We have seen many things in the killing of Michael Brown.
Once again, we see an unarmed Black child being put on trial for their OWN MURDER.
It has been a disgusting exercise in watching how the Media has conspired to try and find any and everything to get Darren Wilson OFF FOR MURDERING MICHAEL BROWN.
The media has been more than willing to put Michael Brown on trial for his OWN MURDER.
And the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch has been right there, out in front, with their request to see Michael Brown’s Juvenile Record.
AS IF that was any of their business.
AS IF that had anything to do with what happened on that street in Ferguson.
You have a cop, whose mother is a stone criminal…
And, who was fired from his first police job because the entire department WAS ROTTEN…
And, they wanted Michael Brown’s juvenile record?
G-T-F-O-H
A judge denied their request, and the Brown family attorney, Benjamin Crump, sent the Post-Dispatch a letter, accusing them of just wanting internet traffic, and have been biased in their reporting of the case.
The Post Dispatch’s response?
Response to letter from the Brown family attorney
The open letter by Benjamin L. Crump, the lead attorney for the Michael Brown family, is a gross mischaracterization of the weeks of extensive coverage in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since the Aug. 9 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
His letter misconstrues why the Post-Dispatch filed a legal request to determine whether Michael Brown, 18, had a juvenile criminal record. Reports by some bloggers and others on social media have contended that he had a juvenile criminal record.
Our sole motivation is to determine the facts as we continue reporting on many facets of this story.
Funny how those facets never seem to focus on the background of the KILLER of Michael Brown…
Uh Huh.
So so disturbing. I want to wail…
6 Times White and Black People in St. Louis County Had Opposite Opinions on Ferguson
http://tiny.cc/j8camx
A teenager is dead. A police officer pulled the trigger. There’s not much more to the story of Michael Brown that white and black residents of St. Louis County agree on.
Remington Research Group, based in Missouri, polled more than 600 county residents on September 13 and 14 asking eight questions about the shooting and its aftermath. The poll puts in stark light the deep fracture between white and black reaction to the shooting, with the two groups often reporting opposite responses to the same questions.
“There is a sharp racial divide amongst St. Louis County residents on the events that transpired in Ferguson,” said Titus Bond of Remington Research Group. “It’s a tale of two different groups, with each racial group seeing the situation almost completely opposite of the other. Race is definitely still a factor, and local law enforcement, and local government leaders have a long road ahead of them.”
The poll results shouldn’t come as a surprise, but that doesn’t stop them from being super depressing. To see the entire study, scroll down.
Here are six times white and black St. Louis County residents gave opposite answers to the same poll questions about Michael Brown and Ferguson.
1. Was Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson justified in shooting Michael Brown?
Whites: Yes (62%)
Blacks: No (65%)
2. Who is most responsible for the violence in Ferguson after Michael Brown’s death?
46 percent of whites blame organized street gangs for the looting and chaos that gripped Ferguson for days after the shooting. Blacks blame law enforcement and community activists, both with 27 percent. Only 7 percent of whites said law enforcement was to blame.
3. Was Michael Brown targeted by Officer Darren Wilson because of his race?
Whites: No (77 %)
Blacks: Yes (64%)
4. Should Officer Darren Wilson be arrested and charged with a crime?
Whites: No (72%)
Blacks: Yes (71%)
5. Can Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch fairly prosecute the criminal case against Officer Darren Wilson?
Whites: Yes (71%)
Blacks: No (60%)
This should come as no surprise. McCulloch has been reelected to his post for decades by the county’s majority-white voting base, while black community leaders have organized protests, boycotts and a highway shutdown to get him thrown off the case.
6. Do police target black people because of their race?
White: No (61%)
Black: Yes (70%)
These people, it’s like they aren’t even human.
Such an ugly man down to the marrow in his bones. I wonder if he’s married, if he’s someone’s father.
The Man Who Live-Tweeted Michael Brown’s Death.
Blackstoppers? This is a joke, right?
I put the strike through in. Black folks stopped the funds from being funneled in to support a killer cop.
LOL Got cha!
I could scream…
No doubt the phrasing of the question to these folks was FEAR-BASED & RACIALLY BIASED.
True. You need to know more about the questions asked and who they asked before 62% means anything. However, with the way this whole event has been reported and then ignored by msm, it doesn’t really surprise me. If the truth were actually being reported, then that number would be lower.
This country has a cop problem, and white folks are going to be the last ones to admit it because they are the ones least affected by it.
Join the Conversation!
***Limited seating and registration is required***
America After Ferguson
A PBS News and Public Affairs Town Hall Meeting
Doors Open 2:00pm • Audience Seated by 2:30pm • Program Begins 3:00pm First come first serve seating
America After Ferguson will be taped on Sunday, September 21 at 3:00 PM central at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Missouri – St. Louis. The one-hour program produced by WGBH in partnership with the Nine Network (KETC) will broadcast on PBS on Friday, September 26 at 7:00 PM.
In the aftermath of Michael Brown’s police shooting death, a family is broken, a city is in turmoil, and the entire nation stands by asking “why?”.
While issues of race and justice are at the core of the Ferguson story, there is much more to explore. The emotions swirling around these events are raw and powerful, making this a critical time for coming together. America After Ferguson will present a public town hall conversation, moderated by PBS NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill, held in St. Louis, but intended for audiences in communities across the country. America After Ferguson will expand beyond local circles to include national thought leaders in areas of law enforcement, race and civil rights, as well as government officials, faith leaders and youth.
America After Ferguson will engage some of the complex cultural questions that have been raised by events in Ferguson, including:
•What kind of America did Ferguson expose?
•How do we overcome the race and justice issues that continue to plague our communities?
•What can we learn about the often-contradictory ways that different Americans see themselves in this story?
•How do we advance our national dialogue on race?
Seating is first come first serve for registered attendees. Arrive early to secure a seat.
Have questions about America After Ferguson? Contact Nine Network of Public Media
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/america-after-ferguson-tickets-13047781265
Town halls have purpose, but what I’d like to know is will this PBS town hall bring about an arrest of officer Darren Wilson?
These types of broadcasts do nothing more than provide more cover for Wilson and FPD, while they sit back and gather the information from our opinions, eye witness accounts, etc.
So SIDE-EYE to Gwen & Co. for now.
I watch the PBS Newshour every night and their reporting on Ferguson just wasn’t that great. And I haven’t seen anything on the news, even Democracy Now, that has been focused on why Darren Wilson needs to be arrested right now or why they need a special prosecutor (hopefully one who is not vested in their corruption.)
WHAT? for having opinions about the execution of Michael Brown and supporting the citizens of Ferguson? This is some real hateful bull shit right here.
Sue for harassment!
Sue them to the knees.
Please help hold Ferguson PD accountable for Mike Brown murder & law violations.
Officials in Ferguson have refused to comply with the law regarding the public’s rights to records. A Sunshine Law case to be filed will seek to not only obtain the records but to uphold the law and hold those officials to account. Your help is needed. Pls donate if you can. If not, pass the link along so others might be able to do so.
https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/frgl5
Hey Chicas, Liza & Yahtc
I need you guys to go over this article. It’s just too much. I read so much and then had to stop so I could absorb it. The Ferguson police are corrupt BRAZEN mofos. Click on the article and then click the links provided on the article. It’s some scary ISH. A cover up from the top to the bottom.
Ferguson’s massive cover-up: How police departments are protecting Michael Brown’s killer
http://tiny.cc/09e7lx
Basic evidence is being kept from the public. And investigators aren’t showing proper zeal to figure out the truth.
Are the police departments of Ferguson and St. Louis County, Missouri, involved in a conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case of Michael Brown’s murder? It seems disturbingly possible, given their actions over the past month, hiding basic evidentiary information from the public in direct violation of the state’s sunshine laws—and perhaps not even gathering it in the first place. This raises the further possibly that evidence is being hidden from criminal investigators as well, particularly since the investigators have shown no great interest, much less zeal, in getting to the truth of the matter.
On Aug. 15, the world saw Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson belatedly release Darren Wilson’s name—and no other information at all about the killing of Michael Brown—while at the same time releasing a report (followed by a video) on an unrelated robbery that Brown was apparently involved in. On Aug. 20 and 21, first St. Louis County, then Ferguson released incident reports on the shootings—reports virtually devoid of any information. These highly questionable revelations stirred a fair amount of public outrage, but few people seemed to realize how truly sinister they were, or how they connected to much broader patterns of official lawlessness that have long bedeviled St. Louis County, and Missouri more generally, as well as many other jurisdictions across the land.
Starting to read it now.
I am saving this link that was within the article to view later:
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/08/25/st-louis-county-ferguson-police-violating-law-prevent-release-vital-public-information/
Also this one:
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/08/29/incident-report-wheres-use-force-report-violations-ferguson/
In the end, he (Grapski) concludes:
This is thus evidence that both agencies – and thus their commanding officers – deem themselves to be “above” the law. Evidence that they approach the law, and law enforcement, without an actual respect for the law. And that they believe there are “two sets” of laws – one that they enforce on “us” the citizens, and another for “them.”
Herein lies the core of the problem with the out-of-control police across the country.
It thus becomes incumbent on the Citizenry itself to hold them to account and to force the system to enforce the law upon the agencies they entrust with authority and the power to exercise it.
Grapski’s Aug. 29 post looking at use-of-force documents is similarly revealing, with multiple, intricate twists and turns. However, the key take-away is strikingly simple: Not just officer Warren, but his entire chain of command was derelict in its duties to file a use-of-force report. The regulations Grapski obtained clearly spell this out, when a weapon is discharged:
3. The watch commander shall respond to the scene and be responsible for the command and protection of the scene until the arrival of the Bureau of Investigations investigator(s). He shall assist, as necessary, in the investigation of the incident and arrange to have a police officer, not involved, prepare the original report.
4. The watch commander will complete the Use of Force Report F-080 and forward it through the chain of command to the Chief.
5. The Chief of Police will direct the Professional Standards Officer to conduct an administrative review of all incidents where a gunshot wound is inflicted.
So far, no reports have been furnished. Whether any of the required procedures were followed remains to be seen. At the end of this post, Grapski concludes:
We have proof of one thing: the entire department (actually two departments) are actively defying the law and their policies to cover-up the facts of what Officer Wilson did that day. And to deny the right of the public to obtain those facts in the records the police are required to keep.
In this case, therefore, there is ample reason – in fact actual evidence – for the public to have no faith or confidence in anything these Departments, their officials, or the officers employed therein do or say. And certainly there is no reason to trust that they can honestly and faithfully participate in the process inquiring into and investigating the shooting by Officer Wilson.
The problem is not limited to these two entities, of course. As Rothert noted, “time and again police departments do not release those records unless it is favorable to them.”
Grapski’s big-picture view is clear. “We must become fully committed to becoming ACTIVE Citizens once again within a democratic society and with a democratic form of governance,” he told Salon in a followup email. “Democracy is still ‘self-governance’ even when we add to it mechanisms of representation or delegation of authority. The ultimate responsibility still lies with the Citizens to be the driving force in society. Those other ‘official’ actors are not the leaders of our society/nation — but the means whereby the Citizens themselves direct our present and shape our future.”
Sunshine laws are crucial to this process—without them citizens can’t possibly direct anything significant, except in the most broad-based terms, and that low-resolution standard is what we’ve been told we should be overjoyed with. And if it requires human sacrifice from time to time…
Well, usually it doesn’t, right? Usually it’s much more low-key. When the national attention fades away, and things return to “normal.” Which is what’s now happening in Ferguson, as the same old patterns continue—but with a new twist.
On Sunday, Sept. 7, protesters were arrested for “Manner of Walking”—which is not an arrestible offense, and “failure to comply,” which Grapski explains is how traffic-law style violations are turned into arrestable criminal offenses, thus intimidating protesters as a whole, as well as the wider community. Grapski sent a public records request for incident reports the following day, Sept. 8. Three days later, Grapski received a response from Stephanie Karr, a private attorney who serves as Ferguson’s city attorney—a common practice in St. Louis County, stating in part:
Please be advised that it will take longer than three (3) days [the legal maximum] to process the request. The Department of Justice is currently reviewing those same records and they will not be available for City officials to retrieve, review and copy them until sometime later. The Justice Department has not provided a date by which their review of those records will be complete.
To which Grapski responded the same day: “The DOJ reviewing of those records should not prevent your compliance with the state’s Sunshine laws. Your responsibilities remain — and you need to get a COPY of the records from the DOJ to be in compliance with MO law.”
In short, Ferguson is not only continuing its pattern of violating Missouri’s sunshine laws, it is now seeking to implicate the DOJ as co-conspirators! Apparently, such is the depth of its institutional commitment to lawlessness.
But the actions of those responding to the emails are only symptoms of the real problem, Grapski said. “I believe the ‘front people’ are not the core of the problem. I believe they are being given ‘instructions’ at every step as to what to respond — by the lawyers for the different agencies. And those lawyers know exactly what they are doing.”
In light of this pattern, Salon asked Grapski just how useful the DOJ investigation could be, and how much trust could be placed in the façade of inter-agency cooperation that the DOJ and the two local police departments have presented recently.
“The DOJ investigation is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the solution,” Grapski said. He noted that he’s still active in Albuquerque, again citing the DOJ’s “scathing review” of local law enforcement. But, he noted, due to lack of transparency, the community there still doesn’t feel it’s a part of process of correcting the system.
It’s not something others can do for us, Grapski argues. It’s up to us, as active citizens, to do it for ourselves.
Looking forward in Ferguson itself, Grapski has secured a lawyer to pursue legal action against police departments, with his sights set on going all the way to Missouri’s supreme court, if necessary. The law may be very good on paper, as the ACLU has said, but to give it teeth, the highest court in the state may well need to weigh in. The lawyer has offered to do most of the work pro bono, Grapski told Salon, but he’s opened a fundraising site to raise the initial $5,000 retainer. The continued shenanigans, trying to use the DOJ investigations as a shield, are just the latest indication of how deeply entrenched the resistance is, and how great the need is for a sweeping change.
I wouldn’t trust any level of government or leadership in the state of Missouri.
SMGDH No wonder DOJ’s all up in Ferguson, MO. These MOFOs are bending and destroying laws to suit themselves.
Ametia,
They’re up to their neck in corruption. And they’re outright violating laws in your face & thumbing their nose at the DOJ.
This is a good article, really lays out the facts regarding the required incident report and use of force documents and what the Missouri laws are with respect to public access to such information.
Well, it’s crystal clear that the St. Louis County PD and the Ferguson PD are seriously playing games and have themselves violated the law in withholding information and/or not properly reporting and documenting the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer. It’s really hard to comment on how they expect to get away with this unless they think they are buying time, knowing that DOJ investigations are slow, and believing it is to their advantage to drag this out as long as they can and not let the truth be known until they’re at the last ditch. Without question, they believe they are above the law.
Darren Wilson is a piece of a garbage, a killer, a waste of DNA, and a lot of folks in the PD probably agree. But they aren’t fighting for Darren Wilson. They are fighting for themselves, their way of doing things, their belief that they are entitled and above the law and the public needs to stay the f*ck out of police business. They forgot a long time ago who they work for and who pays them.
Either way, the jig is up. There will be changes. Folks are fed up.
Why do you think the St Louis Post Dispatch requested Michael Brown’s juvenile records but not the shooter Darren Wilson? To put black manhood on trial & allow the police to get away with their crimes. Don’t be distracted by the shiny object.
TELL.IT
YES!!!
Badges should NEVER shield criminals!
and NO MORE badmouthing the victim!!!!!
It’s the last gasp of a way of life, basically. In St. Louis, at least some parts of it, there are still a lot of racist white folks in charge and they are trying to hang on, deluding themselves into thinking that the end isn’t near.
But the end is near. This may remind us of Jim Crow, but the truth is, the young black people in today’s world didn’t grow up in Emmett Till’s America. No one is going back. What ultimately happens, where they end up, isn’t about one event or even the sum of several events. It is about the movement of the aggregate, the extent to which they can stand together and use the power that is inherent when a very large number of people own the moral high ground and learn how force their will upon the oppressor. And they will, eventually.
Thanks for tweeting this, SG2. Been saying this all week.
WE WILL NOT BE DECEIVED.
Where’s that snapshot of the filthy cops with Eric Gardner in a chokehold? Post it, SG2. We’re not going for the old bait & switch with Peterson or Rice.
See how the southern crackers are trying to twart the black vote?
September 12, 2014, 11:13 am
Voter fraud probe roils Ga. Senate race
By Alexandra Jaffe
A group helmed by a major donor and policy adviser to Democratic Senate candidate Michele Nunn is under investigation by the Georgia secretary of State for alleged voter fraud.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R) said in a memo, reported by WSB-TV, that his office has “received numerous complaints about voter applications submitted by the New Georgia Project,” an organization launched to register and turn out voters to the polls.
Video: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/217544-group-led-by-nunn-donor-and-adviser-under-investigation-for
“It’s time to get “Suited & Booted.”
Chicas, I’m hyperventilating! Frightening beyond description.
OMG! This evil is beyond the pale. They are profiting off the execution by Darren Wilson. Bob McColloch MUST GO.
As the outer layers get peeled away and we start to see into the entrenched and systemic corruption in that whole damn town, it really isn’t unexpected. I said from the beginning that it was the DOJ that would bring the killer to justice. The reason I believed that is because Darren Wilson executed Michael Brown without thinking of the consequences because HE KNEW THERE WOULDN’T BE ANY. When Darren Wilson murdered Michael Brown, he fully believed that was the end of it. He would tell a story about being attacked and Brown going for his gun, and it would be a routine cop killing. No one (in law enforcement) would question his judgement. Wilson could only believe that if the larger context, the system within which he worked as police officer, was totally and completely corrupt.
What has become apparent is that the corrupt players in the Ferguson/St. Louis community are not even trying to hide the fact that they are what they are. It’s like they think they can collectively give the finger to the DOJ and every law abiding, decent human being in this country who disagrees with their way of doing things.
Their day is coming. Oh, yeah, you can bet on it. But never underestimate the self-righteousness of the white folks who believe that race is the first and most important determinant of the value of a human life.
Damn them to hell. I don’t even have words to tell you how much I despise them.
X’10,000000000!
Amen
Amen
Amen
Good evening, ladies. As I told a twitter buddy of mine a few weeks ago, MO.’s political establishment with the help of the local media is closing ranks around Darren Wilson and law enforcement. With a few notable exceptions, no one in the state’s government is serious about pursuing justice for Mike Brown. If they were, Darren Wilson would have been arrested and charged. The sham grand jury proceedings convened by Robert McCulloch will result in a no true bill. Meaning that the Brown family and the people of Ferguson will have to wait for the DOJ to conclude it’s investigation. One possible silver lining in all this is that the bad faith and fecklessness of local authorities will give DOJ wide berth in it’s eventual proceedings.
It’s so horrible. A child is dead, gunned down for nothing and the killer walks free without consequences. It’s a shame how they do us. Darren Wilson should have been charged already. Jay Nixon and Bob McCulloch are in this together. The fix is in.
Nixon, Mcolloch, Knowles, all these pimps and whores, they want to shift all the blame on the grand jury, because they know already Darren Wilson will roam without consequesnces from the Missouri leadership.
Morning, Southern Girl2. No doubt about it, the Jay Nixon and Bob McCulloch adhering to the old playbook; make all the right noises about healing and coming together, while slow walking the process and waiting for the initial furor to die down and. What they have failed to take into account is that Mike Brown’s killing that the fallout has politicized a community that had grown accustomed to corruption the casual tyranny of local officials. The Ferguson community will not tolerate business as usual.
ALL OF THIS.
I’ve read a few blogs stating the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is largely composed of scoundrels, charlatans, pimps, and whores. And although my motivations are simply to seek the truth, i do not have any plans to inquire further. Sometimes, the facts speak for themselves.
bwa ha ha ha ha ha
Tell it!
LOL Duly noted, Bob!
You are describing 99% of the Mainslime Media in America (broadcast and print). I use the term “Mainslime” because they have mainstreamed racial hatred by treating racist behavior and statements by Rethuglican politicians and right wing media outlets as sentiments worthy of investigation or consideration just because “it’s out there”, then insisting that “both sides” do it. .
And Chuck Todd’s treatment of PBO was egregious. He would never have talked to GW Bush or any other white Republican like he did last Sunday. He had the never to say that “everyone hates you”, but I guess the support PBO has from the African American community doesn’t count. Because, you know.
Ferguson tragedy becoming a farce
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, who discovered that McCulloch’s office has declined so far to recommend any charges to the grand jury. Instead, McCulloch’s prosecutors handling the case are taking the highly unusual course of dumping all evidence on the jurors and leaving them to make sense of it.
McCulloch’s office claims that this is a way to give more authority to the grand jurors, but it looks more like a way to avoid charging Wilson at all — and to use the grand jury as cover for the outrage that will ensue. It is often said that a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich if a prosecutor asks it to. But the opposite is also true. A grand jury is less likely to deliver an indictment — even a much deserved one — if a prosecutor doesn’t ask for it…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-ferguson-tragedy-becoming-a-farce/2014/09/12/e52226ca-3a82-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html
come on with it, Rikyrah.
How about reporting on the KILLER COP, Darren Wilson,ST. Louis,Post Dispatch!
His thieving mother and the COLD-BLOODED execution of Michael Brown Jr., wihile Wilson’s hold up somewhere getting paid.
x 2