By now you may have forgotten his name: Michael Brown -- a new poster child for relentless white racism and relentless violence against black people. His story gripped the country in the second half of 2014 after a white cop gunned him down on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. For No Reason What So Ever.
Near St. Louis. Remember now?
The Riot Week that went on for at least two weeks?
More instructive than the violence is how the reporters covered it. And the other violence that happened around the country at the same time.
You probably remember how reporters all over the country descended on Ferguson for the coronation of St. Mike during Riot Week. And how one after another they condoned, justified, excused and even encouraged the violence, the looting, the gunfire at police, the Molotov cocktails, the shooting at helicopters: The works.
But by the end of the first seven days of Riot Week, The Big Fat Ferguson Lie came undone.
First they told us Michael was a gentle giant. That wasn’t true. He was a thug, high on pot, fresh from a robbery a few minutes before a police officer killed him on the troubled streets of Ferguson, Missouri.
Then they told us his hands were up. Not true.
Then they told us this 18-year old, 6’4, 290-pounder was shot in the back, trying to get away. That’s not true either.
They said he did not attack the cop. Not true.
They told us he was getting ready for school. But the school refused to confirm it.
Then they told us the militarized police caused the days and nights of rioting. Not true. Or the curfew did. Not true. Or the lack of diversity on the police department was to blame. Not true either. Or the way police treated the dead body of the gentle giant. That caused riots too.
They said police had no reason to unleash a cloud of pepper spray and tear gas on the demonstrators. False as well, as dozens of rocks and bottles and bricks and Molotov cocktails and burning storefronts and bullets and bottles full of human excrement testify.
Then they said the protests were peaceful. Not even close to being true.87
This is a long list of things that were supposed to be true one day but were false the next. But by far, the biggest and the fattest lie to come out of Ferguson is the idea repeated from every news channel that somehow black people are victims of relentless violence at the hands of white people – often carrying a badge.
And that is Why Black Rage is Conscious, Justified, and Long Overdue, said one scribe.88 Or, as Spike Lee and others said, there is a war on black people.89
And that explains everything. That is a Big, Fat falsehood.
After the lies broke down, the protestors and reporters seamlessly shifted to others: The demonstration was not just about Michael Brown, but about the way the criminal justice system is unfair to black people: The only reason black people are in prison in numbers three to four times greater than their percentage in the population is because of white racism that leads to over-policing in black neighborhoods.
That sentiment is easy enough to find on MSNBC and all the major black news sites. Congressman John Conyers of Detroit said the same thing during a committee meeting. “With enough time and officers in a certain location, it is only a matter of time before they find reasonable suspicion to stop, detain and arrest someone -- or many people.”90
This is a linchpin of Critical Race Theory: White racism is permanent. White racism is everywhere. White Racism explains everything. Only it’s not just a theory any more: Today it is reality in schools, churches, homes, black web sites, black journalism groups and streets and classrooms and parks.
Rush Limbaugh said Ferguson was unique. Not really: It is more like recent cases of large-scale black mob violence than different. Ferguson fits easily into the continuum of black mob violence documented here.
Not sure we even have to go back into Ferguson since it received so much attention.
But here is what is interesting -- and overlooked: As the eyes of the world were fixed on Ferguson, lots and lots of racial violence went under the radar during the same time -- all over the country. Let’s look at a smattering:
During the same time reporters turned Ferguson into the most hyper-racial place on earth, a man of unidentified race was attacked in Ferguson and sent to the hospital by a mob of an unidentified race.
Unidentified at first anyway. Then we learned the victim was white. And the perpetrators were black.91 And that was the last anyone heard of it.
Don’t confuse this attack with the four black people who hit a Home Depot vendor on the head with a hammer. On video. In Ferguson. The summer before.92Or the folks who hit the Bosnian immigrant with a hammer a few weeks later.
Outside of Ferguson, the rest of the country was reeling as well. Though no one noticed enough to connect the dots:
In Detroit, police shot a man who tried to run them over after they saw him trying to buy a gun. A crowd of black people attacked police.93They said the victim was a good boy. He did not have a gun. He had his hands up, down, sideways. And the cops killed him for no reason.
Lies. Just like Ferguson.
There is so much of this going on, do not confuse that with the black mob that attacked the Detroit motorist who stopped to assist a black person who was hit by a car. That happened a few months before.
In Philadelphia, a group of black people attacked and knocked out a white man who intervened when they were saying rude things to a group of women.94
In Chicago, a group of black people rampaged, beat, and destroyed their way through an upscale neighborhood. A reporter said the violence wasn’t much. The local Fox affiliate at least covered it, even if the rest of the media played their usual game of dismissal.95
Also in Chicago, repeated large fights caused several black nightclubs downtown to close. 96
In Minneapolis, an NFL player was one of nine wounded when they were caught in the crossfire at a large fight at a black club.97
It was not a big deal because that happens a lot in Minneapolis – in and out of nightclubs.
Of course, there was black mob violence at least one mall in St. Louis, outside of Ferguson. And of course Twitter and Facebook were full of admonitions to continue and increase the violence. As long as they moved to white neighborhoods.98
In Washington during Riot Week, a TV news crew was when they were doing a story on a “racist” app that showed people how to avoid high crime areas. Like the one they were in.99
In Kansas City, a large group of black people fought and destroyed property and defied police at Lake Jacomo. Just the way they had done in the Country Club Plaza all summer. And the summer before that. And at least three summers before that.100
In Kansas City, they celebrate Riot Week all year round.
The Knockout Game the media is so intent on ignoring proceeded at full speed during Riot Week.
In the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, at least one black person played the Knockout Game with a pregnant woman.101
Ditto in Beaumont, Texas: Except the victim of this Knockout Game was a 10-year old girl riding a bike.102
Ditto in Hackensack: A group of black people played the Knockout Game three times in 15 minutes on Day 8 of Riot Week.103
Ditto in Crown Heights on Day Nine of the Riot Week: A group of black people played the Knockout Game with a Jewish person in Brooklyn. On video. He chased them. They ran away.104
Ditto in Seattle on Day Seven of Riot Week: One black person played the Knockout Game at least four times during an otherwise restful Sunday afternoon downtown. “He got a pretty good hit on me. I can see right there in my lip and I got a shiner, just one of those things, a random deal,” victim Terrance Scott said Tuesday to the Fox affiliate.105
Just because he got punched in the face does not make Terrance Scott an expert on racial violence. Sorry for the harsh words Terrance, but we are trying to save the next victim. Not your feelings.
Ditto in Grinnell, Iowa: Two days before Riot Week, two black women attacked a 15-year old white girl on a popular walking trail. She said it was the Knockout Game. Local media refuses to provide a description. That’s OK, neighbors do.106
In Portland, Oregon, three people were shot after a large fight broke out among black people. Police called it “gang-related.” Readers at the KATU news site called BS: “Why don't we ever hear which gangs are involved in these shootings? Maybe because "gang-related" is a phrase that the media, police, and society in general invented to brush aside the rampant black on black violence in our cities.”107
If we had a Riot Week Award for best commentary, that would be it.
In Bloomington, Illinois, the Pantagraph regularly reports on “large fights” downtown. This one came Day 8 of Riot Week. Monday night, 11 p.m. - Everyone was black. Let’s see how much drama is packed into two paragraphs of this otherwise short story:
Officers who went to the Jefferson Street location were surrounded by a large number of people "who threatened to hurt and kill officers," said a police spokeswoman, adding police dispatched additional officers to the scene in response.”
“Both victims were taken to Twin City hospitals. A third person, an 88-year-old man, suffered an injured wrist when he was struck with a brick, said Mayer. Several residents reported having bricks thrown through windows of their homes.”
Large crowd of black people threatening to kill cops. And throwing bricks at old dudes. Destroying property. And oh yeah, this was just one of two events in Bloomington that night. And that pretty much happens a lot.
Bloomington? Who knew? And how about those crime stats: Not a blip.
In Atlanta on Day Nine of Riot Week, four black people were arrested for throwing boulders -- yes, very large rocks -- from a freeway overpass that almost killed the occupants of the cars they hit.109
In the Bronx, investors chose to open their new $300 million monument to urban renewal and gentrification right in the middle of Riot Week. It did not take long for the word to get out that the Mall at Bay Plaza was a great place for some black mob violence and video.110
Stay tuned. The local media has not touched it yet. But at some point, they will have to. Oops, just broke my rule about predicting the future. Sorry.
In Memphis, police released a video of a black mob attacking an old dude sitting outside of a coin-operated laundry business. He lived.111
In Lakewood, New Jersey on Day 9 of Riot Week, a black mob beat a motorist involved in a pedestrian accident. They broke a lot of bones in his face. On video.112
In Manhattan, the grainy video shows a black man with his arms folded waiting as a 72-year old man walks toward him. He then turns and delivers a Knockout Game punch to the head of the old man.113
Not to worry, we will hear more about the denial and violence of the Knockout Game later in this book. Let’s head down to Baltimore for more traditional black mob violence:
On Day Seven in Baltimore, a group of black people riding mopeds found a local college basketball player walking alone at 4 a.m. through Federal Hill. One of the safer neighborhoods of Baltimore, so they say. They stabbed him. He’s in critical condition. The Baltimore Sun says police are looking for some teenagers.114
And oh yeah, that was the second attack on a resident of that neighborhood in a few days. And a few days later it happened again: A young white kid walking in this safe neighborhood was stopped by a group of black people, then they robbed and beat him —hitting him in the face with a rock. And yes, that left his face looking like something out of a Frankenstein remake.115
The Baltimore Sun dutifully reported that neighbors say the police are withholding information about the extent and severity of crime in that neighborhood.116
Which is what my readers and I have been saying about the Baltimore Sun for years. They get annoyed at that.
On August 6, a few days before the official kickoff of Riot Week, a group of black people in Miami taunted, stalked and beat a white kid. On video. Complete with audio about what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. “Watch this shit,” says the cameraman, who then directs the assailants to attack the victim from behind as he shrieks with laughter.117
Also in the run up to Riot week, two days before its official kickoff on Sunday, a group of black people in Baltimore hijacked a school bus. But only after a bit of the hyper-violence:
“I was trying to get away from them because they were beating me so hard with a fire extinguisher,” bus driver Joirilus Pierre told WBAL, a Baltimore NBC affiliate. The station said Pierre was also beaten with a trash can.”118
Three were arrested. Police are looking for more. I’m not sure how they caught the three. Just a few weeks before during the Memorial Day weekend, 50 to 100 black people stole 40 bikes from a city park in Baltimore in the middle of the day. They threatened the people who were supposed to be watching the cycles.
They then rampaged through nearby neighborhoods. It took local media a week to figure that out. No one was arrested. The bikes are still gone.
In Orlando, a 74-year old woman was knocked over and robbed by three black people on Day Six of Ferguson Riot Week.119 On video. She lived. No protests scheduled, yet.
In Philly, just a few days later, a black man shot a cop in the head. The cop lived. The shooter did not.120
Also in Philly on Day Four, a black man was shot and killed while attending a hip-hop peace concert for black people called: “Philly Support Philly: Peace on the Streets.”121 Reuters reported that 95 people were shot in Philly the month before. Almost all black on black violence. Thugicide, some call it.
The thugs and their lobbyists don’t really like that.
Neither does Herman Williams III -- a radio personality and brother of Montel Williams -- but for different reasons:
“Today, in the year 2014, to those living in ghettoes across the country, the life of a Nigga isn't worth much more than a diss, a pair of sneakers, or a dime bag of weed, “Williams said. “But a dead nigga shot by a cop, is worth his weight in looted gold and political capital by the NAACP, the Black Panthers, and the Reverend Al Sharptons of the world -- go figure.
Adds up pretty nicely.
In Minneapolis, during the first three weeks of August, the Star-Tribune reported 17 robberies in just one section of town: “In all but one case, the robbers have struck in groups of two, three or four, police added. The perpetrators have either brandished a knife or a gun, or have said they were armed.”
And in keeping with the Star-Tribune’s unblemished record of denying, ignoring and excusing racial violence, the paper reported that the “descriptions of the suspects have varied by ethnicity, gender and age.”
If there is a crew of non-black people robbing other folks on the streets of Minneapolis, that would be a big news story. Meanwhile, reporters keep their eyes shut and hope no one sees through this paper-thin bubble of obfuscation.
Dang it’s a lot of work trying to find new ways to describe the word lie.
In the meantime, take a look at this video of one of the 17 incidents that took place three days before the official start of Riot Week. It’s on high definition video: And there is nothing “varied” about it: On the video, we see two black people walking with a white woman between them.
On closer inspection, one of the black men is holding the woman in a headlock. There was also a handgun.
Thanks to 16 different camera angles in high definition color so vivid even the Minneapolis Star could not wish it away, the home security system of a nearby homeowner captured the crime and the license plate, and soon also captured five of the kidnappers and robbers.123
When the same denials pile up year after year after year, as they have at the local paper in Minneapolis, at some point they are no longer denials. But deceit. This paper reached that point a long time ago. We’ll see more from Minneapolis and black mob violence later on.
Hard to say which is uglier: The violence. Or the denial and excuses. Let me know.
In Philly on Day Two of Riot Week, a black man goes into a Chinese restaurant and bums a light for a cigarette from one of two Asians there. He goes outside and meets his amigo. They go back inside and bash the other Asian in the face, making off with his wallet and $300. All on high definition video.124
Black on Asian is common. But Asian on black? Try to find that outside of some Sharpton wannabe claiming Asian shopkeepers are crooks. Go ahead, I dare you.
In St. Louis, just a few miles from Ferguson, cops killed a black man brandishing a knife on Day Nine of Riot Week. He had just left a store where he stole something and was seen acting erratically. Some are calling it “suicide by cop,” since he challenged them to “shoot me now. "Kill me now.”
Others say is it just another example of the relentless racism against black people. The day after the killing, a school bus full of black children drove by with their hands out the window, chanting: “Hands up. Don’t shoot.”125
Later in the book, we are going to show how black children learn in school that they are the victims of relentless and permanent white racism as part of their introduction to the institutional racial hostility called Critical Race Theory.
More on that later. And violence in schools, later.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, 24-year old Scott Simerson died on Day One of Riot Week after a mob of black people attacked him on a school playground. Police said he suffered multiple head injuries in the attack allegedly carried out by two juveniles and two older teens. Bystanders took cell phone video of the attack, Grand Rapids Police Lt. Pat Merrill said.”126
In Hartford, Connecticut on Day Seven of Riot Week, a group of black people went on a crime spree that included home invasions, armed robberies and assaults. They arrested three people.127
Three thousand miles away in Garden Grove on Day One of Riot week, three black people were caught on video in a home invasion. Just one of several recent home invasions in that area by the same crew. CBS tells at least part of the story. The video tells the rest:
“Three teenagers were home alone when they heard a knock at the door and saw two men at the door, holding flowers as if they were delivery men,” a police spokesman said. “As soon as the teenagers opened the door, three armed men rushed in, tied them up and forced them into the bathroom without their phones.”
They lived. In May, the same crew is suspected of shooting one of their victims.128
On Day 6 of Riot Week in High Point, North Carolina, a group of black people held a white family hostage during a home invasion. They lived.129
In Providence, Rhode Island on Day 7 of Riot Week, one man was killed and two members of his family were wounded during a home invasion. The suspect is black.130
In Jacksonville, Florida on Day 2 of Riot Week, Marquise Trevel Yates broke into the home of a family of four. He beat one of them. They shot him. They lived. He did not. The family is still shaken and traumatized.131
It is not known if any of the victims held their hands up and asked him not to shoot.
On Day 3 of the Riot Week, four black people and one white person are suspects in a home invasion robbery in Greene County, North Carolina. That’s near Greenville, which of course is Andy of Mayberry country.132
On Day 9 of Riot Week, former NBA star Ray Allen is upset because seven people broke into his house while his wife and four children were asleep. “They were like they were on a tour,” said Allen’s wife. They did not steal anything. Or break anything. Or hurt anyone.
After catching the intruders, police soon figured out the only thing they were probably guilty of was trespassing. They said it was more of a prank than a crime. They were not charged immediately. The seven were at a party next door before embarking on their adventure tour of the Allen house.
Gotcha.
All during Riot Week a group of black people attacked Hispanics on at least a dozen occasions in the town of Monroe, North Carolina. 134
On day 8 of Riot Week, the Washington Redskins run out on the field during their Monday Night Football appearance, all of them holding up their arms in a salute to the “Don’t shoot” gesture of Michael Brown.
That was when people still believed Brown was an innocent victim.
This is too good to leave out: On Day 9 of Riot Week, a group of otherwise peaceful and angelic protestors temporarily lost control of themselves and started throwing rocks at Chris Hayes of MSNBC. 135
No one, of course, condones this kind of violence. Unless, of course, someone suspected that MSNBC’s denier-in-chief Chris Hayes had some relatives who may have mistreated black people at one time or another in the last 400 or 4000 years.
If that is the case, then I’m with David Simon of the Wire: Pass me some rocks.
On Day 10 of Riot Week, Spike Lee told Anderson Cooper at CNN that he wants Ferguson to “blow up” as some kind of retaliation for the “war on the black male” in America.
Don Lemon at CNN and others say they understand the rage and anger that created the violence in Ferguson. But no words for the victims of the black mob violence in and out of Ferguson that week in the summer of 2014.
And oh yeah, this will be no surprise to readers of White Girl Bleed a Lot: The people who owned the stores looted and burned by the black mob were Asians.136