Ferguson, MO

Just so I understand, the theory goes that he robbed a store, and then some short time later is walking casually down the street, obnoxiously impeding a police officer who has to yell at them to get on the sidewalk. And after refusing this order, approaches the officer and something something.

Wouldn’t normal human behavior be to avoid law enforcement when one is on the lam? I can understand not taking off in a sprint, which might arouse suspicion, but Id at least get up on the sidewalk and keep my head down. Something doesn’t add up here, certainly not to the point where you can start claiming Occam’s razor leads to an obvious conclusion.

Like, you’d think he’d not want to provoke a cop by refusing to move out of the way, right?

No, but it might play a role in supporting the claim that Brown got into a scuffle and went for the officer’s gun.

How the fuck is anyone going to think they can reach across a police officer seated in a car and grab his gun.

My vote is the cop tried to draw with his finger on the holster of his Glock, and the butt got caught up in his gear which caused him to pull the trigger.

The cigar of choice around here for rolling joints is Black and Mild. A very skinny cigar. No I don’t know why. Back when I allegedly may have known about such things rolling papers were used. But tobacco wraps have the added bonus of lung and mouth cancer so they got that going for them.

And yet apparently he did, by the interview testimony of the guy who was with him.

From all the different actions of Michael Brown that are being revealed, it doesn’t seem like he was the brightest of the bulbs.

I understand what you’re saying, and I’m pretending like I’m sitting on a jury listening to someone make that argument, and all it’s doing is confusing me. Why would he so nonchalantly put himself at risk of arrest and then suddenly do a complete 180 and try to kill a cop to avoid… arrest.

But he was going to COLLEGE!

The video shows Brown doing to the shopkeeper what the cop said Brown did to him. The shopkeeper confronted Brown about stealing stuff, and Brown shoved him out of the way. The cop confronted Brown about jaywalking, and the cop says Brown shoved him back into the car.

If you want to argue that normal human behaviour would be to avoid law enforcement, wouldn’t that start by not committing a highly visible, completely pointless crime like jaywalking?

Not doing what he was doing, he wasn’t.

Why in the Hell would they release the officer’s name? I can’t imagine a single reason why that would be a good idea.

Yes, exactly! Unless he didn’t view the robbery as a big deal, and wasn’t so concerned about getting arrested that he was willing to steal a cop’s gun to presumably commit murder over it.

Jaywalking in front of a cop is not the sort of behavior you’d expect from someone who’s willing to murder cops to avoid jail.

Let’s just assume for this post that Brown really did scuffle with the officer for his gun. What reasons would Brown have for doing that if not to avoid an arrest?

More likely than someone sitting in a car being able to reach up and grab the throat of a 6-4 man totally out of the blue. Even if he was Officer Reed Richards and could physically do that who grabs a giant unprovoked? Remember this is an officer in a busy jurisdiction that has zero complaints of excessive force against him.

I heard it was Trade School. No cite, just overheard it in one of the press conferences today.

Not that it matters too much. Now especially.

Seriously? College is a hotbed of illegal, immoral, and frankly stupid activities. Some even committed by whites!

Sunshine Law. The only way they could refuse to do so would be if a court approved non-disclosure. Court probably didn’t. http://ago.mo.gov/sunshinelaw/faqs.htm#Q4a

Right, exactly. So doesn’t that tell us something about his frame of mind? He may have been acting like a hooligan who just grabbed a couple of packs of smokes without paying, he’s certainly not acting like a grown man trying to avoid a felony conviction. The whole, “He assaulted a cop because he knew he’d just committed a violent robbery” angle just doesn’t jive with the casual jackass jaywalker.

Well, unless the prison to which he was going had some kind of college courses… Probably no college for him in the near future.