SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!

See Bill, See Bill Run, Run Bill Run!

See Hillary, See Hillary Run, Run Hillary Run!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© April 29, 2015

FERGUSON, MISSOURI

A series of protests and civil disorder began the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri.  Brown, a young African American, unarmed, was shot and killed by a white police officer when involved in an altercation with the officer.

The unrest followed with the typical scenario of looting, burning, and destroying the very neighborhood that mainly black Americans occupied at or below the poverty level.

Again, and typically, this sparked a vigorous debate in the United States about the relationship between law enforcement officers and African Americans, the militarization of the police, and a doctrine of force in Missouri with the mobilization of police and the Missouri National Guard.

Ferguson, Missouri is a small community outside of St. Louis with those in charge of municipal government mainly white.

As the details of the original shooting event emerged from investigators, police established curfews and deployed riot squads to maintain order. Along with peaceful protests, there was looting and violent unrest in the vicinity of the original shooting. The unrest continued on November 24, 2014, after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who shot Michael Brown.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Baltimore erupted in violence on Monday, April 27, 2015 as hundreds of rioters looted stores, burned buildings and injured at least 15 police officers following the funeral of a 25-year-old black man who died after he was injured in police custody.

Freddie Gray, an African American, made eye contact with a white police officer and then ran away.  He was pursued, arrested, handcuffed, and placed in a police cruiser.  On the way to jail, somehow his spine was broken, four days later he died.

Riots broke out just a few blocks from his funeral, they then spread through much of West Baltimore in the most violent U.S. demonstrations since arson and shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, last year.

A large fire consumed a senior center under construction near a church in East Baltimore on Wednesday night.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard as firefighters battled blazes set by looters. Police have made more than 250 arrests and Baltimore schools are closed as this is being written.  The Baltimore Orioles Major League Baseball Team canceled its Tuesday and Wednesday baseball game with the Chicago White Sox, and is forced to play its next home games (Friday thru Sunday) in Tampa, Florida where the Tampa Bay Rays will hit the field as the visiting team on their own home turf.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is African American, called the rioters "thugs" and imposed a citywide curfew for adults beginning Tuesday night, with exceptions for work and medical emergencies.

Again, typically, Gray's death on April 19 reignited a public outcry over police treatment of African Americans that flared last year after the killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, New York City and elsewhere.

Police in Baltimore on Monday used pepper spray on rioters who had sacked check-cashing and liquor stores. Looting spread to a nearby shopping mall and rioters smashed car windows and torched cars outside a major hotel.

Rioters twice slashed a fire hose while firefighters fought a blaze in the afternoon at a CVS pharmacy that had been looted before it was set on fire.

In addition to the Orioles baseball games being canceled, schools, businesses and train stations have been shut down in the city of 662,000 people 40 miles from the nation's capital of Washington, D.C.

"All this had to happen, people getting tired of the police killing the young black guys for no reason. ... It is a sad day but it had to happen," said Tony Luster, 40, who is on disability and was out on the street watching the police line.

A string of deadly confrontations between mostly white police and black men, and the violence it has prompted, will be among the challenges facing U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the first female in that office, who was sworn in on Monday.  She is also African American, as is the Baltimore mayor, Baltimore police chief, Baltimore fire chief, and the majority on the Baltimore city council. 

When poverty, repression, suppression, benign neglect, unemployment, teenage grade and high school drop outs become endemic to a place and space, you can be assured of one thing: the rhetoric will be the same. 

Following her swearing in, Attorney General Lynch condemned the "senseless acts of violence" and signaled that improving relations between the police and the communities they protect will be high on her agenda.  Later, while scenes of riots were broadcast on television, she briefed President Barack Obama, who in turn provided a rhetorical response to the tragedy.  Nothing changes.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE

Hillary Rodham Clinton, formerly Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, is running for President of the United States.  She and her husband, Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, have had controversy follow them since they were ensconced in public life in the State of Arkansas, where Bill Clinton was governor. 

While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, her husband had eleven of his thirteen speaking engagement, eight for at least $500,000, one for $600, 000 (Netherlands), one for $550,000 (China), one for $750,000 (Hong Kong) and two for $700,000 for the poor African nation of Nigeria.  This represents a grand total of $7.3 million between 2003 and 2012. 

Political consultant Peter Schweitzer has a new book out tracking the Bill and Hillary run.  It is called appropriately, Clinton Cash (2015).

The single Hong Kong speaking fee represents a ten year income for a working professional with a college education.  It represents a thirty year income for a Walmart employee and more than the lifetime income of many of those school dropouts in this story. 

AND WITH THIS DICHOTOMY, TOO!

Between 600,000 and 1,000,000 new books are published each year.  Yet, according to a Huffington Post Survey, 40 percent or 128 million Americans do not read a book a year; most Millennials don’t read newspapers getting most of their information on-line or the Internet. 

Few Europeans, and even fewer Asians admit to reading American writers outside of technology.  They claim most American writers are intellectually vapid.  No problem!  Entered into this placid oasis is the e-book industry with Amazon and others producing electronic books that may one day vie in numbers with the national debt.

Meanwhile, 14 percent of some 44 million Americans have such poor or non-existing reading skills that they could not read: See Bill, See Bill Run, Run Bill Run!  See Hillary, See Hillary Run, Run Hillary Run!

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