Ferguson

Is it send-a-message time for the urban underclass of St. Louis: A reminder that they're not really citizens, & "resistance is futile"? Or is all that "anti-terrorism" training, funding & weapons just being used in a way that was inevitable, if not intended: urban warfare? Finally, how much of it is simply the seething hatred of individual cops who've been conditioned for this by years of RW propaganda? I ask that last question because of the (white) cops I overheard talking a few months back in the diner where I sometimes eat lunch…raging against Obama, liberals, and "the crackheads" -- which they seemed to be using as their racial euphemism of choice. [...] And now cops in Ferguson (+ reinforcements) have own chance to blow off steam: their own Bundy Ranch showdown--not against the fed gov.. ..but against the community they despise and fear (and that despises and fears them back.) Maybe it's all of the above: panic, deterrence, militarization, cops w/ toxic RW propaganda on the brain. But wouldnt discount that last.

  Billmon

The last moments of Michael Brown’s life were filled with shock, fear and terror, says a witness who stood just feet away as a police officer shot and killed the unarmed teen.

“I saw the barrel of the gun pointed at my friend,” said Dorian Johnson, 22. “Then I saw the fire come out of the barrel.”

Johnson, in an exclusive interview with msnbc, said what began as an order by a police officer to ‘get the f— onto the sidewalk’ quickly escalated into a physical altercation and then, gunfire.

[...]

Johnson says he feared for his life as he watched the officer squeezing off shot after shot.

[...]

The police say the officer shot Brown after the teen shoved the officer and tried to wrestle the officer’s gun from him. But a number of witnesses, including Johnson, refute those claims.

[...]

About 20 minutes before the shooting, Johnson said he saw Brown walking down the street and decided to catch up with him. The two walked and talked. That’s when Johnson says they saw the police car rolling up to them.

The officer demanded that the two “get the f—k on the sidewalk,” Johnson says. “His exact words were get the f—k on the sidewalk.” After telling the officer that they were almost at their destination, Johnson’s house, the two continued walking. But as they did, Johnson says the officer slammed his brakes and threw his truck in reverse, nearly hitting them.

Johnson says the officer attempted to thrust his door open but the door slammed into Brown and bounced closed. Johnson says the officer, with his left hand, grabbed Brown by the neck.

“They’re not wrestling so much as his arm went from his throat to now clenched on his shirt,” Johnson explained of the scene between Brown and the officer. “It’s like tug of war. He’s trying to pull him in. He’s pulling away, that’s when I heard, ‘I’m gonna shoot you.’”

[...]

A second later Johnson said he heard the first shot go off.

[...]

Brown and Johnson took off running together. There were three cars lined up along the side of the street. Johnson says he ducked behind the first car, whose two passengers were screaming. Crouching down a bit, he watched Brown run past.

[...]

Brown made it past the third car. Then, “blam!” the officer took his second shot, striking Brown in the back. At that point, Johnson says Brown stopped, turned with his hands up and said “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!”

[...]

By that point, Johnson says the officer and Brown were face-to-face. The officer then fired several more shots.

  MSNBC

“The FBI notified me that they will be opening up a investigation that will run parallel to this investigation,” St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference.

Belmar said he had spoke to St. Louis Division Special Agent in Charge William Woods who "said he had a tremendous amount of confidence in the St. Louis county police department, but at this point he felt the need to open up an investigation.”

[...]

Brown, 18, was shot “more than just a couple of times” by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on Saturday just after noon, officials have said.

  NBC

I guess if he had been shot a couple of times or less, then they would go with the St. Louis police explanation of events? No, I think the fact that there has been rioting and looting in response to the incident, and it is not necessarily over, might make federal intervention look like a good idea.

"Regardless of the media attention or the public’s attention to this matter, this is something that we would routinely do."

Riiiight. Because the FBI routinely investigates police shootings of unarmed black men.

The officer who shot Brown has been placed on paid administrative leave.

And living with relatives in another state, no doubt.