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The Ferguson Effect Lives On
City Journal ^ | 23 Dec, 2016 | Heather Mac Donald

Posted on 12/26/2016 3:08:18 PM PST by MtnClimber

The Black Lives Matter crusade against the police continued to cost lives and destroy civil peace in 2016. Two recent estimates of violent crime in the nation’s largest cities show that murders and shootings remained on an upward trajectory this year, as officers backed off of proactive policing. The Brennan Center for Justice projects that murders in the 30 largest cities will be 14 percent higher in 2016 compared with 2015, a stunning increase coming as it does on top of 2015’s already massive homicide rise, which was 14.5 percent in all cities with populations over 250,000 and 20 percent in cities with populations from 500,000 to 1 million. The Wall Street Journal found that homicides increased in 16 of the 20 largest police departments in 2016. Meanwhile, gun murders of police officers are up 68 percent through December 23, compared with the same period in 2015.

Medium-sized cities that don’t show up in the Brennan Center or Wall Street Journal analyses are also in distress. Cleveland’s murder numbers, for example, are up again in 2016 over 2015, which, with a 15 percent spike over 2014, was already one of the deadliest years in a decade.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: blacklivesmatter; blm; crime; ferguson; publicsafety; waroncops; waronpolice

1 posted on 12/26/2016 3:08:18 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Police don’t want to be persecuted for doing their jobs.


2 posted on 12/26/2016 3:09:04 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

3 posted on 12/26/2016 3:12:28 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: MtnClimber

Ferguson - BLM bump


4 posted on 12/26/2016 3:18:44 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Some learn by readin'... Some by seein'.. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.)
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To: MtnClimber
It's true that the effect lives on
even if it is based on a lie - "the gentle giant",
who assaulted a store clerk 1/3rd his size.
It's just another lie fabricated and encouraged by Fake News and propaganda !
5 posted on 12/26/2016 3:37:33 PM PST by Tilted Irish Kilt (Immigration is a priveledge ,.... not a right ! Tell that to O'Bungler and the U.N.)
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To: MtnClimber

Heather MacDonald does superlative work on this subject; she’s very bright and very brave.


6 posted on 12/26/2016 3:47:08 PM PST by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: MtnClimber

“Hands up, don’t shoot!” was a complete, total and absolute lie.

TWENTY_FIVE TOP QUOTES FROM THE DOJ’S REPORT ON THE MICHAEL BROWN SHOOTING
http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf

(For official DOJ report, Google “DOJ Report on Shooting of Michael Brown PDF.”)

[01] The evidence, when viewed as a whole, does not support the conclusion that Wilson’s uses of deadly force were “objectively unreasonable” under the Supreme Court’s definition. (Page 5)

[02] when the store clerk tried to stop Brown, Brown used his physical size to stand over him and forcefully shove him away. (Page 6)

[03] Wilson was aware of the theft and had a description of the suspects as he encountered Brown and Witness 101. (Page 6)

[04] Autopsy results and bullet trajectory, skin from Brown’s palm on the outside of the SUV door as well as Brown’s DNA on the inside of the driver’s door corroborate Wilson’s account that during the struggle, Brown used his right hand to grab and attempt to control Wilson’s gun. (Page 6)

[05] there is no credible evidence to disprove Wilson’s account of what occurred inside the SUV. (Page 7)

[06] autopsy results confirm that Wilson did not shoot Brown in the back as he was running away because there were no entrance wounds to Brown’s back. (Page 7)

[07] witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts (Page 8)

[08] several witnesses stated that Brown appeared to pose a physical threat to Wilson as he moved toward Wilson. (Page 8)

[09] The physical evidence also establishes that Brown moved forward toward Wilson after he turned around to face him. The physical evidence is corroborated by multiple eyewitnesses. (Page 10)

[10] evidence does not establish that it was unreasonable for Wilson to perceive Brown as a threat while Brown was punching and grabbing him in the SUV and attempting to take his gun. (Page 11)

[11] Wilson’s account is corroborated by physical evidence and that his perception of a threat posed by Brown is corroborated by other eyewitnesses (Page 12)

[12] Wilson’s account was consistent with those results, and consistent with the accounts of other independent eyewitnesses, whose accounts were also consistent with the physical evidence. Wilson’s statements were consistent with each other in all material ways, and would not be subject to effective impeachment for inconsistencies or deviation from the physical evidence.8 Therefore, in analyzing all of the evidence, federal prosecutors found Wilson’s account to be credible. (Page 16)

[13] Witness accounts suggesting that Brown was standing still with his hands raised in an unambiguous signal of surrender when Wilson shot Brown are inconsistent with the physical evidence, are otherwise not credible because of internal inconsistencies, or are not credible because of inconsistencies with other credible evidence. (Page 78)

[14] Multiple credible witnesses corroborate virtually every material aspect of Wilson’s account and are consistent with the physical evidence. (Page 78)

[15] several of these witnesses stated that they would have felt threatened by Brown and would have responded in the same way Wilson did. (Page 82)

[16] there are no witnesses who could testify credibly that Wilson shot Brown while Brown was clearly attempting to surrender. (Page 83)

[17] There is no witness who has stated that Brown had his hands up in surrender whose statement is otherwise consistent with the physical evidence. (Page 83)

[18] The media has widely reported that there is witness testimony that Brown said “don’t shoot” as he held his hands above his head. In fact, our investigation did not reveal any eyewitness who stated that Brown said “don’t shoot.” (Page 83)

[19] Wilson did not know that Brown was not armed at the time he shot him, and had reason to suspect that he might be when Brown reached into the waistband of his pants as he advanced toward Wilson. (Page 84)

[20] Wilson did not have time to determine whether Brown had a gun and was not required to risk being shot himself in order to make a more definitive assessment.

[21] In addition, even assuming that Wilson definitively knew that Brown was not armed, Wilson was aware that Brown had already assaulted him once and attempted to gain control of his gun. (Page 85)

[22] Wilson has a strong argument that he was justified in firing his weapon at Brown as he continued to advance toward him and refuse commands to stop, and the law does not require Wilson to wait until Brown was close enough to physically assault Wilson. (Page 85)

[23] we must avoid substituting our personal notions of proper police procedure for the instantaneous decision of the officer at the scene. We must never allow the theoretical, sanitized world of our imagination to replace the dangerous and complex world that policemen face every day.” (Page 85)

[24] “It may appear, in the calm aftermath, that an officer could have taken a different course, but we do not hold the police to such a demanding standard.” (citing Gardner v. Buerger, 82 F.3d 248, 251 (8th Cir. 1996) (same))). Rather, where, as here, an officer points his gun at a suspect to halt his advance, that suspect should be on notice that “escalation of the situation would result in the use of the firearm.” Estate of Morgan at 498. An officer is permitted to continue firing until the threat is neutralized. See Plumhoff v. Rickard, 134 S.Ct. 2012, 2022 (2014) (“Officers need not stop shooting until the threat has ended”). For all of the reasons stated, Wilson’s conduct in shooting Brown as he advanced on Wilson, and until he fell to the ground, was not objectively unreasonable and thus not a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242. (Page 85)

[25] Given that Wilson’s account is corroborated by physical evidence and that his perception of a threat posed by Brown is corroborated by other eyewitnesses, to include aspects of the testimony of Witness 101, there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender or was otherwise not posing a threat. (Page 86)

For the reasons set forth above, this matter lacks prosecutive merit and should be closed.


7 posted on 12/26/2016 3:48:17 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (President Trump is coming, and the rule of law is coming with him.)
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To: MtnClimber

The Ferguson Rifle?


8 posted on 12/26/2016 3:50:44 PM PST by Rannug ("all enemies, foreign and : domestic")
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To: MtnClimber

Yeah, Ferguson effect indeed. Africans have been running the unblacks out of neighborhoods simply by the content of their character for nearly 6 decades. And oddly, white flight has nothing, zero, nada, to do with skin color, the lie propagated for 6 decades to cover for their uncivilized behavior.


9 posted on 12/26/2016 5:08:59 PM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: BenLurkin

Classic black role model


10 posted on 12/26/2016 5:13:45 PM PST by Lee25
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To: MtnClimber

I am glad to see the police backing off the inner cities and letting those people slaughter each other. That’s what the media, black and academia elite wanted and that is what they got. Hey cops, drive the routes you have to drive, eyes straight ahead and only answer a call or stop when absolutely necessary. Go home after your shift and enjoy your family.


11 posted on 12/26/2016 5:32:59 PM PST by Uncle Sam 911
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To: BenLurkin

I think about Officer Wilson every now and then and hope he is doing ok, that he has been able to settle down somewhere with his family and continue a life of service and heroism.


12 posted on 12/26/2016 5:34:03 PM PST by Uncle Sam 911
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