3 Myths About the Rioters and Looters of Ferguson

ferguson-The angry rioter is a sacred figure in the progressive pantheon of social justice. The shirtless men in bandanas carting away cell phones are so outraged by injustice that they are willing to take to the streets and do what progressive hipsters taking social justice selfies of themselves in souvenir t-shirts plastered with the face of the latest victim of “white supremacism” can only dream about.

But the saint of the looted convenience store is as mythical a figure as the selfless community organizer. The race riot isn’t a bubbling stew of outrage out of which wounded souls emerge to cry out for justice. It’s a complicated criminal conspiracy in which the perpetrators rarely suffer any consequences.

Here’s how a race riot is actually put together.

3. Riots aren’t fed by outrage, but by opportunism.

The rioters aren’t outraged, they’re usually bored young men, frustrated and lacking in empathy. Many of them have gang ties or a criminal record stretching back to kindergarten.

They’re the same people who commit crimes in any other non-outraged context.

The rest are there to get some attention while providing them with protective coloration. 9 out of 10 people screaming frenziedly while holding up “Black Lives Matter” signs would eagerly scream and hold up “Justin Bieber 4 President” or “Ferguson Loves the KKK” signs if it got them positive attention and a shot at being on television.

Everything you need to do know about why the riots fizzled out can be read on a thermometer. On Monday, when the grand jury failed to indict Officer Wilson, the temperature hit a high of 57 degrees. The next day it was still in the forties. Now that the temperature is in the twenties, the riots have fizzled out.

Weather breaks up a riot faster than appeasement. It’s hard to riot when your teeth are chattering.

There’s a reason that riots usually happen in the summer. If the grand jury verdict had been issued in January, it would have been met peacefully.

The riots in Ferguson didn’t happen because of outrage, but because the gathering mobs were told by everyone from CNN right up to Governor Nixon that angry protests were expected and would be tolerated. That was as good as throwing a match into a spreading pool of gasoline.

No one was stealing beauty supplies or starting fires in Walgreens because they were upset that Michael Brown got shot. They were stealing for the same reasons that Michael Brown stole; because they believed that they could get away with it.

2. The rioters and looters aren’t burning their own community.

A riot has two components. There are the bored and irritated locals who begin swarming streets because they have no jobs, it’s hot outside and there’s nothing good on television. They will loosely agree with whatever issue is on the table, but they aren’t all that worked up about it.

And then there are the outsiders.

Before the riot, community organizers, citizen reporters and assorted activists show up to coordinate, spread slogans and justify the coming violence. They want violence far more than the locals do and they taunt police and try to create incidents, but they usually avoid personally engaging in violence.

(In the early twentieth century the group stirring up riots was usually some arm of the Communist Party. Later a variety of leftist groups, many closely entangled with the Democratic Party took over. The Ferguson protests are somewhat unique in the sizable Muslim presence with their activists playing the same role that the Communist Party used to play a century ago.)

Most of the damage is done by looters and rioters from other areas looking for an opportunity to burn and steal. Some locals will tag after them, but they are usually responsible for the worst of the violence.

Being outsiders they’re unknown to the police and rarely have to worry about being identified afterwards. And they don’t care about burning down someone else’s community.

The media usually sticks to its narrative of an outraged community that engages in excesses, especially when it can’t tell apart the locals from the outsiders. Local cops can, but no one in the media listens to them. Arrest records usually show that most of those charged in the more violent crimes aren’t locals, but the media remains immune to facts that conflict with a favorite narrative.

1. Riots are about power, not for the rioters, but for the establishment.

“We must not reprimand our children for outrage when it is the outrage that was put in them by an oppressive system,” Al Sharpton had said, in the aftermath of the murder of a Jewish student by an angry black mob.

This same rhetoric was used by the inciters of the violence in Ferguson and has been used in similar riots going back generations. Its major theme is that the rioters are free to do whatever they want. They carry no moral responsibility for their actions.

And what they want is to smash and steal anything they can get their hands on. This isn’t outrage. It’s textbook amoral behavior. The riot doesn’t release anger; it frees the perpetrators of their morality.

The real purpose of a riot isn’t to benefit the rioters. It’s to benefit those who incite the riot. The rioters and looters react in response to riot-friendly conditions created from above. If you build the political infrastructure for a riot, the rioters and looters will come.

Sharpton’s riots weren’t about helping anyone except himself. By associating himself with violence, he sold the idea that he was an influential figure in the black community. Whether or not Sharpton was actually popular, his rise to the top of the political establishment became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Riots are about perception, not reality. The ringleader tries to keep his hands clean while convincing the establishment that he can turn the violence on or off any time he wants to.

Ferguson is the product of a new generation of Sharptons, ambitious activists feeding hate, of the New Black Panther Party’s obsession with becoming relevant, of the ragged hipster ends of Occupy Wall Street drifting from occupation to occupation, of Muslim agents dreaming of turning African-Americans into a fifth column and of Obama’s clumsy efforts to keep on playing community organizer by feeding racial grievances and then pretending to rise above them.

Those who gain from unleashing chaos and violence are not the powerless, but the powerful. Sharpton rose to his important role as Obama’s liaison on a trail of bodies. Someone operating in Ferguson hopes to be the next Sharpton. Meanwhile Obama is playing a perverse fusion of Sharpton and MLK, amping up a bad situation and then telling blacks and whites that they need to rise above it.

It’s an old and cynical game that has been played in and around the Democratic Party for too long.

The answers to Ferguson can’t be found in its streets. The problem didn’t come from there. It came from a black political establishment that lights the fuse for its own power and profit.

*

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  • cjkcjk

    While I agree with the column, I must point out a salient FACT which I feel is overlooked. Truth is that Black culture in America as a whole supports this evil and teaches it’s children to support it. Sure the leadership and race baiters are evil, and opportunists of the vilest kind, but in the end THEY ARE PREACHING TO THE CHOIR. I wish it weren’t so, but alas, it is obviously true to those of us who can see reality for what it is in all it’s uglyness.

    • physicsnut

      that “community” is reminding me more and more of Palestinians.
      How long before they are firing rockets into Ferguson.

      • JacksonPearson

        Self Explanatory…..

      • Libslayer

        Eric holder will host a “strategy session” uniting Palestinian terrorists and Ferguson terrorists, so everyone is “on the same page”.
        These are “his people”

      • dwayne roberson

        Yes, jihadists arrange Palestinians just like Democrats manipulate African Americans. Genuine concern is absent in both associations.

      • Sheik Yerbouti

        Rockets? HAH! If they can’t make their own pipe bombs, what are the chances they’ll get rockets into the air? And how many pipe bombs were these black scholars going to use to blow up the St. Louis Arch?

        It will be a LONG time before US blacks get a rocket in the air. At the moment their only space program involves a 40 ounce and some crack.

        • Fredrick Maxie

          It’s idiots like you that cause things like this….you probably live in a trailer in Mississippi with your sister/wife and your dad who’s also your uncle.

          • Sheik Yerbouti

            I did not “cause” these fools to seek bombs. I did not cause them to be so stupid. They earned it all on their own. And why are you dumping this insane bigotry on me? Racist stereotypes? tsk tsk

    • gwsmith

      Agree, but it’s “racist” to say so.

    • ricpic

      Most dangerous cohort in America? Black baby mamas and ahnties spoon-feeding the chilluns bone deep hatred of whitey.

    • MLCBLOG

      I cannot agree. I know many blacks who decry this victimized thinking.

      What I do see is that more black families need to teach their children how to offer a temporary surrender when about to be arrested by any police. Just so they can live! put the hands behind the back or hold them up in the air. Whatever the ones with the guns tell you, do it. Then we can talk.

      But I guess that there is not enough trust among many blacks to be able to negotiate that point.

  • Lee

    Mr. Greenfield you write brilliantly, and regularly put quite complicated concepts into succinct phrases – and this is a fantastic summation of two important points:
    “…Muslim agents dreaming of turning African-Americans into a fifth column
    and of Obama’s clumsy efforts to keep on playing community organizer by
    feeding racial grievances and then pretending to rise above them.”

    Well done sir! If the subject matter weren’t so serious, this writing would be hilarious…

  • JR Kipling

    Just think if Democrat Governor Nixon had worked to be sure the grand verdict was released the hour a snow storm hit Ferguson. A simple tactic. No one runs out into blinding snow and subzero temperatures, even for Michael. Three days later its ancient history. Instead of watching the weather map Nixon was on the line to Valerie Jarret.

    • cheechakos

      Nixon had nothing to do with the date and time of the Grand Jury release.

      The grand jury met for 25 days over three months and heard more than 70 hours of testimony from 60 witnesses. The GJ normally only meets on Wednesdays.They increased this to up to 3 days a week to see witnesses ,review evidence and get done faster. They were still hearing testimony on Friday.

      One thing to note: Michael Brown’s family knew the results before the press conference. And they told several people the results. The video of them erupting in anger and pain at the public announcement wasn’t them being shocked. They already knew.

      • stringman

        Are you telling us that (under no circumstances could) authorities withhold the Grand Jury results for two days or two hours? Really? And, what evidence is there that they even tried to do that…..or even thought of it. No, rather I think the situation was completely bungled, just like there wasn’t enough (or any) national guard on the scene to head off chaos. An argument could even be made that it was intentional.

        • Just Saying

          Mayor of Ferguson begged for NG. Democrat Guv Jay Nixon timely deployed elsewhere. Holder had governor delay some rioters had some good lead time.

          • stringman

            Not sure. Are you saying there was no bungling or other funny business? Message seems a bit unclear.

          • Just Saying

            Sorry. I read that NG was timely deployed elsewhere before Ferguson, Ferguson Mayor himself begged Gov. Nixon for NG NOW, Gov. said No, “don’t want to agitate” and it was Mayor that said (1) NG would have largely stopped the madness from the get go and (2) Mayor said he believed Obama/Holder was calling shots for Gov. on NG denial/delay as to the hottest spot Ferguson…Mayor suggesting they too said “Let it burn, at least for a while.” Regrets if unclear the first time (or this time, lol)

          • stringman

            Much appreciate the response.

  • BMS

    …you want to stop the rioters? Threaten to take away their welfare and food stamps. The streets will be totally clear.

    • Libslayer

      The streets would only be clear of local and opportunistic visiting thugs for a while. Within hours, the NAACP, CBC, and every black nationalist group in the country (like Eric Holder’s DOJ) would be back with an army of lawyers, “activists” and democrat politicians threatening that if “entitlements” were taken, they would “burn this (insert stream of expletives) city to the ground.”

      So, same outcome.

      • Ginger Li

        It’s come to the point where the threat to riot is tacitly responded to with liberal permission to riot. I wonder if those burnt out business owners know who really lit the match that destroyed their place of business – or strip-mined the real-estate equity out of their neighborhood?

    • truebearing

      Or implement Zero Tolerance for looting, arson, bombing, and all of the rest of the criminal activity, including laws against inciting riots. The public schools have zero tolerance for anything remotely resembling a weapon, including drawings, toys, and fingers arranged into gun-like shapes. If zero tolerance is acceptable when imposed by the faux tolerant Left when dealing with mostly harmless children, than it should be welcomed when dealing with sociopathic racist thugs who are attacking police, burning down cities, and shooting guns (many of which are undoubtedly stolen),

      There were many cases of arson and well over one hundred gunshots in Ferguson. The arson laws are quite clear and many of the the myriad local, state, and federal laws against discharging a firearm when it isn’t in dire need of self defense were at the insistence of the Left. But it’s okay for rioting blacks to do it. No it isn’t, and it is long since passed the time that non-blacks should be demanding equal justice when it comes to gun law violations. Chicago is swimming in automatic weapons, but the federal government is focused on taking legal guns from law abiding citizens.

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        Apply Anti-Racketeering Laws against Socialists and their Racist Ambulance chasing comrades.

        • Steven Brown

          I­’v­­­e b­­­ee­­n ea­­­rn­­­in­­­­g 8­­­­5 do­­­ll­­ar­­s/­­­h s­­­in­­ce i st­­­art­­­ed t­­­o fr­­eel­­anc­­e o­­ve­r th­­­e in­­tern­­­et h­­alf a ye­­­a­r a­­g­o… Wh­­­at i d­­­­o i­­s t­o wor­­­­­­­­k a­­­­­t h­­­­­ome fe­­­w hr­­­­s a d­­­­a­y an­­­­d d­­­o si­­­­­mple w­­­o­rk i g­­­e­t fr­­­om th­­­is c­­­om­­­pa­­ny t­­­ha­­t i f­­­oun­­­d o­­nli­­ne… I a­­­m v­­er­y h­­ap­­py t­­­o s­­­ha­­­re t­­­­h­is j­­­o­b t­­o y­­­ou… I­­­t’­s de­­­fin­­­et­­­ly t­­­h­e be­­­s­t j­o­b i e­­ve­r h­­­a­d…
          -> CH­E­­CK HE­R­E WH­A­T I D­­O… <-

      • dwayne roberson

        Stopping traffic, smothering commerce and arson has somehow morphed into a first amendment right. Who could have thunk it? Trans fat and second hand smoke get all the concern… pyro thugs get a pass. A nation of laws has become a nation of laws available for selection.

        • truebearing

          Yes, second hand smoke from a cigarette is far worse than fhe toxic smoke from burning buildings.

      • Dan

        Never happen. The Dems would loose their voting base…….

    • camp7

      4th myth: The Establishment is successful.

      Statist ideology will loose simply because they will run out of other’s people’s money and sympathy. Blacks need to step up to the plate of civil responsibility and self-respect. Big test for them. Good luck.

    • BS77

      Sick of hearing about Ferguson

      • BS77

        To all you looters, thieves, arsonists,vandals…..thugs and losers…..go to school, go to college, get a job, take care of your kids and wife, build a home, volunteer, do the right thing…..perhaps that is asking too much of you /
        .

      • Sheik Yerbouti

        So is most of the nation. We’re tired of hearing how this was all the fault of white people when it ALL started with a single black thug. It’s too bad we’re losing a cop who can hit a moving assshole with one eye damaged, not an easy feat.

        The thing is, even with the truth laid open, the blacks STILL want to go with this “he was shot in the back with his hands up” lie. THIS is why black Americans are so freakin dangerous. They can be mobilized to destroy and kill on a lie.

        The lie itself becomes the excuse for action. Even when they all know it’s a lie. Makes no difference because they fall back on the “get whitey” payback plan.

    • BS77

      Most of the looters and vandals, window smashers and thieves know nothing about the Michael Brown case..nothing at all…what evidence is, what a grand jury is…NOTHING. I do believe the liberal leaning cable news media did a disservice to Ferguson by running the videos of the burning and looting non stop for three days thereby sensationalizing the violence and destruction…the idiots and morons began to feel like they were TV celebrities in starring roles. Did you know during the week of the Michael Brown shooting, scores of people were shot in Chicago…and 13 died….no media coverage, no Al Sharpton, no helicopters, no excited talking heads on MSNBC…..this is the reality.

    • Mo86

      Bwahaha! So sadly true!

  • cheechakos

    There were a lot of local looters from MO & IL.
    They were in it for financial / personal gain. If you look at a list of damaged /looted stores you’ll a pattern of looting for goods and looting for “outrage.”

    The outside protesters were fairly easy to spot. They had signs advertising their org,like; Answer coalition ,Rev .com, Amnesty International ,unions,UAPO.StopMassIncarceration. net etc. OWS people were easy to spot because the majority are white.

    I watched it all live on local stations and can tell you there is a lot the general public will never know about. Like most of the looting was done by organized groups who pulled up in cars,got in stores and ran out with loads of items and filled the cars up.

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      Yup.

      There are semi professional looters. A lot of this is organized over social media.

      • laura r

        theye were all over twitter. when i retweeted, they blocked me.

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        “socialist media” is monitored by authorities who can send people to interrupt their “community disorganization”..

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      Early “Black Friday”.

  • notme123

    there is a big difference between a riot and a protest. I thought you had to have a permit in most cities to congregate/protest? If so, why isn’t this being in-forced? And that “protest” in NY, where they tried to shut down the tunnel, isn’t that breaking the Patriot Act law established after 9/11?

    • carpe diem 36

      this is hilarious! when do they ever respect any laws???

  • Dawn Perlmutter

    During the August Ferguson riots the owner and employees of Riverfront Tattoo stood guard in front of their business armed with handguns and semi-automatic rifles. The looters moved on to more vulnerable targets.

    • tagalog

      That being true, the question, “Where were the business owners when the long-awaited grand jury decision was announced?” becomes an interesting one.

      How much do you want to bet that the business owners of Ferguson were told by the authorities not to arm themselves and station themselves at their businesses to protect them as individuals with force of arms? I’m betting that they were told “The collective will protect your interests.” Look at how true that turned out to be for many business owners. You just can’t trust government to protect you and your interests.

      • Daniel_Greenfield

        I have to wonder why they didn’t remove stock. You can’t just take home all the stock from a grocery store, but a cell phone store?

        • tagalog

          Good point. Plywood doesn’t cut it. It burns as well as anything else.

        • RTN

          If(and I do say that as a hopeful sentiment) they had insurance majority of stock and such is generally covered from this sort of thing(there are loop holes as with any policy if they dont want to pay ofcourse). Usually though as soon as you start removing stock it makes it a lot easier to deny you all together. One of those damned if you do kind of things. Then there is the issue even if save your stock your location which is your center of business is gone and a lot of these people are probably smaller businesses that wouldnt survive a new start up. Very good thought though. Wondered the same after reading it until by friend whose an insurance adjuster point that flaw out.

          • Daniel_Greenfield

            Interesting, thanks

        • MLCBLOG

          Innocent, naïve, trusting. Unable to fathom the outcome. I bet they were in shock after it happened. So easy to see from the outside.

          Victimization carries emotional trauma. Otherwise no explanation. Certainly not logical.

      • stringman

        In that climate, I wouldn’t want to put myself in the position to have to shoot unarmed burglars. You might save your business but, you could never open it back up. The extremists and media would crucify you. You’d be lucky if customers ever came through the door again. You’d be finished.

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      Lessons of LA

    • SCREW SOCIALISM
      • BS77

        Glad to see some people are standing up to the window smashers, looters and arsonist creeps

  • tagalog

    ‘We must not reprimand our children for outrage when it is the outrage that was put in them by an oppressive system,’ Al Sharpton said.”

    Mr. Sharpton is not a very perceptive analyst. Riots of the type he’s talking about, i.e., riots seeking systemic reform, occur during historical moments of rising expectations, when conditions for the so-called oppressed are improving, but at a rate deemed to be too slow. In this instance, the “outrage” is likely to be nearly entirely manufactured. See Crane Brinton, On Revolution.

  • s;vbkr0boc,klos;

    What has shocked me more than anything are the number of respectable black Christian ministers here in St. Louis who have shown themselves to be delusional, breathtakingly stupid and not at all ‘Christian’, i.e. Black Nazis. I thought Jonathan Wright was an aberration. Seems not.

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      He isn’t. Unfortunately.

      A lot of black ministers are intertwined with political orgs and act as community organizers on top of everything else. It’s the sort of thing that would make the IRS and ACLU howl like mad if people on the right were doing it.

      • Sheik Yerbouti

        All we seem to have learned from this is that black Americans can be mobilized to destroy a specific location with only a sliver of actual evidence. None of them think they are doing anything wrong. They hide their faces so the evil racist cops won’t capture them and unjustly toss them into a cage.

        Who will finally tell them to stop this self-humiliation?

      • cjkcjk

        The real breakers of the commandment to not take The Lords name in vain.

  • namberak

    Absolutely spot on.

  • stevethird

    Sharpton is an untitled member of Obama’s cabinet, a “domestic ambassador”, if you will. Obama = Sharpton only slightly better looking.

  • cops all up on donuts

    whites riot too (G8/12 summits etc) but thats another argument. blacks riot because it’s immersed into their culture. all the history they have are the 60s marches/riots and slavery.

    whites, latinos, asians and arabs have long storied pasts filled with things like vikings, samurai, nomadic tribes and aztec temples. while it sounds somewhat cartoony, it’s looked upon with great regard by historians and yes, the youth. pyramids and ancient cities, dragon boats and unique architecture also colors our back stories which can instill a sense of cultural pride. the roman colosseum is revered world wide just as much as the great wall of china.

    so where is the black history?

    sure we know a bit about africa and its tribes, but is that enough? where are their great cities that can compare with rome, mecca, paris or constantinople? where’s their unique architecture? it’s just not there. and what little we do have on it doesnt seem to stoke the black man’s imagination very much. so they look towards the ‘modern history’…which is pretty bad with the slave trades and movies about ‘selma’. this is ALL they seem to know about themselves while a white and indian kid can play ‘cowboys and indians’ in the back yard.

    i think to begin rooting out the problem you have to look at the base causes, and culture definitely has a role to play. historical speeches by MLK and old grainy footage of the detroit riots set an angry tone for todays black youth and i dont see it dissipating any time soon.

    shame.

    • tagalog

      They have ancient Zimbabwe. Also, if they catch white folks on a lazy day, they get some play on Egypt, claiming that Egypt was a black culture, which it wasn’t. All of North Africa was more white or Levantine than it was black.

      There’s currently a bit of a flap over the new Exodus movie, claiming that there should have been more black actors in important roles because of the claimed blackness of Egyptian culture. It’s ignorant nonsense.

      • cops all up on donuts

        theyre trying to claim more of the arab-culture too. its actually quite hilarious.

        • tagalog

          I guess they must be co-opting the fact that Arabs enslaved blacks for millennia and still do. How they do that is a mystery to me.

          • cops all up on donuts

            lol thats the funny thing, and it also points to the oddity of their obsession with skin color. to them, as far as i can tell, the arabs are ‘dark skinned’ so the slave thing doesnt nag them so much. i guess the lot of them have never traveled to the middle east…

            its kind of like how lefties rarely have tantrums towards islam, because they see it as a ‘dark’ skinned religion lol

            ummmm, mister black-power and mister-lefty radical are gonna get headaches if they ever travel to the middle east…lots and lots of ‘whitey’ over there ya know. (syria, lebanon etc)

        • Your Friend Clem

          The phrase ‘ arab culture” is an oxymoron.

    • Just Saying

      Too many are taught hate whitey, “owed” reparations, State take care of you etc. The be gettin’ played by the playas.

  • physicsnut

    Well – can’t add much to this article !

    i keep seeing more and more of this “The Fix Is IN” or lists of idiotic ‘reasons’ not to believe the grand jury, or that the whole thing is unusual.
    Wanna hear something unusual – WBAI played hours of some gabfest with Cornel West and the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party – Bob Avakian . You should hear the applause . Man, this stuff was straight out of the sixties – ‘after the revolution there will be no injustice … blah blah blah’
    It is hilarious – have a revolution – the meanest, most bloodthirsty thugs win, and the idiots expect justice from the bloodthirsty thugs. Wow , what intelligence.

    That audience must park its brain at the door. They have no BS detectors.
    Then BAI had 3 hours knocking thanksgiving.
    If you hang around Lefties you discover that they are really into SLOGANS. In fact, Mimi Rosenberg started her program a few days ago on WBAI by listing the slogans the ‘protesters’ were chanting.
    She was ‘glad to see young people’ – right, Kathy Boudin and the Weather Underground were recruiting teenagers for the Days of Rage !
    Nothing has changed since 1968 .
    It is like insects that emerge from under ground every 40 years or so, make a big mess, and go back to hibernating.

    • cops all up on donuts

      ive watched a few speeches from this bob avakian goober on youtube, what an imbecile. he drones on and on about ‘workers rights’ and police brutality and all that gibberish while getting howls from a mostly adolescent crowd. kids with eyeliner and wallet chains standing next to aging hippies who quite honestly look like child molesters lol it’s like an assembly of crybabies and the unemployed…with their mommy’s cell phones.

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      On WBAI it’s always the sixties. And they have about 60 listeners left.

      • iluvisrael

        my beloved late dad would sometimes put on wbai (a cesspool of a station if there ever was one). He always said how important it was to ‘listen to the enemy’. I do the same thing, but very infrequently. If they’re not fundraising, they’re demonizing Israel.

        • stringman

          I hear that. Shades of C-span in the morning! The crazies get up early to call in. If it was later in the day I’d say they were drunk.

      • tagalog

        Did WBAI ever have more than about 60 listeners? They fomented the Grand Central Station Spring Equinox Be-In that turned into a dress rehearsal for the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago a few months later.

        • Daniel_Greenfield

          It’s really bad these days. Without the black radicalism, they would have zero audience.

          • SCREW SOCIALISM

            Happy Eternal Nakba WBAI!

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        Show hosts at WBAI are dropping like flies.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      Revolutionary KKKomunist Party.

  • Scar

    Being a Berkeley native, I well remember the riots/protests during the 60s and early 70s. For a child/teenager (depending on the riot in question), I had a vested interest as my father commanded a BPD platoon that was at the center of the respective storm.

    The media constantly referred to the rioters as “students.” Though some were indeed students, the agitators and the truly violent perpetrators were mostly outsiders, as Mr. Greenfield correctly points out. They were also referred to as “anarchists”–which was also used at times during Ferguson–but I have always disagreed with that assessment. In the 60s, the agitators were Communists; in today’s culture, they are Progressives (pardon the redundancy). I figure that the term “anarchist” was/is used to direct attention away from the real instigators.

    Once again, Mr. Greenfield has done a masterful job of assessing the situation. This article should be copied en-masse and air-dropped over Ferguson, like we used to do over Europe and Viet Nam. But it probably wouldn’t do any good, because most of the so-called protesters probably can’t read. And those that can wouldn’t get it anyway.

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      They’re always “students” except when they’re “concerned citizens, grandmothers and mothers for peace”.

      It’s “funny” how the media adopts the same language as the propaganda of those they’re reporting on.

      • Scar

        Birds of a feather.

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        “students” who aren’t enrolled in an accredited school aren’t students.

        Just Yoof, regressive progressives, socialists.

    • Michael Garfinkel

      The “protestors” are the useful idiots, nothing more; fodder for the prisons.

      As for the people who could make a difference, like the editors at CNN, the BBC, the Washington Post and the Times, the point of view presented here is well known – and summarily dismissed as inconvenient.

      As for the Amy Goodmans at WBAI, neither an all-out psychiatric intervention nor napalm would suffice.

  • Peter Castle

    Too many rioters were from the local community and they have been brainwashed by Sharpton’s latest hoax.

    See “I’m Black: Truth Does Not Matter” at http://wp.me/p4scHf-5t.

  • GuyGreen

    We’re actually heading back to the good old days, Daniel. These riots received significant boosting from the maoist Revolutionary Communist Party. Heck, their top correspondent even got to propagandize at the Nixon Press conference prior to the grand jury announcement. Several guests of honor from Ferguson were featured at a raucus Bob Avakian/Cornel West/Carl Dix revival reunion at that classic venue Riverside Church in NYC a short time ago. Even Harry Belafonte took a creaking bow! I’m sure Frank Marshall Davis’ star pupil would have loved to have been there, his evil spirit certainly was. I’m sure eyes were glued to televisions long into the night at stately Ayers Manor in Chicago as well. Onward Anti-Christian Soldiers!

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      You can always count on them to show up.

    • Just Saying

      ding, ding, ding! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

    • dwayne roberson

      Meanwhile… on Pennsylvania Avenue… someone is unpacking the Chairman Mao Christmas tree ornaments!

  • kiwi41

    When a right thinking administration is voted in, food stamps should be replaced with food parcels and the foods laced with fast acting drugs to chemically sterilize the black vermin.

    Maybe 6 months into the program, the black problem would be solved, as they would probably accelerate their own genocide.

  • laura r

    the GJ took a long time as they may have been waiting for colder weather. when it snows the party will be over.

  • laura r

    daniel why is cornel west anti obama?

    • Daniel_Greenfield

      Because he’s Cornel West. His brand is being far out to the left and anti-establishment.

      Same reason Sharpton bashed Dinkins.

      • laura r

        good. the more they fight the less power they have as a collective. i tweeted mr. west after he put down obama, i said: “for the first time inmy life i agree w/you”

    • Larry Larkin

      Cornel West would be anti Trotsky if Trotsky was still around – not far enough left for West’s taste.

  • http://evilletimes.blogspot.com/ Mike Roberts

    Why should anybody follow the law when The Law doesn’t have to follow the law?

    A black man expecting impunity while looting a local business is no different (in his mind’s eye) from a white cop expecting the same for having shot and killed some kid from down the street.

    If we have no reasonable expectation for justice (no trial for Brown, no trial for Wilson), we can stop trying so hard to pretend we’re surprised that order has broken down.

    • CowboyUp

      Brown rejected trial by jury, choosing trial by combat instead, and lost his case. There was no trial for Wilson because the evidence did not warrant an indictment. Your fuzzy amoral ‘logic’ doesn’t hold up.

      • http://evilletimes.blogspot.com/ Mike Roberts

        And your adolescent Game-Of-Thrones approach is exactly what American Exceptionalism is supposed to be the exception to.

        • CowboyUp

          That’s projection. You’re the one childishly ignoring facts and logic to chuck rule of law and excuse criminal violence, not me. Wilson submitted to the law, Brown did not.

          • http://evilletimes.blogspot.com/ Mike Roberts

            If Wilson had submitted to the law, Brown wouldn’t be dead.

          • CowboyUp

            Wilson did submit to the law, he had his day in court, and he was cleared.

          • http://evilletimes.blogspot.com/ Mike Roberts

            (Interesting how this comment thread seems to get manipulated so it keeps turning out in your favor – here’s my original comment again):

            “Wilson submitted to the law, Brown did not.”

            What actually happened is that Wilson had benefit of Due Process, and Brown did not.

            Your assertion that Brown didn’t submit to the law is valid only if Wilson = The Law, which he most definitely does not.

          • CowboyUp

            I’m not manipulating anything. The law, logic, and common sense simply and overwhelmingly favor my position. Your problem is that it is to basic and simple to be manipulated.

            A law enforcement officer certainly does represent the law, and is issued an individually numbered badge to prove it to those in their jurisdiction. It is illegal to impersonate one, obstruct one, or fail to comply with lawful orders given by one. Physically resisting one, much less attacking one is not only illegal, but stupid and dangerous.

            Due process in a court of law was available to Brown, but he chose to reject its’ benefit in favor of violently attacking the arresting officer, who successfully defended himself.

          • http://evilletimes.blogspot.com/ Mike Roberts

            I was just wondering why at least one of my comments just happened to disappear. Not that it hasn’t happened in a similar way on other extremist websites.

          • http://evilletimes.blogspot.com/ Mike Roberts

            “Wilson submitted to the law, Brown did not.”

            What actually happened is that Wilson had benefit of Due Process, and Brown did not.

            Your assertion that Brown didn’t submit to the law is valid only if Wilson = The Law, which he most definitely does not.

  • Libslayer

    Obama came out and called looting and arson an “understandable reaction”.
    The law means nothing to Obama, and these are “his people”.
    The manufactured lunacy of Ferguson has taken all the unfolding Obama catastrophes off the radar screen, and replaced them with a false racial narrative.
    Progressives call this “progress”.
    Obama is the most evil man in America.

  • Just Saying

    Bingo. Dirty little secrets. Why does the media not do back story on Chi-Town commies organizing these protests? Rhetorical question, obviously.

  • uleaveuswithnoalternative

    Some of the organizations operating in Ferguson and fomenting “unrest”:
    1) CAIR – Council on American Islamic Relations, St. Louis
    2) Revolution Club of Chicago (Communist group),
    3) The New Black Panthers,
    4) The Palestine Contingent,
    5) Revolutionary Socialists,
    6) FIST (Communist youth organization whose acronym stands for Fight Imperialism Stand Together),
    7) Peoples Power Assemblies (Communist group),
    8) The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP),
    9) Organization for Black Struggle,
    10) U.S. Palestinian Community Network,
    11) Muslims for Ferguson,
    12) US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,
    13) St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee,
    14) Palestinian BDS National Committee,
    15) National Students for Justice in Palestine,
    16) Palestinian Youth Movement,
    17) American Muslims for Palestine,
    18) African Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa,
    19) Occupy Wall Street and other anarchist groups.

    • Larry Larkin

      You forget the DoJ.

  • Debbie G

    A 12 year old black boy was recently shot by police in Cleveland, after he was waving around a toy gun. Of course the NAACP jumped on this, blaming the untrained, insensitive policemen. Protestors decided to stand in the middle of I-90, a major highway, to block traffic during rush hour. It was backed up for miles.

    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/11/cleveland_naacp_tamir_rices_fa.html

  • DontMessWithAmerica

    In pioneer days when there was no law enforcement to protect citizens, the citizens organized to fight the outlaws. It is time that retailers in cooperation with insurance companies hire their own law enforcers and when arsonists attempt to burn down stores and buildings, shoot them dead on the spot. Additionally, class action law suits should be organized by the victimized retailers and property owners against the instigators such as Obama, Holder, Sharpton and any others whose public statements have promoted these riots. Hit the bastards in their pocketbooks.

    • Carlos_Perera

      The same authorities that stand by passively as businesses are looted and burned, and as hapless citizens caught in the riot zone are robbed and beaten–or worse, would, in a trice, fall like a ton of bricks on top of private individuals banding together to provide their own security. The problem is that the authorities fear the thugs and goons of the Left (including militant Islam), but not nice little people who respect the law and constituted authority. Remember that many of the Korean shopkeepers who, using firearms, effectively fought off would-be looters during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles were later brought up on charges of “excessive” use of force (and even attempted murder).

      This, by the way, is not a new phenomenon; I myself witnessed, in the early ’70s, the University of Florida campus police ignoring the roughing up of peaceful counter-protesters by Leftist and/or Black Power radicals during disturbances; students–I was one of them–who remonstrated with the authorities over their tolerance of such violence, would be threatened with arrest if they did not stop “meddling”; and counter-protesters who actually fought back effectively would often be treated more harshly than the thugs who assailed them.

  • truebearing

    Daniel Greenfield’s Political Anatomy Lectures. A series of laser sharp dissections of the Left, Islam, and the foul media. This is political analysis in high definition.

  • M2000

    The count for the number of Tea Party arrests…STILL ZERO!

    • CowboyUp

      The number of Tea Party riots…still zero.

  • Conniption Fitz

    Other facts:
    The Anonymous group behind the riots/looting/burning has been traced to a rich Pakistani. Hamas has claimed to be behind the riots. The Ayatollah has piped up to criticize Ferguson for human rights violations. (ludicrous, considering Iran’s and Islam’s constant stream of human rights abuses)
    The Ferguson Market was owned by Islamists who were charged with money laundering, funding terrorism and bribing a police officer to help feed information to keep Islamist ‘students’ in the US past their visa expirations.
    Islam is a bad actor everywhere it metastasizes/invades.

  • Comrade Putler

    According to 2011 FBI crime statistics, blacks committed:

    55.6% of all Robbery
    49.7% of Murders
    33.6% of all Aggravated Assaults
    32.9% of Forcible Rapes

    DESPITE being 13% of the US population!

    For the years 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, there were ZERO white on black rapes reported. When during 2003 to 2008 white men raped zero black women, blacks raped 131,413 white women and 148,343 black women!

    • MrUniteUs1

      Comrade. Blacks or Black criminals? Most Black Americans are law abiding citizens. Is it racist to lump criminals with law abiding citizen based on skin tones.

      • CosmotKat

        Are you kidding? Leftists do this all the time.

        • MrUniteUs1

          Is it racist to lump criminals with law abiding citizens based on skin tone?

          • CosmotKat

            Is it racist to smear all white Americans as racist while black racists get a pass?

          • MrUniteUs1

            Yes of course it is racist to smear all White Americans. I’m old to remember when Native Americans were called thieving savages in the movies. That was racist. Do you have quotes to support your get a pass class.”

          • CosmotKat

            I get it. You see everything in racist terms as a starting point and it is up to the person you want to argue with to disprove your anger and hate is entitled. Sorry you don’t get to play the racist game with me, chump.

    • MrUniteUs1

      90% of crime is same race. Suicides outnumber Homicides 2-1.

      72% of Suicide victims are white men. #1 method gun shot to the head.
      But this is not to be discussed.

  • logdon

    Last week our British Daily Telegraph, on narrative and bursting with its culturaly relative nonsense published a piece on Ferguson.

    It was riddled with evasion on ‘race relations in America’ and rather than confronting truth, held to its ‘on-message’ strand which has so badly debased objective journalism.

    Reader comment was aflame. We were not deceived by this flim-flam, hotchpotch avoidance of the truth and commenters demanded honesty rather than pc garbage.

    Here’s a snapshot of my reaction, censorship and why the msm is doomed to irrelevance…….

    How the narrative works.

    Here’s a piece in today’s Telegraph

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/11254206/Ferguson-shows-that-Barack-Obamas-America-is-still-divided-by-race.html

    Here’s my posted comment

    Always on ‘narrative’ eh, DT?

    The PC ‘narrative’ being

    black=good white=bad

    muslim=good the rest=bad

    PA=good Israel=bad

    It goes on and on quite sickeningly. The truth is as clear as it gets
    yet completely ignored in favour of this new quite bigoted ideology.

    And this is despite all the evidence, all the facts and all the truth out there.

    Fourteen hundred white girls were severely abused and raped in Rotherham
    and not one msm outlet reported until there was no other choice.

    This is what this conspiracy of media silence leads to.

    It’s not some dilettante game. Lives are completely ruined whilst this
    pack of cultural marxists/cultural relativists stays schtum because it’s
    not ‘on message’.

    Where is our spine?

    Thank god for the internet and the alternative media which actually
    reports what it sees rather than some trumped up concoction based on
    white guilt and idiotic multiculturalism.

    Following Ukip’s spectacular successes the liblabcon cabal are now wailing about being out of touch.

    I’d say the same about the msm, BBC, Sky, Channel Four- all at it –
    spinning like demented tops and consequently avoiding any honesty like
    the plague.

    I’ve got news. It’s a busted flush. We’ve mostly gone along with it and at last decided enough is enough.

    The rules are changing.

    If our msm want’s to remain relevant and consequentially, solvent they
    need to grow up and realise that this isn’t some Oxbridge game. It is
    all too real and the sooner they realise it the sooner we regain some
    semblance of sanity.

    And here’s what appeared after the DT moderators did their thing

    ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

    Yep, you got it. They don’t like what you say and therefore they remove it.

    This is the f*cking internet age, democratic Britain in action.

  • TienBing

    Just outsource riot and looter control to the Chinese. They might stack the bodies and sent send the bill for processing rioters into fertilizer to the relatives of the deceased perps with the warning that failure to pay would result in a visit to create more fertilizer – and oh, by the way, come collect your share of the fertilizer – or else.

  • YankInSlough

    There needs to be more publicity and discussion of the role of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) in these organizations and manifestations. They have much more influence than is realized in “civil rights”, anti-war, pro-immigration, union, environmental, and “progressive” groups. Through these and other front groups, they receive a lot of foundation funding and exert a strong influence on the left wing of the Democrats.

  • Hard Little Machine

    Jay Nixon should empty the prisons and bus them all to Ferguson.

  • alohasteve

    The Reason Four Armed Black Ferguson Men Showed Up At A White-Owned Business May Surprise You!

    http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/11/black-ferguson-residents-arm-themselves.html

  • hitz

    In a well designed strategic crowd dispersion maneuver, St. Louis County Police will be flying over Ferguson, Missouri tonight dropping job applications.!!

  • Dan

    It is true that weather breaks up a riot faster than appeasement. Mid-term exams and Thanksgiving Break have the same effect.

  • John E Coleman

    it is Now that Black is Black and White is White again !!
    any damn thing will start a riot in the Black persons mind ! why not ??

  • Scar

    You’re most welcome. It makes me feel good to spread a little holiday cheer!

  • Tom Forsythe

    The growing inequality in the way the law is enforced is a serious problem. Any group which has a propensity for rioting is far LESS likely to be punished than those of us who can be expected to behave rationally.

  • Sheik Yerbouti

    Because it is owed to them for slavery and Jim Crow. Ask any one of them. Ask them to explain the looters and they will eventually come back to one or both of those. They seem to think this thin excuse will last forever. It has lasted decades longer than it should have.

    What’s weird is the way they demand “respect” when they clearly have no respect for themselves. How demented is that?

  • Reuven

    Brilliantly analyzed!

  • DaCoachK

    You are so good at pinpointing the problems with the idiot Leftists and describing the problem and them so well. Bravo, Daniel Greenfield. So good to know such a smart guy is on our side before the shooting war starts.

  • Bubba Gump

    Summed it up pretty good. Will not stop Bammy from conducting a healing summit with the rioters and sending our hard earned tax money.

  • MLCBLOG

    Fabulous exposee. How do I spell that? Fantastic reveal.

    I can attest to the absolute truth of this article’s fabric, having been there among the demonstrators and their organizers in many venues over a few years back in the 1960′s. One older and saner observer remarked They are still saying the same thing they did in the 1930′s. Exactly.

  • Fredrick Maxie

    I’m amazed at the racism that is displayed on this site.

  • Capt Bob

    Is ISIS paying Sharpton to keep the problems going for the United States????

  • Capt Bob

    Is Sharpton being paid by the ISIS to keep problems going for the United States??