President Obama is steadily becoming the personification of "twice as good, half as much," the 21st century equivalent to the "Jackie Robinson effect" that observes how much more exceptionally a black person must perform to get even half of the credit that others receive. ...read more
On Saturday afternoon, 28 year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot and killed NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn, in what Brinsley said was an act of revenge for the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Brinsley had warned of his ...read more
Somebody call Webster's, because Joe Scarborough has rendered its definition of "white privilege" obsolete. On Tuesday morning's Morning Joe, Scarborough and his diverse panel (Howard Dean was once voted for by black people) tackled LeBron James' "I can't breathe" protest ...read more
In the wake of the disastrous rioting and looting that hit Ferguson last week after Officer Darren Wilson was exonerated for Mike Brown's death, much attention has been paid to the speed with which protesters turned to violence. But less attention has been paid to the speed with ...read more
(Photo: Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency) So, that's it. As far as the possibility of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson being tried in criminal court for the killing of Mike Brown, there is none. A grand jury has decided there isn't enough evidence to move forward ...read more
As St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch concluded his press conference announcing the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown, the White House announced that President Obama would be delivering a statement. Amid ...read more
Update: 9:30PM ET St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch has announced that Officer Darren Wilson will not be indicted in the shooting of Mike Brown. The grand jury made its decision today. More to come. Here's live streaming video of a protest going on in ...read more
The decision by Governor Jay Nixon (D-MO) to declare a state of emergency in his state ahead of the grand jury decision in the killing of Michael Brown has been a hot topic this week, and resulted in a very clarifying moment on NBC's Meet The Press Sunday morning. In discussing ...read more
As America waits for a grand jury in Missouri to decide whether Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will stand trial for the killing of unarmed 17 year-old Michael Brown, a steady stream of one-sided leaks from that secret proceeding makes it pretty clear that there will be no ...read more
Updated Below There's a better-than-average change that Officer Darren Wilson won't be indicted in the shooting of Mike Brown. If he is indicted, it likely won't be for murder but for a drastically lesser charge. We may as well face this right now. Yesterday, the St. Louis ...read more
One of the big pieces of "news" that dominated this weekend was a New York Times report on Officer Darren Wilson's account of the Michael Brown killing that was only slightly more fair and credible than right-wing radio host Dana Loesch's August interview with an anonymous ...read more
Just as the National Association of Black Journalists decries the exodus of black talent away from CNN, the network has invited conservative Blacksphere host Kevin Jackson on to tell protesters in Ferguson that their protesting might make cops not want to protect them. In a ...read more
The Summer of Ferguson has, if nothing else, provided White America with a mountain of evidence that black America really is being terrorized by police brutality, and this week, another bit of that evidence surfaced. Surveillance video obtained by DNAinfo New York shows the tail ...read more
Tensions in Ferguson, Missouri flared anew Thursday night, as peaceful protesters marching and chanting in protest of the Mike Brown killing were met by a local business owner whom police confirm pulled a gun on the marchers. An Argus News livestreaming camera was there to ...read more
A poll released this week shows what the media likes to call a Racial Divide® on whether the shooting of unarmed 17 year-old Mike Brown was justified, but just how many area white people think it was? Well, a lot. Despite the fact that every single eyewitness says that Brown ...read more
Former Secretary of State and current 2016 Democratic Freight Train Hillary Clinton has been facingmounting criticism over her silence on the killing of Mike Brown, and its aftermath. On Thursday, Clinton finally broke her conspicuous silence on the events in Ferguson with four ...read more
Over the past several days, the August 5 shooting of John Crawford III by police at a Beavercreek, Ohio Walmart has gotten stepped-up attention on MSNBC due to new developments in the case, but incredibly Fox News was actually the first cable news network to cover it. The 23 ...read more
The Los Angeles Police Department's killing of unarmed 25 year-old Ezell Ford has been overshadowed, nationally, by the events surrounding the Ferguson, Mo. killing of Mike Brown, but the police in Los Angeles are paying close attention to the real danger it poses: finger-gun ...read more
Photo: AP Like a lot of media people on West Florissant tonight, I made the decision to leave early (early being just after midnight). The reason is that unlike last night the crowd on the street seemed to break apart on its own as the hours went by. There were minor incidents ...read more
The indispensable Pew Research Center is out with a new poll that shows what they call a "racial divide" on perceptions of, and interest in, the story of Mike Brown's killing by Ferguson, Mo. police, and the subsequent turmoil. A closer look, however, shows that the only divide ...read more
All Photos: Chez Pazienza/The Daily Banter VIDEO UPDATE below. It all went from calm to chaos in a few seconds. For most of the day and night, the protesters who gathered and marched along West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri weren't simply peaceful, they were almost ...read more
As I explained earlier, I hardly ever actually watch Fox News, by which I mean turning the channel on my TV to the dreaded 820. Most of my Fox News commentaries are based on clips I have dug up myself through research, seen somewhere else, or been sitting in the actual space ...read more
Photos: Chez Pazienza, The Daily Banter What you see within the confines of a camera shot on TV or online -- or within the 140 characters of a tweet -- is inherently tiny. Even with images being beamed in to you from all directions, you still can't get a real feel for what it's ...read more
Most of the commentaries I write about Fox News are not the result of me actually watching Fox, but of specific research, tips, or other means. Every once in a very long while, though, I decide to take a break from the reality-based community, and actually turn on Fox News. This ...read more
Photo: David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch I'll make this quick and dirty for now. I grew up in Miami during the 80's, which means that I lived through three major racial uprisings before I was 20-years-old. All were the result of police either unjustly killing black men or ...read more
Ezra Klein's formerly useful explainer site Vox.com now appears to be chiefly devoted to explaining how President Obama ruins everything. Last week, Obama was "breaking politics," and this week, he's narrowly avoiding dividing the nation by toning down his remarks on the killing ...read more
For the past eight days, America has watched the City of Ferguson, Missouri react to the killing of 18 year-old Mike Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, but on Sunday, supporters of Officer Wilson gathered to raise their voices, and make some bank. The rally of ...read more
As the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri enters its second week, developments on the ground have mostly centered on the degree to which violence is being handled. Police have shifted gears several times in that regard, but little is being done to prevent the violence being done to ...read more
At a much-anticipated press conference Friday morning, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson rolled out his department's latest media strategy, pairing his announcement of six-year veteran Darren Wilson as the shooter of Mike Brown with information on a "strong-arm robbery" that ...read more
Right on time "Anonymous" prove why they can be very dangerous. And not for the reasons they think. A few days ago a voice that claimed to be speaking for the hacktivist collective launched "Operation Ferguson," which not only pushed for a new federal law named after Mike Brown ...read more
Photo: USA Today Let me make something crystal clear right off the bat: Even if he were to be on the ground shouting at the top of his lungs, Al Sharpton wouldn't even come close to being the biggest problem in Ferguson, Missouri right now. The current crisis lies almost ...read more
The arrests of reporters in Ferguson, Missouri have sparked outrage, and even a presidential rebuke, but also a goopy spew of point-missing ire at the journalists from the likes of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough andPolitico's Dylan Byers. Last night, cops in Ferguson arrested The ...read more
In the wake of the police response to protests in Ferguson, Mo., Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took to TIME magazine on Thursday to write an op-ed decrying the increasing militarization of domestic police forces as well as the inherent racism in the U.S. criminal justice system. While ...read more
As tensions between police and residents of Ferguson, Missouri continue to roil in the wake of the police killing of unarmed teenager Mike Brown, and the police's martial response to its aftermath, President Obama delivered a statement from Martha's Vineyard Thursday afternoon ...read more
Photo: David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch Justice in the shooting of Mike Brown involves two things: knowing what the truth is and reacting fairly and responsibly to that truth. Witnesses say Brown, who was unarmed at the time, was shot down in the middle of the street as he ...read more
At same time that police in Ferguson, Mo. were tear-gassing people protesting the killing of 18-year-old Mike Brown Monday night, police in Los Angeles were shooting another young, unarmed black man. Witnesses say 25-year-old Ezell Ford was lying on the ground, complying with ...read more
Since Saturday, the tragic shooting of unarmed teenager Mike Brown by police has turned into a story about looting and rioting and frightening black rage, and not about the brutal response of police to the fruits of their own brutality. No, I'm not talking about the looters, ...read more
When a vigil for Michael Brown turned into looting on Sunday night, the indignation among white conservatives was entirely predictable. As inexcusable as using someone's death as a reason vandalize and steal is, the longstanding white obsession with black looting says a lot ...read more