The mess in Berkeley, Missouri: Politician feeds racial anger against police and then finds that his city faces riots

Never mind that the mayor of Berkeley, Missouri and most of the police force is black.  The shooting by a white police officer of an 18-year-old black man who police said pointed a gun at the officer has generated two nights of violent demonstrations with looting.

The mayor of Berkeley, a St. Louis suburb, called for calm on Wednesday following violent protests that erupted one day after a suburban St. Louis police officer shot a black 18-year-old who police said pointed a gun at the officer at a gas station. 

Scuffles had broken out early Wednesday between police officers and a vocal crowd of several hundred people who taunted the officers at the scene. One officer was injured after he was stuck with a brick and police reported several small explosives being used by protesters. There were four arrests. . . .

More on the violence is given here.

Four people were arrested for assaulting cops, police said.

You have to love this mayor when he says: "The Police Did Not Initiate This Like Ferguson." The mayor claims that there is no comparison between Antonio Martin's shooting and that of Michael Brown, but it is comments such as this that only feed on the notion that Michael Brown was some innocent individual and adds .

I can assure you that did not happen last night, OK.  We had a policeman responding to a call protecting the residents of the City of Berkeley and the call came through the dispatch office in reference to this young man was shoplifting. . . .

So far, the two cases seem extremely similar.  Indeed, if anything, Michael Brown's actions were worse as he threatened the store clerk with violence.

When the officer came there, the video shows that the deceased pointed a gun that has been recovered, at the officer, and I think that the officer because he stumbled might have saved his life.  Because when he stumbled and had a chance to fire and take the young man's life . . .

The big difference here is really only that there was video tape.  But the rest is very similar: in both cases the officers' lives were threatened and they acted to protect themselves.

The problem here is that the mayor of Berkeley feeds on the feelings that create these riots and then he can't control them when the rioters turn on his city.

Of course, NYC mayor de Blasio has found that his calls for no demonstrations until the funeral of the two officers who were killed is ignored.

More than 1,000 anti-cop protesters defied Mayor de Blasio and flooded Manhattan Tuesday evening, marching through the Fifth Avenue shopping district before heading uptown.“The mayor says stop that, we say f–k that!” the mob chanted at one point. 

Other slogans were of the sort that Hizzoner has denounced as “hateful” and “inappropriate” in the wake of Saturday’s assassinations of two city cops. 

“NYPD, KKK, how many kids did you kill today?” the protesters shouted. 

The demonstrators, some carry­ing a banner that read “Stop Racist Police Terror,” started marching south from 59th Street on the sidewalks, but later blocked traffic on Fifth and Madison Avenues. . . .

Of course, comparing the NYPD to the KKK should draw a rebuke from the mayor.

How an AR-15 was used to protect a gas station from looting in Ferguson

This story shows that some humanity has survived the events in Ferguson.  From Reuters:

Since looting first erupted following the August police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown, nearly all the businesses in a 2 square mile area of this St Louis suburb have had to board up. One exception - a Conoco gas station and convenience store.
At least a dozen stores have been set ablaze and others looted in Ferguson . . . .
On Tuesday night, as police and soldiers took up positions in the parking lots of virtually every strip mall and big box store around it, the forecourt of the brightly lit gas station was busy with customers.
One, a six feet, eight-inch tall man named Derrick Jordan – “Stretch,” as friends call him - whisked an AR-15 assault rifle out from a pickup truck parked near the entrance.
Jordan, 37, was one of four black Ferguson residents who spent Tuesday night planted in front of the store, pistols tucked into their waistbands, waiting to ward off looters or catch shoplifters.
Jordan and the others guarding the gas station are all black. The station's owner is white.
. . . By some accounts, the Brown shooting has heightened racial tensions in the city. But not at the gas station.
"We would have been burned to the ground many times over if it weren’t for them,” said gas station owner Doug Merello, whose father first bought it in 1984. . . .

With riots still going on in Ferguson, the New York Times publishes Darren Wilson's address

From Howard Kurtz over at Fox News:

The New York Times, whether consciously or not, has just endangered Darren Wilson’s life. 

With tensions running high in Ferguson over the lack of an indictment for Wilson’s killing of Michael Brown, the paper has published the officer’s approximate address -- the street and town where he lives with his new wife, who also is named. 

Given the racial animosity unleashed by Brown’s death, given the rioting and the looting and the stores that were set afire, how can a news organization make it easier for some crazy zealot to track down Wilson? 

But there it is in the paper: 

“Officer Wilson and [blank] own a home together on [blank] Lane in [blank], Mo., a St. Louis suburb about a half-hour drive from Ferguson.” 

I mean, why not add a locator map?  . . . .

It turns out that even a diehard gun control advocate state Senator carries a concealed handgun for protection

An anti-gun state Senator in Missouri was caught carrying a concealed handgun with her at a protest in Ferguson Missouri.  There is obviously no problem with her carrying, though in this case she was drunk, but it is interesting how she understands the benefit of having a gun for self protection.  From KMOV:

Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed had a gun in her possession at the time she was arrested Monday night outside the Ferguson Police Department, according to Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson. 

Nasheed declined comment about the having the weapon, but did tell News 4 she has a concealed carry permit. A Ferguson police officer said Nasheed was carrying a fully-loaded 9mm handgun and additional rounds of ammunition. . . .  

Nasheed was formally charged with Failure to Obey Lawful Order of Police and Manner of Walking in the Roadway.  She was released from St. Ann jail before 11:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. . . .

What should people do when the police can't be there to protect them?: With grand jury decision due soon in Ferguson, gun sales surge

From CNN:

Lately, Dan McMullen has been bringing an extra gun to his office in Ferguson, Missouri. 

McMullen runs Solo Insurance on West Florissant close to where looting and vandalism briefly broke out in early August after a police officer shot to death teenager Michael Brown. 

"I bring an extra gun now only because it has a bigger magazine," McMullen says. He began carrying it after tensions increased in the area following the shooting. He says he would never use it to protect his business, but he would use it to save his life. 

"So maybe I get trapped here or something and have to have a John Wayne shootout," McMullen says before interrupting himself, smiling. "That's the silly part about it: Is that going to happen? Not a chance. But I guess, could it? I'm the only white person here." 

McMullen is particularly cautious now, as all of Ferguson and much of the nation waits to see whether a grand jury will indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting. Though the grand jury has until January to issue its ruling, the prosecutor's office has said a decision could come in mid-November. . . .

Scary: Harvard Prof. Charles Ogletee just makes things up about the Ferguson case

Professor Charles Ogletree's statements about what happened in Ferguson even seems to make Chris Matthews uncomfortable.  The strong certainty by which he claims that Michael Brown was shot in the back and that he had his hands up and was trying to surrender is surprising.  It is concerning that a professor at Harvard Law School

Video of Michael Brown robbing convenience store. This is not a very nice guy. Believable that he would get into fight with police.

I wanted to wait until some evidence was in about the Ferguson, Missouri shooting.  However, after watching this video of a robbery that Michael Brown committed shortly before he was shot by police, I find it credible that Brown could instigate a fight with a police officer.  This is one big guy who was very belligerent.  Whether he also attacked the police officer isn't clear at this point, but I would find it quite plausible that he did.

More commentary from a former federal prosecutor on this new video is available here.