Discussion for article #230581
In reviewing its gun-use guidance, the Ferguson Police Department issued the following statement:
We apologize for the minor spelling error. Should read “…acceptable to fire upon unarmed members of the public only if you are shooting Blanks.”
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So, even if the evidence supports no indictment, the Grand Jury should have indicted anyways?
How about instructing young black, brown, white, etc… men that if you attack a police officer, chances are you will get shot and getting shot is bad for your health, so when a police officer gives you instruction the best course is to comply not physically attack them.
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Despite the tragedy of a lost life, does the young man bear no responsibilty for his own demise?
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When Cliven Bundy’s buddies aim guns at police, they are hailed by conservatives as protectors of individual liberty and Constitutional rights.
This?
This is a just another dead black guy, guilty of walking down the street. Probably deserved it, right, conservatives?
Freaking hypocrites.
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Even if the facts of the initial encounter (i.e. up to the point Brown is moving away from the police car) remain in dispute, approaching the police with hostile intent is always a bad move.
There is evidence that there wasn’t much approach as the police car initially came close to Brown and Johnson (like within doorspan), or what Wilson’s intent was. It is not disputed that Brown was not a good student, but he was not a criminal either. Education has a race aspect. Here is an article and here is another on the school system in which Brown was raised.
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and
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It doesn’t matter what the Officer’s intent was and Brown was a criminal, or did you not see the video of him assaulting a store owner in order to steal cigarillos? Furthermore, the Officer stated that his intent was to tell them to get out of the middle of the street, then he heard the report about the theft and correctly identified Big Mike as a suspect, then he went back with the intention of arresting him, so why didn’t Brown comply?
The facts are if Brown hadn’t stolen those cigarillos, there wouldn’t have been a second encounter. Fact is if Brown hadn’t attacked Wilson, he wouldn’t have been shot the first time. Fact is had Brown, according to multiple witnesses and the physical evidences, attempted to charge at Wilson, he wouldn’t have been shot and killed.
The fact is that, while tragic, Brown is dead as a result of actions he had 100% control of and to blame it on Brown’s education is just a cop out. He was killed because he was a criminal who attacked a police officer. It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to understand that if you physically attack a police officer there is a very high chance that you will be shot.
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He certainly played a part, but it seems to me outrageous that an 18 yr old was shot 6+ times by a cop for jaywalking. Normally they give out tickets for this kind of offense.
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Real social change occurs very slowly and mostly due to demographic shifts. Personally, I think peaceful demonstrations have a marginal impact. Violent demonstrations are more impactful but the results are unpredictable.
It’s frustrating to hear media encourage people to “remain calm” and “use appropriate channels”. That is just a misdirection – you may as well stay home and watch TV.
You really don’t understand, do you? A grand jury is not a trial. There is no cross examination to challenge the veracity of what you call “the evidence.” But you like it that way, don’t you?
What you call “the evidence” is whatever this DA – who is also the president of the board of directors of Backstoppers, a police advocacy organization that profited from selling Darren Wilson T shirts – wanted to present. Whatever this DA, whose father was killed by a black man, wanted to present. A DA who was there because a Governor refused to respect the wishes of its citizens for an impartial prosecutor and would not appoint a replacement in the interest of justice.
All people asked for was a trial with a prosecutor interested in actually prosecuting, as is done for every alleged criminal act that hasn’t been conducted by a cop.
For your information, Darren Wilson ain’t nobody’s daddy. How about instructing individuals who are overwhelmed with authoritarianism and brainwashed to kill for corporate interests that we just aren’t gonna accede to police murders any longer? How’s that workin’ for ya?
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It has been about 15 years since my brother, a noted defense attorney, died. He died knowing the system and its “institutions” were broken and he pointed out then, as is true now, that no one wants to change or clean the system. Black men will continue to be used as target practice by the “police.” Black people will continue to be exploited and cheated. Most white people cannot imagine what it is like to be black in America, so there is no motivation for change. The word on the street is: “Next time, cover the shooting up quicker and hide it better.” We are still in “lynch mode” after all these years. The South has risen. It’s in your backyard.
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Even if you believe everything the cop said - he was like a big grunting HULK, I tell ya, I was so sskeeered of him - and what SOME eyewitnesses said - very much in dispute - nothing Brown did was a capital offense. Nothing.
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Because you were there and saw what happened. You’re everywhere at the same time. You are, after all, a right winger who knows every fucking thing.
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Particularly after being subdued by the initial few of the twelve shots.
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There was plenty of evidence to support indictment. The threshold for determining cause for indictment is low, even if this case did involve a law enforcement officer’s use of deadly force. The grand jury didn’t indict because the prosecutor didn’t seek an indictment; in fact, it’s obvious to outside observers that the prosecutor sought the opposite.
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Well, too bad he wasn’t around to testify at the grand jury, isn’t it? Only his killer was able to do that.
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The problems re: grand jury are the problems with every grand jury that considers the possibility of police misconduct. A. conflict of interest, as the prosecutor has to work with the cops in hundreds of other cases and doesn’t want them to go to trial, and B. the presumption that anything a LEO does is good and right (very often a white assumption).
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Chris Rock has an instructional video entitled “How Not to get Your Ass Kicked by the Police.” Should be mandatory viewing.
No kidding? You mean that a Grand Jury isn’t a trial, thanks for the update. However, that isn’t what I asked. What I asked was even if the evidence doesn’t support an indictment, they Grand Jury should have indicted anyways?
In order to indict someone the Grand Jury make the determination if the evidence is sufficient to do so. In this case, the Grand Jury determined the evidence didn’t, so why waste time and money of a trial when the outcome is not likely to be a conviction?
Do we just indict people to satisfy the community or should we indict people because the evidence supports it? If these idiots want to respond by burning down their own neighborhood then so be it. Maybe the race agitators, like in the Martin case, shouldn’t have spread a false narrative that was based not in facts but in BS.
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