Police just executed an unarmed 17 yr old brotha (shot 10 times)
- Thread starter Llano
- Start date
No justice No football ! Anonymous is going to dump everyone's credit or debit card info online that buys a ticket, hotdog, etc at the St Louis Rams game vs Tampa Bay...unless they arrest officer Darren Wilson
They've warned everyone do not attend or use cash, then said we break the law we're cyber criminals ask people who attended the Formula One race in Bahrain
Well damn, that would be a yes then...lol... It doesn't seem like it's the same person composing tweets as it was in the beginning, tone & style seems different.
Sent from my BNTV600 using Tapatalk
I've wanted something like this for a minute...good!!!
Lets use the technology and hacking for something REAL...not just nude pics of B list celebs
The link won't work.
"Politions fucking hookers, why you mad at my ganja"
"They" worried about nonviolent people and people getting high when they should be worried about the people bringing the shit into the states...but those people aren't BLACK. If they were black, you besta believe they'd be trying to lynch his ass.
But yet you have this criminal ass murdering ass white boy that can gun down a defenseless child and he's still walking the streets all the while Mike Brown isn't alive to hug and kiss his mama goodbye(or the countless black brothers and sisters that have been gunned down/murdered by white officers that are scared of the BLACK MAN)...
"They" worried about nonviolent people and people getting high when they should be worried about the people bringing the shit into the states...but those people aren't BLACK. If they were black, you besta believe they'd be trying to lynch his ass.
But yet you have this criminal ass murdering ass white boy that can gun down a defenseless child and he's still walking the streets all the while Mike Brown isn't alive to hug and kiss his mama goodbye(or the countless black brothers and sisters that have been gunned down/murdered by white officers that are scared of the BLACK MAN)...
Folks having fun with this shit...
"THIS SO REAL!!!! “@JennLi123: White opinions bingo on #ferguson Lol. Sad but true #racism"
Every square on that board would be covered
I’m just out here working hard every single day, just trying to be the best poster I can be....
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>746 of us have joined together in a private justice team. We start our work tomorrow. JOIN US NOW @ <a href="https://t.co/jpynkiTMHz">https://t.co/jpynkiTMHz</a></p>— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/511298226197389313">September 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
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ros. McCulloch, VP of Backstoppers, selling T-Shirts raising funds for D. Wilson = COI
The legal reason why it matters if Mike Brown was shot with his hands up
Updated by Dara Lind on September 11, 2014, 12:50 p.m. ET
Available eyewitness accounts of the killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson are pretty consistent on a crucial detail: after Wilson started to fire, Brown turned toward him with his hands up. The officer continued to shoot until Brown fell to the ground.
Wilson's full version of events is still unclear. The day after the shooting, St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar relayed Wilson's description of the incident only up to the point that Wilson started shooting. We don't know exactly what Wilson told investigators Brown was doing immediately before the officer fired the final shots. And in the eyes of the law, that missing piece might be the most important part of the story.
The law allows a cop to shoot someone if the cop has a reasonable belief that his life is in danger or that the victim is a felon. But the officer is required to show that his actions were justified every single time he pulled the trigger, not just the first time. According to an independent autopsy report, Brown was shot at least six times.
As I wrote shortly after Brown was shot:
[E]ach use of deadly force does have to be evaluated separately to determine if it was justified. "The moment that you no longer present a threat, I need to stop shooting," said (University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist David) Klinger. According to the St. Louis County Police Department's account, Wilson fired one shot from inside the police car. But Brown was killed some 25 feet away, after several shots had been fired. To justify the shooting, Wilson would need to demonstrate that he feared for his life not just when Brown was by the car, but even after he started shooting. The officer would need to establish that, right up until the last shot was fired, he felt Brown continued to pose a threat to him whether he actually was or not.
"There's a difference between the moment you cease to be a threat and the moment I perceive that you ceased to be a threat," says Klinger. And (police oversight attorney Walter) Katz points out that if an officer has been assaulted and the suspect runs away, the officer's threat assessment is probably going to be shaped by having just been assaulted. But, Katz says, "one can't just say, 'Because I could use deadly force ten seconds ago, that means I can use deadly force again now.'"
Wilson could make the case that he felt that Brown was a threat when Brown turned around — an unverified source purporting to be a friend of Wilson's told a conservative radio show that Wilson said Brown was charging at him. But in order for Brown's killing to be found "justifiable" in the eyes of the law, Wilson is going to have to make the case that he felt he was under threat when he shot a teenager who witnesses say was facing him with his arms raised. And the grand jury is going to have to decide that it was reasonable for him to feel that way.
Updated by Dara Lind on September 11, 2014, 12:50 p.m. ET
Available eyewitness accounts of the killing of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson are pretty consistent on a crucial detail: after Wilson started to fire, Brown turned toward him with his hands up. The officer continued to shoot until Brown fell to the ground.
Wilson's full version of events is still unclear. The day after the shooting, St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar relayed Wilson's description of the incident only up to the point that Wilson started shooting. We don't know exactly what Wilson told investigators Brown was doing immediately before the officer fired the final shots. And in the eyes of the law, that missing piece might be the most important part of the story.
The law allows a cop to shoot someone if the cop has a reasonable belief that his life is in danger or that the victim is a felon. But the officer is required to show that his actions were justified every single time he pulled the trigger, not just the first time. According to an independent autopsy report, Brown was shot at least six times.
As I wrote shortly after Brown was shot:
[E]ach use of deadly force does have to be evaluated separately to determine if it was justified. "The moment that you no longer present a threat, I need to stop shooting," said (University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist David) Klinger. According to the St. Louis County Police Department's account, Wilson fired one shot from inside the police car. But Brown was killed some 25 feet away, after several shots had been fired. To justify the shooting, Wilson would need to demonstrate that he feared for his life not just when Brown was by the car, but even after he started shooting. The officer would need to establish that, right up until the last shot was fired, he felt Brown continued to pose a threat to him whether he actually was or not.
"There's a difference between the moment you cease to be a threat and the moment I perceive that you ceased to be a threat," says Klinger. And (police oversight attorney Walter) Katz points out that if an officer has been assaulted and the suspect runs away, the officer's threat assessment is probably going to be shaped by having just been assaulted. But, Katz says, "one can't just say, 'Because I could use deadly force ten seconds ago, that means I can use deadly force again now.'"
Wilson could make the case that he felt that Brown was a threat when Brown turned around — an unverified source purporting to be a friend of Wilson's told a conservative radio show that Wilson said Brown was charging at him. But in order for Brown's killing to be found "justifiable" in the eyes of the law, Wilson is going to have to make the case that he felt he was under threat when he shot a teenager who witnesses say was facing him with his arms raised. And the grand jury is going to have to decide that it was reasonable for him to feel that way.
So the 2 construction workers say their was 2 police officers there. If they saw the whole thing, they must have been there waiting for it to happen. Was it an initiation or some kind of a test. Why was officer Darren in that area at that time? And the 2 officers why were they there at that time?
http://oneblacknation.webs.com/
http://blacknation.vpweb.com/default.html
http://oneblacknation.webs.com/
http://blacknation.vpweb.com/default.html
Sorry. It was just an article with new DOJ guidelines for police cameras.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The St. Louis County grand jury considering whether to charge Darren Wilson now has until January 7: <a href="http://t.co/P6vEWcCmls">http://t.co/P6vEWcCmls</a></p>— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery/status/511669124700061696">September 16, 2014</a></blockquote>
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My entire life has just changed.
The article doesn't say it will take that long, just that they have that long if they need it. I don't know if it is a good or bad thing. They aren't sequestered, and more truth has been coming out (construction workers etc). I'm not convinced that justice will be served in this case, but the fallout: bringing attention to police brutality, GOTV efforts, communities being reengaged in political and social activism, police officers having to wear cameras, etc, maybe some good will come out of this tragedy and maybe it can prevent the next one.
No Incident Report? Then Where’s Use of Force Report? More Violations from Ferguson
Everyone who is paying attention to the incident in which Mike Brown was gunned down in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri by Officer Darren Wilson is aware that there is no actual “Incident Report” in existence. Well, more specifically, a week after the ACLU requested the report and was told that there was a report but it was being withheld because it was exempt from the Sunshine Law, they produced “an” Incident Report that had no useful information in it.
What we now can state firmly in addition to this is that Ferguson Police also do not have a Use of Force Report that their policies required to be produced – not by Officer Wilson but by the Watch Commander on duty that day.
Ferguson is deliberately violating both the laws and its own policies to prevent any information from being produced and made public that could be used to hold Officer Wilson to account for his actions. This is a serious problem of cover up, abuse of authority, and contempt of the law by both the Ferguson and St. Louis County Police Departments. Given the evidence there is ample reason for the public to have little, or no, confidence or trust in either of these agencies.
[FERGUSON POLICE POLICY ON USE OF FORCE]:
I have detailed the story of how that document was created after and upon a request I made – along with 160 others – challenging the claim that this was exempt under the public records law. It clearly was not. So the St. Louis County Police Department created one almost two weeks after the incident and a day after my request.
It was then produced the day after that – to the amazement of all who looked at it. It contained nothing but the date, time and location of the incident.
Following their lead the Ferguson Police Department then produced a similar document alleging to be the required Incident Report.
But there were other records required to have been produced in this incident that should provide more information as to the facts of those events and that the public has a right to access. In particular a required Use of Force Report – specifically referred in Ferguson Police Policy on the Use of Force as an F-080 report.
Not having yet received the Ferguson Use of Force Policy but armed with their Police Report Procedures – a policy I also had obtained under the state’s Sunshine (public records) Law – I asked for all statements or reports pertaining to the use of force by Officer Wilson. 406.02 (A) 3 clearly states that when there is a “use of force” the officer is required to file a report. [See the Policy linked in this story below]
[AUGUST 23rd PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST: USE OF FORCE STATEMENTS]
I made a request for that report on August 23rd and that same day received an email from Stephanie Kerr. Kerr, a private attorney with the firm of Curtis, Heinz, Garrett and O’Keefe, has been contracted by the City of Ferguson to provide them the services of the City Attorney. City Attorneys are not attorneys that represent the City in a lawsuit – but who advise the City on how to be in full and faithful compliance with the law in all their activities. Kerr responded to this request with the following statement:
“The Incident Report has previously been provided to you. The City of Ferguson has no other documents which are responsive to your request.”
[AUGUST 23rd RESPONSE: NO USE OF FORCE STATEMENTS EXIST]
But the Incident Report referenced here, in addition to its not meeting the legal definition of such or being in compliance with the requirements established in the Report policy, was not what was requested. What was clearly requested were all use of force statements – also required by that policy.
[FERGUSON POLICE POLICY ON REQUIRED REPORTS]
The response was thus stating that the Department was not following that policy not just with regard to Incident Reports but also with regard to Use of Force statements. I had also requested, again under the public records law, the Departments Use of Force Policies. I received them and read what they contained. [See Policy linked above]
Sure enough there was an explicit policy that required that not just Officer Wilson, but because he used deadly force causing injury, that the Watch Commander on the date of the shooting produce an F 080 Report for that Use of Force.
Perhaps, I surmised, they did not provide this to me in the first request because I did not specifically ask for this report – it should have covered all such reports, as I did not confine it to reports filed by Wislon, but perhaps they misunderstood.
[AUGUST 28th PUBLIC RECORDS REQEUST: F 080 REPORT ON USE OF LETHAL FORCE RESULTING IN WOUNDS]
So on August 28th I followed up again. This time I specifically requested the F 080 Report.
410.05 of that policy sets out the procedures required to be followed whenever an officer uses “lethal force.” In particular, under that chapter, section D sets out “Procedures to be Followed When a Firearm is Discharged (Gunshot Wound Inflicted).”
Under that section part 4 states:
4. The watch commander will complete the Use of Force Report F-080 and forward it through the chain of command to the Chief.
This puts an explicit obligation on the “watch commander” – not just the other requirements of Officer Wilson to file reports – to complete an explicitly defined Report – the F-080 Report – and that this report will go up through the chain of command all the way “to the Chief.”
If this policy was not fully and faithfully followed this implicates – beyond the issue of Officer Wilson and the Incident Report – Wilson’s superior officers, from the Watch Commander all the way through the Chief, in wrongdoing.
Thus if the Department were following its procedures fully and faithfully there should be an F 080 Report. Filled out by the Watch Commander. And received by the Chief.
But today, August 29th, I received a response to my second follow up request – specifically seeking any F 080 Report prescribed under that policy.
[AUGUST 29th RESPONSE: No F 080 REPORT EXISTS]
This was the response I received:
“The City of Ferguson has no ‘Use of Force Report’ relating to the Michael Brown shooting; therefore there are no documents which are responsive to this request.”
In this case the absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Absence of routinely produced and explicitly filed reports that are necessary if the police are to faithfully fulfill their legal obligations to the community.
If anything positive may come from the tragedy of this event, perhaps it may be a wider knowledge and understading in the public of their right to obtain public records from their public agencies and officials. And a recognition of the immense power these laws – if respected by officials and enforced under the law – provide to citizens seeking to hold public officials and agencies to account under those same laws they are entrusted to enforce.
For even the response that there is no record as requested provides evidence. It is an answer to the question, in this case, did the Ferguson Police Department, including the Chief of Police , follow the law and the Department’s policies?
The answer is now clear.
The Chief, the Watch Commander, others in the department, and Officer Wilson do not believe they are subject to the law.
They have, at best, some different set of laws or standard of law that they believe they must obey – just not the laws on the books. Not even their own Departmental policies are binding according to their actions.
This leaves us without any knowledge of just what occurred on the day of the fatal shooting of Mike Brown. It suspiciously allows Officer Wilson, and the rest of the Ferguson Police Department, to wait until all the evidence against Wilson is discovered and collected, and afterwards to write reports that will neatly fit the evidence. Rather than to have those required reports serve in the evidentiary capacity that they were intended.
But the absence of records and reports does not leave us entirely in the dark.
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.
Everyone who is paying attention to the incident in which Mike Brown was gunned down in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri by Officer Darren Wilson is aware that there is no actual “Incident Report” in existence. Well, more specifically, a week after the ACLU requested the report and was told that there was a report but it was being withheld because it was exempt from the Sunshine Law, they produced “an” Incident Report that had no useful information in it.
What we now can state firmly in addition to this is that Ferguson Police also do not have a Use of Force Report that their policies required to be produced – not by Officer Wilson but by the Watch Commander on duty that day.
Ferguson is deliberately violating both the laws and its own policies to prevent any information from being produced and made public that could be used to hold Officer Wilson to account for his actions. This is a serious problem of cover up, abuse of authority, and contempt of the law by both the Ferguson and St. Louis County Police Departments. Given the evidence there is ample reason for the public to have little, or no, confidence or trust in either of these agencies.
[FERGUSON POLICE POLICY ON USE OF FORCE]:
I have detailed the story of how that document was created after and upon a request I made – along with 160 others – challenging the claim that this was exempt under the public records law. It clearly was not. So the St. Louis County Police Department created one almost two weeks after the incident and a day after my request.
It was then produced the day after that – to the amazement of all who looked at it. It contained nothing but the date, time and location of the incident.
Following their lead the Ferguson Police Department then produced a similar document alleging to be the required Incident Report.
But there were other records required to have been produced in this incident that should provide more information as to the facts of those events and that the public has a right to access. In particular a required Use of Force Report – specifically referred in Ferguson Police Policy on the Use of Force as an F-080 report.
Not having yet received the Ferguson Use of Force Policy but armed with their Police Report Procedures – a policy I also had obtained under the state’s Sunshine (public records) Law – I asked for all statements or reports pertaining to the use of force by Officer Wilson. 406.02 (A) 3 clearly states that when there is a “use of force” the officer is required to file a report. [See the Policy linked in this story below]
[AUGUST 23rd PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST: USE OF FORCE STATEMENTS]
I made a request for that report on August 23rd and that same day received an email from Stephanie Kerr. Kerr, a private attorney with the firm of Curtis, Heinz, Garrett and O’Keefe, has been contracted by the City of Ferguson to provide them the services of the City Attorney. City Attorneys are not attorneys that represent the City in a lawsuit – but who advise the City on how to be in full and faithful compliance with the law in all their activities. Kerr responded to this request with the following statement:
“The Incident Report has previously been provided to you. The City of Ferguson has no other documents which are responsive to your request.”
[AUGUST 23rd RESPONSE: NO USE OF FORCE STATEMENTS EXIST]
But the Incident Report referenced here, in addition to its not meeting the legal definition of such or being in compliance with the requirements established in the Report policy, was not what was requested. What was clearly requested were all use of force statements – also required by that policy.
[FERGUSON POLICE POLICY ON REQUIRED REPORTS]
The response was thus stating that the Department was not following that policy not just with regard to Incident Reports but also with regard to Use of Force statements. I had also requested, again under the public records law, the Departments Use of Force Policies. I received them and read what they contained. [See Policy linked above]
Sure enough there was an explicit policy that required that not just Officer Wilson, but because he used deadly force causing injury, that the Watch Commander on the date of the shooting produce an F 080 Report for that Use of Force.
Perhaps, I surmised, they did not provide this to me in the first request because I did not specifically ask for this report – it should have covered all such reports, as I did not confine it to reports filed by Wislon, but perhaps they misunderstood.
[AUGUST 28th PUBLIC RECORDS REQEUST: F 080 REPORT ON USE OF LETHAL FORCE RESULTING IN WOUNDS]
So on August 28th I followed up again. This time I specifically requested the F 080 Report.
410.05 of that policy sets out the procedures required to be followed whenever an officer uses “lethal force.” In particular, under that chapter, section D sets out “Procedures to be Followed When a Firearm is Discharged (Gunshot Wound Inflicted).”
Under that section part 4 states:
4. The watch commander will complete the Use of Force Report F-080 and forward it through the chain of command to the Chief.
This puts an explicit obligation on the “watch commander” – not just the other requirements of Officer Wilson to file reports – to complete an explicitly defined Report – the F-080 Report – and that this report will go up through the chain of command all the way “to the Chief.”
If this policy was not fully and faithfully followed this implicates – beyond the issue of Officer Wilson and the Incident Report – Wilson’s superior officers, from the Watch Commander all the way through the Chief, in wrongdoing.
Thus if the Department were following its procedures fully and faithfully there should be an F 080 Report. Filled out by the Watch Commander. And received by the Chief.
But today, August 29th, I received a response to my second follow up request – specifically seeking any F 080 Report prescribed under that policy.
[AUGUST 29th RESPONSE: No F 080 REPORT EXISTS]
This was the response I received:
“The City of Ferguson has no ‘Use of Force Report’ relating to the Michael Brown shooting; therefore there are no documents which are responsive to this request.”
In this case the absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Absence of routinely produced and explicitly filed reports that are necessary if the police are to faithfully fulfill their legal obligations to the community.
If anything positive may come from the tragedy of this event, perhaps it may be a wider knowledge and understading in the public of their right to obtain public records from their public agencies and officials. And a recognition of the immense power these laws – if respected by officials and enforced under the law – provide to citizens seeking to hold public officials and agencies to account under those same laws they are entrusted to enforce.
For even the response that there is no record as requested provides evidence. It is an answer to the question, in this case, did the Ferguson Police Department, including the Chief of Police , follow the law and the Department’s policies?
The answer is now clear.
The Chief, the Watch Commander, others in the department, and Officer Wilson do not believe they are subject to the law.
They have, at best, some different set of laws or standard of law that they believe they must obey – just not the laws on the books. Not even their own Departmental policies are binding according to their actions.
This leaves us without any knowledge of just what occurred on the day of the fatal shooting of Mike Brown. It suspiciously allows Officer Wilson, and the rest of the Ferguson Police Department, to wait until all the evidence against Wilson is discovered and collected, and afterwards to write reports that will neatly fit the evidence. Rather than to have those required reports serve in the evidentiary capacity that they were intended.
But the absence of records and reports does not leave us entirely in the dark.
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.
"Anthony Shahid confronts @SteveStenger during STL County Council meeting. #Ferguson"
Everyone is too busy looking side eyed at ray rice and AD. And both issues pit black woman against black men. Domestic violence and child abuse.
"Anthony Shahid confronts @SteveStenger during STL County Council meeting. #Ferguson"
Footage From last night's council meeting
24:00 - "This is like leaving the fox to watch the chickens!"
28:00 - Sharon "Doje" (didn't catch last name) - paraphrase "Back in the day(s of Pruit-Igoe Bob McCulloch) had drug issues"
33:00 - "Everybody in this room knows Bob McCullah is a racist...I pulled children out of tear gas, and it was on YOUR WATCH, and you're going to answer for that!!!"
34:00 - "We demand that by 12 noon that you denounce your buddy Bob McCulloch, have him step down, because it is the right thing to do!!!"
39:00 - Let it be a blessing that this case got moved to january because that gives us more time to organize!!"
Last edited:
Same old tactic. They're afraid of black unification (which seems to be increasing).
St. Louis Prosecutor Has All Evidence He Needs to Indict Officer Wilson for Brown Killing
http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/09...ce-needs-indict-officer-wilson-brown-killing/
If St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch is really interested in indicting police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown, it appears the prosecutor now has all the evidence he needs.
The grand jury has heard the testimony of two white construction workers who witnessed the shooting, but there is also video footage that powerfully backs up their account of Wilson shooting Brown while his hands were up in surrender. Combined with the eyewitness accounts of Ferguson residents who live on the street where the shooting occurred in the middle of the afternoon, there seems to be a clear account of what Wilson did and what Brown did in response.
Since experts say a prosecutor holds a huge amount of sway over a grand jury and can usually get an indictment if he wants one, the main question now is whether McCulloch—whose own father was a police officer slain in the line of duty when McCulloch was 12 years old—really wants one. Does he want to endanger his relationship with the police officers on whom he relies heavily to arrest suspects, conduct investigations, and gather evidence for the cases he must prosecute?
While there has been significant attention paid to the lack of racial diversity in smaller police forces like Ferguson’s—a New York Times study found that there are at least 400 towns across America where a predominantly white police force is patrolling an overwhelmingly Black town—there also is a severe lack of diversity among prosecutors’ offices. A study conducted in California found that while 60 percent of defendants were nonwhite, 80 percent of prosecutors and judges were white.
The numbers likely aren’t much different outside of California.
So when the decisions are made about whether to indict Black men on criminal charges or what charges to seek—or whether to indict a white cop for killing a Black man—there are usually very few African Americans in the room.
A video acquired by CNN captured the reactions of the two white construction workers right after Wilson shot the teen.
“He had his f**n hands up,” one of the men says in the video, while raising his hands to demonstrate.
In an interview with CNN, the white construction worker said he heard one gunshot, then another shot about 30 seconds later.
“The cop didn’t say get on the ground. He just kept shooting,” the witness said.
The witness said he saw Brown’s “brains come out of his head,” again stating, “his hands were up.”
The other contractor told CNN he saw Brown running away from a police car.
Brown “put his hands up,” the construction worker said, and “the officer was chasing him.”
According to the witness, he saw Wilson fire a shot at Brown while his back was turned.
Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for Brown’s family, told the Guardian the video was “of paramount significance.”
“Not because they were not residents of Ferguson, and not because the construction workers were caucasian, but because it is a contemporaneous recording of their immediate actions of what they had just witnessed,” Crump said. “It’s the best evidence you can have other than a video of the actual shooting itself.”
http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/09...ce-needs-indict-officer-wilson-brown-killing/
If St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch is really interested in indicting police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown, it appears the prosecutor now has all the evidence he needs.
The grand jury has heard the testimony of two white construction workers who witnessed the shooting, but there is also video footage that powerfully backs up their account of Wilson shooting Brown while his hands were up in surrender. Combined with the eyewitness accounts of Ferguson residents who live on the street where the shooting occurred in the middle of the afternoon, there seems to be a clear account of what Wilson did and what Brown did in response.
Since experts say a prosecutor holds a huge amount of sway over a grand jury and can usually get an indictment if he wants one, the main question now is whether McCulloch—whose own father was a police officer slain in the line of duty when McCulloch was 12 years old—really wants one. Does he want to endanger his relationship with the police officers on whom he relies heavily to arrest suspects, conduct investigations, and gather evidence for the cases he must prosecute?
While there has been significant attention paid to the lack of racial diversity in smaller police forces like Ferguson’s—a New York Times study found that there are at least 400 towns across America where a predominantly white police force is patrolling an overwhelmingly Black town—there also is a severe lack of diversity among prosecutors’ offices. A study conducted in California found that while 60 percent of defendants were nonwhite, 80 percent of prosecutors and judges were white.
The numbers likely aren’t much different outside of California.
So when the decisions are made about whether to indict Black men on criminal charges or what charges to seek—or whether to indict a white cop for killing a Black man—there are usually very few African Americans in the room.
A video acquired by CNN captured the reactions of the two white construction workers right after Wilson shot the teen.
“He had his f**n hands up,” one of the men says in the video, while raising his hands to demonstrate.
In an interview with CNN, the white construction worker said he heard one gunshot, then another shot about 30 seconds later.
“The cop didn’t say get on the ground. He just kept shooting,” the witness said.
The witness said he saw Brown’s “brains come out of his head,” again stating, “his hands were up.”
The other contractor told CNN he saw Brown running away from a police car.
Brown “put his hands up,” the construction worker said, and “the officer was chasing him.”
According to the witness, he saw Wilson fire a shot at Brown while his back was turned.
Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for Brown’s family, told the Guardian the video was “of paramount significance.”
“Not because they were not residents of Ferguson, and not because the construction workers were caucasian, but because it is a contemporaneous recording of their immediate actions of what they had just witnessed,” Crump said. “It’s the best evidence you can have other than a video of the actual shooting itself.”
