What a difference a day makes!
The protests last night in Ferguson, MO were of a much different tone - because the police that were present actually joined with the people of the community, marching with them, listening to them.
In the photo above, the uniformed man marching next to a woman carrying a sign is Captain Ron Johnson, the head of the Missouri State Troopers, now charged with heading up the law enforcement effort in Ferguson. The day began with more of what the people were asking for: the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown: Darren Wilson.
Apparently Officer Wilson has been with the department for six years, with no disciplinary record. Unfortunately, the other thing they did at the presser in which Wilson's name was divulged was to blame the victim.
Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson then distributed a 19-page incident report about a "strong arm robbery" that happened moments before Brown was killed, in which Brown is alleged to have stolen some cigars from a convenience store.
The report was accompanied by this page of still photos from the convenience store surveillance video, identifying someone alleged to be Michael Brown, as tweeted by Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly
Stills from camera pic.twitter.com/FEcmKc3oGr — Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 15, 2014
Even if Michael Brown did commit a robbery, that's no justification for a police officer to shoot him dead.
Bottom line: cops are supposed to use deadly force only when lives are at risk. You don't shoot robbery suspects. #Ferguson
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) August 15, 2014
Stay tuned... and let's hope the calm holds tonight...
Today on the show
It's always great to hear from Greg Palast, but especially great to hear him so fired up not long after he had quadruple bypass surgery!
As he's been doing for a while now, he's got his sites set on Paul "the vulture" singer, a truly evil hedge fund billionaire/crook who brought down the nation of Argentina! Follow the link and read the story, and listen to our conversation on today's show. Learn more by reading Greg's New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the must-read story about Singer's criminal activities that reads like a crime novel, Vultures’ Picnic.
Flashback Friday
We end each week with a blast from my music radio past. Today, we ventured back to June 19, 2000 for a session with Shivaree, a great band fronted by Ambrosia Parsley- years before she sang the news on Air America Radio's Unfiltered with Rachel Maddow and Lizz Winstead.
And from July 20, 1999, my conversation with -and performance by Chrissie Hynde and Adam Seymour of Pretenders.
And with that, it's the weekend. We'll be back Monday with Howie Klein and another installment of The Steve Israel Hour, sponsored by Little Debbie. Plus Nicole Belle returns to talk about the end of the David Gregory era at Meet The Press.
Keep the peace... radio or not!
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