Ferguson Announces Permanent Memorial to Honor Michael Brown

[one_voice]

Michael Brown will finally receive a permanent memorial in Ferguson, the town’s mayor announced today.

Residents set up a makeshift memorial to Brown in the hours following his death, but Mayor James Knowles said it will be replaced with a plaque and a dove.

A memorial tree planted for Brown last month was chopped down.

Brown was, of course, fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson last August, but neither the grand jury nor the Department of Justice found sufficient evidence to go after Wilson.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/ferguson-announces-permanent-memorial-to-honor-michael-brown/

eta:

The removal of the mid-street shrine and another with stuffed animals on the nearby curb didn't come without agitation. After a prayer and moment of silence in Brown's honor, a young man who was passing by objected to the timing of the effort on Brown's birthday, shouting, "I hope that weighs on your conscience when you go home." He later returned and exchanged profanities with volunteers, including a woman who struck him in the face before security wrestled him to the ground, briefly handcuffed him and later let him go.

Knowles, while appreciative of the memorial's symbolism, recently said it has become a public safety issue — and Brown's father said the same Wednesday

*snip*

But on Wednesday, as the dismantling neared completion, Brown's father walked up, toting the weighty metallic plaque that features an inscription borrowed from a popular memorial prayer and will immortalize his son perhaps as early as Thursday. Brown's father had said the plaque would be placed in the street, but Knowles later told The Associated Press it would be installed on private property near a sidewalk in the general area.

"I would like the memory of Michael Brown to be a happy one," the marker reads, bearing a likeness of Brown in a graduation cap and gown. "He left an afterglow of smiles when life was done. He leaves an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy and loving times and bright and sunny days.

"He'd like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun of happy memories that he left behind when life was done."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ferguson-plans-permanent-memorial-michael-brown-31179271

[xfundy]

1. It'd be a better memorial

if they hadn't killed him and he'd lived to an old age.

[Yorktown]

2. His death was wrong and sad, but the memorial is one bridge too far.

The many cases of blacks who have been shot for minor crimes shows there needs to be a complete change in the police rules of engagement and use of weapons (or choking hold postures) and thorough reviews of possible institutional racism in the police departments of certain cities.

But to build a memorial to someone who committed robbery the day of his death is going too far.

It was meant as an atonement, but there must have been a better way.

[BrotherIvan]

3. Bull fucking shit

He was MURDERED and he deserves to be remembered.

[Yorktown]

4. Do murdered people in the US generally get a memorial?

Do you remember the Ohio highway sniper attacks? One innocent person died. No memorial.

Yes, Brown's death was unwarranted, but it doesn't make him a hero.

[sheshe2]

9. Who is calling him a hero?

It is in memory of an unarmed child that died by a racist cop. Like so many before Michael, murder by cop. Excessive force! Always excessive force.

Michael's memorial, it memorializes all the PoC that have been needlessly and with excessive force have been murdered by cop.

Question? Who shot all the white men at the Bundy ranch stand off? The ones that DID have guns drawn on law enforcement. Oh, wait a second....NONE! They commited a crime. Thay are alive.

[Yorktown]

16. this discussion is trying to find too much meaning.

Yes, the death of Michael Brown was sad.

But all I'm saying is that memorials are for people who did great deeds.

[uponit7771]

12. Strawman, no one is calling him a hero... and hero is not a litmus for to me memorialized

[sheshe2]

5. Michael Brown was executed by police for supposed shoplifting.

There was no trial by jury because he was never arrested. He was shot multiple times by a officer that did not know the facts at the time.

So yes, the memorial is much needed. Ferguson has woken many people up, I hope to see change.

[Vattel]

6. You should read the justice department report.

That report says that the evidence favors the conclusion that Wilson did not commit a crime. It is irresponsible at this stage of the game to claim that Brown was murdered or executed. That might be true, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

[uponit7771]

10. There's no report saying Wilson didn't commit a crime.

[Vattel]

19. The DOJ report says that the evidence supports the conclusion that Wilson

did not violate federal law in his shooting of Brown. From the report:

“The evidence establishes that the shots fired by Wilson while he was seated in his SUV were in self-defense and thus were not objectively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.”

“The evidence establishes that the shots fired by Wilson after Brown turned around were in self-defense and not objectively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.”

[Yorktown]

7. Where are the memorials for each GI who died in Iraq?

Yes, Michael Brown's death was wrong.

But memorials like medals should be attributed according to merit.

[uponit7771]

11. Brown didn't sign up to be shot at for little reason by cops...

[Yorktown]

13. But GIs did sign up to fight accordingto the orders of elected politicians.

All I'm saying is that memorials should mark merit.

[uponit7771]

15. Browns death brought about many changes in Ferguson including the report of the depts level

... of overt hatred of blacks because of their skin color and the Ferguson leadership changes.

Wilson will be brought to trial also..

[Yorktown]

17. All I'm saying is that it sends the wrong signal to erect a memorial for a shoplifter.

In my mind, but it's just me, memorials were meant for great people.

If I do not see memorials for GIs fallen in Iraq, I can't understand one for M. Brown.

[uponit7771]

8. Please prove he was convicted of a robbery the day he was murdered by Wilson? regards

[Yorktown]

14. I posted he died the day of the robbery.

No trial for obvious reasons.

CCTV and witness evidence though.

[Oktober]

21. By that logic, Wilson is innocent as a newborn babe...

... since no charges were brought against him. Let alone the fact that he was not convicted.

You ok with that?

[bullwinkle428]

18. In my area, there are memorials all over the place for people that died

in road accidents in the locations where the accident took place. Probably no "purity test" that had to be determined by a "council of community elders" before the memorial was erected.

[RedCappedBandit]

22. A little plaque to remember a young person who was murdered is too far?

Maybe his fucking murder was "too far"

You've gotta be joking.

[Oktober]

23. Technically he wasn't murdered...

... which is an unlawful killing.

[RedCappedBandit]

24. Technicalities of our criminal "justice" system have nothing to do with it.

The fact that you think a little plaque memorializing a young person is somehow "too far" while his murder isn't says all that needs to be said.

[ladjf]

20. Put the policeman who shot him on trial or shut up. nt