The Derp Also Rises

There is more unrest and turmoil in Ferguson today after the pathologically clueless Police Chief Thomas Jackson yesterday released a video that allegedly shows the deceased teenager, Michael Brown, stealing cigars from a convenience store, implying that this somehow justified or excused the teenager’s death. Several have pointed out that there was no way the officer who shot Michael Brown would have known he was a shoplifting suspect, assuming that he was.

This guy Jackson seriously needs to get completely out of the law enforcement business. Even if the video shows this — the snip of the video I saw didn’t — Police Chief Terminal Derp Jackson could have not released it to the public just yet while the situation in Ferguson is still fragile. Waiting a few days would have been nice. He could have shared it with investigators, and eventually to juries, fine. But releasing it to the public at this time was absolutely unnecessary and served no purpose other than to piss people off. And the Justice Department had asked Chief Derp to not release it.

My impression from some news stories is that there are gangs of looters who are a separate crew from the actual protesters, and some news stories have photos of young men identified as protesters who are guarding businesses to protect them from looters.

Rick Perry Indicted

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been indicted on abuse of power charges. Heh.

For the sake of fairness let us acknowledge that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is being investigated for doing something similar to what Perry is accused of doing, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Cuomo is guilty. If Cuomo is indicted, I bet it won’t happen until after the September primary, where he faces a more progressive challenger. But that’s another post.

For background [on the Perry indictment], see Think Progress and a somewhat more cautious analysis from Texas Monthly.