Officer Korina Bavaro not only accepted the Ice Bucket challenge, but she accepted it 61 times for all the officers killed in the line of duty.
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Day: August 17, 2014
In a Facebook post, Jeffery Eaton, the band’s lyricist wrote that he simply could not stand by and watch the unfolding in Ferguson Missouri, where an unarmed 18-year-old was murdered by a police officer.
In the post, Jeffery wrote;
I’ve been glued to twitter and live streams of Ferguson since last Saturday Night when unarmed 18 year old Mike Brown was shot to death by a police officer. All week I have been hesitant to speak, trying to wrap my mind around the complexities of it all while watching the demonstrations, protests and clashes with police. Now it’s 4 am on Saturday Night and I can’t sleep because all I can do is think about it. I realize I will never have the perfect words so for now, I will let them spill out and explain why I must.
I have no specific authority to speak on the subject, but I’ve been writing lyrics about life in this country for over a decade now. I view it as a conversation from the perspective of an angry American with other angry Americans. Ferguson must be a part of that conversation because it’s so important and happening so close to home. I am only speaking to encourage us all to look at our lives and the world around us honestly and to go much deeper than the mass media or advertising world had planned for us. I only want for each of us to claim the dignity that we deserve.
So what can I say about it? At the very least I can say that I don’t condone murder, especially when committed by a person hired to serve and protect us and paid by for by our tax dollars. I can say that the burning anger in Ferguson goes far beyond looting and random violence. This is not a temper tantrum or an excuse. This is a symptom of the disease. I think the people out on the streets in Ferguson are fed up. I think they are tired of being marginalized and pushed down. They are mourning the death of this young man, and are also very aware that his death has come to symbolize the disease. America is sick and we are angry. We want to be proud Americans, but we live under a shadow of shame. We don’t want our names on the bombs that burn the bodies of innocent people in the Middle East, but we know they are. We know we are not the world and we don’t want to be. Our America is our beautiful American music and the collective kind hardworking and independent spirit of the majority of our citizens. We know that no life is more valuable than another no matter where we were born or what color our skin is. Our leaders are not properly representing us and they do not have our best interests in mind. The endless war has not been justified to us and does not represent us. We feel more threatened than protected by the police. We are hostages to the dream. Our dignity, compassion and intelligence is being mocked by the actions of those in power.
Strong work ethic will hopefully result in a simple humble life. Striving for the security of the upper class may mean falling short and drowning in debt. Greed may give you your dream home and a luxury car, it will certainly give you Ferguson, Missouri and Flint, Michigan. No matter what side of which argument you identify with, you must admit that there must be winners and losers in the game we play in this country. There is not enough room for us all in the upper class. If there was there would be no one to keep the castles clean. Whether by choice, circumstance or failure, we find ourselves at the bottom of the dream.
And the questions… So who are these people? Am I really one of them? Have we done it to ourselves? Should we all put our heads down and shut our mouths, work harder to make more money to insulate our lives from the poor neighborhoods and the anger and struggle that exists within them? Should we focus on a handful of looters and ignore the justified anger? Should we ignore the disease? Should we be scared to speak because we are not experts on capitalism, law enforcement, health car and international politics? Does this country belong to us? Does the world belong to us? Do our lives belong to us? Should I expect to be mocked for identifying more closely with the angry people in the streets of Ferguson than with the silent sinking middle class? Should we hope that last night was the last night in the streets? Should the people go home and get back to work before catching the attention of the entire nation and the entire world? Is it worth it?
Most of us would prefer to sweep these confounding problems aside and keep enjoying the ride, but it’s becoming more and more clear than we need to stop and change directions. Netflix and alcohol are not enough to keep our minds off it and now it’s past 5 am on Sunday Morning and the sun is coming up on my humble street in Kansas City. I don’t want to deal with it but I know that I am a heartless coward if I do not face it, so I let the words spill out. This won’t be posted till I get some sleep and give myself a chance to remain silent and do my part in maintaining the status quo. America, we’ve been going the wrong way for a long time. Ferguson slammed on the brakes, howled and bit back when Mike Brown was brutally murdered last week. Monday morning did not mean getting back to the grind and the next Saturday Night was not about having a beer and a laugh. Each moment since his life ended has been about problems that can no longer be ignored. #Ferguson #mikebrown
There can be no doubt that Governor Chris Christie will be running for president in 2016. He’s taken trips to the states with the earliest primaries and caucuses and he’s even begun commenting on foreign affairs. Not that he’s at all qualified in that area, but when did that ever stop him from talking? The most convincing evidence of his intention to pursue a national run, though, comes from his latest actions in New Jersey, and ironically, those might actually cause his downfall.
First up is the New Jersey economy, which is limping along in no small part to the governor’s refusal to do anything that will stimulate it. The jobs picture has not improved as much as the national numbers and Christie continues to blame middle class workers such as teachers, firefighters, police officers and government workers for the problem. Yes, he was able to get a landmark pensions and benefits bill through the Democratic legislature in 2011, but now, three years later, he’s gone back on his promise to pay a full public pension payment because he says that the problem has not been fixed and that workers need to pay even more for their future benefits.
The “No Pain, No Gain” tour has been a colossal failure so far mainly because the public is slowly coming around to the idea that public workers can’t be squeezed any more and that Christie’s refusal to ask wealthy New Jerseyans for more in taxes is good old fashioned Republican trickle down economics. The kind that hasn’t worked since Ronald Reagan tried it back in 1981. All it’s lead to is wealthier wealthy people and a scramble for decent wages for the middle and working classes.
What’s worse is that Christie appointed a committee to investigate why pensions and benefits need continued reform and
So any chance that this committee will be an independent arbiter or that it will fairly assess the pros and cons of Christie’s plan will be, say, nil.
The next clue to Christie’s intentions comes from the fact that he and his adviser’s are now becoming very stingy with information about the governor’s public schedule. This is a guy who ran on transparency and openness and is now going all legalistic on the public and saying things like, “You guys want everything. You’re not entitled to everything. So we give you what you’re entitled to under the law. And I think that’s fair.”
Fair, maybe. Politically smart? Not so much. If you want to be president, you should give the press the free stuff that it asks for and withhold the difficult information. That placates the press and makes it more likely that they’ll give you a pass on the tough issues. And what’s on the governor’s schedule that would preclude him from fully disclosing it? More helicopter rides? Getaways to the Bahamas? It just doesn’t make sense, and it belies Christie’s desire to be known as an open politician. That’s how he ran in 2009 and 2013. But now that he wants to be president, he’s playing political word games.
And then there’s that famous Christie personality, the one that yells at teachers, people in the military, retirees looking for answers, and anybody who deigns to disagree with him, available 24 hours a day on YouTube. Now we can add Twitter to the Governor’s growing list of anti-social media harangues. Last week Christie involved himself in a discussion that frustrated commuters were having after yet another delay on the NJ Transit train system. They were also discussing the lack of another tunnel to and from New York and the fact that Christie’s veto of a bill that would have provided money for a new tunnel leaves the prospect of relief far into the future. At a time when the governor could have provided for a little understanding and love, he again chose to argue, and that’s not a good strategy when people are stuck in a station with no way to get home.
I suppose that Christie believes that yelling and belittling people who disagree with him is a sign of great leadership, but in the end, I think that this will ultimately sink him. Americans might be tiring of President Obama’s cool detached manner, but they don’t want a bully with a volatile personality in the Oval Office. We need a pragmatic, thoughtful person to interact with the country and the world.
We’ll need to look elsewhere for that.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
All across the globe people are seeing the injustice in the murder of Michael Brown. All across the globe, except right here at home, where Mike Brown is essentially being blamed, his character being assassinated, as if he caused the cop to murder him.
“Oops, wrong story. Just ‘whacky’ Penn State kids protesting JoePa’s Firing” – Dab Aggin
– Where were the riot gears? Snipers? Armored military response? Oh… wrong color maybe…
The innuendos and falsehoods included in their broadcast to their uninformed audience on Sunday morning was enough to win Fox News an award for the most nonsense said in a 3 min segment. And they have tons of segments to choose from.
On Sunday’s edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Tucker Carlson seemed utterly amazed that “40 FBI Agents” are investigating the incident in Ferguson. “That is such a shocking number,” the idiot said, as he complained about the federal investigation into Brown’s execution.
“What’s the point of that?” Carlson asked. “You don’t need FBI agents to investigate a killing, that’s what the police department is for!”
Of course Carlson refused to see the ignorance of his statement and he refused to acknowledge that this same police department brought out tanks, snipers and flash grenades to battle citizens who were peacefully protesting the killing of an unarmed teenager in the streets.
Carlson wanted that police department to investigate the killing, a killing that involves one of their own – a police officer – who pulled the trigger, pumping multiple rounds into Brown’s body. The same police department that protected their ‘brother’ by not even releasing his name for almost a week! They, Carlson argues, should be the ones investigating the crime!
But as abhorrent as that argument was, his co-host totally took the cake.
Juliet Huddy, sitting between the two ferns, contributed her two cents by insinuating that maybe, just maybe the officer was “justified” in emptying his clip into the human being until he laid dead, lifeless in the street. Now, we are not sure if the police officer – later identified as Darren Wilson – emptied his clip, but according to multiple eye witnesses and the police protected autopsy, Brown was shot multiple times. And eyewitnesses indicated that some of those shots hit Brown in his back as he ran away for his life.
Huddy however, thinks there could be some justification for this.
Her two cents came as the two ferns besides her argued that the Justice Department had other motives when they asked the police department not to release the video showing someone, allegedly Michael Brown, robbing a convenience store. “Releasing the video would incite more protests,” the Justice Department said, but of course, the ferns believed the nonsense swirling around in their heads.
Huddy then dropped this nugget!
“But the thing is that the crowd immediately went out there when they found out that this man was shot — a young black man was shot by a white cop,” she said. “They went out there, they were furious about it.”
She continued:
“Had that tape been out there, had crowd realized that this man might have been robbing a store, there might have been something else criminal going on there, you know, to lend credence to the fact that maybe in some way — we don’t know this — but maybe this officer was justified, maybe this was a bad guy, maybe he wasn’t the ‘gentle giant.’ I’m not saying that’s what it was.”
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