Ferguson seasons greetings

 

It was, indeed, a travesty as AmeriKKKa regularly offers up in this “post-racial” era.

trav·es·ty
ˈtravəstē/
noun
  1. a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.
    “the absurdly lenient sentence is a travesty of justice”
    synonyms: perversion of, distortion of, corruption of, misrepresentation of, poor imitation of, poor substitute for, mockery of, parody of, caricature of;

    farce of, charade of, pantomime of, sham
Words can’t express the anger and sadness I’m feeling. As rapper and activist Jasiri X told us this morning, “when we protest peacefully, they don’t hear us.” His song, “Do We Need to Start a Riot” was the perfect way to begin today’s show….
As a middle-aged white woman, I can’t possibly speak for my fellow citizens who are of African descent. So, I reached out to Jasiri X this morning for some help and to give him another chance to express what he’s feeling.
I also spoke with Mychal Denzel Smith, Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute and Contributing Writer for The Nation Magazine, who has spent much time in Ferguson in recent months and wrote “No Indictment for Darren Wilson, No Justice for Black Lives” last night, and agrees with Jasiri that they never for a moment believed there would be an indictment. That’s how it is when you know the deck is stacked against you.
As recently as yesterday, during my conversation with Jason Leopold, we both expressed hope (along with a large dose of naiveté, as I now understand) that, with the eyes of the world on them, the Grand Jury would hear all the evidence and rule accordingly, righteously. Hahahahahahaha.
What I didn’t take into account was the fact that the prosecutor acted as the perp’s defense attorney instead of doing his job as prosecutor which means GETTING AN INDICTMENT!
Charlie Pierce wrote about it at Esquire this morning.

The kindest evaluation of McCulloch’s record is that he is a very active prosecutor with a very clear sense of what he can make a grand jury do, if he chooses to do so, which he did not in this case, for reasons that are far from unclear. In the most high-profile case of his career, prosecutor Bob McCulloch insisted he was just a feather in the wind, just gathering evidence so the grand jury could make up its own mind, not directing it at all. And then, Monday night, he hummina-hummina’ed for seven full minutes before announcing the least shocking news of the day. Darren Wilson did not commit a crime by shooting Michael Brown dead in broad daylight in the middle of the street. But Bob McCulloch, public servant, knows what the real problem with this investigation was.

“The most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle and its insatiable appetite for something, for anything to talk about, following closely behind with the non-stop rumors on social media.”

Social media. He actually fking said that.

Nothing good will come of this. Nothing at all.

 

You can read all of the Grand Jury testimony here. Or just Darren Wilson’s part of it here:

Darren Wilson Testimony

 

Or save yourself some heartache and heartburn, and read the NY Times‘ annotated quotes. 

 

Either way, be forewarned, this is NOT justice.

 

The day is just beginning in Ferguson, and there are lots of protests planned for today. Peter Callahan of We Act Radio  has been on the ground, running their  live video stream, also gave us an update this morning. They’ll be streaming today, so check back regularly for updates.

 

Tomorrow is the last day before Thanksgiving. As much as I hope cooler minds prevail in the coming days, I understand the hurt and the horror of living as an African American in this country today, and the need for change. Real change. Now.

We’ll continue with coverage of the protests tomorrow with Susie Madrak of Crooks and Liars, radio or not.

***Update*** The Gliberal Goddesses gathered in the second hour today, as we do every other Tuesday morning. When I was writing up the show for this post, I neglected to include GottaLaff and Amy Simon’s appearance this morning. I’m just in a daze. Dazed and confused, and truly depressed. Next time, hopefully, glibness will ensue.***