RETIRED COP RAY LEWIS BLAMES CORPORATE AMERICA FOR THE SITUATION IN FERGUSON

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.vice.com/read/retired-cop-ray-lewis-blames-corporate-america-for-the-situation-in-ferguson-825



In 2011, when the Occupy Movement was thought of by middle America as a smorgasbord of drum circles, a photo emerged of a former police captain being arrested by the NYPD. That was Ray Lewis, 23 year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Force. The Occupy Movement turned him into some sort of legitimized and uniformed social advocate. He’s since traveled to various protests across the US, including the recent unrest in Ferguson. I caught up with him across the street from the QuikTrip where Mike Brown was killed.

VICE: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve seen in Ferguson?
Ray Lewis: Last night I saw officers not wearing name tags or badges. It’s unfathomable to me that officers, while being investigated, and with international attention, are still breaking the law, I can’t believe it. Officers on site are allowing it. That’s unheard of. If I ever saw that, the officer would be off the street in a second.


Snip

http://www.vice.com/read/retired-cop-ray-lewis-blames-corporate-america-for-the-situation-in-ferguson-825

[L0oniX]

1. A good police officers stands out from the crowd of not so good ones.

[JEB]

24. A few good apples bobbing in the rotten slop.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Excellent article.

Thank you.

[malaise]

3. K & R - good read n/t

[fredamae]

4. He's Not Alone n/t

[davidpdx]

5. K & R for the article...

and for Lewis

[Enthusiast]

6. Kicked and recommended!

[Brigid]

7. Some people really can connect the dots, can't they?

[jwirr]

8. There was a book about 12 years ago that talked about this - I think it was called "When the Jobs

Disappear". The business communities began in the inner cities. But as the infrastructure aged and the white people moved to the suburbs. The author then showed how the jobs (corporations) followed them to the suburbs. Later the jobs moved south because of cheap labor and now they are overseas. Corporations are to blame. They have systematically deserted the American people starting with those in the inner cities and ending with all of us.

[whereisjustice]

11. and the jobs went to places with horrible records of human rights abuses China, India, etc...

CEOs believe that you can't make a decent living without an abused and oppressed underclass to do the work.

[jwirr]

12. Exactly but I think there is more to it than that. They also think they need billions to live on now

and that is something that is new. The greed allows them to do anything they want regardless if it is right or wrong. They are above the law. That needs to change.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Seems CEOs believe that they can't make obscene profits without an abused and oppressed

underclass to do the work.

Wonder how long they firgure their obscene profit(s) will go on without a strong middle class to buy their cheap labor junk?

[whereisjustice]

9. the rich are using local police as a private army, never forget JP Morgan giving 4.6 million to

NYPD to harass, abuse and intimidate Occupy wall Street protestors.

[alfredo]

10. Knr

[ReRe]

13. K&R

Thanks for bringing reality into the chaotic turmoil that those commandos brought to the streets of Ferguson against those peaceful protesters. They instigated the violence, passing themselves off as legitimate police officers. They were passed off to everyone as St Louis Co Police. How do we know, if they didn't reveal their identity? We don't know who they were.

There are real law enforcement officers all over this country who know that what happened there was not lawful.

[Liberal_Dog]

14. K & R

An eye-opening interview.

[daleanime]

15. K&R....

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. No tags or badges.....hired thugs parading as POs?

[tea and oranges]

18. K&R Ferguson - What a field day for the heat

[GliderGuider]

19. That is one seriously clued-in cop!

Are you hopeful for the future of America?

No not at all, we’re going to get climate change and it’s going to change the earth, and it’s going to be too late to do anything about it. We’re past the tipping point.

In 20 to 30 years, this country is going to be drastically changed, if it even exists. Everyone is going to be fighting each other for survival, the food that still exists, and the water that hasn’t evaporated. People think there will always be a Walmart, they’ll always have a big screen TV and an SUV. It’s very short sighted.

Way to go, Ray!!!

[moondust]

20. More corporate responsibility.

One of the great ironies of the continuing furor in Ferguson is that the burned-out QuikTrip, ground zero for the protests, is located less than a mile from the headquarters campus of Emerson Electric.

~

Emerson is No. 121 on the Fortune 500 with 2013 revenues of $24.6 billion. Some 1,300 St. Louisans are employed at the Ferguson campus, most of them doing highly skilled financial and management work.

Emerson employs a lot of less-skilled people to make a lot of different stuff, but not in Ferguson. In Mexico, Central America, South America, Germany, France, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, China, India, Japan, the Philippines and other nations, in 230 manufacturing centers, Emerson employs 130,000 people, including 33,000 at 80 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

~more~

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/kevin-horrigan/horrigan-ferguson-s-global-giant-and-those-left-behind/article_54cf78a2-c735-5488-8fcd-c366ee36e132.html

More at DKos:

In 2009, David Farr, then as now Emerson’s chairman and CEO, told analysts in Chicago that President Barack Obama’s ideas for the environment, health care reform and labor could “destroy” U.S. manufacturing.

“What do you think I’m going to do?” Farr asked his audience. “I’m not going to hire anybody in the United States. I’m moving.”

~

Last year, David Farr was paid $25.3 million, placing him No. 5 on Equilar’s list of America’s best-paid executives.

~more~

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/24/1324179/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Round-up-Sorry-the-pundits-have-moved-on-edition

[mrdmk]

21. Just from the previous snip, I though this was the case

<snip from the link in the previous post>

Farr's threat was ridiculous. Emerson had already moved. Those jobs were long vanished from these shores. Like so many corporate bigwigs railing against regulation, the truth is Farr played all his cards years ago. Everything else is just a bluff.


Gee, how about that! Threaten to move when you already have, years ago...

These asshats are so full of themselves they are a total joke

[moondust]

27. Yep.

If a person wanted to boycott TPTB in the Ferguson area for their bad behavior without doing too much damage to the residents/protesters who live there, Emerson Electric products would probably be a pretty good candidate.

[WillyT]

22. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

23. Liberals are right. Occupiers are right. Lewis is right.

The AA community is being decimated, and will continue to be so with privatization of schools and "fixes" to Social Security (no thanks, Obama!).

Why "Middle America" can't (or won't) grasp that is baffling.

[JEB]

25. K&R

Excellent article.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

26. Not wearing name tags or badges and then telling those who ask for ID

to go fuck themselves. Arresting journalists for recording and reporting. Not to mention shooting unarmed kids to death due to an apparent lack of ability to handle a tense situation any other way. Don't expect justice in Ferguson.

[secondvariety]

28. Great article.

[cantbeserious]

29. Tell It Brother Ray

eom

[woo me with science]

30. K&R

[woo me with science]

31. kick

[Spitfire of ATJ]

32. The KKK boast a LOT of cops (and ex-cops) as members.

[woo me with science]

33. kick

[Joe Shlabotnik]

34. K&R

I looked around about a week ago to see if Capt. Lewis had weighed in yet on Ferguson. I'm not surprised he's there in person.



From his facebook page:

[IMG][/IMG]

[Tommymac]

35. K & R