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| Mary Landrieu |
The
Republicans CREAMED the Democrats in the midterm elections. They won seven Senate seats, gained seats in
the House and even won governor’s races in two deep blue states – Massachusetts
and Maryland. As a result, the
Republicans have a majority in the Senate for the first time since 2006. There is one Senate seat that still hangs in
the balance. Mary Landrieu, the incumbent Democrat Senator from Louisiana, faces a
runoff against Bill Cassidy on December 6 because neither candidate garnered
50% of the vote. Pundits give Landrieu NO
chance to prevail in the runoff and based on the results from last Tuesday,
those predictions may not be so farfetched.
In fact, the more one read’s the punditry tea leaves, the more it
becomes apparent that Mary Landrieu needs a miracle or an Earth shattering
event to keep her Senate seat. She may
be kept wanting on the miracle but an Earth shattering event taking place
between now and December 6 has a good probability of coming to fruition. The St. Louis County Grand Jury is expected
to rule any day now if Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson will face criminal charges or not for shooting and killing Mike Brown on August
9. It is widely expected in St. Louis
the Grand Jury will NOT charge Darren Wilson for unjustly killing Mike Brown. That rendering, of course, will not be well
received by the African-American community not just in St. Louis, but around
the country. African-Americans will be OUTRAGED
and GALVANIZED
at Defcon-1 levels
and will definitely take their grievances to the streets. There will certainly be calls for
African-Americans to become more politically active wherever they may
live. In a macabre way, the St. Louis County Grand Jury could help Mary Landrieu keep her Senate seat.
One
of the MANY reasons the Republicans rode a wave into power on Election
Day was the low voter turnout in the Democratic base – ESPECIALLY among
African-Americans. Democrats had gone
out of their way to distance themselves from President Obama and in the
process, distanced themselves from their base.
A third of the base was demoralized, another third sat out the election
and the final third voted. Democrats traditionally
don’t put as much emphasis on midterm elections as they do presidential
elections and that fact in addition to the Democrats down playing the president
and his accomplishments contributed to the Republican rout. They just were not motivated to make it to
the polls. African-Americans,
especially. A lot of African-Americans
were angry at Democrats who they felt minimized President Obama. The African-American community felt no
loyalty toward those candidates and no obligation to vote for them. The results on Election Day speak for
themselves.
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| St. Louis County Grand Jury room |
However,
the St. Louis County Grand Jury can change all of that. This Grand Jury, since being assigned to hear
the Mike Brown case, has moved at a snail’s pace. In normal Grand Jury proceedings, limited
evidence and witnesses are presented and a decision is rendered within a
week. As the WORLD knows, this case is
anything BUT normal. The fact
this case was assigned to the Grand Jury at all was the first sign this case
would not be normal. The controversial
prosecutor made the strategic move of dumping all of the evidence in the case
in the laps of the jurors with the idea of letting the JURORS figure out what
happened on August 9 AND determine what specific charges, if any, should be
filed against Darren Wilson. The jury is
expected to make these monumental decisions all by themselves. The entire St. Louis Metro is on edge in anticipating the jury’s decision to
not indict and let Darren Wilson walk scot-free. Several school districts in and around
Ferguson have taken a proactive approach and asked Prosecutor Bob McCullough to delay making the jury’s
decision public until the weekend. This
was done with the safety of their students in mind. Businesses along the West Florissant corridor that were
looted back in August have decided to leave their respective storefronts
boarded up in anticipation of further unrest.
The Ferguson Police Department,
in conjunction with the St. Louis County Police Department as well as
the Missouri Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies have already
put strategies in place in anticipation of the Grand Jury setting Darren Wilson
free. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar has
made it clear that all methods at the
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| St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar |
disposal of law enforcement are in play
as far as maintaining law and order and crowd control – including the use of
tear gas, stun grenades and armored vehicles.
There has been no further loss of life in Ferguson since Mike Brown was
killed and, frankly, I have been both surprised and grateful that has been the
case. Should Darren Wilson not be
indicted, I won’t be too confident that will remain the case. If it is possible for emotions to be rawer
than what we’ve previously seen out of Ferguson, it will be on full
display. THAT is what concerns
me. There will be many young black men
within Mike Brown’s demographic (18-25) who will have NO fear of law
enforcement at all. From their purview, THEY
are and could have BEEN Mike Brown. To
them, law enforcement is not there to serve and protect them. They have seen time and time again where law
enforcement can kill unarmed black men under suspect circumstances with
impunity. They have been denigrated,
marginalized and disenfranchised and they have NOTHING to lose. They’ve been programmed, unfortunately, to
have a short life span expectation and challenging law enforcement in a
volatile situation would be as effortless as breathing. It could get UGLY. For the sake of humanity, I hope with every
fiber of my being that I am severely off base.
I do NOT want to see not one more life lost in Ferguson.
Should
the jury decide to NOT indict Darren Wilson, the jury would be successful in doing
what the Democrats were unable to do in last week’s election – GALVANIZE
black voters all across the country.
Black voters will have a CAUSE. In addition to an overwhelming sense of
humiliation within the African-American community throughout the country, a
social and political movement will be born like we haven’t seen in 50
years. Black people will register to
vote, young and dynamic African-Americans will run for office and Republicans
will be in trouble. The first political
assassination, in a voting sense, will be Bill Cassidy,
Mary Landrieu’s opponent in the runoff. Black
people, infuriated with a system they feel is institutionally rigged against
them, will FLOCK to Louisiana from all over to work in Mary Landrieu’s
campaign. They will phone bank, walk
precincts, visit homes, hang door hangers – ANY and EVERY
thing it will take to defeat Bill Cassidy.
Bill Cassidy will have the unfortunate distinction of being the first
conservative to feel the wrath of an infuriated and determined black
electorate. That is what conservatives
fear the most – an infuriated and determined black electorate. Those voter suppression laws that have sprung
up all over the country were hatched for that very reason. “If you can’t BEAT ‘em, CHEAT ‘em”
is the Republican mantra for neutralizing African-American participation at the
ballot box. The most stringent voter
suppression laws imaginable will not stop the black community in Louisiana from
using a U.S. Senate runoff race in a midterm election – in normal times a race
that would be the focus of Louisianans solely – as an OUTRAGE vote and come out
in record numbers to support Mary Landrieu should Darren Wilson walk. I normally don’t subscribe to conspiracy
theories (I do believe there was more than ONE shooter in the JFK assassination) but I wouldn’t at all
be surprised in the Republican National Committee contacted St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob
McCullough to delay announcing the Grand Jury’s decision until AFTER the
December 6 runoff in Louisiana. I
wouldn’t put it past either the RNC or Bob McCullough if some chicanery like
that was hatched and executed.
Never
in a thousand years would Mary Landrieu would have even let it cross her mind
that the murder of an unarmed 18 year old black male in the small city of
Ferguson, Missouri could either SUSTAIN or END her political career. Neither would I have let it cross my mind;
neither would ANYONE. But that very
well be the case. HOW ironic would THAT
be?
It
is more than ironic the St. Louis County Grand Jury could help Mary Landrieu
keep her Senate seat.
Peace,
peace.
Craig
Riggins
Facebook:
The Riggins Report
Twitter:
@CraigRiggins
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