[THEHILL] The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police criticized President B.O. Thursday for his remarks about law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo.
"I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha's Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation," director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.
"I think what he has to do as president and as a constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States and the process is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutors' office," Pasco added.
Pasco harkened back to 2009, when Obama criticized a Massachusetts police officer for arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, when he was attempting to break into his own home. Obama said the officer had "acted stupidly."
"That is one where the president spoke precipitously without all the facts," Pasco said, adding that the current situation "is a much larger and more tragic incident."
Pasco said both police and members of the public are entitled to due process but said he is not convinced police have used excessive force in Ferguson.
"I'm not there, and neither is the president," Pasco said. "That is why we have due process in the United States. And this will all be sorted out over time. But right now, I haven't seen anything from afar — and maybe the president has — that would lead me to believe the police are doing anything except to restore order."
Obama on Thursday called for "peace and calm on the streets" of Ferguson after "disturbing" festivities between police and protesters stemming from the police killing of an unarmed black teenager.
"There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting," Obama said in a statement from where he is vacationing in Massachusetts. "There's also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights."
The officer involved in the Ferguson shooting is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police and is being represented by one of its lawyers. His name has not been released to the public.
Pasco declined to comment on whether Ferguson police should be withholding the officer's name.
"I would leave any statements on that to his defense," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Can't get the Feds to move on IRS but they're all over the situation in Ferguson. It's all about race for Champ and Holder.
By the way, the Governor of Missouri is a helpless, sniveling puke.
#2
There is never an excuse for violence against police
Maybe not yet but they're certainly moving in that direction rapidly. When the "LEO" become the predatory, punitive arm of a corrupt gov't. then all bets will be off.
#4
The world is in flames and our 'noble' leader is playing 'cop' in a local MO. situation. This will only inflame matters. Holden will have a field day.
[BBC] Much of the commentary on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer has been dominated by liberal outrage over what some see as racial injustice.
There is, however, a growing chorus from the conservative movement's libertarian wing that connects the perceived overreaction by a militarised local law enforcement to their critique of the heavy-handed power of government.
"The state is big and powerful and violent and can hurt you, whether it's the FDA, the state prosecutor or the local police force," writes Hot Air blog's Mary Katharine Ham, concisely summarising the gist of this libertarian argument.
Breitbart's John Nolte puts it a bit more sharply: "The media hate police but without them, who will ultimately force us to buy ObamaCare and confiscate our guns?"
On Wednesday night Congressman Justin Amash, a libertarian-leaning Republican embraced by the grass-roots Tea Party movement, tweeted that the news from Ferguson was "frightening", asking: "Is this a war zone or a US city? Gov't escalates tensions w/military equipment & tactics."
Law and order starts with the police obeying the law.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
After watching lots of video and reading respectable journalists (yes, some do still exist)it has become apparent that this isn't a police force. It is a paramilitary unit. While the local reaction is stupid, destructive and does nothing to better anyone, it is expected considering the oppression of the paramilitary units.
I expect to see paramilitary units looking and acting like this in Egypt or Iran. Not in our own midwest. Something has gone horribly wrong and needs to be addressed before full outright conflict.
I have been arguing against the militarization of the police for years and really don't want to see a unit of police/Spetsnaz roaming my neighborhood.
#5
Any bets on the gender of the police officer involved in the shooting, who had to receive medial attention, and must now have their identity protected ?
#8
Rioters and Looters - The Left: "you need to understand why they are rioting and address the underlying causes".
Tea Party - The Left: "Terrorists!"
#9
Police stonewalling the locals is never a good recipe. Police there think their job is to intimidate and control, rather than protect, the public. Thats why they diet explain anything, nor reach out to a community that was obviously ready to boil over. This whole mess could have been avoided, had the police acted like police, and not paramilitary. (Even our professional military would have handled it differently, engaging in some pyops "meeting with the locals" stuff to tamp down the hostility)
#10
There are security video stills showing Michael Brown strong-arming a convenience store guy just before he got killed. Brown is a huge guy even tho only 18. This thing ramped up in a matter of minutes to out-of-control as do most riots. I'm thinking the eye-witnesses are not very reliable. "Trevon syndrome" at work.
#11
Two separate issues. Brown was a thug, the stills show it. He will be tried and found to be a sweet young misunderstood boy by the press. Not fair or true, but its beyond real justice now.
The police issue is another thing all together. The cops were carrying M4 assault rifles. Do they really think they needed that much firepower? Did they really think they would fire these weapons? Bringing out the MRAP is another giant fail. Even DOD would not have acted in such an amateur way. The M4's had flip sites, dot sites, and a scope, all stacked on the rail. This what posers at the gun club do. The Chief of police said they were all SWAT, really? How many SWAT teams do they have? Then he said they were all in blue, nope, in black. I understand what he meant, no military, but they looked like storm troopers. I am a huge supporter of law enforcement but this is out of control from the top down. Their procedures are broken and heavy handed, they did not distinguish between protestors and non involved civilians, they gassed the press and illegally detained the press. They closed the airspace, effectively evoking a police state. They puked all over our constitution and then acted as if it was ok. This is frightening in that all police forces have been building the same capability. Even some podunk farming town in MO got two MRAPS and the police said it was because of armed veterans. What is happening??
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/15/2014 13:33 Comments ||
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#12
The video is pretty damning to the cop if Brown didn't use a weapon in the robbery.
We need video of the actual shooting to make a proper judgement if the cop had reason to fear for their life or not. But then minds are made up, narratives are fixed, and nothing short of lynching the cop will suffice.
#13
Personally i wonder about the paramilitarization of the police. I understand the aggressive attitude, intimidate quick so the suspect backs down, but that doesn't explain all the hardware.
It is as if they suspect a war is coming and I'd like to know if they think it is an enemy foreign or domestic.
#14
I also think dashboard cams should be supplemented iwth cameras all over the police car so they have hard evidence quick to settle disputes of this type.
#15
Their procedures are broken and heavy handed...
Where do these procedures come from, who trains them? Do you know? Department by department they are being trained by Israeli Contractors in anti-terrorist tactics. At the behest of DHS.
Police Chiefs and SWAT personnel are also traveling to Israel to attend seminars and training camps. Lots going on in the march to establish a full blown police state here. I wonder what they're planning.
#16
It is as if they suspect a war is coming and I'd like to know if they think it is an enemy foreign or domestic.
You can't be that naive. They have been planning and preparing for war against the American people. We are to be delivered up to our new masters. Care to guess whom that might be?
Even some podunk farming town in MO got two MRAPS and the police said it was because of armed veterans. What is happening?
What do your instincts and military experience tell you is happening?
#20
I also worry about the militarization of police forces from federal agencies to state and local agencies. You often wonder who they are at war with. That said, I also recall the North Hollywood shootout with two dedicated bank robbers dressed-out in protective gear and automatic weapons. Also the FBI shootout with a couple of bank robbers in Miami some years ago. In both of these cases, the police were outgunned badly.
#22
Imagine police facing that crowd and being armed with night sticks? On the other hand, do they have to be armed like an SS Panzer Divison? This is a complex multifaceted situation. Too early to sort it all out. I lied thru the riots in the '60s and the cops were underarmed and major city centers burned.
#24
The main issue with Libertarianism as a political philosophy is, as V. Ulyanov (Lenin) said, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/15/2014 19:56 Comments ||
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#25
I made a lot of comments on this thread and I need to make something clear. While I'm certain Brown was a thug, I'm equally certain the police are way to geared up like ninja posers. With that said, I'm not exactly sure what a libertarian is, hell I cant even spell it, I am not associating myself with them or their politics....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/15/2014 22:10 Comments ||
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#26
Somebody (Mark Steyn?) made the comment that the police have all sorts of mil surp goodies, but never spent the pittance on body or dash-cams, something that would go a long way to clear up the he-said/she-said.
[An Nahar] President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... declared Thursday that U.S. air strikes had broken the siege of an Iraqi mountain sheltering civilian refugees and that troops conducting reconnaissance there would be withdrawn.
But he added that U.S. air strikes would continue against Lions of Islam from the so-called Islamic State or ISIL if they threaten U.S. personnel and facilities in the region, including the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
"The bottom line is -- the situation on the mountain has greatly improved and Americans should be very proud of our efforts because the skill and professionalism of our military and the generosity of our people we broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar," Obama said in a statement to news hounds during his vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
"We helped save many innocent lives. Because of these efforts, we do not expect (there) to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain and it's unlikely we're going to need to continue humanitarian air drops on the mountain," Obama said.
Obama, a longtime skeptic of the use of U.S. force in Iraq, last week authorized air strikes as he warned that thousands of members of the Yazidi community risked genocide as they fled to the mountain under pursuit from ISIL Death Eaters.
Obama said that the United States would still carry out air strikes along with stepping up military assistance to Iraqi government and Kurdish forces battling ISIL.
"We will continue air strikes to protect our people and facilities in Iraq," said Obama, who had cited the risk to the U.S. consulate in Arbil as a reason for the military intervention.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, said that there are still 4,000 to 5,000 Yazidi refugees sheltering on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
No you didn't.
Just made it painful enough for them to stop attacking. Not the same thing.
#2
NYT: ISTANBUL — Yazidi leaders and emergency relief officials on Thursday strongly disputed American claims that the siege of Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq had been broken and that the crisis was effectively over, saying that tens of thousands of Yazidis remained on the mountain in desperate conditions.
#5
The only surprise is that Obumble didn't say: "Just like when I was in Abbottabad and got Osama Bin Laden, I broke the siege of Mount Sinjar and I got all those people off the mountain and I saved them all single-handedly. I got a hole-in-one the other day too before noon!" (You didn't do any of that stuff you dipwad.)
#10
The reason those dance pictures were pulled is because it was one of his many duplicates to confuse folks while he is on sniper missions and such doing the job the Navy Seals and others seem incapable of doing. In this case apparantly he had to resort to flying in some of the airstrikes himself to save the poor future democrats.
#12
Wow, on one hand you have the EU, DoD, and every Achmed and Mahmoud in the ME talking about how ISIL has morphed into this war machine with thousands of men and tons and scads of captured US equipment. And on the other hand you have the empty suit saying that blowing up a couple of mortar positions and drone zapping a HumVee broke the siege.
I would characterize the air effort by our forces in Iraq as pissing on a forest fire.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
08/15/2014 15:36 Comments ||
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#13
Better yet: 'Pissing in the Wind' - they use our own weapons against us. BTW: the great Jerry Jeff Walker sang a song with that title.
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