[VIDEO] State of emergency issued in St. Louis County, Mo.

St. Louis County, Mo. has issued a state of emergency following a spate of violence amid protests marking the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown.

“In light of last night’s violence and unrest in the City of Ferguson, and the potential for harm to persons and property, I am exercising my authority as county executive to issue a state of emergency, effective immediately,” St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said in a statement obtained by FOX2.

Stenger said Police Chief Jon Belmar will have the authority to “exercise all powers and duties necessary to preserve order, prevent crimes, and protect the life and property of our citizens.”

Two instances of gun violence broke out Sunday night as protesters commemorated the death of Brown, an unarmed black man shot by a white police officer. One of the incidents allegedly involved a gunman firing at a group of police in an unmarked fan. Cops returned fire and the suspect is currently in critical condition in the hospital.

“The recent acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger,” Stenger said in the statement. “The time and investment in Ferguson and Dellwood will not be destroyed by a few that wish to violate the rights of others.”

Via: Fox News

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Guess Who Pays When Rioting Thugs Destroy Our Cities?

Possessing an incredible amount of perspicacity, Thomas Sowell is always a “Best Bet” to come up with logic by the tons when confronted with a sticky situation.  Defining the effects of the recent marauding of American cities couldn’t be analyzed and dissected by anyone any better than the good Doctor of Economics Thomas Sowell.

n his June 2, 2015 column Paying the Price,  he covers the question in the above headline in magna cum laude fashion by stating on the Baltimore riots, that that city, meaning its residents, “is now paying the price for irresponsible words and actions, not only by young thugs in the streets, but also by its mayor and the state prosecutor, both of whom threw the police to the wolves, in order to curry favor with local voters.”

Naturally the physical damage to properties was generally the result of the rioters who had larceny in their hearts and craze in their minds.  But the unbelievably poor judgment in the use of words during a crisis heightened time such as that, immeasurably worsened the after-effects. 

It may not be totally sourced with the rioters but it is highly conceivable that as Sowell says, “murders in Baltimore in May have been more than double what they were in May last year, and higher than in any May in the past 15 years.”  So in the face of the hard evidence, Sowell can’t be faulted for his statement on murders.  And another factor that can’t be overlooked is, again as Sowell states, “Meanwhile, the number of arrests is down by more than 50 percent.”

It only seems natural that when high state government officials such as the city’s Mayor and the State Prosecutor, to paraphrase Sowell, threw the police ‘under the bus of blame’ some of the ‘care’ that police have for their fellow citizens has to be dampened somewhat.  It is terribly discouraging to get chastised for doing one’s duties.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Baltimore Riots Will Cost Taxpayers at Least $20M

According to the Baltimore Sun, estimates put the cost of the city's riots around $20M...so far.

The $20 million figure includes expenses for police and firefighter overtime, damage to city-owned property and payment to other jurisdictions that assisted with policing duties.

Baltimore’s finance director, Henry J. Raymond, said that the city can cover the costs from its rainy day fund, but that it is only a temporary solution and that they are planning on requesting up to 75 percent reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That's right, Baltimore wants 75% of the costs of the rioting to fall on the backs of the American taxpayer.

"The city remains on strong financial footing,” Raymond told the newspaper. “Hopefully with the FEMA reimbursement, it will reduce the financial stress that we’re under. In terms of the city’s overall revenue structure, we’re on firm footing and we’ll move forward.”

Both the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Governor Larry Hogan have asked for federal aid.

The $20 million estimate includes the purchasing of equipment, like riot gear and tear gas and for public works crews to clean neighborhood streets affected by the rioting. Not included is the cost to businesses that were damaged.

So included in the $20M figure are the costs submitted by various city agencies but not other costs like economic impact and lost tax revenue. Other lost revenue include "the loss of conventions, tourism, leisure spending, and revenue from Orioles games that were closed to the public, canceled, or moved to other cities."

Via: Truth Revolt

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Disasters at Home and Abroad

From ISIS at Ramadi to riots at home, nothing is going right. “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”        – W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming” Things are starting to collapse, abroad and at home. We all sense it, even as we bicker over who caused it and why. ISIS took Ramadi last week. That city once was a Bastogne to the brave Americans who surged to save it in 2007 and 2008. ISIS, once known at the White House as the “Jayvees,” were certainly “on the run” — right into the middle of that strategically important city.

On a smaller scale, ISIS is doing to the surge cities of Iraq what Hitler did to his neighbors between 1939 and 1941, and what Putin is perhaps doing now on the periphery of Russia. In Ramadi, ISIS will soon do its accustomed thing of beheading and burning alive its captives, seeking some new macabre twist to sustain its Internet video audience. We in the West trample the First Amendment and jail a video maker for posting a supposedly insensitive film about Islam; in contrast, jihadists post snuff movies of burnings and beheadings to global audiences. We argue not about doing anything or saving anybody, but about whether it is inappropriate to call the macabre killers “jihadists.” When these seventh-century psychopaths tire of warring on people, they turn to attacking stones, seeking to ensure that there is not a vestige left of the Middle East’s once-glorious antiquities. I assume the ancient Sassanid and Roman imperial site at Palmyra will soon be looted and smashed.

Via: National Review

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New Study Shows Riots Make America Conservative

The recent spate of protests against police brutality have changed the way the left thinks about rioting. The old liberal idea, which distinguished between peaceful protests (good) and rioting (bad), has given way to a more radical analysis. “Riots work,” insists George Ciccariello-Maher in Salon. “But despite the obviousness of the point, an entire chorus of media, police, and self-appointed community leaders continue to try to convince us otherwise, hammering into our heads a narrative of a nonviolence that has never worked on its own, based on a mythical understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.” Vox’s German Lopez, while acknowledging the downside of random violence, argues, “Riots can lead to real, substantial change.” In Rolling Stone, Jesse Myerson asserts, “the historical pedigree of property destruction as a tactic of resistance is long and frequently effective.” Darlena Cunha, writing in Time, asks, “Is rioting so wrong?” and proceeds to answer her own question in the negative.

The direct costs of violent protests are fairly self-evident. People who may not have anything to do with the underlying grievances get injured or killed, their livelihoods are impaired, the communities in which the rioting takes place suffer property damage that can linger for decades, and the inevitable police response creates new dangers for innocent bystanders. The pro-rioting (or anti-anti-rioting) argument portrays this as the necessary price of worthwhile social change. Rioting can generate attention among people who might otherwise ignore the underlying conditions that give rise to it.

It is surely the case that some positive social reforms have emerged in response to rioting. Lopez highlights the Kerner Commission and diversity efforts in the Los Angeles Police Department. But the question is not whether rioting ever yields a productive response, but whether it does so in general. Omar Wasow, an assistant professor at the department of politics at Princeton, has published a timely new paper studying this very question. And his answer is clear: Riots on the whole provoke a hostile right-wing response. They generate attention, all right, but the wrong kind.

The 1960s saw two overlapping waves of protest: nonviolent civil-rights demonstrations, and urban rioting. The 1960s also saw the Republican Party crack open the New Deal coalition by, among other things, appealing to public concerns about law and order. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson swept every region of the country except the South running a liberal, pro-civil-rights campaign; in 1968, Richard Nixon won a narrower victory on the basis of social backlash.

Via: New York Magazine

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Los Angeles welfare bum threatens riot over EBT failure

In a man on the street interview, posted to World Star Hip-Hop, residents on Los Angeles’ Skid Row threaten to tear the city apart over a hiccup in their welfare benefits.

The outage of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system was apparently caused when the vendor Xerox Corp. was performing a routine check on their back up systems and it caused a system failure.

While there are some reports that the system has come back online now, the interruption to the service has caused some raised tempers.

“My heart goes out to people who don’t have food right now” one welfare recipient told WSHH.

Another man explained how he and his cohorts had been personally impacted by the failure of the system. “We had to cancel a picnic today cuz we were gonna use EBT cards to buy hamburgers and stuff.”

The man, wearing a Vietnam veterans hat,  explained that he was organizing a cookout for veterans but had to cancel it due to the failure. “We couldn’t do it,” he said.

One man told WSHH the bare reality of what the system failure meant for him. “We don’t eat,” he said. “We don’t drink. We don’t have anything.”

But not all the shiftless takers were content merely to complain.

“They had better resolve something because if it stays like this there is gona be a uproar in the city of L.A.,” one public assistance layabout intoned. When asked to elaborate, he responded, “A Rodney King, baby”

The Rodney King riots, which went on for six-day in 1992 in South Central L.A., stemmed from the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers on charges of police brutality for the videotaped beating of King. Fifty-three people died in the riots and more than 2,000 people were injured.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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Report: Obama Supporters Stepping Up Riot Threats

AP

A few weeks ago, Twitchy reported on Twitter users threatening to riot if President Obama loses to GOP rival Mitt Romney. With four days to go until Election Day, we decided this is a topic worth revisiting.  The results of our Twitter searches are not pretty:

@TattooedPretty

If Romney win , me obama and 2 chainz going to start a riot and shoot his ass !—
   
Dimz @turn2two

If Obama lose it's going to be the biggest riot in history… Beacause, I'm going to start it!
  
K.dot @BanitaApplebumm

If Romney were to win, I feel like ppl are gonna riot the streets..

Click on the link below to read more

Via: Twitchy

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