"Attached please find our invoice for royalties due for your procedures manual.
-the Estate of F. Kafka."
These are the immediate reactions of eyewitnesses at the scene. They are not testimony from witnesses at a later date, who might be subject to various pressures and influences. They are visceral, immediate, and uncensored.
Let us grant two factors: one, that eyewitness testimony is notoriously suspect. Eyewitnesses are sometime certain, beyond any doubt, that person X is the guy, the will pick his picture out of a spread, they will positively identify him in a lineup…and be totally wrong. That happens.
Also let us accept that the citizens of Ferguson do not enjoy a trusting and secure relationship with their police. And that such animosity might well color their perceptions.
Even given those caveats, how likely is it that they could confuse hands raised in the air in a “surrender” posture with any other configuration? Or, even more implausibly, that they might make it up out of whole cloth, right there on the spot?
That’s not to say that this testimony is definitive and removes all doubt. But in conjunction with the audio recordings that strongly suggest an officer “blazing away”, it adds up to a strong and plausible scenario that would require evidence at least that persuasive to rebut it.
Yeah, i read that a couple of weeks ago. It is truly one of the most horrific things i’ve ever read about American law enforcement and criminal justice, and that’s saying something.
Is it possible… now, hang on, this is gonna blow your mind… that those things ALL happened? Like, not all at the same time, but in rapid sequence? And that different witnesses saw different parts of what occurred?
Nah, I know. Cop shot guy, cop is right, dead guy is wrong. Smapti stamp of approval. NEXT!
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There is the forensic evidence that Brown was shot between 5 to 8 times while facing the officer. That casts doubt on eyewitness testimony that Brown was running away when he was killed. Sunny Hostin still says Brown was running away when he was shot???
According to this CNN story, CNN is assuming that this video was taken three minutes after Brown was shot. That should have been easy for CNN to verify because there were now other police vehicles at the scene. When did the 2nd, 3rd, 4th police officers arrive at the scene? If they hadn’t arrive for 5+ minutes, why didn’t CNN do a better job of verifying this video BEFORE they ran this story.
The contractors in the recent video are not from Ferguson.
True dat. Duly noted.
I’d missed it when it came out, so I’m glad the link was posted. And, yeah … holy fucking shit.
Note to self: NEVER go to Ferguson, MO.
Now that I think about it, that town’s name is well and truly tainted.
One could imagine a scenario wherein Brown started running, heard the shots and turned around to surrender and then got shot. The cop was certainly not very close for all of the shooting since many of his shots missed Brown entirely.
*Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson shot Brown in the moments after 12:02 p.m. Aug. 9.
…When the paramedic determined Brown was dead, the care of his body legally transferred to the St. Louis County Medical Examiner. By law, police cannot touch the body. But since most medical examiners won’t set foot in the crime scene until it is processed by police, the fate of Brown’s body was back in police hands.
…But at 12:10 p.m., county police began to flood the scene with cars: By 1 p.m., they had dispatched more than a dozen units, according to the county log. By 2 p.m., a dozen more, including two with police dogs.
And the scene was about to get much more turbulent.
At 2:11 p.m., Ferguson police logs captured reports of shots fired. At 2:14 p.m., ambulance dispatch noted additional gunshots, then a Code 1000, calling all available jurisdictions to help. Over the next 20 minutes, the first precinct dispatched more than 20 units from at least eight different municipal forces, from Bel-Ridge to St. John to Velda City.
At some point, Chief Jackson said he urged crime scene detectives to hurry up their work. “We’ve got to expedite,” Jackson said he told them. “They said, ‘OK, we’re expediting.’ But then we had a shooting over here, crowd’s coming in, and it’s really not secure there.”
About 2:30 p.m., Calvin Whitaker, the livery service driver, arrived to pick up Brown’s body. One end of Canfield was blocked off by police and emergency vehicles. At the other end, a crowd stood in his way. “They were screaming, ‘Let’s kill the police,’” he said. People flung water bottles at his black SUV, he said, cussed at his wife and called them murderers.
A police officer told them to stay in the car. “You guys do not have vests,” he told them. “The best thing for you to do is get down.” Whitaker and his wife reclined their seats and hunkered down.
…Finally, about 4 p.m., police officers gave the medical examiner investigator, then Whitaker and his wife, the go-ahead to take Brown’s body to the morgue.*
Brown was shot, a mob formed, some people in the mob were saying, “Kill the police”, police backup was requested to secure the scene, the St. Louis County Medical Examiner will not work an unsecured crime scene and they certainly won’t work a crime scene where there are active shooters, finally, at about 4 p.m. police officers gave the medical examiner investigator the go-ahead to take Brown’s body to the morgue.
It appears that it took 4hrs to remove Brown’s body because the mob created a situation that prevented the Medical Examiner from doing his job.
Missouri cops again.
Son Of Police Officer In Coma After 50,000-Volt Tasing For Traffic Stop
Cops and witnesses disagree. Surprise, surprise.
Sounds like it wasn’t really the tasing that caused the coma, but getting his head slammed to the pavement by the cop after the electric jolt.
From today’s Washington Post:
That’s not the worst thing. The worst thing is it looks like they’re going to whitewash Darren Wilson’s grand jury. The prosecutor hasn’t recommended any charges to the grand jury, he’s just haphazardly presenting evidence including the highly unusual step of letting Wilson, the TARGET, testify for reportedly four hours. It looks like the state attorney is setting up a non-indictment decision so he can then say, “hey, I did all I could”.
God knows what’ll happen in Ferguson if it turns out like that.
Could you please give us the details of the prosecutor’s presentation, and exactly how you know that it is an attempt at a whitewash?
Regards,
Shodan
If you’re getting insider information about what is happening during this Grand Jury, it looks like this Grand Jury will have to be dismissed and another Grand Jury convened. IF.
One, the unusual step in presenting to a grand jury instead of the way St. Louis USUALLY charges defendants via a criminal complaint. Two, the unusual step in allowing the target of the investigation to testify in front of the GJ. Three, the prosecutor is reportedly not offering charging recommendations to the GJ but is only haphazardly presenting evidence.
It looks like a “cya” move. The prosecutor wants to be able to say he did all he could while NOT charging Wilson.
Oh, and the fact that cops are having strategy meetings on how to handle riots if Wilson is not indicated
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There is nothing unusual about a prosecutor submitting a case to a Grand Jury. It’s an accepted part of the legal system.
The prosecutor can present any evidence to the Grand Jury that may help in the finding of fact. You know, what the Grand Jury was actually created to do.
“Reportedly” not offering charging recommendations? Reported by whom? If someone is leaking information, they’re going to have to start from the beginning.
It is HIGHLY unusual in the Ferguson jurisdiction.
Here’s the cite . . . cite
Those utter bastards, making sure the decision is made in a transparent manner by people who’ve seen all the evidence. RACISM! EVIL!