...The violence in Ferguson didn't begin when a police officer shot Michael Brown. It began when a 300 lb thug robbed the Ferguson Market and abused a clerk. The release of the video showing the obese criminal assaulting the clerk led to a terrified statement from the store manager that he had not called the police and had nothing to do with the release of the video.
"They kill us if they think we are responsible," he said.
That is what this conflict is about. The police exist so that Ferguson Market and a hundred other stores can do business without being robbed or murdered. Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Michael Brown, was holding down the thin line that makes it possible for stores to stay open and children to go to school.
...The photos of protesters with their hands in the air confronting police in riot gear told a very misleading story. But the real story was sitting in a video held by the Ferguson police and the Justice Department. It was the video of Michael Brown assaulting a clerk at Ferguson Market.
The Justice Department and Governor Nixon did not want the video released because it put the emphasis back where it should have been all along. This was not a conflict between Michael Brown and the police. It was a conflict between Michael Brown and a Ferguson Market worker.
We are all that worker.
Any one of us can be targeted by a Michael Brown at any time. Every week delivers up fresh new victims of the knockout game. A pregnant woman. An elderly man. A child.
The police are the common defense we use to protect ourselves against the kind of society where store workers have to fear being killed. They are not perfect, but they are far better than the rule of the Michael Browns who take what they want and attack anyone who tries to stop them.
The police are the common defense but not the last line of defense precisely because they are not perfect. The community needs to be the last line of defense. That store owner needs to stop cowering and buy a pistol. And a shotgun. And get trained to use both.
Some in the international community will want to signal to the world's Muslims that they have nothing against them and will try to differentiate between the bad evil folks, such as Islamic State and the good evil folks: Hamas.
#3
“These extremists,” Cameron wrote, “often funded by fanatics living far away from the battlefields, pervert the Islamic faith as a way of justifying their warped and barbaric ideology – and they do so not just in Iraq and Syria but right across the world, from Boko Haram and al-Shabaab to the Taliban and al-Qaida.”
Unfortunately, Cameron and virtually all western leaders still believe that terrorism is a perversion of Islam when it is more accurate to state that moderation and tolerance are perversions of Islam.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/21/2014 6:35 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Violence has revisited Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... with full force. At least 13 people have been killed in the city since Monday, including four young men bumped off in apparent sectarian attacks. Among the victims are also four coppers. Although the Rangers-led Karachi operation has had an appreciable impact on the city's murder rate in general (this includes murder based on personal enmity or during the commission of a crime, etc), which has dropped by around 40 per cent according to senior police sources, the recent killings illustrate that this comparative improvement is extremely tenuous.
During the course of the operation, political and ethnic killings have shown a significant decline albeit the graph of sectarian killings has not fallen to the same extent. The murder of coppers in the city continues around the same pace as before, with 171 taking place last year and 96 in the period from January to July 2014.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Country sounds like an open air insane asylum...
[DAWN] It may have made slightly more sense had the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... announced the resignation of its elected representatives from all assemblies but one before Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... embarked on his motorised 'azadi march' last Thursday.
It may even have conveyed the impression of something vaguely superior to strategy-making on the hop. It is obviously noticeable that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... has been left out of the loop, by virtue of the PTI being the largest party in the provincial assembly.
Exiting that particular assembly would have produced the largest effect. But it would also have crystallised a revolt among Imran Khan's motley crew. Hence the hypocritical exception, even though it may not suffice to soothe ruffled feathers among PTI members of other provincial assemblies and the National Assembly — where the Tehrik is the third largest party, but with only 34 members in a house of 342.
In the run-up to last year's elections, the PTI appeared to seriously be entertaining delusions of being swept into power in Islamabad. It fell far short of that goal, to put it politely, and 'massive rigging' emerged as the inevitable culprit. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... other parties whose popular vote fell well below expectations chose, for the most part, not to latch on to that accusation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Pakistain-India foreign secretary-level talks to have been held next week were supposed to mark the first meaningful engagement in the normalisation process between the two countries since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won power.
Now, the cancelled meeting has instantly become a symbol of the difficulty to even talk about talks when it comes to the two rivals.
To be sure, this time the blame must lie firmly on the Indian side. The suggestion that the Pakistain high commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, committed a grave diplomatic error by meeting a Kashmire Hurriyat leader is simply preposterous.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Besieged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... has been assured by military that there will be no coup, but in return he must "share space with the army", according to a government source who was privy to recent talks between the two sides.
Last week, as tens of thousands of protesters advanced on the federal capital to demand his resignation, Sharif dispatched two emissaries to consult with the army chief.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The political soap opera being currently played on the capital's stage is getting more melodramatic. The story is unfolding strictly according to the script in this season of 'revolutions'. It begins with the march on Islamabad. Now we are into the second episode: the storming of the 'red zone'. What next? Breakdown of the order and entrance of the arbiter. There is little suspense about the ending, but the next episode is going to be critical.
If not macabre, at the very least the situation is bizarre. Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... came to storm the citadel of power and destroy the old order, but may have killed his own and his party's political future in the bargain. He is trying to rock the boat that may sink him too. His call for civil disobedience followed by the decision to resign from the assemblies is a high-stakes game that he may never win.
Imran Khan seems to have boxed himself and his party in a blind alley with no exit. One wonders if there is any logic behind this apparent madness. How can a leader of a major political party be so thoughtless in his decisions — decisions that not only threaten the entire system but also politically isolate him and his party?
He may be strictly following a prepared script, but the situation seems to be getting out of control. Can there be a new twist to the story? One is not sure. We still have to wait for the end of the political stage show gripping the capital. It may not be too long now, with the fast unfolding situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Thought at first that this was about Obean and his minions.
Eerily similar, though. The 'killed the party' won't happen here as the media is more sycophantic and we will never hear about the bad stuff (except for Drudge and RB).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/21/2014 9:48 Comments ||
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by Bret Stephens Long but worth the read
[Commentary] As I write, the foreign policy of the United States is in a state of unprecedented disarray. In some cases, failed policy has given way to an absence of policy. So it is in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and, at least until recently, Ukraine. In other cases the president has doubled down on failed policy--extending nuclear negotiations with Iran; announcing the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Sometimes the administration has been the victim of events, such as Edward Snowden's espionage, it made worse through bureaucratic fumbling and feckless administrative fixes. At other times the wounds have been self-inflicted: the espionage scandal in Germany (when it was learned that the United States had continued to spy on our ally despite prior revelations of the NSA's eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel); the repeated declaration that "core al-Qaeda" was "on a path to defeat"; the prisoner swap with the Taliban that obtained Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's release.
Often the damage has been vivid, as in the collapse of the Israel--Palestinian talks in April followed by the war in Gaza. More frequently it can be heard in the whispered remarks of our allies. "The Polish-American alliance is worthless, even harmful, as it gives Poland a false sense of security," Radek Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister and once one of its most reliably pro-American politicians, was overheard saying in June. "It's bullshit."
#2
I'd like to see Obama on a clay court facing a pro tennis player. They can get that soft and fluffy ball to around 112 mph on an average. Imagine that on your face or wedding tackle after a bouncing top spin shot.
Posted by: Pearl Borgia1889 ||
08/21/2014 6:04 Comments ||
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#4
Yes, RTWT. My favorite part - Is the problem the president himself, a man who seems to have lost interest in the responsibilities (though not yet the perquisites) of his office?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2014 8:07 Comments ||
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#5
Lost Interest???
You have to have something before you can lose it.
This scum was never interested in responsibilities of any kind.
He has only been interested in self-aggrandisement, personal enrichment, and revenge against any critic.
#7
He was hired by the left to be a figurehead with the real power being exercised behind the curtain by his handlers.
Unfortunately for his governance committee, the midterm elections screwed up their plans.
There was never the intention of the empty suit ever being a leader or a decision maker, that was supposed to be Clinton, Biden, Pelosi, and Reid. The press couldn't keep a lid on things and the great mass of the unwashed voted against their plans.
The unraveling of ObumbleCare, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and the IRS scandals have all reduced the credibility of the grand leftist scheme to transform America.
I wonder what big scandal is being minimized by the media emphasis upon Ferguson?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/21/2014 9:42 Comments ||
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#8
Obumble, being elected, was the biggest con game ever pulled off by the left. This is what you get. History might repeat itself if Hillary is elected in 2016.
#10
Iwonder what big scandal is being minimized by the media emphasis upon Ferguson?
US role supporting AQ/ISIS factions in Syria leading to the present state of hostilities in Iraq. All due to the early withdrawal from Iraq by the Champ's Administration.
#11
US role supporting AQ/ISIS factions in Syria leading to the present state of hostilities in Iraq. All due to the early withdrawal from Iraq by the Champ's Administration.
Arming and training them today, in order that they may turn on us and kill us at some point in the future. No, it's not book title, it's a foreign affairs strategy.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
