Dear Joe,
No, this is not a Dear John letter. I'd break up with you if I could. But I do not hang out with racist Republicans in fact-free fantasyland in the first place.
So you "can't take it any more," the "BS being spewed all over". Yes, you have it really tough there, Joe. No cop is likely to pull you over and shoot you for who-knows-what. Your white privilege is showing, you whiner. Can't you grasp that those who really "can't take it any more" are the people who "look suspicious" whether they park a car, or stay in their car, or get out of their car and reach for ID when asked, or walk along the sidewalk, or walk with their hands in their pockets, or walk carrying money for the parking meter, or walk carrying a toy gun, or ride a bicycle, or ride a bus, or stand around talking, or sit around waiting for their children, or exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of peaceable assembly? Any of these behaviors could get them hassled or shot by overzealous cops.
But no, it's all about you and how people are saying things you don't like, Joe. So sad, your life is. You have such a burden that we ask you to bear.
Screen shot of Morning Joe during Ferguson rant
Time for some fact checking and logical analysis, Joe. Join me below the orange cloud of racism that blinds you to the truth.
Joe, I transcribed what you said on Monday:
There are so many great people to embrace as heroes in the black community that deciding you're going to embrace a guy that knocked over a convenience store and then, according to grand jury testimony, acted in ways that would get my children shot on Staten Island or in Queens or in Brooklyn; that's your hero?
Michael Brown in happier times
It's not about embracing Michael Brown as a hero, Joe, but neither are we willing to accept whitesplaining this 18-year-old young man (about to enter college) as a villain. While it may seem likely that there was petty theft at the market, after hearing
Dorian Johnson's testimony, it is also possible that there was a prank being pulled on Dorian, as he speculated. Maybe Michael occasionally took small items and paid for them later when he had money with him, and the rest was acting. We will never know, because he was killed before he could ever be charged with a crime and brought to trial. Not that he necessarily would have been charged with a crime. Remember, the
store owner had no interest in pursuing Michael for this incident. In any event, what happened after the young men left the market is certainly open to question, as detailed below.
...if my child or your child knocked over a convenience store and then went down the middle of the street shouting profanities at a police officer... and then went into the car and started punching the police officer and grabbing for his gun, he would probably be shot in the car....
This is the core of what Ferguson is about, Joe: That problematic IF. Repetition of Darren Wilson's nonsensical version of events is not going to make it any more true.
It is not believable that anyone would just dive into a police officer's car and start attacking him. Why would anyone take a chance like that, just because he wanted to walk in the road? Testimony from eyewitnesses such as Dorian Johnson and Tiffany Mitchell is much more believable: That Wilson yelled at the two young men to get on the sidewalk and, when they ignored him, he was furious. Thus he backed up to the young men and then grabbed Michael and pulled him toward the car. It makes much more sense that as Michael Brown was being pulled at by Wilson, he would likely flail his arms around trying to escape, which might have been when Wilson was hit slightly. IF he was hit.
Photographic "evidence" presented to the grand jury
The
photos of Darren Wilson's "injuries" taken in August showed not much more than reddish skin. Months later on
George Stephanopoulos' show (hereafter George S), even beneath the makeup, you can still see that Wilson has a ruddy complexion. Those photos certainly are not consistent with being punched so hard that Wilson was afraid he was going to be knocked out, as he claimed to George S. They might be consistent with a flailing slap, but Wilson's face is neither noticeably swollen nor significantly bruised. The photos look like Wilson scraped himself shaving. We are not impressed.
This is about nonsense in Wilson's testimony: In grand jury testimony, and again to George S, Darren Wilson claims that he felt "like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan" when he grabbed Michael Brown's arm. I find this jarringly absurd, speaking from personal experience: I have often dated muscular men taller and heavier than me. Many women do. And not once have I felt "like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan," nor have I heard other women expressing similar sentiment. Darren Wilson tells George S that he is six feet four inches and weighs about 215 pounds, the same height as Michael Brown and perhaps 75 pounds lighter. What kind of nutcase coward thinks of himself as so tiny and helpless next to someone of the same height and gender? He's either literally psychotic, out of touch with reality; a complete coward; and/or lying in a pathetic attempt to make a case for self defense. I don't see any other possibilities to explain his statements.
Ferguson and other events like it are about cops executing citizens for minor infractions. Even IF all of your rantings were true, Joe. Even IF Wilson's testimony was true. I don't believe him for a minute, but IF. Then these are petty crimes in the United States, for which one never legally would face the death penalty. Wilson was not hired to be judge, jury, and executioner. Once Michael Brown pulled away from him at the car, what gave Wilson the right to shoot at him while he fled? In a residential neighborhood, that was irresponsible. Backup was on the way. Why not chase him, on foot or with his vehicle, to keep him in sight until help arrives, when he could be properly subdued by nonlethal force?
Find a jurisdiction in America where a guy... rushes in and he starts punching a cop, he runs away, and then he charges back at, find a grand jury in America that would convict that cop... of shooting... it would not happen.
We also do not believe for a minute that Michael Brown turned around and charged into a hail of bullets.
Only Darren Wilson and one close witness agreed that this happened. That
corroborating witness has since been
revealed to be a racist. Several witnesses consistently said that Michael had his hands up and perhaps stumbled forward a bit. When Michael turned around, hadn't Wilson shot enough bullets in him to keep him from moving forward at any high rate of speed before he shot the final, fatal two
shots into the head? What risk to life or safety did Michael Brown pose to anyone after being shot four times? Wilson could have just backed up or moved to the side or something. Michael was going to fall over in a minute. Again, even under the worst-case scenario, Wilson had no authority to execute the death penalty.
Ferguson and other injustices are also about the media dismissing our real concerns, Joe. You know where I learned about much of the facts of this case? From your MSNBC colleague, Lawrence O'Donnell. Although to refer to you as "colleagues" may be too much credit to you and an insult to him. But you are on the same network, Joe. I watched him on YouTube. Couldn't you and/or your staff just stroll on down the hall and talk to him and/or his staff, and thus straightened yourselves out on the facts? That you care more about right-wing talking points than finding out the facts when black people are killed strongly suggests that at heart you are a racist, Joe. You should be ashamed to present such nutty nonsense as if it were fact.
I don't want to discuss the criminal justice system, I agree it's unfair.
Well great Joe, but that's what people are really protesting about. Of course Michael Brown's family and community are upset about what happened to him. But they're also upset about what happened to
John Crawford and
Tamir Rice and
Eric Garner and so many others. And upset about the Ferguson cops in August attacking with tanks and automatic rifles and teargas as if this was al-Qaeda, not
American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. And upset about how many times cops use
force that is extremely excessive relative to the necessity of the situation. And upset about how there are always excuses when
charges aren't filed ("it's very hard to tell the difference" between a toy gun and a real gun).
This is about grand juries finally responding in a way that protects public safety: "Yes, there is enough evidence of wrongdoing and there are enough questions about what really happened that this should go to trial for a public airing of the facts". The secret grand jury is not supposed to decide the entire case, Joe. Prosecutors and cops are not supposed to protect crooked, bad-tempered, racist, reckless, and/or stupid cops, Joe. That leaves us all exposed. We do not want to give cops the right to be judge, jury, and executioner rolled into one. You don't want to talk about the unfair criminal justice system? It's all about the unfair criminal justice system, Joe. Why is that the part you don't want to discuss?
At least get your signs right. If this movement is important enough to you, don't base your movement on a lie.
The people know exactly what the signs are, Joe. You're the one basing your comments on a lie: The
farce that was the Ferguson grand jury, as if anything was decided there. Between unfairly discrediting the prosecution's own witnesses, presenting a strong defense case, failing to cross examine Wilson and his ilk, and presenting the law on shooting a fleeing suspect wrongly to the grand jury to lead them in the direction of acquittal, accepting that farce is tantamount to a lie, Joe. The grand jury, the way it was led by these prosecutors, settled nothing.
A competent prosecutor during a trial could have hammered Darren Wilson, if he had the motivation to actually prosecute him. Wilson's testimony to the grand jury was a self-serving softball because the prosecutors clearly did not want to nor try to prosecute the case.
As for the protests by the Rams players and others? Well, that's the subject of another diary.
Look, Joe, if the chanting in the streets hurts your delicate ears, then please, just apologize and then leave. We are not going to stop until we have nationwide laws to appoint special prosecutors when police are charged with crimes, enforce the use of dash cams and body cams, reexamine use of force policies, ban teargas, outlaw the rehiring of police who have been fired for cause, and elect citizen review boards with enforcement powers. We want our country to take positive strides toward valuing the lives of all human beings, including persons of color and persons in poverty. Go to Faux News, Joe, where the bumbling bobbleheads of both sexes blather obliviously in their bubble. You'll fit right in. Mika can carry the show. MSNBC will be one step closer to a real news channel.
Meanwhile, Joe, stay out of Mika's face. She should not be restricted to providing rapt attention to your everyday drivel of ridiculous rantings. It's not like you're intelligent or informed or anything.
Special thanks to JoanMar for providing me with the lead to Monday's Morning Joe.