“The Authorities” Unsheath Their Club for New Round of Repression in Ferguson, Missouri, U.S.A.

After stalling for three months on announcing what they'd already decided from the day killer cop Darren Wilson executed black teenager Michael Brown (on his knees, already wounded, with his hands up, yet Wilson pumped two slugs into his head, shooting him a total of six times or more), those in power in Missouri have decided to bite the bullet and finally come out with it. Amazingly, the popular furor hasn't died down, as it has so many times before. Having kicked the ball to a grand jury, (a rubber stamp for the prosecutor), as a delaying tactic and on whom they could try to fob off responsibility for letting the killer cop go scot-free (in fact a prosecutor could charge someone anyway), a typical way “authorities” all over the U.S. try to muddy the waters and frustrate and exhaust people in an endless game of “working within the system,” using legal process to neutralize outrage and resistance, and seeing it isn't working this time, despite the best efforts of “respectable” black “leaders” to pacify the rebellious mood of people fed up with routine police brutality and murders in the larger context of social and economic repression, those in power will now go back to brute force, as they have done through three months of ferment- indeed as they have already been doing in the past few days. [1]

But the brutality and repression of protesters, with police consistently attacking groups of people as soon as they gather, is actually invisible in U.S. media, except in a few “alternative outlets (such as Democracy Now.) The UK Guardian has reported what U.S. media is oddly blind to. So foreign media is a far better source of information about the U.S. than U.S. media is- yet again.

After declaring a state of emergency days ago and calling out his state militia, the National Guard, the Governor of Missouri, a lifelong professional oppressor named Jay Nixon, mouthed completely cynical and hypocritical platitudes about respecting people's right to protest. This pattern of utter mendacity totally at odds with their actual actions has extended down to the police chief of Ferguson (who read a statement prepared by a public relations firm six weeks after the murder saying sorry to the parents of the slain youth, and profession sympathy and understanding- a truly nauseating display- read in a deadpan monotone belying the alleged emotions claimed.

And “black” State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, who was rushed to the scene months ago to oversee the repression, has consistently lied about the attacks on journalists and mass arrests committed by the goons under his command. He too has regularly mouthed platitudes about respecting the “right to peacefully protest,” as his goon squads have attacked and arrested people as soon as they congregate.

Apparently the white populace has been adding to its armaments stockpile, so great is its fear (and hatred in many cases) of darker-skinned humans. [2]

Meanwhile, new police murders of blacks keep occurring. In Cleveland, Ohio, a 12 year old boy was executed in a park for having a toy gun. In New York City, for at least the third time in memory, a black man was executed when he walked through a doorway in a public housing stairwell, gunned down for absolutely no reason. (This time a young father of a 2 year old girl, while he was walking downstairs with his fiancee.)

That is the backdrop in which more and more people have gotten fed up. Whether they can build a lasting movement, in the face of police attack, infiltration, dirty tricks, and the massive apparatus of repression at the command of the political “authorities” in America, is yet to be seen. 

1] “Ferguson protesters and police clash as grand jury decision nears: Police charge at demonstrators in freezing temperatures as Ferguson awaits decision on whether officer will be charged,” Guardian, 20 November, 2014.
“Ferguson police arrest more protesters before Michael Brown ruling: Second night of clashes in Missouri as grand jury decides whether police officer will face charges over teenager’s shooting,” Guardian, 21 November, 2014. A misleading subhead, as grand juries don't "decide" anything in this country; rather they are led by the nose by prosecutors, who present and omit whatever "evidence" they want to get the result they want. "A prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich" is an old lawyers' saying in the U.S.

2] “Missouri gun sales spike in runup to Brown shooting grand jury decision: Gun store owners report rising sales, particularly of shotguns and pistols, as grand jury decision on shooting death of Michael Brown nears,” Guardian, 19 November 2014.