Ferguson: Where's the Tea Party When You Need It?

What does a white racist rancher in Nevada have to do with the shooting of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Mo.?

Everything.

And nothing, apparently.

Is it me, or with the egregious civil rights violations and overall constitutional trampling going on in Ferguson, shouldn’t that blowhard of a movement, the Tea Party, be up in arms? Shouldn’t we be seeing some waving of that precious Gadsden flag somewhere in the background of those pictures of teargassed crowds of protesting citizens? I mean, that’s what the Tea Party has been warning us about for years, right? State overreach, abuse of police and military powers, the coming dictatorship, etc. etc.

To recap, here are but a few of the more head-scratching and generally worrisome violations that took place over the past week in Ferguson.

The First Amendment, I believe the first for reason, was decidedly violated when police bravely stormed a quiet McDonalds and arrested two journalists who were working there.

Or this bizarre video, of the police gassing of an Al-Jazeera news crew. Surely they were up to no good, doing their jobs and all.

Well, if the Tea Party won’t come to the defense of the constitutionally protected rights of the press, surely they will decry the militarization of the American police. When the police in this country have become so militarized that it’s difficult to discern who in fact is military and who is police, shouldn’t the Tea Party be a bit worried?

Well, let’s run over to Tea Party Missouri’s Facebook page to find what I am sure will be a manifesto of solidarity standing with the citizens of Ferguson as they practice their constitutional right to protest and push back against police brutality.

Scanning. Scrolling.

Nothing.

All I find is some anti-Obama posts (quelle surprise!) and a picture of Congresswoman Maxine Waters altered to make her look like an ape.

Charming.

So to recap again, when a white Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy continuously and flagrantly breaks the law for years, and when confronted, appeals to a bunch of gun nuts and anti-government anarchists from across America, the Tea Party is side by side in his cause, screaming about the rise of the police state and government overreach. You’ll certainly hear no remarks of support from Cliven “Let me tell you something about the Negro” Bundy.

So, when another unarmed black men gets killed in America, and when the actual response from the police is to mobilize and militarize and confront yet more unarmed black citizens and the media with tear gas and rubber bullets, we do not hear the slightest peep from our Tea Party friends in Missouri or otherwise.

So, if you ever doubted, even in the slightest, that the Tea Party was simply full of it, now you know.

Brock Thompson is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.