More Updates From Ferguson

by Mallory Ortberg · August 18, 2014

Are you following Buzzfeed’s Joel Anderson yet? He’s been in Ferguson all week, and he is putting himself in unbelievably dangerous situations in order to report what’s going on. It’s an important corrective to mainstream reports — I’m more shocked than I should be, probably, at the number of stories I’ve seen in national newspapers and TV networks giving credence to the police’s lies about “reaching for the gun” and mass, widespread looting necessitating tear gas and crackdowns.

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A Ferguson cop tells a journalist to turn his camera off or he’ll shoot him, while being recorded.

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Tear gassing children and the media three hours before curfew without warning; non-white reporters being excluded from the press zone.

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I don’t want to fall too deep into the rabbit hole of “what are celebrities saying about police brutality,” but Jesse Williams is a beacon of moral clarity:

“This is a tradition in this country, where people are able to go ahead and kill Black people because they’ve gotten sassed or inconvenienced. We’re victims of a fantasy. This fantasy of what the Black body does and can do has become more importantly than the reality and we pay for it with our lives,” Williams said. “Look at the amount of boys that are being shot because you feel scared. The idea of feeling threatened is not the same thing as being threatened. We pretend that it is, but it’s not. We have to keep fighting to be heard and to be treated like human beings.”

When Velez-Mitchell introduced William’s class privilege into the conversation, asking how he could still feel so “disenfranchised” with all of his success, he responded:

“I don’t think of just me, I think of a collective group of people. While privilege is very well, whether it’s a class issue that obviously exists–I’m glad you bring that up. This idea of having to explain why it’s racial, while we’re standing in our own blood is silly. It’s racial because it doesn’t happen to White people.”

don’t talk about what a babe he is, now is not the time to discuss what a babe he is, WHAT A BABE THOUGH

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Donating money doesn’t fix the constellation of fuckups in Ferguson-in-particular and America-in-general, but Michael Brown’s family could use some help with their legal costs as they seek justice, so if you have a dollar or two to spare, consider sending it their way. You can also donate to the legal fund supporting arrested protestors here.

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Black Women Are Killed By The Police Too

“Prevailing narratives around Black violability and anti-Black racial violence pivot around Black men and boys,” said Dr. Lindsey. “Both historically and contemporarily, when many people working towards racial justice around the issue of racial violence, the presumptive victim is a Black male. From lynching to police brutality, the presumed victim is a Black male. Therefore, Black women and girls are viewed as exceptional victims as opposed to perpetual victims of anti-Black racial violence. Our narratives around racial violence, unfortunately, have yet to evolve into ones that are gender inclusive. Black Victim=Black Male.”

Yes, we must have justice for John Crawford, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown. But we cannot forget about Yvette Smith, Eleanor Bumpurs, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Tarika Wilson, and so many others whose stories hover on the edges of obscurity.

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It’s worth following St. Louis Public Radio on Twitter for local updates.

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What vile, unmitigated bullshit:

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A Change.org petition asking St. Louis police to wear body cameras; an article weighing the pros and cons on the practice.

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66 Comments

  2. betsymore +36

    Thank you for continuing to cover this sickening, enraging, shocking-but-not-surprising story.

    2. liminalist +2

      Thanks. Relieved to see a post from him on Friday, I’ve missed his voice more than ever in the past week. Glad he’s back and looking forward to what he has to say about his French immersion and Ferguson.

  4. Frumiosa +24

    You guys:
    http://www.vox.com/2014/8/15/6005587/ferguson-sat…

    “Missouri, far-removed from the glistening capital city of Washington, is ostensibly ruled by a charismatic but troubled official named Jay Nixon, who has appeared unable to successfully intervene and has resisted efforts at mediation from central government officials. Complicating matters, President Obama is himself a member of the minority sect protesting in Ferguson, which is ruled overwhelmingly by members of America’s majority “white people” sect.”

    1. EPWordsnatcher +33

      “the opaque American political system, in which all provinces are granted semi-autonomous self-rule”

      This is brilliant.

      edit: “locals…subsist on traditional crafts such as agriculture and aerospace engineering”

    2. bird_internet +4

      My only quibble would be that no amount of distance could make Nixon look charismatic.

  6. chnellociraptor +11

    Thanks for keeping this updated. If anyone is not already following Nicole, Mallory and Jaya on Twitter, they’ve been retweeting lots of relevant stuff and just saying lots of true things that make me feel better.

    Also Cord Jefferson! https://medium.com/matter/michael-brown-b3a72a274…

    Also I am slightly heartened by how close the memorial fund is to reaching its $80k goal. It’s like the Internet stranger equivalent of dropping off a casserole in a time of grief.

  7. Genevievenumba4 +51

    The downsides to making police wear cameras read like the part of a high school rhetoric assignment where you have to come up with arguments in support of the obviously wrong position.

    “They’re…expensive? Probably not as expensive as tanks, though. Ok, it will…require more training, so they know when to turn them on? Totally defeating the purpose of cameras in the first place, obviously, but fuck it this is due in an hour. Write it up.”

    1. msmessica +8

      Honestly, the two issues I can see are 1) who will review the footage and when and where will we keep it and 2) can they use the footage against you as evidence. However they should be able to reasonably deal with these following existing dashcam stautes and processes.

      1. Genevievenumba4 +13

        I’m not familiar with the existing dashcam procedures, but a) they exist, and b) even if they didn’t, independent civilian review boards are a theoretical thing, right? Them. Lots of them. Cloud storage with several back ups, automatic upload, keep the footage for fucking ever. If we can secretly build enough storage to record every damn phone call ever, we can figure this out.

        1. msmessica +17

          Well, yes, they are often a theoretical thing, not so much a literal one in many places, which is why malfunctions so frequently “happen” with dashcams when there are reports filed against officers. A lot of dashcams and dashcam programs are never reviewed by outside organizations at all. Basically we can follow the current rules of the dashcams, but we need to beef up the current rules/oversight of the dashcams.

          The storage issue isn’t that simple. It’s expensive to keep data forever and you’d be increasing the storage needs for a precinct by a factor of 100 possibly. There’s also the cost of building the software that catalogs and mines the data. The NSA has a crazy huge budget and lots of leftover fallout shelter mountains (no seriously) to stick server racks in but they have a really hard time finding data when they want it because they have a crap all database and it’s poorly cataloged. Again, these are things that can be dealt with, (especially if some of these police forces quit buying tanks) but it would probably take special federal funding to be able to implement bodycam programs from a technical standpoint. Right now the President is telling people we all just need to calm down on national TV, which means…yeah.

          I think they are an excellent idea and I think if properly implemented and supported they do decrease police violence, but between the political realities (politicians will block federal legislation that forces their police force to buy something, for example, if their constituents are pro-police), the technical realities, and the time and care it would take to have rules and governance that isn’t corrupt over the programs (and how to enforce that) you’re talking about years, maybe even decades of slow implementation. It’s not as simple as sticking a gopro on everybody. People are dying at the hands of police NOW and they need a federal justice system that will hold officers responsible, they need demilitarization legislation, they need a lot of immediate support. Again, I’m very pro bodycam, but I also see a lot of people going hard for body cams and not much else when they think that’s a simple solution and if that’s all we push for I just don’t see widespread success. A town like Ferguson, without federal legislation and independent oversight forced into place as part of a slow, wide-scale effort, will buy a “trial” set of bodycams for some officers, keep the footage for thirty days (not enough time at all) and claim that’s all they have money for, probably not give the footage to outside evaluators unless requested and have frequent “malfunctions.” They’ll then declare the trial unsuccessful and be an example against the idea for other police forces.

          Again, very pro bodycam, just very pro doing it RIGHT unlike how dashcam programs have been implemented previously and that just isn’t going to prevent more Michael Browns for years as a solitary effort.

          1. Genevievenumba4 +2

            Your expertise is appreciated. Putting aside political realities, since that’s the thing that seems like it can change in a sea-change sort of way (FINGERS CROSSED), on the technical stuff: there seem to be ways to leverage what we know about human behavior, no? Like, variable rewards/consequences are pretty effective. Random sampling coupled with actual penalties for officers found in violation of whatever might put the fear of god/people/anything into them, requirements that all interactions with civilians be recorded coupled with penalties for failing to do so, etc etc. I dunno. Accountability seems to be the key, and that appears to require a profound shift in how law enforcement organizations conceive of themselves. They can’t be fraternal organizations with siege mentalities anymore. I think independent oversight with the actual power to hold police officers accountable for their behavior (including tools to circumvent police interference, like recording equipment) would go a long way.

            But yeah. Political realities being the big variable there.

            ETA: hahaha, they “can’t” be fraternal organizations anymore. I mean…obviously they can. I would just really, really like them not to be.

          2. msmessica +2

            Yeah 🙁

            Dashcam programs that are externally monitored work! If we could take some sort of federal control, even tying funding to a requirement that there be an independent body involved I think it’s a big step towards safety for citizens. The issue with dashcams where they aren’t implemented or are internally controlled, I think it probably comes down to the strength of the officer union vs the strength/honesty of the IA department.

          3. Genevievenumba4 +2

            A broken system indeed. I’ve found myself wondering how bad things will have to get before many of these interwoven and interrelated types of fuckery are actually addressed — the corruption of law enforcement, tied to civil forfeiture and drug laws, tied to for profit prisons, tied to poverty and the lack of a social safety net, tied to… — and I try to think in historical terms, and the answer is always “way fucking worse.” Which…gah. Maybe social media will actually lower the price of social change in blood. I mean…again, fucking fingers crossed.

            ETA: obviously none of that gets at the underlying institutional racism, which…Jesus. Talk about need for federal oversight. But IIRC, that’s not happening with this Supreme Court, so…burn it all down, I guess.

  8. sednarea51 +38

    Thank you for continuing to cover the hell out of this. I was watching the livestream when that cop threatened to shoot the cameraman. It says something that my initial response was less “what the fuck” and “thank God, we finally caught someone LIVE ON FILM”. For all the good that will apparently do.

    1. Genevievenumba4 +20

      Right? The other side of this coin has been encountering people who have seen at least some of the coverage and still say shit like, “I think there is some overreaction [by the protesters] about the police response.” The fuck? No, you are just a crazy person / closet fascist / probably kind of racist, and you clearly inhabit a different reality.*

      I honestly don’t…I don’t know. I don’t know how anyone can watch this and not be fucking terrified and disgusted and sad all at once.

      *I suppose the best case scenario to explain this faux-centrist bullshit is that this person is both highly privileged and too lazy to actually look deeply into the issue BUT still feels entitled to have an opinion, because…privilege, I guess. But that is a shitty best case scenario, and I have lost patience with that kind of thing.

      1. deleted1892326 +28

        Someone said this on fb today: ” I’m not sure what to believe at this point. It’s getting too muddled for the truth to ever come free. ”

        Well, not really. Because there are eyewitnesses and people there who are reporting what’s happening right now, so we can know what the truth is. I just don’t know how to reason with someone who won’t consider believing the people who are being terrorized and oppressed.

        1. Genevievenumba4 +9

          I am super glad I’m not on FB when stuff like this happens. I feel like my latent misanthropy would go into full bloom if I had to look at evidence showing a bunch of people I kind of know are actually at least somewhat awful.

        2. ljndawson +13

          The only reply to that is “Who you gonna believe? Them or your own lying eyes?” Srsly.

      2. jennjennboben +5

        I share your disbelief. It amazes me how many people see that footage and similar coverage and still think the police are totally in the right.

    1. katiemcgillicuddy +36

      Jay Nixon: I was raised to believe that marriage is between one man and one woman.

      God, don’t you love the “I was raised” bullshit? Like, “Sorry/not sorry, this is what my mommy and daddy told me to think…and yes, I am an adult who can think for myself, why do you ask?” He’s the kind of guy who misses the “good ol’ days”.

      1. jtradke +22

        “I believe this literally only because my parents told me so, and I didn’t bother to think about it on my own.”

        1. Genevievenumba4 +26

          “I was also raised to believe that if the protesters don’t maintain the peace they run a very serious risk of ending up on Santa’s Naughty List.”

          2. Genevievenumba4 +19

            That is literally the only scenario under which I can imagine it necessary for police to have fucking tanks: if there was an evil, immortal, murderous robot Santa who puts everyone on the naughty list every year, and delivers RPGs instead of coal. And even then, only on Xmas.

            I watched John Oliver last night, and he had a segment about the militarization of police forces, and obviously mocked the crap out of them. It made me think of Stetson Kennedy and his campaign to ruin the KKK by mocking the shit out of them on national radio. Mockery is powerful. Let’s all make fun of these Call of Duty Commandos until nobody wants to be them. (On top of all the other social justice stuff, obvs.)

  10. Abanthis +27

    Clearly it’s not perfect but in times like these thank fuck for Twitter, thank fuck for social media that allows information to spread quickly and copies remain even if the original of a post is taken down. If it weren’t for social media and non-news sites I would know nothing about this.

  11. depizan +29

    Also on twitter:
    Maria Chappelle-Nadal, the state senator for the Ferguson area, has been constantly calling the governor out for the way he’s handling things, has been tear gassed twice; when she swore at the governor over twitter and a show when interviewing her tried to shame her for her language, shut them down https://twitter.com/MariaChappelleN
    Antonio French, alderman for the area, been arrested, tear gassed several times, out there at just about every protest https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench

    1. Unreadaethel +9

      It seems like the police would have a hard time justifying their “the people are rising up and attacking us” narrative when they’re tear-gassing government officials (who outrank them).

  12. Genevievenumba4 +4

    Also, that picture on the gofundme site for the Mike Brown Memorial Fund…Jesus. Jesus.

  13. blushingflower +30

    I am finding it incredibly illuminating of my own assumptions about my privilege that I keep thinking I should head on out there and put myself between the cops and the protestors. Because I am not afraid of cops, because I am a nice white lady, and they don’t treat nice white ladies the way they treat Black folks. I mean, I know cops are assholes to white women (and men) too, but is less of an SOP.

    1. Unreadaethel +19

      A bar fight (and possibly shooting?) happened while I was out walking around with friends, and the black friend in the group made the other two of us stand really close to him, to make it clear that he was with us, not with the bar fight crowd. That was a light bulb moment for me.

    2. alicia +8

      I had this thought too. I’ve also been thinking (along the lines of #IfTheyGunnedMeDown) about all the dumb dirtbag shit I pulled as a teenager that had basically zero repercussions for me. The one time a cop pointed a loaded weapon at me was when I was 14 and decided to play Killer downtown with my friends (basically Tag but with squirt guns). A shop owner saw our fake guns, thought they were real and called the cops. Mine wasn’t even a bright color, it was an ancient one that actually looked like a gun and I thought it was a fun and reasonable thing to wave it around in front of other people. *headdesk*

      1. annesedney +4

        Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that as well, especially when people are talking about how Mike Brown might have stolen cigarillos from a convenience store before he was murdered, as if that justifies anything that happened to him. You know how much shit I stole from convenience stores when I was a dirtbag teenager? Plenty, but I’m a middle class white girl so of course I don’t deserve to get killed for it…

  16. Genevievenumba4 +18

    OH GODDAMMIT.

    “In addition, Brown had marijuana in his system when he was shot and killed by a police officer on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, according to this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp…

    You know what? I smoked pot yesterday. NO ONE SHOOT ME oh wait that is never going to happen I’m a white lady

    1. rhymeswitheight +5

      I’m hesitant to believe it right now, from the “anonymous source” and all, but you’re right – WHO THE HELL CARES.

      1. Genevievenumba4 +12

        This is some ham-handed, mustache-twirling, character-smearing bullshit from the Ferguson DA’s office, who got the report on Friday*, and hopefully it fools exactly no one. The WaPo does that faux-objectivity thing where they note that the protesters want Wilson to be drug tested, but that sort of misses the point.

        *did I imagine it or does the text of the WaPo article subtlety imply the leak came from the DA? That’s how I took it. And I laaaaughed.

  17. hugpunch +50

    In case anyone is talking with someone confused about this situation, the laws in all 50 states do NOT include death by firing squad as a potential penalty for ingesting drugs or stealing cigars. Just so we’re all clear.

    1. twobluebikes +1

      That Getty photographer, Olson, is doing such amazing work. There’s a Saint-Louis Dispatch photog there too, who’s getting great images. They’re both taking all kinds of crazy risks. So much respect.

  19. PotterPotterson +2

    I can’t even.

    And I live in St. Louis.

    And I feel like shit for not going out.

    And I just…can’t. Fuck this.

  21. Unreadaethel +11

    Tibetan monks! They’ve come to be non-violent along with the citizens of Ferguson!

  23. Jen See

    Yep. The Freedom summer was 1964, which is not all that long ago. Someone born in 1964 would be 50, this year.

    It's also worth remembering the complicated history of how Missouri came into the Union. That Missouri Compromise wasn't much of a compromise. And in the decades prior to the Civil War, there was a bloody guerilla war fought over the future of Kansas in particular between free soilers and abolitionists on the one side, and slave-holders on the other.

    It's worth reading Marilynne Robinson's Gilead carefully for the history she weaves into it. In truth, as much as the religious thought on display there, the historical texture of that book is what makes it one of the Great American Novels.

  24. Jen See

    That Getty photographer, Olson, is doing such amazing work. There's a Saint-Louis Dispatch photog there too, who's getting great images. They're both taking all kinds of crazy risks. So much respect.

  27. meganchik +3

    Thank you, Mallory. Just donated to the bail fund. It feels good to do something tangible. This is just so very fucked.

  28. deleted3602194 +1

    Thank you for the update!

    I’m not American, and an ocean away, so this may sound ignorant but: shouldn’t there be, like, a governor or something?

  29. BlotsAndCreases

    Thank you for the update!

    I'm not American, and an ocean away, so this may sound ignorant but: shouldn't there be, like, a governor or something?