Tag: Missouri

Ferguson launches race war

Monday night on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadali (D) said of the riots after the grand jury announcement that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will not face charges for fatally shooting Michael Brown, “This is St. Louis’s race war. We didn’t have a race war like other cities throughout the U.S. This is our race war.”

Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadali is black. “I have to tell you that there has been systematic racism, institutionally in state government for decades, including my own state party. So what we are looking at right now is a symptom of racism that has been swept under the rug for decades. and I am so glad now that the truth is out, and I’m very grateful to your network for telling the truth in reporting the truth of what’s going to go down in the coming days.

“As it was said earlier today, and because of the systematic racism that we have in our state government, and our state party, and we do not bring the truth to bear, then we will not recover from what we are going on. What we are experiencing right now, and I have to tell you, this is St. Louis’s race war. We didn’t have a race war like other cities throughout the this is our race war. country. and people have to be open, and they have to be honest. and they have to earnest, and they have not been earnest for decades. I know people in my own party, in my own government structure who disregard things that we say and how we feel, and we are not going to allow it anymore,” she added.

A crowd gathered around a car from which the verdict was being broadcast on a stereo. When the decision was announced, Michael Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, who was sitting atop the car, burst into tears and began screaming before being whisked away by supporters.

The crowd erupted in anger, converging on the barricade where police in riot gear were standing. They pushed down the barricade and began pelting police with items, including a bullhorn. Police stood their ground.

As the night when on, at least seven Ferguson-area businesses were set on fire. Several more were hit by looters. Fires were reported at the Fashions R Boutique, Title Max loan center, AutoZone, Walgreen’s, Public Storage, Little Caesars and others.

The county police department is also saying that officers reported heavy automatic gunfire. Police cars were been vandalized and several gunshots were heard on the streets.

A KMOX News vehicle was also damaged while covering protests in south St. Louis.Ferguson Police responded to protesters with smoke and pepper spray.

Protesters insisted it was tear gas. Video shows protesters setting fires and breaking store windows. Protesters were also throwing bottles and rocks at officers.

Video shows protesters setting fires and breaking store windows. Protesters were also throwing bottles and rocks at officers.

Demonstrations are also taking place in a number of large cities across the country, including outside the White House in Washington, DC.

New York protesters are causing havoc to the city’s transport systems and have already taken over three bridges, which have all been shut down.

Despite sub-zero temperatures in the Windy City Chicago, protesters are out in force and have already shut down a major intersection in the city center.

There are reports that protests in the West Coast city of Oakland are beginning to turn violent. They have started to light fires on the city’s main streets, while police are maintaining a heavy and visible presenc

Whites see harmony where blacks see racism

Alice Singen had always seen her home town Ferguson, Mo., as an integrated, harmonious place. Like many other white residents, she prided herself on staying here even when others began to leave.

But since the death of an unarmed black teenager at the hands of a white police officer, some African Americans are calling it segregated and racist. Now Singen has found herself talking in terms of “us” and “them,” “we” and “they.”

“I didn’t have any problems with anybody or any color, and all of a sudden it feels like we are being held responsible for something that’s not our fault,” Singen, 70, said as she left Faraci Pizza, a 46-year-old Ferguson business that has become a focal point of racial tension. “I don’t get it.”

That sense of shock is common here among Ferguson whites in the wake of 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death and the explosive protests in the days that followed.

The situation has forced many white Ferguson residents in this majority-black city — from small-business owners to the mayor and police chief — to question their beliefs about the community’s racial dynamics.

They have discovered that blacks and whites here profoundly disagree about the existence of racism and the fairness of the justice system. And now, whites who once believed their town was an exception in a country struggling with racial divisions have to confront the possibility it is not.

Between 2000 and 2010, the white population plummeted from 44 percent to 30 percent, while the black population grew from 50 percent to 67 percent.

In her majority-black neighborhood, a white house-owner staked an “I ♥ Ferguson” sign on her lawn.

Some of her neighbors reprimanded her for it. They interpreted the campaign as another way to mask the city’s injustice. Even the sign had two sides.

A Mexican American woman complained about how horrible it was to witness [black] teenagers getting tear-gassed.

“Well, we don’t know all the facts,” a white woman answered.

“But we do know that [Brown] had stolen those cigars, because we saw the video. And we know that the officer called him aside because he was jaywalking.”

Source: Washington Post