Posted on 12/01/2014 3:50:13 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Not the first time he’s taken the “wrong side” of a shooting transformed in haste into a Teachable Moment about race relations in America. Once the death of Michael Brown was reduced to a microcosm of police discrimination against young black men, Darren Wilson had to be guilty or else that discrimination didn’t exist. The retreat to identity was the natural way to process an incident that was supposed to be simple but became too complex for easy narratives.
No one told Barkley, though.
“The true story came out from the grand jury testimony,” Barkley said, adding that he was made aware of “key forensic evidence, and several black witnesses that supported Officer Darren Wilson’s story…” He continued, “I can’t believe anything I hear on television anymore. And, that’s why I don’t like talking about race issues with the media anymore, because they (the media) love this stuff, and lead people to jump to conclusions. The media shouldn’t do that. They never do that when black people kill each other. ”
He also called those who rioted after the decision was announced “scumbags,” and said “There is no excuse for people to be out there burning down people’s businesses, burning down police cars.”…
“[W]e have to be really careful with the cops, because if it wasn’t for the cops we would be living in the Wild, Wild West in our neighborhoods,” he said. “We can’t pick out certain incidentals that don’t go our way and act like the cops are all bad…. Do you know how bad some of these neighborhoods would be if it wasn’t for the cops?”
And that’s how the great “let’s get Charles Barkley fired from TNT” movement of 2015 got its start. As for what he says about the grand jury testimony, read this AP account from Friday or this NYT story from yesterday if you haven’t yet about how sharply the eyewitnesses differed on key details, like whether Brown was “charging” at Wilson or staggering forward to surrender. Sean Davis is right: The fact that prosecutors, who usually strain to convince the GJ that a crime was committed, took pains to highlight those contradictions is proof enough that they didn’t want to take this case to trial. They knew that Wilson’s defense team would destroy the state’s case by emphasizing those contradictions themselves. Rather than let that play out over the course of another year or two while Ferguson waited nervously for the inevitable acquittal, the D.A. decided to get it over with now.
The other reason to follow those links and read those stories is because, a la Barkley, they put the lie to the idea that views of what happened were mainly a matter of racial identity even for the people closest to it. Imagine the social pressure felt by the eyewitnesses, many of them black, to confirm the “hands up, don’t shoot” version of the shooting, knowing that Wilson’s life was already in danger from people enraged by it and that theirs could be too. Wilson certainly had police protection; the eyewitnesses almost certainly didn’t. They told the truth anyway. That was courageous.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Bless you, Mr. Barkley.
Do we know for sure the man murdered the nights of the riots had, in fact, testified to the grand jury?
That’s an important bit of information I’ve never seen confirmed or denied by the LSM.
Wow - I didn’t know he was a racist!
A man who uses his brain! That’s getting to be rare.
In before the screams of RACE TRAITOR!! or UNCLE TOM!
“That’s an important bit of information I’ve never seen confirmed or denied by the LSM.”
That doesn’t fit into the MediaMatters/DNC-approved Current Truth(tm) narrative, so it must be ignored.
Oh...
You are racist for daring to mention it.
Was Murdered Ferguson Man a Grand Jury Witness?
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/19621-was-murdered-ferguson-man-a-grand-jury-witness
Good for him!
Barkley can handle it..if you watch him on TNT during basketball games he can hold his own pretty good..he won’t take being called a racist crap from anyone
Barkely is the rare, rare black man(or women) that tells the truth...
Courage displayed; displayed against white or black men..
Barkely is a mench... even if he gets some things wrong..
Who doesnt..
Was it the same as this one? They deleted a Ted Cruz posting of mine this morning for no apparent reason that I know of.
See 14 if they will let you
Uncle Tom! Oreo! /s
There were also photos of the victim with cash and he allegedly was a drug dealer.
That was yet another HUGE hole in the MSM version of events: Fire a gunshot in the car on purpose so everyone in the area will hear and come be a witness... possibly with cell phone cameras on?
Three had the guts to testify what really happened to the grand jury. No doubt there were more that followed the ‘snitches get stitches’ stay quit approach.
Rush made a good point today that the facts of Michael Brown don’t matter. He’s now a symbol and they aren’t going to let you take away the symbol. Facts are irrelevant. That sums up the liberal attitude. There is no truth or God. There’s just power, spin, and what we tell the stupid American public happened.
The timing of all this is interesting. Blacks are by far the biggest losers from illegal immigration. Low skilled, low education jobs are all going to Hispanics now. I know many business owners who exclusively hire “Mexicans” (what they call all Hispanics) over blacks.
What better timing to have some non-issue like this keep the black masses distracted while handing over their jobs and futures to Hispanics.
He said he was unaware there were shots in the car or that black witnesses said Michael charged the cop. Then said he doesn’t trust the media even though he is a member.
Pray America is waking
He was the primary witness. The only one whose testimony perfectly matched the photography available.
Kudos for Barkley for having the courage to speak his mind even when it is politically incorrect to do so.
Do a Google search on "Charles Barkley quotes" to see why he's long been one of the most entertaining people in sports media for years. LOL.
Just a couple of my favorites:
"I had to explain to my daughter why that skank Monica Lewinski has an hour special on HBO this weekend."
"Well, when I went off to college, the guys I used to hang with were pumping gas and voting Democrat. Today they're still pumping gas and voting Democrat. Guess the Democrats didn't do much for them."
Interesting perspective from the guy who once said he'd run for governor of Alabama, and that one of his campaign promises would be to schedule a "death week" every year where five of the worst criminals in the state would be executed. LOL.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.