I know that what is going on here has made national news.  I am wondering how big a story it is in other states and how people outside of STL and Mo. are seeing it?

I guess it's making our city look pretty bad.  :-[

It's been the lead story here in San Diego every newscast. Clearly a lot of very angry people    :-/

Joe

And each day the city becomes more divided. 

The media has been stirring the pot furiously around here.  One of the biggest reasons I refuse to watch the propaganda, I mean news. 

Jerry

I've seen coverage of it here in New Zealand too.

I'm in England and as far as I know we have heard nothing here. What's happened?

[quote author=6964646364640B0 link=1407944711/0#0 date=1407944711]I guess it's making our city look pretty bad.  :-[/quote]

Many people's first reaction to the news would be to see St. Louis in a bad light. But it was really just one incident by a small group of people (percentage wise of the population of the city).  A week from now the news reports will have moved on the next "crisis" to fill in dead space between commercials.
St Louis is a beautiful city. We can't judge a city just by some of the people that live there.

maz wrote on Aug 14^th, 2014 at 3:30am:

I'm in England and as far as I know we have heard nothing here. What's happened?

Sat. a young man was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer.  Not much has been released about the shooting other than that the officer states that he stopped two people (I'm not sure for what reason) and a struggle ensued.  The officer claims that Mike Brown attempted to grab his gun thus resulting in the officer opening fire and killing him.

An eye witness, a friend of Mike Brown, claims that they were stopped for simply walking down the street.  He claims that there was no struggle and at no time did Mike Brown go after the officer's gun.  He says that the officer fired as Mike Brown had his hands in the air and was pleading, "Don't shoot!" 

Since then, "peaceful" protests have turned into looting and setting businesses on fire.  The looting has made it's way outside of Ferguson and into the city and surrounding counties.  There have been cyber attacks resulting in police officer's private information being made public.  They have gone as far as releasing pictures of their children. 

Civic leaders have gone on record saying that the officer "murdered an unarmed boy in broad daylight."

It's a mess and doesn't seem to be getting better. 

Oh that's just awful. We do hear occasionally of similar incidents, but not this one so far. Unless I've missed it.
I do hope it eases off soon before any more innocents get hurt.

On the other hand, other witnesses say Brown physically attacked the officer, and the officer had injuries to his face. 

What the real truth is no one knows.  We certainly aren't getting it from the media.


Jerry

Jerry.... There is SO much the media is not telling.

And Al Sharpton has gotten into it and that's just stirring the pot. Last night seemed a little calmer, but it's still a mess.

Take care and stay safe. Our prayers are with all our friends in St. Louis. And it is a beautiful city.  :-*

The officer's name will be released today.  I may not be popular in making this request but, as the entire country prays for the Brown family, I ask that we also remember this officer and his family. 

Yes of course Jeannie. It must be dreadful for them all, especially any children involved.

It finally made the news over here late last night.  In a country who's regular police don't carry guns this type of news is always horrific. We do have armed response teams and sadly there have been a couple of similar incidents here over the years, but it never ceases to cause great shock.

I'm so glad guns are not commonplace over here.

My thoughts go out to all concerned.
Maz.

Definitely, Jeanie!  The officer involved has to deal with having taken another human's life for the rest of his own life.  Police work is demanding enough, and the stresses it puts on the officers and their families is tremendous without adding this. 

The police department is also not giving much info.  They are under limits of what they can say because of protecting evidence, but that doesn't stop the news media from spewing everything from everybody else, whether it is of value or not.  The PD released video caps of Brown robbing a convenience store just minutes before the altercation with the officer.  The officer was looking for him in relation to that robbery.  Kind of changes that sweet little angelic choirboy image presented in the beginning doesn't it?

I don't know what happened.  Neither does anyone else.  I am sick of the one sided presentation we have seen and the way the media has stirred the pot and inflamed the situation.

Jerry

People around here are very upset about the release of this information. I fear that tonight will not be as peaceful as last night was. 

Here in Kentucky we are hearing that the media is telling too much, Jerry and of course twisting i to suit their own agenda.  Jeannie no one is going to have a had picture of St. Louis.  Only of the ignorant morons who are looting and burning their own neighborhoods. 

Linda_Howell wrote on Aug 15^th, 2014 at 7:11pm:

Here in Kentucky we are hearing that the media is telling too much, Jerry and of course twisting i to suit their own agenda.  Jeannie no one is going to have a had picture of St. Louis.  Only of the ignorant morons who are looting and burning their own neighborhoods.

Luinda,

Suppose you see will this kind of thing up on the mesa? Or will you have to go slumming in AG in order to see some riots?

:-* Marc

Linda_Howell wrote on Aug 15^th, 2014 at 7:11pm:

Jeannie no one is going to have a had picture of St. Louis.  Only of the ignorant morons who are looting and burning their own neighborhoods.

Why is it that whenever anything like this happens then people react by looting and burning. If they think that there was some injustice about what happened then how is it answered by looting?

Or is it that they think that they can get away with it?

This hasn't changed my impression of St Louis, it just confirms my impression of what some people will do given the chance.

I think the media always fans the flames in cases like this. I recall the 1992 trial of three police officers accused of beating Rodney King happened in Simi Valley, CA at a courthouse less than a five minute walk from my house. There were dozens of media trucks and what seemed like over 500 police in my neighborhood. I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood to drive to a store. The media kept going on about the "all white jury from Simi Valley" acquitting the officers, though only two of the jurors were residents of Simi Valley. We got a bad rap for a while, being known as a city full of racists.

I'm sorry I keep posting about this.  It seems it's all I can think about right now.

They took away policing duties from the Ferguson PD and STL County PD and handed it over to the MO Highway Patrol.  They had one somewhat peaceful night.  Last night there was some looting.  They ALLOWED IT to keep things from getting worse. 

Now they have declared a state of emergency but say they have no plans to use "strong tactics" to enforce the curfew.

Jeannie wrote on Aug 16^th, 2014 at 6:15pm:

They had one somewhat peaceful night.  Last night there was some looting.  They ALLOWED IT to keep things from getting worse.

Is this the rule of law or the rule of the mob?

Imagine if you were one of the shop owners who had their store looted?

Mike NZ wrote on Aug 16^th, 2014 at 6:18pm:

Jeannie wrote on Aug 16th, 2014 at 6:15pm: They had one somewhat peaceful night.  Last night there was some looting.  They ALLOWED IT to keep things from getting worse. Is this the rule of law or the rule of the mob? Imagine if you were one of the shop owners who had their store looted?

I watched an interview with one of the store owners.  He said, "They took everything. Everything." 

Another woman complained, "The police stood by and just let this happen."

The only ones not cleaned out were the ones who armed themselves and defended their stores.  They weren't bothered, but you don't see them covered by the news.  It doesn't fit the agenda of guns being bad.  I'll bet the other shop owners wished they had done so!

The majority of the looters are not local.  Some of them are not even from Missouri, or even from across the creek in Illinois!

Jerry

I read one report that some of those store owners had machine guns and assault rifles. Turned out that the press likes to mislabel any modern semi auto sporting rifle. as a "machine gun" or "assault rifle"  because they are black and scary looking to them.

LOL Marc.  They were all AR-15's in the account I saw, but the important thing is they didn't have to use them, AND their stores weren't disturbed.

Jerry

Callico wrote on Aug 18^th, 2014 at 5:29pm:

LOL Marc.  They were all AR-15's in the account I saw, but the important thing is they didn't have to use them, AND their stores weren't disturbed. Jerry

But, of course......

I only wished to point out the insidious nature of the mainstream media in America today. By slipping in military hardware terms amongst civilian sporting rifles, it makes it sound like all AR-15's are bad guns. They even try to claim that "AR" stands for assault rifle, which of course it never did, even in the military.

A normal AR-15 is not an assault rifle or a machine gun, because it is semi auto - unlike the military version. It IS the most popular selling .22 caliber sporting rifle platform ever built.

That is something else people forget: The super popular AR-15 IS a .22 caliber rifle! In fact, they are called "mouse guns" around here.

Marc

And from the "I don't know WTF I'm talking about." file......

This tweet <later retracted> from Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly on the scene in Ferguson, MO illustrates just how clueless and untrustworthy those charged with informing the world of current events can be.
START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGESTART PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

For those that don't know what these objects are.....they are disposable foam ear plugs.

I saw that and was reminded of what I said to a certain Senator and his press secretary:

"Please don’t piss on my leg and tell me that it’s raining. It may have taken me awhile to realize what you actually are, but I’m not stupid!"

Sort of reminds of how some people are in these riots.........The peaceful part of the crowd has locked arms to keep the looters away from certain businesses. But some folks just can't grasp the concept that: "My neighbor being wealthy is not the cause of me being poor."

We are seeing the entitlement mentality mushrooming even further out of control after generations of lawmakers telling people that they can't make it on their own, so they are going to need permanent help. People pushing these welfare programs to new heights feel that an entire segment of our population simply can't succeed, so they have be fed, clothed and housed forever.

This attitude is shockingly racist to me, because I know that they are dead wrong! People CAN and DO succeed when the incentive to do so, is there!

It's the old "teach a man to fish" adage with a twist: "Give a man another man's fish, and he will vote for you forever......"

OK, off the soap box now...... I have work to do.

Marc

I wish the media would just go away.  They just make things worse for everyone. 

Jeannie wrote on Aug 18^th, 2014 at 9:35pm:

I wish the media would just go away.  They just make things worse for everyone.

How would you tackle the situation, if you were in charge?

Marc

You know, Marc... It's a good thing I'm not in charge because I have no idea what I would do.

For the first couple of days the media seemed to only report on the "excessive force" the police took in trying to control the crowd.  They didn't tell you that shots were being fired, from in the crowd, each night and that was why they brought out the smoke bombs and tear gas.  They complained that they were arrested for "just being in a McDonald's."  They didn't tell you that the McDonald's manager was the one who called to have them removed. 

I feel like the situation is bad enough without reporters getting in the way and making things worse. 


edit to add:  I just read an article about protesters being arrested outside a government building in downtown St. Louis.  The article says "they were arrested for no reason at all."

Several of the protesters actually tried to push their way into the building so they were asked to disperse.  When they refused, some were arrested.

This whole thing has gotten totally out of hand (thank you Rev. Al). And the news coming out on TV is a bunch of hogwash.. they've more "experts" detailing what "they" think than anything I've ever heard.. it's ridiculous..

I'm wondering how it would have played out if the policeman who shot the kid had been black? would we have all this hullaballoo.. But since he was white and the kid was black - it HAD to be racist.. never mind the FACTS..

I'm old... I lived thru the early 60s and the race riots back then.. BUT the difference.. there was a reason back then.. (or at least they were putting a label on it back then - Civil Rights). Today it just doesn't make sense at all.

I was an advocate for Civil Rights back in the 60s, but I didn't sign on for this bull.. what's happening today is beyond comprehension. They need to BAN the news media from all this. Get Rev. Al off the air and quit stirring the pot. Arrest these damn looters (they're WRONG) and get this thing under control.

It's beyond me WHY all these marches need to be held and WHY at night?

What we have here is a mob mentality being stirred up and that's just wrong. If the policeman made a mistake - then let the law handle it, (and if it's proved that the kid was wrong then let it go)but this crap needs to stop and now.. it's not helping a darn thing and only going to cause more injuries and possibly more deaths. What will that accomplish?

It just hurts me to see what we thought was a good thing back in the 60s has come to this.

Ok, I'm going back to work now.. Jeannie you take care of yourself.. my prayers are with you.  :-*

Late last night, into early morning, I watched live coverage of police repeatedly ordering press to clear an area due to "shots"fired." They fail to comply thus putting the officers in more danger having to protect them.

This morning reporter are whining about being gassed. They were warned!

:-X

Ryan J. Reilly doesn't know the difference between an ear plug and a bullet? What a dumb-ass.

In Dallas last night an unarmed white man was shot and killed  by police.  White people protested today by going to work.

That sounds racist, but was not intended to be.  I don't care what flavor a person happens to be.  I care about the actions and attitudes.  In St. Louis it was the ones who lawfully defended their properties who were harassed and ridiculed, but now the small businesses that were victimized are facing ruin because some of their insurance won't cover riots.

Somebody please explain to me how it is a "Protest" against someone if I steal and destroy the property of another individual who is not involved?

Can anyone tell me the address of Michael Brown's family?  Has their house been shown on TV, or maps distributed so they can be found?  Why was the police officer's identity released in the manner it was, and the media showing his house and community on TV?

At least Eric Holder is going to St. Louis to back up the 40 FBI agents he sent, and the Civil Rights Division representatives of the Justice Department.  I'm sure he will be impartial and just looking for the truth!

Jerry

Quote:

Why was the police officer's identity released in the manner it was, and the media showing his house and community on TV?

To sensationalize the news and keep you watching until the next commercial. TV news, and for that matter, almost all news, is for entertainment only. It keeps you watching from sales pitch to sales pitch.
Follow the money. Billions of money.