Saturday, November 29, 2014

Ferguson Protests: WE were not fooled!


Ferguson residents participated in peaceful demonstrations 100 days prior to and after the grand jury decision, but those protests didn’t make the headlines.
From the moment Prosecutor McCulloch stated he would announce the Ferguson grand jury’s decision at the 9th hour, he and everybody else knew that it would lead to volatile consequences.
What was McCulloch thinking?

Did he assume that WE would be so caught up with the initial volatility  that WE would not remember the sloppy manner in which he and members of the Ferguson Police Department mishandled another questionable death of another Black and unarmed youth?

WE were not fooled by the immediate portrayal of Michael as the bad guy; by the botched legal process orchestrated by Prosecutor McCulloch, or by Officer Wilson's ill advised rush to, publicly, express “no regrets”  after the grand jury decision was announced.
WE were not fooled by McCulloch’s questionable decision to put the grand jury in the role of being a trier of fact which is not a grand jury’s role. By handing over all of the conflicting evidence and conflicting testimony, McCulloch assured that there would be no trial!
The traditional role of a Prosecutor is to seek out the victim before deciding how he/she will proceed with his/her choice of legal proceedings. WE were not fooled by the fact that McCulloch never reached out or even spoke to Michael's family!?!?

McCullock was not alone. Ferguson police officers were, clearly, ill trained, ill prepared and insensitive regarding how to deal with a situation of that nature.
WE were not fooled that incompetent and questionable evidence controls made it possible for Officer Wilson to maintain sole custody of his weapon hours after the incident occurred!?!?

WE were not fooled  that incompetent and questionable evidence controls resulted in Michael’s body laying in the street, unattended, for 4 hours after the incident occurred!?!?
We were not fooled by members of the Ferguson police department wearing wrist bands in support of Officer Wilson in full view of Ferguson residents less than two weeks following the tragedy!?!?
We were not fooled when Ferguson police officials leaked a tape that had nothing to do with the reason Officer Wilson approached Michael.
WE were not fooled by the fact that all of the above actions by Prosecutor McCulloch and members of the Ferguson Police Department only served to degrade the life of the victim, insult the victim’s family, and rile up Ferguson residents!

Initial media coverage didn't help matters either. When violence, first, broke out, no network covered the fact that peaceful protests were taking place at the same time!
WE were not fooled by the racially tainted tone of FOX coverage before, during and after the violence erupted as a result of  McCulloch's botched announcement under cover of darkness.
FOX is the only network not reporting the above mentioned insensitive actions demonstrated by Ferguson police officers.
FOX is the only network not covering the many peaceful demonstrations surrounding Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson or across the nation.
FOX is the only network not mentioning that McColloch had a ”long  history” of siding with police in the deaths of Black victims at the hands of Ferguson police officers.
FOX is the only network portraying the grand jury’s decision as a verdict which it was not.  
Grand jurors are not charged with the determination of beyond a reasonable doubt. Grand jurors are not charged with determining guilt or innocence.  A grand jury’s role is to determine whether or not there is enough evidence to go to trial. The vast amount of conflicting evidence and conflicting testimony presented to Ferguson grand jurors by Prosecutor McCulloch guaranteed that a trial to determine guilt or innocence would never take place. 

Residents of Ferguson and across the nation must continue peaceful demonstrations and contacts with their elected representatives pressing for the development of uniform standards, procedures and training protocols regarding how police officers can handle potentially volatile situations with the least loss of life on either side.
Residents of Ferguson and across the nation must use the power of the ballot to elect political representatives who truly understand and represent the social and economic nature and issues affecting the constituents they are elected to serve.
Devious, racially-tainted efforts mastermined to  fool the people should never be an option!

SOURCES
www.newsweek.com/ferguson-prosecutor-robert-p-mccullochs-long-hist..

ThinkProgress - 3 hours ago


New York Times - 1 hour ago

online.wsj.com/.../ferguson-area-clergy-lead-peacef...

Chicago Tribune - 9 hours ago

philly.curbed.com/.../peaceful-ferguson-demonstrations-wegmans...


www.huffingtonpost.com/.../ferguson-protests_n_62...


www.nbcwashington.com/.../Ferguson-protests-DC-darren-wils...

blogs.seattletimes.com/.../in-portland-small-ferguson-pr...

Protests overFerguson grand jury decision break out across ...

www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Protesters-gather-90-cities-U-S-grand-ju...



DenverActivists Plan For Another Peaceful RallyAfter Ferguson ...

CBS Local-5 hours ago

Peaceful protest plannedin Louisville in wake of Ferguson decision

WLKY Louisville-12 hours ago

Jon Stewartannihilates Fox News for racist Ferguson ...

www.dailydot.com/.../jon-stewart-fox-news-ferguson-racis...


www.newrepublic.com/.../fox-news-channel-racism-to...



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