First, let me say I am 100% on the side of the protesters in Ferguson. I live 15 minutes away and have lost count of the number of times I have visited the QuikTrip, Canfield Green Apartments and Greater St. Mark’s to join in whatever effort is underway at the time. And that’s why I don’t want to see this movement get carried away by red herrings and untruths.

I spent quite a bit of time researching this yesterday, and while I don’t have definitive proof, I think the Police Academy is the victim of a hack.

1) There is a similar course from the same instructor being offered by the Southwestern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission on November 5th (silec.org), however the title and language used are different. The conclusion one draws from reading that description is that there was a massive PR failure in Ferguson, stemming from lying to the media and general public. It is also apparent that this seminar existed prior to events in Ferguson and has been appended with newly relevant information, not that it was formed as a response. Most importantly, it has nothing to do specifically with officer-involved shootings.

2) Unlike all other flyers for training courses I looked at on the STL County Police Academy website, the one in question does not include a second page on the PDF with a registration form.

3) There is no mention of this course anywhere other than one listing on the STL County Police Academy online course catalog.

4) News of this broke on a Saturday. That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s when it was posted, but it’s exactly when you would put something on someone’s website if you wanted it up the maximum amount of time before it was discovered and removed.

My guess is that a hacker used the SILEC course as a jumping-off point, made some edits to make it directly relevant to Ferguson and immediately enraging, then released some links on Twitter. Again, I have no proof positive, but the circumstantial evidence seems to say this is a fake, and no one’s been able to corroborate that it isn’t. There are enough actual horrific things revolving around this case that we don’t need to spend time on ones that have yet to be confirmed.