Posted on 08/15/2014 2:26:10 PM PDT by xzins
The police officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown did not know that he was a suspect in a convenience store robbery, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said Friday.
Jackson said the officer, previously identified as 28-year-old Darren Wilson, initially stopped Brown and a friend ”because they were walking down the middle of the street blocking traffic.”
Police earlier Friday released security footage they said showed Brown grabbing a box of cigars from a convenience store and then shoving the clerk away to leave.
Daryl Parks, an attorney for the Brown family, confirmed that the security footage “appears to look like” the teenager, but accused the police chief of “strategically” releasing the video to “assassinate the character of Michael Brown.”
Brown’s cousin, Eric Davis, called the video “smoke and mirrors” to obscure what had happened to the 18-year-old. Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, said he and Brown were ordered down on the sidewalk and that the officer attempted to pull Brown into his car before Brown tried to flee and was shot.
The police have said Brown was shot amid a struggle with the officer in and around the officer’s squad car.
After the police chief’s revelation, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan speculated that the decision to release the security footage — while seemingly unrelated to the officer’s decision to stop Brown — was because “Michael Brown knew about the robbery,” even if the officer didn’t.
“The officer didn’t know about the robbery in the store when he stopped Michael Brown, but Michael Brown knew about the robbery, and Michael Brown … thought that he was being apprehended for robbery, and therefore when the officer tried to put him in the car for not being cooperative or whatever his reasoning was, Brown immediately started to struggle because he thought he was going down on a robbery in the second-degree,” Callan said.
On Fox News, legal analyst Annemarie McAvoy made the same point: “The victim knew, if it was in fact him, that he’d just committed a robbery, may have assumed that he was going to be arrested and essentially tried to resist before he gets arrested.”
We saw how hard it was to unravel the Trayvon Martin case after the media spread false information for weeks.
Looking at this case, it appears to me that it has already unraveled from the initial allegations by the cop’s accusers.
And that’s why I’m saying that the truth helps rather than hurts.
Not only did Brown know he was subject to arrest for his earlier actions, so did the guy with him. Reports are that Brown had an accomplice. Could the supposed witness (Johnson) be that person? If so, he could be trying to use a false account of what actually happened as a get out of jail free card.
The word “execute” was used over and over during news conferences for the deceased to describe what the cop did to him.
It was used for affect.
I wonder if they had to ramp up the language because they aren’t going to get the same sympathy as they did before they learned he just wasn’t just logging in steps with his Striiv Smart Pedometer.
Here’s the thing, if as the cop and at least one witness say, there was a struggle in the car and the gun discharged, there will be GSR on Brown’s clothing. This will severely compromise the account given by Brown’s friend/accomplice. It will look like he’s trying to spin his version of events as a get out of jail free card.
They also pioneered the practice of releasing pictures that don’t accurately portray the current appearance of the deceased. In the Trayvon case, they immediately retained a PR guy. It’d be interesting to see if they’ve done that again.
Given that the victim’s friends have contradicted themselves repeatedly, they police may just be doling out rope to them.
Tennessee vs.Garner
“remember that they are staring straight down the barrel of the race pimps and the full wrath of the media”
There was a classic example of that today when the talking point switched from “poor little unarmed teen” to “you’re trying to vilify the dead” in an eye blink when the photos were released. Every bit of information will be exploited in the service of the agenda, and if the media misreport an item and the truth is later released, they’ll cite the conflict between their own previous erroneous report and the correct one as evidence that the latter one has no credibility.
Let ‘em yammer, release only verified facts, and they have to make up their own ammo instead of using something you’ve given them. That’s just the smart way to handle something like this. You’ll never get ahead of the lies, you just have to refute them later.
And, I have not hung this cop.
It's clear that the cops' only defense will be Imminent Threat.
Absent that, he'll likely be charged and probably convicted of Murder II.
Do you dispute that?
A friend of Wilson says Wilson had his gun out, yelled “Freeze!” while Brown was running away, then Brown turned around and ran toward Wilson as if he were going to attack him.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3193375/posts
Eyewitness video conversation confirms that Brown did turn back around and head toward Wilson.
At this point, it looks like a valid shoot to me, but what do I know?
I believe he says, “The next thing I knew, he doubled back toward him.” at the 6:51 mark.
Yah, because it's standard police procedure to roll up to a 300 pound man and pull him through the car window instead of getting out and trying to arrest him.
Good post.
good find.
Lots of non-sentient Freepers commenting on this subject I guess. The question is whether the behavior of the deceased justified the use of deadly force. That's the only question, the rest of the rhetoric is just irrelevant crap.
Agreed. That was the point of my original comment.
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