Racism, Discrimination and Privilege

And the common sense to distinguish between them
Opinion • Views: 40,072

I have known and seen racism and discrimination. I have known and experienced privilege.

And I have the common sense to distinguish between the two.

Ferguson is a place that is riddled with racism and discrimination. The police are known by all to engage in discrimination and racism. The state has disbanded police departments for racism and other malfeasance. Darren Wilson belonged to one such department to start his career. He came to Ferguson where the Department has long had issues in policing the community. All but a handful of officers are white in a community that is overwhelmingly black.

Blacks are stopped far more frequently than white (when adjusting per capita). That’s despite fact that whites that are stopped are found to have contraband in higher rates.

In this respect, Ferguson is hardly alone. Many other communities around the St. Louis region (and indeed nationally) face the same problems.

But the specifics of this case are exceptionally troubling. Only Officer Wilson was able to speak to what happened - and it was couched from the outset that he feared for his life when he stopped Brown. Both were the same height (Brown had 70 pounds on him). All the shots were fired by Wilson. And Brown lay dead more than 150 feet from the vehicle, in about a minute after the stop was initiated by Wilson.

All the eyewitness evidence was disregarded or minimized by the fact that Wilson feared for his life. That there’s no bruising apparent from the photos taken hours later. Yet, he thought he was a punch or two from being disabled?

McCullough had all the evidence necessary to indict, but presented everything in a fashion that made indictment unlikely. McCullough never intended to indict - this was for show. And McCullough is part of the vary institutions that allow the racism to persist.

Now, none of this excuses the looting and violence in Ferguson. Why these people think that the response to the failure to indict is to loot and burn down businesses that serve the very community are boggling. At the same time, the police seemed to have wanted to incite this further - firing round after round of tear gas and smoke indiscriminately against protesters - peaceful or otherwise. Yet, those actions seem to get overlooked in the face of the rioting and looting.

And the looting/violence takes away the indisputable fact - Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown and will not be tried in a Missouri state court for those actions because the prosecutor manipulated the process not to look to the facts, but to protect a cop.

Brown’s family will need to seek justice elsewhere. They have to hope that the US Department of Justice will indict on civil rights charges, or else recognize the overwhelming racism and other problems inherent in the policing of communities in and around St. Louis that require more than just weakly worded statements. The Ferguson Police Department, among others, needs to be disbanded not only for their actions directly in Wilson’s shooting of Brown, but the systemic and endemic racism. A consent order, up to and including disbanding and reforming the police departments is needed.

The family is also likely to seek a civil remedy, but that’s a cold comfort when the criminal justice system failed to do its job in protecting the public from police who shoot first and make excuses after.

But a political sea-change is needed as well. The elected leaders of Ferguson and other surrounding communities are tone deaf to what’s gone on for decades, and they too are part of the problem. Changing faces isn’t enough. A change in mindset is needed, as well as how we address officer-involved shootings.

The prosecutor Bob McCullough had no interest in indicting a cop. He’s refused to do so before, and he put up a case that insured that they wouldn’t return an indictment either.

As I’ve noted, the problems aren’t confined to Ferguson. Days after Brown was killed by Wilson, a mentally ill man was shot and killed in St. Louis. Police initially claimed that the man lunged at police before they shot him.

Yet, video shows a completely different story. They shot him despite no evidence at all that he was lunging. He was walking around slowly. There was no attempt at pacifying him with less than lethal measures. No tasering. No attempt to coax him into dropping the small knife.

Just fired until dead.

And there’s still no indictment or evidence that any of the officers involved will be held accountable for their actions.

Ferguson may have been the trigger, but the conversation has to be more than just about what happened on Canfield. It’s what happens on streets all across the country where police use deadly force in incidents that could have been resolved without shots fired.

After all, if police can capture cop killers, mass bombers, and serial killers without shots fired, then arresting someone for possible petit larceny, let alone jaywalking seems reasonable.

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101 comments
1 nicdanger  Nov 25, 2014 7:35:48am

A very thoughtful and well written page.Thank you.

2 Skip Intro  Nov 25, 2014 7:54:58am

If I recall correctly, McCullough has/had multiple family members working for the PD, and his dad was killed by a black man.

If you put this answer on a jury questionnaire for a trial about a police involved shooting, you’d be bounced from the jury immediately. Yet, because the Governor is a gutless weasel who ignored the obvious conflict of interest and would not replace McCullough, “Prosecutor” McCullough was able to spend 3 months acting as Wilson’s defense attorney.

3 PeterWolf  Nov 25, 2014 8:02:14am

Well written, well said.

4 Skip Intro  Nov 25, 2014 8:22:13am

It’s not just happening in Missouri.

What seemed for a long time to be the day’s most remarkable story concerning police and the citizens they are paid to serve had come out of Utah, of all places. The Salt Lake Tribune had dug in and found that the Salt Lake City police had become more dangerous to the public welfare than are the local drug gangs

As the tally of fatal police shootings rises, law enforcement watchdogs say it is time to treat deadly force as a potentially serious public safety problem. “The numbers reflect that there could be an issue, and it’s going to take a deeper understanding of these shootings,” said Chris Gebhardt, a former police lieutenant and sergeant who served in Washington, D.C., and in Utah, including six years on SWAT teams and several training duties. “It definitely can’t be written off as citizen groups being upset with law enforcement.” Through October, 45 people had been killed by law enforcement officers in Utah since 2010, accounting for 15 percent of all homicides during that period. A Salt Lake Tribune review of nearly 300 homicides, using media reports, state crime statistics, medical-examiner records and court records, shows that use of force by police is the second-most common circumstance under which Utahns kill each other, surpassed only by intimate partner violence.

These astonishing statistics were followed by the least surprising statistic of them all.

Nearly all of the fatal shootings by police have been deemed by county prosecutors to be justified. Only one - the 2012 shooting of Danielle Willard by West Valley City police - was deemed unjustified, and the subsequent criminal charge was thrown out last month by a judge.

.

esquire.com

5 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:19:27am

re: #2 Skip Intro

If I recall correctly, McCullough has/had multiple family members working for the PD, and his dad was killed by a black man.

If you put this answer on a jury questionnaire for a trial about a police involved shooting, you’d be bounced from the jury immediately. Yet, because the Governor is a gutless weasel who ignored the obvious conflict of interest and would not replace McCullough, “Prosecutor” McCullough was able to spend 3 months acting as Wilson’s defense attorney.

You’re right. His father was killed in the line of duty. Such a blatant conflict of interest.

6 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:23:55am

Glad this got promoted. An excellent page by LH as always.

7 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 10:27:35am

re: #5 HappyWarrior

McCullough’s father was killed in the line of duty. Back in September Charles posted about how St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch Helped Raise Money for Ofc. Darren Wilson?

The conflicts of interest were obvious to anyone who cared to look. Yet,
McCullough refused to recuse himself and Gov. Nixon refused to appoint a special prosecutor given the conflicts of interest at hand. This was gamed for this outcome.

8 iossarian  Nov 25, 2014 10:29:20am
Why these people think that the response to the failure to indict is to loot and burn down businesses that serve the very community are boggling.

At this point I think black people in America can be forgiven for just wanting to set the whole fucking thing on fire.

9 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:30:27am

re: #7 lawhawk

McCullough’s father was killed in the line of duty. Back in September Charles posted about how St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch Helped Raise Money for Ofc. Darren Wilson?

The conflicts of interest were obvious to anyone who cared to look. Yet,
McCullough refused to recuse himself and Gov. Nixon refused to appoint a special prosecutor given the conflicts of interest at hand. This was gamed for this outcome.

Makes me angry that Nixon didn’t have the courage or the care to have McCulloch recuse himself.

10 OhNoZombies!  Nov 25, 2014 10:36:26am

Bravo LH.
Well said.

11 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 10:38:38am

McCullough appears to be the first prosecutor to fail to indict a ham sandwich.

Though that isn’t true. He didn’t fail to indict. He had an outcome in mind, and made it happen.

He didn’t want to indict.

And what’s with information coming out today about how there is a paucity of crime scene photos.

They didn’t take crime scene photos because their camera died? People would get fired for failing to do a basic part of the job like that.

It seems that every mistake that happened, happened to favor Officer Wilson. Every inconceivable event happened, and it happened to favor Officer Wilson.

12 #FergusonFireside  Nov 25, 2014 10:40:30am

re: #11 lawhawk

McCullough appears to be the first prosecutor to fail to indict a ham sandwich.

Though that isn’t true. He didn’t fail to indict. He had an outcome in mind, and made it happen.

He didn’t want to indict.

And what’s with information coming out today about how there is a paucity of crime scene photos.

[Embedded content]

They didn’t take crime scene photos because their camera died? People would get fired for failing to do a basic part of the job like that.

It seems that every mistake that happened, happened to favor Officer Wilson. Every inconceivable event happened, and it happened to favor Officer Wilson.

Someone tweeted that if it was a cop dead on that table, they would have sent a secretary to Walgreens to get batteries.

13 Kragar  Nov 25, 2014 10:40:31am
14 iossarian  Nov 25, 2014 10:40:42am

re: #11 lawhawk

It’s not a failure or fix of the system.

The system is set up to deliver this outcome.

15 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 10:41:11am

That doesn’t make it right. And it certainly doesn’t excuse the criminal justice system’s ongoing failures to hold everyone accountable for their actions - including law enforcement that goes beyond the law.

16 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:41:25am

re: #13 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Yeah because a bunch of trained lawyers don’t know better than some right wing shithead on Twitter who spends his days raging at Obama for making health care more affordable.

17 nearly-headless smith25  Nov 25, 2014 10:43:25am
18 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse  Nov 25, 2014 10:44:29am

re:
#11

The medical examiner didn’t take photos of Mike Brown’s body. Because they ran out of batteries.

At some point there were illustrations showing the locations on his body where bullets hit him. I wonder how these illustrations were produced and who produced them.

19 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 10:44:57am

A front pager at Balloon Juice noticed something…odd.
balloon-juice.com

I’ve been reading through the Ferguson grand jury doc dump released by Mr. McCullough; the documents are housed at the St. Louis public radio station here. The oddest thing I’ve seen so far is the account of Witness #40, who just happened to set out on a journey of racial self-discovery on the very morning of August 9, 2014, the day Mike Brown was killed.

By a series of amazing coincidences, this person magically ended up witnessing events, and his or her perspective aligned perfectly with Officer Wilson’s account. Witness #40’s testimony comes in the form of handwritten journal entries, which you can view for yourself here. Here’s how it starts:

August 9th Saturday 8 am
Well I’m gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks n*****s and start calling them People. Like dad always said you cant fear or hate an entire race cause of what one man did 40 yrs ago.

The “journal” goes on to recount how Witness #40 takes a series of wrong turns and coincidentally turns up at the scene of the Brown shooting moments before it happens and sees the whole thing unfold. His or her account includes the following:

The cop just stood there dang if that kid didnt start running right at the cop like a football player. Head down.

The story is helpfully populated with “sweet” and “nice” local people whose wonderful qualities Witness #40 notes in the journal, qualities a racist who was attempting to create a post-hoc justification for a widely publicized police shooting would totally NOT appreciate, let alone record in a personal diary that later inexplicably found its way into evidence files. (wink-wink-nudge-nudge)

20 OhNoZombies!  Nov 25, 2014 10:45:06am

This bullshit makes me want to take my husband, sons and brother and move.
But that’s what they want, so I’m not gonna do it.

As far as the violence last night:
Treat people the way you would want to be treated. Simple.
LE in St. Louis instigated this.

21 makeitstop  Nov 25, 2014 10:47:52am

re: #14 iossarian

It’s not a failure or fix of the system.

The system is set up to deliver this outcome.

Yep. Like someone tweeted last night, ‘The system ain’t broken, it’s fixed.’

22 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:47:58am

All of the things I’ve seen that are used to point to Michael Brown as a bad kid are all things I’ve either done myself or known someone very close to do. The idea of deserving killing is just something that disgusts me. I mean that. Even for the most harshest of crimes. I hate this revenge world that too many live in.

23 Charles Johnson  Nov 25, 2014 10:48:31am
24 Feline Fearless Leader  Nov 25, 2014 10:48:58am

re: #11 lawhawk

McCullough appears to be the first prosecutor to fail to indict a ham sandwich.

Though that isn’t true. He didn’t fail to indict. He had an outcome in mind, and made it happen.

He didn’t want to indict.

And what’s with information coming out today about how there is a paucity of crime scene photos.

They didn’t take crime scene photos because their camera died? People would get fired for failing to do a basic part of the job like that.

It seems that every mistake that happened, happened to favor Officer Wilson. Every inconceivable event happened, and it happened to favor Officer Wilson.

And how many of the amateur photographers here do *not* carry a spare charged battery for their camera?

25 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 10:49:05am
26 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:49:06am

re: #23 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

And then stalled some more.

27 Kragar  Nov 25, 2014 10:49:14am

Lots of eggs and new joins up in my mentions pissed off by this.

Block button is working just fine though.

28 jamesfirecat  Nov 25, 2014 10:49:35am

re: #25 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

No question off limits… except for the ones I’m to polite to ask.

29 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:50:19am

re: #28 jamesfirecat

No question off limits… except for the ones I’m to polite to ask.

Hey, he may ask him what his favorite color is, that’s a really hard question.//

30 Charles Johnson  Nov 25, 2014 10:50:25am

Wow. Instead of publicly retracting his “fractured eye socket” story, Jim Hoft went back and completely wiped out his original post and replaced it with this:

We previously reported that Officer Wilson suffered and orbital eye-socket fracture. It now appears he suffered severe bruising but no fracture.

He even changed the title.

This is after hundreds of thousands of right wingers shared the post all over the Internet.

31 freetoken  Nov 25, 2014 10:51:03am

re: #30 Charles Johnson

HIstory is whatever the victors write.

32 The Vicious Fergushka  Nov 25, 2014 10:51:22am

re: #30 Charles Johnson

Wow. Instead of publicly retracting his “fractured eye socket” story, Jim Hoft went back and completely wiped out his original post and replaced it with this:

He even changed the title.

This is after hundreds of thousands of right wingers shared the post all over the Internet.

I have more severe bruising than that when I take a couple ibuprofen.

33 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 10:51:30am

re: #11 lawhawk

McCullough appears to be the first prosecutor to fail to indict a ham sandwich.

Though that isn’t true. He didn’t fail to indict. He had an outcome in mind, and made it happen.

He didn’t want to indict.

And what’s with information coming out today about how there is a paucity of crime scene photos.

[Embedded content]

They didn’t take crime scene photos because their camera died? People would get fired for failing to do a basic part of the job like that.

It seems that every mistake that happened, happened to favor Officer Wilson. Every inconceivable event happened, and it happened to favor Officer Wilson.

I just told my spouse, who is finishing her forensic biology degree to go to med school and be a pathologist.

She stared at me, and then said: “They didn’t run out of batteries…they ran out of morals. Once those are gone, you can’t get them back. I would have blown up my career over something like this.”

34 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:51:46am

re: #30 Charles Johnson

Wow. Instead of publicly retracting his “fractured eye socket” story, Jim Hoft went back and completely wiped out his original post and replaced it with this:

He even changed the title.

This is after hundreds of thousands of right wingers shared the post all over the Internet.

He’s not stupid at all honestly. He’s someone who knows how to be intellectually dishonest.

35 Ace-o-aces  Nov 25, 2014 10:53:05am

re: #22 HappyWarrior

All of the things I’ve seen that are used to point to Michael Brown as a bad kid are all things I’ve either done myself or known someone very close to do.

Fuck, just last week, in a fit of anger, I kicked the glass door of a local convenience store, cracking it and doing $350 of damage. That’s seven times the monetary loss from Mike Brown’s crime. Of course, I’m white, so the cops weren’t called (of course, compared to having to explain what I did to Mrs. Ace I might have preferred the cops).

36 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse  Nov 25, 2014 10:53:41am

re:
#30

We previously reported that Officer Wilson suffered and orbital eye-socket fracture. It now appears he suffered severe bruising but no fracture.

Awardwinning Journalism!!!

37 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:55:13am

re: #35 Ace-o-aces

Fuck, just last week, in a fit of anger, I kicked the glass door of a local convenience store, cracking it and doing $350 of damage. That’s seven times the monetary loss from Mike Brown’s crime. Of course, I’m white, so the cops weren’t called (of course, compared to having to explain what I did to Mrs. Ace I might have preferred the cops).

I mean it is so fucking tiring to me to see these right wingers online act like smoking pot makes you a bad seed and how something like petty shoplifting means an officer has a right to use deadly force on you. Hell even if Brown had committed a felony, this would disgust me.

38 freetoken  Nov 25, 2014 10:55:15am

re: #35 Ace-o-aces

The idea that death is a just sentence for petty larceny come from someone with a lot of issues, in this case likely involving race.

39 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:55:54am

re: #38 freetoken

The idea that death is a just sentence for petty larceny come from someone with a lot of issues, in this case likely involving race.

As said downstairs, scratch a conservative, find a power hungry authoritarian fascist power hungry dick.

40 klystron  Nov 25, 2014 10:56:06am

re: #25 lawhawk

I look forward to his follow-up interview with Michael Brown.

Oh wait…

41 Kragar  Nov 25, 2014 10:56:23am

re: #37 HappyWarrior

I mean it is so fucking tiring to me to see these right wingers online act like smoking pot makes you a bad seed and how something like petty shoplifting means an officer has a right to use deadly force on you. Hell even if Brown had committed a felony, this would disgust me.

I just had one jump in my TL and tell me that if I had been there, I would have shot Mike Brown.

No, because I’m not a fucking psychopath.

42 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse  Nov 25, 2014 10:56:26am

re:
#32

I have more severe bruising than that when I take a couple ibuprofen.

Brown fractured the cop’s eye socket in the x-ray photo WEVE ALL SEEN!!!!!111

43 The Ghost of a Flea (R)  Nov 25, 2014 10:56:37am

Fred Clark, writing before the grand jury’s finding:

Chesterton’s crooked construct of what he insisted on calling “the Jewish problem” can help us better understand the crooked lies embedded in white American culture that insist on imagining white America has a “Black Problem.” They are the same lies — the same deliberate deceptions and delusions. This is the infernal mechanism, the cognitive machinery of hate. This is how bigotry works, and how it persists.

A grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, is preparing to announce whether or not charges will be filed against a white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. Watch the way this is discussed and the way this discussion is framed. It will be, as it has been, discussed in corrosive, corrupt terms that echo Chesterton’s vile anti-Semitism. The other is identified, classified as a perpetual foreigner, and defined as a “problem” that must somehow be dealt with. We will be given “both sides” of this debate — the side that argues that it is sad and regrettable when lethal police violence is administered lawlessly in response to the Black Problem, and the side that argues that such extra-legal lethal violence may sometimes be appropriate and necessary as a response to the Black Problem.


And the followup about Rudy Giuliani:

Giuliani is lying — and doubling down on those lies — in service of the construct of “The Black Problem.” That is the only frame Giuliani will allow for discussion of the injustices faced by black people in America. When an unarmed black person is killed by a white police officer — as happens here in the U.S. about once a week — Giuliani, like so many others, is desperate to force that slaying into the constricted framework of “The Black Problem.” The blame for such unfortunate events must, somehow, be attributed to some intrinsic quality of these perpetually suspect “foreigners that are not called foreigners.”

The point here is not simply that what Giuliani is arguing is racist, but that he has accepted — and is promoting — a framework that doesn’t allow for any thought or response that could ever be anything other than racist. The framework of The Black Problem allows for different degrees of white supremacy and slightly different gradations of racism, but the construct redefines the subject in such a way that any non-racist response is prohibited. Any such response is, for people like Giuliani, unimaginable.

How the death of Micheal Brown happened, and how it is justified matters independent of the character and deeds of Michael Brown.

There are so many issues that need to be addressed that are being swept under the rug…first by Brown being a “strongarm robber” and now by the rioting looting.

The holes in the forensic record.
The leaks and misinformation to make Brown seem worse.
All the various reasons why the prosecutor should have been recused .
The larger systemic issue of Ferguson police using excessive force.
The specific issue of Wilson coming from a PD that was shut down for racism.

The longer this discussion goes, the more I’m seeing ugly irrational shit slipped into the discourse as reasonable. And it takes me back to the Martin shooting—why is anyone celebrating a dead kid, again? Isn’t the best case scenario that this was a grim necessity, not a triumph?

At best. the killing of Micheal Brown was utilitarian. Why are people *again* conflating an extralegal killing—even one that *had* to happen because of self defense—with “justice” achieved via due process and court procedure, as set out by rule of law and the civil contract of this nation.

This shit is fucked up. Not just the micro of the specific event, not even the meso of the larger system of injustice tied to race and police authority, but the macro thought-world which retroactively legitimates the whole mess as Good.

44 Lidane  Nov 25, 2014 10:56:44am

re: #38 freetoken

The idea that death is a just sentence for petty larceny come from someone with a lot of issues, in this case likely involving race.

Hell, I’ve seen people excuse the death of that 12 year old kid who had a toy gun. Apparently the cop was justified in killing him because the kid pointed a toy at him and the cop was clearly afraid for his life.

45 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:56:57am

re: #41 Kragar

I just had one jump in my TL and tell me that if I had been there, I would have shot Mike Brown.

No, because I’m not a fucking psychopath.

Yep.

46 The Vicious Fergushka  Nov 25, 2014 10:57:38am

WHAT. THE. FUCK.
ANOTHER BENGHAZI BOOGALOO?

47 freetoken  Nov 25, 2014 10:58:02am

re: #39 HappyWarrior

As said downstairs, scratch a conservative, find a power hungry authoritarian fascist power hungry dick.

Well, at least how that word is now worn as some sort of special badge by the reactionary right, I suppose so.

At one time that word was meant in a broader sense, but today labeling oneself a “conservative” is a way of identifying with the Sarah Palins of this world.

48 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:58:07am

re: #44 Lidane

Hell, I’ve seen people excuse the death of that 12 year old kid who had a toy gun. Apparently the cop was justified in killing him because the kid pointed a toy at him and the cop was clearly afraid for his life.

I uhh saw that from a family member. I was speechless and honestly angry given that I have a brother around the same age.

49 Lidane  Nov 25, 2014 10:58:27am

re: #46 The Vicious Fergushka

WHAT. THE. FUCK.
ANOTHER BENGHAZI BOOGALOO?

It’s all about Hillary Clinton. They’ve got to find something before 2016.

50 Franklin  Nov 25, 2014 10:58:42am

re: #44 Lidane

Hell, I’ve seen people excuse the death of that 12 year old kid who had a toy gun. Apparently the cop was justified in killing him because the kid pointed a toy at him and the cop was clearly afraid for his life.

Yep. And if we institute regulations on toy gun manufacturers to make them less real looking, they will be the first to scream about a War on Fun.

51 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 10:59:13am

re: #50 Franklin

Yep. And if we institute regulations on toy gun manufacturers to make them less real looking, they will be the first to scream about a War on Fun.

Nanny state libtard hurr hurr but yeah.

52 Jenner7  Nov 25, 2014 11:00:08am

re: #48 HappyWarrior

He didn’t even point it at him. He lifted his shirt.

53 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 11:00:09am

re: #48 HappyWarrior

I uhh saw that from a family member. I was speechless and honestly angry given that I have a brother around the same age.

Female officer in Euharlee, Ga, killed an ROTC cadet last spring who answered his front door while holding a white wii remote.

No charges against her (and she is another one of those ‘fired from a previous department’ types who seems to find trouble)

54 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 11:01:11am

re: #52 Jenner7

He didn’t even point it at him. He lifted his shirt.

Is there eyewitness testimony to that?

Not that anything like that matters to prosecutors, of course…

55 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:01:19am

re: #53 Aunty Entity Dragon

Female officer in Euharlee, Ga, killed an ROTC cadet last spring who answered his front door while holding a white wii remote.

No charges against her (and she is another one of those ‘fired from a previous department’ types who seems to find trouble)

I heard about that. Just angering to even think about it.

56 Eclectic Cyborg  Nov 25, 2014 11:01:21am

So it’s official: Police in America are now above the law.

57 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:02:08am

re: #56 Eclectic Cyborg

So it’s official: Police in America are now above the law.

In some parts of the country, they’ve always been above the law. Remember that in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the feds needed to get involved to indict the sons of bitches that killed the Civil Rights workers and those were cops involved in that.

58 Kragar  Nov 25, 2014 11:02:13am

In other news…

59 nearly-headless smith25  Nov 25, 2014 11:03:15am

re: #44 Lidane

Hell, I’ve seen people excuse the death of that 12 year old kid who had a toy gun. Apparently the cop was justified in killing him because the kid pointed a toy at him and the cop was clearly afraid for his life.

It would be my opinion that having being afraid for your life should disqualify you from being a Police Officer.

Training should remove fear. I don’t wan’t my officers to work under a cloud of fear, because that will be the cloud of their actions, warranted or not.

60 Jenner7  Nov 25, 2014 11:03:27am

Brown’s stepfather screamed “burn this bitch down”, shortly after the announcement. It’s all over RW websites. I won’t put it here. I’ve never lost a child, but I can understand how angry this family is and they are still grieving. Of course it will just give the racist pigs out there more ammunition to be hateful slime balls.

61 The Vicious Fergushka  Nov 25, 2014 11:03:32am

So being a white police officer means you can fuck up at your job and totally not get fired.

62 Kragar  Nov 25, 2014 11:04:13am

re: #61 The Vicious Fergushka

So being a white police officer means you can fuck up at your job and totally not get fired.

But remember, white privilege doesn’t exist.

63 Feline Fearless Leader  Nov 25, 2014 11:04:54am

re: #61 The Vicious Fergushka

So being a white police officer means you can fuck up at your job and totally not get fired.

It brings to question what they might consider their job to be. And it is not what we think it should be.

64 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:05:03am

re: #59 nearly-headless smith25

It would be my opinion that having being afraid for your life should disqualify you from being a Police Officer.

Training should remove fear. I don’t wan’t my officers to work under a cloud of fear, because that will be the cloud of their actions, warranted or not.

This is a great point and thanks for making it. I’ve been hearing from CCNW(Cops can do no wrong) types that “Well the officer was in fear of his life, what do you expect him to do?” And it’s like yeah they have training for this. And furthermore in this case, the dispatcher was told that it was a possible juvenile with a possible BB gun. It’s just so aggravating because these types will justify anything a cop does.

65 Jenner7  Nov 25, 2014 11:05:17am

re: #54 Aunty Entity Dragon

When the two officers arrived, the boy did not point the weapon at them or otherwise threaten them, Deputy Chief Ed Tomba of the Cleveland Division of Police told reporters early Sunday.
But he did reach for the weapon, Tomba said.
“The officers ordered him to stop and to show his hands and he went into his waistband and pulled out the weapon,” he said.

cnn.com

66 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:06:10am

re: #60 Jenner7

Brown’s stepfather screamed “burn this bitch down”, shortly after the announcement. It’s all over RW websites. I won’t put it here. I’ve never lost a child, but I can understand how angry this family is and they are still grieving. Of course it will just give the racist pigs out there more ammunition to be hateful slime balls.

I’d ask the fuckers on the RW websites if they’ve ever lost a child and furthermore if the prosecutor’s office showed a complete lack of regard to their child. I don’t blame Mike’s stepfather for being upset in the slightest.

67 The Vicious Fergushka  Nov 25, 2014 11:06:25am

All those GM engineers, QA specialists and managers who designed the defective ignitions should have all joined the police force.

68 nearly-headless smith25  Nov 25, 2014 11:07:53am

re: #60 Jenner7

Brown’s stepfather screamed “burn this bitch down”, shortly after the announcement. It’s all over RW websites. I won’t put it here. I’ve never lost a child, but I can understand how angry this family is and they are still grieving. Of course it will just give the racist pigs out there more ammunition to be hateful slime balls.

I’ve been fighting battles within myself over being ultra peaceful/pacifist, or my inner revolutionary who wants it to burn. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I were him.

69 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:09:19am

We have far too many officers who would rather shoot someone than actually try to resolve the conflict peacefully. And in the case of Ferguson, we’re dealing with a police department that bloodied one man and then charged him for getting blood on the officer’s uniform. The Ferguson PD is crooked to the max. That police department honestly resembles Bull Connor’s Birmingham or Neshoba County, Mississippi in the 60’s more than what a 21st police department should be.

71 Skip Intro  Nov 25, 2014 11:11:00am

re: #11 lawhawk

McCullough appears to be the first prosecutor to fail to indict a ham sandwich.

Though that isn’t true. He didn’t fail to indict. He had an outcome in mind, and made it happen.

He didn’t want to indict.

And what’s with information coming out today about how there is a paucity of crime scene photos.

[Embedded content]

They didn’t take crime scene photos because their camera died? People would get fired for failing to do a basic part of the job like that.

It seems that every mistake that happened, happened to favor Officer Wilson. Every inconceivable event happened, and it happened to favor Officer Wilson.

Nobody had a cell phone?

72 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:12:11am

re: #70 Romantic Heretic

Teacher schools his class on privilege.

Good lesson. And I am glad he touched on the fact that many are totally blissfully unaware of their privilege.

73 nearly-headless smith25  Nov 25, 2014 11:12:23am

re: #71 Skip Intro

Nobody had a cell phone?

Black people who did take pictures on their phones did.

Oh yeah, but those were Obamaphones.////

74 HappyWarrior  Nov 25, 2014 11:12:53am

re: #71 Skip Intro

Nobody had a cell phone?

Ran out of battery. He was playing words with friends with McCulloch and had just spelled tool.

75 William Barnett-Lewis  Nov 25, 2014 11:15:18am

re: #25 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

About the only worse interviewer than Connie Chung is going to pretend to interview Wilson?

76 Kragar  Nov 25, 2014 11:15:26am
77 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 11:15:26am

re: #68 nearly-headless smith25

I’ve been fighting battles within myself over being ultra peaceful/pacifist, or my inner revolutionary who wants it to burn. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I were him.

Burning businesses and looting dollar tree does not make a political statement. It makes a criminal statement.

Burning city hall makes a political statement. I don’t support that here, but it would get a message across that the ppl have grown weary of their government and retain their revolutionary right to dismember it.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it….

Abraham Lincoln

78 William Barnett-Lewis  Nov 25, 2014 11:16:11am

re: #27 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Lots of eggs and new joins up in my mentions pissed off by this.

Block button is working just fine though.

Pfft. The system is working exactly as it is designed to - protecting the 1% and their uniformed thugs.

79 walkingdeadhead  Nov 25, 2014 11:17:38am

In the end, it all comes down to this: Michael Brown was shot because he:
A. Assaulted a police officer
B. Attempted to take the officer’s gun in the police car, and
C. Turned around and charged the officer as he was being pursued.
thesmokinggun.com

Despite all the progress that has been made in Civil Rights in the last 50 years, the Left, mainly to keep Blacks voting for the Democratic Party in numbers that would be considered voter fraud if it were in a foreign country, has to portray 2014 America as no different than Mississippi Burning. All white cops are Bull Connor, all black victims of cop shootings are the moral equivalent of Selma marchers, and there’s always the KKK (Tea Party) underneath every bed.

The bottom line was that Officer Wilson’s testimony, as well as the testimony from eyewitnesses, is coorboroated by the forensic EVIDENCE, thus, the Grand Jury had no alternative but to return a no bill. That is the purpose of the Grand Jury, after all, to protect the citizens from unjust trials.

Just for fun, lets just say that the prosecutor WAS a racist and let Wilson off because of that. Lets also say that the Grand Jury rolled over and let the prosector have his way. You STILL don’t have an out of control white racist cop gunning down an innocent black kid. Michael Brown was a lot of things, but “innocent” and “a kid” he was not

80 urbanmeemaw  Nov 25, 2014 11:18:43am

re: #25 lawhawk

I have no doubt George will stick to the script and not rock the boat.

CNN’s coverage was deplorable. The only positives were Van Jones’ criticism of McCullough’s statement (he was a divider) and someone who supposedly cursed CNN reporters (couldn’t hear the exchange but one of the CNN Bots reported it).

81 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse  Nov 25, 2014 11:19:26am

Oh, look here….

82 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak  Nov 25, 2014 11:21:10am

re: #79 walkingdeadhead

You still have to provide any credible evidence of charging.

83 jamesfirecat  Nov 25, 2014 11:21:16am

re: #79 walkingdeadhead

In the end, it all comes down to this: Michael Brown was shot because he:
A. Assaulted a police officer
B. Attempted to take the officer’s gun in the police car, and
C. Turned around and charged the officer as he was being pursued.
thesmokinggun.com

Despite all the progress that has been made in Civil Rights in the last 50 years, the Left, mainly to keep Blacks voting for the Democratic Party in numbers that would be considered voter fraud if it were in a foreign country, has to portray 2014 America as no different than Mississippi Burning. All white cops are Bull Connor, all black victims of cop shootings are the moral equivalent of Selma marchers, and there’s always the KKK (Tea Party) underneath every bed.

The bottom line was that Officer Wilson’s testimony, as well as the testimony from eyewitnesses, is coorboroated by the forensic EVIDENCE, thus, the Grand Jury had no alternative but to return a no bill. That is the purpose of the Grand Jury, after all, to protect the citizens from unjust trials.

Just for fun, lets just say that the prosecutor WAS a racist and let Wilson off because of that. Lets also say that the Grand Jury rolled over and let the prosector have his way. You STILL don’t have an out of control white racist cop gunning down an innocent black kid. Michael Brown was a lot of things, but “innocent” and “a kid” he was not

You’re linking to a site that uses information from the same witness wrote to himself

“Well I’m gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks N***ers and start calling them People. Like dad always said you cant fear or hate an entire race cause of what one man did 40 yrs ago.”

While I approve of his desire to better himself… he’s got a long way to go before I consider him an unbiased witness in anything involving people of color.

balloon-juice.com

84 William Barnett-Lewis  Nov 25, 2014 11:21:30am

re: #79 walkingdeadhead

You can keep telling your lies here all you want.

It will never make them true.

Now go home child, I hear your mommy calling.

85 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak  Nov 25, 2014 11:22:18am

Thanks, Lawhawk. Coming from a professional this post is all the more great.

86 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 11:23:06am
87 walkingdeadhead  Nov 25, 2014 11:24:22am

re: #82 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak

The Grand Jury are the only people in the country that have heard ALL the LEGITIMATE evidence regarding the case, and they returned a No Bill. Now, much like when the midterms went against Obama and the New York Times was wondering if it was time to abolish midtems altogether, I listened so some progressives today that, just because the Ferguson Grand Jury didn’t return the verdict they desired, its time to get rid of Grand Juries. Typical.

88 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak  Nov 25, 2014 11:25:31am

re: #87 walkingdeadhead

Thanks for confirming you have zero credible evidence.

89 Skip Intro  Nov 25, 2014 11:26:04am

re: #87 walkingdeadhead

No, they heard all the evidence the “prosecutor” chose to use. You are mistaking what happens in a grand jury with what happens in a trial.

But of course you know that.

90 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 11:26:37am

re: #79 walkingdeadhead

The magical bull charging negro who counts as being armed because he is black and has hands.

Go the fuck away.

91 walkingdeadhead  Nov 25, 2014 11:27:33am

re: #88 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak

And you’re just going to accept the claims from some of the most notorious race hustlers in the business that Officer Wilson shot Brown in cold blood? The Grand Jury has more legitmate facts at their disposal, more so than Van Jefferson and the HuffPo. Shoot the messenger I guess

92 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 11:29:00am

re: #87 walkingdeadhead

They heard evidence thrown at them that was not related to the matter at hand and in a fashion that confused instead of clarified.

But that was what the DA wanted.

If other grand juries were run that way, we would have less then half our current prison population because millions of people would never have been indicted in the first place.

93 walkingdeadhead  Nov 25, 2014 11:29:25am

re: #90 Aunty Entity Dragon

Dude, Michael Brown already went for his gun and was trying to charge him again. I don’t know where you live, but from where I’m from, if you try to grab an officers gun, you’re going to get shot. Does that not make sense?

94 walkingdeadhead  Nov 25, 2014 11:29:54am

re: #92 Aunty Entity Dragon

And you know this how??

95 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 11:31:09am

re: #79 walkingdeadhead

You keep using that term forensic evidence.

Multiple bullet wounds to Brown, from varying distances. Including one bullet that struck him on top of his head. That would indicate that he was already falling from other shots. The body was 150 feet from the car. Multiple eyewitnesses noted hands up - independently and corroborated by cell phone video after the shooting.

The time delay between the volley of shots.

Wilson’s own testimony reeks and isn’t consistent with itself, let alone common sense.

Wilson’s wounds aren’t consistent with a life or death struggle.

Wilson’s claims of what Brown said don’t make any sense, unless Wilson is trying to justify killing him (although who would ever taunt a cop with a gun after hitting them?) We would love to be able to interview and cross Brown, but he’s dead.

We aren’t getting a chance to cross Wilson because of the failure to indict.

Wilson’s first PD was disbanded because of corruption and multiple problems. Ferguson has had repeated issues with excessive force and didn’t even have a reporting system in place to address excessive force complaints for years. Records are lax to nonexistent.

What isn’t nonexistent - the MO AG finding that racial profiling is definitely going on in Ferguson (and most other municipalities and counties across the state). Ferguson further treated the residents as a piggy bank so that arrests and charges resulted in fines and helped fund the municipal govt.

That’s apparently been modified since August, but the department remains much as it was since the shooting. The people in charge are still there; the local government includes people who previously had been involved in police brutality cases; and the prosecutor and other local politicians have numerous links to charities tied to helping Wilson.

96 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak  Nov 25, 2014 11:31:34am

re: #91 walkingdeadhead

You’ve made a specific claim about charging. You’re unable to prove it. “A grand jury decided something so it’s true” is epistemological bullshit. But even if one were to accept that this decision was fair, it still doesn’t prove your charging claim

97 Aunty Entity Dragon  Nov 25, 2014 11:37:11am

re: #93 walkingdeadhead

Dude, Michael Brown already went for his gun

I’m not a dude, asshole. Fuck off.

Also, Wilson is the only person saying Brown somehow was trying to get a gun on the other side of his body, and Wilson is a proven liar here who falsified charges on the relevent arrest report in the link.

98 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak  Nov 25, 2014 11:47:07am

* crickets *

99 walkingdeadhead  Nov 25, 2014 11:53:38am

re: #95 lawhawk

Hands Up, Don’t Shoot. It makes for a catchy slogan, but it just didn’t happen. There were 60 witnesses Ferguson Grand Jury heard from, NBC News (an organization that’s certainly not going to give the benefit of the doubt to Officer Wilson), had excerpts from 17, and no one has claimed to have seen Michael Brown surrender with his hands up. The all backed up Officer Wilson’s testimony, that Brown charged him, and Wilson shot the attacker until he was down.
nbcnews.com

100 lawhawk  Nov 25, 2014 12:12:44pm

re: #99 walkingdeadhead

You apparently have a selective reading comprehension problem:

From the very article you link:

Person in a third-floor apartment

“I couldn’t really tell what was going on. It was just a lot of movement going on by the window of the car…

“So I’m looking at the officer chase Michael down the street.”

And at this time, I heard another shot fired while they were running. After that, [Brown] then turn[s], had his hands in the air, by the time that I saw him have his hands in the air he got shot. I heard two shots like specifically in my head, I saw those two shots. And he dropped down like kinda drop hands first, then knee, then face and everything else.”

That’s one witness saying hands were up. Next:

Person pulling up near the scene in his car:

“I seen a young man standing near the cruiser, you head two shots fired And then a police officer hopped out of his cruiser and started chasing him, the dude turned back around and started charging towards the police officer, the police officer told him to stop at least three times…

He was still down the street, he was running back…he put his hands up for a few seconds and then put his arms down and kind of put them close to his chest and he started running.

“And the boy wouldn’t stop, he fired three rounds, the dude kept running, fired four more rounds, and the finished off the rounds I guess, and he fell on the ground dead.”

That’s two who said the hands were up for part of the encounter. And:

Person walking on the street:

“I saw the officer back his van up and hit the two boys. Um, immediately his friend took off and…Mike he started like fighting with the officer through his window. I don’t know why they were fighting through the window but then you heard the first shot and all the cars on the street stopped. They started backing up.

“Then he, uh, started running. He stopped halfway and turned around and that’s when you heard the rest of the shows. And I don’t have really good eyes so I couldn’t see like exactly where he got hit or anything like that. But it was about seven, eight shots that I heard…And like he did have his hands up. People wasn’t just saying that. He did turn around and put his hands up.

So, at least 3 of the witnesses saw him with his hands up at least part of the time of an incident that was little more than a minute long. One person in this NBC news report said that he was charging Wilson.

What forensic evidence disputes the hands up? There isn’t any. In fact, the bullet wound patterns do seem to support that he had his hands up - and that Wilson fired at least one of the shots into the top of Brown’s head (as if he was already falling down from prior shots).

101 Islamo-Masonic Vourdalak  Nov 25, 2014 12:42:11pm

Let’s even assume that the witness testimonies are conflicting as to whether MB was charging Wilson. This would only mean that we can’t decide that only from the available testimonies themselves, since they would cancel each other. That means that a non-witness (like our troll here) claiming the alleged charging as a proven fact is merely picking “facts” from their troll ass.


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