Posted on 10/13/2020 7:24:24 PM PDT by karpov
August was the sixth anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, the black teenager who was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The incident, and the nationwide coverage it attracted, marked the beginning of a period of mass protests against police, which culminated (let’s hope) after the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis this May.
The fashionable explanation for what happened to Brown, Floyd and others—such as Freddie Gray in 2015 and Philando Castile in 2016—is so-called systemic racism. The activist left and the mainstream media insist that law enforcement targeted these men because they were black—and that if they weren’t black, they would still be alive. The truth is more complicated and less politically correct, and it’s the subject of an engrossing new documentary that is scheduled to premiere Oct. 16.
The film, titled “What Killed Michael Brown?,” is written and narrated by the noted race scholar Shelby Steele and directed by his son, Eli Steele. Readers of these pages probably know the elder Mr. Steele through his best-selling books and occasional Journal op-eds. But earlier in his career, Mr. Steele also won acclaim for his work in television. In 1990 he co-wrote and produced “Seven Days in Bensonhurst,” an Emmy-winning documentary about Yusef Hawkins, the black teenager from Brooklyn who was fatally shot in 1989 after he and some friends were attacked by a white mob.
In an interview this week, Mr. Steele, who is based at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, explained the significance of Brown’s death and what it tells us about race relations today. “Michael Brown represented, even more so than Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray and others, the distortion of truth, of reality,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The thug got a slug.
Michael Brown, like Trayvon Martin before him, attacked an armed man and should have expected to get shot.
People pass over why he would try to take the gun. He clearly wanted to murder the cop. If he’d his own gun he’d have shot the policeman in his car.
Truth doesn’t matter to Marxists like those behind BLM. They want the world to burn for their Revolution.
Perhaps Shelby should change his/her name to Christopher, and then the media would be all over the story.
TWENTY FIVE TOP QUOTES FROM THE DOJ’S REPORT ON THE MICHAEL BROWN SHOOTING
(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.
Of course those creating films or books might be willing to ignore the facts...a truthful book/film wouldn't be a smash hit.
That is why I rebel utterly at accepting any tenet, no matter how trivial, served up by Black Lives Matter.
Everything-EVERYTHING is base on a lie...the lie that black people in America are being hunted down and murdered by institutionally racist police in wildly disproportionate numbers for no reason at all.
That is the lie they base it on.
If it were not a completely political movement, and black lives actually really mattered to Black Lives Matter, you wouldn’t have 7,484 murders of black people in 2019, with 95% of those murders at the hands of other blacks...almost always the exact same kind of people who populate Black Lives Matter.
When 6% of the population accounts for nearly 45% of the violent crime composed of homicide, aggravated assault, rape, and armed robbery, then it is a miracle that many more blacks don’t die at the hands of police in their dealings with violent criminals.
And that was the end of.. The Jolly...Ho Ho Ho..Teen Giant!
Both the Michael Brown and George Floyd cases demonstrate the enormous emotional power of a meme that is burned into the public’s consciousness early in the news cycle by subversive groups that control the media. “Hand’s Up, Don’t Shoot” and “I Can’t Breath” both became instant meme classics that completely hypnotized the low information news consumers and drove out any actual critical examination of the real story.
Michael Brown assaulted a police officer and tried to take his sidearm while George Floyd ingested a fatal overdose of fentanyl and was suffocated by fluid in his lungs leading to cardiac arrest.
I was distressed to see even Amy Coney Barrett had succumbed to the police brutality interpretation of the video showing Chauvin restraining Floyd for 8:36 on the ground. Instead he was using a Minneapolis PD approved restraint position for persons undergoing “excited delirium” episodes to protect them from self harm. The medical report and complete body cam footage of the event released after Chauvin was charged with murder completely exonerates him of both causation and intent to commit murder.
I hope Shelby Steele has the time and funds to expose the George Floyd injustice in a film as they have done with Michael Brown.
Oh! The GENTLE GIANT AGAIN !!!
What is HE or SAINT Martin that started all this crap ?? 2013 ca
Given that Biden had repeatedly discussed the “murder” of Michael Brown, with no pushback by the media, about how it was cleared by the Obama “Just-Us” department as a justifiable homicide, OF COURSE it’s going to be supressed!
Mark
Michael Brown’s BEHAVIOR killed Michael Brown.
Careful now! Remember, TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.
You are correct, sir.
I have no doubt that there are many people in this country who would read my words and be offended.
The truth does hurt some people, that much is true...
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