Here's what TV news offers. KPIX in San Francisco last night aired part of a Ferguson-area report saying that the police acted only after rocks were thrown at them, then spent 15 seconds reporting simply that the arrested reporters became part of the story when the were arrested with no further background.

I sent this email to every member of the Seattle City Council. Please feel free to copy and paste or write your own similar letter:

In light of the recent tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, I am calling on you to draft and introduce legislation to remove all military grade weaponry from the Seattle Police Department.
Automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers, tanks, etc. are of no use in effective community policing. They're designed for warfare, nothing else. Their availability to the police sends a message to both the police and the community that the citizenry is to be viewed as an enemy to be defeated. This serves neither the community nor the police, and creates division and distrust. Deployment of these weapons by local police forces is always for the purpose of suppressing dissent, and their use constitutes a violation of every citizens constitutional rights.

Thank you,
(Name redacted)

Fulton is a majority black city where the mayor, city council, and police leadership are all white. Protest, demand action, sign petitions all you want, but the citizens of Fulton have to organize politically and hold every publicly elected official accountable. That it the only action that will bring change.

Unless the Department of Justice gets off it's ass and starts charging the leadership with violations of Federal civil rights laws that is.

It's shitty that the original story of a guy being shot while unarmed is being overshadowed by a bunch of people acting in a way that reinforces stereotypes that they are trying to avoid and that their actions will be used to justify the need for such equipment and tactics. Quite a cluster all the way around.

@6 how are they "acting in a way that reinforces racial stereotypes"? Marching & chanting while holding signs is a racial stereotype? The reported "looting & violence" reported by police? The same police that gassed a television film crew & then dismantled the crews equipment & arrested/detained other reporters? I see reports of violence from police but very little evidence to support that claim & in fact a lot of video & account of over-aggressive & escalating behavior by the police force.

@8 who said anything about race?

@ 8 also there are plenty of amateur videos on YouTube that really cant be spun into anything other than what they are. A bunch of people who couldn't care any less about that poor kid that are using a horrible act to justify their shitty actions which will then be used as justification by the police for their heavy handed tactics. Please explain how looting a shie stire is going to do anything to bring about justice?

@ 8 also there are plenty of amateur videos on YouTube that really cant be spun into anything other than what they are. A bunch of people who couldn't care any less about that poor kid that are using a horrible act to justify their shitty actions which will then be used as justification by the police for their heavy handed tactics. Please explain how looting a shoe stire is going to do anything to bring about justice?

If not race, then what was bring stereotyped in your previous comment? I agree with you that looting a shoe store does nothing to help bring justice to Mike Brown & his family. The point of my comment was that the majority of protestors have not been looting or commiting violence, they were peacefully demonstrating (peacefully, if angrily) against improper use of deadly force & racial discrimination by the police. The police then reacted by threatening further use of deadly force (what else can you call an armored vehicle with gun on a tourret being pointed at unarmed civilians?) & escalating the situation by shooting tear-gas & rubber bullets at unarmed, peaceful demonstrators.

I see the protesters being portrayed as the looters heavily which are two different groups with two different agendas but the same incident, what is looking like murder frankly as the cause, I'm not ok with tear gas and bees nest grenades being thrown on suburban streets by a bunch of dickhead "livin their tacticool dream" county sheriff's in tanks either, But until you can separate the looters( thieves) from this guys friends and people in community with legitimate concern the idea that causing mayhem is cool and somehow just is going to cause a lot of fearful people to side with the police and loose sight of the original issue because of the inability to tell the two apart now.

And I ment protesters being portrayed as lawless banshees with no real legitimate cause just out to steal. Nothing to do with race but I can see how you would have thought it was a race thing. Some of the most vocal critics of this situation are those crazy old white guys in tin hats to be fair.

https://www.facebook.com/events/35875170…

you can also skip the libtard event and come to the one in central district organized by black elders of the seattle community

Pol Pot, I like your letter. I think it should be sent to every state legislator. We need these kinds of military weapons out of our state. And we wonder why more and more people are carrying guns? The scary part is that most police departments look for those who have no problem killing people, many ex-military and then we wonder why they act like this. When I grew up we called these people psychopaths. What a terrible example for our children.