The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

My Official #Ferguson Commentary

Posted on | August 18, 2014 | 94 Comments

Stop watching cable TV news.

If that commentary sounds familiar to regular readers, it’s because that’s what I said about the Trayvon Martin case. The 2012 Florida shooting controversy dominated headlines for weeks and months, and I don’t remember saying anything else about it until there was a verdict in the George Zimmerman trial: Not guilty.

Here’s the thing: Stories like this happen all the time.

People get shot to death on a daily basis in America, and if I was required to express an opinion every time somebody died in a shooting, I’d never have time to comment on anything else. The only reason that the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has become The Biggest Story in History of the Whole Freaking World is that (a) Brown was black, and (b) the cop who shot him was white.

That’s it — the whole story.

Criminal suspects getting shot by cops isn’t really unusual. Brown was unarmed, but the policeman who shot him — identified as Darren Wilson — didn’t know that. There was a robbery, and Brown matched the description of a suspect. I don’t know the details of Brown’s encounter with Officer Wilson, and can’t say why he drew his gun and fired. If you forced me to speculate, I’d guess that Officer Wilson believed Brown might be armed, and that Brown made a sudden move that caused Officer Wilson to believe Brown might be reaching for a gun, at which point Officer Wilson made a split-second decision that turned out to be completely wrong. But that’s just speculation, as is nearly 100% of what idiots have been saying about this story.

It was widely claimed, for example, that Brown was shot in the back. Now, after days of rioting that led the governor of Missouri to call out the National Guard to keep the peace, we are told by the Washington Post that Brown was shot in the front — he was shot six times, which seems excessive, but he wasn’t shot in the back. Also, they say, an autopsy found marijuana in Brown’s system.

But that’s the Washington Post reporting that, and I make it a policy never to believe a damned word the Washington Post prints.

Some people seem to think that just because cable TV news is covering a story wall-to-wall, they are obliged to blog about it.

How many people got shot to death in Chicago this past weekend? I don’t know, but I’m going to guess it’s probably more people than the Ferguson, Missouri, police have shot to death in the past five years. (OK, I just Googled it: 7 dead, 29 wounded in Chicago last weekend, including 16-year-old Shaquise Buckner. For killing black kids, the Ferguson police can’t ever hope to rival Chicago.)

When a story like Michael Brown’s death makes national news, it’s because the media decided there’s some kind of Social Justice angle. Matthew Shepard was a story like that, and it took years for people to admit it wasn’t really about “homophobia.”

Cops shooting unarmed suspects is bad. Looting is bad, too. The media, and certain bloggers, seems to have decided that this case deserves to be tried on cable TV news shows. Because we don’t have courts or anything like that in this country, I guess.

So there’s my Official Commentary: Stop watching cable TV news. But if you find a lesbian feminist angle to this story, let me know.

 

Category: Crime, Media Bias, Missouri, Racism

Comments

94 Responses to “My Official #Ferguson Commentary”

  1. Richard McEnroe
    August 18th, 2014 @ 8:39 pm

    I think Lehmberg is following the story on MSNBC over jello shots (it’s warm down here). That enuf of a connection for you?

  2. Esau's Message
    August 18th, 2014 @ 8:58 pm

    It is my understanding that Jay Nixon and Thomas Jackson are lesbians. Whether they are radfems is unclear.

  3. M. Thompson
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:02 pm

    Pretty much the best method. The best solution is to let it be handled locally.

    And the vultures of the media are part of the issue.

  4. ericdondero
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:02 pm

    Is it just me, or does Michael Brown look like friggin’ Lucifer? Two photos being used of him all over the net, news, and both photos he looks like the devil incarnate.

  5. CPAguy
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:11 pm

    Pretty much. Cops shouldn’t be shooting unarmed people even if the unarmed, dumb, bully is guilty of petty shoplifiting.

    Also, dumb bullies shouldn’t be trying to pick fights with the police over jaywalking.

    The police department handled this terribly and hopefully this will lead to a discussion about demilitarizing local police.

    Let this be a lesson to the youths to not do stupid sh#t because they are not invincible and just because you shouldn’t die over petty issues, doesn’t mean you won’t.

  6. My Official #Ferguson Commentary | That Mr. G Guy's Blog
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:12 pm

    […] My Official #Ferguson Commentary. […]

  7. Mike G.
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:14 pm

    You know, a dash cam or wearable camera would have most likely stopped the controversy from the start.

  8. TelegraphAve
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:24 pm

    It took what people years to admit it wasn’t about homophobia? the detectives involved even discredited the reports about Shepard being a drug dealer involved in a relationship with one his killers. All it takes are accusations for conservatives. Officer Wilson had no idea Brown was a robbery suspect, and according to the pathogist the wounds are consistent with eye witness accounts.

  9. Separated by Perception: Michael Brown and the Media’s Bias | Batshit Crazy News
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:26 pm

    […] TOM’s #Ferguson Advice: Stop watching Cable “News” […]

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:28 pm

    If you have a personnel carrier, you should have a dash and officer cam. They cost less than a nav unit. Hell, all the Russians have them.

  11. Neo
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:29 pm

    “If you forced me to speculate, I’d guess that Officer Wilson believed Brown might be armed …” and both of them hung from his 6 foot 4 frame. He had used them in the store robbery.
    Yes, I’m talking about Brown’s arms.

  12. CPAguy
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:30 pm

    So what should be done?

    If the current “facts” are true the officer was far too aggresive.

    He might should lose his job, but his freedom? That is a tough call and what juries are for.

  13. CPAguy
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:38 pm

    Maybe, but if the final shot was from a couple dozen feet away….

    If the cop was injured by a bullet discharged from his own gun, then he would have a small sliver of a chance to put his actions in context, if not justify them.

    I just don’t see how it is logical that the two were fighting for a gun holstered to the seated cop’s waist. Of course, that is why it is best to wait until the facts come out.

  14. DeadMessenger
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:45 pm

    I didn’t realize that you are an investigator on the case, privy to private investigatory information, that, you know, investigators would collect. If you’re not an investigator on this case, then you don’t really know diddly squat at this point in time, which I believe is one of the points Stacy made.

  15. DeadMessenger
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:46 pm

    Yes, waiting for facts is an appropriate response at this point.

  16. Jay S
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:50 pm

    If it is true that Brown went for the policeman’s gun, that changes things. If it is true that Brown rushed the officer, that changes things. You absolutely CANNOT let an unarmed man rush you when you have a weapon. If he takes it from you, you’re dead. Got it? You just do not let someone take your weapon from you and if there is a precedent for it, you do what you have to do. Particularly when that suspect is aggressive and the size of a house.

    And how do we know the police handled the initial stop terribly? How do we know the police had any other choice but to do what they did? Who the hell are all these people who decide that the police handled something terribly, when the facts aren’t even public? (And, no, you don’t have a right to know everything when you want…wait for the investigation.)

    So stupid — does the average guy even have a clue about what the police deal with every day? Especially in a town like Furgeson, where just about everyone is hostile toward law enforcement? And where just about every “witness” is a freakin’ liar?

    Just so amazed at all the jackassery. If a cop tells you to get out of the street, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE STREET. They ARE the authority when it comes to basic civic shit like this. If you don’t like it, then get the fuck out of the US.

    This isn’t about black and white. Lots of white guys do stupid shit, too, and get shot and killed for it.

    Assholes.

  17. RS
    August 18th, 2014 @ 9:56 pm

    Among all the various media available, it seems these sorts of stories devolve into a feedback loop, with every scrap of hearsay and innuendo being tossed out, just to make sure no one else “reports” it first. Aside from the damage done to the pursuit of truth, this new method of “journalism,” perpetuates the sort of chaos we’re seeing on the streets in Ferguson. Add in your usual assortment of opportunists, both casual like the average looter and professional like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and, voila!, a rather nondescript place in St. Louis County turns into Beirut, ca. 1982.

  18. CPAguy
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:12 pm

    This site attracts a mature (mentally) crowd.

    I think commentors here can distinguish between harmless conjecture and an unfolding and obtuse situation.

  19. Paratisi
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:12 pm

    Well, it made everybody stop talking about Obama’s Office of Human Smuggling & the Infectious Illegal Alien Gang Bangers they’re flying all over the country. #BringBackOurMarine #Benghazi #PJNET

    God Bless America!

  20. David R. Graham
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:16 pm

    Six rounds fired at a presumed harmer from a probably 10 round magazine and a 9mm Luger handgun is not excessive, especially if the presumed harmer is charging the shooter, and especially if the presumed harmer is within or nearly within 21 paces when the shooting commences. That is the distance a knife attacker can cover before a holstered weapon is drawn, aimed and fired. And if the harmer had already pushed the officer and tried to obtain his handgun, officer already had evidence of being under threat of grave bodily harm. No further action on part of harmer needed to establish that. And since 9 MM Luger is a light bullet, especially upon a drugged-up harmer in motion towards one (Rodney King), multiple shots to ensure successful stop of the harmer is utterly reasonable, not at all excessive. My guess: five rounds found parts of the target, most insufficient to stop the harmer (why FBI and PDs carry 40 S&W), but finally able to get him to bend in pain and the sixth round entered the head, now bent over from pain even though the body was still traveling forward. FWIW

  21. Paratisi
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:16 pm

    OK! I’m coming out cause I can’t keep it inside anymore! I’m letting everybody know,… “I’m a Lesbian Trapped In a Man’s Body! Sigh, I feel sooo much better, now that I got that off my Hairy Chest! Thank you.

    God Bless America!

  22. David R. Graham
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:19 pm

    Yes, reference movie Switching Channels.

  23. Mike G.
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:21 pm

    BINGO!

    Isn’t it curious how every. single. time. there is a controversy with the Obama administration, something else comes up?

    Look…Squirrel!

  24. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:23 pm

    “Stories like this happen all the time…”

    Isn’t that an issue? http://www.steynonline.com/6524/cigars-but-not-close

    But there is another issue that people aren’t addressing: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/billcosbypoundcakespeech.htm

    They go hand in hand.

  25. Zohydro
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:24 pm

    I’ve been waiting to see if SCOTUS stays the 4th Circuit Court’s ruling on homosexual “marriage” in Virginia…

  26. RS
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:25 pm

    The thing that caused my antennae to quiver in this story is the fact that the initial stop occurred because the two men were in the middle of the street. One can see from any map view (2900 Block, Canfield Dr., Ferguson MO) there are sidewalks. Why walk in the middle of the street and refuse to get out of the way when a car appears unless one wishes to initiate a confrontation?

    Curious.

  27. maniakmedic
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:28 pm

    According to the 21 Foot Rule, it is possible for somebody to cover that much ground in the time it would take for the other person to draw and put their gun on target with their finger on the trigger. If you look at the autopsy report’s body model with the bullet holes marked, they make a line up his right arm, moving steadily toward center line until the last one that hit hit the top of his head. I can’t say what happened, but as somebody who enjoys the shooting sports, it looks a lot like somebody firing as they are swinging their firearm up from low ready. Which, if it were me, I’d only be doing if I was being rushed.

    I’ll reserve judgement until more comes out, but that’s what I get looking at a few things and running it through what I know about guns and shooting (admittedly I still have much to learn, but I think it’s safe to say I know more than the average joe about guns and self defense and less than an expert; take it for what you will).

  28. robertstacymccain
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:39 pm

    Confirming our longstanding suspicion.

  29. TelegraphAve
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:55 pm

    Six shots, including two head shots at an unarmed man. The officer in question had no idea he was involved in “robbery”. It was shoplifting of a 50 dollar box of cigars which he didn’t even have on him at the time of the stop, which the Ferguson police claim happened 10 minutes before. The police screwed up just like they did in Staten Island. I for once would just like to see cops tear down the blue wall, and assume responsibility for their screwups.

  30. Lawman45
    August 18th, 2014 @ 10:59 pm

    Get your facts right. Officer Wilson DID NOT KNOW that a robbery had occurred or that Brown looked like the suspect.

    He was hassling the 2 boys because they were walking in the roadway. And Black, of course.

  31. WasteNot
    August 18th, 2014 @ 11:10 pm

    We know that, so don’t ever mention it again. Instead, talk about the real issue of a robbery a few minutes previously. Just how jacked up on adrenaline would an 18 year old be after robbing a store, regardless of how little was the value of the property stolen? The issue is not the effect of the robbery on the cop; the issue is the effect of the robbery on the judgment of the kid.

  32. Largebill
    August 18th, 2014 @ 11:38 pm

    It is an ugly truth, but no one is saying anything about the parents of Brown, They want to complain on tv about arms raised “universal sign of surrender”, but no one has asked them why their “child” thought it was appropriate to shove a store owner and why he thought it was appropriate to attack a cop. All the rioting is on them for raising a son who behaved as he did. 99% of us can make it through life without assaulting people. They didn’t bother teaching their son right from wrong just as Trayvon Martin’s parent failed to teach him.

  33. Largebill
    August 18th, 2014 @ 11:43 pm

    I see you’re an expert, but bottom line for the officer is a thug was coming at him after already attacking him. You can wait for him to hit you and possibly take your gun or you can put the threat down. Better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6.

  34. Mernaise
    August 18th, 2014 @ 11:47 pm

    Good to see someone understands shooting and the principles of self defense. You shoot to stop the threat. 124 grains at 1250 fps is minuscule compared to the momentum of 290 lbs. coming at you as some witnesses indicated, and 4 shots were to the arm, 2 to the head, likely the final ones as only those would stop the threat.

    If anything the shot count and placement help the officer; a cold execution would invole aligned sights and controlled trigger manipulation.

    To those saying six shots is categorically excessive, that’s an argument from ignorance.

  35. Proof
    August 18th, 2014 @ 11:53 pm

    “he was shot six times, which seems excessive” The graze on his thumb counts as one of the “shots”. If he was reaching for Officer Wilson’s gun, a bullet could have grazed his thumb and gone on to hit something else.

    If I was a betting man, I’d say that was part of at least a twofer.

  36. Mernaise
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:08 am

    “Unarmed” is a distractor.
    What matters is the threat of death or great bodily harm – whether they’d scuffled over the gun, whether Brown was charging the policeman or not. Those are really the only material facts from the perspective of the homicide case (the robbery is important only insofar as it’s circumstantial evidence of Brown’s mindset and tendencies).

    According to the FBI homicide statistics, approximately twice as many people were killed each year from 2007-2011 (the period I could grab the stats for readily) with fists and feet as were killed using rifles. Especially for a 6’4″, 290 lb man, a weapon is not a strict requirement to cause serious bodily harm or death.

  37. rayward
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:10 am

    (c) The mid-term elections are near and the Dems need to motivate the black vote.

  38. Dr Why
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:20 am

    Plus there’s an election coming up. I recall a shooting that was used to gin up the voters in, oh, it would have been 2012….a little early in the year but it worked well enough

  39. TURN OFF THE TV: Black Harvard lawyer agrees with white conservative journalist that the Mike Brown story is simple | Badger Pundit
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:20 am

    […] and very white, journalist/blogger Stacy McCain (via Instapundit), entitled “My Official #Ferguson Commentary,” in which McCain reports that we call all stop watching the cable TV news, because the […]

  40. Dr Why
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:23 am

    And the way a cop discovers whether a suspect is armed is how? By getting shot? I’m not sure I like the idea that a cop can only shoot after he’s been shot.

  41. yestradamous
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:23 am

    He’s just ranting a little to get it out. We all need to do that every once in a while…..

  42. Stephen Michael Kellat
    August 19th, 2014 @ 12:51 am

    Working on a sermon for Sunday on Romans 12:1-8. What Stacy says about not watching the news is an angle to think about.

  43. Ferox
    August 19th, 2014 @ 1:35 am

    Just a quick and irrelevant digression: I am no handgun expert at all – is the muzzle velocity of that type of handgun really only 1250 fps? I have an air rifle that shoots .177 pellets faster than than.

  44. Wombat_socho
    August 19th, 2014 @ 1:38 am

    ..

  45. Wombat_socho
    August 19th, 2014 @ 1:39 am

    Hm.

  46. K-Bob
    August 19th, 2014 @ 2:02 am

    Looks like even that story is incorrect.

    your rush to judgement is the problem, not the solution.

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    August 19th, 2014 @ 5:00 am

    […] McCain not with­stand­ing what’s hap­pen­ing in Fer­gu­son Mo is national news, not because news, but because of the […]

  48. Why I’m not writing about Ferguson | THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER
    August 19th, 2014 @ 6:58 am

    […] Stacy McCain sums it up very nicely: […]

  49. Quartermaster
    August 19th, 2014 @ 7:30 am

    Many of us guys have already come out.

  50. Quartermaster
    August 19th, 2014 @ 7:37 am

    Stopping power is primarily a function of bullet diameter, not velocity. For example, a 9×19 round’s bullet has half the stopping power of a 0.45 ACP bullet. The Army’s Thompson-LaGrand study of 1905 was carried out in 1905 by the Army because they had withdrawn the Colt SAA in time for the Philippine Insurrection and issued 0.38 revolvers instead. The lack of stopping power was noted in combat and thus the tests.

    They varied everything they could vary and found, overwhelmingly, that bullet diameter determined stopping power in a handgun round. You don’t start seeing velocity effects until you reach the point where hydro-static shock takes place. In handguns you barely see it in a 0.44 mag round. A reasonable self defense round will not exhibit hydro-static shock. You will generally see it only in rifle rounds and even with small caliber bullets, e,g, 5.56mm, it may not be decisive.

    OTOH, dope a man up and you will see tings like a Green Beret friend saw in Vietnam – hits from a 0.50 cal not stopping a man.