They want you angry, they want you very angry.  It’s emotion that drives the collective; it’s emotion that drives the mob; it’s emotion that drives democracy to totalitarianism.

There’s a reason the founding fathers of the U.S. Republic promised a “republican form of government“, a constitutional republic and not a democracy.
A Republic is ruled by principles of law, and as a consequence it is a representative process of considerable debate and deliberative conversation.
A Democracy is ruled by majority, by emotion.  Debate is not considered – the arguments are short and quick – the rules quickly assembled without lengthy forethought toward consequence.  (If that sounds like ObamaCare, it’s not coincidental) (more…)

No doubt the professionally aggrieved will use this decision as another opportunity for more shouting, looting and riots.  Yes, here we go again. 

People concerned about Eric Garner should remember it could just as easily have been caused by an illegal Big Gulp. You vote for this stuff.

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) December 3, 2014

The biggest problem in the Garner case was the media’s incessant focus on a supposed “choke hold”.  The video clearly shows the very large uncooperative male would not comply with instructions.  The police officer held few options, and the choke hold itself lasted only a few seconds.  Also, FWIW the “chokehold” is not illegal, just against policy. The media invested so much of their effort on the choke hold they are shocked at the outcome. 
(Huffington Post) – A grand jury voted Wednesday not to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, multiple sources confirm.

Pantaleo put 47-year-old Garner into a chokehold during an arrest for selling untaxed cigarettes on July 17. In a viral video of the arrest, Garner can be seen screaming “I can’t breathe!” multiple times until his body goes limp. A medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide. (more…)

[A]ccording to FergusonAction.com, among the activists who met with the president were: Ashley Yates, Millennial Activists United; Rasheen Aldridge, Young Activists St. Louis; Brittany Packnett, St. Louis educator and activist; T-Dubb-O, St. Louis hip-hop artist; James Hayes, Ohio Students Association; Phillip Agnew, Dream Defenders; Jose Lopez, Make the Road New York. Some of their statements include: (more…)

I didn’t see the press conference, was McSpadden and Louis Head there to chant “burn this bitch down” again?
SAINT LOUIS – MSNBC host Al Sharpton slammed Wednesday the prosecution’s handling of the grand jury. “I’ve never seen a prosecutor hold a press conference to discredit the victim,” he said during a Brown family press conference.

Sharpton described the prosecution’s decision to release the grand jury’s decision at 8 pm as “irresponsible” and “provocative.”
He also said that he and other civil rights leaders have called an emergency meeting in Washington, D.C. next week to discuss boycotts, marches and demonstrations.
Sharpton likened the follow-up to the case to Rodney King.
“Before you think this is over, remember what happened in Rodney King,” he said, vowing not to give up in the face of a defeat in the legal system.  (read more)

From within some of the 40,000 pages of recently released Fast and Furious documents to Judicial Watch as a result of their lawsuit of the DOJ.

(Sharyl Attkisson)  Lesson in how the administration attempts to manipulate the press and news coverage: Fast and Furious email to Attorney General Eric Holder from a communications adviser, Oct. 5, 2011 [emphasis added below]. (President Obama withheld this email under executive privilege but it was recently released as a result of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the Justice Department).

p. 733
Matthew Miller to Attorney General Holder:

1. Send a letter to the Hill explaining what happened. Put in context the amount of information you get every week, say that you don’t recall reading those bullets or being aware of Fast and Furious at any time before early this year, but in any event, you certainly weren’t aware of the gun walking aspect of it until the news broke earlier this year (at which point you took immediate steps to have the IG investigate, etc.). This needs to happen tomorrow. In fact, it should’ve happened today. The last time your credibility was directly questioned was whether you had disclosed all of your amicus briefs — the story started to break on a Thursday night, and we made people stay up all night compiling information so we could get a response out by 1 pm or so on Friday. (more…)

(Via House Oversight Committee) Last night, in response to an Order from a Federal judge, the Department of Justice turned over 64,280 pages of documents that were withheld from Congress after President Obama asserted Executive Privilege on the eve of a contempt citation for Attorney General Eric Holder in June 2012.

The sheer volume of last night’s document production—which consists entirely of documents that the Justice Department itself acknowledges are not covered by Executive Privilege—shows that the President and the Attorney General attempted to extend the scope of the Executive Privilege well beyond its historical boundaries to avoid disclosing documents that embarrass or otherwise implicate senior Obama Administration officials.
In effect, last night’s production is an admission that the Justice Department never had legitimate grounds to withhold these documents in the first place. Approximately two-thirds of the universe of documents that the Justice Department withheld from Congress has now been shown to be well outside the scope of Executive Privilege. (more…)

Two days ago Attorney General Eric Holder protested leaks from within the investigation of Ferguson; he said “they need to shut up“.  {{*nudge, nudge, wink, wink*}}
Following Holder’s protestations, less than a few hours passed before Trymaine Lee was the recipient of more DOJ leaks saying the DOJ intended to “shake up” the Ferguson Police Department.
This ‘do-as-we-say’ approach follows the New York Times outlining DOJ leaks showcasing a non-existent case, and aligned with CNN outlining more DOJ leaks claiming the intention of Eric Holder to deconstruct the entire Police Department.

Of course all of this conflicting DOJ-led reporting is annoying for the police chief, mayor, city council and government officials in and around Ferguson Missouri, and prosecutors in Saint Louis who have retained security of the evidence and have NOT been leaking information to the media.
As Police Chief Thomas Jackson told CNN yesterday, Eric Holder -or any representative acting on his behalf- has not talked to a single person in government of Ferguson, nor conducted a single interview.  Quite the opposite, neither he, the major, city council, nor anyone from any agency have talked to these mysterious federal officials that Eric Holder is now claiming are making decisions about what is to take place. (more…)

Judicial Watch has just CRUSHED mainstream journalists. Here’s the backstory and link to the full FOIA outcome:

(Judicial Watch) […] On June 28, 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt by the House of Representatives over his refusal to turn over records explaining why the Obama administration may have lied to Congress and refused for months to disclose the truth about the gun running operation. It marked the first time in U.S. history that a sitting Attorney General was held in contempt of Congress.

A week before the contempt finding, to protect Holder from criminal prosecution and stave off the contempt vote, President Obama asserted executive privilege over the Fast and Furious records the House Oversight Committee had subpoenaed eight months earlier. Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request two days later. Holder’s Justice Department wouldn’t budge (or follow the law), so JW filed a FOIA lawsuit on September 12, 2012.
But then the Justice Department convinced U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates to stay our lawsuit, in part to allow ongoing settlement discussions between the Holder’s government lawyers and the House Committee to continue. Unsurprisingly, the “negotiations” between politicians running the House and the Justice Department went nowhere. (more…)

It’s understandable the family of Mike Brown doesn’t fully digest who and why information is leaking to the media from inside the “federal” investigation.  The CRS is working on an exit strategy – to the family, the prior DOJ alignment is a challenging reconciliation against the backdrop of the DOJ/CRS walk-back. 
This perspective is confirmed today by the former Police Chief:

FERGUSON, Mo. (KMOX) – Information about the Michael Brown fatal police shooting is starting to leak out, and former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch says it’s no accident the feds are allowing the information.

A New York Times article indicates, according to federal investigators, there was a struggle that led up to the fatal police shooting of Brown.

Fitch calls the information from the investigation coming out as phase two – to “coordinate leaks to the media, and to start getting some of the facts out there to kind of let people down slowly,” he says. “When I say this is phase two – phase one was really Eric Holder’s announcement how they were going to basically do a complete review and take over the Ferguson Police Department.” (more…)

As part of the store’s grand opening, it was giving away free hair extensions valued between $55 and $100. Shoppers started lining up Friday morning and by 8:30 a.m. there were several dozens of people in line. Pushing and shoving occurred and a pregnant woman was pushed down.

In surveillance video, Orlando police is spotted trying to get the crowd to back up and when they wouldn’t back up, at least two officers started to use pepper spray on the crowd.
Several shoppers tell Local 6 they believe the police overreacted. The Department defended the officer’s actions.
“The officers attempted to gain control of the crowd and restore order however they were unsuccessful, therefore they sprayed over the heads of the crowd to gain control,” a department spokesperson said in an email to Local 6.
The video shows one officer spraying at eye level. There were no injuries.