Posted on 10/22/2014 1:19:12 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
An addendum to Ed’s post this morning. Per WaPo, it’s not just the forensic evidence that’s backing Wilson up.
[M]ore than a half-dozen unnamed black witnesses have provided testimony to a St. Louis County grand jury that supports Wilson’s account of events of Aug. 9, according to several people familiar with the investigation who spoke with The Washington Post.
Some of the physical evidence — including blood spatter analysis, shell casings and ballistics tests — also supports Wilson’s account of the shooting, the Post sources said, which cast Brown as an aggressor who threatened the officer’s life. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they are prohibited from publicly discussing the case…
Benjamin L. Crump, a lawyer for the Brown family, said Brown’s family and supporters will not be persuaded by the autopsy report or eyewitness statements that back Wilson’s account of the incident…
Exactly how high Brown’s hands were has been inconsistent in the accounts, and at least one witness said that after Brown was shot, he appeared to take a step toward Wilson. That witness said, however, Brown had his arms around his stomach before hitting the ground.
The Post doesn’t specify which details from Wilson’s account were supported by the witnesses (none of whom want to be named, of course, lest they face reprisals for being honest). Did they corroborate the fight in the front seat of the squad car when, Wilson claims, Brown grabbed his gun? The physical evidence supports that too: One forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy report noted that Brown’s hand wound wouldn’t have had gunpowder particulate in it unless his hand had been on or right next to Wilson’s gun. Two shell casings were also found in Wilson’s squad car, per the Post, supporting the fact that the gun was discharged twice inside the vehicle. Or did the witnesses corroborate the fatal shooting later, after Brown had moved away from the car and Wilson had gotten out? That’s what the case will turn on: If Wilson ends up being indicted, prosecutors will argue that, yes, Brown might have reached for Wilson’s gun but the subsequent shooting was unnecessary. Brown was already wounded; Wilson was shooting out of rage, not to repel a mortal threat.
Realistically, though, how likely is it that he’s going to be indicted at this point? Crump says he has seven witnesses who’ll say that Wilson gunned Brown down unjustifiably. Great, says the defense, we have seven witnesses who say the opposite plus a pile of forensic evidence that shows Brown, who’d just committed a robbery at the local convenience store, not only assaulted a police officer but attempted to seize his firearm. There’s little doubt, barring some bombshell evidence that the public doesn’t know about, that Wilson’s not going to be convicted. The question now is whether he’ll be charged. One theory for all the leaks lately is that law enforcement is trying to prepare the public for the fact that grand jury is unlikely to return an indictment, but I don’t know: Given what Crump said in the excerpt above plus protesters vowing that “it’s going to be a war” if Wilson isn’t charged, sounds like releasing the evidence early isn’t going to calm anyone down. On the contrary, it may be that this is being leaked because Wilson supporters fear that he’ll be unfairly indicted anyway for political reasons, even though there’s no probable cause to think he murdered Brown. That’s probably the outcome city leaders would prefer — indictment followed by acquittal so that they can say the system took the incident seriously enough to force Wilson to defend his actions in open court. Think that result would calm people down? Me neither.
One more odd detail from WaPo’s story: “The Post sources said the levels in Brown’s body may have been high enough to trigger hallucinations.” Er, okay, but isn’t the fact that Brown had just apparently committed a crime minutes before Wilson rolled up a more likely explanation for why he got aggressive? He had obvious reasons to fear police scrutiny at the time. Reefer madness seems like an odd theory of the case.
Amen!
I would add the following:
“Ok, now what?”
The first story I've seen which nails the ultimate question. We know Brown wasn't fleeing. The question is was he charging or was he standing still? If Brown was standing still then the shooting isn't justified and Wilson should be charged. If Brown was charging then the case can be made that, especially after the struggle in the car, Wilson thought his life was in danger and then the shooting is completely justified. I would assume they can tell that from the autopsy.
BWA HA HA HA HA!
Hey, Al Sharpton!!! How's it goin?!!
BINGO!
This whole Gentle Giant, Hands Up, Don't Shoot is just kabuki theater style charade for the gang banging Black criminal class and their enables in the political, legal and media cases to gain power and stick it to the man.
Most everyone in the black community knew Brown was 100% guilty and Officer Darren Wilson right from the start but it suited their multiple agendas to play along with the charade and inflame the situation from the Brown family, to the community organizers to the media and so on, right up to Eric Holder and President Obama himself
They all tried to ram this down the throats of what they thought to be a gullible American public and it worked for while but now the truth is coming out and Americans are seeing just how badly they have been played.
The cast of liars includes
The Brown Family, who also have pre existing connections to Treyvon Martin attorney Benjamin Crump, saw a chance to turn this into another Trayvon Martin case and to become the next Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. They wanted the easy money, the fame, the celebrity and the position as Black Royalty that Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton won in the black community as well as to exact revenge for the death of their son. But mostly for the Brown family it's about the prospect for money, Big Money in the form of a multi million dollar wrongful death settlement
For Crump it's about the Big Money as well as helping the Obama Administration organize and incite the Black community to turn out in anger to vote in the 2014 elections. Same with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
For the gang banger class it's a chance to get payback for one of their own, demoralize the cops and to riot and loot.
The Media gets to use the Ferguson case to drive viewership and ratings, make billions of dollars and to further it's agenda and help President Obama and the Democrats. Mostly it's about creating a media circus for boosting their flagging ratings and raking in billions of advertising dollars and they don't care how much damage they do to the country in the process
The radicals, anarchists and community organizers see this an opportunity incite violence to ignite their Revolution and start a race war.
President Obama and Eric Holder see Ferguson as a way to distract Americans and change the subject away from their many scandals and inability to ignite the economy and manage the country properly. If they lose big in the 2014 Elections, they lose their power to control the agenda and cover up and stone wall their scandals. So they work with Crump, Sharpton, Jesse and the rest of the Black Grievance Machine and with the Media to organize and incite the Black community to turn out in anger to vote in the 2014 elections.
For all these people, Ferguson and Michael Brown are just a tool to cynically and dishonestly force their agendas on the American people to enrich and empower themselves, and to spread discord and exact revenge on country, society and people that they hate with a passion
Re Reefer Madness:
I thought I’d read that mixing PCP in with the MJ was a common practice in that neighborhood. That would make violence more likely. However, I haven’t heard anything about PCP in the toxicological results, so that’s rank speculation on my part.
Our side does NOT 'break skulls'... you're coming across like a troll Crazieman.
If anyone 'breaks skulls' it'll be done by the lawless lowlifes... the people who always 'break skulls'. You need to look into yourself and and remember - conservatives are NOT lowlifes like the criminal filth in Ferguson - and quit talking like one... Our side doesn't 'break skulls'.
Learn2Read, its awesome. Sometimes you won’t come off sounding like a dork.
“If they riot.”
That said, the protesters are citizens and we have laws that cover criminal acts. Police aren't there to function as judge, jury and executioner. Their job is to bring offenders into the criminal justice system... where they will be dealt with according to our laws. The system's slow, maddening, and crazy and better than any other way in the world.
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