Do NOT visit downtown Ferguson
- Thread starter Tom396
- Start date
Tom396
.30-06
But wouldn't a uniform issue be with your employer, not with the DOJ? I don't see the local police force being beholding to the federal government. Take care. Tom Worthington
MikeT
.270 WIN
Yes, except that police department is under investigation by the DOJ. In addition, the DOJ requested the bracelets not be work. The DOJ did not demand it. Not only is that police department under investigation by the DOJ, they are being looked at (In a very hard manner) by the State. It is those officers best interests not to make any moves that appear inflammatory, including wearing bracelets.
Solution:
Put a vest strap thru it and wear it over your heart but under your uniform shirt. Wear it on your wrist inside out. Write it in lipstick on the bathroom mirror while you shave. That mere PHRASE should cause a supporter of Darren Wilson to look inward and be reflective of the situation. It doesn't need to be, and shouldn't be, an "in-your-face, bitch!" display while on duty.
Ferguson, MO residents and its community leaders (at least some) try to describe that deep tensions between the police department and the citizens existed long before that unarmed man was killed. Ferguson is what, 70% black? And the PD is 50 officers only three of whom are black? That's a pretty big disparity, but those conditions aren't all that different from where I work (39% black population ~ only one black police officer who is just part time). A neighboring municipality is 100% black with a black Police Chief who has hired ALL white officers. There is a large unemployed population of mostly young people on government welfare/taxpayer funded housing/subsidies/food stamps/Medicaid.... Yet, I don't think tensions within my police jurisdiction here are strained anywhere near what Ferguson exhibits.
Granted, we aren't a militarized police. There isn't a cop in the whole county with riot uniforms, tear gas launchers, armored vehicles, riot shields, etc. One deputy has a US Army kevlar helmet covered with a cloth woodland camo helmet cover and an OD Green chin strap. That is the only helmet I have seen. Maybe our total lack of appearing like we are at war helps, coupled with the fact that nobody accosts young black males just because they are "walking while black". I will say that over 90% of the crimes committed against the black populace are done by members of their same race. Whites are not doing anything to members of the black community, and the cops are extremely fair. Hell, our county jail population is vastly caucasion.
Fergusons leaders are quoted in the press that this isn't a white cop / black man division-of-opinions ~ that it is ALL because of how the police department has been treating the citizens for many years. This incident merely brought an increasingly growing situation to a boiling point.
Right.....
They want Darren Wilson arrested and convicted. They want his head on a pike. "Who Do We Want?" "Darren Wilson!!!" How Do We Want Him?" "DEAD!!!"
He's been forced into seclusion, hiding out with his wife and children who have recieved death threats, threats of rape, threats of firebombing his family while they sleep. He'll possibly face criminal charges. That's not certain but it is possible. Meanwhile, the Grand Jury has to determine if a prosecution is justified at the risk of their decision being wildly unpopular if they don't return a true bill. I think we know what will occur the moment that news breaks.
So there is some well-founded sympathy for Darren Wilson across the country. Because people know that if he were a black officer in this situation this would never have reached such a national crescendo and he would not be living in fear for his innocent family's mortal safety as Darren Wilson has been.
And to repeat... That mere PHRASE should cause any supporter of Darren Wilson to look inward and be reflective of the situation. It doesn't need to be, and shouldn't be, an "in-your-face, bitch!" display while on duty. Because the possibility of having kids and a wife absolutely terrified for their family's safety could happen to any officer on the street anytime they kiss their spouse and tell them how much they love them before they leave the house, even off duty, particluarly in a racially charged environment, and then something goes terribly awry. It's a horrifying thought, at least for me.
This post is not intended to stir anything up with any audience or individual. It's just my opinion, and I have tried to come across as sounding reasonable, non-racial, and objective. I hope I did so.
We need more people out there like you @nitesite !! I like hearing your perspective on things like this as you offer a different perspective.
I have witnessed the increasing militarization of police here where I live and in places like Chicago and I have often questioned if this militarization is causing the increased tensions or if it is a reaction to those increased tensions. I think they both feed into each other, which will ultimately conclude in one result unless something changes.
Regardless of how this played out in the street, I think it's sad that we have come to the point where one is tried, convicted and punished in the media and by society long before the facts come out and long before their day in court. This man, and especially his family and children should not have to live in fear like this. It's like the criminal justice system is just an secondary step after the angry mob has it's way with you. For all of our advancements we are really regressing as a society.
I have witnessed the increasing militarization of police here where I live and in places like Chicago and I have often questioned if this militarization is causing the increased tensions or if it is a reaction to those increased tensions. I think they both feed into each other, which will ultimately conclude in one result unless something changes.
Regardless of how this played out in the street, I think it's sad that we have come to the point where one is tried, convicted and punished in the media and by society long before the facts come out and long before their day in court. This man, and especially his family and children should not have to live in fear like this. It's like the criminal justice system is just an secondary step after the angry mob has it's way with you. For all of our advancements we are really regressing as a society.
You did so Nitesite. That was well said for a touchy subject.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_b71556de-68b1-566f-a6ce-cc02c01b8343.html
Please.... take a moment to read this.
Please.... take a moment to read this.
The entire article looks like its been passed through DOJ, DHS, etc. I can only get the first sentence.
This is how it shows up for me...
There was a survey question first before the entire text would display.
FERGUSON • Seeing that a fellow African-American police officer had endured his fill of racial slurs shouted by people of his own race, Sgt. Harry Dilworth tapped the man’s shoulder and took his place facing protesters.
Riots following the Aug. 9 shooting of an unarmed black teen by a white officer make it a tough time to be on the Ferguson police force — and for Dilworth it’s tougher if the person in blue happens to be black.
Most of the insults he heard on the line that day are too graphic to print. Among the more polite are “sellout” and “Uncle Tom,” Dilworth said. He had stood with two other black officers, one from the Missouri Highway Patrol and one from the St. Louis County police.
“We didn’t blink,” he recalled in an interview this week. “We didn’t say anything to them. We stood there and took it. We all talked about it afterwards. I said, ‘Don’t address ignorance with ignorance.’
“But it’s hard to hear that from the minority group that you are representing ... You tune it out, but psychologically you’re dealing with scars. Some officers are going to see counselors. We’re not robots.”
Dilworth believes their hard facade is fueling some of the fire.
“I think it pisses them off even more because they think we’re unemotional,” he said. “We feel, but we can’t show that because as soon as we say something we will be all over the news ... I can’t so much as spit on the sidewalk right now without someone throwing it on social media.”
Black and white officers alike agree that the blacks have been targeted more on the front lines of policing the troubles that followed Michael Brown’s death. They feel caught between empathizing with a brother officer who used deadly force and understanding a community that is venting pent-up rage against police.
Dilworth, 45, wishes he could retire, but he feels a draw to stay in the community he has served for 21 years.
Even on ordinary calls for service, some taunt him with the “hands up, don’t shoot’” gesture widely adopted by protesters.
“You can only take so much of this,” Dilworth said, taking a reporter with him Wednesday to patrol the 6.2-square-mile city.
Dilworth had been at Fort Leonard Wood fulfilling his duties as an Army reservist the day of the shooting. He said his wife wishes he were back in Iraq or Afghanistan.
“She thinks I would be safer there,” he said.
‘IT’S DIFFERENT NOW’
Dilworth is the only black supervisor and one of four African-American officers on a force of 53 in a community where two-thirds of the 21,000 residents are black.
His teeth clenched as he drove past a protester holding a sign that read “Stop Killing Us.”
He questioned why protesters don’t hold such signs at the scenes of murders, such as the recent killing in St. Louis of Donnie White. Dilworth said he knew White, who was on the way home from work when he got caught in crossfire between suspected black gangs.
“We are not killing you; you are killing yourselves,” he said, his voice rising inside his police SUV. “This is a systematic problem that’s been going on for years. I want to tell them to wake up! And look at exactly what the problem really is! Look at the statistics. The number of officer-involved shootings is relatively low. I stand a better chance of being killed by you.”
A call for a disturbance echoed on his radio. Foremost on his mind, he said: Are his officers going to be safe? If something happens, what will he tell the spouse?
“It’s different now because the threat has been heightened,” Dilworth said. “I worry about the guys I supervise; I worry about their physical and mental well-being.”
Dilworth said that after Brown was killed, one of the officers he supervises was mistakenly identified on social media as the shooter, and ended up moving his family out of state.
Dilworth said hackers published personal information about him on the Internet. “Someone tried to buy a $37,000 truck in my name,” he complained.
Some fellow officers moved, forsaking $100 a month incentives to live in Ferguson. They changed phone numbers.
Take-home patrol cars are now parked at police headquarters. “Imagine having a Ferguson police car parked in front of your house right now,” Dilworth said. “It’s like walking around with a scarlet letter.
“The community has become divided because people are looking at this as a black-and-white thing, like a poor black kid got shot by a white guy. It wouldn’t be that way if it was a black officer. I guarantee you that.”
Once Officer Darren Wilson’s name came out, some mistakenly confused him with a black St. Louis police sergeant of the same name. Sgt. Darren Wilson said he was inundated with threats and harassment. He is president of the Ethical Society of Police; most of its members are black city officers.
“I don’t know the other Darren Wilson, and unfortunately now he’s been stigmatized because of this entire event,” Sgt. Wilson said. “It has become a racial one, not from my standpoint but from a societal standpoint.
“We’ve all been subjected to Monday morning quarterbacking, so we don’t know whether he made a good or poor decision that day ... No one wants to be in the other Darren Wilson’s shoes.”
DOESN’T JUDGE SHOOTING
Dilworth didn’t know Brown. He said he barely knows Wilson, who was in a different squad. They had occasional conversations about cases.
He is reluctant to judge the shooting. “It’s hard for me to question because I was not put in that situation ... For every one witness that said they saw it one way, there are those who said they saw it another way.”
Dilworth hates that his department is being portrayed as a predator, raising revenue by writing traffic tickets to poor minorities.
He spent part of the shift answering calls for a burglary and for a man violating the panhandling ordinance. The department answers 25,000 requests for service a year.
No one harassed him during Wednesday’s encounters. But he said it happens regularly, and that he cannot remember the last time he responded to a call without someone recording his every move with a cellphone camera.
Surviving in the stressful conditions “starts from the top down,” Dilworth said. He praised Chief Thomas Jackson, who had promoted him to sergeant, saying he stands behind Jackson’s sometimes controversial handling of the situation “110 percent.”
“No matter what he says and does, he’s going to be scrutinized,” Dilworth said. “That kind of weight has got to be unbearable.”
He said he appreciates that Jackson reached out to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Its president, Cedric Alexander, who is public safety director in DeKalb County, Ga., said, “Chief Jackson has been cooperative and open as he and I have worked together in trying to move forward and go through this very tough time.”
Dilworth draws some strength from the loyalty of residents to their community. He could hardly turn down a street without seeing an “I Love Ferguson” sign in someone’s yard.
He waved to a black man mowing his lawn.
The man waved back.
“He waved and had all his fingers up,” Dilworth said. “I consider that as a positive thing.”
Christine Byers is a crime reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter.
FERGUSON • Seeing that a fellow African-American police officer had endured his fill of racial slurs shouted by people of his own race, Sgt. Harry Dilworth tapped the man’s shoulder and took his place facing protesters.
Riots following the Aug. 9 shooting of an unarmed black teen by a white officer make it a tough time to be on the Ferguson police force — and for Dilworth it’s tougher if the person in blue happens to be black.
Most of the insults he heard on the line that day are too graphic to print. Among the more polite are “sellout” and “Uncle Tom,” Dilworth said. He had stood with two other black officers, one from the Missouri Highway Patrol and one from the St. Louis County police.
“We didn’t blink,” he recalled in an interview this week. “We didn’t say anything to them. We stood there and took it. We all talked about it afterwards. I said, ‘Don’t address ignorance with ignorance.’
“But it’s hard to hear that from the minority group that you are representing ... You tune it out, but psychologically you’re dealing with scars. Some officers are going to see counselors. We’re not robots.”
Dilworth believes their hard facade is fueling some of the fire.
“I think it pisses them off even more because they think we’re unemotional,” he said. “We feel, but we can’t show that because as soon as we say something we will be all over the news ... I can’t so much as spit on the sidewalk right now without someone throwing it on social media.”
Black and white officers alike agree that the blacks have been targeted more on the front lines of policing the troubles that followed Michael Brown’s death. They feel caught between empathizing with a brother officer who used deadly force and understanding a community that is venting pent-up rage against police.
Dilworth, 45, wishes he could retire, but he feels a draw to stay in the community he has served for 21 years.
Even on ordinary calls for service, some taunt him with the “hands up, don’t shoot’” gesture widely adopted by protesters.
“You can only take so much of this,” Dilworth said, taking a reporter with him Wednesday to patrol the 6.2-square-mile city.
Dilworth had been at Fort Leonard Wood fulfilling his duties as an Army reservist the day of the shooting. He said his wife wishes he were back in Iraq or Afghanistan.
“She thinks I would be safer there,” he said.
‘IT’S DIFFERENT NOW’
Dilworth is the only black supervisor and one of four African-American officers on a force of 53 in a community where two-thirds of the 21,000 residents are black.
His teeth clenched as he drove past a protester holding a sign that read “Stop Killing Us.”
He questioned why protesters don’t hold such signs at the scenes of murders, such as the recent killing in St. Louis of Donnie White. Dilworth said he knew White, who was on the way home from work when he got caught in crossfire between suspected black gangs.
“We are not killing you; you are killing yourselves,” he said, his voice rising inside his police SUV. “This is a systematic problem that’s been going on for years. I want to tell them to wake up! And look at exactly what the problem really is! Look at the statistics. The number of officer-involved shootings is relatively low. I stand a better chance of being killed by you.”
A call for a disturbance echoed on his radio. Foremost on his mind, he said: Are his officers going to be safe? If something happens, what will he tell the spouse?
“It’s different now because the threat has been heightened,” Dilworth said. “I worry about the guys I supervise; I worry about their physical and mental well-being.”
Dilworth said that after Brown was killed, one of the officers he supervises was mistakenly identified on social media as the shooter, and ended up moving his family out of state.
Dilworth said hackers published personal information about him on the Internet. “Someone tried to buy a $37,000 truck in my name,” he complained.
Some fellow officers moved, forsaking $100 a month incentives to live in Ferguson. They changed phone numbers.
Take-home patrol cars are now parked at police headquarters. “Imagine having a Ferguson police car parked in front of your house right now,” Dilworth said. “It’s like walking around with a scarlet letter.
“The community has become divided because people are looking at this as a black-and-white thing, like a poor black kid got shot by a white guy. It wouldn’t be that way if it was a black officer. I guarantee you that.”
Once Officer Darren Wilson’s name came out, some mistakenly confused him with a black St. Louis police sergeant of the same name. Sgt. Darren Wilson said he was inundated with threats and harassment. He is president of the Ethical Society of Police; most of its members are black city officers.
“I don’t know the other Darren Wilson, and unfortunately now he’s been stigmatized because of this entire event,” Sgt. Wilson said. “It has become a racial one, not from my standpoint but from a societal standpoint.
“We’ve all been subjected to Monday morning quarterbacking, so we don’t know whether he made a good or poor decision that day ... No one wants to be in the other Darren Wilson’s shoes.”
DOESN’T JUDGE SHOOTING
Dilworth didn’t know Brown. He said he barely knows Wilson, who was in a different squad. They had occasional conversations about cases.
He is reluctant to judge the shooting. “It’s hard for me to question because I was not put in that situation ... For every one witness that said they saw it one way, there are those who said they saw it another way.”
Dilworth hates that his department is being portrayed as a predator, raising revenue by writing traffic tickets to poor minorities.
He spent part of the shift answering calls for a burglary and for a man violating the panhandling ordinance. The department answers 25,000 requests for service a year.
No one harassed him during Wednesday’s encounters. But he said it happens regularly, and that he cannot remember the last time he responded to a call without someone recording his every move with a cellphone camera.
Surviving in the stressful conditions “starts from the top down,” Dilworth said. He praised Chief Thomas Jackson, who had promoted him to sergeant, saying he stands behind Jackson’s sometimes controversial handling of the situation “110 percent.”
“No matter what he says and does, he’s going to be scrutinized,” Dilworth said. “That kind of weight has got to be unbearable.”
He said he appreciates that Jackson reached out to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Its president, Cedric Alexander, who is public safety director in DeKalb County, Ga., said, “Chief Jackson has been cooperative and open as he and I have worked together in trying to move forward and go through this very tough time.”
Dilworth draws some strength from the loyalty of residents to their community. He could hardly turn down a street without seeing an “I Love Ferguson” sign in someone’s yard.
He waved to a black man mowing his lawn.
The man waved back.
“He waved and had all his fingers up,” Dilworth said. “I consider that as a positive thing.”
Christine Byers is a crime reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter.
That's how it worked for the short time I worked as a Deputy Sheriff here too.
Nothing More, Nothing Less.
Tom396
.30-06
A Missouri senator figured she'd intentionally get herself arrested in front of the Ferguson police station.
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/jamilah-nasheed-missouri-senator-arrested/2014/10/21/id/602039/
She also figured shouting "No justice, no peace" is an appropriate thing for a senator to be doing. So what is she telling her constituents to do? Take care. Tom Worthington
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/jamilah-nasheed-missouri-senator-arrested/2014/10/21/id/602039/
She also figured shouting "No justice, no peace" is an appropriate thing for a senator to be doing. So what is she telling her constituents to do? Take care. Tom Worthington
Well Tom, I'll hazard a guess that she's just pandering to her electorate though it seems she was elected to get things done in other ways. It probably will explode again when the grand jury comes back. The police officer's story seems to have more substance since it came out the his gun was discharged in the car and the defendant's blood was inside the car indicating a struggle occurred.
^ This
I heard that besides blood in the vehicle, there was also blood on the officers uniform and gun, which would indicate an extremely close range hit, or at minimum a physical struggle/altercation.
Let the woman act foolishly if she desires. I'm not meaning to sound condescending when I say this, women tend to run on their raw emotions rather than logic. That's just how they're wired. It is only going to come back and haunt her later. I have said it before and is worth repeating here. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I heard that besides blood in the vehicle, there was also blood on the officers uniform and gun, which would indicate an extremely close range hit, or at minimum a physical struggle/altercation.
Let the woman act foolishly if she desires. I'm not meaning to sound condescending when I say this, women tend to run on their raw emotions rather than logic. That's just how they're wired. It is only going to come back and haunt her later. I have said it before and is worth repeating here. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Tom396
.30-06
Jesus. She had a loaded gun, and apparently no permit for it. Reports of alcohol on her breath. If she planned this, she sure didn't plan it very well.
http://kplr11.com/2014/10/21/state-...time-of-arrest-police-suspected-intoxication/
Take care. Tom Worthington
http://kplr11.com/2014/10/21/state-...time-of-arrest-police-suspected-intoxication/
Take care. Tom Worthington
My Dad was living in Gary Indiana when Martin Luther King was killed when the riots started.
He said he had to hide in a garbage dumpster in an alley to get away from 4 or 5 black guys that were chasing him who just wanted to kill any white person they could find.
Sad, but there are people out there like that. And I'll go ahead and say it, those same people usually feel empowered when they are in large numbers.
All the more reason to not be limited in magazine capacity if one must be forced to protect themselves.
He said he had to hide in a garbage dumpster in an alley to get away from 4 or 5 black guys that were chasing him who just wanted to kill any white person they could find.
Sad, but there are people out there like that. And I'll go ahead and say it, those same people usually feel empowered when they are in large numbers.
All the more reason to not be limited in magazine capacity if one must be forced to protect themselves.