At
The Nation, Mychal Denzel Smith asks
What More Will It Take to Arrest Darren Wilson?
At this point, I need someone to answer this question for me like I’m stupid: What else is needed to arrest Darren Wilson? I’m not asking what a prosecutor would need to for a murder conviction, or even what a grand jury would need to bring formal charges. What else is needed for police to say, “Darren Wilson, you shot and killed someone, you are under arrest”? What more?
At least six witnesses have given near-identical accounts of what happened to Michael Brown. A shot was fired, Brown ran, Wilson kept firing, Brown put his hands in the air, and Wilson kept shooting. The autopsy shows Brown was hit six times. He was unarmed. What more do you need to make an arrest?
And I’m not of the belief that arrest, a trial or even imprisonment constitute real justice. That punishment model does not create a more just world. But currently, it’s what we have. If under this system, the value of black life is such that an 18-year-old can be shot and killed in cold blood and the police can’t even place the person responsible in handcuffs—a month and counting later—I find it difficult to maintain faith that we’ll one day move to model of justice that respects black humanity. Our lives are too expendable.
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Brown has resigned. It means little:
So Brown has quit as FEMA chief. Yeay. I'd rather see him criminally indicted. But this is a start.
It's important to root out the incompetents who aggravated this disaster -- the people running the show and those who nominated and approved of them (like Bush and Lieberman). There must be accountability for the disaster, and that accountability must transcend political lines. D or R, we shouldn't care. What's important is to ensure that those at fault suffer the consequences.
But we can't allow this disaster to be framed in the context of a few incompetents and political hacks. Because ultimately, the federal (non) response to New Orleans went exactly according to the conservative playbook. And that's the biggest point in this whole mess.
Conservatives believe government shouldn't exist to help people. That everyone should be left to the wolves.
New Orleans demonstrated to us in vivid color what Republicanism is made of. New Orleans was, in reality, a crowning acheivement of conservatism. That is, until political pressure forced the federal government to lend a hand and those lucky duckies in the gulf coast began receiving "handouts".
While fingering the responsible is important, Democrats need to use New Orleans to draw clear distinctions between the governing philosophies of the Republicans and that of the Democrats.
Democrats would've taken care of Katrina victims from the get go. That would've been our first impulse, our first instinct. Republicans had to be shamed into helping people.
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Tweet of the Day
With existential war fever spreading thru halls of power &infecting Congress is aggressive MSM journalism mute & MIA?
http://t.co/...
— @Thomas_Drake1
On
today's classic Kagro in the Morning show, it's the September 11, 2013 show, though you wouldn't know it was last year from the issues we discussed. 9/11 remembrances, which for Republicans means Benghazi.
Greg Dworkin rounded up elections in CO & NYC, the President's speech, and polling on Syria.
Joan McCarter joined us on the health care rollout (including the Trader Joe's story), the House Republicans' repeal charade & the issues they'll hold hostage to get it, the NSA goes nutso, and Scott Brown's new gig (at Evil, Inc., apparently). Also: NSA Dir. Alexander's wacko
Star Trek playroom; "How the cult of shareholder value wrecked American business."
High Impact Posts. Top Comments