Ferguson Picks Up Speed

You might be hard pressed to find a table where the word ‘Ferguson’ wasn’t uttered at least once over carved turkey, and pumpkin pie.

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Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, was similarly appropriated under the banner ‘Black Lives Matter Friday.’ Malls were shut down. The arrests continue to pile up. For now, the burgeoning social justice movement appears to be gathering steam.

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With just over a week before TIME names its person of the year, the Ferguson protesters have surged ahead to first place in the magazine’s symbolic annual reader’s poll.

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Slipping to second place is India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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The tallies were aggregated from votes on Twitter, Facebook and TIME.com’s voting hub.

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The magazine has always stressed that it’s not an endorsement, but rather an acknowledgement of the world as it is.

  RT

And FYI:

[Ferguson police officer Darren] Wilson will not receive a severance package as a result of his resignation, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said.

  RT

He’s already been off work with pay for nearly four months.

Wilson says he is resigning because it would be too hard on his fellow officers for him to stay on the force. Well, tht may be true, but practically speaking, he surely realizes, as the rest of us do, that there is no way he could go back to police work, unless maybe behind a desk.

A separate civil rights investigation into Brown’s shooting is being conducted by the US Justice Department. Police department practices are also being examined.

Meanwhile…

At least 10 activists, including one teenager, were arrested overnight in Portland, Oregon, amid on-going protests against a grand jury decision not to indict a white police officer for killing an unarmed black teen.

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According to the police, a larger group of people “was briefly detained” during the demonstration, but then they were “released and told to leave the area.”

Earlier, social media users shared a video in which police officials use flash bangs, a device designed to stun its target with a blinding flash of light and intense noise. Also Twitter users said police reportedly used rubber bullets to disperse the activists.

  RT

Police departments the world over are probably cursing the St. Louis prosecutor, Bob McCullough, and the grand jury.

But now…for a little emo…

On Tuesday a 12-year old African-American boy Devonte Hart was standing in Portland downtown holding signs "You Matter" and "Free Hugs." He was trembling, tears were rolling down his cheeks, his mother told the local media.

Police Sgt. Bret Barnum who was standing a few meters away from the boy, noticed that the teen was crying and came to him. A father of two teenage sons, the officer saw the sign “Free Hugs” and asked Devonte if he might get a hug as well.

nx

And one more thing....

Isn't that like admitting he's guilty.  Otherwise, how could they deny him his pension or other benefits an officer might get when he resigns from the force?

Plus, today:  St. Louis Rams enter the stadium hands up.  Kudos.