37 thoughts on “The Lie Being Told about Ferguson and Israel”

1. Thanks for calling attention to this, even if it is merely a case of fringe-y nut-job wackos seeking any excuse to incite against Israel by accusing us of falsely-imagined wrongdoing. Here in Israel, I was not aware of the Ferguson flap until this week when I caught a news report that must have been impelled by the announcement of the grand jury’s verdict acquitting the police officer. There does seem to be a parallel that might be drawn, here, in that there is a similar disregard of facts and the legal process by non-objective parties, in order to press forward a social agenda.

   However, I just read an interesting comment on the Ferguson incident citing some of the facts that seem to have been disregarded by many in the media. Its link address is: “http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ferguson-shooting-13-facts/2014/11/25/id/609483/?ns_mail_uid=62876365&ns_mail_job=1597070_11252014&s=al&dkt_nbr=lprtenju”.

2. The media has been a little slow in letting out all the video that show the ‘victim’ in the Ferguson affair attacking the police officer in his car, and trying to get the Police Officer’s gun from the seated Officer’s hip after the ‘victim’ robbed a small store. The grand jury got to see all the information, minus the doctored ‘false’ video that was initially given to the press.

   Truth and justice is not a part of any of what is said by the media anymore, and hasn’t been for decades. The Adversary has been programming 90% of the information since the 60’s. You can find facts, and you can find people to listen to news…however, the facts are generally not added to the news until the information is too little, and too late to matter as actions and choices have already been taken or made.

   We are in the wind-up to the End of Days, and deception is the rule now.
   I don’t suggest not trying to get the truth out, but I think it’s pointless to get angry about the deception winning the hearts and minds of men…particularly since it will be getting worse, not better. Much as I like the idea of making the world a better place for Mashiach to rule, Yeshua warned us exactly what would happen, and that even the elect could be deceived.

   Please consider that the Adversary does his best work in an angry or fearful mind, and that he will use your emotions against you. He’s doing a great job in Ferguson, and managing to catch up Israel into the mix like one big Xmas present for the world. And if you notice, it doesn’t even have to make sense anymore to get bogus information on some form of media these days.

3. @PL: I agree that the public either doesn’t have all the facts or they choose to disregard them in favor of the portrait being painted by CNN, NBC, and so on.

   @Questor: It is true that our world is a broken place where terrible things happen all the time. I don’t know how much worse it is now than in decades or centuries past. The history of mankind is pretty bloody.

4. @James

   Our world is actually less barbaric on a wide scale most of the time than in the past…the damage I see being done is to the soul and minds of people caught up in the deceit of the media; entertainment, and news both framing a mindset to take people away from even the consideration of G-d and what He desires for us. I truly am only concerned about the Adversary making any imprint on your day by using your outrage against you.

   I don’t shut my eyes to anything that is going on…I merely refuse to hear the media line, and choose to search out the facts using the web, until I have a less emotional picture of what is going on. Watch, as we are ordered to, and act where you can, but keep your personal reaction disengaged except as a spur to action.

5. We are seeing the separating of the sheep from the goats. Perilous times, indeed. Does anyone cry for Har Nof?
   For a very interesting lesson, if interested:
   

6. Seriously; no one’s going to comment on the video Cynthia posted?

   1. Maybe listening through an hour-long lecture is somewhat daunting? It’s a bit off-topic, unless someone wishes to claim that unjustifiable calumny against Jews really *is* justifiable as long as Jews (in general or even merely in the aggregate) are not perfect. In the context where the lecture was presented, its purpose was to exhort the Jews of its audience to pursue ever-greater uprightness. But taking it out of that context makes it sound like an excuse to behave unjustly against relatively innocent victims such as the Jewish people as a whole, or those in Israel more particularly, by ignoring the specific facts of any given situation or event. It’s quite true that keeping the whole Torah yet failing on one small point renders the sinner just as guilty as if he had transgressed everything (cif.: Jam.2:10). However, that does not mean that a sinner must bring every possible sacrifice for even the slightest error, nor that law-courts should assign the death penalty for jay-walking. The demands of justice and fairness in human interactions are in an entirely different context from the goals of spiritual perfection.

      This post reminds me of another recent one asking about a couple of statements in Talmud that could too easily be misunderstood if one did not examine their context carefully.

   2. I have to agree with PL. An hour is a long time to devote to a video. Truth be told, I tend not to watch video content that’s more than about five minutes long just because I don’t have the time to devote to them. Text content is much faster to absorb.

7. I don’t always go to every link or listen to a full video either, but I thought it might be important in this context of violence [here and there] and incitement. Thank you, PL, for the statement about law courts assigning the death penalty for jaywalking and the context you put it in about sin and so forth. Over “Thanksgiving Weekend,” many people were discussing the situation in Ferguson. Not only is it rationalized that if all the officer knew about Michael is that he was jaywalking it still makes sense that the officer swerved his car in front of the citizen when he didn’t stop jaywalking (but, instead, said they were almost home) — it is argued the courts haven’t opened Michael’s past. I pointed out that sealing of the record of youth happens for lots of people on a daily basis, not only black people and not especial for Michael (if indeed anything is there in his past, many want to presume so to supposedly explain his death). The response was that the record shouldn’t be sealed for anybody, that we should see all that. I then said I would be fine with that but that it wasn’t what I was taught [cue confused look because many people arguing don’t put all their thinking together honestly — thus they end up hypocrites or very dark indeed]. I mentioned that someone in our immediate situation has a ton of huge sins (the kind that hurt others significantly and Paul would have been incensed over) and who’s consequences I still live with [not only in my mind] but that I’m not supposed to say anything about or remember it (which then means this person is supposed to be not only tolerated but honored). Finally, it is grasped that killing Michael for his imperfections or his scary skin (state of the officer’s mind) isn’t itself defensible (so, even if it is still believed, it can’t be a persuasive discussion). Too many killings lately have been about the out-of-proportion fear in a non-black person’s mind when pursuing a black person who didn’t start the interaction.

   As for the video, before listening to it, it seemed Cynthia’s intention in linking to it was to agree with the opening “meditation” (as well as “side” with Israel); I was surprised when the early moments of the recording had someone saying that Israel is the cause of her own suffering. I, like you PL, don’t like to default to this kind of stance. I had to listen on; we have real violence in these places. As it turns out, there are two replies the rabbi speaking gives to put in the category of seeming to want to quell the rationalization or even misdirection the opening idea might give to some. For one, no; he says those who are given to punish Israel will not be rewarded. Two, he completely turns around what he is saying such that the real truly it is Arabs/non-Jew People of the old Palestine who are the problem. Thus, he goes on, the wrong is to give non-Jews rights, to tolerate their existence in Israel, and even the habit of Jews to concentrate in cities instead of on the land where they are less likely to encounter Arabs. I didn’t see any call to righteousness. I’m glad you see this video as out of place, PL. In this particular subject — context, as you say — all taken (and not just the early remarks), what really seems to be happening is Cynthia is defending profiled targeting.

8. I listened to it twice. I gleaned many lessons from it. There is no neutral. It does have applications to us, although, I am not Jewish. What he taught about HaShem and ‘regrets’, IMO, was enlightening.
   However, I understand about it being an hour long being daunting. Thank you, for letting me share it.

9. Incidentally, the officer didn’t do his job. He didn’t file a required police report. Also, prints were not taken or checked for from the gun (quite neglectful when Michael is accused of grabbing the gun). The officer was allowed to bag his gun himself, and his initial statements weren’t recorded or noted; he was allowed to fabricate his story in his own timeframe outside the usual procedure.

   The leak about cigarellos (again, there’s been no trial, either of the officer or of Michael) was clearly reported in “the mass media” other than FOXnews (and that style or sentiment) [not to exclude them but to counter the falsehood that it wasn’t — and to include them, FOX, as mass media]. Early on, it was also reported that the officer did not interact with Michael over cigarellos at all.

   Even the people I mentioned who are against Michael and so on, and pro racial-profiling, know and stated that the story got changed, later, on the officer’s side. They’re happy without a trial and want to just go on talking about marijuana, and, Why aren’t they (FOX) talking about marijuana?” Not that these people haven’t tried it. But they have (always have had) clean personas (and aren’t black).

   1. @Marleen — Did you read the article at the address I cited in my first reply above? Is it your contention that the grand jury did not honestly and comprehensively evaluate *all* the evidence that was to be found? It was their contention that the officer did do his job properly, and that he acted in accordance with the law and with the circumstances. It is therefore somewhat irrelevant what any of the media might say either pro or con. Bringing racial theories into this is therefore a red herring that misleads the public solely to advance a social agenda.

10. I am not very good at writing and expressing my thoughts, but here it goes: Just as Palestinians are refugees, so is the black race here in this nation being consigned to refugee like status. Through the ‘war on poverty’ the black race has learned dependence on government welfare and due to the destruction of the family by stripping men of their fatherhood, young men have no direction and black on black crime is rampant. Who benefits? 22 Arab nations but they refuse to take in the Palestinian refugees. Who benefits? Since the Shah of Iran, muslim refugees are being brought into the nation by the plane loads, who benefits? The black race is being recruited into Islam, who benefits? This nation has been stripped of it’s Christian identity and Israel is fighting for it’s Jewish identity. May the Temple be restored in our day-Amen.

11. The point of my blog post was to state that we cannot compare the situation in Ferguson or more generally, “racial tensions” in our own nation to the dynamic between Jewish Israel and the Arab Palestinians. There have also been comparisons between that dynamic and the situation of Native Americans, which I believe is also inaccurate.

    We’ll never know for sure what happened the day Michael Brown died but then, that’s not the reason I wrote this blog post.

12. PL, Am I to believe your article or my “lying eyes” and ears? If I was watching the news and saw reported something that your article says was not reported or certainly wouldn’t have been reported by the favorites to bash, or was hard to find (which is untrue), I’m not going to say I didn’t see in the news what I did see in the news.

    It is my contention that the jury went over (as best they could and without the usual assistance of a prosecutor because the prosecutor didn’t act like a prosecutor and even at one point gave them outdated law to guide them) what they had. I don’t think they had all the media coverage (early on) to go over.

    They didn’t have what they didn’t have, which matters. Although I would not expect them to have media coverage in their deliberations, the coverage suggests the officer wasn’t forthcoming (besides the fact prints weren’t taken). The jury went mostly with the officer’s version of events that he was allowed to concoct.

    The story isn’t over. A grand jury decision not to indict is not the same thing as a trial. There is no “double jeopardy” situation at this time for Darren Wilson. There could, theoretically, still be a trial. Additionally, review of the case is significant to correct future handling of cases. I do hope reforms will occur.

    1. @Marleen — Do I infer correctly, from your use of the phrase “allowed to concoct”, that you disbelieve Officer Wilson and would accuse him of reporting the event incorrectly; and that you likewise believe that the entire justice system conspired with him to whitewash the unjustified persecution of a man merely because of his skin color, and that the man was entirely innocent of criminal behavior? Do you believe you have more information than was given to the grand jury or to any other legally-sanctioned investigator?

       You claim that “prints were not taken”. Are you certain that no one tried? After a struggle between two parties over possession of a weapon, it is quite possible that all possible fingerprints would be smudged and unreadable, so there could be good reason why no such evidence was included in any reports or deliberations.

       As I recall the article I cited, it did not say that none of the media had reported any of the facts that it cited. It merely contended that these facts had been under-reported or obscured. So I believe you if you say that you did read or see or hear at least some of them mentioned. It appears that you are nonetheless disregarding these along with the grand-jury conclusion. Do you have some personal knowledge of the cultural environment in the town of Ferguson, that you should be so convinced that reforms of the police and perhaps the entire Justice system are needed there? I can only look on from afar, and recognize that I cannot draw any conclusions about what might have occurred there except to notice that there seems to be a lot of ignorant second-guessing and jumping to unwarranted conclusions going on.

13. James, I tend to agree with you that we will never know what happened with the officer and Michael and, as well, that we are better off not comparing that to what is going on in Israel. I don’t think it’s helpful to our country (nor to specifically black or minority citizens) to try to draw a similarity, and the history in Israel and of the people involved there plus what goes on there now is very different.

14. Actually, it’s quite possible they tried to take prints and didn’t find Michael’s prints (thus prints didn’t support the idea that Michael grabbed the gun), so they didn’t find it helpful to report the results. Sir (PL) do you purport to know about our legal system and, further, to equate a grand jury with an actual trial? You are mistaken.

    1. @Marleen — As an American citizen who lived in the USA most of my life, though not a lawyer or otherwise directly employed within the justice system, I know only what other Americans should know of how the system is designed to operate and the flaws that may derive from human abuse of the system. Thus I know that a grand jury is convened to review evidence in significant cases, where there is some question about a need for broader objectivity because those who normally operate some aspect of the system are accused of error or violation. Its purpose is to review evidence to determine if there is sufficient reason to indict any of the accused parties, and sufficient to support a trial. Therefore, unless you believe that the grand jury in this case was hindered from performing its function, or deliberately rigged in some manner — which would require a much higher-level conspiracy to achieve — its conclusions must be considered untainted by those accused of wrongdoing.

       Note that a lack of evidence is not itself evidence that an event did not occur. Hence a lack of prints on the weapon is not evidence that it was not touched or grabbed by any particular party. Further, the surfaces of a police service handgun that might hold a partial fingerprint are also easily smudged in normal handling, so a lack of such evidence is hardly surprising. As an Israeli citizen who works with the Border Police, I am sufficiently aware of firearms to be able to suggest that much with certainty. Thus, such a point should not be a significant emphasis in considering the entire body of evidences that were able to be collected and then examined by the grand jury. The point I wish to emphasize is that one cannot determine the truth of a matter by inferring as factual something for which there is no evidence. In this case, that includes examining the background of witnesses, including Officer Wilson, to evaluate the veracity of their testimony, which *is* evidence.

       So what we have in a grand jury is a committee of people evaluating essentially the same evidence that a trial jury would have to evaluate, in order to determine if even the accusation of wrongdoing is justifiable and try-able. In this case, the determination was that it was not.

       As an Israeli living in Israel, I look at these reports from a distance that can be measured not only by thousands of miles but by very different cultural expectations. It seems to me that those who disbelieve the grand jury conclusions are seeking to claim that some vast conspiracy, inspired by racial hatred and fear, has distorted justice and continually does so on a broader level. I perceive in this an anti-American leftist philosophical influence and strategy that fosters class warfare. It is very far from the ideals expressed and envisioned by the founding fathers of the American enterprise, which included the ideal of unifying diverse people and viewpoints to the benefit of all. If there is any hope for America to continue as a nation (let alone “one nation under G-d”), it must be sought in a return to these ideals and a deliberate rejection of inter-communal warfare. It is only by insisting on being “indivisible” that there can be any hope of pursuing “liberty and justice for all”.

15. @ Marleen

    Who are your sources for the information you have stated? I would love to get a comprehensive view of what did happen that day, since the information I have does not match what your sources say.

16. I believe it was hindered as well as not helped, as I have been saying in more specific (but not all-encompassing or comprehensive ways as there are thousands of pages to analyse and there is much law and precedent and change to law to consider). As far as race goes, please review the conversation as to who brought that in. But there IS racism in this country (as you can see) on a wide scale now (though people deny) as well as when the country was founded. Do you not know the history of rigged courts and so on? We are only improved when we can look at ourselves. I lived in a county in MO for a while that had people in the sheriff’s department assaulting women. They were getting away with it, until they ceased getting away with it; “disproved” allegations were proven. I don’t think everyone should have shut up for the sake of unity. I, during that time-frame, became a committee chair, and a new sheriff was elected (but it won’t matter if the system wasn’t reformed). As for my saying they may have not presented fingerprint results for a reason, I was responding to your accusation that I’m assuming they didn’t check for prints. If they did check for prints, the results should be presented — whatever they are. You can’t have it both ways. Missouri is going to have to clean up its act. There are states that have varying levels of secessionist style nullification agitators or sympathisers, and that is quite possibly demonstrated by the “prosecution” giving the grand (not trial) jury outdated law as if it applied. You are mistaken that the situation through which this grand jury had to work was reasonably like a trial in its functioning (besides the fact that yes the officer was permitted to concoct a story — and wasn’t even cross-examined like other people were).

17. http://www.inquisitr.com/1424123/darren-wilson-who-is-the-man-behind-the-gun-in-the-michael-brown-shooting/
    http://www.inquisitr.com/1430978/ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-fired-from-previous-police-department-shuttered-due-to-race-issues/
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/darren-wilsons-first-job-was-on-a-troubled-police-force-disbanded-by-authorities/2014/08/23/1ac796f0-2a45-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203

18. Sorry, James. I should have included in that post this precursor as last stated by “ProclaimLiberty” in posting: In this case, that includes examining the background of witnesses, including Officer Wilson, to evaluate the veracity of their testimony, which *is* evidence.

19. @Cynthia Dunaway: Are you pleased? Darren not only had a father, as did Michael, he had at least two step-fathers. He’s bested Michael in more ways than one. Check out the mom.

20. Marleen, I am trying to get people to see the big picture and not fall for the media diversion of “Squirrel!” (Taken from “Up”). The Sultan is a fantastic writer, I am not.
    http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-to-make-your-own-race-riot.html#comment-form

21. Oh, boy, here we go again:
    http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/12/03/no-indictment-in-videotaped-nypd-chokehold-death/

22. The big picture was…
    oh, never mind.

    By the way, as for the squirrels you chase, quoting a Jewish guy doesn’t make you right. Also, early modern Israel was communist*; I learned that at my local Jewish Community Center in a community that can hardly be accused of mooching “government” money, although the governor is aiming to ruin the schools (which have been excellent). [*Note to those who haven’t gone to where Cynthia thinks she has a good writer: I didn’t mention that for no reason.]

    Perhaps, one day, the people you follow will hear Jesus say in regard to themselves and their followers to his Father, Forgive them, they didn’t know what they were doing.

    Juxtaposed thoughts for the day: Officers suspected Garner, 43, was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. A full video of the incident was shot by a bystander, which shows Garner arguing with police but not being physically aggressive before he was taken down. Witnesses said he caught the eye of cops when he helped break up a fight on the sidewalk. AND Previous complaints against the 29-year-old cop in the incident include a 2012 settlement for a public strip-search that cost the city $30,000. Another lawsuit against Pantaleo alleges he arrested a man with no cause.

    Your other link goes to the end of the comments section. And I can only guess the assaulted women in my (all white) county should have tried harder to figure out how not to be assaulted by people getting out of sheriff cars. Like, they probably shouldn’t have been driving out in public without male family members chaperoning them.

    1. @Marleen — I haven’t had time to follow Cynthia’s links to see why you might have invoked the notion of “communism” in early periods of the formation of the modern Israeli state. But I think I should point out that they were philosophical practical communists, not political ones; and they were operating collective farms, much like the communes in the USA in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and even some formed during the 1950s and -60s. These were quite a different phenomenon from anti-democratic Bolshevist Communism with its centralized totalitarian control of economic and social planning. In Israel, neither the government nor the political system nor the economic system in general was ever Communist. However, there was a very strong socialist theme in Israel’s government during the first forty years of modern Israeli statehood, and the Labor Party and others on the left side of Israel’s political spectrum tend to be social democrats even today after the intrinsic economic disaster of socialism as a political system has been demonstrated in a number of countries.

       As for who brought the notion of racism into the conversation, I believe it was the mainstream media. And the past occurrence of rigged courts does not allow one to assume rigging in any case merely because the outcome is disputed. One of the purposes of grand juries is to resolve accusations of malfeasance or misconduct.

23. That was a reference to Muslim/old-timey cultures.

    The women also could have ceases stopping like normal American people if the flashing lights showed up in the rearview mirror. They could have, instead raced home or just away. Or maybe they deserved what they got if one of their vehicle lights was out or they were five miles over the speed limit. Or worse, you know they deserved it if it was ten or twenty miles over. And, sheesh, shoplifting (not that anyone did this)… rape or at least molestation (these did happen) make all the sense in the world or can be written off.

24. I confess I am partial toward Jewish/Hebrew sources. The original lesson I shared was because, ( I listened twice) HaShem is telling us Ishmael’s nature. “Can a man take fire in his bosom and not get burned?” It is no accident that ‘Ishmael’ is being brought into this nation. Dearborn is mockingly called Dearbornstan. There are now (I am told) four mosques in the DFW area. Saudia Arabia is funding universities ‘middle east studies’. The ‘seeds of destruction’ are being sown in our nation. Churches are siding with Islam! Oklahoma tried to pass a law that said we would not recognize foreign law or courts in our state and we were told that is unconstitutional! May HaShem put a hedge of protection around those who seek Him. Shalom, Marleen, I’ve enjoyed our dialogue.

25. Outside of approving comments, I haven’t been paying attention to this conversation for a few days. Looks like there are three people invested in continuing this dialog. I don’t mind providing the forum for it as long as everyone can remain reasonably civil (given the emotionally charged topic involved) and you believe some positive outcome will result.

    1. @James — I don’t believe I have anything further to add.

26. I agree not all “communism” is or “communists” are Soviet/Bolshevic (while I’m not communist), PL, but in this country, now (and since McCarthyism), the term is used as a bogeyman to stir up hatred or fear or blind emotion on a topic. I’m not against Israel and socialism, etc., just adding context.

27. Your topic idea was worthwhile James. I guess you see, though, that there is more than one side that wants to make the connection you want to sever. As I said, I agree it’s not constructive.

28. It is so that those who ruthlessly punish Israel (rather than relate as respecting siblings) will not be rewarded, when they are not just and true as seems to be their compulsion; let this principle be known. And amen.

29. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2014/12/05/what-does-eric-garners-autopsy-tell-us/?hpt=ac_bn1 (medical, includes burking term, plethoric, etc.)

30. OK, I’m closing comments. The original blog post has nothing to do with the circumstances around Eric Garner’s death and only tangentially speaks of the situation occurring in Ferguson involving a completely different person who was shot. There are plenty of social media venues that discuss all of this ad nauseam and I never intended this blog post to be one of them. Thank you.

Comments are closed.