Pirate's Cove

Briefly briefed

(The Hill) President Obama was briefed by top administration officials Wednesday night as protests over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager turned violent in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

Then, party time!

President Barack Obama attended a birthday celebration for Ann Jordan at the Farm Neck Golf Club in Martha’s Vinyard on Wednesday night where, as the official press briefing puts it, the Obamas “danced nearly every song” and “a good time was had by all.”

The president was slammed by his critics for attending the lavish party as unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, seemingly neared a boiling point as police and protesters clashed for the fourth night in a row following the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

There’s actually a press release from Team O regarding the party. People were not impressed

Im disgusted RT @PhillyTheBoss: Bush flew over New Orleans post-Katrina… Obama dancing through Ferguson.

— CURE (@CureHipHop) August 14, 2014

https://twitter.com/BenEagles/statuses/499766673713688576

Lest you think this is just some Glenn Beck The Blaze Outrage, neither the Huffington Post nor Vox were impressed by Obama partying.

Meanwhile, several reporters were arrested in Ferguson, in what looks to be an abuse of power by the Ferguson police. Salon’s usually unhinged Joan Walsh makes an interesting point

The news and images from the conflict between a stunningly militarized police force and peaceful community protesters in Ferguson, Mo. were horrifying Wednesday night, even before reporters from the Washington Post and Huffington Post were arrested, and MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee was tear gassed and terrorized.

Let’s be clear: Michael Brown’s killing remains the horror here, but the cops’ continued brutality, against peaceful protesters and reporters, has been appalling. Every news anchor should broadcast from Ferguson on Thursday. (snip)

But (Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund) also made the important point that the militarization of the Ferguson police is something entirely new and enormously disturbing. The images Wednesday night should wake all of us up to the alarming militarization of local cops all over the country. How did a local police department get tanks and trucks and body armor that look like it all was designed for the streets of Baghdad and not a little city outside St. Louis?

Good questions. Here’s where Joan runs off the rails a bit

Michael Brown’s killing was awful enough, but the Ferguson police department’s crude and brutal crackdown on protest reminds us that the so-called war on terror is now terrorizing innocent people — in this country too.

I do have to ask, what are the police supposed to do when citizens are in the streets rioting, stealing, vandalizing, breaking into stores, throwing Molotov cocktails, etc? One of my favorite liberal blogs, The Maha Blog, asks a good question

As Walsh says, political leadership seems entirely absent, and the out-of-control cops are arresting reporters guilty of charging up their laptops at a McDonald’s. Yep, this should wake all of us up. Probably won’t, though.

While the police certainly have a duty to respond, and wear protective garments, it is very concerning that so many police forces have so much military grade materials, weapons, and vehicles. To paraphrase what I wrote in her comments, this is not a Left or Right issue, it is something we should all be concerned with. But, will anything come of that concern? What was the end result of the Snowden releases regarding domestic spying? Has anything actually been fixed?

https://twitter.com/muppet151/statuses/499743566256553985

More at Twitchy.

More: this post is obviously a mishmash of several topics, one, of course, being the ever expanding militarization of law enforcement. Noah Rothman notes

No one should suggest the police’s response to civil unrest in Ferguson is an excuse for more turbulence, though some will. Those who want this situation to escalate and become an issue around the country now have their rallying cry. The officers who engaged in this heavy handed and apparently unprovoked attack on the press are responsible for that condition.

This piggy-backed on Mary Katherine Hamm’s post, which wraps up with

We ask more of police in a free society than creating militarized zones out of tough situations. This requires more bravery, more risk, more patience than being a cop in a society where cops can do what they like when they like with impunity. As a result, many Americans have great respect, sometimes reverence, for law enforcement. But when an official response, even to a tough situation, looks like martial law with federally issued no-fly zones, the state isn’t honoring its part of agreement in a free society. We should be willing to demand that they do, even in the face of immense danger. The deep respect many Americans hold for law enforcement should be a function of a free society asking more from those men and women and getting it, not a reason to excuse them when they give us far less.

Make sure to read the full post.

There was also a post at the Democratic Underground, with an accompanying picture, entitled “This is what a police state looks like, folks“. I’m pretty sure we are not at the point of it being a police state, and many DUers agree that we aren’t there. But, we are heading there. Let me point something out: this is exactly what Conservatives have railed against, the ever-growing power of Government, where the people are scared of the government. Where the government does this type of thing. When they are no longer there to serve The People. Perhaps liberals should look deep in themselves, and hearken back to the 60’s and 70’s, when they were against Governmental Power.

Then there’s this one, with this photo

There’s no dilemma, because we aren’t supporting them either way. They aren’t our brave boys in the streets. We certainly believe that government has a role, and stopping riots is certainly one of them. The abuses and over-militarization is not what we support.