Ferguson Riot Watch...

[liberty]

Some time back I made a suggestion on how to improve the quality of law enforcement and no one liked it. So I ask all of you what should be done. And don’t say hire good people, that is current strategy.

And, I am not saying that the outcome in Ferguson was not the right one. If you can’t depend on evident what else is there. But I am sure somewhere in our country there are abuses of police and prosecutor power.

[Lord Jim]

Oops. Sorry. I just realized that BSG posted the exact same article, above....

Here's something different, then:

Oh brother...

[RayThom]

... there will be a conspiracy. And, in this case, just like opinions, everybody has one.

If you look closely to that evidentiary video at the convenience store you'll find George Zimmerman ordering a hot dog and a large Slurpee while Michael Brown is assisting the manager with some merchandise. Coincidence? I think not, yet not one word was mentioned about this.

[Lord Jim]

The grand jury process shouldn't be abused by a prosecutor too gutless to take 100% responsibility for declining to file charges.

I completely disagree with that assessment. I'm sure McCulloch wanted some political cover, but I believe that by using the grand jury in this fashion, he provided a valuable public service in two ways:

First, by leaving the decision in the hands of a third party group of ordinary local citizens, he gave the process an opportunity to have a large group of local neutral observers to sift through all the evidence that he had available to reach a decision.

Second, by using the process this way he created a massive record which has now been released to the public showing the evidence upon which this decision was based. It's true that the bar for an indictment is a low one, but the evidence clearly shows that it was not met. I would not be able to say this with the level of certainty I have were it not for the release of the evidence presented to the Grand Jury.

Were it not for that, I wouldn't know for sure that Brown had struggled for Wilson's gun just as Wilson claimed nor (even more critically) would I have known with certainty that Brown was still advancing on Wilson right up until the moment the final shot was fired. (I keep returning to those two points, because they are critical for establishing beyond any doubt that this was a justified use of deadly force by a police officer under the standards of Missouri law.)

Indeed, if there was any injustice in this process at all, given what the evidence reveals, it's the fact that Darren Wilson sat for three months with the threat of an unjustified indictment hanging over his head. But I guess that's the price he had to pay.

The next shoe to drop will probably be the announcement that there will be no federal civil rights charges either. (I'm guessing that the DOJ will try to soften that blow by coupling the announcement with some report condemning the Ferguson Police Department.)

There are clearly some agenda driven people who have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what the facts of this case are. They decided on the day this happened that this was a case of an innocent young black boy being ruthlessly gun downed by a racist white cop with no justification. He was killed by a police officer for the "crime" of being a young black male. Period, end of story.

The fact that as the evidence developed it became clear that this preconceived narrative was totally unsupported by the facts is completely disinteresting to them. They couldn't care less. Nothing short of an indictment for 1st degree murder followed by arrest and incarceration with an unmeetably high bail, followed by a trial, conviction, and a sentence of either death or life in prison would ever have satisfied these folks, the facts be damned.

And clearly the evidence did not support giving them that satisfaction. It didn't even support an indictment.

[liberty]

Jim, if you will checkout my observation: I realize that quite often what one sees is depended on what one expects to see, so a second set of eyes is not a bad thing if one wishes to verify an observation. When I saw the pictures of the cop and Brown, Brown appeared to be a helpless fourteen years old boy and the cop appeared to be a large mature man. But when I saw Wilson, the cop, in an interview he appeared to me a young man of average size. And brown was a powerfully built huge man who could have killed the cop with is bare hands. The cop without his gun would have been helpless. Now I have two questions for you:

1. Is my observation correct?

2. If my observation is correct was this misperception created on purpose to sell a news story?

[wesw]

...or, one step further, was the perception created to incite revolution?

[Joe Guy]

According to what I've heard from more than one source, the cop is 6'4" and Brown was 6'5".

[wesw]

I m not certain joe, but I think that was erroneous info, that was picked up and repeated

[Jarlaxle]

According to what I've heard from more than one source, the cop is 6'4" and Brown was 6'5".

Don't think Wilson was 6'4"...but even if he IS, Brown had an easy 50lbs on him. (Brown was an NFL-lineman sized 6'5" and 300lbs.)

[Lord Jim]

90 pounds:

Wilson is 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds; Brown was the same height and weighed nearly 300 pounds.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014 ... oting.html

[Jarlaxle]

In perspective: Brown was BIGGER than NFL lineman Matt Light. He was about 10lbs shy of the gigantic Vince Wilfork.

[rubato]

So now the story is that a police officer was being beaten within an inch of his life by someone who outweighed him by 70-90lbs ...

... and it didn't leave a visible mark on him. He was immaculate.


Quite the story you have there.




yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

There are none so blind as those who will not to see

[Jarlaxle]

So now the story is that a police officer was being beaten within an inch of his life by someone who outweighed him by 70-90lbs ...

... and it didn't leave a visible mark on him. He was immaculate.

Quite the story you have there.

yrs,
rubato

Just how STUPID do you need to be to get that from the facts of the case, rube?

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Lord Jim]

Just how STUPID do you need to be to get that from the facts of the case, rube?

He didn't get that from the facts, he got it from where he gets most of what he posts around here..

From deep between his butt cheeks...From that scroll he has imbedded in his rectum known a Rubato's Great Suppository Of Knowledge...

The facts (like the DNA and blood trail evidence) don't support rube's narrative so he doesn't give a flying fuck about the facts. I doubt that he's even bothered to read them.

[liberty]

There are none so blind as those who will not to see

I might be a little cynical, but it appears to me that the primary goal of the news media is not news, but profit. We should remember that. I want to make it clear that except for national security I am not in favor of any regulation of the news media; they are still less dangerous than the government and we need them to keep tabs on the government.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'd like to go on record here that I am not in favour of setting fire to small children. In case anyone wanted to know...

[Econoline]

Maybe it's just me, but when I see "6-foot-4 and 210 pounds" I think "fit and strong"; when I see "300 pounds" I just think * F * A * T *

[wesw]

I don t know about that. mr brown looked like he might have a Swahili king in his family tree.....