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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMichael Brown roughing up store clerk
I do think they should have had a trial but let's not distort the facts - he wasn't a perfect little angel like people like to say he was.
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NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)
boomer55
(592 posts)
merrily
(45,251 posts)Or anyone.
Response to merrily (Reply #35)
Post removed
merrily
(45,251 posts)"Allowing" is not "requiring." Cops need to stop being so trigger happy. You are wrong.
DonCoquixote
(13,973 posts)but what the hell required 12 shots, especially after the kid put his hands up?
Erose999
(5,624 posts)somethings fucked.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)
TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)I have no doubt believing that he roughed up the police officer, because I'm watching a bully in that video. He didn't change when he walked away ten minutes later.
But bully or not, the laws in that state need to be changed. PERIOD. It is the law that allowed the police officer to shoot at a fleeing suspect. Illinois has some of the most "protective" laws of police officers - to the point that they are "oppressive" of suspects. As the laws are written and with so-called witnesses who came out and supported Wilson's version, it is not surprising that any grand jury would have no-billed.
CHANGE THE LAWS!
uppityperson
(116,023 posts)Out of his 18 years, you call him a bully based on one minute video and decide he "roughed up" a cop.
Incredible.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)uppityperson
(116,023 posts)TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)And, yeah, he bullied that store clerk, and according to witnesses it seemed he got physical with the cop.
I can call it like I see it, without believing that he deserved to be executed for it.
Maybe he had a bad day, and if he had lived, might have regretted his actions.
Imagine him acting like that with your seventeen year old son who might have been clerking in that store, and tell me honestly you wouldn't look at that video and call him a big bully.
I'm sorry, but I try to teach my kids to act better than that, and I'd be horrified if they treated a person like that.
uppityperson
(116,023 posts)this small man in the store, yet not go out of his way to push around everyone or anyone else.
I label behavior, not people. It is possible to act like a bully in one moment but not to attack a cop later.
treestar
(82,383 posts)a cop, in his car, with his gun? I doubt that.
And being a bully is not enough for a death sentence.
Response to unreadierLizard (Original post)
Post removed
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Ykcutnek
(1,305 posts)Report: Black Male Teens Are 21 Times More Likely To Be Killed By Cops Than White Ones
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/10/10/3578877/black-teens-were-21-times-more-likely-to-be-shot-dead-by-the-cops-reported-deaths-suggest/
unreadierLizard
(475 posts)...that Brown may have been responsible for robbery and assault, that I must be a Klan member?
I do believe that Wilson should go to trial. Absolutely - was the shooting justified? I don't think so. But to always display Michael Brown as an innocent little boy who did no wrong is incorrect.
Spazito
(55,837 posts)"Michael Brown as an innocent little boy who did no wrong". The difference is shoplifting is not a death penalty offense unless one is a person of color.
merrily
(45,251 posts)
niyad
(133,483 posts)Mike Brown appears to have paid for those cigars
“Ferguson police’s attempts to demonize Michael Brown, the unarmed African-American teen killed by Officer Darren Wilson, may have hit a small snag,” reports Crooks and Liars. “The very video they released at the same time as they identified Wilson as the officer responsible for shooting Brown six times, including twice in the head, may show the opposite of what they intended.
“Supposedly, the video shows Brown robbing the store, taking a box of cigars. However, the attorney for Ferguson Market says that it was not anyone from the store who called police to report a robbery. In fact, a customer called to report what he viewed as a robbery.
“How, then, did police get the tape? According to St. Louis News, ‘The attorney said, during the course of Ferguson (PD)’s investigation, they came to the store and asked for to review the tape.” In other words, the tape was not viewed by police until after Michael Brown was dead in the street.
“In their fervent effort to cast Brown in a negative light, they missed that the video seems to show Brown paying for the Swisher Sweets.
“While it is difficult to be 100 percent certain, the video appears to show Brown purchasing some cigars but lacking the money for the amount he wished to buy. Brown seems to purchase some cigarillos, pay for them, attempt to buy more, then replace the ones he could not afford.”
. . .
http://sfbayview.com/2014/08/mike-brown-appears-to-have-paid-for-those-cigars/
DeadEyeDyck
(1,504 posts)If I remember correctly, his lawyer said the same.
niyad
(133,483 posts)occurred.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)
Judi Lynn
(164,156 posts)Your reasoning is less developed than a 2-year-old's.
Why would you imagine DU readers/posters need your assistance in remembering what they have already seen repeatedly time after time after time?
No one here has ever claimed he was "an innocent little boy".
You reveal too much about yourself. You should be embarrassed to show how unprepared for actual conversation you are.
Tommy_Carcetti
(44,568 posts)Brown's not perfect?
News: No one's perfect.
BklnDem75
(2,918 posts)What's your point? It was ok to gun him down?
unreadierLizard
(475 posts)is that the media portrayal of him as an innocent little angel(with his graduation picture, etc) distorted the facts that he may have been a criminal - it does not rule out the fact he may have reached for Wilson's gun. Which is why there SHOULD be a trial.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)The OP is acting like he has some special knowledge he has acquired through means other than the very media he claims to have decoded. What a pathetic joke. The "media" had that damn clip on a loop for two weeks straight. The "media" has dumbshits believing that because an 18 year old kid grabbed some Swisher Sweets and pushed a dude, he would also try to disarm a police officer through a car window, a notion so ludicrous only a racist asshole would believe it.
Portraying him as an innocent angel because they showed his graduation picture?!? Listen to this racist bullshit. Um, Mike Brown fucking graduated from high school. It's a recent picture. Is there some reason they shouldn't use it? How is it a distortion to show a recent high school graduate's graduation picture? What racist universe is this fucking guy living in?
Jesus fuck.
Judi Lynn
(164,156 posts)
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)would have happened (at least this time). But once whatever happened at the police car was over, there was no excuse for blasting away at unarmed M Brown.
Maybe Wilson isn't being charged criminally, but this was not good police behavior/reaction and I really get ticked when some right wing ass calls it a "good shoot."
Darb
(2,807 posts)why would a young black man in the United States, in the furthest reaches of his thought process, think for even a second that it would be a good idea to try to steal a cops gun, out of his holster, while he is sitting in his cruiser? Did he think he would just grab the gun and take it home with him and keep it? Did he think he would just get control over it and then pop a cap in the cop's head and then walk home, even though that is an absolute death sentence for him, either that day or in the chair?
That whole thing about clinching his fist, reaching under his shirt into his waistband, bearing down and charging is sooooooooo much bullshit that it is fucking cliche'. Yet there they are, white american males buying into that spew by the millions. It's pathetic.
It defies logic. If you believe that bullshit narrative that Wilson spewed after memorizing it for a couple of months then you are an ideal London Bridge buyer.
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]
CatWoman
(80,307 posts)I've been in several stores in which the owners (particularly asian) can be pretty nasty and aggressive towards blacks.
they sure don't have a problem getting into our faces, or shout insults.
randome
(34,845 posts)...when the videotape shows he was already in a "don't mess with me" mood. That clerk is about a foot shorter than Brown. Hard to believe he was the one to pick a fight.
None of this excuses what happened. No one deserves to die even when a kid "gets away" with disrespecting an officer. Wilson's life was never in danger.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]
CatWoman
(80,307 posts)fuck the video; fuck the store.
randome
(34,845 posts)Wilson did the easiest thing he could have done and killed someone. How anyone can sleep with that knowledge is beyond me.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]
treestar
(82,383 posts)That I think that's why they avoided the trial. They knew how embarrassing the trial would be and how hard it would be to acquit. Zimmerman at least had some story that was tenable.
But this is ridiculous. If Wilson was in the car and felt threatened he could have driven away and called for back up. Zimmerman had about ten outs from his alleged impending death at the bare hands of a black kid, but in the very very end, there could have been a scuffle Zimmerman thought he might lose. But to be an actual cop, in a cruiser, with your weapon, and feel threatened by someone outside the vehicle is ridiculous. That anyone unarmed would reach into the vehicle to get your gun is so untenable that it would never survive the trial process. Thus, to get him off, they had to risk it at this point.
BklnDem75
(2,918 posts)How he's not an angel, how he reached for the gun and, ultimately, how he deserved what he got. Do we really need a repeat of that crap?
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)The guy graduated from high school two months before his murder. It's a posed picture. This is a problem why? Did he not graduate from high school? Is it not a recent picture of him? Does showing a recent picture of a high school graduate portray that person as an "innocent little angel?" Do we consider high school graduates to be "innocent little angels?" Why is it inappropriate or a distortion to use Mike Brown's high school graduation picture in news reports?
Why is it more appropriate to show the pictures from the Swisher Sweets incident? Did Wilson know about that incident? Does it really give us any insight into what happened with Wilson? Does it give us more insight than his high school graduation picture? How so? Is there not quite a leap between stealing $5 worth of cigars and pushing a store clerk, on the one hand, and trying to disarm a police officer, presumably for the purpose of murdering him, on the other? Do you think everyone who steals $5 in cigarillos and pushes people is capable of and likely to murder a police officer, or just Mike Brown?
So many questions to make sense of your post here.
kydo
(2,679 posts)Just like everyone else in the world, he is probably a little bit of both. I know I am, sometimes I can be a little angel and others a thug, and I ain't black.
So what if the media shows him at graduation, many people graduate. Usually the media is looking for pictures period. Looks like the only ones they could find are of a normal kid and not a mug shot.
Just like Trayvon Martin, many people I spoke too were mad that the so called media was portraying him as a good kid. They thought he was a thug cause they saw a picture on faux. He was a kid and from every source other then faux a good hearted kid who didn't deserve to die. Just like Michael Brown, this young man did not deserve to die and he doesn't deserve to be labeled something he isn't just because people like the people that run the likes of faux and such hate based groups, assume all people of color are thugs.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Your racist flamebait thread is pathetic and you should be ashamed, but I doubt you have it in you.
Judi Lynn
(164,156 posts)You'd normally think someone's conscience would be bothering him/her after that. In this case, it's more than possible any pangs of conscience are misinterpreted as itches in his rectum.
fishwax
(29,346 posts)The New York Times wrote (and I quote) that he "was no angel," so it isn't as though your analysis is really running contrary to the media you're trying to criticize.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)
Action_Patrol
(845 posts)It doesn't matter at all what he did or didn't do in that store.
That's not why he was stopped nor shot.
This is ridiculous.
This is an awful thread and you should feel bad for posting it.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)
MineralMan
(151,460 posts)Nor is stealing some small cigars.
See, that is the thing. Lots of people commit minor crimes. They are not executed for those crimes. Whether Michael Brown stole something and then pushed the store owner or not is not really the issue here. We don't execute people for that, except in Ferguson, apparently when the person who is accused of doing that is a large young black man.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)One shouldn't lead to the other
Hekate
(100,133 posts)http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7281165/darren-wilsons-story-side
His body was left in the street for 4 hours. Sure sends a message, don't it?
MattBaggins
(7,949 posts)That is what seems to be the case in those pics. Hard to tell.
I find it interesting you think he deserved to die over it.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)It makes no sense to be that an armed cop had to shoot an unarmed man multiple times to subdue him. I think other options should have been used to subdue the suspect.
I don't think police should play judge, jury and executioner.
I feel the correct choice of action would have been to subdue Mr. Brown, arrest him, charge him with a crime and let the legal process play out.
I feel the officer used excessive force.
sarisataka
(22,764 posts)But irrelevant to the situation in question.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)clerk" carry the death penalty, Lizard? Or jaywalking, for that matter. Because you do remember that it was walking on the street while Black that incited Officer JugEars' ire that had him harass Brown and Dorian Johnson, right?
unreadierLizard
(475 posts)I am simply calling into dispute the portrayal of Michael Brown as someone who was doing no wrong and was killed simply for the colour of his skin. The eyewitness testimony has changed back and forth so many times that it is hard to say what happened - if he was murdered in cold blood or shot during a struggle when he reached for the gun.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)places like MSNBC in the evening are keeping to the facts, not allowing Beltway Media or M$M to distract from the fact that Officer Wilson didn't stop Brown for "roughing up the clerk".
He stopped Brown and Johnson for walking on the street while Black, and it escalated from there when, after he told Brown and Johnson to "get off the fucking street" (according to Johnson), Brown had the audacity to say something and said that they were close to their destination.
In truth, Officer JugEars didn't like getting lip, so the punishment was death and being laid out in the street for over FOUR HOURS as an example to the Black community to never mess with cops when they tell you to "get off the fucking street".
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,847 posts)Hekate
(100,133 posts).... but he's dug himself into a hole and continues to ply the shovel.
BTW, thanks for pulling the narrative back from the convenience store footage, and to the place in the street where the real thug, Wilson, had not seen or heard of the incident in the store.
Darb
(2,807 posts)No black kid would do that unleass they were suicidal. It defies logic, yet there you are, buying it, and trying to give cover to that killer cop.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Oh, he is "merely saying..."
They never finish the actual claim because it makes the claim fall apart. If Mike Brown was "grabbing for Wilson's (presumably HOLSTERED!) weapon," it could only be for the purpose of shooting and killing Wilson. We're supposed to believe that because Brown shoved a store clerk, he's also capable of murdering a police officer! That's what the OP is saying, and it is such patent nonsense that anybody with a lick of common experience would scuttle it immediately. We have to put it in its baldest tersm, which the racists and cop fetishists usually avoid, because it sounds so fucking dumb you'd have to be a racist to believe it:
Because he stole the $5 in cigarillos and pushed a store clerk, it's also likely that he attempted to grab a holstered weapon from a police officer for the purpose of killing that police officer.
This is essentially what the OP is saying. Needless to say, it is stupid beyond comprehension.
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(44,568 posts)....Even if it was him, so what?
rudolph the red
(666 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(44,568 posts)Still doesn't change jack shit about what happened.
rudolph the red
(666 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)Nobody said he was an angel. You are a liar.
CatWoman
(80,307 posts)but this is one stupid ass thread
Bobbie Jo
(14,344 posts)because I agree with your assessment.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)on this site today, and this OP is in the running for stupidest shit of the day.
CatWoman
(80,307 posts)
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)Hekate
(100,133 posts).... to be judge, jury, and executioner right there in the street?
We like to say we are a nation of laws -- but I'm beginning to wonder which laws people are referring to these days, when cops can literally get away with murder.
azmom
(5,208 posts)Why post it now?
The Velveteen Ocelot
(130,996 posts)I don't care if he was fuckin' Jeffrey Dahmer. He was unarmed and didn't deserve to be shot. If he committed a crime - any crime - he should have been prosecuted for it, but not executed without a trial.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)provoked the confrontation because Brown was walking in the street, not because of this robbery, or the fact that he shot his at a distance of 148', not 35', or the bullet holes in his BACK which mean he was shooting at someone moving away from the policeman, yeah, anyone who commits assaults should be gunned right down, no trial, no judge, no jury.
Also, having a hard time seeing all those injuries the cop suffered at Browns hands, especially that shattered eye-socket.
Then there is the corroborating evidence provided to Wilson's side of the story by "Witness #40"
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1370634-witness-40-journal-entry.html
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)He shouldn't have been executed for pushing that man or jay walking.
TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)Or for stealing cigarillos, candy, a can of beans, a loaf of bread, and on and on....
He acted like a bully, but he didn't hurt the man. Did he?
Sancho
(9,211 posts)in the video, he was confronted by the clerk. Maybe it was a dispute over his age and buying cigarettes. I seem to remember that his friend paid for the cigars. At any rate, he was leaving and the man came out of the back to challenge him. It's not clear that Brown was roughing up anyone. or just saying, "get out of my face."
What we do know is that in a nice white suburb, a middle class teenager could have been shoplifting or jaywalking or just about anything similar without being confronted by the cops.
It's a double standard for blacks when heavy-handed police pick on profiled people.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)He was profiled for matching the description of a shoplifting suspect.
R B Garr
(18,058 posts)Wilson did not say he was aware of any shoplifting suspect at the time of his intitial contact with Brown. Brown was not a known suspect to Wilson. He stopped him for other reasons, presumably for jaywalking and for disobeying him to get out of the street.
See...this is what happens when there is no police report. Wilson can now go back and fill in the blanks to cover his ass. There is no police report to reconcile to.
Sancho
(9,211 posts)a nice white coed in an upscale neighborhood suspected of shoplifting is treated differently, because of profiling he was confronted harshly by a cop ready to take on the smart ass black.
There's no way to say anything except the cops there routinely stopped, ticketed, and harassed blacks - it's in the numbers. The people who lived there knew it and were likely defensive and even more smart ass in return.
It's profiling to me - prior expectations and different behavior based on race and class.
When they start making cops wear those cameras, it will be an eye opener for a lot of these juries. I'm sure there are some bad folks and good cops, but I'm also sure that there are some really bad cops that sound reasonable - like the one in SC that shot someone after a traffic stop when he reached for his license.
SaltyBro
(198 posts)Michael was well within his rights to respond the way he did.
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)because he ignored evidence that proved there was no WMD invaded and killed 100,000 people anyway...Google curveball 60 minutes see for yourself
will George W Bush face justice?
cali
(114,904 posts)using the phrase sarcastically.
CatWoman
(80,307 posts)you would delete this flamebait bullshit thread
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)You are incorrectly stating that anyone has said he's an angel and did absolutely no wrong. Your biases are projecting inaccurate (at best) and untruthful (at worst) statements onto others to counter a non-existent but convenient premise which has never been made by anyone.
"Let's not distort the fact". Indeed... please take your own advice to heart, and begin to practice it.
merrily
(45,251 posts)The guy who killed him got off yesterday. What the hell are you trying to accomplish with this post today?
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)Michael Brown was not on trial. Even if he should have been for whatever went on in this store, he wasn't given a chance because he was KILLED while UNARMED by a cop playing judge, jury and fucking executioner.
What is your point for posting this bullshit, now, today?
This has NOTHING to do with whether or not Michael Brown was an angel. This has EVERYTHING to do with a justice system driven by institutionalized racism and an entire race/class of people with NO FUCKING RECOURSE.
So what, exactly, is your fucking point? Really, be honest, no innuendos about 'not an angel'. Come out with it, because it sounds like you think the powerful, armed cop who never even saw these images has every right to shoot to kill, a dozen times, first and ask no questions later because black males are scary.
Fucking disgusting.
R B Garr
(18,058 posts)Anything to inflame and incite. The backstory about these pictures is that the clerk put himself in Michael's path, the exact reason is not exactly known as far as I remember. The assumption is that there was a petty theft, but it also could be because he was buying cigarellos for an underaged person.
So Michael was standing his ground, so to speak. He was confronted, and he pushed back. More of the backstory is that the clerk himself did not call police about the "robbery".
Furthermore, using terms like "perfect little angel" is an emotional reach, just like Wilson's emotional reach by saying that Brown made him feel like a 5-year-old because Brown was so huge, except that both men were the same size. That's how the maniuplation starts -- drumming up emotionally charged words that are designed to provide cover for getting away with murder. "Perfect little angel". 
unblock
(56,239 posts)roughing up rather implies punches.
in any event, being a possible suspect in a shoplifting and clerk-shoving incident hardly justifies getting shot and killed. we have a process for all that, perhaps wilson can shed some light about at least the grand jury phase of the process he denied to brown.
Logical
(22,457 posts)
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)
frylock
(34,825 posts)fuck your strawman.
Kurska
(5,739 posts)
Actually screw it
Much better
Strelnikov_
(8,186 posts)ah, fuck it, you got the picture.
RedCloud
(9,230 posts)As the late great Ali Primera once sang:
La policía siempre es eficiente cuando se trata de los pobres.
The police are always useful when it comes to dealing with the poor.
world wide wally
(21,836 posts)We kill young people for being in a neighborhood without the pretend watchman's approval and say it is alright.
Cops shoot a young man for jaywalking (as far as Wilson knew … or even stealing cigars… or acting like a bully) none of which deserves capital punishment.
And then people come out of the woodwork justifying these actions.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. All you people who want to make the claim that these actions are somehow justified and then also claim that this is "the greatest nation on Earth" are developmentally disabled or just fucking bigots (which makes your second claim as invalid as the first)
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)perfect little angles. Also those images are open to a wide range of interpretations. What happened before those clips?
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)They've always ignored it.
Just like they're ignoring eyewitness testimony now.
libtodeath
(2,892 posts)
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)racists like you who only use the phrase sarcastically)?
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)
pothos
(154 posts)the OP is a racist and this thread is a disgrace.
Greybnk48
(10,740 posts)And a cop shot him 12 times for it. Some in the back, some with his hands up, and some in his head as he was falling. For being a cocky, 17 y/o.
He deserved a kick in the ass maybe (metaphorically speaking), just like my son at times. Not 12 bullets as he tried to get away from a racist pig.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Your mother would be so proud of you.
cali
(114,904 posts)You are surely aware that people here are feeling raw, and yet you choose post an out of context snapshot of Brown with the false dog shit about people claiming he was an angel and than doubling down in the thread by lying and claiming that the MSM portrayed Brown as "an angel".
I don't care if this post gets hidden. you are coming off as a racist piece of... work.
Consider me disgusted. I can only wish you'd go away.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)why does the cop have to empty his clip into the kid? What ever happened to winging a dude? Wilson couldn't wing him in the leg or something? This is overkill, this is RAGE because he was being defied.
Starry Messenger
(32,382 posts)maced666
(771 posts)Only the cop had a gun. A bad thing then happened. This doesn't fit the chant of he died because he was And fact is Mr. Brown did several things that day that led to his death...waking up black not being one of them. It started with robbing a defenseless clerk and ended with taking on an officer with a gun. He made some bad decisions.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)
Mojo Electro
(362 posts)The biggest of which is "executed for stealing cigars"
Nobody has ever made that argument.
What we have is a confrontation between two men, one of them armed, that ended in the death of the unarmed man.
Physical evidence and witness testimony is used to determine how that confrontation happened.
Ignoring the media hype and racial hysteria and trying to understand what really happened by looking at the actual evidence was the job of the grand jury.
Facts don't have feelings.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)by now...... yeah I had to add my two cent, I could not hold back any longer.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)With their hands up in the air trying to surrender, damn glad you ain't in a position of authority..or are you?
But summary execution is just for the black kids, right???? 
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)It is a part of the story and an important one. It is a part of the flow of the next moments when his life ended. Nothing about these images makes the shooting justified. It does give a glimpse into Mr.Browns world at the time. The issue at hand is the shooting itself. Not even the original shooting. That itself seems to be clearly justified. But then there were the rest of the shots outside of the vehicle. Could that have been handled differently by Mr. Wilson and is he legally liable for that aspect of the shooting. As in any court case the moments before and after do matter and should be taken into consideration. The images themselves do not make the shooting justified. Unless of course the small man he strong-armed was the one who shot him. That is not the case.
A big part of the problem is that it had no place at all being given to the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury should have only seen a small amount of the evidence. Only enough to prove probable cause. But this is what happens when a prosecutor, who doesn't think he has a winnable case, or worse yet doesn't want to prosecute for other reasons, is forced by outside influences. A special prosecutor should have been brought in. I doubt many would want this case but I find it hard to believe they couldn't come up with one. This was a sham trial done in a court room it wasn't meant for. This case would have been extremely difficult at trial. Still should have and could have gone to trial if the Grand Jury process was respected.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)The police officer, trained, and experienced, was unable to take Michael Brown into custody with anything less than lethal force.
Despite having a belt with enough stuff on it that Batman would say "Dude, what do you need all that crap for?"
Let's cover some of the things on the belt that the officer has to be trained on. ASP Baton. You know, that night stick thing. Are you saying that the night stick would not give the cop enough of an advantage that he could subdue a suspect no taller than he was?
Pepper spray. OK, so from what I can read, Pepper spray is only used when the offender is already handcuffed right?
Handcuffs. You know, those things used to show the guy is in custody?
Possible, but not certain. Taser. Don't tase me bro? That thing. You've heard of it? This isn't the old west where the sheriff has one damned thing on his belt, his gun. This is the 21st Century where our cops go though months of training and then years of experience. Are you telling me that they can't do anything but shoot an unarmed man despite having an equipment belt that contains all that other crap? Seriously?
So why do we taxpayers fund all that other crap that the Department issues the cops? Obviously we can stop buying billy clubs, tasers, pepper spray, and all the other "non lethal" doohickeys that they might carry. What do they need it for if the very first instinct is go for the gun and kill? I say we cut the funding for that stuff since it obviously doesn't work, unless the guy is already in those aforementioned handcuffs. Then they shouldn't be pepper spraying, beating with the metal club, or tasing the guy.
No, I will not add the sarcasm tag. Because the parts where I'm being sarcastic should be pretty obvious, and the rest is just my disgust at this baloney.
randome
(34,845 posts)Wilson chose the easiest tool in his arsenal.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)A seriously fucked post. Bring back unrec. DU is better than this.
Response to unreadierLizard (Original post)
me b zola This message was self-deleted by its author.
OneGrassRoot
(23,954 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)dilby
(2,273 posts)tried in court by a jury of his peers, he did not deserve to be executed in the streets by a piece of shit cop who at no time was in danger of losing his life. If you or I shot someone who assaulted us we would be rotting in prison right now.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Not killed.
No one makes him out to be an angel - that's a classic example of a straw man.
He would have gotten probation for that and it might have turned him around.
Iggo
(49,999 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(44,568 posts)Plus he got suspended from school and smoked some pot. And he was slightly older than some of his pictures circulated in the media.
Based on that, I'm sure he had it coming as well.
jillan
(39,451 posts)Handcuff him, throw him in jail - but murder?????
Bettie
(19,800 posts)Nope, I googled, the penalty for shoving someone isn't to be killed by the next cop you see.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)applegrove
(132,766 posts)touched the officer's gun. Both are felonies. Since when are double felons punished with death. I think if you shoot someone 5 times you can wait for more than three seconds to assess if they have been disabled by the shots before you unload your weapon on them.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)There is absolutely no reason to believe that he could get aggressive with a cop.
That justifies the entire town getting burnt down in his honor, and limits the amount of businesses that are built in that town, and the employment.