“They have insurance. They can rebuild. The life of Mike Brown can’t be rebuilt. Our patience cannot be rebuilt.” – Malik Rhasaan, a community organizer with Hands Up United quoted in Ferguson burning after grand jury announcement [via usatoday.com]

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114 COMMENTS

    • Normal insurance does not cover riot damage so I would not be surprised if the business owners go bankrupt. I wonder how many minority owned businesses as well as grocery stores that serve minorities will end up permanently closed. What these arsonists need to know is that they can legally be killed while committing or attempting to commit forcible felonies such as but not limited to arson.

      • Most BOPs (businessowners policies), and homeowners policies, do indeed cover “riots and civil commotions.” However, you’re entirely correct that many of these businesses could go bankrupt, even if covered, because these matters get very complicated very quickly.

        Insurance companies do this all day, every day, for generations, with high priced talent on the payroll. The local Mom & Pop is run by, well, less experienced, less sophisticated, Mom & Pop. For them, this is a once in a lifetime catastrophe and purchasing their policy was a headache-inducing chore to be raced through to coverage. Oversights were made and coverage gaps will be revealed. Hence, the bankruptcies you rightly foretell, despite there actually being coverage readily available.

    • “They have insurance. They can rebuild. The life of Mike Brown can’t be rebuilt. Our patience cannot be rebuilt.” – Malik Rhasaan.

      Pulease…Where does this ass hole get off! Commercial property insurance and homeowners policies routinely exclude ‘riot’ and acts of ‘civil unrest’ from coverage under their policies.

      These outside agitators and criminal opportunist scum behind the rioting and looting should IMO be dealt with in the harshest way possible starting with some ‘street justice’ the moment they cock their arm, light a match or break into a store. They are beneath contempt and we would all be better off without them taking valuable space and breathing the air.

      • Should have been a defensive gun use: Every single burning business in Ferguson.

        The Jury, AKA the people, have spoken. Move on. You live like a gangster, you die like a gangster. Don’t like it? Don’t be a thug. Behave. Be a good person. Don’t rob stores and don’t viciously attack a police officer. Generally speaking, try not to be a piece of shit. When is Al Sharpton going to sling those life lessons? My guess is never.

        What a giant load of nonsense, dutifully spun by the leftist media as some manner of excuseable social justice. The old media are despicable creatures that don’t give a damn that they’re inciting violence or enabling awful behavior. As long as they get their ratings. You could skin them like potatoes and it would be too good for them.

        • I’ll take my comment a step further; these agitators and criminal a-holes would be doing exactly as they are now even if the grand jury HAD found some level of criminal homicide on Officer Wilson’s part.

          Any excuse to have a riot party and commit civil atrocities would be reason enough for them. They are not civilized and live on the criminal fringe of society. They have no place amongst a civilized people other than behind concrete and steel or pushing up grass.

        • This whole thing historically rhymes with the 1916 (not 1917) sentiments and practices of the Bolsheviks.

          “Community organisations”
          “Social justice”
          “Community unrest”

    • I’m guessing he doesn’t live in Ferguson so he really doesn’t care what happens to the area, just that the memory will be intimidating to Grand Juries and juries in cases in the future.

    • Many Ferguson businesses will refuse or be unable to rebuild. Toys R Us probably will decide it’s not worth rebuilding. Many businesses and conveniences the people of Ferguson have enjoyed will no longer be available.

      This is how blight happens. It’s all downhill from here.

      • I have a friend who’s family had a business in Watts. After the riots, like everyone else, they relocated (rebuilt as they lost everything) their business. Who wouldn’t? Those jobs were forever lost.

      • I think I read it on the wikipedia page, a study on jobs and businesses in South Central LA, 20 years after the 1992 Rodney King riots, jobs and basic businesses still not caughtvup. People had to take the bus to go grocery shopping…

    • This dude has insurance…. let’s riot and destroy his house and property along with his neighbors… He can rebuild.

  2. Sure they’ll rebuild. The question is WHERE will they rebuild? I’m guessing anywhere but Ferguson.

    • you hit it right on the head…then they will cry why don’t we have any jobs..the white man is screwing us again and so the cycle continues

      • actually, a lot of “the Man” now are brown and black, too. . . . . and we won’t be hiring anyone with visible ‘tats, weed breath, dreads, saggy pants, and inability to conjugate the verb “to be”. Sorry

        • They’ll just call you “Uncle Tom” and thug on.

          But I for one am glad you are on the side of civilization.

        • Why the “sorry”? Your business, your hiring standards, and presentation standards to clients are all up to you. No one is owed a job. That’s nothing to be apologetic about.

        • I am tried to explain this to some of these idiots . You don’t scare the crap out of the people you want to pay you, but it is like talking to a 5 gallon bucket of rocks they will “thug” on and we will keep paying the price as always

    • Exactly. First, insurance does not usually pay for everything, so there will be a lot of bankruptcies. Second, no insurance company is going to insure people to rebuild in the same area. I watched a documentary a few years ago that stated that even a few decades later that the community where the Watts riots occurred has not recovered. Look at this. Ferguson is forever in people’s minds. House prices will drop like a rock, because no one will want to move there. People are going to avoid that area of Ferguson, so even if stores are left standing, they will probably shutter them at some point. It is a complete mess.

    • Yep. Exactly what happened with a lot of the stores burned down in LA during the Rodney King riots. Store owners received the insurance payout and decided there were better places to open businesses or decided they didn’t want to own businesses anymore.

    • Not only will the business move taking their jobs with them, but anybody with portable employment like teachers are likely to consider Ferguson a last resort. In the end the people who actually caused the damage will be to blame and none of them will likely accept it.

    • “They have insurance. They can rebuild. Yeah, but they may not rebuild in poor minority areas with a history of crime rates.

  3. A lot of insurance will not pay out in these cases.

    This scumbag has a date with a rag, a bucket, and a plank of wood.

  4. Are you KIDDING ME!? ASDFJLSDKJDSALFKASDLFKJ

    This crap makes me so angry. I can’t believe ANYone is defending garbage like this. This is raw unhampered anarchic thuggery. This is what justice looks like to some people.

    Makes me so angry.

    • Rhasaan is just the dominant voice but he has a supporting cast from the Faux Libertarians at Reason, the Reds of OWS and the anarchists who just love chaos.

      • WTF are you talking about? Please show me a link to anything posted at Reason.com that would support this thug.

        • Probably referring to persistent commentary on excessive use of force by police which is something equally documented on this site as well where it is warranted.

        • Agreed, plus I dislike the insults to Anarchists(not the connotation, but the literal definition)who don’t act like thugs.

        • Well, if you’re looking for an article at Reason titled “Rioting in Ferguson: This sort of thing IS my bag, baby!”, then you’re probably not going to find it.

          However, check out their stuff published as recently as….today. Fisher’s “Hit & Run” blog over there basically argues that the fix was in all along and that there was never a chance for an indictment and fair grand jury proceeding.

          Now, that’s not calling for firebombing, true, but to tdi’s point, it’s definitely a sympathetic viewpoint. It’s certainly the kind that would look, if not fondly, on people venting their frustrations violently, then at least with smug self-satisfaction the outcome. If that doesn’t belie their libertarian bona fides, then it at least tarnishes it.

        • @Jonathan
          I did notice that they don’t seem to differentiate the facts in the Ferguson case from their usual coverage criticizing police brutality and lack of accountability. While agree with much of what they write, I don’t understand why they treat this case in a similar fashion to the clowns over at CNN, looking hard to blame the cop even though there is no supporting evidence.

  5. most businesses will not rebuild dumbasses. enjoy the desolation. Detroit is just recovering from the 1968 riots. 2 generations have lived under austere circumstances because idiots burned their own sh!t. Insurers will not provide coverage. time to learn econ 101

    • I think it’s an exaggeration or premature to suggest that Detroit is “recovering.” It’s also suffering from a lot more than just the ’68 riots. 50 years of misgovernance.

      • ummm, no offense, but my wife and I still have family here. We arrived last night. We deliberately drove thru the city once we got here. The downtown is amazing, esp the shops and restaurants. There were friggin’ outdoor chairs/tables/couches!! You would never have seen that 5 yrs ago. Is it perfect? Nope, but given the rents in the midtown area have skyrocketed and there is a Whole Foods nearby, I will take that bet. I have my brother in law looking for some investments and I am pulling some cash together to make some bets.

    • What is most interesting to me (from my investor/business perspective, not a gunsmithing perspective) about Detroit is how cash-fat investors waited until real estate prices hit absolute rock-bottom before they jumped in.

      I come away with two lessons:

      1. “Rock bottom” RE prices also imply that the area has basically become a ghost town – even the thugs have moved away. The property has likely been abandoned and no one is even paying the property taxes.

      2. Because it hit rock bottom, the usual bunch of meddlesome grifters in city councils and zoning/planning commissions just get out of the way. They’re desperate for business activity and ad valorem income, and they’ll finally give up their precious notions of how they want investment and development to proceed.

      The hard truth tho is that it takes a long, slow, crushing of valuations and business expectations to reach the point that Detroit reached before speculators and risk-takers stepped in to start what you’re seeing.

      • Dan Gilbert, owner of Rock Financial and the Cleveland Cavaliers, owns HALF of Downtown Detroit. . . . he has been swooping up prime real estate for a song. when the city comes back, he will make multiples on his investment

      • Gov Nixon is gonna have to ask for federal disaster relief $$ – the state legislator won’t dare put $$ into Ferguson if they hope to keep their majority and get the governorship in 2016

    • I just hope honest businesspeople were paying attention the first time around and got more insurance in the interim, and can take the money and run.

    • Seeing as how our beloved MSM never bothered to tell us what a “community organizer” was, exactly, before we elected our community-organizer-in-chief, we’ve all been left scrambling to figure it out. I think you’ve hit on something here. My own personal working definition of “community organizer” is basically a missionary for communism.

  7. No, you jackass, it’s your COMMUNITY that can’t be rebuilt. Who is going to finance the new business you will need for your community to thrive? What bank? What insurance will cover them, knowing their investment is just one dead criminal away from burning to the ground? I doubt even the nincompoop gangsta rappers that you idolize would be willing to sink a dime into rebuilding your ‘hood, at this point. And why should they?

    • I’m guessing it’s not HIS community, that he’s from outside Ferguson. His goal is an incident which will be a factor in the thinking of folks on Grand Juries and Juries in the future. If he has to sacrifice the future of Ferguson and the people living there, he’s more than happy to in order to achieve that goal.

  8. Why rebuild in a community with such lack of emotional control? You act like feral animals then complain people don’t want to live among such savages, call it white flight to rationalize your bad behavior. Leave the burn out shells of the buildings. You made your bed, now live with it. Hope what you got during the looting overnight is enough to last.

  10. Poor, misguided people.
    I like the idea of the prosecutor releasing the testimony so all that wish to can see the evidence they saw. For any that actually have an open mind, they should realize that this case is not the one they should get behind to prove the police are out of control. No doubt there are some in this country where the police have done wrong and should be held accountable. Just not this one.

    • The people rioting right now will NEVER read it. In some cases they can’t. In the rest, they won’t.

      Enough information to understand your point has been out there for months. If it hasn’t penetrated their skulls yet, then their ignorance is willful.

    • Yeah, Mike Brown is about the worst poster child for a good cause ever. What a waste of opportunity.
      Maybe off topic but I think that Ferguson, Occupy Wall Street, the Middle East, are all connected. As the gap between the rich and poor grows we generate groups of people with nothing to do and nothing to lose, which is the basic condition needed for revolutions. A very potent brew in what has become a very small world.

  12. “Malik Rhasaan, a community organizer ”

    Says it all right there. A more appropriate title is community agitator. The attitude that only they and their cause matters and their entitled attitude is exactly what will keep a community down. It is the opposite of what he should be promoting. To bad they were to busy burning down buildings that reading the report that showed that many of the witnesses simply lied.

    Throw our the facts and the law and just have mob rule. Sharpton, Jackson, Obama and Holder are to blame for this chaotic BS. You cannot move a people forward by taking a “we are victims” attitude.

    To bad it is lost on the media that in NYC case a black cop shot a black person in the stairwell — why no riots in NYC?

    • Exactly. It serves their political purposes to keep blacks as a group from rising out of the underclass, and everything they do is to this end. It’s pure evil.

  13. we just need police to ring North County and keep the thugs from moving west. as for the north/south connector on the train and extending it west past I-270, forget about it. ain’t happening. real taxpayers won’t pay for it. so much for getting to jobs and education dumbasses.

      • Good to hear. A friend’s grandmother lives in neighboring Jennings. She used to shop all the time at Northland, where the police are currently staging.

        After living in the same house for sixty years, she is, not surprisingly, planning to move.

  14. The life of Michael Brown could indeed have been rebuilt, right up to the night he was shot.

    Remind me again … What was he doing when he got shot? And what was he doing right before he was shot?

    There’s this concept known as “free will” and its associate “personal responsibility.”

  17. “They have insurance. They can rebuild….”

    So, then you’re offering your house as tribute as well? You have insurance, right?

  18. It’s funny that those who stir the pot and stoke the fire are rarely present when it boils over or available when it’s time to clean up the mess.

  19. And with this penetrating financial analysis, many blacks wonder why they’re not better represented in business, management and finance…

    • If you’re not one of Malik’s peeps, if you dress, talk and behave like a reasonable person, if you strive to be productive and not dependent on welfare, if you don’t have 5 different kids and 5 different baby mommies or daddies, if you don’t blame ‘the man’ for all your woes, then you’re “acting white” or you’re an uncle Tom. And they call us racists…

  20. “Mike Brown’s life can’t be rebuilt.”
    That ‘s something Mike Brown should have thought about before he committed suicide by cop.
    We all make choices in life. We live or die by those choices.

  21. Those businesses can rebuild. Michael Brown’s life can not.

    Michael Brown attacked a police officer minutes after committing a strong-arm robbery. Those businesses did not.

  22. O’damnah was a community organizer I thought. It thats not enough said. They burned an torn up there town once, now a second time. . . Shows that they have high IQ’s..
    An Michael Brown, a reported 18yo Black male. Stole cigars from a convenience store, charged at an assaulted a COP, inside an supposedly outside of his “cruiser”. This Man he’s 18 also is to have thc in the blood. Hes not really a kid or a “teen”. Imo hes a Man. An this “crook” got shot an now there is a civil rights issue? An blacks are teed off a white “Cop” responded per protocol? Should We WHITE folk be upset when blacks COPS shoot a white guy or kid, per police procedure, an THEN act like them? Maybe make a civil rights Alarm?

  23. “They have insurance. They can rebuild.” – Malik Rhasaan

    Newsflash Mr. Rhasaan: most insurance contracts will not cover destruction due to war, civil unrest, and riots. So, no, those homes and/or businesses probably cannot rebuild.

    And the rioters have quite possibly issued a death sentence to the people who owned those businesses … how else will those people provide for themselves today and in retirement when they invested everything they had in those businesses?

    • Here’s little factoid I picked up at an insurance seminar (ie, held by an insurance company for small businessmen):

      90%+ of companies that lose their records in a fire or flood will not re-open, even if insurance covers the cost of the building and/or inventory.

      Most businesses need to keep off-site records, and keep those off-site records up to date at least every month. The vast majority do not.

    • Also, lots of small businesses that rent their operating space do not carry insurance for their equipment and inventory. Most likely, few of the losses to the contents of the small businesses will be covered.

    • And once a claim is filed in that area, premiums go up, as do deductibles, or carriers simply stop covering it.

      Given the same street and shpos have been robbed, trashed, burned already twice, what rational investor is going to stay there. The ones who reallh got hurt are those like the community members who scratched their way out of dependency, through hard work and sacrifice, and have no other means to sustain themselves. The lady with the cake shop, the lady with collectibles store, the barber and hair dressers, etc.

      The dependency tribe, attacks and feeds off those who do not take hand outs. Skin color is secondary, if it matters at all. Grasshopper vs the Ants, with Go Pros.

  24. The “peaceful protesters” of Ferguson wanted justice. However, the justice they wanted was lynch mob justice and they got REAL justice. To them I say (sorry Jack) “Justice? You want justice? YOU CAN’T HANDLE JUSTICE!”

  25. “Keep doing what you are doing, keep getting what you are getting”

    The sad thing is I don’t think the cop should have been in the clear so easy. I know that if I was the one who pulled the trigger as a c.c., same situation, then I would be sitting in the court room.
    But this not the way to gain respect

  27. If you have a functioning moral compass and a thread of common sense then you’re watching this unfold and you know and see that this is a much deeper rooted problem than just a jury decision and insurance

  30. What a heartless MF. Last night I saw a picture of a black woman crying for her destroyed cake store.

    Lefty agitators and the media ginned up this violence. Lefties think capitalism and private property (except their own) are bad, so they have no regard for the small businesses that hire in the local communities. Non-lefties are on twitter talking about starting up a fund to help these poor small businessmen.

    One of the main organizers of the riots is a Palestinian activist named Basem Masri. Hilariously, his new iPhone 6 was grabbed from him by another looter as he was live streaming video.

  31. I’m sure his logic will be comforting to all the hourly employees that worked at those burned up businesses.

  37. What a dumb ass. He thinks businesses are ever going to decide to rebuild THERE? You ruined your own community you dumb ass. No one wants to rebuild in Riotville, so you can burn them out next time too – or maybe worse. Now you get to live in a wasteland of nothing. Hope you got what you wanted there.

  39. There’s a point that really needs to be made and amplified – JulieSA touched on it above, as have others:

    The people who organized and amp’ed up this violence and mayhem are predominately from out of the area. More than that, some of them are actual, professional anarchists.

    One of them is Lisa Fithian:

    http://organizingforpower.org/about/about-lisa/

    NB she’s listed as living in Austin, TX. NB her CV of causes and protests.

    http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2521

  40. As an insurance company rep, I have a few comments. First being: if you havent ever done it, READ YOUR POLICY. Most cant be bothered and only care about rates, but this is precisely why you need to be informed. Next, people wonder why insurance rates go up? This. Finally, the people burning things down will be the first to cry racism when no one wants to have a business in that area. None of this is surprising to those of us who live in the area.

    • And business insurance can be very costly if you have building and contents on the policy.

      And it’s not unusual that business that are just squeaking by don’t have anything but the minimum required by law (if there is a law like that).

      A vicious cycle.

  43. this statement gives us a glimpse into the sad thought process of the majority of protesters.. they are so used to receiving some form of finacial aid and or housing that the idea of someone having to work hard to pay for something never enters their minds… its really a damn shame.. any person arrested while protesting who is also getting government handouts should be given a month to find a job and end the cycle of sitting on their ass generation after generation while the government handles everything for them and all they have to do to get a raise is have a few more kids they dont give a damn about

  44. So if a rape victim can survive, it’s okay to rape someone? As long as you don’t murder them?

    Why isn’t this being stated the other way:
    If people exercised RESPECT for people, property and principles
    for CONSENT of others,
    then NEITHER would property get damaged NOR people get killed.

    Because we would RESPECT each other’s consent and due process of laws.

    NOTE: the only thing I might compare this with is the Rodney King riots.
    At least fewer people got hurt in these riots, rather than the AK47s that had to be used by shop owners in LA, so maybe that shows the efforts of the community of Ferguson to hold things together were not completely in vain, but did have a mitigating effect. I applaud the heroic leadership and call for peace and support that in full.

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