Editor:
Mr. Orgeman’s letter to the editor (Aug. 24 Star Journal) was not a plea to end the violence in Ferguson, Mo., but more of a one-sided criticism of the protesters and politicians on the left.
CNN reported the late night looting incidents and confrontations with police were the exception not the rule of conduct for demonstrators. CNN reporter Jake Tapper said “This doesn’t make any sense.” He had cameras pan to show how far away protestors were from heavily armed police. Fox News KTVI reported, “[only] around a dozen businesses were broken into and looted in Ferguson and Dellwood.”
The Daily mail reported, “City Alderman Antonio French who was on the scene trying to calm the crowd, tweeted that as police were driving away, they shot tear gas into the crowd, further inciting the protesters to anger. Clashes divided protesters, with a small group apparently responsible for the looting and destruction, and a much larger crowd peacefully banding together to stop them. Many witnesses at the scene described the protesters who were protecting the stores from the looters.
Yes, there were outside agitators, but as The Final Call reported some 150 people broke the curfew with a white revolutionary group inciting the crowd. Black activists, who had been working night after night to avoid violence, moved to defuse the situation as the crowd surged toward police officers. The activists ejected the troublemakers. “They came into our community like infiltrators, trying to rally our people to stand up against a heavily armed police force.”
In our own Milwaukee there have been several incidents of police causing the death of black suspects without the escalation to riot. The difference between Milwaukee and Ferguson is how things were handled. Analysis lays the escalation to violence of what was essentially a peaceful demonstration, squarely at the feet of Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, whose heavy-handed military response and clumsy attempt to exonerate his officer’s actions while maligning Brown’s character, only inflamed the situation.
As for every Al Sharpton “predictably appearing” you have a Sean Hannity  (remember Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy) and the criticism that Obama “needs to take time from his golf game to weigh in on this” brings to mind the infamous G.W. Bush quip when he was interviewed on the golf course after terrorist killings- “We must stop the terror! I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Now watch this drive.”
John Kocovsky    
Hazelhurst