I will preface this by saying I don’t think anyone at TPM at least is saying it’s either/or at that ‘militarization’ caused the situation in Ferguson. But this struck me as an important take on Ferguson from TPM Reader GJ …
Ferguson Is About Racism, Not Police Militarization
The idea that some Bush era homeland security program giving police camo pants and armored trucks is what led to the events in Ferguson is absurd.
To most of us, legalized marijuana is something happening in Washington and Colorado and yeah, probably going nationwide or at least to a lot more states at some point in the future. But the folks who run the alcohol industry are way past that. To them, it’s a done deal. And they’re already sizing up and trying to make sense of what they believe is a key competitor. Most folks in the booze lobby want a get along and go along approach but at least one faction in the pot legalization movement wants to legalize pot by shining a light on the health effects of booze. And that’s turning into something of a buzzkill for many of the folks involved. Here’s our latest Prime longform (sub req.) whether the titan and the coming titan in the struggle to get you buzzed and stoned can get along.
A Twitter account appears to show the only contemporaneous and recorded account of Michael Brown’s shooting. We can’t say for certain whether the account is accurate or complete. But significantly it was recorded before it could be known that the circumstances of his death would become a nationwide story or such a subject of controversy. Check it out.
Uh oh. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been indicted for abusing the power of his office for threatening to veto prosecutors’ funding for investigating public corruption.
On the far right, folks like the always predictably horrible David Horowitz say we need to look at Michael Brown’s rap lyrics to decide whether he deserved to be shot.
Birds bursting into flames over state of the art solar plant.
Half a rhetorical question, half not …
#BREAKING: Police advancing on crowd. Guns drawn. Media ordered to stay in taped off area. #Ferguson #MikeBrown pic.twitter.com/dYm16HNksR
— Eli Rosenberg (@EliKMBC) August 19, 2014
This is St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, who’s been involved on the ground from the very beginning. Struck that it’s a very different take on what’s going on tonight.
Police used a new tactic tonight. They would move in and extract the 1 or 2 individuals that were causing the problem. Much better than gas.
— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) August 19, 2014