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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Now is not the time for peace! I would take that as a threat.

As the attention of the country has been focused in that last week to Ferguson MO, a part of the media template is the rioters are composed of locals rising against years of police oppression. Now anything that draws in The Justice Brothers you know they will ship in "rent-a-mobs". Here is a review of their current operations, a business I think I'll call Terrorism Tourism

'This is not the time for peace.' Chicago protester who traveled to Ferguson

On one corner of a battered stretch of West Florissant Avenue, the epicenter of ongoing protests, young men pull dark scarves up over their mouths and lob molotov cocktails at police from behind makeshift barricades built of bricks and wood planks. They call the gasoline-filled bottles "poor man's bombs."
Gee, a Molotov Cocktail to throw at police, citizens and property. Sounds like the descendants of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement that marched on Washington. .

The young men yell expletives and, with a rebel's bravado, speak about securing justice for Michael Brown, the black teen fatally shot Aug. 9 by a white police officer, "by any means necessary."
Where have we heard that quote before?

They are known here as "the militants" — a faction inhabiting the hard-core end of a spectrum that includes online organizers and opportunistic looters — and their numbers have been growing with the severity of their tactics since the shooting.... 
...But the demonstrators are as diverse as their grievances — and in their methods of addressing them.

Some of the men are from the area -- Ferguson or surrounding towns also defined in part by the gulf separating the mostly white law enforcement agencies from a mistrusting African-American public. Many others -- it is hard to quantify the percentage -- have arrived by bus and by car from Chicago, Detroit, Brooklyn and elsewhere.

They will not give their names. But their leaders say they are ready to fight, some with guns in their hands.

"This is not the time for no peace," said one man, a 27-year-old who made the trip here from Chicago. 
He spoke after a small group of fellow militants held a meeting behind a looted store, sketching out ambitions for the days ahead.

"We are jobless men, and this is our job now -- getting justice," he said. "If that means violence, that's OK by me. They've been doing this to us for years."...
In spite of the double negative, I take it the terrorism tourists mean they will continue with their violent means. I do find his statement of employment interesting, "We are jobless men, and this is our job now-getting justice...They've been doing this for years." OK, your twenty seven, "jobless", but you seem to have the means to travel hundreds of miles and coordinate attacks on civil authorities and civilians while robbing and destroying other people's property. I have to wonder what type of "job" are you qualified for? The term "gang banger"comes to mind.

There is a group of "peaceful protesters" that congregates around the QuikTrip, looted and burned out during the first night of protest. Another gathers near the Ferguson police station. A third more scattered faction organizes, advertises and rallies demonstrators on Twitter, specifically what members of the faction call "black Twitter." "People have been tweeting, 'We are ready to die tonight,' " said Mary Pat Hector, a national youth organizer with the Rev. Al Sharpton's national action network. "It is a trending topic."...
Wait, the supposed reverend Sharpton has followers that are "...ready to die tonight ." Sounds like an invitation to more violence. And Al will be happy. It justified his salary at MSNBC and other revenue sources.

Then there are the looters, leaderless men who under cover of nightly political protest target liquor stores, beauty-supply shops and other businesses with inventories easy to sell and in high demand.

Ferguson police officials would not quantify how many looters have been arrested since the Brown shooting but presented a Washington Post reporter with a stack of roughly 50 arrest reports. While some of those arrested for stealing are from Ferguson, a large number have addresses listed in Illinois or in Texas.

"It's like looting tourism," an officer commented as he showed the reports. He asked not to be named. "It's like they are spending their gas money to come down here and steal."
The officer beat this cop to the term "looting tourism". You got me!

DeAndre Smith, fresh from looting the QuikTrip on a recent night, told reporters: "I'm proud of us. We deserve this, and this is what's supposed to happen when there's injustice in your community. St. Louis — not going take this anymore."...
This is what Martin Luther King and other great men and women died for. A few generations ago black people wanted to sit at a lunch counter, get educatted and employed. Now we have criminals destroying their neighborhoods and she will be shocked when the store doesn't open up again.

..."This was a chance to vent about the national treatment of black men across the country," said Ronnie Natch, a music producer and leader of the "peaceful protesters."

Natch is 30 years old and has a 10-month-old baby. His wife gives out water and fruit to protesters from their base at the burned out QuikTrip.

"We want to show up at the front door every day and say, through words, that this shooting is not going to be swept under the rug," Natch said. "There have just been too many deaths."

..."We can get the same message out without the violence," he said.
No argument Natch, but you're looking at the wrong people. Black men murdered in this country are overwhelming murdered by other black men. It's called inner city gang violence. And nobody sees anything because "Snitches get stitches" or "Snitches. A dying breed." Sorry this lie gives you some justification for committing crimes. BTY Natch, where did you get the "water and fruit"? Was it stolen from the looted stores?

How about this Natch, why don't you get a job, go to work every day, support you family, raise your children, make enough money so you can move out of Da Hood and encourage others to do the same. It really makes you feel better about life when you don't have to worry about your neighbors

Among those who have arrived are self-described young activists, some of whom participated in the Occupy movement. Many of them are white and have been showing protesters how to assemble homemade gas masks — essentially surgical masks fortified with duct tape... 
But the peaceful protesters acknowledge they are probably in the minority as the crowd begins to swell on Ferguson's streets after nightfall.

Dennis Brown, a community activist, described St. Louis and suburbs such as this one as a pot ready to boil over. He said social media has become, in ways similar to its use in recent popular uprisings in the Arab world, an essential organizing tool.

Brown said young people, including many of the "militants," are organized on social media.

"These young people aren't dumb," said Brown, 46. "They are organized. They are smart. They are like computer kings."...
I am taking a class on Homeland Security and one of the recent post I put up was on how criminals and militants use social media to coordinate actions across towns, states or nations. I don't think law enforcement, or the law in general has caught up to technology in this regard. But one thing is certain, the crime and terrorist activity in Missouri is not simply a local event. It would be nice to see if the country's notional "Chief Law Enforcement Officer" would direct the resources of the Justice Department to restore order and then capture and prosecute the offenders. I know that won't happen.

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