The confrontation between the police and the community in Ferguson is a significant event in American history. This moment will not be forgotten.
A small, white-staffed police force decided that it was a big, bad army at war. This confusion was easy to come by since Congress spent $44 billion (I think that's the figure I heard on the national news last night) buying military weapons from the Pentagon and giving them willy-nilly to police forces around the country. Bad idea. As Digby regularly points out, you know how boys are with their toys. They want to play with them. And so they pointed high-power weaponry at the community of Ferguson, at people who were demonstrating against the violence of the police force. The irony is startling.
When the police started shooting at peaceful hippies on the Kent State campus in the 1960s, the world was stunned. We didn't have social media in those days, but a great song by Buffalo Springfield memorialized the moment. I trust today's artists are working on a killer protest song about Ferguson. It's needed.
And I also trust that the image of police officers playing the role of military men fighting a nonexistent war on the streets of an American city is burned into the memories of all Americans. This cannot be allowed. Our country is not a military zone. Cities and towns don't need tanks and mighty firepower to respond to citizens who are protesting the violent actions of police officers. Or if they do, this ain't America anymore.
Everybody look what's going down. This is a sad moment in our history.
A small, white-staffed police force decided that it was a big, bad army at war. This confusion was easy to come by since Congress spent $44 billion (I think that's the figure I heard on the national news last night) buying military weapons from the Pentagon and giving them willy-nilly to police forces around the country. Bad idea. As Digby regularly points out, you know how boys are with their toys. They want to play with them. And so they pointed high-power weaponry at the community of Ferguson, at people who were demonstrating against the violence of the police force. The irony is startling.
When the police started shooting at peaceful hippies on the Kent State campus in the 1960s, the world was stunned. We didn't have social media in those days, but a great song by Buffalo Springfield memorialized the moment. I trust today's artists are working on a killer protest song about Ferguson. It's needed.
And I also trust that the image of police officers playing the role of military men fighting a nonexistent war on the streets of an American city is burned into the memories of all Americans. This cannot be allowed. Our country is not a military zone. Cities and towns don't need tanks and mighty firepower to respond to citizens who are protesting the violent actions of police officers. Or if they do, this ain't America anymore.
Everybody look what's going down. This is a sad moment in our history.
2 comments:
From my Facebook post:
My friend, Keith, in New York, did a blog post today on Ferguson, aka St. Louis my greater hometown. In that post he added this song by Buffalo Springfield.
Really people, 44 years later and we have learned so very little.
Why do we bother to take in air if we learn nothing between inhales and exhales?
I guess we have to do the civil rights movement all over again. Actually it's time, what with all the racists out there. Hi A.
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