[ by Charles Cameron — a follow up — noticeable individual protesters and foreign commentary ]
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I began the first part of this double post with a strange confluence of religious and political groups — The Nation of Islam, Black Panthers and Moorish Temple — in Ferguson. I’ll begin this one with an interesting pairing of gangs — Crips and Bloods, standing together in Ferguson to prevent looting:
Some Powerful Shit : Two CRIPS and a BLOOD gang member, together preventing people LOOTING this shop… #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/ZIeT0ncQ9J”
— Dee (@JiggySince92) August 19, 2014
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There are some interesting individuals protesting in Ferguson, and some comments from “far flung corners of the globe” — as if the globe had quarters and someone had flung them, far, presumably, from here.. Some of these individuals and foreign commentators you may admire, some you may intensely dislike: I’m providing data points, your conclusions are up to you.
For instance, you might well feel some admiration for this old lady and her commitment to voicing her own moral perspective:
90-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor & Palestinian Rights Advocate Arrested in #Ferguson Protest. http://t.co/GToztUGzkF pic.twitter.com/i0vigvcmLQ
— David Harris-Gershon (@David_EHG) August 19, 2014
but find the following tweet, sharing at least the overall thrust of that perspective, less appealing:
Many Palestinians have been expressing empathy for & solidarity w/ protesters in #Ferguson. HT @thecrisismag #Gaza pic.twitter.com/NFSxUnPoVI
— David Harris-Gershon (@David_EHG) August 14, 2014
Or not. Opinions differ.
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Here’s another venerable protester:
Houston Gay, a 103 year old who marched with MLK 50 years ago, at a peaceful demonstration in #Ferguson. pic.twitter.com/bA7NUiK60q
— Beacon (@BeaconReader) August 14, 2014
And another view from abroad, represented in this case by Tibetan monks in exile who have traveled to Ferguson to join the protests.
@AntonioFrench meeting the Tibetan monks who came from India to support peace and justice in #ferguson #dontshoot pic.twitter.com/bGvYT3E2nW
— Liz Peinado (@LizPeinadoSTL) August 17, 2014
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Then there are those who would takr advnatage of the situation to score points — the Ayatollah Khamenei, for instance:
Based on global statistics,US govt is the biggest violator of #HumanRights. Besides int’l crimes,it commits crimes against its ppl.#Ferguson
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) August 17, 2014
I haven’t found a similar tweet for Egypt or N Korea, but they may be out there…
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Amnesty International has a similar critique of US foreign policy, but unlike Khomaini’s Iran, isn’t in the business of runnig a repressive state…
US can't tell other countries to improve their records on policing and peaceful assembly if it won't clean up its own human rights record
— AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) August 19, 2014
It’s surely noteworthy that “Ferguson” is the first occasion to my knowledge in which Amnesty has been sufficiently disturbed to send observers to a situation in the US.
Amnesty, too, has its detractors, as witness a flurry of tweets responding to the one above, one of which, from Allen McDuffee, was picked up by Buzzfeed and widely quoted — while being hastily removed from the CSIS site itself:
Did this really just happen? pic.twitter.com/CkVEkrdoGH
— Allen McDuffee (@AllenMcDuffee) August 19, 2014
That dispute, at any rate, appears to have ended amicably enough:
At 1:52AM @CSIS directed an abhorrent tweet to @amnesty. It was a misuse of @CSIS by a CSIS intern. Our statement: http://t.co/OPZ7aUJ9dX
— CSIS (@CSIS) August 19, 2014
.@CSIS and @Amnesty have kissed and made up. Now back to defending human rights!
— AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) August 19, 2014
And so it goes.
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One last thing? That molotov cocktail allegedly thrown by a protester at the police in Ferguson? Apparently it was a police tear gas cannister being returned to sender. Not that there haven’t also been molotovs in Ferguson — as DoubleQuoted here:
Protesters return tear gas and throw Molotov's at police Monday night in #Fergurson pic.twitter.com/hb7tXKMiMI
— Alex Wroblewski (@alexwroblewski) August 19, 2014
In fact, peace with a dash of violence seems to be quite a common cocktail itself these days…