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Stein “honored to speak” at Ferguson rally

stein
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said Tuesday, “I was honored to speak in ‪Ferguson‬ Saturday alongside locals active in the ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬ movement. I’m committed to lifting up the voices of these courageous activists calling for an immediate end to police brutality, mass incarceration, and all forms of institutional racism.”

58 Comments

  1. paulie September 11, 2015

    I don’t advocate killing random cops. I don’t have a problem with someone killing crooked, out of control killer cops in self-defense or defense of others, but they are likely to be hunted down and killed themselves if they do. If someone seeks street justice for murdering police because the legal (in)justice monopoly effectively puts them above the law…personally I would not participate in that, but I wouldn’t grieve for them either. Better yet if murdering cops live a long life of sleepless nights and looking over their shoulder.

  2. paulie September 11, 2015

    You know, I’m a bit torn about how to address this latest bit of predictable nonsense from Jim. Of course, I can address his points, but that would be rewarding and playing into bad behavior. Aside from the incredibly, unbelievably sheltered life Jim claims to have led, or his insultingly ridiculous claims that Brown was a criminal, the real point is that he keeps trying to deflect attention from the larger more important issues here by trying to blame the victim, as if – even if Brown was guilty as Jim claims, which he was clearly not – it would justify the POS cop murdering him, and even more importantly, even if the cop did nothing wrong, that would still be a very tiny piece of the larger story here…yet this is the only part Jim wants to talk about. The real question is why?

    Did Jim get Stockholm syndrome dealing with cops and become a bootlicker…this from the author of assassination politics? Is he carrying water for the criminal injustice system because he hopes it will treat him more favorably in the future? Is he driven by racial animus? Was he victimized by so-called other races in the can, or come under the protection of “white” racist gangs? Whatever the cause it’s very sad to see.

    “the issues _I_ want to talk about!” are the real issues. Cops murder innocent people every single day, Brown was certainly one of them, but that’s a drop in a bucket. Cops also take it on themselves to be judge, jury and executioner every day too, and even if Brown had been one of those cases it would still be very unremarkable; multiple stories like that cross my desk every week, and sometimes more than one in a day. What made this story interesting, and one we speak about a year later unlike all those others which get ignored, is not that sort of day in, day out routine.

    No, it was the hundreds of thousands of other acts by cops, judges, juries, prosecutors, jailers and various other enablers in that metro area over years and years that caused this particular murder among the many others they have committed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was the massive military response to peaceful protesters and journalists, while (at best) ignoring actual looting and rioting in the vicinity, the blatant coverup by the criminal injustice system to clear the murdering cop, the gigantic propaganda whitewash that Jim is working to perpetuate in these comments along with who knows how many thousand (million?) cop-bootlickers and sycophants all over the internet and every other communication channel in existence.

    Those are the issues I want to talk about, and those are the issues I will continue to talk about.

    All attempts to shift attention to victim-blaming which would be completely irrelevant even if they were accurate in substance, which they are not, will continue to fail.

  3. jim September 10, 2015

    Paulie clearly intentionally misrepresents the video. He keeps talking about “much larger issues”: Evidently, this is Paulie-speak for “the issues _I_ want to talk about!”
    Paulie now admits he saw “a scuffle or argument” in the video!!! Ha ha! It’s called ASSAULT, Paulie! When was the last time you had a physical altercation with the owner (or employee) of a store? I have never had one, and indeed I have never even SEEN one in my entire life! (except on video, of course). And yes, the store owner “tried to prevent Brown from leaving”! He got IN FRONT OF BROWN, at the door, at which point Brown ASSAULTED the store owner. But the store owner was tiny; Brown was huge.
    Are you trying to be a comedian? Brown was, in fact, guilty of a strongarm robbery. Paulie simply doesn’t want to admit that fact. Brown was a CRIMINAL. He would NEVER have gotten to “college” once the police discovered what he did.

  4. paulie September 10, 2015

    As I predicted, Jim continues to ignore the much larger issues and concentrate on the least important points which have already been addressed. I’ve seen the full video and what I saw was not a strong arm robbery but a scuffle or argument; not sure over what but no one tried to prevent Brown from leaving. Everything Jim said was responded to again and again. Enough is enough. How’s about Jim stop with the deflections and get with the larger points?

  5. Jill Pyeatt September 10, 2015

    Why bother to respond? Your mind is made up, too.

  6. jim September 10, 2015

    I guess you don’t bother to respond to what I said. “Don’t confuse me with the facts! My mind’s made up!”

  7. Jill Pyeatt September 10, 2015

    I’ve seen all the evidence out there, and I believe as Paulie does.

    Brown’s death was a murder. I don’t care what the “courts” decided.

  8. jim September 10, 2015

    You said, “That’s a new one”. Maybe it was a “new one” to YOU, but everyone else saw the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkOfqIXkBRE
    Pay particular attention to where, at 1:30, Brown shoves the store owner, and then threateningly he comes back to intimidate the store owner. Do you consider this NORMAL behavior among young blacks?
    I said: And no, it’s not “petty theft”: Because Brown strongarmed him as he left the store, that’s a FELONY.
    You said: Also not proven, and I believe inaccurate.
    What you believe is irrelevant. Everyone else has seen the video, and knows what actually happened.

  9. paulie September 10, 2015

    The store owner tried to BLOCK Brown from leaving the store.

    That’s a new one. From what I could see they just had an argument and Brown left on his own. Which would be irrelevant either way; see above as to why.

    You said the store owner didn’t report a robbery. True: He was intimidated by the fact he was in a scum neighborhood. Another customer apparently reported a robbery.

    Or because the other customer was a busybody, or mentally ill, or prejudiced, or misunderstood what happened… amy number of possibilities. And still a very tangential issue either way. Again, see above.

    There was, indeed, a robbery.

    Not proven, and not very relevant. Before the POS cop got a chance to get coached by the police union and their pet DA he admitted he didn’t know about it at all at the time of the murder.

    And no, it’s not “petty theft”: Because Brown strongarmed him as he left the store, that’s a FELONY.

    Also not proven, and I believe inaccurate. However, it’s a side issue, and you keep missing the much, much bigger picture. Why?

    Brown was killed because he ALSO attacked the cop.

    Yeah, that’s just plain bullshit. I saw pictures of the cop, he wasn’t hurt at all. His initial statement was that Brown had his hands up. Before he could be coached and other witnesses intimidated the truth did come out but was later buried in a mountain of after the fact bullshit created by experts to take the blame off the murdering cop and try to put it on the victim.

    “you can be sure they wouldn’t have stopped talking about it a week after it was first mentioned.”

    The truth was buried under a massive mountain of expertly created and widely spread lies, coached and intimidated witnesses, etc.

    You still avoid the larger issues and keep focusing on side issues I addressed earlier. No idea why.

    Somehow I expect another response from you just repeating the same talking points already answered above and ignoring the much larger issues here.

  10. jim September 10, 2015

    The store owner tried to BLOCK Brown from leaving the store. Doesn’t sound like a happy outcome, does it? You said the store owner didn’t report a robbery. True: He was intimidated by the fact he was in a scum neighborhood. Another customer apparently reported a robbery. There was, indeed, a robbery. And no, it’s not “petty theft”: Because Brown strongarmed him as he left the store, that’s a FELONY.
    And no, the cop didn’t “judge, jury, and executioner” him: Brown was killed because he ALSO attacked the cop. Perhaps Brown figured that this cop already knew what he’d done (radios, you know…) and decided to act accordingly. Brown attacked, tried for the cop’s gun, it went off, Brown was hit and bled, leaving DNA, Brown ran away, then at some point inexplicably turned around, and ran towards the cop again. Remember the early lies claiming Brown had been shot in the back? None were true.
    And no, I didn’t say that anything “disappeared” from the search engines: As in they were there in the record, and the record was erase. When I said, “Google-searches for a week”, I meant that people raised this as an issue for a week, and then apparently stopped talking about it. You can limit Google searches to specific period of time. If it were a genuine issue in the defense of Brown, you can be sure they wouldn’t have stopped talking about it a week after it was first mentioned.

  11. paulie September 10, 2015

    Maybe. Or maybe the store owner wanted to see an ID. Or maybe he used a racial slur or seemed disrespectful. Who knows? The store owner didn’t report a robbery or any kind of crime. The POS cop at first said he did not even hear of the alleged robbery until after he murdered Brown. And even if there had been a robbery (actually, petty theft…allegedly) it would not have entitled the cop to be judge, jury and executioner, even if it was a capital crime, which it’s not. Even if the cop did everything right, which I think is far from being true, the far bigger issues are the paramilitary police response, and the attacks on journalists and peaceful protesters while at best ignoring actual looters and rioters, and the collusion between killer police, police unions, and the DA to manipulate the grand jury, and the generally racist, police state, occupying army, revenue-predatory and hostile behavior of the police departments in that part of the county – most definitely including Ferguson – over the years. How much Michael Brown paid is the least important and least interesting part of this. Although (I don’t feel like looking) I seem to remember that above you said he didn’t pay anything. Again, though, it’s really not about that, although you keep insisting on making it about that.

    As far as anything disappearing from search engines…who knows, there may be a concerted effort to bury it. I have no idea, and it’s not very important to me.

  12. jim September 10, 2015

    BTW, Paulie, weeks ago you claim “Michael Brown paid…”. You DIDN’T say, however, HOW MUCH he paid, and whether what he paid matched the amount of merchandise he took. I think when you said “Michael Brown paid…” you didn’t really know how much he paid, nor how much merchandise he took. (You never claimed otherwise.) Brown must have known that there were cameras on in the store, and they would show him “paying” money. But it’s not enough that he is claimed to have paid; he had to pay the amount corresponding to the amount of merchandise,
    Chances are that was why the issue Google-searches for only about a week, and then disappeared, as I quickly observed. Everyone saw that he paid SOMETHING, but the smarter ones realized that they couldn’t tell if he paid for everything. You conceded above that he and the store owner argued about something: Well, maybe they argued about the AMOUNT he paid?

  13. paulie September 9, 2015

    Probably the latter.

  14. Starchild July 30, 2015

    Jim – The Internet knows no national boundaries. Not everyone seeing the URL title may know where Berkeley is. That could be the reason.

    Or it could implicitly be saying, “Look what is happening here in the United States. People in this country are more used to hearing about U.S. government personnel in camouflage with armored vehicles going house to house in other countries.

  15. Jim July 30, 2015

    I notice that the url referred to an “american neighborhood”. Unless I am mistaken, Berkeley is over 500 miles from any foreign territory. So what was the purpose of calling it an “american neighborhood”? Is the Berkeley police in the habit of travelling to other neighborhoods to raid neighborhoods?

  16. Starchild July 29, 2015

    In a previous comment on this thread early this morning (July 29, 2015 at 6:18 am) I wrote, “for instance instead of peacefully serving a warrant, dispatching large numbers of heavily armed officers on SWAT raids into residential neighborhoods and invading residences with multiple family members present to go after a single suspect perhaps not even accused of a violent crime”

    And a mere 7 hours later, a message posted to a police accountability list I’m on described exactly such a militarized response of massive overkill taking place just two days ago, in Berkeley, California, 20-30 minutes drive from where I live, allegedly to apprehend a single suspect in a robbery where no one was injured:

    https://www.intellihub.com/photos-berkeley-police-conduct-full-scale-military-operation-in-american-neighborhood-over-one-robbery-suspect/

    The military operation, complete with an armored vehicle and lots of armed agents in full camouflage gear and helmets, did not result in the suspect being apprehended, but as an intimidating demonstration of police power in the modest neighborhood where it took place it was presumably effective in terrorizing the populace.

  17. paulie July 29, 2015

    I’d lay odds on state terrorism.

  18. Starchild July 29, 2015

    Paulie – Given the history of Ferguson and its police department, it seems likely that’s what it was. But remember, we’re talking about government; we can’t entirely rule out simple negligence or incompetence. 🙂

  19. paulie July 29, 2015

    So far however, the media has largely failed to identify such attempts by government personnel to intimidate or inflict injury on civilians as terrorism, although that’s technically what they are. There is even a good case to be made that leaving Michael Brown’s bloody body lying on a Ferguson street for hours while horrified community members looked on was an act of terrorism.

    That’s exactly what it was.

    Bootlickers will never say it, but I’ll say it all day every day.

  20. paulie July 29, 2015

    Ironically, police forces themselves often do deliberately use violence or the threat of violence to terrorize the civilian masses — for instance instead of peacefully serving a warrant, dispatching large numbers of heavily armed officers on SWAT raids into residential neighborhoods and invading residences with multiple family members present to go after a single suspect perhaps not even accused of a violent crime;

    This happens something like 100,000 times a year now in the US.

    deploying in similar riot gear at peaceful protests; deploying helicopters and armored vehicles and other weapons of war; using pain-inducing chemical weapons such as tear gas; striking people with batons or shooting them with rubber bullets, etc.

    Yes, but if they manage to set off or ignore riots nearby at the same time they can just lump in the protesters with the rioters and looters and get away with it.

  21. paulie July 29, 2015

    Copblock is an EXCELLENT site!

    Indeed!

    Who cares if some stupid journalists called it a “terror group”?

    LOL “journalists.” And the cops are the ones terrorizing people, along with their bootlickers terrorizing those who are bravely exposing it.

    They’re called a terror group because they post information the PTB don’t want to get out. You might try going to the Southern Poverty Law Center and read who they think are terrorists. You just might recognize yourself in one or more of their categories.

    Exactly. I’ve attended open carry rallies, so that alone makes me an anti-government extremist if not an outright terrorist in the bootlicker playbook, and that’s before you get into all my other nefarious activities such as petitioning, blogging, attending political meetings and events, reading non-mainstream information sources, etc.

    The fact is that police are out of control all over the country. Somehow, rules don’t seem to matter to them. They consider all of us their enemies.

    Right again!

    Of course, I don’t mean ALL cops.

    Unfortunately due to the mafia-like blue wall of silence, the good cops can’t arrest the bad cops or they can expect retaliation. In a culture like that with no accountability, where you are basically above the law and have carte blanche to abuse, shake down, terrorize and kill people, well no wonder that sadists and sociopaths are drawn to the policing profession, given training, jacked up on steroids and let loose on the civilian population with almost zero chance of any consequences for anything they ever do… and the police culture perpetuates these traits and spreads them throughout the police fraternity.

    Did you see the video of a very small obviously mentally ill man, Kelly Thomas, who was beaten to death by monstrous murderers, who also happened to be cops? He’s the one who cried out for his dad over 30 times, as he was beaten to death.

    The cops were obviously in fear for their lives, just like in the hundreds of other cases like that every year which don’t make it to video or just get next to zero publicity.

    And how about Baby Bou, who was disfigured when some errant SWAT creeps threw a grenade in his crib as he slept.

    Then they put the family through hell, trying to stick them with the medical bills and threatening to sue them for speaking up about it. There have been several other cases of people killed and injured by police flash bangs – some while raiding the wrong address as was the case here.

    And, let me guess:you think that George Zimmerman was right to murder the young black kid in the hoodie.

    Zimmerman’s multiple accusations of domestic abuse and road rage and other crazy behavior before and after notwithstanding.

    I’m stunned at how gullible some people still are.

    Must be Stockholm Syndrome.

    What’s that poem, that starts out “First they came for…”?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…

  22. paulie July 29, 2015

    And THIS site actually mentions The Free Thought Project as well!!!

    Put a few more words in ALL CAPS and MULTIPLE EXCLAMATION POINTS in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Better yet, just read Free Thought Project.

  23. paulie July 29, 2015

    So, you brought up “copblock”. Is it a crypto right-wing group (like that left-wing site says), or is it a terrorist site (like apparently the right wing people are signing the petitions about.)

    It’s anti-authoritarian, which makes the authoritarians and bootlickers of both the right and left hate it.

  24. paulie July 29, 2015

    Even more curiously, I also found this: http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/white-house-to-consider-copblock-a-terrorist-group/

    Did you actually read the article? Spend some more time at Police State USA while you are there.

    So now you are digging up bootlicking propaganda about Cop Block and other police accountability sites being “terrorist” which is of course grade A horseshit. Cops are employing state terror and – just like when they yell stop resisting over and over as they beat non-resisting victims – they accuse those exposing their police state tactics of being the terrorists for doing nothing more than filming them and reporting on their police gang activities, sadism, endemic corruption and roid rage.

    Here’s Cop Block promoting a guns rights rally here in Texas to march on Austin in support of Texans having the right to openly carry handguns

    Yes, this cop/bootlicker doesn’t like that because he or she thinks that only cops should be allowed to have guns, the better to abuse the peasants with.

    Then here’s Cop Block blatantly promoting an anti-government Facebook page (their “friend”) called The Art of Not Being Governed:

    Awesome! Art of Not Being Governed is another excellent page you should be reading instead of lamestream bootlicking propaganda. I’m a big fan of both pages and read them every day.

    So, you brought up “copblock”. Is it a crypto right-wing group (like that left-wing site says), or is it a terrorist site (like apparently the right wing people are signing the petitions about.)

    There are quite a few others including Film The Police, Copwatch, Police State USA, Peaceful Streets Project, Radley Balko, Will Grigg, Trevor Lyman, Share All Police Brutality, Right to Resist….

  25. paulie July 29, 2015

    I see you’re giving up.

    Get better glasses.

    LOTS of lies were “widely reported at the time”.

    And still are. You are parroting them in this thread.

    Until the video of him robbing the store was revealed,

    The out of context snippet showing a robbery which didn’t happen.

    A 300 POUND …

    So being overweight made him guilty, and deserving to be shot and left in the street like roadkill? I’m a fatass too, and a lot of people mistake me for Hispanic all the time. I sure hope you won’t say it’s OK if some roided up cop kills me and makes up lies about how I tried to take his gun because he catches me jaywalking.

    Well, find a source from them. I’ve never heard of them before.

    I don’t feel like playing fetch for you. And as I already told you I don’t find the Brown incident to be that big a part of what has happened and is happening in Ferguson. It set off the tensions, sure, but the tensions were already there before it happened and it was the police response afterwards which was the much bigger deal.

  26. Starchild July 29, 2015

    Jill Pyeatt writes (July 29, 2015 at 12:48 am) “What’s that poem, that starts out “First they came for…”?

    It’s by Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who berated himself and his fellow church members for waiting too long to speak out against Hitler’s National Socialists. You can read about it here — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…

  27. Starchild July 29, 2015

    I notice some material posted in this thread that misuses the term “terrorist”, which is unfortunately common among a media that too often unquestioningly takes its terminology from government officials.

    These officials will often indiscriminately call violent actions with government targets “terrorist” whether they are or not, because they know that most of the public rightly sees terrorism as contemptible and evil, and they seek to take advantage of those feelings.

    But while violence or threats of violence against people wearing government police or military uniforms may be misguided or even morally indefensible in some cases, it is not terrorism.

    Terrorism is the attempt to instill terror by means of violence or the threat of violence against civilians, period. That’s why real terrorism that is recognized as such is widely despised among all but a few fanatics and their apologists — because it seeks to exert power by deliberately targeting non-combatants who are not part of any armed force.

    An attack or threatened attack against a police or military target may be an act of war, or an act of insurrection, or an act of “random” senseless violence. There may be lots of bad things you can legitimately call it, but “terrorist” is not one of them!

    Ironically, police forces themselves often do deliberately use violence or the threat of violence to terrorize the civilian masses — for instance instead of peacefully serving a warrant, dispatching large numbers of heavily armed officers on SWAT raids into residential neighborhoods and invading residences with multiple family members present to go after a single suspect perhaps not even accused of a violent crime; deploying in similar riot gear at peaceful protests; deploying helicopters and armored vehicles and other weapons of war; using pain-inducing chemical weapons such as tear gas; striking people with batons or shooting them with rubber bullets, etc.

    So far however, the media has largely failed to identify such attempts by government personnel to intimidate or inflict injury on civilians as terrorism, although that’s technically what they are. There is even a good case to be made that leaving Michael Brown’s bloody body lying on a Ferguson street for hours while horrified community members looked on was an act of terrorism.

    This double standard of the mainstream media is one reason why alternative sites like CopBlock that don’t shy away from calling a spade a spade have become popular.

  28. Jill Pyeatt July 29, 2015

    Copblock is an EXCELLENT site! Who cares if some stupid journalists called it a “terror group”? They’re called a terror group because they post information the PTB don’t want to get out. You might try going to the Southern Poverty Law Center and read who they think are terrorists. You just might recognize yourself in one or more of their categories.

    The fact is that police are out of control all over the country. Somehow, rules don’t seem to matter to them. They consider all of us their enemies. Of course, I don’t mean ALL cops. However, do you think all these stories of police brutality are made up? Did you see the video of a very small obviously mentally ill man, Kelly Thomas, who was beaten to death by monstrous murderers, who also happened to be cops? He’s the one who cried out for his dad over 30 times, as he was beaten to death. And how about Baby Bou, who was disfigured when some errant SWAT creeps threw a grenade in his crib as he slept. And, let me guess: you think that George Zimmerman was right to murder the young black kid in the hoodie.

    I’m stunned at how gullible some people still are.

    What’s that poem, that starts out “First they came for…”?

  29. Jim July 29, 2015

    I did a Google search for “copblock”. And I found something VERY curious, from:
    http://www.forwardprogressives.com/time-start-calling-cop-block-actually-hate-group/

    It’s Time We Start Calling Cop Block What It Actually Is: A Hate Group December 22, 2014 By Allen Clifton 355 Comments 17k77 A few months ago I wrote an article warning liberals that they were being duped by many of these so-called “police accountability” websites and Facebook pages. I explained that by buying into their propaganda, these liberals were basically supporting radical anti-government right-wing groups. What these various organizations try to do is attempt to hide their contempt for government behind their supposed desire to “hold police officers accountable.” But their clear disdain for law enforcement is just a part of their overall intense hatred of authority and the government. Perhaps the most well-known of all of these groups is Cop Block. On Facebook, they list themselves under the category of an “Education Website,” which is absolute nonsense. They’re not out to educate, inform or hold anyone accountable – they’re out to slander police officers. And I think it’s time we start calling Cop Block what it really is: A hate group. Their website and Facebook page are littered with anti-cop propaganda. I always try to warn people to be weary of any supposed “advocacy group.” Because while Cop Block claims that its goal is to “hold police officers accountable,” who exactly is holding Cop Block accountable? Who’s watching the “watchers”? Often these “advocacy groups” are just as, if not more, unethical than those they claim to be “watching and holding accountable.” Like when I busted this supposed “police watchdog” group back in August for trying to use an edited video to slander a cop. But let’s look at the recent evidence, shall we? Here’s Cop Block promoting a guns rights rally here in Texas to march on Austin in support of Texans having the right to openly carry handguns (click for full size image): Yes, that’s the same pro-gun nonsense pushed by this buffoon who recently suggested 10,000 Americans commit treason and overthrow our government. And it just so happens he too pushes anti-cop propaganda to try to lure people to his radical anti-government ideologies. Then here’s Cop Block blatantly promoting an anti-government Facebook page (their “friend”) called The Art of Not Being Governed:
    Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/time-start-calling-cop-block-actually-hate-group/

  30. Jim July 29, 2015

    >>That’s the first I’ve heard of that! Let’s see a cite.
    >I put up plenty of them in discussions of past articles about this. Don’t feel like digging again.

    I see you’re giving up.

    “It was widely reported at the time.”

    LOTS of lies were “widely reported at the time”.
    Until the video of him robbing the store was revealed, 5 days later, it was “widely reported at the time” that a cop had simply murdered an innocent (pure as the driven snow) black boy, “just for walking in the middle of the street”.. A 300 POUND black boy!!!
    THEN, the video of the robbery came out, and all hell broke loose!

    ” Instead of reading lamestream and reich wing sources you should peruse sources such as copblock and free thought project, etc.”

    Well, find a source from them. I’ve never heard of them before.

  31. paulie July 28, 2015

    What difference does it make what Johnson testified under duress and/or to save his own skin? Again, I saw the full video with my own eyes.

  32. Jim July 28, 2015

    I quote again: http://www.ibtimes.com/michael-brown-robbed-convenience-store-stole-cigarillos-darren-wilson-shooting-dorian-1729359 November 25, 2014

    “Johnson testified he had planned to pay for the cigarillos, but Brown reached over the counter and grabbed them. Brown walked toward the door and the store clerk rushed around the counter to prevent his exit. He shoved the clerk and left the store. As they walked out, the clerk said he would call the police.”

    “I asked [Brown], I looked at him, actually, looked at him for a while and stared at him because the times when I did meet him before that day, he didn’t strike me as a person who would do anything like that. … He was basically laughing it off, be cool, be calm, stuff like that, laughing it off, but in my head I’m like, I can’t be calm, I can’t be cool because I know what just happened and we were on camera,” Johnson said.”

    Give it up, they were no longer claiming that Michael Brown “paid” in November 2014 and later.

  33. paulie July 28, 2015

    Final tip, anything with more than one link per comment gets held up by our automated filter. Sorry, I no longer have access to correct the settings.

    I said that, you didn’t. Helps if you distinguish what you said from what I said.

  34. paulie July 28, 2015

    You are free to do a similar Google search and use the sources you find

    No thanks. I’ve read more than enough about this case. And google search rankings are dominated by cop BS and lies spread by lapdog media that fail to independently investigate police claims but instead just repeat them because they want to maintain good access to police news sources.

  35. paulie July 28, 2015

    I do a Google search,

    Not the best method here because the lamestream sources have greater reach so they vault to the top of google rankings. Copblock Fan Group on FB is a much better way to get more accurate news.

  36. paulie July 28, 2015

    I don’t think anybody ever claimed that the MAJORITY of the population were criminals.

    They weren’t, but malicious and discriminatory code enforcement by Ferguson PD made them that on the books.

  37. paulie July 28, 2015

    That’s the first I’ve heard of that! Let’s see a cite.

    I put up plenty of them in discussions of past articles about this. Don’t feel like digging again. It was widely reported at the time. Instead of reading lamestream and reich wing sources you should peruse sources such as copblock and free thought project, etc.

  38. paulie July 28, 2015

    Aha! So you ADMIT it!

    Admit what? Allowing the rioting and looting to go on was part of the police strategy. For one thing it allowed them to spread lies like the ones you swallowed and are now helping spread that the demonstrators and rioters were the same people, and take focus away from their own police riot tactics and from the legitimate complaints of the demonstrators. For another it allowed them to create more destruction of the community they oppressed as punshment for standing up against them.

  39. Jim July 28, 2015

    Show me a URL to a site since, say, December 1, 2014, which makes this claim: That Brown paid for the cigars.

  40. paulie July 28, 2015

    The so-called “demonstrators” (actually, “rioters”) were ALLOWED by the city to loot and burn stores. That has been established.

    The demonstrators were not the rioters. The rioters were in fact allowed and encouraged by the police, and police may have evenactually actively helped them. Meanwhile the police rioted against peaceful demonstrators and journalists.

  41. paulie July 28, 2015

    Evidence had to be collected. Remember CSI and all that? In decades past, they would just have called the ‘meat wagon’ and loaded him up. They are far more careful now about preserving evidence.

    There’s ways to collect evidence that are routinely used in crime scenes other than leaving a dead person laying in the middle of the street covered in blood for hours. That’s not what is normally done and it was a deliberate provocation, one of countless thousands used by the crooked, Klan-ridden Ferguson PD to bring the community to a boiling point.

  42. paulie July 28, 2015

    Again, the cop didn’t kill him because of the cigars.

    True, because he didn’t even know about it, which even the police admitted in all their accounts until they changed their story well after the fact (for the umpteenth time).

  43. paulie July 28, 2015

    However, Michael Brown was not shot and killed because he committed (or was thought to have committed) a mere theft. He was shot and killed because of what he did on that street.

    More than a little bit of lies about which have been told by the crooked cops and swallowed whole by a whole lot of people, apparently including you. What happened, did you get Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to the cops and prosecutors and how their lies get parroted in the media? You should really know better of all people.

  44. paulie July 28, 2015

    It’s certainly RELEVANT,

    No, it’s not. Michael Brown’s murder is just what set off the demonstrations and the resulting police riot. It’s a much bigger story than just Michael Brown, which is just a very small part of the conflict between the police and the community that went on long before and after he died.

  45. paulie July 28, 2015

    I think you just didn’t get the word from everyone else. Everybody else stopped talking about ‘Michael Brown paid’ because they realized they’d been had.

    You’re the one who’s been had. I saw the video for myself. The whole thing, not just the snippet.

  46. Jim July 28, 2015

    “Not very relevant when it can be clearly seen on the full video.”
    I can see lots of things on a lot of videos. And if my mind really, REALLY wants to see something, maybe I can get it to see that too.
    But you haven’t answered the matter. What I saw looked a lot like the consequences of a “collective brain fart”, one where everybody suddenly realizes things things aren’t the way they thought. If you ever saw a SNL (Saturday Night Live) character named ‘Emily Littella’, and her “Nevermind!” you know what I mean.
    I think you just didn’t get the word from everyone else. Everybody else stopped talking about ‘Michael Brown paid’ because they realized they’d been had.

    My further response inline:

    “Also not relevant at all to the larger story.”

    It’s certainly RELEVANT, it’s just that you are being cautious and you fear that this specific claim (“Michael Brown paid”) is on very thin ice. Why not just admit that somebody screwed up?

    “The piece of shit murdering cop did not know of the so-called theft when he murdered Mr. Brown.”

    I don’t know, for sure, what the cop knew. But I also suspect that Michael Brown didn’t know that the cop knew, or didn’t know, of the strongarm robbery. In other words, Brown’s actions might very well have been based on what he FEARED the cop knew. I’ve noticed that most people who claim the cop ‘didn’t know’ ignore the issue I just raised. It is relevant to the question of WHY Michael Brown did what he did.

    “Even if he knew about it, theft is not a capital offense.”

    However, Michael Brown was not shot and killed because he committed (or was thought to have committed) a mere theft. He was shot and killed because of what he did on that street.

    “Even if it was a capital offense, he was not entitled to be judge, jury and executioner.”

    Again, the cop didn’t kill him because of the cigars.

    “Even if he was allowed to be a real life Judge Dred, leaving Mr. Brown’s body dead and covered in blood in the street in full view of people in his neighborhood for hours on end was a blatant provocation.”

    Evidence had to be collected. Remember CSI and all that? In decades past, they would just have called the ‘meat wagon’ and loaded him up. They are far more careful now about preserving evidence.
    Note: If the cops had collected his body ‘too soon’, you could have criticized them for THAT. You could have complained about how much mitigating evidence was being ignored or erased. See how things work? If you want to find something to criticize them for, you will find it. No matter how well they did their jobs.

    “Even if the cop had acted correctly the paramilitary response of the police to the demonstrations, and to journalists, was completely uncalled for.”

    The so-called “demonstrators” (actually, “rioters”) were ALLOWED by the city to loot and burn stores. That has been established.

    “Additionally they ignored rioting and looting that was going on at the same time”

    Aha! So you ADMIT it! But it wasn’t that they were “ignoring” that: The police were greatly outnumbered, and the Missouri Governor (the scumbag that he was) ordered the Missouri National Guard to stay away and allow the rioters to riot. Blame the Missouri Governor. I believe it was HE who demanded a “vigorous prosecution” before all (or, virtually, ANY) facts were in. That fool governor was merely playing to his base. http://mashable.com/2014/08/19/jay-nixon-vigorous-prosecution-michael-brown/

    “to unleash themselves on peaceful protesters and journalists at the same time, and may have even actually encouraged and participated in looting and setting fires themselves.”

    That’s the first I’ve heard of that! Let’s see a cite.

    “What about their years of routinely treating the majority of population of Ferguson as criminals, maliciously persecuting them with petty code enforcement and resulting warrants for 75% of the town’s population?”

    I don’t think anybody ever claimed that the MAJORITY of the population were criminals.

    “BTW you may want to use some sources besides far reich wing cop bootlicking sites.”

    I do a Google search, and I use the most relevant sources I see. I don’t pay attention to the issues you apparently do. I don’t check 10 pages of cites until I find one ‘on my side’.

    “I mean national review and rightpoop, seriously? Why not just ask the Ferguson PD for their latest lies directly, since those reich wing sites do absolutely nothing but uncritically parrot and cheerlead whatever latest lies get cooked up by the PD and their partners in crime at the DA’s office?

    You are free to do a similar Google search and use the sources you find…

    Final tip, anything with more than one link per comment gets held up by our automated filter. Sorry, I no longer have access to correct the settings.

  47. paulie July 28, 2015

    The death of Brown was absolutely a murder. I’m sick of cops who are too afraid to do their jobs, and I’ll call them out on it as often as I can.

    Exactly!

  48. paulie July 28, 2015

    Not very relevant when it can be clearly seen on the full video.

    Also not relevant at all to the larger story.

    The piece of shit murdering cop did not know of the so-called theft when he murdered Mr. Brown.

    Even if he knew about it, theft is not a capital offense.

    Even if it was a capital offense, he was not entitled to be judge, jury and executioner.

    Even if he was allowed to be a real life Judge Dred, leaving Mr. Brown’s body dead and covered in blood in the street in full view of people in his neighborhood for hours on end was a blatant provocation.

    Even if the cop had acted correctly the paramilitary response of the police to the demonstrations, and to journalists, was completely uncalled for.

    Additionally they ignored rioting and looting that was going on at the same time to unleash themselves on peaceful protesters and journalists at the same time, and may have even actually encouraged and participated in looting and setting fires themselves.

    What about their years of routinely treating the majority of population of Ferguson as criminals, maliciously persecuting them with petty code enforcement and resulting warrants for 75% of the town’s population?

    BTW you may want to use some sources besides far reich wing cop bootlicking sites. I mean national review and rightpoop, seriously? Why not just ask the Ferguson PD for their latest lies directly, since those reich wing sites do absolutely nothing but uncritically parrot and cheerlead whatever latest lies get cooked up by the PD and their partners in crime at the DA’s office?

    Final tip, anything with more than one link per comment gets held up by our automated filter. Sorry, I no longer have access to correct the settings.

  49. Jill Pyeatt July 28, 2015

    I’m with Paulie. The death of Brown was absolutely a murder. I’m sick of cops who are too afraid to do their jobs, and I’ll call them out on it as often as I can.

  50. Jim July 28, 2015

    I did a Google-search for ‘Michael Brown paid’. Yes, there was a flurry of references around August 16-22. 2014 about that, but very little thereafter. But see this: http://therightscoop.com/we-have-no-idea-why-some-people-think-this-video-shows-mike-brown-paying-for-his-cigarrillos/
    Also, http://www.ibtimes.com/michael-brown-robbed-convenience-store-stole-cigarillos-darren-wilson-shooting-dorian-1729359
    “Johnson [the person with Brown at the store] testified he had planned to pay for the cigarillos, but Brown reached over the counter and grabbed them. Brown walked toward the door and the store clerk rushed around the counter to prevent his exit. He shoved the clerk and left the store. As they walked out, the clerk said he would call the police.”
    “I asked [Brown], I looked at him, actually, looked at him for a while and stared at him because the times when I did meet him before that day, he didn’t strike me as a person who would do anything like that. … He was basically laughing it off, be cool, be calm, stuff like that, laughing it off, but in my head I’m like, I can’t be calm, I can’t be cool because I know what just happened and we were on camera,” Johnson said.”
    And http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/385499/attorney-brown-acquaintance-confirms-michael-brown-stole-cigars-greg-pollowitz
    “The attorney for Dorian Johnson, the man who was with Michael Brown when he was shot, says it was Brown who stole the cigars from the store where police say the two were filmed before Brown’s death, and that the FBI is aware of it. Via the New York Daily News: Freeman Bosley, a former St. Louis mayor and the lawyer for Brown’s pal, 22-year-old Dorian Johnson, said he has not seen the tape but confirmed that the slain teen took the cigars. “My client did tell us — and told the FBI — that they went into the store,” Bosley said on MSNBC. “He told the FBI that he did take cigarillos. He told that to the DOJ and the St. Louis County Police.”
    Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/385499/attorney-brown-acquaintance-confirms-michael-brown-stole-cigars-greg-pollowitz ”
    Here’s another interesting one: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/20/rush-limbaugh/limbaugh-msnbc-went-air-after-news-michael-brown-w/

    So, where are all those mentions in September 2014? October? November? December?
    So, I limited the search to the period of 10/1/2014-7/30/2015 There were virtually no references to ‘michael brown paid’.
    I wonder why.

  51. paulie July 28, 2015

    Brown had just committed a strongarm robbery of a convenience store,

    Bullshit. That is a flat out lie. Watch the whole video, not the snippet. He actually paid, although he argued with the store owner. The store owner did not call in a robbery, someone else in the store called cops about the argument. And the cop who murdered Brown did not even know about that until after the murder.

    As if, if he hadn’t been shot and killed, somehow he was going to magically not be prosecuted, convicted, and put into prison for a few years.

    That’s ridiculous. Even if he hadn’t in fact paid it would be petty theft, not strongarm robbery. We’re talking about a pack of cigarillos here.

    The police riot and endemic police violence in Ferguson and elsewhere wasn’t really about this one incident, either, it’s about endemic conditions of police acting like an occupying army.

  52. Jim July 28, 2015

    After the Ferguson shooting occurred, some people pointed out how Michael Brown had been about ready to go to college. (Apparently they think that is rare for a black person.) What a shame. But they seem to have forgotten that Brown had just committed a strongarm robbery of a convenience store, a felony, in full view of numerous surveillance cameras. As if, if he hadn’t been shot and killed, somehow he was going to magically not be prosecuted, convicted, and put into prison for a few years. What could cause people to forget such obvious things?

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