Remember Mike Brown?

Here is the story of Michael Brown’s murder that we all believed: One sunny day in Ferguson, Mo., a huge behemoth of a man named Michael Brown walked into a convenience store; committed a strong-arm robbery, escaping with the invaluable loot of a pack of cigarillos; and while he was walking home, Darren Wilson, a brave cop responding to the robbery, stopped him.

When Wilson tried to detain Brown, Brown reached for the cop’s gun and the policeman shot him. But Brown wouldn’t quit, and the officer thought that Brown might have a weapon, so Wilson shot a few more times to stop Brown from harming him.

[...]

After a documentarian released video this past weekend that dispels the myth of the Mike Brown corner-store robbery, more information is emerging about the n-word-using patrolman who was accused of racial discrimination and excessive force even before he pumped at least six bullets into Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, killing him. New court papers reveal that Brown never tried to take the officer’s gun, never struck the officer and did not initiate any contact with Wilson, who was cleared of wrongdoing by a secret grand jury in November 2014.

[...]

In a court docket filed Dec. 28, the cop who killed Brown admitted to using racial slurs, cursing at Brown before he was killed and grabbing him without provocation.

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The next part of the testimony will confound the conservatives who stated that Wilson did not shoot Brown in the back. Wilson admits that after the first shot, Brown started running away from him and he fired another shot, which missed Brown.

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Wilson agrees that after the second bullet was fired, the teen turned around, faced the officer and—although Wilson was trained in “defensive tactics and techniques”—began shooting as soon as Brown started running toward him.

He fired 10 times.

After shooting Brown in the face, Wilson kept firing, shooting him again in the top of the head.

[...]

I’m sure this news will comfort the family, friends and loved ones of Brown, who only got 18 years on this earth, while the man who shot him rests comfortably in the free house he bought with the $500,000 in donations he received from supporters, who rewarded him for shooting the teen.
  The Root

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

You Still Think the Ferguson Grand Jury Was Legal and Proper?

Ferguson Notes

Grand Jury Farce

 Lisa Bloom is an attorney who does analyses for NBC. Check out her analysis of the Darren Wilson Grand Jury testimony.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

An Unfortunate Coincidental Accident, No Doubt

Darren Wilson has told investigators he radioed “shots fired, send all cars” after a struggle at his SUV with Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, following the officer’s stop of Brown and a friend for jaywalking in Ferguson on 9 August, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Yet a set of recordings released to the newspaper by police did not include the call. Wilson is reported to have stated that “during the struggle his radio had been jarred and the channel changed”, meaning it was not broadcast to his fellow officers in the St Louis suburb.

  The Guardian

In Deep Hiding

The felony drug case that earned Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson a commendation earlier this year was thrown out of court on Monday because he was a no-show, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

  TPM

So does he get to keep his commendation?

The Ferguson Coverup

[U]nlawful denial of the records is a civil violation of the law – but the “knowing” violation constitutes a Class A Misdemeanor in Missouri.

On August 12th the ACLU made a public records request under Missour’s Sunshine Law – for the St. Louis County Police Department’s Incident Report of the Officer-Involved Shooting (involving Wilson and Brown).

On August 13th the St. Louis County Police Department responded – DENYING the request – claiming that it was EXEMPT based on a claim that there was an “open-investigation” and that this exempted it.

After which the ACLU filed a lawsuit the next day to compel them to produce the record – and to get other relief. They were followed in this by the National Bar Association in a suit filed on August 18th.

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Last weekend I made a new public records request for that particular Incident Report. I included in that a statement of the law that the Incident Report is NOT the equivalent of the Investigation Report, the latter IS exempt while the investigation is ongoing, the former IS NOT – but is a public record AT ALL TIMES.

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What I was told was a bit disturbing. Their email system had just been brought back up online. And so all the emails from that weekend had “disappeared.” So I stated to the Lieutenant what I requested and then stated that I would send it again – and I would contact all the others to resend theirs. The Department as well as the City of Ferguson have been claiming that emails are not being received because their systems are under attack by Anonymous. But I have seen no credible evidence that this is the cause of the problem.

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I did not hear back from him until about 7 pm that night. He did email me – recognizing he did not deliver as promised – and stated that he could not send the record that day because he had been called out to Ferguson all that day.

On Wednesday, however, he produced it pursuant to my request. I then provided what I received to the ACLU and National Bar Association.

I stated to him that there was a significant set of information – namely the “narrative summary” of the officer about what they were called to, what they found, and what they did – that is glaringly absent.

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Here is the actual statute that is applicable to this – what the Police MUST create, maintain, and produce upon request:

610.100 Revised Missouri Statutes:

(4) “Incident report”, a record of a law enforcement agency consisting of the date, time, specific location, name of the victim and immediate facts and circumstances surrounding the initial report of a crime or incident, including any logs of reported crimes, accidents and complaints maintained by that agency;

What is further revealed in the Report released – is that it did not exist when the original request was made and then denied. But - problematic for the official story – is the fact that if no record existed this would have been stated to the ACLU, rather than making the claim (knowingly false – a class A misdemeanor) that it was exempt because of an investigation.

What is also clear from the record as well as my conversations with Lt. Burk – this record of this Incident Report was created in response to my request, rather than at the time of the incident as is normally required, and that it intentionally has been created to withhold the key narrative elements.

(I am inclined to believe an Incident Report DID exist prior to and independent of what has now been produced – and they are playing a game of sleight of hand to avoid giving it to the public.)

[...]

[If] an invocation of the right against providing self-incriminating testimony occurred on the part of Officer Wilson there would, again, have to be a public record to this effect. So I made that request of the Ferguson Police Department. In their response, that there was no such record, they have thus answered the question: No, Wilson has not invoked the fifth amendment.

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And so I have been asking for other records – and I have been gradually getting most of them. Some are not being honestly responded to and I have had to follow up to try and enforce the law with regard to record production. And I will get all of them even if it is necessary to go to court to compel the police to produce them.

  PINAC

Or unless, like so many coverups before them, those records get destroyed.

What we now can state firmly in addition to this is that Ferguson Police also do not have a Use of Force Report that their policies required to be produced – not by Officer Wilson but by the Watch Commander on duty that day.

Ferguson is deliberately violating both the laws and its own policies to prevent any information from being produced and made public that could be used to hold Officer Wilson to account for his actions.

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For even the response that there is no record as requested provides evidence. It is an answer to the question, in this case, did the Ferguson Police Department, including the Chief of Police , follow the law and the Department’s policies?

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[Refusal to release documentation] suspiciously allows Officer Wilson, and the rest of the Ferguson Police Department, to wait until all the evidence against Wilson is discovered and collected, and afterwards to write reports that will neatly fit the evidence.

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In this case, therefore, there is ample reason – in fact actual evidence – for the public to have no faith or confidence in anything these Departments, their officials, or the officers employed therein do or say. And certainly there is no reason to trust that they can honestly and faithfully participate in the process inquiring into and investigating the shooting by Officer Wilson.

  PINAC

More Witnesses in Brown Shooting

 And I think we can expect serious trouble shortly:

The latest evidence that the fix is in came this week from The Post’s Kimberly Kindy and Carol Leonnig, who discovered that [St. Louis County prosecutor Robert] McCulloch’s office has declined so far to recommend any charges to the grand jury. Instead, McCulloch’s prosecutors handling the case are taking the highly unusual course of dumping all evidence on the jurors and leaving them to make sense of it.

McCulloch’s office claims that this is a way to give more authority to the grand jurors, but it looks more like a way to avoid charging [police officer Darren] Wilson at all — and to use the grand jury as cover for the outrage that will ensue.

  WaPo

Ferguson - Darren Wilson

Ferguson - Grand Jury

No surprise here.

Ferguson - Grand Jury for Officer Wilson

"We are going to attempt to start giving evidence to the grand jury (Wednesday), depending upon the ability to get the witnesses in and the witnesses showing up," said Ed Magee, spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch. "It will be handled by the attorney regularly assigned to the grand jury. It will not be by Mr. McCulloch."

  St Louis Today

Or there really would have been riots.

Ferguson

UPDATE:  

Cop Being Sued Over Beating Is Now a Ferguson City Councilwoman

Don't miss this story about the Ferguson, Missouri, police department and the prosecuting attorney. It seems there is currently a lawsuit on appeal by a black man who was wrongly arrested (mistaken identity - same name, different middle initial - how difficult is that?), beaten and bloodied by Ferguson police held for "several" days, and then charged with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms after having missed his exit in a heavy rainstorm.

In the second link, we learn that, while police are saying Darren Wilson (the officer who shot and killed Mike Brown) was a model officer and had no previous incidents on his record, it is possible that, according to the way the police department kept records prior to 2010, he could have been writing his own use of force reports, and that none of them went into his file.

Ferguson

Self-claimed friend of Officer Darren Wilson gives purported story from Wilson's view. She says he thought Brown "was on something" as he attacked the officer and then rushed him even after being shot.

 

Ferguson

Every Dan White in San Francisco empathizes.  Not to mention numerous unlucky folks at airports trying to board planes.

UPDATE:

Live from Ferguson

Monitoring Wesley Lowery Twitter account - waiting for police presser - they are supposed to be naming the policeman who shot Michael Brown soon.

 UPDATE: 8:45 am

 

And the protesters are "not happy" - another reporter is saying that the police insinuated Brown may have been a robbery suspect.




Indeed.  Police congratulated themselves for showing great restraint.  They should be thanking the people of Ferguson for showing great restraint.

Let's hope they get this current situation resolved without further incident.  Because I'm guessing the police don't believe they know what happened.  Only one officer at the time.  No dash cam.  Have to rely on witnesses.  Not to mention the natural inclination to circle the wagons around one of their own.