Rightwing attempting to astroturf Mike Brown Killing

[Ms. Toad]

43. Johnson, through his attorney, admitted the theft.

It is not "restating"

“We see that there’s tape, that they claim they got a tape that shows there was some sort of strong-armed robbery,” said Freeman Bosley, Johnson’s attorney. “We need to see that tape, my client did tell us and told the FBI that they went into the store. He told FBI that {Brown} did take cigarillos. He told that to the DOJ and the St. Louis County Police.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-police-name-michael-brown

-The video is not clear enough to tell whether they are walking out of the store without anything or not.
-Johnson returned the cigars that Brown handed him. Just because the police have cleared Johnson of wrongdoing does not mean Brown cannot be guilty
-The robbery was "exceptionally cleared," which means they know who did it, but can't arrest him (in this case, because he was dead). -That is in the robbery report - there would be no need to make any further statements. As for time to clear Johnson? They wanted his statement. No way his counsel would permit him to speak without assurance that no charges would be filed.

So - if you don't accept that "taki{ing} the cigarillos" means taking them without paying, then Brown must have paid for them in the version you believe. So please point out to me the time stamp after we see Brown's empty hands clasped behind his back, to the point when he reaches into his pants pocket, his shirt pocket, his sock - anywhere he could retrieve money from to hand over to the cashier. So far, despite that part of the tape being pretty clear, no one has been able to find the point at which nothing in his hands turns into money in his hands.

And - as I have said repeatedly - whatever happened in that store provides absolutely no justification for the police shooting an unarmed fleeing man. Releasing the robbery tape was a repulsive attempt to smear Michael Brown.

But, the obsession with proving he was innocent (like the obsession the first few days with analyzing every detail of his clothing to prove it wasn't even him on the tape) - when the available evidence strongly suggests he was not - is counterproductive, and it makes it look as if we are conceding the conservative contention that if he isn't a complete angel Wilson's actions were acceptable.