FERGUSON

[Heywood]

*Reposted from the mirror thread on this same issue*

Can I once again mention that the Ferguson Police escalated the situation way past the issue of Michael Brown? Even if it turned out that Michael Brown had pulled out an uzi and threatened to gun down the officer and the entire street, the police escalated the situation to a much larger issue.

The police were confronted with largely peaceful protesters. They responded like the former Soviet army cracking down on Polish strikers. They showed up with armored transports and machine guns. They not only dispersed a crowd that was exercising their first amendment rights, they swept through restaurants and cleared them out, arresting reporters. They fired on media camera crews. They swept through neighborhoods firing tear gas into people's back yards and homes.

Frankly, police behavior went beyond mere jack booted thuggery. At least the former Soviets had a bit more finesse in their oppression tactics. The Ferguson police seemed completely out of control.

The strongest defense conservatives could offer for their behavior was to allege there was some looting in addition to the peaceful protesters. This does not justify firing upon camera crews or sweeping through restaurants to arrest people for sitting at tables and typing into their laptops.

The Yosemite Sam style response to the Ferguson protests stands in stark contrast to the Bundy Ranch protests. When a bunch of white conservative people express outrage about the government, it seems they're not only allowed to protest but also to carry firearms and point them at Federal agents.

Conservative flip flopping on the issue is also palpable. The Bundy Ranch protesters are patriots while the the protests in Ferguson are rioters and thugs.

So the larger issue here, which really needs to be discussed is this:

Is the right to protest a white privilege in America?

Discuss.

I didn't follow the Bundy case closely. I wouldn't have studied the Ferguson case closely except that we are discussing it. This stuff doesn't fascinate me. Anyways, your little image mentions Bundy protesters getting tasered. I was curious about it and found the video of the "riot" where the Bundy protesters were tasered.





I didn't see any guns. I didn't see people throwing rocks or bottles. What I saw was a lot of people yelling at the cops and holding cameras. I imagine if the rioters started to throw stuff at the cops...it would have gone down a little differently.

You can't compare Ferguson to Bundy because the two situations are significantly different.