Thursday, August 20, 2015

The Inmates are Already Running the Asylum; Must We Allow Them To Burn It Down?





*  *  *

Officers arrested at least nine people and deployed tear gas amid protests in St. Louis over the death of a black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by police after he pointed a gun at them, the city’s police chief said.

* Er... "...AFTER HE POINTED A GUN AT THEM..."

Chief Sam Dotson said at a news conference late Wednesday night that a group of protesters who had blocked an intersection threw glass bottles and bricks at officers...

* THIS IS WHEN YOU BUST HEADS.

(*SHRUG*)

* SERIOUSLY. NO SNARK. NO "JUST SHOOT THE BASTARDS." BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? THIS IS WHEN YOU "BUST HEADS." THIS IS WHEN POLICE MAKE AN EXAMPLE THAT WILL RESONATE AND ACT AS A "TEACHABLE MOMENT." WE SIMPLY CAN'T HAVE ANARCHY. WE CAN'T HAVE THESE ANIMALS ATTACKING POLICE. PERIOD.

...and refused orders to clear the roadway.

Inert gas was used and when that didn’t have any effect on the crowd, police turned to tear gas to clear the intersection, Mr. Dotson said. Those arrested face charges of impeding the flow of traffic and resisting arrest, he said.

The demonstration was one of several Wednesday after the killing of 18-year-old Mansur Ball-Bey of St. Louis.

* CITIZEN? (JUST CURIOUS...)

It comes with tensions already high in the area after violence erupted during several events marking the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old fatally shot last year by a police officer in nearby Ferguson.

* AND THE WORLD IS A SAFER PLACE WITH MICHAEL BROWN DEAD. THAT'S JUST... THE REALITY.

(*SHRUG*)

Two police officers serving a search warrant Wednesday afternoon at a home in a crime-troubled section of the city’s north side encountered two suspects, one of which was Mr. Ball-Bey, the chief said. The suspects were fleeing the home as Mr. Ball-Bey turned and pointed a handgun at the officers, who shot him, Mr. Dotson said. He died at the scene.

* GOOD! SERIOUSLY... GOOD! ONE LESS RABID ANIMAL AROUND TO ENDANGER AT WORST, BURDEN AT BEST, SOCIETY.

Both officers, who are white, were unharmed, according to a police report.

* THANK GOD!

Police are searching for the second suspect, who they said is believed to be in his mid- to late teens.

Mr. Dotson said four guns, including the handgun wielded by the dead suspect, and crack cocaine were recovered at or near the home, which last year yielded illegal guns during a police search.

A man and woman who were also inside the home were arrested, Mr. Dotson said.

Roughly 150 people gathered Wednesday afternoon near the scene of the shooting, questioning the use of deadly force. Some chanted “Black Lives Matter,” a mantra used after Mr. Brown’s death.

(*SIGH*)

As police removed their yellow tape that cordoned off the scene, dozens of people converged on the home’s front yard, many chanting insults and gesturing obscenely at officers. Several onlookers surrounded individual officers, yelling at them.

“Another youth down by the hands of police,” Dex Dockett, 42, who lives nearby, told a reporter. “What could have been done different to de-escalate rather than escalate? They [police] come in with an us-against-them mentality. You’ve got to have the right kind of cops to engage in these types of neighborhoods.”

* I ACTUALLY AGREE WITH MR. DOCKETT - THOUGH PERHAPS NOT IN THE SENSE HE WOULD APPRECIATE. WE NEED COPS WHO ARE READY, WILLING, AND ABLE TO MAINTAIN CIVILIZATION EVEN IN THE POOREST OF NEIGHBORHOODS. THE GOOD PEOPLE OF THESE NEIGHBORHOODS DESERVE NOTHING LESS. OUR SOCIETY DESERVES NOTHING LESS!

Another neighborhood resident, Fred Price, said he was skeptical about Mr. Dotson’s account that the suspect pointed a gun at officers before being mortally wounded.

“They provoked the situation,” Mr. Price, 33, said. “Situations like this make us want to keep the police out of the neighborhood. They’re shooting first, then asking questions.”

* MR. PRICE IS OBVIOUSLY PART OF THE PROBLEM - NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION.

In addition to the nine arrests at the Wednesday night demonstration, officers responded to reports of burglaries in the area and the fire department was called after a car was set ablaze, according to Mr. Dotson.

* "...AFTER A CAR WAS SET ABLAZE..."

* FOLKS... WE CAN'T ALLOW AMERICA TO DESCEND INTO THIRD-WORLD STANDARDS OF CONDUCT. WE MUST DEMAND BETTER. WE MUST ENFORCE BETTER!

He blamed the crimes on people seeking “notoriety” in a neighborhood “plagued by violence.”

The area is near where a 93-year-old veteran who was part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen — the U.S. military’s first black aviators — was the victim of crimes twice within a few minutes Sunday, being robbed and then having his car stolen. The veteran was unhurt, and his car was found Tuesday blocks from where it was taken.

* WHAT... IS... WRONG... WITH... THESE... ANIMALS...?!?!

Protests have become a familiar scene across the St. Louis region since Brown, who was black and unarmed, was fatally shot by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. A St. Louis County grand jury and the U.S. Justice Department declined to charge Mr. Wilson, who resigned in November.

* WHO WAS FORCED TO RESIGN... (LET'S HAVE JUST THE BAREST DEGREE OF HONESTY HERE...)

(*SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)

Some of those who protested Mr. Ball-Bey’s killing had already spent the morning in downtown St. Louis, marching to mark the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Kajieme Powell. He was fatally shot by two St. Louis officers after police said he approached them with a knife. Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce is still reviewing the case to determine whether lethal force was justified.

* AND WE WONDER WHY JUST RECENTLY A COP "ALLOWED" HIMSELF TO BE DISARMED AND BEATEN HALF TO DEATH (WITH HIS OWN SERVICE WEAPON) BY A CRIMINAL?

* FOLKS... HOW LONG WILL WE ALLOW THE INMATES TO RUN THE ASYLUM?

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