Special operations contractors deploy to St. Louis area
20 Aug 2014 [We] spoke to a staff member with Asymmetric Solutions this afternoon who made the following statement: “It’s sad to see what’s happening to a great city. Our duty was very simple. We provide bodyguard service all over the country and overseas. A private citizen came to us that was concerned for their safety traveling to the area…” — Jack, Staff Member, Asymmetric Solutions…Asymmetric Solutions has posted three additional tweets in an attempt to clarify their mission in the St. Louis, Missouri area while remaining coy about the client identity. The operation is for “escort detail augment for individual”.
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11053546/Barack-Obama-orders-probe-of-police-use-of-military-hardware.html" target="_blank">Barack Obama orders probe of police use of military hardware [Yeah, but knowing Obama, he’ll keep every last ounce of it.]
24 Aug 2014 President Barack Obama has ordered an investigation into whether it is “appropriate” for the US military to sell battle-grade hardware to local police. The order follows widespread criticism of local authorities’ use of military gear in Ferguson, Missouri after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer. Police there met protests with a massive show force – body armor-clad officers perched on armored trucks toting stun grenades and assault rifles – thanks to their access to such US military hardware.
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/white-house-officials-will-attend-michael-brown-funeral-n187676" target="_blank">White House Officials Will Attend Michael Brown Funeral
23 Aug 2014 Three White House officials will attend Michael Brown’s funeral Monday on behalf of the Obama administration, a White House official told NBC News. Assistant to the President and White House Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Marlon Marshall and Heather Foster, an advisor to the public engagement office will be at the ceremony for the unarmed teenager who was shot dead by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer on Aug. 9.
The World Socialist Website grossly misses on race and class: Class, race and the police killing in Ferguson, Missouri
21 Aug 2014 [I]n his [Jabbar’s] emphasis on the centrality of class, not race, as the basic social division–in Ferguson and in the country as a whole–he is entirely correct.
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/22/ferguson-s-shameful-legal-shakedown-three-warrants-a-year-per-household.html" target="_blank">Ferguson Feeds Off the Poor: Three Warrants a Year Per Household
22 Aug 2014 Three times a month–one day and two nights–the City Council chamber also serves as home to the incredibly busy and extremely profitable Ferguson [Missouri] municipal court. A report issued just last week by the nonprofit lawyer’s group ArchCity Defenders notes that in the court’s 36 three-hour sessions in 2013, it handled 12,108 cases and 24,532 warrants. That is an average of 1.5 cases and three warrants per Ferguson household. Fines and court fees for the year in this city of just 21,000 people totaled 2,635,400.
Lest we forget: Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops
8 Sep 2000 A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test…The U.S. District Court found that New London had “shown a rational basis for the policy.” In a ruling dated Aug. 23, the 2nd Circuit agreed.