Shoot the mayor!

If the US can blow the shit out of other countries for failing to meet whatever demands of them we put forth, should individual citizens be allowed to go to war against the government, if they feel like they've been wronged in some way? What if they can make a legit case that the government is in the wrong?

That was the argument put forth by a couple of the brothers of Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton (I'm assuming there were two of them, but you know how black people all look the same), the guy who shot up the city council meeting in Kirkwood, MO a couple of weeks ago, in a series of interviews with cable news stations in the wake of the incident.

I was alerted the other day, via Facebook, that there was one on CNN that was especially good, but I couldn't find it anywhere on YouTube. So you're gonna have to settle for this one I found from Fox News. It's pretty good though. I mean, of course it is. It's Fox News.

In addition to the crazy brother, who's in rare form here (note the war metaphors), they also travel to the guy's mother's house, who greets the reporter in her bath robe and essentially says that's what them crackas get for giving him all those tickets. Also, note the bits of editorializing by the smokin' hot news anchor in between the interviews with the mother and the brother and then again at the end. What ever happened to fair and balanced?

Ahh, Fox News.

In the interview, Cookie Thornton's brother suggests that Cookie was falsely accused of parking his construction equipment in the wrong place. He had the proper permits for that shit, but when he went to present them to the city government, they were just like, "Fuck you, Cookie. We're just gonna continue to give you these tickets regardless of whether or not you're in the wrong."

Now obviously it would be difficult for me to say if this was really how it went down. And I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, now does it? However, I came across a story the other day in the Riverfront Times' STLOG that suggests that the black citizens of Kirkwood might have some legit grievances against the government there.

You'll recall that when I posted on this shit back when it happened, I mentioned that Kirkwood has been known to condone child rape have its fair share of race issues; and that the few black people who live there live in a legendary ghetto called Meacham Park; and that I'd heard that Meacham Park had been bulldozed and replaced with a Wal-Mart, but I wasn't sure if this was really the case.

Well, as it turns out, only about half of Meacham Park was bulldozed and replaced with a shopping center that includes a Wal-Mart, a Tar-jay, and a Lowe's. The part of it that remains sounds like some shit right out of the 1950s, with the black enclave being ridonkulously underserved and and antagonized by the rest of the city.

The story in the STLOG included comments from a fellow named Ben Gordon, a local activist, who went so far as to call Cookie Thornton a hero.

"He was a good man. The only problem was he thought he could survive in America against racist politics. And what we have here is an example of what will happen as long as people choose color over people," said Gordon. "I don’t condone murder, but I tell you now, as long as there is separatism and unequal politics you’ll see more of this. He did what any red-blooded American would do. If you go to Iraq and kill people that this government says is an enemy, then you’re a hero. But if you’re fighting in this country for the rights you are deserved and you’ve been told you are owed, then you are an insurgent. I say he is a hero."

Um, yeah. Fight the power!

No but really, you'll notice this guy also made reference to the situation in Iraq. Which of course makes me wonder if this guy and Cookie Thornton's brother got together to compare talking points, or if there really is a correlation to be drawn between the massacre at the Kirkwood city council meeting and an actual war carried out by the US government. What do you fruits think? If the government in Kirkwood really was pulling such apartheid bullshit, was Cookie Thornton justified in what he did?

After the jump is the video from Fox News.