Hot Air Weekend Editor Jazz Shaw believes that pointing out police militarization – not just in Ferguson, Missouri but everywhere – is “a rather rapid rush to judgment and lacking in larger context.” He is flabbergasted that “one local disturbance has turned into a national demand to defang the police.” And he wants everyone to know that he finds this trend of thought insulting to first responders, because “police departments in cities and towns of all sizes have been equipped with more modern, military style equipment for quite some time now and they don’t seem to be converting the rest of the nation into a series of oppressive death camps.”
Ignoring Shaw’s obvious attempt to “Godwin” the conversation into the abyss, perhaps it might be a good idea to answer his objections charitably, providing the larger context he desperately seeks, starting with Ferguson.
The most obvious statement to make at the outset is that neither jaywalking nor suspicion of petty theft nor running away from cops are crimes punishable by death anywhere in the United States. The fact that Mike Brown was killed for one of those three things is outrageous, and people were rightfully angry about it. But that isn’t everything at work in Ferguson. The demography of the town is telling.
According to data taken from the US Census Bureau and a handful of news reports, roughly 64 percent of Ferguson’s population of 21,203 – 14,290 people – are black, yet its mayor, James Knowles, is white; five members of its six-person City Council are white; six of its seven school board officials are white; and out of the 53 sworn officers on the Ferguson Police Department, three – three! – are black.
There’s more. According to the Missouri Attorney General’s office, even though white people in Ferguson are statistically more likely to be found carrying “contraband” on their persons during police searches than black people, the latter are six times more likely to be stopped in their vehicles by local PD, 11 times more likely to be searched and 12 times more likely to be arrested.
Mike Brown’s murder served as a catalyst for an extensively racially profiled, harassed and disenfranchised population to attempt to fight back. And this is not an isolated incident. 2014 has seen several high profile cases of cops killing unarmed, nonviolent men of color, from Luis Rodriguez in Moore, OK to Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY. There have been four such cases in August alone, according to Josh Harkinson for Mother Jones.
Yet Jazz Shaw believes that those arguing against militarization of police, such as Radley Balko, Rand Paul and numerous others, are simply pining for the good old days of policing, or as he puts it, “the era of the lovable flatfoot, twirling his baton and wagging a finger at the precocious kid about to steal some penny candy.”
He wants soldier cops to protect him from riots such as the one in Ferguson (which was, for context, one night out of over a week of protesting and being battered by the riot squads) or the Rodney King riots from 1992. Protect him. He wants soldier cops to patrol the streets in full regalia at all times, in all communities, to protect him and those like him from school shooters, black people, and/or anyone else who dares break the necessarily conservative social contract he has created for us all.
“Before you’re too quick to demand the ‘demilitarization’ of the police,” he writes, “you might want to remember who it is that stands between the neighborhood you have now and South Central L.A. circa 1992.”
We remember. And we want full demilitarization, followed by complete abolition, of not only the Ferguson Police Department but all police, everywhere.
Citations to this article:
- Trevor Hultner, Demilitarization, abolition of the police state is needed, Libby, Montana Western News, 08/22/14
- Trevor Hultner, No, a Soldier Cop on Every Corner Does Not Sound Great, Before It’s News, 08/17/14
Many right-wing websites are circulating the "JJ video" in which a witness describes the confrontation: first Mike Brown ran away from Darren Wilson, who was in the truck; next, DW got out, drew his gun out and chased MB. This time, MB turned back towards DW. DW fired & (missed purposefully?) to scare MB away, but MB "kept coming towards" DW. DW shot and – this time – hit MB and MB ran away. We knew that DW later killed MB with more shots.
Right-wingers worshiped authorities so much that they conveniently forgot MB's rights to defend himself from the gun-toting DW. Also, right-wingers interpreted the vague words "kept coming towards" as definitely "bumrushing."
Now I ask, even if MB "kept coming towards Brown," how does that justify DW's later action: DW kept shooting and eventually killed MB even though MB "ran away" after getting hit?
All the shots hit in the front. This "he was running away and was shot in the back" is nothing more than a lie which was stoked by the liberal media. He was charging the officer AFTER his gun was drawn. His gun was drawn precisely because Mike Brown first tried to take it from him. Witnesses and the autopsy confirm this. All the spin coming from the liberal left won't change the facts.
"Kept coming towards" is a very vague expression. How do authority-worshiping right-wing sheeple like you definitely know that it can only mean "bumrushing?" The witness, favoured by you sheeple, testified that MB ran away after getting hit (once or even a couple of times) but DW kept shooting. The witness never stated that DW shot MB in the back, but only that DW still shot even after MB ran away. If we account also for the autopsy's results & other witnesses' testimonies, MB could've given the surrender sign while facing DW, but DW still shot him until he died. The autopsy results also suggests that MB's arms were in the air, signifying surrender.
"first tried to take [the gun] from him" No gunpowder residue could be found anywhere on MB's body, including his bare hands. And even if MB did try to take the gun from DW, why can't he do that? A cop, a uniformed thug, is still a thug. No one needs to cower before thugs. Even if MB be a strong-armed robbing thug, he needs not to cower himself before DW, another thug.