Everything about this process was ridiculous, including the timing of the release. The prosecutor punted the case. EVERYTHING gets an indictment. It's crazy this doesn't go to trial.
When you do stupid things sometimes it comes back to bite you in the ass. This punk stole cigars from that convenience store, and didn't even try to hide it. When the clerk confronted him what did he do? He assaulted him, and then came at him like what are you going to do to stop me? Then he gets into a verbal confrontation with a police officer who knew that this punk fit the description of the individual who just robbed the convenience store. So Michael Brown then follows that up by reaching into the police officers car and punches him in the face and tries to take his gun? "Gentle Giant" my ass!!!!! What kind of fool does this? I don't care if it was a police officer or someone else with a gun. A person in possession of a gun is left with one thought when someone punches them in the face and tries to take the gun away from them. This person is trying to kill me. Survival mode kicks in. So when the gun goes off in the car the punk starts to run away. The cop gets out of the car and fires a few rounds and tells the thug to stop and to get down on the ground. What does Michael Brown do? He charges him. There were witnesses who testified to this, and they weren't white witnesses they were black. Does him charging the cop surprise anyone given that he just assaulted a convenience clerk in broad daylight and then punched a cop while he was sitting in his car? Did Michael Brown deserve to be killed over all of this? Like I said, by being a fool and doing stupid **** he only has one person to blame and that's himself. When you punch anyone in possession of a gun (ESPECIALLY A POLICE OFFICER) don't be surprised if they turn around and pop a few caps in your ass.
For what it's worth, here is Wilson's grand jury testimony: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...-wilson-ferguson-killing-grand-jury/70076886/
Excellent post, Major. At the moment, in my opinion, the guy that deserves some time in jail is the prosecutor.
Why would you announce it as people are starting to get up and move about? That is a disaster. Its not a really big city, so 9pm is about the time people start settling in for the evening. It was the right time to do it.
Yeah, I think in that case you would have the whole day to contend with, PLUS the knuckleheads would still come out at night (with even more cover of darkness).
Actually there's tons of historical evidence. Grand juries, and the stats bear this out, are notoriously slanted in favor of the prosection so that refusal to indict is the incredibly rare exception, rather than the rule. If you've ever sat on one, you'd see first hand why this is true.
Apologies. I'm talking about how the refusal to indict was announced. Not whether Wilson should have been indicted.
Telling people the announcement was coming in hours and allowing them to gather and simmer was a brilliant idea.
I give up. I give up defending people who trash an old man's store again. I give up on people who would rather act violently than change a system though education.
Same store owner who was robbed by Michael Brown was looted again after the verdict. This guy is the real victim.
Is anyone here (or anywhere) defending the small minority of violent protestors? Or are they just using them as a way to dismiss the concerns of the large majority of peaceful ones?
If you listened to the police press conference about it last night, there was very few if any peaceful protesters, just idiots looking to loot and riot. Maybe there will be peaceful protests in the future, but that wasn't the case last night. What "concerns" do you think they'd have though? That an innocent man wasn't strung up just because that's what they wanted?
The Majority of peaceful ones aren't doing what they can to make sure people like that store owner doesn't get victimized again. They knew folks would riot and they didn't work hard to confront bad protesters AKA Looters. Confront these assholes or suffer the consequences of their actions as well. MLK confronted Malcolm X.
This isn't true. There were certainly a lot of idiots looting, but there were plenty of peaceful protests too. They are continuing today. Perhaps the police press conference was about the violence that was going on - there's no need for the police to talk about things that aren't a problem. A long history of mistreatment, both by police and in the courts - especially in that particular community. The militarized response of police. The portrayal of the few overwhelming the majority, especially when it comes to black people. Rand Paul summed it up well in his editorial this summary: http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police/ An excerpt: When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury—national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture—we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands. Given these developments, it is almost impossible for many Americans not to feel like their government is targeting them. Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them. This is part of the anguish we are seeing in the tragic events outside of St. Louis, Missouri. It is what the citizens of Ferguson feel when there is an unfortunate and heartbreaking shooting like the incident with Michael Brown. Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. Our prisons are full of black and brown men and women who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent mistakes in their youth.
The cops said that there was little to no peaceful protests going on, were they lying? Were you there? There was no mistreatment in this case though. There are legitimate complaints about the militarization of the police and how they initially mobilized in response to the looters, but for the most part, your reasons for protesting are not at all related to this case so it makes them look a bit silly doesn't it?
