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    Ferguson Tag

    Posted by on December 14, 2014
    Does it really matter who it was? Could have been anyone. It was Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal. And no, it wasn't because of the high fees. Via The Blaze:
    Billionaire investor and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel was forced offstage at the University of California, Berkeley, on Wednesday after Ferguson and Eric Garner demonstrators barged into the room and took over. Protesters banged on doors of the lecture hall where Thiel was speaking, causing the audience to grow more and more uneasy as the noise continued to get louder. Then, a male student inside the lecture hall stood up, yelled “F*** you” at Thiel and left.
    Business Insider further reports:

    Posted by on December 12, 2014
    College Insurrection and others recently reported how the President of Smith College apologized to the student body for using the term "All Lives Matter" rather than "Black Lives Matter." A Cornell engineering student just tweeted to me about a similar statement from the Chief of the Cornell University Police, Kathy Zoner, in an all campus email. https://twitter.com/TTimeOnThe19th/status/543545839927693312 I checked my own email, and sure enough, there it was: Cornell Police #ALLLIVESMATTER That original message from the week before was:

    Posted by on December 12, 2014
    You thought it was bad that law students at Columbia, Harvard, Georgetown and Berkeley demanded exam delays because of the failure of grand juries to indict in the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner? Sit down. Harvey Silverglate, civil liberties lawyer and co-founder of the FIRE, tweets a link to a Volokh Conspiracy post: https://twitter.com/HASilverglate/status/543529885248282625 The original story is from the UCLA Daily Bruin, Law school exam question on Ferguson shooting draws criticism:
    Some students at the UCLA School of Law have expressed concerns after a professor asked an exam question this week relating to the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Mo. The exam, given by Professor Robert Goldstein in Constitutional Law II, asked students to write a memo related to the Ferguson shooting. Some students who took the exam said they found it difficult to write about the incident in terms of the first amendment while ignoring issues such as police brutality.... Hussain Turk, a second-year law student who took the exam, said he thinks the question was problematic because he thinks exams should not ask students to address controversial events. He added that he thinks the question was more emotionally difficult for black students to answer than for other students.

    Posted by on December 08, 2014
    The slacktivists at Columbia Law School have found a new way to exploit the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner to the very convenient benefit of race card hustlers everywhere--- they're canceling finals. That's right. One of the finest law schools in the country is allowing the collective #outrage of its flock of immature, untested baby lawyers to completely derail the academic integrity of its exam system. Via Power Line Blog:
    The grand juries’ determinations to return non-indictments in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases have shaken the faith of some in the integrity of the grand jury system and in the law more generally. For some law students, particularly, though not only, students of color, this chain of events is all the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense that the law is a fundamental pillar of society designed to protect fairness, due process and equality. ... The law school has a policy and set of procedures for students who experience trauma during exam period. In accordance with these procedures and policy, students who feel that their performance on examinations will be sufficiently impaired due to the effects of these recent events may petition Dean Alice Rigas to have an examination rescheduled.
    They're also providing counseling and developing a speaker series to encourage open dialogue. I'm not quite sure what the powers that be at Columbia are smoking, but whatever it is, it has made them forget what it actually takes to be a lawyer. I'm not sure how many of you reading this have ever gone through law school, but part of the educational process is reading things that some may find upsetting. My first internship involved criminal appeals in a Detroit court, and all I'll say is that I saw things. Upsetting things. Things that make you angry. But I did the work and learned from it because that's part of the job.

    Posted by on December 07, 2014
    Yes, I agree that #BlackLivesMatter. So do all other lives, including the lives of police (of all races) who keep us from the abyss. Remember Officer David Smith never lived to tell about enraged perp who stole his service gun. Someone started a hashtag, #PoliceLivesMatter. Seems worth retweeting some of these tweets, don't ya think?

    Posted by on December 07, 2014
    Professor Jacobson may be taking a much needed sanity break from the Saturday Night Card game, but the social justice warriors continue to draw from the bottom of the deck. The most shocking aspect of one of the race-based demonstrations that occurred Saturday: It was in the heart of one of the most elite, "culturally sensitive" centers of the country -- Hollywood.
    Hundreds of people taking part in a nationwide protest against police brutality staged a die-in Saturday in the same busy Hollywood intersection where a man allegedly armed with a knife was shot and killed by Los Angeles police officers the previous night. As they marched through the streets of Hollywood during the afternoon hours, demonstrators chanted “Hands up, don’t shoot” and “I can’t breathe,” refrains heard around the nation in protest following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the choke hold death of Eric Garner in New York. Both men died at the hands of police. Protesters also staged a “die-in” at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue, where less than 24 hours earlier, police fatally shot a man after law enforcement officials said he did not comply with officer orders. The demonstrators blocked traffic in the area and essentially shut the busy intersection down for a time.
    A photo spread via Twitter will give you a sense of the scene. LI #34b

    Posted by on December 04, 2014
    The photograph featured above surfaced shortly after a grand jury in Missouri refused to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. In a sea of memes, photoshops, and Twitter commentary, the picture went viral alongside its companion photograph (courtesy of Politifact): politifact-photos-Ferguson_sign_original Two different photographs, one very clearly photoshopped to provide some social commentary on a quickly spiraling situation. Predictably, the photograph enraged some, delighted others, but no one with two brain cells to rub together believed that the "rob a store" version of the photograph was real. Politifact, however, dove in headfirst to provide us with an analysis no one asked for (emphasis mine):

    Posted by on December 03, 2014
    Bill O'Reilly focused on the ongoing Ferguson Grand Jury kerfuffle in his opening segment last night, revealing in stark detail the contrast between the reasoned perspective of those accepting the facts and evidence presented to the Grand Jury as well as their decision and the inanity of the reason-free "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" crowd. First up was a audio recording of former NBA player Charles Barkley speaking on a radio program (2:05):
    We have to be really careful with the cops, man, because if it wasn't for the cops, we'd be living in the wild-wild west in our neighborhoods.  I think we can't pick out certain incidents that don't go our way and act like the cops are all bad.  I hate when we do that. Think about it, you know how bad some of these neighborhoods would be if it wasn't for the cops?
    Then was then contrasted with the ramblings of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the National of Islam (2:35):
    As long as they kill us and go to Wendy's and have a burger, and go to sleep, they gonna keep killing us.  But when we die and they die [applause] they soon we are going to sit at a table, and talk about it. We're tired. We want some of this earth, or we'll tear the God-damned country up.

    Posted by on December 02, 2014
    The Dellwood Market, near Ferguson, has been looted three times, on August 10 and 17, and again after the non-indictment announcement in November. Here's one of the times, on August 17: The owner was on Hannity tonight, and said he's probably going to call it quits after 25 years. He just can't take it anymore. Dellwood Market Ferguson Owner Hannity 2 Very sad. The Hannity segment video below:

    Posted by on December 02, 2014
    For all the spin the left has provided on the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, you'd think they'd have a little more respect for their own race-based premise. Democrats in Congress probably thought they were performing an act of solidarity when they engaged in a "hands up, don't shoot" protest on the floor of the House last night, but all they did was cheapen the efforts of actual protesters and make the popular "white cop attacks unarmed black teen" narrative that much more ridiculous. Mediaite has the scoop:
    Democratic members of Congress showed solidarity with Ferguson protesters tonight by making the “Hands up, don’t shoot” gesture on the House floor tonight. New York’s Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke, along with Texas’ Al Green, all made the protest gesture on the House floor tonight. Green made the gesture in reference to what the St. Louis Rams did, but touted it as a “new symbol” of protest.
    You can also watch the video here, via C-SPAN. [caption id="attachment_108136" align="alignnone" width="600"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/01/rep-hakeem-jeffries-d-n-y-brings-hands-up-dont-shoot-to-house-floor/ (Image via WaPo)[/caption]

    Posted by on December 01, 2014
    John McWhorter's Time essay on Ferguson demonstrates his graceful way with words, and his struggle to fight the truth about Ferguson. The only bit of truth that survived McWhorter's preferred narrative is this:
    I’m not sure that what happened to Michael Brown — and the indictment that did not happen to Officer Darren Wilson — is going to be useful as a rallying cry about police brutality and racism in America.
    McWhorter recognizes that, yet it is instructive to see the mental gymnastics he performs in order to stay with the liberal line:
    The key element in the Brown-Wilson encounter was not any specific action either man took — it was the preset hostility to the cops that Brown apparently harbored.
    So far, so true---although Brown's hostility, and the acting-out of that hostility, seems hardly to have been limited to cops. But then McWhorter writes this:
    And that hostility was key because it was indeed totally justified.
    So, despite the fact that McWhorter goes on to agree that Wilson's actions were not necessarily motivated by racism, and despite the fact that he even acknowledges that Brown had just robbed a convenience store, and despite the fact that McWhorter knows nothing---absolutely nothing---of Brown's actual attitudes towards police, why he might hold those attitudes, and what his previous encounters with police had been, he claims that this supposed attitude of Brown's was not merely justified, but totally justified.

    Posted by on December 01, 2014
    Demonstrations called "Hands Up Walk Out" are taking place all over the country today. According to the event website:

    In the wake of events in the last weeks, including the non-indictment in the killing of Mike Brown and the senseless killings of Akai Gurley in New York and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, our communities are hurting and justifiably angered. What gives us hope in this moment of pain and anguish is the thousands of people who have poured into the streets of America to demand change.

    From the #ShutItDown actions that have blocked major highways and intersections to the #BlackoutBlackFriday protests,the message is clear: No more business as usual. We can no longer do what we have always done and cooperate with a system that does not respect Black Lives. We will only get the change we want if we disrupt the daily order and insists that Black Lives Matter. If that means shutting down the entire country, that’s what we’ll do.

    On Monday, Dec 1st people around the country will be walking out of their schools and places of work in solidarity with Ferguson communities across the country effected by police violence.

    Where? It can be any central location at your school or the area where you work . Consider if there is a place that has relevance to social justice such as a monument, chapel, or scene of previous protests.

    "Hands Up" refers to early reports that suggested Mike Brown had his hands up in the air as a sign of surrender when he was shot by police officer, Darren Wilson. Later, it was revealed this was not true.

    Participants of "Hands Up Walk Out" were encouraged to post photos of their events online.

    Not surprisingly, the largest turnouts seemed to have occurred at ivy league campuses and leftist organized marches, but even those were not particularly large. The rest? They were itty bitty. Take a look:

    Posted by on November 30, 2014
    Rich Lowry, Editor of National Review, was on Meet the Press this morning, discussing Ferguson. Here's what I tweeted out at the time: Here's the video of what was playing just before I sent that tweet, via NRO:
    National Review editor Rich Lowry riled up a panel of establishment media talkers Sunday by advising Americans to obey the law and exercise caution with police. “If you look at the most credible evidence [of Michael Brown's death at the hands of a Ferguson, Mo., police officer], the lessons are really basic,” Lowry said during an appearance on Meet the Press. “Don’t rob a convenience store. Don’t fight with a policeman when he stops you and try to take his gun. And when he yells at you to stop, just stop.” Those comments elicited gasp from a panel that included the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. Mitchell exclaimed “Whoa, whoa” during Lowry’s comments, while Robinson said his recitation of the known facts in the case was an attempt to “relitigate” Brown’s death.
    Here's Mitchell's reaction in slow-motion:

    Posted by on November 30, 2014
    One of the most recent of the seemingly never-ending succession of Progressive complaints about the Ferguson Grand Jury is that the Grand Jury's decision not to indict is inherently flawed because they were permitted to consider self-defense. Those professing this argument rely for support on one of their favorite variations of the classic "straw man argument":  they quote an authoritative Conservative figure in purported support of their position. In this case, they are calling upon none other than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as in the Think Progress post: Justice Scalia Explains What Was Wrong With The Ferguson Grand Jury. In particular, the Think Progress post states the following:
    Justice Antonin Scalia, in the 1992 Supreme Court case of United States v. Williams, explained what the role of a grand jury has been for hundreds of years.

    It is the grand jury’s function not ‘to enquire … upon what foundation [the charge may be] denied,’ or otherwise to try the suspect’s defenses, but only to examine ‘upon what foundation [the charge] is made’ by the prosecutor. Respublica v. Shaffer, 1 Dall. 236 (O. T. Phila. 1788); see also F. Wharton, Criminal Pleading and Practice § 360, pp. 248-249 (8th ed. 1880). As a consequence, neither in this country nor in England has the suspect under investigation by the grand jury ever been thought to have a right to testify or to have exculpatory evidence presented.

    This passage was first highlighted by attorney Ian Samuel, a former clerk to Justice Scalia.

    Posted by on November 29, 2014
    It has come to this. The video is by anti-Israel activist Bassem Masri, whose voice narrates as protesters take over parts of the South County Mall someplace, somewhere in America. (Language Warning) Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream Biggest surprise of the evening? There's a Sears store still open. UPDATES:  Sears has been breached, as protesters used the ancient Escalator Maneuver, first used by Hannibal to cross the Alps, flanking the Ladies' Wear staff and leaving the Mens' Footwear attendant fleeing into the Holiday Special Items section:
    Accessibility by WAH