urbanSTL

Greatest St. Louis wrote:You don't actually believe the story released by the authorities will be objective and not protect the cops that killed this unarmed teenager, do you?

I hope the process will be objective, but no, I don't have the expectation that it will be objective. As Mark says, I hope we as a community don't have to wait long for forensics to shed more light on exactly what happened at the shooting scene.

ttricamo wrote:Looting/Violence taking place at the Galleria and in South City. Weird, I thought this was a problem "up there" and "with those people".

KSDK's live coverage of the NAACP church gathering was very good. What an incredible event; it really galvanized, to me, how the community is dealing with this issue, its internal struggles, and its public response to this horrible incident. I'm miffed that the Police have not given out more information. Obviously the lack of information has a direct correlation to the amount of public unrest.

Galleria thing got blown out of proportion by the media....2 girls got into a fight unrelated to Ferguson.....I'm sure the cops panicked when a west county mom called 911 to report a "brawl" at the Galleria and they sent 20 cars...

Even if the police story up to know is to be believed it still doesn't justify deadly force...the bullet(s) that killed the kid was shot from the distance with the kids back to the cop...end well this wont.

dbInSouthCity wrote: Galleria thing got blown out of proportion by the media....2 girls got into a fight unrelated to Ferguson.....I'm sure the cops panicked when a west county mom called 911 to report a "brawl" at the Galleria and they sent 20 cars...

Not sure how factual this info is, but I heard on KTVI that there was social media activity that indicated something would take place at Saint Louis Galleria, and accounts from Galleria employees that people were 'casing the joint' throughout the day.

I trust Bob McCullough...he's earned it through the years and I know for a fact that he is well-respected throughout the whole country....

sirshankalot wrote:I trust Bob McCullough...he's earned it through the years and I know for a fact that he is well-respected throughout the whole country....

Same here. I don't have illusions about the guarantee of objectivity, but if anyone can cut through the clutter, I think he can.

There is not a shred of evidence in his long career of a bias towards police....He is as sturdy as they come..seriously

There are barricades surrounding the county courts buildings. JIC

It's unfortunate that Freeman Bosley Jr. is the eyewitness's lawyer. The same Freeman Bosley Jr. that fleeced the city he once resided over for 100s of thousands of dollars. The same Freeman Bosley jr. that was recently charged with stealing from his own clients. The same Freeman Bosley Jr. that played a direct role in Carlos Roberts murdering his common law wife at Barnes.

The sick, sad part of all of this is that the vultures are out and are desperately trying to get their piece. Instead of bringing out the best in people this tragedy has revealed a very ugly side of humanity.

I fear for the region, if when revealed, the facts of the case don't support the preconceived narrative of the protesters. We may implode.

Any opportunity for justice went out the window the instant the 1st shot was fired.

Ferguson PD last night said they will publish the name of the officer, this morning they said No but Anonymous has the name and will publish it.
https://twitter.com/OpFerguson

A few observations...

First, I wonder why many leaders in the black civil rights community speak in a preacher/Dr MLK cadence? The man from the NAACP did the same thing at the event yesterday. It sort of takes away from their message. Are these guys preachers or lay people (Rev. Sharpton notwithstanding)?

Second, not releasing the name of the officer in this case will only serve to further anger protesters.

Lastly, I believe the comments made by the County Police Chief at his news conference the day after the shooting were a contributing factor to the unrest. While maintaining that it was his intent to not bias the investigation, he clearly did so by suggesting the killing was largely the fault of Mike Brown for having scuffled inside the police car for the officers weapon. Why didn't the chief just keep his mouth shut and let those kinds of things wait to come out in the investigation? That was just dumb and asking to stir up trouble.

robertn42 wrote:It's unfortunate that Freeman Bosley Jr. is the eyewitness's lawyer. The same Freeman Bosley Jr. that fleeced the city he once resided over for 100s of thousands of dollars. The same Freeman Bosley jr. that was recently charged with stealing from his own clients. The same Freeman Bosley Jr. that played a direct role in Carlos Roberts murdering his common law wife at Barnes.

Great. Along with race baiters like Rev. Sharpton, what could possibly go wrong? I'm still not thrilled with Antonio French's amateur reporting, either. He hasn't exactly denounced the violence; he should as a public official.

The sick, sad part of all of this is that the vultures are out and are desperately trying to get their piece. Instead of bringing out the best in people this tragedy has revealed a very ugly side of humanity.

I fear for the region, if when revealed, the facts of the case don't support the preconceived narrative of the protesters. We may imploded.

Any opportunity for justice went out the window the instant the 1st shot was fired.

My thoughts exactly. I hope for a peaceful solution, and I hope everyone gets the answers they deserve. However, I have a feeling we're going to be dealing with the repercussions of this shooting for a long time to come in this community.

Antonio French is proving that being an alderman is not a full time job.

I couldn't agree more with your thoughts on Antonio French. I find his behavior despicable and I think his "value", which obviously is very important to him, is decreasing rapidly. He's an opportunist at best and a bad human being at worst.

ttricamo wrote:KSDK's live coverage of the NAACP church gathering was very good. What an incredible event; it really galvanized, to me, how the community is dealing with this issue, its internal struggles, and its public response to this horrible incident. I'm miffed that the Police have not given out more information. Obviously the lack of information has a direct correlation to the amount of public unrest.

That was a great meeting. A variety of perspectives, some that I hope will be listened to, others that I hope will be ignored.

One of the NAACP leaders (I believe) talked about this not just being a moment of protest for the community, but a moment of pivot. An actual change in directions. Not just in police-civilian relations, but in the community as a whole. Essentially it's what some of us wondered about before. This can't be the only violence that is deemed unacceptable. The other murders of their children need to end as well. I thought he said it all very well.

Then, the Mayor of Berkeley, Theodore Hoskins, spoke, and it was dreadful. He basically said the opposite of the previous speaker. He called for them not to worry about the future. To save talks of education and what not for "next year". That right now all they needed was justice. That that should be their only concern. He said weird things like "if you forgive, you'll be next." He really incited people, and it was said to see so many want to express their anger in this way.

Then there was a young pastor; 22 years old I believe. He spoke eloquently about how it's time for everyone to come together, and at first I thought he just meant the community (which would have been fine), but then he labeled off all the races and said it doesn't matter, we need to stand up together. It wasn't full of specific actions, I suppose, but it was a really great message.

Then after him, a resident—I really couldn't tell his role—started doing a good job, although I felt like he maybe talked a bit long and lost his way. But he basically talked about the reason he's been giving for why the police demographics don't reflect the community. He said he's told by the police that their aren't enough qualified black applicants. This drew jeers from the crowd, but the speaker wasn't after that. I'm not sure he doubted the truth of it. So he talked about how they need to educate and get to the point where there are a proportional number of worthy applicants. And then I lost him for a while. But later on at the end of the meeting he reminded people that the NAACP has won it's battles in the courts, not through violence in the streets. So I thought he was after the right message there as well.

This French character is really getting under my skin...he reminds me of that 7th grade girl gossip monger....

If the location was reversed (rioting in North City and the councilman was from the County) there'd be a ton of pissed of city residents. But apparently it's okay for a city of St. Louis alderman to spend all his time bouncing around the county.

You mean like when then-State Rep Maria Chappelle-Nadal (U. City) became one of the loudest voices in the state opposed to granting local control of the city police department? Yeah, that pissed off this city resident.

And I'm also not the biggest fan of Jeff Smith's tweets...Go back to jail, Jeff....

Maybe French is thinking about a jeff city office?

No doubt about it..this is his chance to get in the national spotlight...CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post..the dude is everywhere.

Well, I guess this whole affair proves one thing - when it comes to crime and race relations in St. Louis, the city and the county are indeed unified!