Posted on 09/10/2014 12:13:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Michael Brown’s body may be gone, but a serious effort is afoot in St. Louis County to assassinate his character — just as a Missouri grand jury is deciding whether to charge police officer Darren Wilson in his killing last month.
Judge Ellen Levy Siwak, a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge, had to deny two separate petitions Tuesday by media outlets trying to get their hands on Brown’s juvenile criminal records. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and GotNews.com are both seeking the records, even though a juvenile court official said last week that Brown had no serious felony convictions as a juvenile.
But that hasn’t deterred the media outlets.
This has become a familiar chapter in the journey to justice for unarmed black men and women who are killed by police or vigilantes. It happened to Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Renisha McBride, Eric Garner and many others who were choked to death or gunned down for no justifiable reason.
St. Louis County police officials made their first foray into character assassination when they released images shortly after his death allegedly showing Brown assaulting a store clerk while stealing a box of cigarillos. Though it has been well established that Wilson had no knowledge of any allegations that Brown had committed a crime when he encountered the teen walking down a Ferguson street, the police were clearly trying to let the public know that Brown was a bad guy.
The release of the images reportedly angered Attorney General Eric Holder and Justice Department officials, who knew they would inflame already smoldering tensions in Ferguson.
In Siwak’s courtroom, Joe Martineau, attorney for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, argued that there is a public interest in Brown’s background. GotNews.com editor-in-chief Charles Johnson has said the public deserved to know whether a record existed for Brown.
Johnson said he is considering appealing the judge’s decision.
Journalistic standards certainly do not dictate that the public “deserves” any information about Brown’s background if that information has nothing to do with the case at hand. Of course it is expected that any publication is going to try to dig up whatever it can about the major actors in an explosive case such as this one. But we are well aware of what will happen if any negative information about Brown is made public — it will give members of the grand jury (nine of whom are white and three are Black) pause in their deliberations about whether to charge Wilson with a crime.
These were the same calculations made by the jury when deliberating the fate of George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin: If the teen really did present a danger, perhaps Zimmerman was justified in killing him.
Now, it appears the same story is being repeated.
I believe that, because of the climate we now live in; to wit}Blacks being protected by law from every Crime they commit upon Whites, it being open season on Whites by Blacks, ect. That Wilson can make book on that he will be indicted.
I’ll bet he has several felony convictions, but because he was a minor, he got off with little punishment.
The supposed college he was allegedly headed to will neither confirm nor deny his enrollment.
Hey Nick, Just saw a grainy video of Ray Rice in an elevator. He was an unarmed fella that assaulted his Girlfriend. I have been told he also has a squeaky clean
record...
Did that stop his fist from meeting his girlfriend’s face or stop the force of it from knocking her out?
I believe the “ college” the media keeps referring to is refrigeration school.
Yes, we can AND WILL assume that his juvi rap sheet is a mile long,
thank you very much!
Very soon after Brown was shot, it was reported that he was to attend heating and air conditioning technical school. Then that disappeared from most stories and it become "college".
Not sure how facts can assassinate somebody’s character. If somebody commits crimes, they themselves assassinated their own character.
While Slate is the Champagne of horse manure, the Atlanta Negro Star is the Colt 45 Malt Liquor of horse manure.
Michael Brown’s body may be gone, but a serious effort is afoot in St. Louis County to assassinate his character...
It sure seems like a good bet.In fact,the harder they fight to keep it sealed the longer,and more serious,you know it is.Hell,lots of kids might try to steal a pack of gum from a drugstore or set off a firecracker that causes a neighbor to complain.But when you're talking about grand theft,car theft,drugs,assault,etc...
To the family you can be sure that this is both about seeing the cop in jail (because they'll *never* believe that their Gentle Giant was the instigator) and it's about $$$....lots and lots of $$$.
St. Louis County police officials made their first foray into character assassination when they released images shortly after his death allegedly showing Brown assaulting a store clerk while stealing a box of cigarillos.
Holy cow this writer is stupid - or attempting to incite a riot.
the judge gave no reason for denial and imho the law requires release-he’s dead
please appeal
It was a nearby Vatterott College and I’ve heard HVAC over and over again.
Michael Brown’s bright future, cut short
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/michael-browns-future-cut-short
ping
This part of the headline needed serious fixing.
If the critter’s character is assassinatable, then it needs assassinating.
Well, just as people say ‘if you have nothing to hide then let the police search your house without a warrent’. Guess there must be something to hide if they will not release the records of a dead person! After all a judge released the sealed records of Jerry Ryan’s divorce which allowed Obama to become a Senator!
Young black men: 3% of the population. 50% of the murder.
Mr. Chiles must be referring to the postmortem propagandizing of the "gentle giant" moniker applied by the rallying racists.
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