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Video Blamed for Violence in Ferguson

by Rush Limbaugh - Aug 18,2014

RUSH: So after all of this talk about the police being too militarized, what does the governor do? He calls out the National Guard. It’s the military. And you know what else? He didn’t tell Obama. Nixon didn’t tell Obama. Somehow that’s big news. Obama didn’t know they were gonna call out the Guard. Apparently Obama didn’t want the Guard out. Once again a video is being blamed for all the problems. First the video in Benghazi, now a video in St. Louis.


BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites because this video, a report’s out today that the videotape of the gentle giant robbing the convenience store was withheld at the request of the DOJ, which is Eric Holder, which is Barack Obama. Are you surprised to hear that?

Washington didn’t know that Nixon had called out the Guard. What do you mean, they’re suppressing the video? DOJ is claiming they had the video suppressed because they were afraid it would inflame the situation and turn Ferguson into another Benghazi. They didn’t say that, I added that, because Benghazi is nothing but a cheap Republican scandal, don’t forget. Nothing really happened there. Nothing to see there.


Did you hear meathead, Rob Reiner, the stupid idiot that is considered to be Hollywood brilliance, came out and said, “You know what?” He was being interviewed by Larry King on Larry King’s Internet show, which means nobody saw it. Rob Reiner said (paraphrasing), “Yeah, yeah, yeah, Tea Party, Hamas, same thing. You need to deal with ’em the same way. You need to eliminate ’em, wipe ’em both out, Tea Party, Hamas, same thing.” There you go. Larry King there nodding (imitating King), “Oh, very interesting point of view. It’s like Ken Starr, alien, kids smoking cigarettes, the bedroom, right.”

So Holder and Obama suppressed the video because they were afraid the facts of the case might damage, or dampen the rage against the cops. Remember, now, the original report, Michael Brown, gentle giant, walking down the street, so excited, just left his grandmother’s house or whatever, so excited, he’s just days away from college classes. And now, well, all of a sudden there’s a video released. Uh-oh, not so much walking down the street a few short minutes from the grandmother’s house eagerly anticipating history 101. No. He was robbing a convenience store.


Speaking of information that’s been suppressed. We have learned also today that the results of the autopsy commissioned by the Brown family show that all the shots were fired from the front of Mr. Brown. That’s three autopsies now. Three. St. Louis authorities did one, the feds did one, and the family did one. And the family hired Michael Baden, and Baden went out there, there was a press conference today, you know what? Even the public is getting into the press conference. The public is getting in there pretending to be journalists. They probably all tweet. The public was asking better questions than some of the media.

The question from the member of the public to Michael Baden was — they’re doing a clinical explanation of the shots, six of ’em, arms and head, top of the head — and a member of the public disguised as a journalist said, “Well, were any of these fatal? Which ones could have been survived?” And you know what, hey, that’s a fascinating question. You know what? I am glad you asked that. It took a member of the public to ask a question that everybody would like to know. And he said four of them were survivable, four shots, two of them to the head likely not. And everybody’s making a big deal out of the shot to the top of the head. The gentle giant, six four, bending over, what the hell’s that? How does he end up being shot on the top of the head, six four, gentle giant, short cop, how does it work? Must have been murder. That’s how it works.

So the bottom line is, though, that all these autopsies contradict one of the first things we heard, that the gentle giant had surrendered and was running away. Shot in the back. How many of you remember hearing that? Do you remember hearing that, Mr. Snerdley, the gentle giant was shot in the back? I mean last week, do you remember hearing that? (interruption) I do, too. I said, “Oh, that doesn’t look good. That’s not cool.”

Well, today we learned he was not shot in the back. Hmm. Three different autopsies. Holder said, “Yeah, we gotta do our own ’cause, you know, you can’t trust these local yokels.” He didn’t say that, but what else does he mean? What happens if they do another autopsy and they say, “Ah, ah, ah, ah! We’ve got an autopsy here and we found a bullet wound looks like it actually came from the rear”? What happens then?

Well, this news that all of the shots were fired in front of the gentle giant did not sit well with the New York Times who first reported it. I have it right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. They buried their own scoop, ’cause this was such a blow. This was such a blow to the narrative that Dr. Baden and the family’s lawyers had to hold in press conference today to try to explain away this.

Because being shot in the back was such a fundamental aspect of the case, and now the autopsy said, “No, no, no, no. There were no shots fired from the back.” That’s why they called the emergency press conference today and explained about other things. But don’t worry because Holder has ordered — actually it’s two autopsies. He’s ordered third, which I guess they’re gonna keep looking. I that audio sound bites to support all this, and you gotta hear ’em ’cause it’s Myth Making 101.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let’s go to audio sound bites. We have a montage Saturday and Sunday of a bunch of Drive-By Media people talking about the release of the video in St. Louis being blamed for the violence and looting in Ferguson, Missouri.

ABC ANNOUNCER: (bouncy music) Nights of looting and violence following the release of this video…

LESTER HOLT: A piece of video becomes a new flashpoint.

ALEX PEREZ: Anger here apparently sparked in part by the release of the surveillance video.

POPPY HARLOW: Protesters very angry that the police there released a surveillance video.

MOLLY LINE: … violence erupting after police in Ferguson, Missouri, released surveillance video.

STEVE OSUNSAMI: The pot boiled over Friday when the Ferguson police chief released this surveillance video.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: Protesters were outraged over the release of the video.

LELAND VITTERT: Federal authorities did not want police to release this video over concerns of further escalating the situation.

DON CHAMPION: It escalated Friday night after Ferguson police released a video.

ANDREA MITCHEL: There was peace, but then the local police chief released that video!

BOB SCHIEFFER: … releasing that video, which seemed to just really inflame people.

HOWARD KURTZ: This video of the shoplifting, it changed the storyline.

RUSH: Why? Would somebody tell me why? There is a misconception out there, until the video is released. The misconception is that a gentle giant was walking down the street, eager to start college classes, and a murderous, racist white cop came up and — for no reason, without much provocation — shot him. And then this video gets released on Friday, and it shows that the gentle giant was not innocent. He had shoplifted.

More information was added, not less. Nothing had changed. No lies had taken place. They just released a video, and this is enough to cause looting and riots and so forth? Why? When are these looters and rioters gonna figure out that all they gotta do is move five or six blocks and they can destroy other people’s stuff, instead their own town? But why would the release of the video cause this?

No, I’m talking about in a sane world. Why would more information, “Hey, this changes things a little bit…”? Because it destroyed the myth, folks. That’s why, because it destroyed the myth. The phony narrative that had been created all week long was all of a sudden destroyed because now the gentle giant could no longer be seen the way he was originally portrayed. I’ve got no dog in the fight. I think I’m like anybody else.

I hate seeing all it is, but I’m not gonna sit around here and join this chorus of people thinking, “We’ve gotta understand the rage. We gotta back off.” Do you know on Friday night…? I think it was Friday night. I’ve lost track of the dates. The cops just backed off and let it happen! What’s the purpose of police force? Defend and protect property, private property and people. The looting begins; they back off.

The highway patrol captain said, “Yeah, we thought it would be less provocative,” or some such thing. “We thought maybe let ’em just burn off some tension and steam.” Well, they’re destroying people’s property in the process. It’s like saying we better not try to catch ’em or stop ’em. It’s just gonna make ’em madder and they’ll just riot even more.

Well, using that logic, we shouldn’t ever try to apprehend any bad guy, if all it’s gonna do is make matters worse. Now, remember, this video release… The key thing to remember about this is that at the time of the incident, the cop, Darren Wilson, didn’t know. This was announced a little bit, a few hours after the video was released. The cop didn’t know that the gentle giant had robbed a convenience store.

But the gentle giant knew that he had robbed the convenience store and had to think that the cop knew. If you rob a convenience store, and six to 10 minutes later you encounter a cop on the street, what are you gonna think? You’re gonna think the word’s out, you’ve been caught, and they’re coming after you — and it might have some influence in the way you behave in that encounter. But the cop didn’t know.

So I don’t think the release of the video was done to taint the suspect or the gentle giant. I think release the video was done to explain the actions of the cop, particularly when it comes out later that he didn’t know, but the gentle giant did. That’s the thing. The suspect knew what he had done; the cop didn’t. Therefore the cop has no way of making sense of his behavior.

“Hey, young man, get off the street. You’re not allowed to be walking here in the middle of the street. Get off.”

Whatever reaction happened is not commensurate with somebody who made being reprimanded for jaywalking, but the cop doesn’t know. I think it’s fundamentally crucial and important. Jay Nixon, the governor, piled on, too. He thinks that the place was peaceful. They had peace there. They had peace in Ferguson ’til the cops released the video to smear Michael Brown’s character. How do you…? How do you smear some…?

More the myth.

How do you smear somebody’s character who had just shoplifted?

How do you how do you do that?

How’s that happen?


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