Free Republic

A little over a year ago the debate was fierce over whether Florida state prosecutor Angela “Tough on Crime” Corey assigned to prosecute George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin would dump the case. There was good reason for the debate. Zimmerman was not a police officer. But he was seen as the next best or worst thing to it since he had close ties with law enforcement and was a one-time neighborhood watch patrol officer. This automatically bestowed on him the shield that cops have from any charges of misconduct, especially in cases where the victims of their misconduct are...

Broadening its push to improve police relations with minorities, the Justice Department has enlisted a team of criminal justice researchers to study racial bias in law enforcement in five American cities and recommend strategies to address the problem nationally, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday. The police shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri underscored the need for the long-planned initiative, Holder said in an interview with The Associated Press. He said the three-year project could be a “silver lining” if it helps ease racial tensions and “pockets of distrust that show up between law enforcement...

They cannot kill us all. They can not throw us all in jail. We want justice for Michael Brown and every victim of police brutality. We’re now a month out from the killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, and a month away from when a grand jury is likely to decide whether or not to indict him. Yet we still have no answers and no respect in the state of Missouri. In Saint Louis County, the police have a history of racial profiling and abusing the power of the shield. Racial profiling in North County has...

White man shoots and kills black man. Predominantly black population protests, riots, loots. Predominantly white police force overwhelmed. Governor calls out the National Guard. Curfew imposed. Similar events took place in Newark and Detroit in the summer of 1967. President Johnson responded by dispatching what would become known as the Kerner Commission to find the causes and propose a solution. The commission’s basic conclusion was “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.” Among its findings, the commission reported action against “local symbols of white American society, authority and property.” No single triggering...

The indignation was instantaneous. Neighbors in Canfield Green poured from their apartments and stared at 18-year-old Michael Brown, unarmed, face down in the street, shot dead by a police officer. Then, fueled by camera phones and social media, the outrage jumped out of this suburban apartment complex, crossed St. Louis County, traversed the country and, over the weeks, spread across the world. The Rev. Al Sharpton, preaching at Brown’s funeral two weeks later, said the teen was left in the street “like nobody cared,” as if his life “didn’t matter.”(continued)

FERGUSON • In less than half an hour, thousands of people arrived, dressed in jeans and suits, with their résumés in hand. The line to get into a room where dozens of potential employers sat waiting was at least 45 minutes long. A job fair sponsored by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis on Saturday drew about 5,000. The event, held at St. Louis Community College’s Florissant Valley campus, was supposed to end at 2 p.m. But it ran more than an hour long just so everyone who had waited in line could interview. Damon Williams, 38, said frustration...

A growing chorus of liberal Democrats is pushing President Obama to get Congress's explicit approval before launching missile strikes into Syria. The pressure from supporters on Capitol Hill is not only a headache for Obama, but also puts House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats in the difficult position of bucking a broad segment of their own caucus in order to protect an ally in the White House. Scores of Democrats had signed letters a year ago advocating against military strikes targeting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without congressional backing. Thirteen months later the enemy...

In just four weeks, Missouri has carried out an execution, imposed a 72-hour waiting period on women seeking abortions, expanded gun rights and become the poster child for the militarization of police and racial discord. Its public school system is struggling beneath the weight of an ongoing funding crisis, and an entire local police force is under federal investigation. While the killing of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a small-city cop and the fiery protests and heavy-handed police response that followed has drawn national attention and scorn, the incident is but a glimpse into the current social and political...

What happened in Ferguson, Mo., last month was a tragedy. What’s on course to happen there next month will be a farce. October is when a grand jury is expected to decide whether to indict the white police officer, Darren Wilson, who killed an unarmed black teenager by firing at least six bullets into him. It’s a good bet the grand jurors won’t charge him, because all signs indicate that the St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, doesn’t want them to. The latest evidence that the fix is in came this week from The Post’s Kimberly Kindy and Carol Leonnig,...

It's a view of the Michael Brown shooting we hadn't seen before, but could it be enough to shape the way a grand jury handles the controversial case? An exclusive video first broadcast Wednesday on CNN shows two construction workers' reactions just after a police officer shot the unarmed African-American 18-year-old last month in Ferguson, Missouri. The contractors shown in the short video clip told CNN they saw Brown with his hands up as Officer Darren Wilson pursued him and opened fire. Several legal analysts describe the video as a "game changer." Others said it might not make much of...

FERGUSON, Mo. — There were lots of jitters at the Ferguson police clerk’s window this week, as steady streams of drivers with unpaid traffic tickets and pending arrest warrants turned themselves in as part of a new city initiative to repair its frayed relationship with black residents. They looked around skeptically. “I don’t know if they are going to lock me up,” said Katrina Clemons, who owes almost $800 in fines and penalties from a $250 traffic ticket. “I do not like coming here.” The drivers came with their citations, thousand-dollar invoices, and tales of racial profiling and exorbitant fees....

FERGUSON, Missouri— Just days after 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed in a hail of police bullets, Joshua Williams found himself facing off with a phalanx of heavily-armed officers. Williams joined the swarm of angry protesters who, in the wake of the teen’s death, took over the streets not far from the scene of the killing. They chanted and yelled and hoisted protest signs in the air. The police responded with snipers positioned on top of armored vehicles and a heavy deployment of officers, many with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders. When someone from the crowd threw a rock or...

A video has surfaced showing two witnesses' incredulous reactions to the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. In the video, one of the contractors standing near the scene throws his own hands up in the air and shouts 'he had his f****** hands in the air' minutes after Brown was gunned down. Officer Darren Wilson shot dead unarmed 18-year-old Brown on August 9, in an incident that triggered a national debate on race relations and two weeks of widespread protests. The men's reactions were captured on a cellphone-recorded video obtained by CNN. One of...

The conflict in Ferguson, Mo., might have simmered for a time, but the heat is rising again as residents lose patience with the government’s response to the shooting death of Michael Brown. The mobs of protesters that took over Ferguson streets in the nights after Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, have dispersed, as has a police presence reinforced by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the National Guard. A St. Louis County grand jury is hearing evidence and will decide whether to indict Wilson on criminal charges in the shooting....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Six kids from the block where Michael Brown was killed tell the truth about race with some humor in video.Six kids from Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown was shot and killed, have something to say about the state of racism in a humorous video called "Hey White People: A Kinda Awkward Note to America by #Ferguson Kids" created by the T-shirt company FCKH8.com. "Sometimes white people are like, 'But is racism still a thing?' Spoiler alert: Duh. Just because Beyoncé is on your playlist and you voted for Obama, doesn't mean that our generation has seen the end of racist...

The demonstrators protesting the death of Ferguson teen Michael Brown failed in their bid to shut down rush-hour traffic on Interstate 70 Wednesday afternoon but nonetheless claimed success for disrupting traffic for hours on North Hanley Road, a major St. Louis County artery. Before a late-afternoon thunderstorm dispersed the final remnants of protesters that at one point approached 150 people, clashes with police had resulted in 32 charged with unlawful assembly and four with assault on law enforcement officers. No one was injured during the nearly three hour stand-off with authorities.

On September 10, the Missouri Senate voted to override Governor Jay Nixon's (D) veto of SB 656--the legislation to allow schools to train teachers to become "School Protection Officers" and carry guns with which to protect children on campus. SB 656 also allows people who possess a concealed carry permit (CCW) to openly carry firearms, and it lowers the legal age for a CCW from 21 to 19. The override passed by a margin of 23 to 8. A house vote is set for September 11, where the veto is expected to be overturned.

Police clashed with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday as demonstrations have resumed over the police-involved, fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Multiple arrests were made, though it was unclear how many, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Joel Currier reported. The community appears to be growing impatient as Ferguson officer Darren Wilson waits to find out whether or not he will be indicted by a grand jury in Brown’s death. Some in the community are vowing only a conviction will satisfy protesters. “If (Darren Wilson) doesn’t get a guilty conviction, this whole nation is going to riot.” St. Louis resident Whitman...

If the United States Department of Justice has any real interest in obtaining justice in the tragic shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement of a new civil rights investigation in Ferguson, Missouri, (population 21,000) was a step in the wrong direction. The department's ham-handed effort to improve the political "optics" of active federal involvement may, ironically, create the reasonable doubt that will ultimately clear the shooter, Officer Darren Wilson. The Department of Justice is likely to be impeding justice by proceeding prematurely with a federal investigation while local law enforcement authorities struggle with the facts of...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Pharrell Williams told CNN's Don Lemon that President Barack Obama "needs to come down" to Ferguson, Missouri to see firsthand the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown. "When your parents come into the room — whether it's you or your cousin that knocked the vase down — both of y'all sit up at attention," said the producer. "This is a deeper laceration in this country. This is going to be the longest hangover in race relations ever." While Pharrell might not have been as vocal as his hip-hop peers following Brown's death, the Neptunes producer and The Voice judge...