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Mike Brown Mike Brown Shooting

New Orleans Saints Player Shares His Feelings on Darren Wilson’s Verdict

The following post was written by New Orleans Saints tight-end, Benjamin Watson. The 33 year old wrote the post and shared it on his Facebook page after hearing that Darren Wilson will not even face a trial for killing Ferguson teenager, Mike Brown. His post has since gone viral.

At some point while I was playing or preparing to play Monday Night Football, the news broke about the Ferguson Decision. After trying to figure out how I felt, I decided to write it down. Here are my thoughts:
I’M ANGRY because the stories of injustice that have been passed down for generations seem to be continuing before our very eyes.

I’M FRUSTRATED, because pop culture, music and movies glorify these types of police citizen altercations and promote an invincible attitude that continues to get young men killed in real life, away from safety movie sets and music studios.

I’M FEARFUL because in the back of my mind I know that although I’m a law abiding citizen I could still be looked upon as a “threat” to those who don’t know me. So I will continue to have to go the extra mile to earn the benefit of the doubt.

I’M EMBARRASSED because the looting, violent protests, and law breaking only confirm, and in the minds of many, validate, the stereotypes and thus the inferior treatment.

I’M SAD, because another young life was lost from his family, the racial divide has widened, a community is in shambles, accusations, insensitivity hurt and hatred are boiling over, and we may never know the truth about what happened that day.

I’M SYMPATHETIC, because I wasn’t there so I don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe Darren Wilson acted within his rights and duty as an officer of the law and killed Michael Brown in self defense like any of us would in the circumstance. Now he has to fear the backlash against himself and his loved ones when he was only doing his job. What a horrible thing to endure. OR maybe he provoked Michael and ignited the series of events that led to him eventually murdering the young man to prove a point.

I’M OFFENDED, because of the insulting comments I’ve seen that are not only insensitive but dismissive to the painful experiences of others.

I’M CONFUSED, because I don’t know why it’s so hard to obey a policeman. You will not win!!! And I don’t know why some policeman (sic) abuse their power. Power is a responsibility, not a weapon to brandish and lord over the populace.

I’M INTROSPECTIVE, because sometimes I want to take “our” side without looking at the facts in situations like these. Sometimes I feel like it’s us against them. Sometimes I’m just as prejudiced as people I point fingers at. And that’s not right. How can I look at white skin and make assumptions but not want assumptions made about me? That’s not right.

I’M HOPELESS, because I’ve lived long enough to expect things like this to continue to happen. I’m not surprised and at some point my little children are going to inherit the weight of being a minority and all that it entails.

I’M HOPEFUL, because I know that while we still have race issues in America, we enjoy a much different normal than those of our parents and grandparents. I see it in my personal relationships with teammates, friends and mentors. And it’s a beautiful thing.

I’M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn.

BUT I’M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One that’s capable of looking past the outward and seeing what’s truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It’s the Gospel. So, finally, I’M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope.

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Mike Brown Mike Brown Shooting

Mike Brown’s Mother Talks about Thanksgiving Without Her Son – Video

While Mike Brown’s murderer, Darren Wilson, spoke about how excited he was about living his life and expecting his baby, the mother of the teenager Darren killed spoke about hearing the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson and thanksgiving without her son.

Video

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Mike Brown Shooting

More Good News for Darren Wilson – He’s Expecting a Baby!

Darren Wilson, the man responsible for the death of Ferguson’s Mike Brown, is apparently responsible for new life. According to his interview with ABC, Darren Wilson and his wife are expecting a baby!

Wilson, 28, had earlier told GMA anchor George Stephanopoulos that he had gotten married since the Aug. 9 shooting that has rocked Ferguson and much of the country.

In an installment of the exclusive interview released today, Wilson mentioned that his wife is pregnant…

The officer, who has been a cop in Ferguson for four years as well as two more years in another town, said his life has been “stressful” since the lethal confrontation. He even grew a beard to hide his identity, he said.

“You’re always looking, you’re always wondering if someone’ll recognize you, if someone is following you. Just every possibility you can think of,” Wilson told Stephanopoulos.

Wilson said he takes precautions wherever he goes, “from where you sit in the restaurant to, you know, where you drive. Everything has to run through your head. It’s every time you walk, you make sure no one’s following you, everything.”

Video

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Health heart procedure

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospitalized – Underwent A Heart Procedure

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent heart surgery Wednesday morning in Washington, the high court said.

The 81-year-old was admitted to the MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center after she experienced discomfort during routine exercise on Tuesday night. She underwent a coronary catherization procedure and is now reportedly resting comfortably in the hospital. According to the Supreme Court, she is expected to be discharged within the next 48 hours.

For the past few years, Ginsburg has been working out with a personal trainer at the Supreme Court’s official gym, and a court official said that’s where she was last night when she experienced the discomfort.

Ginsburg, who is currently the oldest justice on the Supreme Court, has repeatedly resisted calls from progressives to consider stepping down so President Obama can nominate a like-minded judge to replace her. Ginsburg, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed to the court nearly unanimously in 1993, has been the most stalwart representative of liberal positions on the hot-button issues the Supreme Court has faced.

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Mike Brown Mike Brown Shooting

Rapper’s Spontaneous Tribute to Mike Brown – Video

Rapper Killer Mike paid an emotional tribute to Ferguson’s murdered teenager, Mike Brown.

“I would like to say rest in peace to Michael Brown,” the rapper starts, cheers rising up from the crowd. “I would like to give all thoughts and prayers to the people who are out there peacefully protesting. And I also give thoughts and prayers for the people who could not hold their anger in, because riots are only the language of the unheard,”

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Eric Holder Michael Brown Mike Brown Shooting Racism

THE FIX WAS IN ALL ALONG IN FERGUSON

As seen on America The Not So Beautiful

November 25, 2014

By Mike Caccioppoli

This is my first reaction to what just happened in Ferguson. My stomach is in knots. Buildings are burning. There are people who have criticized the title of my blog “America The Not So Beautiful.” They wanted something more optimistic, softer. Can you argue with the title now? I mean can you really? We are retreating in this country. As other nations forge ahead, we are back in the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s Selma all over again and watts and even further back, into the dark ages. This is where we are now. No justice and certainly no peace.

We all sat together, watched, listened together. Listened as the corrupt St. Louis County Prosecutor named Bob McCulloch, told the nation, told all of us, from San Francisco to Chicago to New York to Miami and to the heart of the tragedy, Ferguson, Missouri, that Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown, will not face charges. Yes, most of us expected it, dreaded it. But now it was real, it had actually happened. Justice denied, again. Again.

McCulloch stood there, and described an execution, then in the next breath said there was nothing to see here. He didn’t sound like any prosecutor I have heard before. He sounded much more like a defense attorney, the defense attorney for Darren Wilson. A prosecutor wants an indictment when they go to a grand jury so therefore in the almost non-existent cases where they don’t get one, they are distraught, just as they are when they lose a case in court. McCulloch hardly seemed upset about the decision, in fact he seemed vindicated, just like a defense attorney would be after they got their client off.

I’m not surprised at all. I expected this decision. We all did. But like everyone else, I was dreading this moment. I knew the fix was in. There was something disquieting about watching McCulloch throwing that fact in our collective faces. He threw it in our faces and hid behind a grand jury. I don’t blame them at all. As all legal experts have said, the grand jury does what the prosecutor wants. This time he didn’t want an indictment so he stacked the deck to get the result he wanted. McCulloch is a coward, and just like a defense attorney who does not put everything on the line for their client, McCulloch should be forced out of office and not be allowed to practice law ever again. He put nothing on the line for Michael Brown, in fact, Brown, the VICTIM wasn’t represented at all.

Look, this is what it comes down to. A cop can kill who they want. If they kill a black person they will get off 100 percent of the time. If they kill a white person that probably drops to about 95 percent. This is why whites shouldn’t think they are safe. WE are not. They say a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, but police officers aren’t ham sandwiches. In the minds of too many they are filet mignon. They are the top of the line and can do no wrong. If they shoot and kill it’s always because they have to. Whether it’s a kid walking in the street, or a man with a fake gun at his side in a toy store or a 12 year old with a gun that even the guy who called 911 knew was fake but the trained cop didn’t, it simply does not matter. They can kill you if they feel like it that day. There is no recourse.

McCulloch admitted that Wilson shot 12 times, that’s a dozen shots. Once again though, nothing to see here. No question from the idiot reporters in the media pool, about how far away Brown was when Wilson shot at him several times, including the fatal shot to his head. No question to McCulloch about the need for a cop to justify each and every shot, all 12 in this case. Nobody asked him why he allowed Wilson to testify for four hours and if he will afford ALL defendants that leeway from now on.  What McCulloch painted was the picture of a hulking black thug charging at Wilson, after he was already shot at least twice, charging AT BULLETS. That Wilson needed all 12 shots against an unarmed 18 year old kid in order to save his own life. Incredulity doesn’t describe it well enough.

McCulloch didn’t present a case. He dumped a case file in the hands of 12 people who were not legal experts and said have at it. He knew there were inconsistencies in testimony, because guess what…there ALWAYS is. If that were a reason to not indict, most of the people in prison wouldn’t be there. This was a game for McCulloch, a game he knew he could manipulate and win. He didn’t want to indict a cop and he knows that juries don’t want to either. So a little prod here and there is all he would need.

Scumbag Rudy Giuliani continues to spew at the mouth about “black on black” crime. But when a black person kills another black person they go to jail in about 23 seconds. As we have seen once again, when a cop kills someone, no matter what the evidence, no matter how many witnesses, no matter what, there is no justice.

Yes Ferguson is burning right now. But the entire country continues to smolder. None of us are protected from the flames.

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

@CaccioppoliMike

Visit America The Not So Beautiful

 

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Mike Brown Mike Brown Shooting

My Crime? I Was Born a Black Child

That’s it. That’s all you need to know. It doesn’t matter that I walk like you, or talk like you. It doesn’t matter what my education is or what my goals in life are. It doesn’t matter if I wear with my pants sagging or have all tailored made suit. My crime was already committed when I was born as a black child.

When I was born as a black child I was marked, I was different. I was looked upon as being unable or unwilling or uninterested. I was perceived as someone… no wait… something incapable of contributing,  unfit to add my own special stitch in this great fabric of society. I was a criminal and you already knew it. My crime was committed when I was born as a black child.

I was born distinguished from the rest, different, I was not like you. One look at me and you saw my entire story, you already knew. My crime is as obvious as the color of my skin worn daily so you won’t be confused. Black skin worn daily so you will know, that here is someone who cannot be honest, a “thug” that should not be trusted. A criminal whose crime was already committed when I was born as a black child.

Being a criminal because I was born a black child must then mean that I am expendable. That my hopes and dreams are voided and that anything or everything possible must be done to end my criminal ways.

So when you see me running down the street in my own neighborhood, running for my life as I try to get away from someone who knows nothing about me but my skin, someone who has already prosecuted me, judged me and sentenced me to die because in their eyes,  I must be a criminal.  When you see me trying to get away from someone like you, who would  gun me down in the streets as if I were an animal left there to bleed to death while my neighbors and friends and parents watched, you should rest assured knowing that it is no big deal. For in your eyes I was already damned. I was just a criminal, my crime already committed when I was born as a black child.

And I’m sure you have black friends…

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BLM Mike Brown Mike Brown Shooting

Mike Brown – Just Another Statistic, Just Another Murdered Black Man in America

There is a tradition, a history in this country and tonight, with the grand jury’s decision that officer Darren Wilson did absolutely nothing wrong when he chased after and gunned down a fleeing Mike Brown, another chapter was added to that history.

We’ve seen this play out many times before and tonight was no different. Black lives in America don’t matter.

Of course there was the expectation that finally, someone will be held accountable for taking the life of yet another black person in this country, but deep down, the writing was already on the wall that Darren Wilson would be a free man, that gunning down Mike Brown or any other black man for that matter, would result in nothing, nothing but another chapter added to the history book of black justice or injustice in America!

And there are those who are rejoicing in this decision.

 

 

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Elizabeth Warren Politics

Elizabeth Warren Is in Isreal – Hmmmm…

Calm down folks. I know you’re looking at this trip as an indication that Warren will run for president, but according to people with knowledge of Warren’s trip, her travels overseas has absolutely nothing to do with 2016

Warren is the lone lawmaker on the trip organized by the State Department and the Senate Banking Committee, of which she is a member. She will be meeting with officials from the Israeli and Jordanian governments, the Palestinian Authority, United Nations groups and USAID. Warren will also meet with troops from Massachusetts serving in the Middle East.
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The Jerusalem Post reported that Warren met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

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Featured

Naked Man Falls Out Of Womens Bathroom Ceiling

A Boston man received a litany of
charges over the weekend, including attempted murder, mayhem, assault and battery on a person over 60, assault and battery on a police officer, lewd and lascivious act and malicious destruction to property over $250.

Witnesses say the 26 year old was seen entering the women’s rest room at Logan Airport. Once inside, the msn, identified as Cameron Shenk, stripped of all his clothes and somehow climb up into the bathroom’s drop-ceiling.

The ceiling lived up to its name and Shenk was dropped to the bathroom floor, sustaining multiple injuries. He was however, able to run out of the bathroom and attacked an 84 year old man, beating and choking the man with his cane.

Shenk is scheduled to be arraigned in East Boston District Court.

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Mike Brown Shooting shooting

Gun Bought for Ferguson Unrest Accidentally Shoots Owner in Head

Another gun doing what guns do – killing people.

A woman appears to have accidentally fatally shot herself in the head with a gun bought to prepare for possible Ferguson-related unrest, according to sources briefed on the police investigation.

The shooting occurred Friday night in downtown St. Louis, the city’s Metropolitan Police Department said, in an area dominated by vacant lots beside a football stadium.

The female victim, identified in a police report as Becca Campbell, 26, was a passenger in a car involved in an auto accident. Her 33-year-old boyfriend was driving, the sources told CNN.

The boyfriend, who wasn’t identified, told police that the couple had bought a gun because of fears of unrest related to the pending grand jury decision on the shooting of Michael Brown, the sources said.

He told investigators that as they drove late Friday night, the victim waved a gun, jokingly saying the couple were ready for Ferguson, the sources said.

He ducked to get out of the way of the gun and accidentally rear-ended another car. He said the accident caused the gun to go off and she was struck by a bullet in the head, the sources said.

The victim was rushed to a hospital but died

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Education New Jersey teachers teaching

Thirty Years an Educator

Thirty years ago today, I walked into York Preparatory School on New York’s Upper East Side for my first day as a high school history teacher. I had no formal training as a teacher except for my degree in History from Syracuse University. I had been working in advertising for a Madison Avenue firm that no longer exists using the other major I completed at Syracuse, in Telecommunications Management from the Newhouse School of Public Communications. I liked the work, liked the atmosphere, liked the potential for advancement and economic gain.

And yet.

From the time I was about 15 or 16, I had thought about teaching and knew that I could be successful at it, but I didn’t pursue it for all of the logical reasons: low pay, lack of societal respect, and low pay. I loved history, and obviously still do, and had fun taking courses. I went into acting and stand-up comedy, worked in television in New Jersey and advertising in New York. The turn to teaching came, as many great things in life, by happenstance.

I had a friend from college who was a teacher and she told me there was an opening at the private school where she taught, and she also said that you didn’t need a teaching certificate to teach in private schools. I called and was able to schedule an interview. Turns out the headmaster went to graduate school with my father. He was a nice guy. The head of the history department wanted someone with more experience. I figured I had come to the end of the string.

Four months later, a different headmaster called me and said he’d gotten my name from this other headmaster, who happened to be his brother-in-law. It turned out that one of the teachers wasn’t working out and was I interested in teaching? I interviewed. The headmaster was a very nice guy, and so was the department chair. We talked history for an hour. They hired me.

I wore a three piece suit with Allen Edmonds wing tips on the first day. Reported at 8:00, while my first class wasn’t until 11:30. During that crucial three hour stretch, I received my teaching degree from the Ronald P. Klein School of Teacher Preparedness. Ron was a fellow history teacher and over the four years I was at York Prep we became very good friends. They were probably the most productive hours in teacher training I’ve ever spent. He told me to focus on classroom management and to engage the students at every turn. He said to be respectful, but not to smile before January. He said to make students think and write, write, write. It was terrific advice. I still follow it, except maybe for the smiling part.

But the best part was that I loved it, as I thought I would. Loved being with the students studying history. Loved the energy and inquisitiveness that most of the students exhibited. Loved the atmosphere. Loved the schedule. Loved it.

And I still do. Yes, I have written over the years about how teachers aren’t as respected in American society as they need to be, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. And yes, pay increases are not keeping up with the cost of living in New Jersey, and many teachers are actually taking home less pay despite some salary increases because they are paying more for their health and pension benefits.

Oh, and then there is the constant, cyclical adoption of trendy educational ideas that are supposed to guarantee student success in the classroom and in life. Back-to-basic education, Whole Language instruction, Reading in Context, Cooperative Education, Differentiation, Phonics, New Math, Self-Esteem, Learning Clusters, and now Common Core Standards. I’ve missed many, but they’re all fads including the new teacher evaluation system in many of the states. These too will be replaced soon because they don’t do what they promise to do, and that’s to improve both teacher and student performance.

What will guarantee education excellence is to have excellent teachers in the classrooms. So far we’ve done a good job of that, but we need to do more to ensure that the next generation of teachers is more widely respected, paid according to their societal worth and make sure phony politicians have as little to do with what happens in schools as possible.

I consider myself lucky to be able to say that I still enjoy getting up at 5:30am to teach history. Still enjoy being in the classroom interacting with students. Still enjoy the give-and-take of academic discourse. Still enjoy the positive comments I receive about the work I’ve done.

Have a great day, and Happy Thanksgiving.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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