a cynic, but America is a war zone. We’re just not used to seeing it on television because the war on drugs and the war on terror don’t really look like anything different than the status quo which is the brutalization of people of color and the low income. A lot of people on Twitter are drawing comparisons between Ferguson and the 1960s, specifically the Civil Rights Movement in the south. But this didn’t happen overnight. Slowly with the stripping of voters rights, the limitations on women’s rights, drug policy, racial profiling, we’ve slipped further and further back. We live in a militarized police state, when the police have access to tanks, then we live in a war zone. You can access a list of people killed by the police via Wikipedia, which is obviously a flawed source, but with news coming out that New Orleans’ police covered up a police shooting, coupled with the murders in Ohio, California, and Missouri, it is better than nothing.

Part III: This is our future or how did we get here

In case you’re confused the Ferguson Police have tanks because of the war on drugs and the war on terror. Sen. Warren, want to tell me again about how we’re not at war? See the local police forces got extra money to combat drugs and then terror. They put it to use by providing local police with better armor than the military. In Ferguson specifically, the military gave them military grade weapons.

We’re watching the police’s unreasonable response to lawful protests. This is what protesting looks like now, we got a glimpse of it during Occupy. Notably, the protesters unlawfully arrested at Occupy in New York sued, and they have been winning. While clearly, I’m opposed to the tactics being used against protesters, seeing some of these photos makes me wonder what civilians abroad must be thinking. I know survivors in Gaza have been sending tips to the Ferguson protesters on how to deal with the tear gas.

We’re here because for a long time society said it was ok to kill unarmed black people. Maybe this is the first step in issuing consequences for the senseless kill of people of color. However, the cynic in me doubts it. I think we’re revert right back to the way things were after this. I think the racists will be in full fear mode, and people of color will be even more disenfranchised. I know the Governor has decided to remove local police, but I’m not sure if that is going to be an improvement or if even better armed law enforcers will be deployed.

Police murdered an unarmed black boy in Missouri

Oh Jesus Christ, what the fuck is happening in Ferguson, Missouri? Last I heard, the police are threatening to arrest the press because after the police murder someone, and they don’t want the press to film it. My understanding is that the police shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18 year old man on Saturday in Ferguson, Mo. The police claimed Brown pushed an officer in a car and was then shot. Witnesses claim the police yelled at Brown and his friend, grabbed Brown and when Brown ran, he was shot. The FBI has taken over the investigation.

The reaction of the public has included marches, memorials, and looting. The police arrested 23 people on Sunday for theft. An additional five people were arrested at protests on Monday. The protesters want the police who murdered Brown, identified, fired, and prosecuted. The police force is disproportionately white compared to the 65% black population.

I’ve been reading Twitter for the past few hours (Monday night), and I can’t tell what the hell is happening except this appears like a military exercise. There are photos where smoke is billowing up as if a building has come down or a bomb gone off. The police are using an unjustified force against citizens. The police is using tear gas and rubber bullets. It is surreal. My thoughts are with Brown’s family, their supporters, those involved tonight, and anyone else witnessing this. I can’t stop thinking about those who are defending the actions of the police as if this could ever be justified. These people are how horrible injustices happen by looking the other way or justifying these actions.