Why Ferguson Burns | Unfilter 124 | Jupiter Broadcasting

In the wake of the Ferguson shooting decision, protests have erupted throughout the United States. We’ll review what has brought the nation to this point & the underlying social issues that are fueling it & why this might only be the start of a greater social unrest.

Plus the big surprise from the Defense Department, why it doesn’t quite add up & a very special green holiday high-note.

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— Show Notes —

Ferguson Riots

The Meaning of the Ferguson Riots – NYTimes.com

Robert McCulloch, who is widely viewed in the minority community as being in the pockets of the police, made matters infinitely worse by handling this sensitive investigation in the worst possible way.

First, he refused to step aside in favor of a special prosecutor who could have been appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri. He further undermined public confidence by taking a highly unorthodox approach to the grand jury proceeding. Instead of conducting an investigation and then presenting the case and a recommendation of charges to the grand jury, his office shifted its job to the grand jury. It made no recommendation on whether to indict the officer, Darren Wilson, but left it to the jurors to wade through masses of evidence to determine whether there was probable cause to file charges against Officer Wilson for Mr. Brown’s killing.

Under ordinary circumstances, grand jury hearings can be concluded within days. The proceeding in this case lasted an astonishing three months. And since grand jury proceedings are held in secret, the drawn-out process fanned suspicions that Mr. McCulloch was deliberately carrying on a trial out of public view, for the express purpose of exonerating Officer Wilson.

Inconsistency the only constant with evidence in Michael Brown case – The Washington Post

Overall, the witnesses provided a consistent account of many of the events surrounding the Aug. 9 encounter, which began through the window of the SUV and ended with Brown dead in the street.

An undated evidence photograph made available by the St. Louis County prosecutors office shows the cap that Michael Brown was wearing when he was shot to death by police officer Darren Wilson. (European Pressphoto Agency)

But the testimony fails to definitively clarify some of the most crucial details of the interaction between Wilson and Brown that day. Witnesses differed on critical aspects of the physical struggle, as well as what Brown was doing with his hands — whether he had them up in surrender as his supporters have insisted — when the fatal bullets struck.

The inconsistencies in a few cases stemmed from efforts by witnesses to mislead. But in other instances, it was more likely natural confusion, the result of people going about their day when suddenly a startling narrative unfolded.

According to the documents, in which most eyewitness names are redacted, some observed the events through car windows, while others came to their apartment windows and balconies when they heard a scuffle, catching only glimpses of what happened. Some watched, rapt, but missed key moments when they fumbled with cellphones in hopes of videotaping the incident.

For the grand jurors, the conflicting statements may have provided a boost to Wilson’s credibility or made it difficult to conclude there was probable cause, which is required for sending a case to trial.

Car plows through protesters during Ferguson rally in south Minneapolis | Star Tribune

The driver who lurched into a south Minneapolis intersection packed with Ferguson protesters was “attempting to flee from the mob” when he ran over and slightly injured a 16-year-old girl as others were atop the hood of his car, police said Wednesday.

The driver, a 40-year-old man from St. Paul, was questioned, and Minneapolis police said Wednesday that the case “remains under investigation.” The man was not arrested, and no charges have been filed.

A few hours after the incident late Tuesday afternoon at E. Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue S., the man’s mother said in an interview he was coming home from work and “didn’t even know what was going on” when he encountered the crowd of about 1,000 blocking the intersection.

The girl who was run over by the horn-blaring Subaru station wagon was taken by emergency responders to Regions Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, police said.

Church attended by Michael Brown’s family destroyed during Monday night’s protests | Daily Mail Online

Missouri church attended by Michael Brown’s father family was one of a dozen or so buildings burned to the ground during Monday night’s protests
While the majority of buildings destroyed were in downtown Ferguson, the Flood Christian Church is located some three miles away
Pastor Carlton Lee said he believes that white supremacists rather than protesters were to blame for the destruction
‘I’m very vocal in regards to the Michael Brown case,’ said Lee, who claims to have received 71 death threats

‘Sunday, we do the baptism, Monday, the church is one fire. It just doesn’t add up,’ he said.

He said Brown had pledged his help in repairing the damage to the storefront church that was once an automotive shop. The building and been a non-denominational church since February 2013.

‘We rebuild,’ Lee said. ‘We do not stop.’

Deadly Force, in Black and White – ProPublica

Young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts — 21 times greater i, according to a ProPublica analysis of federally collected data on fatal police shootings.

The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police.

Our examination involved detailed accounts of more than 12,000 police homicides stretching from 1980 to 2012 contained in the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report.

News

Report: Chuck Hagel Clashed With Susan Rice Before He Was Fired

Outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reportedly had a disagreement with Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice before he was removed by President Obama this week. The New York Times reports Hagel had “a dispute” with Rice over Obama’s policy on Syria.

Hagel remained skeptical of the Obama administration’s actions in Syria. Last month, he sent a two page memo detailing his concerns about the policy. According to the Times, Hagel pointed out that Obama’s policy was “in danger of unraveling” because it didn’t clarify its position toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Other analysts confirmed the Times report.

“He had a crappy relationship with Susan Rice,” Steve Clemons, the founder of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation tells NBC News.

New Snowden Docs Show GCHQ Paid Telcos For Cable Taps

According to a report in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

A new release of documents made available by Edward Snowden. The documents show British intelligence agency GCHQ had a deep partnership with telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (acquired later by Vodafone). The company allowed GCHQ to tap submarine cables around the world, and was paid millions of British pounds as compensation. The relationship was so extensive that a GCHQ employee was assigned to work full time at Cable & Wireless (referred to by the code name “Gerontic” in NSA documents) to manage cable-tap projects in February of 2009. By July of 2009, Cable & Wireless provided access to 29 out of the 63 cables on the list, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the data capacity available to surveillance programs. … As of July of 2009, relationships with three telecom companies provided access to 592 10-gigabit-per-second pipes on the cables collectively and 69 10-gbps “egress” pipes through which data could be pulled back. The July 2009 documents included a shopping list for additional cable access—GCHQ sought to more than triple its reach, upping access to 1,693 10-gigabit connections and increasing egress capacity to 390. The documents revealed a much shorter list of “cables we do not currently have good access [to].”

High Note

Marijuana stores offer high holidays with $1 joints | Stuff.co.nz

Cannabis sellers are gearing up for their first holiday season since recreational marijuana was legalised in the US state of Colorado.

At Grass Station, a shop in Denver that sells US$7 (NZ$9) joints, US$21 (NZ$27) chocolate bars and even a US$11 (NZ$14) lip balm, the goal is to get the same kind of post-Thanksgiving sales bump as department stores or clothing chains. Some pot sellers have even renamed the traditional Black Friday shopping day “Green Friday”.

“We have really high expectations,” said Grass Station owner Ryan Fox.

“Now we’ve got the legal means for people to give marijuana as a gift, and that’s never really been something that was feasible in the past.”

The shop expects a line at the door at 8am on November 28, the day after Thanksgiving, as tokers try to get their fingers on rationed specials. Sixteen customers will get an ounce of marijuana for US$50 (NZ$64) that generally sells for five times that amount. Sixty joints will go for US$1 each. The price for a US$30 (NZ$39) vape-pen cartridge will be cut in half.