Ok, now that you've all had your say, it's time to hear from someone who used to live in Ferguson. I lived there for over 45 year (until my house got flooded out but that's another story) and I can tell you what goes on there first hand. First off, about 50% of the cops in Ferguson would "shoot first and ask questions later" if they could get away with it. Al Lewis and Fred Gwynne they're not. If you go down to the city hall on court day, almost 90% of the people there are black. The city looks for ways to write tickets so they can make sure their pay checks don't bounce every week. Speeding tickets (speed traps), seat belt tickets.... any minor offence they can pull out their ass just to write someone up. They avoid hazadous confrontation at all costs. When the first night of looting started, the cops were a little over a mile away from the scene set up at their "command post" at a nearby shopping center. Over 100 cars and cops sitting on their ass while over two dozen businesses lost almost everything they owned. "Protect and Serve????", yeah, right.
Now the other side of the coin. ALL the looters arrested from that night of looting were from out of the area. Not a single one from Ferguson was arrested. Now, did they have the "smarts" to get out of Dodge before the cops got their and not get caught??? We'll never know. The local news crews showed live shots or the business getting looted. They had some pretty good shots of license plates on the cars that were involved. Some of the cars had Illinois plates on them. After about 30 to 40 minutes of the looting and the live shots from the scene, the looters started showing up in the cars with the plates removed. This was done so they couldn't be ID'ed later on. Half of them were on cell phones with their friends and I'm guessing that they were being told to remove the plates off the cars. Also, when the local news crews were showing the looting, they also were saying that they heard the sirens and the cops were on their way. Within a minute, the looters would jump in their cars and leave. More proof that they were in contact with friends on the phone that were watching TV.
Now for Mr. Brown. Video from inside the store showed him reaching across the counter and taking the items in question. It also showed the worker coming from behind the counter and try to stop him from leaving. It did show Mr. Brown grabbing him by the throat and pushing him back toward the counter. As Mr. Brown again tried to walk out the door, the worked again tried to stop him. Mr. Brown then cocks his fist like he's ready to punch him. The worker finally backs off and watches him exit the store. The next thing that we know for sure is that Mr. Brown is dead in the middle of the street about 15 minutes later. The police report does say that the stolen items were found on his person.
Now for the final confrontation. Only three people know for sure what really happened. The cop, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Brown's friend. One of them is dead. He can't talk. The cop? Was his memory "clouded" about what happened? Maybe. Mr. Brown's friend? Was his account of the events tainted? I know if my friend was shot and killed I don't think I could give an accurate account of what really happened. There is not one single frame of video of what happened on the street, so we'll never really know what happened.
After the police released the information about the incident, which I remind you, is all the protesters said they wanted, the store in question was the main target of the looting later that night. Hey, you wanted to know the truth, you got it, and STILL got pissed off. Now you've got people showing up to protest after they are being told to be out of the area and were told to go home by midnight. If I were involved in the protest, I would be long gone before it got dark. They saw what happed on Saturday night. What did they say to themselves, "Oh, they won't use tear gas and rubber bullets again tonight?". Once the protesters started throwing stuff at the cops, all bets were off and the fun began.
Now you've got all these outside groups showing up stirring up more shit. All this is doing is turning up the fire on an already smoldering pot. You want my opinion??? These people really don't care about Mr. Brown. All they are looking for is something, anything to happen so they can get their 10 minutes of face time on TV. What about all the rest of the world. Don't you think enemies of this country are just laughing their asses off right now about what we're doing to ourselves???? If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're sending in some of their people just to keep the confrontations going. They don't have to do too much to bring down this country. We do a pretty good job of it ourselves.
