November 4th Ballot

I just checked and there are 14 amendments on the ballot which will require you to do some homework to make an intelligent decision.

Here is a sample ballot for voters in St. Tammany

Here are some websites that explain the ballots in plain english:

The Bureau of Government Research"
The Bureau of Governmental Research is a private, nonprofit, independent research organization dedicated to informed public policy making and the effective use
of public resources for the improvement of government in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

They have created a comprehensive report that details - in everyday English - each of the constitutional amendments on the ballot. This is the place to go to make a wise decision on the amendments.

SOS LOUISIANA DOT GOV
The Louisiana Secretary of State


Vote Smart dot org.
Here you will be presented with all the information you need in making decisions in
this election. It doesn't include the amendments, but is chock full of
information about the candidates and incumbents.

CABL dot org
The Council for a Better Louisiana
In depth information of both the candidates and the amendments.

LA-PAR dot org
Louisiana Public Affairs Research Council
For a pdf guide to the constitutional amendments click here

Vote LA dot org
By putting in your address at this website you will be given a sample ballot
to familiarize yourself with the candidates and amendments. This site doesn't explain the amendments, though.


Proposed Amendments


1. Medical trust fund and healthcare provider base rate
2. Hospital assessment, trust fund and fee formula
3. Sales of property with delinquent taxes
4. Fund transfers for an infrastructure bank
5. Elimination of the mandatory retirement age of judges
6. Higher millage cap for police and fire protection in Orleans Parish
7. Property tax exemption for certain disabled veterans
8. Artificial Reef Development Fund
9. Tax exemption reporting for permanently disabled residents
10. Tax sale of vacant, blighted or abandoned property
11. Increases the number of state departments from 20 to 21
12. Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission membership
13. Orleans Lower Ninth Ward vacant property
14. Tax rebates, incentives and abatements

So there you go. Vote informed.

Monday Morning Smile

I caught this during last week and "squeed" from the first second. I didn't know porcupines made noises like this.

Guaranteed smiles for all of us. Bless you all this week.



watch

Mysterious Memorial

Somewhere deep within Colorado lies a memorial to Vietnam era Veterans. Called "Soldierstone" it was the dream of Lt. Colonel Stuart Allen Beckley, a Vietnam Veteran.

LTC Beckley served in Vietnam from 1962-1973. After the war he was deeply impacted by Vietnam and wanted to do something for his fellow soldiers – as well as the other countries affected by the war.

Beckley's idea to build a stone memorial on national forest land was initially denied. But when the forest supervisor for the Rio Grande National Forest, Jim Webb (now retired), discovered Beckley was dying of cancer, he changed his mind.

According to the Forest Service, Webb received a letter from Beckley that read, "I am running out of life … have 6 to 8 months to live and need all the help I can muster." Beckly passed away on November 5, 1995.


The memorial is a pillar about twelve feet high with text on each side. It’s surrounded by rocks piled into a low wall. Further away stones encircle the Monument. Beckley somehow got Soldierstone located and built on public land, and paid for it. He felt that the nameless, unthanked soldiers deserved this unique recognition. He also felt that it needed to be a low-key monument (like those soldiers), so his desire was that it would be built without government fuss, and after being built, would not be advertised. Very strange. Yet it is somehow moving and there is a sense of the sacred about the place.

Here is a video taken by some kids biking in Colorado when they came upon it.





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PIGS from Tennessee

As a child of the 60/70's I remember the term "pigs" referred to police.

In today's world, the term is only used to the animals who choose to shoot to death young black men.

Today, the term "pigs" is used by me to describe humans who abuse a wonderful, sweet breed of dogs. Pit Bulls.

Pitties are sweet, easy going and funny looking dogs. They are lovers.

This story is about pigs from Tennessee:



These pigs include

Monday Smile - October 20th, 2014

Woops, I just realized I've been remiss in doing my Monday smiles.

As you watch this, please know that I am smiling because I attended a wedding of a very special girl yesterday and my heart is happy.

If you use the train on Mondays, or a bus - imagine this happening.

His Final Recording

I blatantly stole the writeup below from Taste of Country dot com .

No I'm not a big fan of country music, but I grew up with Glen Cambell music. Some of my favorites were By the Time I get to Phoenix", " Wichita Lineman" and many more.

A few years ago, Glen was diagnosed with Alzheimers. We all know how that ends up. The following verbage is a set-up for the video which - if you ever liked him as a kid - will put a lump in your throat. Here is the article from the taste of country website:



Glen Campbell has been very public about his battle with Alzheimer’s, bravely staging a farewell tour after his diagnosis in 2011 and even allowing camera crews to capture those performances for a new documentary.

Now, he has released a new single, taken from the final recording session of his career.

According to Radio.com, Campbell went into the studio in January 2013, just months after his final public performance. The resulting track is ‘I’m Not Gonna Miss You,’ a rumination on everything that Alzheimer’s is slowly taking from Campbell as he enters its advanced stages. Campbell co-wrote the song with Julian Raymond and recorded it specifically for ‘Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,’ which is set to open in theaters in late October.

The track is both sad and almost unbearably resolute, as the singer pays a final farewell to his wife and his life while acknowledging that much of the burden for what’s ahead will not fall on him: “I’m never gonna hold you like I did / Or say ‘I love you’ to the kids / You’re never gonna see it in my eyes / It’s not gonna hurt me when you cry / I’m never gonna know what you go through / All the things I’ll say or do / All the hurt and all the pain / One thing selfishly remains / I’m not gonna miss you.”
Interspersed with scenes from Campbell’s final tour as well as flashbacks from his life, the video serves as a testament to the legend’s impact in both his musical and personal life, as well as a fitting farewell to one of the leading musical lights of his generation.

Campbell was moved to a full-time care facility in April, and his wife, Kim, has said that it is unlikely that he will ever perform in public again.

‘Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me’ features commentary from fellow musicians Blake Shelton, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift and Vince Gill, as well as friends and fans like Steve Martin, Bruce Springsteen, U2‘s the Edge, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Webb, Jay Leno and Bill Clinton. After premiering at the Nashville Film Festival in April, it is set to open in a limited theatrical release in New York and Nashville on Oct. 24 before playing in theaters nationwide.

Police Brutality

From the Daily Kos website TUE OCT 07, 2014 AT 12:17 PM PDT
Indiana man tasered and ripped from car during routine traffic stop
Below was reported on Daily Kos:

Lisa Mahone, her two children, and her boyfriend Jamal Jones were rushing to a Chicago hospital to see her mother after receiving word from hospital officials that her mother was near death.

She was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt, handed the officer her license and insurance information and informed them they were in a hurry to see her mother before she passed. For whatever reason, the officers decided they need to see ID from her boyfriend as well. He did not have a current license due to a traffic violation and rather than let it go, they asked him to get out of the vehicle. He reached into the backseat to show them the paperwork and that is when all hell broke loose:

Jones said he didn't have an ID to give to police because he recently got a ticket. When he reached into his book bag in the back seat to get the ticket, police drew their guns.
"I don't know you and I don't know what you're going to do," an officer told Jones. He responded, "That's why I have my windows up. I'm not no harm to you right now. I got my kids in the car and you're drawing your weapon."

Jones told FOX 32 News, "So once the kids were scared, I wasn't gonna get out of the car and leave my kids in the car. He was being so aggressive."

Meanwhile, Mahone was talking to 911 operators, pleading for them to send a supervisor as her son taped the encounter on a cell phone. See their terrifying experience:

Tab Benoit

Beautiful song. The first time we heard this song we were driving through the Smokey Mountains. When it came time for the DJ to give credit for this song we lost the signal due to the mountains. So we called Sirius and asked who the artist was and he told us Tab Benoit (Ben-wah), a Louisiana native (Houma boy).



Please enjoy.

This is my second favorite Benoit song. The first one is "When a Cajun Man gets the Blues", penned while he was away from Louisiana (in Colorado) during Hurricane Katrina.

Monday Smile October 6, 2014

I found this via Twitter this evening. It's not HILARIOUSLY funny, just mildly so.

If you like Bob Dylan's music (this song is from the "Blood on the Tracks" album) and Bill Murray, watch this.

Monday Smile

I know, it's Monday. Monday sucks when you work.

Just saying I'm completely retired as of now and am sooooooooooooooooooo happy.

Watch this video and you will be too. Hope your Monday is a good one.

Justice? No Freaking Way!

There have been SO many stories published about police brutality in the past few months that it's been difficult to keep up with them.

The incident I'm referencing is about a young man in Ohio who was shot down in a (where else) WALMART for holding a toy gun .

Update September 25, 2014:
Federal investigators to review Ohio Walmart shooting Let's hope they come up with a different outcome.

John Crawford III

Here's the story from Daily Kos

Stunning news out of Ohio. Special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier has announced that after three days of grand jury testimony, there will be no indictments in the shooting death of John Crawford III, which took place inside an Ohio Walmart in August.

Video taken from Walmart surveillance cameras were released at the press conference and they still don't seem to tell the whole story. I SEE THE WHOLE STORY!!! THIS MAN WAS JUST PLAYING WITH A TOY, DAMMIT! WATCH THIS VIDEO, NO PEOPLE WERE THREATENED!!!!

Based on the video they released, Crawford does not appear to be pointing the air rifle at anyone. Ronald Ritchie was the 911 caller who alerted police and claimed: Ronald Ritchie said Crawford "was just waving [the gun] at children and people...I couldn't hear anything that he was saying. I'm thinking that he is either going to rob the place or he's there to shoot somebody. Just how does Mr. Ritchie know this? Here's more from the scared eye witness: "He didn't really want to be looked at and when people did look at him, he was pointing the gun at them. He was pointing at people. Children walking by," Ugh Mr. Ritchie, you have been playing too many obscenely horrific games when you look at a lone man in a toy aisle in Walmart and think he was going to go on a mass shooting spree. Update 9/29/14: Ritchie changes his story and could possibly charged with manslaughter>

One of my all--time favorites

How Cold Can You Get???

Urban Outfitters (where I never shop, way overpriced) is selling "Vintage" Kent State sweatshirts complete with blood and bullet holes .

I was a sophomore in high school when the Kent State shootings (AKA the May 4 massacre) occurred.
The National Guard had been called out to an anti-Cambodia protest and fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis..

I'm hoping that the kids buying these shirts are unaware of the history of Kent State shootings and just think the blood and bullet holes are "cool". Me, I'm sick.

Police Brutality

I used to do scuzzbuckets of the week, which focused on regular citizens doing ugly things. Now with all the stories about Police Brutality, I just may start a series taken from the treasure trove of horrific actions of the nations police force on a regular basis.

from Addictinginfo.org, the story of police brutally arresting a terminally ill man


From the above link, here is the story:
Jeffery Brian Bane, 39, was arrested Saturday, Sept. 6, and charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and battery on an officer.


This is actually a story about police harassing and assaulting a terminally-ill man. They simply confused his symptoms for intoxication.



A statement to the Free Thought Project by his nephew, Josh Banes explains that he actually suffers from Huntington’s Disease, which he described as being “very similar to Parkinson’s.”

“Assuming because of his appearance he was high on narcotics with out reason they began to sub due him, macing and beating him in the head as he fell to his face were he was then held with a great amount of force by two officers double his size as a third one landed on his torso,” the statement read. “For the the next ten minutes as my cousins watch unattended, my uncle pleads and cries out in pain for the lack of breath and agony being applied to him.”

According to the Huntington Disease Society of America, (HDSA) the disease, which is hereditary and incurable, prompts deterioration of nerve cells in the brain.

“As the disease progresses, concentration and short-term memory diminish and involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs increase,” the HDSA states on its website. “Walking, speaking and swallowing abilities deteriorate. Eventually the person is unable to care for him or herself. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.”

A female bystander came upon the arrest and was so disturbed by what she saw that she called an ambulance and started filming with her mobile phone. After a short while she is approached by an officer and herself threatened with arrest.

“How are you involved with this guy?” he asks.

“I just was driving by,” she replies. “This is insane. I’m not doing anything wrong, either, and I’m on private property,”

She demands to know why the officers are refusing to handcuff the suspect even though he is bleeding and gurgling.

“He is choking on his own blood,” she says. “I can hear it from my car.”

“Okay, but these aren’t your kids and you don’t know –” the officer says. But she cuts him off with:

“No, I don’t,” she says. “But this is wrong.”

“If you want to continue filming, that’s okay,” the officer says. “If you continue to be loud and boisterous, I will arrest you for obstructing, okay?”

“Just leave me alone,” she replies.

The Bane’s family have launched an online campaign to have the charges against him dropped.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/history/2013/09/danny_lewin_the_first_victim_on_9_11_and_an_architect_of_the_internet.html?wpsrc=fol_fb

linking from Slate.com, this is the story of Danny Lewin, the first victim of September 11, 2001.

Danny was the founder of , one of the world's largest distributed-computing platforms, responsible for serving between 15 and 30 percent of all web traffic.


Rather than paste the details of his death here (which is easier for the reader), I'm posting a teaser here, with the link to the rest of the story.


Until now, Lewin’s story has remained untold—mainly out of respect for friends and family who closely guarded their memories of the brilliant commando turned computer scientist. In addition, the official reports of what happened on Flight 11 were, for some time, conflicting and confusing. A memo mistakenly released by the Federal Aviation Administration stated that terrorist Satam al-Suqami shot and killed Lewin with a single bullet around 9:20 a.m. (obviously inaccurate, as the plane crashed at 8:46 a.m.). But almost as soon as the memo was leaked, FAA officials claimed it was written in error and that Lewin had been stabbed, not shot. The 9/11 Commission concurred in its final report, issued four years later, offering a more detailed summary: Based on dozens of interviews with those who spoke with two of the plane’s flight attendants during the hijacking, the commission determined that al-Suqami most likely killed Lewin by slashing his throat from behind as he attempted, single-handedly, to try to stop the hijacking. The time of his death was reported to be somewhere between 8:15 and 8:20 a.m.

“He was the first victim of the first war of the 21st century,” says Marco Greenberg, Lewin’s best friend.

But that act of heroism was not the only way Lewin made his presence felt on that terrible, unique, awful day. In a tragic twist of irony, the algorithms he helped develop, and the company he co-founded—Akamai Technologies—helped the Internet survive that day’s crush of traffic— the Web equivalent of a 100-year flood.
Born in Denver, Lewin moved to Israel with his family in 1984. The move happened totally against his will; his father, Charles, had become an ardent Zionist and relocated his family to “make aliyah,” a term used to describe the repatriation of Jews to Israel. Lewin was just 14 years old, and he was furious at his family’s sudden uprooting. During his first few months in Israel he struggled to learn the language and make friends. Instead of rebelling, however, Lewin turned to his two greatest assets—his physical strength and superior intellect. Sailing through his classes at a Jerusalem technology school and spending all his spare time at a local gym, Lewin fought to fit in with the tough sabras, and in time he succeeded. By age 18 he was signing up for military service in the IDF, where he joined the ranks of the country’s most elite counterterrorism unit, Sayeret Mat’kal.

Here is the

Even if you're not religious, please have positive thoughts for the 2000+ victims and their families.

Payback, Bitches

Justice moves slowly, but in one week two rulings have been against the BP and Halliburton

from Reuters)
- A U.S. judge has decided that BP Plc (BP.L) was “grossly negligent” and “reckless” in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill four years ago, a ruling that could add nearly $18 billion in fines to more than $42 billion in charges the company took for the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.

BP said it would appeal Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, Louisiana, who held a trial without a jury last year to determine who was responsible for the April 20, 2010 rig explosion and spill that killed 11 workers and spewed oil for nearly three months onto the shorelines of several states.
There you go, BP. Keep whining about people being mean to you

Photo courtesty of Reuters
This comes on the heels of Halliburton being ordered to pay $1.1 billion to Gulf Coast residents, local governments and businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, moving to limit its liabilities ahead of a court ruling that could have increased its costs.

The settlement announced Tuesday by the company and plaintiffs' lawyers includes claims for punitive damages brought by the commercial fishing industry and others affected by the spilled crude.

The amount is less than the $1.3 billion Halliburton has set aside for its costs stemming from the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Some legal analysts say the settlement will eliminate most of the oil-field-services company's liability from the incident. (source WSJ http://online.wsj.com/articles/halliburton-to-settle-deepwater-horizon-claims-for-1-1-billion-1409664524)

Four years after that horrific accident there are still signs that the Gulf still isn't right. From" MNN.com:

Findings from the NWF's report include the following:

More than 900 bottlenose dolphins have been found dead or stranded in the area of the spill since April 2010, which is more than scientists have seen in the past decade. Area dolphins are also underweight and anemic and show signs of liver and lung diseases.

About 500 dead sea turtles have been found in the region annually since 2011. All five species of sea turtles in the Gulf are listed as threatened or endangered.

Nearly 1,000 brown pelicans have been collected since the spill and half of them have died.

Other coastal birds have increased concentrations of toxic oil compounds in their blood.

Sperm whales that swam near the spill have higher levels of DNA-damaging metals, such as nickel and chromium, in their bodies than they did before the spill.

Despite these findings, BP, the British oil company responsible for the spill, says the report "is a piece of political advocacy — not science."


Read more: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/4-years-after-gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-still-dying#ixzz3COFzmYX0

For the end of a K+9 Weekend

Blue Tarp Blues, by Sonny Landreth. God Bless Us All.

My Hero

"Stuck on Stupid". I have that bumpersticker still on my car.


Highlights on Honore's time in NOLA


Honore looks back

Police Brutality in Minnesota

A black man, sitting on a bench waiting to pick up his kids, is harrassed by St. Paul police. This is disturbing. The cops are acting like they're good guys, but are real turds.

Here is an excerpt from tcplanet.net

"According to the police report, St. Paul police officers Michael Johnson and Bruce Schmidt “were called to the First National Bank Building on a report of uncooperative male refusing to leave.” The third female officer in the video has still not been identified. The name of the security guard that Lollie claims made the call was omitted from the police report “due to safety concerns.” Lollie was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process."


The charges were subsequently dropped.

K plus 9

Nine years ago Hurricane Katrina visited the Gulf Coast of the U.S. and wreaked havoc in so many ways and so many places.

The final death toll was at 1,836, primarily from Louisiana (1,577) and Mississippi (238). More than half of these victims were senior citizens.

New Orleans was the major story on most news broadcasts. That's when I decided to create this website to share the storm's affect on the Northshore and Gulf Coast

There have been great strides made during the last 9 years, but some areas are still ghost towns. Parts of St. Bernard Parish there are still empty lots where subdivisions used to be. The Mississippi Gulf Coast was completely flattened as Katrina came ashore from the storm, but it has rebounded quite nicely.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we stayed for the storm. Our observations are at this link.

I have many memories from the storms documented throughout this blog. Just put Katrina in the search box located on the top left of the page.

NOLA dot com has put together an article that talks about population change, economic upturns and "lingering challenges" in the 9 years at this link

Recommended reading and films about the storm and the aftermath can be found here.

Police Brutality in the age of cell phones

It's the age of instantly sharing stories via cell phone cameras, something that can be a good thing in these days of police brutality.

This story comes from a Walmart (of course) in Greenville, South Carolina.

Someone called 911 to report a man acting erratically outside of the Walmart. When the deputies arrived, the intoxicated individuals told them "I'm the 911". He then enters the store. In this video, you can see that excessive force was used to "subdue" the man. One deputy punches the suspect seventeen times in the head, while onlookers record the scene and scream at the cops to stop. Finally, a level headed deputy gets the testosterone filled cop to stop beating the suspect:



What ever happened to cuffing the drunk and taking him to jail?

Racists Stupidity

I am over the top in amazement at the stupid, racial things that people in America are saying.

So, I decided to compile a list of the lastest I have run across: (each story is linked to the facts)

Iowa Republican: Immigrant Children May Be “Highly Trained” Muslim Terrorists
AUTHOR: PROUD LIBERAL AUGUST 22, 2014 5:19 PM

Actor Kevin Sorbo (who???): Ferguson unrest let black protesters be the ‘animals’ they ‘truly are’
By David Edwards
Thursday, August 21, 2014 13:38 EDT

Pat Robertson On Ferguson Incident: Maybe Michael Brown Was On PCP
bylibrarisingnsfFollow">

Fox host: Obama staged Michael Brown tragedy, 'in cahoots' with Al Sharpton

Insane GOP Rep. Trent Franks: ‘Obama Signaled Terrorists to Execute James Foley’
Insane GOP Rep. Trent Franks: ‘Obama Signaled Terrorists to Execute James Foley’

I will be posting more as I find them.

Police "doctoring" evidence after murder

St. Louis Police shot Kajieme Powell, a 25-year-old black man 9 times this week for stealing 2 soft drinks. You may have heard about the "shoot me" killing. If that's not bad enough, the video below shows them turning over the body and putting cuffs on him. It's stunning.
I just found out that Mr. Powell was mentally unbalanced......

Watch the eyewitness video


Now here is what happened according to police:

Bordain on Ice Bucket Challenge

Questions and Answers about Ferguson

What We Know and Don’t Know About the Michael Brown Shooting in Fergusn
Taken from Time magazine here is information about
what's been going on in Ferguson, Missouri during the past 11 days. For those of you who've not been following the situation.

written by
Alex Altman / Ferguson, Mo. @aaltman82

How did Wilson encounter Brown?

Shortly before noon on Aug. 9, Brown walked into Ferguson Market and Liquor, a convenience store on West Florissant Avenue. He was with a friend, 22-year-old Dorian Johnson. At approximately 11:51, according to a police report, an unidentified officer received a call that a robbery was in progress at the store. But the suspect, who a Brown family lawyer has acknowledged “appears to be” Brown from surveillance footage, was gone when the officer arrived.

Minutes later, Brown and Johnson turned onto Canfield Drive, where they came upon a second officer, Wilson, at 12:01 p.m. At that point, Wilson didn’t know Brown was suspected of committing the robbery minutes earlier, according to Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson. He just saw a pair of people blocking traffic. Ferguson police have provided conflicting reports on whether Wilson received information that Brown was a robbery suspect between the moment that the officer encountered Brown and the fatal shooting.

So what led to the shooting?

It’s unclear and witness accounts differ. What we know is that within about three minutes, Brown was dead of multiple gunshot wounds to the head and torso. Pictures show him sprawled face down in the middle of the street, with a trail of what appears to be blood seeping from his body.

Johnson has said that Wilson ordered them onto the sidewalk and when they didn’t move right away, the office pulled up to Brown. A struggle ensued, and in Johnson’s version of events, Brown was shot from inside the car before they both took off running with Wilson in pursuit. Johnson has said Wilson fired multiple times despite Brown having his hands up.

Other witnesses have provided conflicting accounts, alternately alleging that Brown was shot in the back or while on his knees in a posture of surrender. And Wilson’s version of events is even harder to ascertain, because he’s in hiding: He fled his St. Louis-area neighborhood a few days after shooting and hasn’t spoken publicly. Police have said Brown reached for Wilson’s gun and the shooting occurred during that struggle. It’s unclear why Brown was shot so many times.

Why has it taken so long for details of the shooting to come out?

Wilson’s name was withheld for almost a week out of concerns for his safety. Three dueling autopsies have either been conducted or ordered—the standard one by the local medical examiner, a private one requested by the family, and a third one ordered by federal authorities.

And federal and state authorities have mostly declined to comment on their pending investigations, while leaks have been kept to a minimum, likely to avoid fanning the cycle of violence that has roiled the city’s downtown streets.

Who’s investigating all this?

Multiple authorities at various levels of law enforcement are looking into the shooting. A St. Louis County grand jury is probing the matter. And a federal civil rights investigation is also underway.

Why does violence keep breaking out every night?

It’s instigated by a small faction of what police describe as “agitators.” They mix in with the crowd of peaceful demonstrators, but they’re on the scene to confront cops as much as to Brown. These people are shooting guns, hurling bricks, bottles and Molotov cocktails, and looting and vandalizing businesses. After dark, West Florissant Avenue and the neighboring streets are extremely dangerous, and several people have been shot.

Who’s trying to keep the peace in Ferguson?

On the demonstrators’ side, it’s a diverse collection of pastors, politicians, community leaders, black power groups, and many ordinary citizens who are disheartened by the way in which the violence has subverted the quest for justice. The vast majority of the protesters in the streets are peaceful—at least, until dark.

Riot-gear clad officers from the county and state highway patrol—now backed by the Missouri National Guard—have responded to provocations from protesters with tear gas, flash bangs, and other methods.

What happens next?

A St. Louis County grand jury will begin hearing evidence on Wednesday. But there’s no hard timetable on how long the whole process will take, and it could be weeks or months before the details of the investigation are know, the U.S. Attorney in Eastern Missouri told TIME Tuesday.

Ferguson, Mo.

This has to stop

Copied from the Saint Louis American
Wish I knew the author, this is well written.


The family of Michael Brown leave a message on the street where he was gunned down by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday.

Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:00 am
With deep humility, we admit we did not see this coming, and not where it came – in a ring suburb, rather than in the city – though we can see where it came from.

North St. Louis County and many of its municipalities have suffered decades of economic disinvestment, loss of manufacturing jobs and disruption by highway construction and airport expansion. Those who chose to stay in these ring suburbs, or who had no other options, had to live – or die – with the consequences.
White flight, particularly to St. Charles County, first hit the school districts, then the tax base. Remaining homeowners are heavily taxed in areas with often struggling schools, little industry and dwindling businesses and services. The mortgage bubble really burst in these areas, with rampant home foreclosures. Large retail areas in North County have been abandoned. Small businesses face difficulty establishing a presence due to high prices for retail space and insurance costs. Those who stay charge more, and those who buy from them pay more.
When businesses and retail move, those who remain have to spend their money with establishments elsewhere in the region. That builds up the tax base in other areas, not their own. For those who lack reliable transportation (let alone job skills and education), there are few opportunities to eke out a livelihood locally. There is little escape.

Disillusionment, resentment and tension set in where economic opportunities, recreation and thriving businesses once flourished. The “look at us, we are on our way back” slogans boasted by chambers of commerce say nothing about those who have been treated as invisible or dispensable.
As for our youth, many of them may not be properly educated, but they are not stupid, and it is not difficult for them to hear what they are being told in the cold language of unaccredited districts and transfer students. Michael Brown graduated in the much-discussed Normandy School District, an unaccredited school district that expired not long before he was killed. He and his peers – specifically, those strivers willing to transfer to a better school district – were told they were not wanted by many other districts in the region, once those districts were no longer required to accept them.
It may take a village to raise a child, but many administrators and parents in better-resourced parts of our region had no problem saying quite publicly that Michael Brown and his brothers and sisters did not belong in their village.

So it is not difficult to understand the frustration and anger of the sons and daughters of these disinvested ring suburbs. It is even easier to understand why, when their frustration and anger turned to rage at the murder of one of their own by a cop, it was directed at the police.
Most obviously, a police officer killed Michael Brown – in cold blood, according to eyewitnesses. But our sons’ and daughters’ rage at the police started long before Michael Brown and his friend were told to get out of the street on Saturday afternoon by a foul-mouthed Ferguson cop.
In many North County municipalities, it seems police run contests to see how many young black men you can pull over, flaunting the officers’ power and the motorists’ powerlessness. Our young men especially are regularly inconvenienced and humiliated while simply trying to get where they are going. The Missouri Attorney General annually releases a report, which no black person needs to read, that documents appalling disparities in how often black drivers are pulled over and searched, compared to white people, all over the state and the region.

But Michael Brown was not pulled over while driving. He was told to get out of the street while walking. For offering what was initially, according to an eyewitness, the mildest of resistance to a rude and unnecessary police order, this unarmed teen was shot in the middle of the day, and his bullet-riddled body left by police to lay in the street for hours, as if to provide a grisly example.

That did it. That’s what drove people (not just young people) to act out their pent-up rage. That’s what drove people to demonstrate (which is within their rights). That’s what drove people to the candlelight vigil on Sunday. And that’s what drove a few who disregarded the greater good to lash out at what was in front of them. The resulting chaos created an opportunity for looters – many of them, according to reported arrests, not from the immediate area – to smash and grab from what businesses remain.
We can’t bring Michael Brown back. But we can insist on a prompt, credible, transparent investigation – under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice, we urge – and that his killer be brought to justice. The officer should receive the constitutionally guaranteed due process he did not give to his victim. When his name is finally disclosed – as should have been done immediately – there must be no effort to bring him to the vigilante justice we see too often delivered from behind the authority of a badge.

We also must insist – as a life-or-death matter essential to the peace and functioning of our society – on an immediate and thorough review of police policy, procedure and training throughout the region. There are successful models of police/community cooperation that can be adopted. We must diversify our police departments – the Ferguson Police Department reportedly has three black cops in a staff of 53. We must train police officers who patrol minority neighborhoods in how to better understand the people on their beats and interact with them in a spirit of mutual respect. And we must stop protecting police officers when they use unwarranted force, against black men or anyone.

In the meantime, our angry youth and many supportive citizens remain on the streets, taunting police in riot gear with snipers sprawled on what amount to tanks, training high-powered rifles on unarmed black people with their hands in the air, chanting, “Don’t shoot!” among other things we won’t print.
We commend St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal and community activist and writer Tef Poe, in particular, for showing leadership on the streets in these tense days. It is clear, now more than ever, that many more of us need to leave our offices, churches and comfort zones and engage more directly with our angry and misdirected youth.

“We as leaders can help redirect their justified anger,” French tweeted in the heat of the battle. “But we can’t do it from churches or our living rooms. We have to be with them.”

It should also be painfully clear, now more than ever, that this is not a black problem, but a problem for our entire region and others like it across the nation. True, if our community were more organized and voted its strength, then municipalities like Ferguson would not have the utterly inadequate mayors and police chiefs that are making life-or-death decisions today – and making them very badly, with fatal consequences.

But these consequences have regional impact. In countless editorials, we have urged our corporate and political leaders to do more to include African Americans in educational, economic and social opportunities for the greater good of the region. Over and over, we have exhorted, our region cannot thrive when we consign so many of our youth to the oblivion of failing schools and poor job skills. Now, more than ever, it is clear that our region needs to do more to include African Americans from the earliest ages for the region not only to thrive, but simply to function peaceably.

We believe it is because not nearly enough capable people with resources in this region have heeded our plea that we have reached this crisis point of complete breakdown, when the St. Louis region has entered the world’s spotlight, not as one of its great places to live and work, but as one of its war zones. We need peace. But first, we need justice and equity, so that Michael Brown’s death is not wasted, like so many young black lives before his, and with them the future prospects of this region and nation.