Ferguson

I've stayed away from attempting to understand what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. The entire incident is racially tinged and incredibly traumatic for that community. The incident is another example why a race remains a problem in our society. As the case drew on, I started to look at it from a legal perspective.

The science apparently has spoken which gave officer Wilson the path to self-defense. While there are witnesses in conflict apparently the science corroborates the contention that Michael Brown was the aggressor and officer Wilson had no alternative but to respond using deadly force.

It is unfortunate that the entirety of the situation has been impugned by the systemic breakdown of the criminal justice system. In nearly every step of the process, the police, the mayor, the prosecutor, the governor all did their part to corrupt the process. This isn't to say that every officer is bad, I do not honestly believe that. But when you have the likes of officer Wilson who apparently has a past that could be racially provocative then we are left with a great deal of uncertainty with the performance of someone who is supposed to uphold the laws of land.

But what transpired on the grand jury panel can almost be deduced as being criminally negligent. Never in the history of the grand jury process has a defendant been entitled to defend themselves by testimony or statement on their behalf to determine if charges were to be levied against them. Even Anton Scalia agrees ... http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/11/26/3597322/justice-scalia-explains-what-was-wrong-with-the-ferguson-grand-jury/

 The grand jury in Ferguson was allowed to hear the officers testimony and to take that into consideration and their deliberation. The prosecutor not just fumbled the process but did everything he could to protect the officer.

The entire grand jury process was a farce and a waste of time. The prosecutor did everything they could to ensure that the officer would not be charged while at the same time appeasing the civil unrest of Ferguson by going through this process. Instead of recusing himself and being replaced by a special prosecutor, he was adamant to remain on the case

Is there any wonder why the African-American community would be upset by this?

This is an egregious travesty of justice when the process is tainted and heavily biased from the onset. Anyone who is interested in trying to figure out why there is a race disparity in this country only needs to examine what happened in Ferguson as being a clear indicator for a broken system.

Why the surprise folks?

As the events of Ferguson, Missouri (and the rest of the state) continue to unfold, there's comments in a lot of social media demonstrating surprise about what has happened in the Show Me state.

Surprise?

"Yes, surprise.  This kind of thing doesn't happen in America."

What doesn't happen in America ... exactly?

"These people rioting and causing chaos."

Have you ever watched water boil?  How the water seems so perfectly calm ... how small bubble may form before the water becomes turbulent and violent.

"Yeah, so?"

*sighs*

And so it goes....

It's not rocket science.  Shooting an unarmed black male and then ramping up the reaction with a militarized presence is throwing gasoline to already hot fire.  Now it's even more out of control and thankfully the press is actually doing their job to report what's happening.  Not through a skewed lens of the police spokesperson, but risking their lives to report on the conflict.

In the heartland of the country - a race war is underway.

So when folks communicate surprise to the situation, I shake my head.  There has been an ongoing amount of injustice suffered by African Americans and even though things like this is reminiscent of a dark period in our history, the underlying problems still exist.

The only surprise here is that folks still don't understand how we got here in the first place.

It's about the defeat, not the plan

The GOP has one mission, one plan, one goal.

They don't have a roll out of policy and substance.

They are fixated by a single quest: beat Obama.

They admit it. They don't deny it. They won't even attempt to walk it back.

It's their bed.

So when November rolls around - and I really hope Americans are watching what's happening, there single most important thing to remember is: do you want someone who has a plan for America ... or do you want someone who is only interested in getting the current President outed.

Our founding fathers would be incredibly disappointed in how the GOP has bastardized the election process this time around. The nation is founded by those who want to lead ... LEAD ... not trying to turn this into a Gladiator event. The only platform this party of choice has is: "beat Obama." Beat the man, not the policy. Come up with a better plan? Put it out there, but if Republicans are going into the voting booth this fall to vote for "the other guy" ... then I would really hope that they could honestly say why they were voting in the first place.

The DNC so far

I've been trying to keep up with everything that's been going on with the Democratic National Convention.. I did get a very small taste of things when I was in Denver briefly yesterday - and it's something to take in.. The protesters were near my meeting place and they were behaving.. The police were riding their SUV sleds dressed in their riot gear..

"Anarchists" as they are being called .... have confronted police a couple of times already.. As has been reported in the press already, 100 of them have been arrested already.. But it's crazy how these folks are protesting things that they would actually come in agreement with the Democratic party on.. War for instance.. Oil for instance..

Then there's the plot by the four folks being held on wanting to shoot Obama and I found this to be particularly sad and I'm outraged.. Here we're supposed to be a civilized society and yet -- we have the riff raff like these four idiots who simply don't want Obama to be President because of the color of his skin???!?!? Don't believe me?? Here's the quote:

"He don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot"

It's folks like this that really need the re-education of what America is all about.. It's folks like this that shouldn't be allowed to vote because we shouldn't reward the privilege to vote to those who are ignorant and prejudiced.. It's folks like this that don't believe in the American dream -- except those that just happen to be the same shade of skin..

That outrages me..

That upsets me to the point where I want to send their pathetic collective asses out of the country because they represent the antithesis of progress.. Anyone who can't look beyond the shade of someone's skin or ethnicity to see what they can bring to the table -- are inherently UN-American.. So I'm not sure where these idiots get off thinking that "blacks don't belong in political office" when clearly they think we're living back in history when it was considered acceptable to enslave an entire race..

If we're widely considered to be a civilized country -- then maybe it's time to ship these folks off our island so that they can take their petulant approach to civilization and create another race of individuals like the Nazis tried to do last century.. How these folks can live with their intolerant attitudes while holding a Bible in their hand seems incredibly convenient and self-serving..