COMMENT: The second assassination of Mike Brown

Written on August 20th, 2014 in politics Comments Off

Published on Socialist Worker.org, by ELIZABETH SCHULTE, August 19, 2014.

The unarmed Black teen killed in Ferguson, Mo., has suffered a political and media smear campaign, reports Elizabeth Schulte – like so many other victims of police … //

… Oh, and the Ferguson police had some surveillance video to release–something you know all too well if you’ve had the misfortune of tuning in even briefly to cable TV news over the past several days.  

According to police, the video was taken by a surveillance camera in the Ferguson Market, and supposedly shows Brown and a friend stealing cigarellos from the store–although the clips are too short to show much of anything except someone who may or may not be Mike Brown pushing someone else out of the way.

Later that day, police held another press conference where they admitted that Darren Wilson had no knowledge of the robbery when he approached Brown and his friend in the street and proceeded to fire at least six bullets at him.

If there was no connection to the killing of Mike Brown, then why did police release the video that allegedly shows him committing an unrelated “strong-arm robbery”–which sounds suspiciously like “armed robbery,” though it doesn’t mean that at all, whatever it is supposed to mean?

Of course, the only possible reason for releasing the video was to paint the victim of a horrific police murder as a criminal–not the college-bound teenager his family had been mourning, but the kind of person who deserves to get gunned down in the street by police … //

… The routine demonization of African Americans inspired a hashtag in the aftermath of Mike Brown’s murder, #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, with hundreds of young Black people offering up two photos of themselves and asking the question, “Which one would the news media pick if I’m shot by the police?” The graduation picture or the one where I’m smoking pot? The one in my military uniform or the one where I’m giving the finger?

The long line of contributions speaks volumes about the racial profiling African Americans face every single day in the “world’s greatest democracy.”

And if African Americans can be scapegoated and singled out–labeled criminals or drug users, vulnerable to abuse and attack from police–the result is that their lives are valued less in U.S. society.

The protests demanding justice for Mike Brown in Ferguson, like the ones that demanded justice for Rodney King, send a different message. When tens of thousands of people take to the streets wearing hoodies for Trayvon, or raise their arms to say “Hands up, don’t shoot!” they begin to expose everyday racism and violence of this society–and turn the tables on those who benefit from it.

(full long text).

Related Links:

  • Journalist arrested, assembly rights restricted amid Ferguson protests, on Russia Today RT, Aug 19, 2014;
  • COMMENT: Scenes from a city in revolt, on Socialist Worker.org, by ERIC RUDER, August 19, 2014;
  • Arrest the killer of my child: Brown’s mother pleads after autopsy, on Russia Today RT, Aug 18, 2014;
  • REPORT: Ferguson is fighting back, on Socialist Worker.org, by Eric Ruder, Elizabeth Schulte, Trish Kahle and Donny Schraffenberger, August 18, 2014: “DADDY, DID they bang-bang Mike?” That was the question Jay heard his daughter ask as she watched the police lift Mike Brown’s lifeless body from the ground where it had lain for five hours …;
  • Are cops killing more people than ever? on Intrepid Report, by Jerry Mazza, August 18, 2014: Here’s a pitch for a procedural: How many cops are involved in police shootings in the United States in a given year? Why should that require any detective work? First, there are currently no national statistics on how many people are shot by police each year—and they are sorely needed—both to protect innocent people mistaken for law-breakers and the police themselves …;

Ferguson:

Other Links:

No ammunition moved through Russia-Ukraine border – OSCE monitors, on Russia Today RT, Aug 19, 2014;

Kiev’s war without mercy continues, on Intrepid Report, by Stephen Lendman, August 19, 2014;

The tyranny of the Nanny State, where the government knows what’s best for you, on Intrepid Report,

Masters of the Internet: GCHQ scanned entire countries for vulnerabilities, on Russia Today RT, August 18, 2014;
The Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ on en.wikipedia is a British intelligence and security agency responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance to the British government and armed forces.[2] Based in “The Doughnut”, in the suburbs of Cheltenham, it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) alongside the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Defence Intelligence (DI) …;

UNITED KINGDOM: Scottish Green Party Endorses Basic Income, Aug 16, 2014;

Comme dirait Coluche: Il parait qu’il y a cinq-millions de personnes qui veulent du travail. C’est pas vrai, de l’argent leur suffirait, le 16 août 2014;

… and this:

Comments are closed.