@055Douglas @Styles_Zee @YourAnonNews @FOX2now Me to, but it looks like he's leaving town b4 the sh-- hits the fan
Police just executed an unarmed 17 yr old brotha (shot 10 times)
- Thread starter Llano
- Start date
Random stuff from the past few days:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FergusonToGeneva?src=hash">#FergusonToGeneva</a> <a href="http://t.co/KajPcsFE73">http://t.co/KajPcsFE73</a>. Read the report. Donate to get the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash">#Ferguson</a> contingent to Geneva 11/8-11/15.</p>— Charles Wade (@akacharleswade) <a href="https://twitter.com/akacharleswade/status/527489378969726977">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Many thanks again to <a href="https://twitter.com/stop1033">@stop1033</a> for the great website for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FergusonToGeneva?src=hash">#FergusonToGeneva</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ferguson_geneva">@ferguson_geneva</a> <a href="http://t.co/KajPcsFE73">http://t.co/KajPcsFE73</a> <a href="http://t.co/uOVlZ1T5h7">pic.twitter.com/uOVlZ1T5h7</a></p>— Charles Wade (@akacharleswade) <a href="https://twitter.com/akacharleswade/status/527490865770795008">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last week, we wrote about the fact that the U.S. government doesn’t track how many people are killed by the police. The FBI tracks “justifiable” police homicides, which it reports to be about 400 per year, but that tally is an undercount.
Given this vacuum, attention has recently turned to some excellent nongovernmental attempts to compile this data, including the Fatal Encounters database, the recently created Gun Violence Archive and a new database created by Deadspin.
But one recent effort stood out for its apparent comprehensiveness: The Killed By Police Facebook page, which aggregates links to news articles on police-related killings and keeps a running tally on the number of victims. The creator of the page does not seek to determine whether police killings are justifiable; each post “merely documents the occurrence of a death.” He told FiveThirtyEight that he was an instructor on nonviolent physical-intervention techniques and that he prefers to remain anonymous.
Killed by Police had listed more than 1,450 deaths caused by law-enforcement officers since its launch, on May 1, 2013, through Sunday. That works out to about three per day, or 1,100 a year.
The page doesn’t claim that this is a comprehensive count, but it could be useful — like the count from the FBI’s annual Supplementary Homicide Report is useful — for setting a baseline number of police killings, as long as important caveats are acknowledged. For one, any database drawn from news sites relies on the assumption that the reports are accurate. If there is follow-up reporting that changes the initial understanding of the killing (for example, if it was later determined that a suspect committed suicide during a shoot-out with police), that follow-up wouldn’t necessarily be reflected in the Killed By Police tally. Finally — and most important — we can’t trust the Killed By Police numbers without checking the links.
We randomly sampled 146 incidents (10 percent) from the news links posted to Killed By Police. All the posts linked to established outlets, although in some cases a new url for the article had to be found because the news site had restructured its links. Here’s a breakdown of these incidents:
124 incidents (85 percent) were clear-cut police shootings in which the victims were fatally shot by officers acting in the line of duty. “Line of duty” doesn’t necessarily mean “justifiable,” but it’s an important distinction because it excludes some incidents, such as one in which an off-duty officer shot and killed a friend during a bar fight and was subsequently charged with criminal homicide. This count does include a few cases of off-duty officers using deadly force while acting in a law-enforcement capacity.
12 incidents (8 percent) were other cases of arrest-related deaths in which the victims died after being Tasered or otherwise restrained by law enforcement officers. These incidents are more complicated than shootings; the exact cause of death is harder to pin down. In some cases, a victim’s preexisting health issues are blamed.
10 incidents (7 percent) were killings by police officers acting outside the line of duty or accidental deaths. Examples include an officer who killed two women in a drunken-driving accident, a murder-suicide in which an officer killed his ex-wife, and a woman killed in a collision with a police SUV that was pursuing a suspect. These are all newsworthy deaths, but they aren’t examples of the use of deadly force by police officers in the line of duty. We wouldn’t necessarily expect a comprehensive governmental database of police killings to include them.
By the narrowest measure possible — in which we give police every benefit of the “cause of death” doubt in incidents where they Tasered or restrained suspects – 85 percent of the sampled incidents were the sort of police killings the government might be expected to keep track of. If we include other arrest-related deaths (and they’re included in Bureau of Justice figures), then 93 percent of incidents qualified as police killings.
Applying these percentages to the total count at Killed By Police would imply that officers acting in the line of duty have killed in the neighborhood of 1,250 to 1,350 people since May 1, 2013. That’s about 1,000 deaths per year.
This estimate isn’t directly comparable to the FBI’s “400 police homicides” count, because that figure is only available through 2012, and the previously mentioned caveats about media-report-driven counts apply.
Nevertheless, it’s a good indication that “400 police homicides” isn’t a useful baseline number for the number of people killed by police each year.
Note: Not all posts are visible on the Killed By Police page because of a Facebook algorithm, but we were able to scrape them. Every link can be found in this spreadsheet.
Nice article on the reporting of the local protesters:
http://themissouritimes.com/14534/eyes-new-media-old-media-ferguson/
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Need more proof that this Grand Jury is a sham? Bob McCulloch needs to be disbarred. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash">#Ferguson</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MikeBrown?src=hash">#MikeBrown</a> <a href="http://t.co/sj3jLcIrxW">pic.twitter.com/sj3jLcIrxW</a></p>— Delonte (@mettawordlife83) <a href="https://twitter.com/mettawordlife83/status/526766676311019520">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Powerful mural by <a href="https://twitter.com/Iamwetpaint">@Iamwetpaint</a> depicts mothers of police brutality victims. <a href="http://t.co/yVtW1pfcAS">http://t.co/yVtW1pfcAS</a> <a href="http://t.co/7qpp0fNUfe">pic.twitter.com/7qpp0fNUfe</a></p>— aymann.com (@aymanndotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/aymanndotcom/status/527486890623373313">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FergusonToGeneva?src=hash">#FergusonToGeneva</a> <a href="http://t.co/KajPcsFE73">http://t.co/KajPcsFE73</a>. Read the report. Donate to get the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash">#Ferguson</a> contingent to Geneva 11/8-11/15.</p>— Charles Wade (@akacharleswade) <a href="https://twitter.com/akacharleswade/status/527489378969726977">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Many thanks again to <a href="https://twitter.com/stop1033">@stop1033</a> for the great website for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FergusonToGeneva?src=hash">#FergusonToGeneva</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ferguson_geneva">@ferguson_geneva</a> <a href="http://t.co/KajPcsFE73">http://t.co/KajPcsFE73</a> <a href="http://t.co/uOVlZ1T5h7">pic.twitter.com/uOVlZ1T5h7</a></p>— Charles Wade (@akacharleswade) <a href="https://twitter.com/akacharleswade/status/527490865770795008">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/another-much-higher-count-of-police-homicides/ There are embedded links in the article.Last week, we wrote about the fact that the U.S. government doesn’t track how many people are killed by the police. The FBI tracks “justifiable” police homicides, which it reports to be about 400 per year, but that tally is an undercount.
Given this vacuum, attention has recently turned to some excellent nongovernmental attempts to compile this data, including the Fatal Encounters database, the recently created Gun Violence Archive and a new database created by Deadspin.
But one recent effort stood out for its apparent comprehensiveness: The Killed By Police Facebook page, which aggregates links to news articles on police-related killings and keeps a running tally on the number of victims. The creator of the page does not seek to determine whether police killings are justifiable; each post “merely documents the occurrence of a death.” He told FiveThirtyEight that he was an instructor on nonviolent physical-intervention techniques and that he prefers to remain anonymous.
Killed by Police had listed more than 1,450 deaths caused by law-enforcement officers since its launch, on May 1, 2013, through Sunday. That works out to about three per day, or 1,100 a year.
The page doesn’t claim that this is a comprehensive count, but it could be useful — like the count from the FBI’s annual Supplementary Homicide Report is useful — for setting a baseline number of police killings, as long as important caveats are acknowledged. For one, any database drawn from news sites relies on the assumption that the reports are accurate. If there is follow-up reporting that changes the initial understanding of the killing (for example, if it was later determined that a suspect committed suicide during a shoot-out with police), that follow-up wouldn’t necessarily be reflected in the Killed By Police tally. Finally — and most important — we can’t trust the Killed By Police numbers without checking the links.
We randomly sampled 146 incidents (10 percent) from the news links posted to Killed By Police. All the posts linked to established outlets, although in some cases a new url for the article had to be found because the news site had restructured its links. Here’s a breakdown of these incidents:
124 incidents (85 percent) were clear-cut police shootings in which the victims were fatally shot by officers acting in the line of duty. “Line of duty” doesn’t necessarily mean “justifiable,” but it’s an important distinction because it excludes some incidents, such as one in which an off-duty officer shot and killed a friend during a bar fight and was subsequently charged with criminal homicide. This count does include a few cases of off-duty officers using deadly force while acting in a law-enforcement capacity.
12 incidents (8 percent) were other cases of arrest-related deaths in which the victims died after being Tasered or otherwise restrained by law enforcement officers. These incidents are more complicated than shootings; the exact cause of death is harder to pin down. In some cases, a victim’s preexisting health issues are blamed.
10 incidents (7 percent) were killings by police officers acting outside the line of duty or accidental deaths. Examples include an officer who killed two women in a drunken-driving accident, a murder-suicide in which an officer killed his ex-wife, and a woman killed in a collision with a police SUV that was pursuing a suspect. These are all newsworthy deaths, but they aren’t examples of the use of deadly force by police officers in the line of duty. We wouldn’t necessarily expect a comprehensive governmental database of police killings to include them.
By the narrowest measure possible — in which we give police every benefit of the “cause of death” doubt in incidents where they Tasered or restrained suspects – 85 percent of the sampled incidents were the sort of police killings the government might be expected to keep track of. If we include other arrest-related deaths (and they’re included in Bureau of Justice figures), then 93 percent of incidents qualified as police killings.
Applying these percentages to the total count at Killed By Police would imply that officers acting in the line of duty have killed in the neighborhood of 1,250 to 1,350 people since May 1, 2013. That’s about 1,000 deaths per year.
This estimate isn’t directly comparable to the FBI’s “400 police homicides” count, because that figure is only available through 2012, and the previously mentioned caveats about media-report-driven counts apply.
Nevertheless, it’s a good indication that “400 police homicides” isn’t a useful baseline number for the number of people killed by police each year.
Note: Not all posts are visible on the Killed By Police page because of a Facebook algorithm, but we were able to scrape them. Every link can be found in this spreadsheet.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nice article on the reporting of the local protesters:
http://themissouritimes.com/14534/eyes-new-media-old-media-ferguson/
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Need more proof that this Grand Jury is a sham? Bob McCulloch needs to be disbarred. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash">#Ferguson</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MikeBrown?src=hash">#MikeBrown</a> <a href="http://t.co/sj3jLcIrxW">pic.twitter.com/sj3jLcIrxW</a></p>— Delonte (@mettawordlife83) <a href="https://twitter.com/mettawordlife83/status/526766676311019520">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Powerful mural by <a href="https://twitter.com/Iamwetpaint">@Iamwetpaint</a> depicts mothers of police brutality victims. <a href="http://t.co/yVtW1pfcAS">http://t.co/yVtW1pfcAS</a> <a href="http://t.co/7qpp0fNUfe">pic.twitter.com/7qpp0fNUfe</a></p>— aymann.com (@aymanndotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/aymanndotcom/status/527486890623373313">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The VERY FIRST police report from Ferguson is RELEASED. It contradicts Darren Wilson leaks. <a href="http://t.co/k1d3fNSDEo">http://t.co/k1d3fNSDEo</a> <a href="http://t.co/1fP4lDplvf">pic.twitter.com/1fP4lDplvf</a></p>— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/527540451927408642">October 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Earliest police report from Ferguson is released and conflicts with Darren Wilson's testimony leaks
^^^^^
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Earliest police report from Ferguson is released and conflicts with Darren Wilson's testimony leaks
^^^^^
The entire Ferguson police department needs to be cleaned out and restaffed with people that can handle the responsibility. This chicken shit started shooting during a physical altercation...no attempt to do a take down, taze, or pepper spray. If I shot someone that was running at me, I'd be in jail because that homicide would never be justified.
Just remember you provoked the altercation also...
Tue Oct 28, 2014 at 02:46 PM PDT
What Mike Brown did and did not do inside of the Ferguson convenience store
What Mike Brown did and did not do inside of the Ferguson convenience store
Approximately 15 minutes before he was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, Mike Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson entered a local convenience store, the Ferguson Market. What happened in the store has been subject to much debate and was very much shaped by the initial release of photos and a shortened video of the full 50 seconds Mike Brown and Dorian Johnson were inside of the store. The entire video, which is 1:40 seconds long, synthesizes two different videos together, showing the different camera angles of those 50 seconds.
What follows will be an analysis of the video showing what happened inside of the Ferguson Market and how it has been misrepresented by the Ferguson Police Department—a video, if you remember, that the Department of Justice specifically requested the Ferguson authorities not to release.
Below the fold is the full video, from two different angles, showing the 50 seconds Mike Brown and Dorian Johnson were inside of the Ferguson Market.
At 0:13, Mike Brown enters the store.
The same entry, but from a different angle is shown at 0:29.
At 0:15, Dorian Johnson enters the store.
The same entry, but from a different angle, is shown at 0:31.
At 0:34, a female employee begins to walk toward the counter.
At 0:38, this female employee goes behind the counter.
At 0:43, Mike Brown grabs a box of cigars.
At 0:48, Mike Brown hands the box of cigars to Dorian Johnson.
At 0:53, Mike Brown is seen talking to the employees.
At 0:57, Mike Brown grabs another box of cigars with his left hand and a few packs with his right hand.
At 1:03, Mike Brown puts the box of cigars that he grabbed back onto the counter.
At 1:05, Dorian Johnson is seen putting the box of cigars he was holding back on the counter.
At 1:08, Mike Brown bends over to pick up loose packs of cigars from the ground.
At 1:15, Mike Brown begins to leave the store.
At 1:15, a male employee is seen emerging from behind the counter with keys in his hand.
At 1:21, out of the sight of the camera, the male employee confronts Mike Brown.
At 1:26, the video shows what was actually happening at 1:21 as the employee confronts Mike Brown.
At 1:27, the male employee appears to attempt to impede Mike Brown's exit from the store.
At 1:28, the male employee appears to bump into Mike Brown.
At 1:29, Mike Brown shoves the male employee.
At 1:30, the male employee pulls the door closed.
At 1:32, Mike Brown walks toward the male employee to get him to let go of the door and get out of the way.
At 1:33, Dorian Johnson exits the store.
At 1:35, Mike Brown's left hand is empty and his right hand can be seen with a few loose packs of cigars.
At 1:36, Mike Brown exits the Ferguson Market.
At 1:40, the male employee exits after Mike Brown.
Now, some basic analysis of the video and its characterization following the shooting death of Mike Brown:
1. The police report stated (also in the image above) that Mike Brown stole a box of cigars worth $48.99, but he and Dorian Johnson both put the boxes of cigars back on the counter as seen in 1:03 and 1:05 in the video from the store. Furthermore, at 1:35 in the video, and in the still, Mike Brown is seen with just a few loose cigars.
The image below also shows Mike and Dorian returning the box of cigars stated in the police report.
2. The attorney for the Ferguson Market stated that the store never called the police to report a crime and only gave the video to the police when a search warrant forced them to do so.
3. The Department of Justice explicitly asked the Ferguson police NOT to release the video to the public, but the department did so despite this request.
4. Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson stated that Officer Darren Wilson was unaware of this incident during his confrontation with Mike Brown. He later came out to say that he was unsure if Darren Wilson knew or didn't know.
Originally posted to shaunking on Tue Oct 28, 2014 at 02:46 PM PDT.
Also republished by Daily Kos.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/...f-the-Ferguson-convenience-store?detail=email
Mike Brown didn't steal shit, and was defending himself from unlawful detainment.
Source for Chief Jackson interview: foxnews.com/on-air/hannity…
Source for preliminary investigative details: stltoday.com/online/pdf-aut…
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Sean Hannity interview Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson
Aug 13, 2014
Guests: Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 13, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Controversy continues to swirl in Ferguson, Missouri, tonight around the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot multiple times by a Ferguson City police officer last Saturday. Now, a friend of Michael Brown who says they witnessed the shooting said that he was gunned down in cold blood. Take a look at what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, SHOOTING WITNESS: As he was running, the officer was trying to get out of the car. And once he got out of the car, he pursued my friend, but his weapon was drawn. He didn't see any weapon drawn at him or anything like that, us going for no weapon. His weapon was already drawn when he got out the car. He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot he turned around and put his hands in the air and he started to get down. But the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and he fired several more shots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining me now to give his insight into what happened on that fateful Saturday afternoon, Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson. Mr. Jackson, welcome to the program. Thank you for being with us.
THOMAS JACKSON, FERGUSON, MISSOURI, POLICE CHIEF: Thank you for having me, Sean.
HANNITY: I read your public comments. They differ dramatically from what we just heard, and that is you said in fact the officer was injured, had a facial wound of some kind, and that in fact a struggle ensued over the officer's weapon and a shot was actually fired inside the car. Why is there such a dramatically different story being told here?
JACKSON: Well, Sean, unfortunately we're going to have to wait until all the witnesses have been interviewed and all the forensic evidence has been examined before we're going to have a real, true picture of what happened that day. The people who were there all have different perspectives of what happened. And I know the St. Louis County Police Department's doing a very thorough investigation. They're going to interview everybody. They're going to look at the ballistics. They're going to look at the gunshot wounds. And they're going to come to a conclusion and present their findings to the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. And at that point we will have a final decision.
HANNITY: Well, either a shot was fired inside the police officer's car or it was not. Do we know for a fact --
JACKSON: It was, yes.
HANNITY: That is a fact then. So there was a struggle for the gun.
JACKSON: That is a fact.
HANNITY: Are there witnesses that will say that there was a struggle for the gun?
JACKSON: I can't talk to what the witnesses are going to say. And the reason for that is as soon as this happened I called the county police chief and asked him to take over the scene and the investigation so I could be certain that there was no appearance of impropriety, and I would know that a very thorough and complete investigation would be done and we could get to the truth of what happened.
HANNITY: Can you shed any light on why so many shots were fired?
JACKSON: No, I can't. I don't actually know how many were fired at this time.
HANNITY: Do you suspect, as has been reported, 10 shots or more?
JACKSON: It's possible that that many shots were fired, I don't know.
HANNITY: I assume you found shell casings, you know a certain amount. Do you have a range in which you know?
JACKSON: No, I can't talk to the evidence at all. That's the St. Louis County Police Department's investigation.
HANNITY: I understand that the police officer, there's been a lot of death threats against him, a lot of volatility. You've got the New Black Panther Party, Louis Farrakhan has spoken out, the Reverend Al Sharpton is there. You've had the chanting, have a sign up there, "The only good cop is a dead cop." There's been rioting and looting, et cetera, going on. That has prevented you from releasing the name of the officer. Some have questioned whether the wisdom of that, the public's right to know versus the safety of the officer. You're balancing that?
JACKSON: I am. And that's exactly what we did. You know, we had originally believed we had an obligation to release that information to the public and to the press. But what happened is another officer's name was released as being the officer involved in the shooting. He was not. But his picture was put up on the Internet, his Facebook page was hacked, and death threats started coming in.
So that's when we waived the benefit of releasing the information right now versus the safety to the officer, his family, and his neighbors, and the rest of the police department. So we decided to delay the release of the name.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this one simple question. Based on your preliminary investigation and you speaking with other officers that were on the scene as I understand it, correct?
JACKSON: Yes.
HANNITY: Then are you convinced that the officer involved in the shooting was within department guidelines in protecting himself?
JACKSON: I can't answer that question until I have the final report from the county. I really don't want to say anything that I might know or that I think. When I say something, I want to say what I know.
HANNITY: But you are certain that an altercation occurred and a shot was fired within the car, meaning Mr. Brown was in the car at some point?
JACKSON: He was, he was -- yes.
HANNITY: In other words, he wasn't handcuffed in the car. He went in the car of his own volition.
JACKSON: Yes.
HANNITY: And do you believe there was a struggle for that gun?
JACKSON: That's what the county police chief said in his opening statement. He's the one that took the -- his officers are the ones that took the statement from both the officer and the witnesses.
HANNITY: What about the unrest that has taken place now in your city? Do you believe a lot of the looting and a lot of what has happened is a result of outside agitators, as some have suggested, or do you think this is just a community angry at what happened?
JACKSON: No, it's a lot of outside agitators that are causing the violence. We've had some -- several very peaceful protests. I mean, they're angry. They want -- they have questions they want answers to. And I understand that. I get that.
But we've had -- the community has now stepped up. Once this violence happened, our community leaders, the clergy, some of the activists have stepped forward and said enough is enough, and they're taking the lead on the protest. They're going to continue to protest, but they want it to be peaceful.
HANNITY: All right, chief, thank you so much for your time tonight, and we wish your community the best, really do, in every way.
JACKSON: Thank you very much.
Source for preliminary investigative details: stltoday.com/online/pdf-aut…
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Sean Hannity interview Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson
Aug 13, 2014
Guests: Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," August 13, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Controversy continues to swirl in Ferguson, Missouri, tonight around the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot multiple times by a Ferguson City police officer last Saturday. Now, a friend of Michael Brown who says they witnessed the shooting said that he was gunned down in cold blood. Take a look at what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, SHOOTING WITNESS: As he was running, the officer was trying to get out of the car. And once he got out of the car, he pursued my friend, but his weapon was drawn. He didn't see any weapon drawn at him or anything like that, us going for no weapon. His weapon was already drawn when he got out the car. He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot he turned around and put his hands in the air and he started to get down. But the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and he fired several more shots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Joining me now to give his insight into what happened on that fateful Saturday afternoon, Ferguson City Police Chief Thomas Jackson. Mr. Jackson, welcome to the program. Thank you for being with us.
THOMAS JACKSON, FERGUSON, MISSOURI, POLICE CHIEF: Thank you for having me, Sean.
HANNITY: I read your public comments. They differ dramatically from what we just heard, and that is you said in fact the officer was injured, had a facial wound of some kind, and that in fact a struggle ensued over the officer's weapon and a shot was actually fired inside the car. Why is there such a dramatically different story being told here?
JACKSON: Well, Sean, unfortunately we're going to have to wait until all the witnesses have been interviewed and all the forensic evidence has been examined before we're going to have a real, true picture of what happened that day. The people who were there all have different perspectives of what happened. And I know the St. Louis County Police Department's doing a very thorough investigation. They're going to interview everybody. They're going to look at the ballistics. They're going to look at the gunshot wounds. And they're going to come to a conclusion and present their findings to the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. And at that point we will have a final decision.
HANNITY: Well, either a shot was fired inside the police officer's car or it was not. Do we know for a fact --
JACKSON: It was, yes.
HANNITY: That is a fact then. So there was a struggle for the gun.
JACKSON: That is a fact.
HANNITY: Are there witnesses that will say that there was a struggle for the gun?
JACKSON: I can't talk to what the witnesses are going to say. And the reason for that is as soon as this happened I called the county police chief and asked him to take over the scene and the investigation so I could be certain that there was no appearance of impropriety, and I would know that a very thorough and complete investigation would be done and we could get to the truth of what happened.
HANNITY: Can you shed any light on why so many shots were fired?
JACKSON: No, I can't. I don't actually know how many were fired at this time.
HANNITY: Do you suspect, as has been reported, 10 shots or more?
JACKSON: It's possible that that many shots were fired, I don't know.
HANNITY: I assume you found shell casings, you know a certain amount. Do you have a range in which you know?
JACKSON: No, I can't talk to the evidence at all. That's the St. Louis County Police Department's investigation.
HANNITY: I understand that the police officer, there's been a lot of death threats against him, a lot of volatility. You've got the New Black Panther Party, Louis Farrakhan has spoken out, the Reverend Al Sharpton is there. You've had the chanting, have a sign up there, "The only good cop is a dead cop." There's been rioting and looting, et cetera, going on. That has prevented you from releasing the name of the officer. Some have questioned whether the wisdom of that, the public's right to know versus the safety of the officer. You're balancing that?
JACKSON: I am. And that's exactly what we did. You know, we had originally believed we had an obligation to release that information to the public and to the press. But what happened is another officer's name was released as being the officer involved in the shooting. He was not. But his picture was put up on the Internet, his Facebook page was hacked, and death threats started coming in.
So that's when we waived the benefit of releasing the information right now versus the safety to the officer, his family, and his neighbors, and the rest of the police department. So we decided to delay the release of the name.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this one simple question. Based on your preliminary investigation and you speaking with other officers that were on the scene as I understand it, correct?
JACKSON: Yes.
HANNITY: Then are you convinced that the officer involved in the shooting was within department guidelines in protecting himself?
JACKSON: I can't answer that question until I have the final report from the county. I really don't want to say anything that I might know or that I think. When I say something, I want to say what I know.
HANNITY: But you are certain that an altercation occurred and a shot was fired within the car, meaning Mr. Brown was in the car at some point?
JACKSON: He was, he was -- yes.
HANNITY: In other words, he wasn't handcuffed in the car. He went in the car of his own volition.
JACKSON: Yes.
HANNITY: And do you believe there was a struggle for that gun?
JACKSON: That's what the county police chief said in his opening statement. He's the one that took the -- his officers are the ones that took the statement from both the officer and the witnesses.
HANNITY: What about the unrest that has taken place now in your city? Do you believe a lot of the looting and a lot of what has happened is a result of outside agitators, as some have suggested, or do you think this is just a community angry at what happened?
JACKSON: No, it's a lot of outside agitators that are causing the violence. We've had some -- several very peaceful protests. I mean, they're angry. They want -- they have questions they want answers to. And I understand that. I get that.
But we've had -- the community has now stepped up. Once this violence happened, our community leaders, the clergy, some of the activists have stepped forward and said enough is enough, and they're taking the lead on the protest. They're going to continue to protest, but they want it to be peaceful.
HANNITY: All right, chief, thank you so much for your time tonight, and we wish your community the best, really do, in every way.
JACKSON: Thank you very much.
I saw it also but I had doubts because I thought his friend had admitted to stealing the cigars.
Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk
Not sure how I feel about this. I thought at one time his mother requested not to use this image.
Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk
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yeah that rumor has never been substantiated.
Shocking statement from Mike Brown autopsy expert gets lost in the shuffle of leaks and lies
Oct 28, 2014 8:35am PDT by Shaun King
When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch somehow obtained the confidential autopsy report from the local medical examiner, the newspaper consulted Dr. Judy Melinek to analyze the report and draw some very basic conclusions on how exactly Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mike Brown on August 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Her comments about the scuffle drew so much attention that one key point she made was totally missed. She says that the gunshot to the back of Mike Brown's upper arm could have come from behind while he was fleeing the scene, as described in the final three paragraphs of an MSNBC story:
All but one of the gunshots, Melinek said, seem to have struck Brown in the front of his body, which is consistent with witnesses who said Brown had been facing Wilson when he was shot. Depending on any witnesses physical proximity to the shooting, Brown could have been turning to Wilson in surrender, stumbling toward him after being shot or charging him.
The shot to the back of Brown’s upper arm, Melinek said, suggested he could have been shot from behind.
Nearly a half-dozen witnesses say that after an initial altercation at Wilson’s car, Brown fled and that Wilson gave chase, firing at him from behind. At one point, they say, Brown turned with his hands up and Wilson fired the final, fatal shots. Unnamed sources quoted in both local and national news reports say Wilson has testified that he fired twice from his car and several times after Brown ran, turned, and then charged at him.
This statement absolutely contradicts the headline and thrust of this leading article published by the Washington Post less than 24 hours later, which relied completely on the report published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
This clear contradiction exposes just why the autopsy report and grand jury proceedings were sealed in the first place. Attorney General Eric Holder expressed his "exasperation" over these selective leaks, but it appears that even respected media outlets are misrepresenting the facts as well.
Oct 28, 2014 8:35am PDT by Shaun King
When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch somehow obtained the confidential autopsy report from the local medical examiner, the newspaper consulted Dr. Judy Melinek to analyze the report and draw some very basic conclusions on how exactly Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mike Brown on August 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Her comments about the scuffle drew so much attention that one key point she made was totally missed. She says that the gunshot to the back of Mike Brown's upper arm could have come from behind while he was fleeing the scene, as described in the final three paragraphs of an MSNBC story:
All but one of the gunshots, Melinek said, seem to have struck Brown in the front of his body, which is consistent with witnesses who said Brown had been facing Wilson when he was shot. Depending on any witnesses physical proximity to the shooting, Brown could have been turning to Wilson in surrender, stumbling toward him after being shot or charging him.
The shot to the back of Brown’s upper arm, Melinek said, suggested he could have been shot from behind.
Nearly a half-dozen witnesses say that after an initial altercation at Wilson’s car, Brown fled and that Wilson gave chase, firing at him from behind. At one point, they say, Brown turned with his hands up and Wilson fired the final, fatal shots. Unnamed sources quoted in both local and national news reports say Wilson has testified that he fired twice from his car and several times after Brown ran, turned, and then charged at him.
This statement absolutely contradicts the headline and thrust of this leading article published by the Washington Post less than 24 hours later, which relied completely on the report published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
This clear contradiction exposes just why the autopsy report and grand jury proceedings were sealed in the first place. Attorney General Eric Holder expressed his "exasperation" over these selective leaks, but it appears that even respected media outlets are misrepresenting the facts as well.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/us/ferguson-police-chief/index.html
The police chief is staying, and giving verbal shots to Holder.
The police chief is staying, and giving verbal shots to Holder.
The chief is a major player in the cover up. AND DID FERGUSON HIRE WITNESSES THAT DO NOT HAVE TO ANSWER REAL QUESTIONS. WHERE DID THESE MYSTERY WITNESSES COME FROM??
http://blacknation.vpweb.com/default.html
http://blacknation.vpweb.com/default.html
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Ferguson has no shame. So what if they are lying as easy as they breathe. White power is as American as apple pie. I am waiting to see how this will play out. But all this should bring into question a lot of things that have happened throughout history including history itself and religion.
TIRED OF LOSING BUT LIKE PLAYING THE GAME.
http://blacknation.vpweb.com/default.html
TIRED OF LOSING BUT LIKE PLAYING THE GAME.
http://blacknation.vpweb.com/default.html
News 4 Investigates: Ferguson Municipal Court
(KMOV.com) – Ferguson’s Municipal Court has been under fire for being used as a huge revenue generator for the city.
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in fines and fees, making it the city’s second biggest source of revenue. A judge said the court has made some changes, such as getting rid of some fees and automatic arrest warrants for those who fail to show up to court for minor cases such as traffic offenses.
The docket is dominated by traffic violations and minor drug cases. Cases can include a half dozen citations for one traffic stop, which can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in fines for some defendants who often fail to appear in court because they fall behind on their bills. Those defendants then have warrants issued for their arrest.
“A person can’t afford it,” said Larron Leydin, who had the same thing happen to him.
In 2013, Ferguson issued around 33,000 warrants for non-violent warrants. Only 21,000 people live there.
When News 4 went to visit the Ferguson Municipal Court, reporter Craig Cheatham noticed all 17 court employees were white, a figure that includes the judge, prosecutors, police, and clerks. Nearly 9 out of 10 defendants were African American.
“I think it sends a bad signal,” said Ferguson Municipal Judge Ron Brockmeyer. Brockymeyer is also a judge in Breckenridge Hills and a prosecutor in Florissant, Dellwood, and Vinita Park.
A report released by Arch City Defenders, a public defender group, said municipal courts in Ferguson, Florissant, and Bel-Ridge consistently violate the rights of the poor and undermine public confidence in the judicial system.
(KMOV.com) – Ferguson’s Municipal Court has been under fire for being used as a huge revenue generator for the city.
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in fines and fees, making it the city’s second biggest source of revenue. A judge said the court has made some changes, such as getting rid of some fees and automatic arrest warrants for those who fail to show up to court for minor cases such as traffic offenses.
The docket is dominated by traffic violations and minor drug cases. Cases can include a half dozen citations for one traffic stop, which can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in fines for some defendants who often fail to appear in court because they fall behind on their bills. Those defendants then have warrants issued for their arrest.
“A person can’t afford it,” said Larron Leydin, who had the same thing happen to him.
In 2013, Ferguson issued around 33,000 warrants for non-violent warrants. Only 21,000 people live there.
When News 4 went to visit the Ferguson Municipal Court, reporter Craig Cheatham noticed all 17 court employees were white, a figure that includes the judge, prosecutors, police, and clerks. Nearly 9 out of 10 defendants were African American.
“I think it sends a bad signal,” said Ferguson Municipal Judge Ron Brockmeyer. Brockymeyer is also a judge in Breckenridge Hills and a prosecutor in Florissant, Dellwood, and Vinita Park.
A report released by Arch City Defenders, a public defender group, said municipal courts in Ferguson, Florissant, and Bel-Ridge consistently violate the rights of the poor and undermine public confidence in the judicial system.
Black out in Ferguson today. About 8-9PM. On Halloween, around the police and fire department.
News 4 Investigates: Ferguson Municipal Court
(KMOV.com) – Ferguson’s Municipal Court has been under fire for being used as a huge revenue generator for the city.
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in fines and fees, making it the city’s second biggest source of revenue. A judge said the court has made some changes, such as getting rid of some fees and automatic arrest warrants for those who fail to show up to court for minor cases such as traffic offenses.
The docket is dominated by traffic violations and minor drug cases. Cases can include a half dozen citations for one traffic stop, which can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in fines for some defendants who often fail to appear in court because they fall behind on their bills. Those defendants then have warrants issued for their arrest.
“A person can’t afford it,” said Larron Leydin, who had the same thing happen to him.
In 2013, Ferguson issued around 33,000 warrants for non-violent warrants. Only 21,000 people live there.
When News 4 went to visit the Ferguson Municipal Court, reporter Craig Cheatham noticed all 17 court employees were white, a figure that includes the judge, prosecutors, police, and clerks. Nearly 9 out of 10 defendants were African American.
“I think it sends a bad signal,” said Ferguson Municipal Judge Ron Brockmeyer. Brockymeyer is also a judge in Breckenridge Hills and a prosecutor in Florissant, Dellwood, and Vinita Park.
A report released by Arch City Defenders, a public defender group, said municipal courts in Ferguson, Florissant, and Bel-Ridge consistently violate the rights of the poor and undermine public confidence in the judicial system.
Read more: http://www.kmov.com/special-coverag...-Municipal-Court-280715812.html#ixzz3HfG5a9Lj
(KMOV.com) – Ferguson’s Municipal Court has been under fire for being used as a huge revenue generator for the city.
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in fines and fees, making it the city’s second biggest source of revenue. A judge said the court has made some changes, such as getting rid of some fees and automatic arrest warrants for those who fail to show up to court for minor cases such as traffic offenses.
The docket is dominated by traffic violations and minor drug cases. Cases can include a half dozen citations for one traffic stop, which can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in fines for some defendants who often fail to appear in court because they fall behind on their bills. Those defendants then have warrants issued for their arrest.
“A person can’t afford it,” said Larron Leydin, who had the same thing happen to him.
In 2013, Ferguson issued around 33,000 warrants for non-violent warrants. Only 21,000 people live there.
When News 4 went to visit the Ferguson Municipal Court, reporter Craig Cheatham noticed all 17 court employees were white, a figure that includes the judge, prosecutors, police, and clerks. Nearly 9 out of 10 defendants were African American.
“I think it sends a bad signal,” said Ferguson Municipal Judge Ron Brockmeyer. Brockymeyer is also a judge in Breckenridge Hills and a prosecutor in Florissant, Dellwood, and Vinita Park.
A report released by Arch City Defenders, a public defender group, said municipal courts in Ferguson, Florissant, and Bel-Ridge consistently violate the rights of the poor and undermine public confidence in the judicial system.
Read more: http://www.kmov.com/special-coverag...-Municipal-Court-280715812.html#ixzz3HfG5a9Lj
Federal civil rights charges unlikely against police officer in Ferguson shooting
Justice Department investigators have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement officials said.
When racial tension boiled over in Ferguson after the Aug. 9 shooting, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. traveled to the St. Louis suburb to meet with city leaders and protest organizers in an effort to bring calm. He assured them that the federal government would open a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. But that investigation now seems unlikely to result in any charges.
“The evidence at this point does not support civil rights charges against Officer Wilson,” said one person briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Justice Department officials are loath to acknowledge publicly that their case cannot now meet the high legal threshold for a successful civil rights prosecution. The timing is sensitive: Tensions are high in greater St. Louis as people await the results of a grand jury’s review of the case.
Many supporters of Brown say they are already convinced there will be no state-level indictment of the officer. Federal officials have wanted to show that they are conducting a full and fair review of the case.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson held news conferences Friday to discuss the release of robbery surveillance video, reveal the identity of the officer who shot Michael Brown and more. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)
Justice spokesman Brian Fallon said the case remains open and any discussion of its results is premature. “This is an irresponsible report by The Washington Post that is based on idle speculation,” Fallon said in a statement.
Other law enforcement officials interviewed by The Post said it was not too soon to say how the investigation would end. “The evidence we have makes federal civil rights charges unlikely,” one said.
A lawyer for Brown’s family, Benjamin L. Crump, said he would not comment “on something that is not official.”
James P. Towey Jr., Wilson’s attorney, did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.
The Justice Department is continuing its broad investigation of the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department, which could result in wholesale reforms and reorganization. The Justice Department on Friday announced an agreement with the city of Albuquerque intended to overhaul the way its police department uses force, the result of one such civil rights investigation.
At a forum this week organized by the Aspen Institute and the Atlantic magazine, Holder indicated that a similar overhaul could be called for in Ferguson. “It’s pretty clear that the need for wholesale change in that department is appropriate,” Holder said.
Federal law sets a high bar in bringing civil rights charges against a police officer because prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer intended to violate someone’s constitutional rights.
Authorities faced a similar challenge in the investigation of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. Under federal law for hate crimes, prosecutors have to show that someone has been victimized intentionally because of a racial or other bias.
Law enforcement officials have said privately that there is insufficient evidence to bring federal charges in that case, although the two-year probe technically remains open.
The investigation of the Brown shooting is being conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under a federal statute that makes it a crime for a person with government authority — the legal term is “acting under color of any law” — to “willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
Sometimes the department is successful. In 2010, prosecutors won convictions of two New Orleans police officers for civil rights violations in connection with the killing of a man and the burning of his body during the disruption that followed Hurricane Katrina. The officers have appealed their convictions.
Holder and other officials have decried recent news reports about investigative findings in the Ferguson case that have revealed new but conflicting details about the three-minute encounter between Wilson and Brown. Some of those details potentially corroborate the officer’s account that the killing was an act of self-defense, and they could complicate a civil rights case against Wilson.
The St. Louis County autopsy report, published Oct. 21 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was interpreted by some forensic pathologists as indicating that Brown may have struggled for control of Wilson’s gun during their initial altercation, but they also said the evidence was inconclusive.
After two shots were fired inside Wilson’s patrol vehicle, the officer got out and Brown fled but later turned around as Wilson continued firing. Some pathologists said the report indicates — but not conclusively — that Brown’s hands were not over his head. Several witnesses said his arms were raised in surrender when the officer shot him again.
Rachel A. Harmon, a law professor at the University of Virginia and a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said it is especially challenging to prove a civil rights case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“There is an extra burden in federal civil rights cases because the statute requires that the defendant acted ‘willfully,’ ” Harmon said. “It is not enough to prove that he used too much force. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did so willfully.”
Harmon also said that if Wilson “genuinely believed he was acting in self-defense,” then his actions are not considered “willful,” meaning he did not intend to deprive Brown of his constitutional rights.
Brown was shot a total of nine times, including three times in the head, according to the county autopsy.
Dorian Johnson, the 22-year-old who was with Brown when the two encountered Wilson, has said the officer was the aggressor and did not act in self-defense.
David Klinger, a former Los Angeles police officer and now a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, said enduring disputes over what happened are likely to raise reasonable doubt that would make a successful civil rights prosecution almost impossible.
“The autopsy report is devastating because it raises doubts about him standing still with his hands in the air in surrender,” said Klinger, who fatally shot a suspect in the line of duty when he was an officer. “If you have a halfway competent lawyer, the defense could raise reasonable doubt with this.”
Samuel Bagenstos, a former Justice Department principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights and now a law professor at the University of Michigan, said the obstacles prosecutors face in the Ferguson case are typical, as are the frustrations of Brown’s supporters.
It is common to have a situation “that looks like a constitutional violation and may well be an injustice,” Bagenstos said. “But sometimes the Justice Department does not have the ability to bring a civil rights case under the statutes it enforces.”
Justice Department investigators have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., law enforcement officials said.
When racial tension boiled over in Ferguson after the Aug. 9 shooting, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. traveled to the St. Louis suburb to meet with city leaders and protest organizers in an effort to bring calm. He assured them that the federal government would open a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. But that investigation now seems unlikely to result in any charges.
“The evidence at this point does not support civil rights charges against Officer Wilson,” said one person briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Justice Department officials are loath to acknowledge publicly that their case cannot now meet the high legal threshold for a successful civil rights prosecution. The timing is sensitive: Tensions are high in greater St. Louis as people await the results of a grand jury’s review of the case.
Many supporters of Brown say they are already convinced there will be no state-level indictment of the officer. Federal officials have wanted to show that they are conducting a full and fair review of the case.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson held news conferences Friday to discuss the release of robbery surveillance video, reveal the identity of the officer who shot Michael Brown and more. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)
Justice spokesman Brian Fallon said the case remains open and any discussion of its results is premature. “This is an irresponsible report by The Washington Post that is based on idle speculation,” Fallon said in a statement.
Other law enforcement officials interviewed by The Post said it was not too soon to say how the investigation would end. “The evidence we have makes federal civil rights charges unlikely,” one said.
A lawyer for Brown’s family, Benjamin L. Crump, said he would not comment “on something that is not official.”
James P. Towey Jr., Wilson’s attorney, did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.
The Justice Department is continuing its broad investigation of the policing practices of the Ferguson Police Department, which could result in wholesale reforms and reorganization. The Justice Department on Friday announced an agreement with the city of Albuquerque intended to overhaul the way its police department uses force, the result of one such civil rights investigation.
At a forum this week organized by the Aspen Institute and the Atlantic magazine, Holder indicated that a similar overhaul could be called for in Ferguson. “It’s pretty clear that the need for wholesale change in that department is appropriate,” Holder said.
Federal law sets a high bar in bringing civil rights charges against a police officer because prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer intended to violate someone’s constitutional rights.
Authorities faced a similar challenge in the investigation of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. Under federal law for hate crimes, prosecutors have to show that someone has been victimized intentionally because of a racial or other bias.
Law enforcement officials have said privately that there is insufficient evidence to bring federal charges in that case, although the two-year probe technically remains open.
The investigation of the Brown shooting is being conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under a federal statute that makes it a crime for a person with government authority — the legal term is “acting under color of any law” — to “willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
Sometimes the department is successful. In 2010, prosecutors won convictions of two New Orleans police officers for civil rights violations in connection with the killing of a man and the burning of his body during the disruption that followed Hurricane Katrina. The officers have appealed their convictions.
Holder and other officials have decried recent news reports about investigative findings in the Ferguson case that have revealed new but conflicting details about the three-minute encounter between Wilson and Brown. Some of those details potentially corroborate the officer’s account that the killing was an act of self-defense, and they could complicate a civil rights case against Wilson.
The St. Louis County autopsy report, published Oct. 21 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was interpreted by some forensic pathologists as indicating that Brown may have struggled for control of Wilson’s gun during their initial altercation, but they also said the evidence was inconclusive.
After two shots were fired inside Wilson’s patrol vehicle, the officer got out and Brown fled but later turned around as Wilson continued firing. Some pathologists said the report indicates — but not conclusively — that Brown’s hands were not over his head. Several witnesses said his arms were raised in surrender when the officer shot him again.
Rachel A. Harmon, a law professor at the University of Virginia and a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said it is especially challenging to prove a civil rights case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“There is an extra burden in federal civil rights cases because the statute requires that the defendant acted ‘willfully,’ ” Harmon said. “It is not enough to prove that he used too much force. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did so willfully.”
Harmon also said that if Wilson “genuinely believed he was acting in self-defense,” then his actions are not considered “willful,” meaning he did not intend to deprive Brown of his constitutional rights.
Brown was shot a total of nine times, including three times in the head, according to the county autopsy.
Dorian Johnson, the 22-year-old who was with Brown when the two encountered Wilson, has said the officer was the aggressor and did not act in self-defense.
David Klinger, a former Los Angeles police officer and now a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, said enduring disputes over what happened are likely to raise reasonable doubt that would make a successful civil rights prosecution almost impossible.
“The autopsy report is devastating because it raises doubts about him standing still with his hands in the air in surrender,” said Klinger, who fatally shot a suspect in the line of duty when he was an officer. “If you have a halfway competent lawyer, the defense could raise reasonable doubt with this.”
Samuel Bagenstos, a former Justice Department principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights and now a law professor at the University of Michigan, said the obstacles prosecutors face in the Ferguson case are typical, as are the frustrations of Brown’s supporters.
It is common to have a situation “that looks like a constitutional violation and may well be an injustice,” Bagenstos said. “But sometimes the Justice Department does not have the ability to bring a civil rights case under the statutes it enforces.”
buying time to get the riot people in the right place and get them trained and geared up for what's about to happe
THE LAST WORD with Lawrence O'Donnell
10/29/14
Expert: Brown ‘already falling’ during fatal shot
Forensic pathologist Shawn Parcells who participated in one of the Michael Brown autopsies reveals new information about the shots that killed Brown.
on.msnbc.com/1zLSCg4
these folks I tell you
"Funny, this Forensic Pathologist ASSISTANT, has his ink pen a good one or two inches BEHIND the apex of the skull. Any first year biology student in the bottom half of his class could tell you that! Of course this wound really does not matter as it is the last in a very brief barrage of bullets which were fired after the deceased attacked the cop. The fact that the wound was suffered when he was falling, or after his head slumped forward or when he happened to look toward the ground is of no consequence. If it can be established, and I think it has been, that Brown had attacked the officer and fled the scene of that felony, then lethal force is justified, whether it took one bullet or seven. Eyewitness statements of Brown running away from the scene, only to turn and charge, are also compelling evidence to consider.
It is also very interesting and convenient the way they skip over gun shot wounds at point blank range inside the police vehicle which rendered powder burns on the deceased's skin and wounds evidence that establishes that these wounds could not have occurred any other way than if Brown were inside the police vehicle at that time."
10/29/14
Expert: Brown ‘already falling’ during fatal shot
Forensic pathologist Shawn Parcells who participated in one of the Michael Brown autopsies reveals new information about the shots that killed Brown.
on.msnbc.com/1zLSCg4
these folks I tell you"Funny, this Forensic Pathologist ASSISTANT, has his ink pen a good one or two inches BEHIND the apex of the skull. Any first year biology student in the bottom half of his class could tell you that! Of course this wound really does not matter as it is the last in a very brief barrage of bullets which were fired after the deceased attacked the cop. The fact that the wound was suffered when he was falling, or after his head slumped forward or when he happened to look toward the ground is of no consequence. If it can be established, and I think it has been, that Brown had attacked the officer and fled the scene of that felony, then lethal force is justified, whether it took one bullet or seven. Eyewitness statements of Brown running away from the scene, only to turn and charge, are also compelling evidence to consider.
It is also very interesting and convenient the way they skip over gun shot wounds at point blank range inside the police vehicle which rendered powder burns on the deceased's skin and wounds evidence that establishes that these wounds could not have occurred any other way than if Brown were inside the police vehicle at that time."
Not-so Anonymous: How hackers wreaked havoc in St. Louis
FERGUSON • The first call came on a Thursday, 12 days after Michael Brown was shot. Patti Knowles and her granddaughter were watching “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
The caller warned that the collective of computer hackers and activists known as Anonymous had posted data online — her address and phone number and her husband James’ date of birth and Social Security number.
Anonymous had been targeting Ferguson and police officials for days. But this seemed to be an error. Patti and James weren’t city leaders, they were the parents of one — Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III.
Within hours, identity thieves had opened a credit application — the first of many — using the leaked data.
The second call came on a Friday, nearly two months later. This time, it was their bank.
Someone, posing as James, the mayor’s father, had called in and changed passwords, addresses and emails. Then the individual sent $16,000 in bank checks to an address in Chicago.
The name on the address?
Jon Belmar. Same as the chief of the St. Louis County police.
Knowles figured Anonymous was either aiming to frame them both — or was just being mischievous. Belmar, who has been targeted previously, refused to discuss the issue with the Post-Dispatch. His wife had spent hours every day for weeks dealing with fraud and identity theft.
Anonymous denied responsibility for sending the checks.
“Pfffttt. No. Sounds like corruption if you ask me,” an organizer for Anonymous’ Operation Ferguson, who wouldn’t give his or her name, said in an email to the newspaper.
But Anonymous openly claims credit for the first set of actions: Scouring the Internet for personal and private financial information on hundreds if not thousands of police officers, mayors, judges and officials, in governments big and small, worldwide.
Two years ago, a hacker affiliated with Anonymous claimed he published the personal information of former CIA chief and four-star U.S. Army General David Petraeus and his wife, Holly.
In March, Anonymous targeted Albuquerque, N.M., after the fatal police shooting of a homeless man. Hackers went after the mayor, police chief and multiple officers.
“I think we’re just seeing the tremors of what can happen,” said Peter Ambs, Albuquerque’s chief information officer. “Nobody is immune. It’s not a matter of if, but when. ... How much money are we going to have to spend on hardening our systems, monitoring them to the point of locking them down so they have no value to anybody?”
Here, Anonymous operatives have outed at least 18 police officers, officials and residents over the past three months.
‘VERY UNNERVING’
It started in the first days after Brown’s death.
Just after 5 p.m. on Aug. 9, rapper and local activist Kareem Jackson, known as Tef Poe, sent out a call for help: “Basically martial law is taking place in Ferguson all perimeters blocked coming and going,” he wrote on Twitter. “National and international friends Help!!!”
Jackson didn't return a call seeking comment. Jackson's attorney, James Wyrsch, denied that the intent of the tweet was to request the involvement of Anonymous.
Still, Anonymous responded to Jackson within hours, and, by the next day, had created the Twitter account OpFerguson, plus a warning on YouTube:
“We are watching you very closely. If you abuse, harass or harm in any way the protesters in Ferguson we will take every Web-based asset of your departments and governments offline,” Anonymous’ idiosyncratic electronic voice hummed. “That is not a threat. It is a promise.”
Anonymous said it would begin publicly releasing personal information “on every single member of the Ferguson Police Department,” among others.
Then it did.
Early on the morning of Aug. 12, hackers posted county police chief Belmar’s home address and phone number online. They tweeted pictures of him, his house, his wife, his children. “You said our threats were just hollow,” wrote TheAnonMessage. “See, that makes us mad. You shouldn’t challenge us.”
Anonymous isn’t a group with members or a sign-up list. Informal leaders set up operations, chat rooms and often identify targets. Others then jump in.
On Aug. 20, they posted personal data on Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson. On Aug. 22, Col. Ronald Replogle, superintendent of the state highway patrol. On Sept. 18, Gov. Jay Nixon. And on Sept. 20, Steve Stenger, St. Louis County councilman and county executive candidate.
It’s unclear who used the data following the releases. OpFerguson said it didn’t care.
But the consequences are clear:
Jackson said identity thieves used his information to buy a horse in Turkey. Ferguson police Sgt. Harry Dilworth said someone tried to purchase a $37,000 truck in his name. All six Ferguson City Council members have signed up for an identity-theft alert service.
Even those unconnected to Brown have been affected.
Dilworth said one of the officers he supervises, mistakenly outed by Anonymous as Brown’s shooter, ended up moving his family out of state.
The social media pages of St. Ann dispatcher Bryan Willman, also errantly identified as Brown’s killer, were so flooded with death threats, he shut them down. St. Ann police stationed a car outside his house; he didn’t leave for nearly two weeks, Police Chief Aaron Jimenez said.
And one woman, who declined to give her name, said Anonymous identified her number as Willman’s. “My phone rang for three days straight,” she said. “Day, night, you name it. Two o’clock in the morning — saying some very unnerving, very disturbing things.
“It was a very scary situation for me,” she said. “It still is.”
Jimenez, the police chief, called for more federal scrutiny. “I certainly hope the FBI is going to take this seriously, and make an example out of Anonymous,” he said. “Enough is enough.”
Joe Bindbeutel, chief of the Consumer Protection Division with the Missouri attorney general, said it’s tough to fit such actions into the conventional criminal code and tough to locate the operatives. “The real pros at this are really hard to find,” he said.
The FBI, which has worked with websites to take down Anonymous postings, declined to comment for this story.
BOUNCED CHECKS
Mayor Knowles got two calls on Aug. 21. The highway patrol called first. The officer thought Knowles’ personal information was posted online.
Then Knowles’ mother called. She had gotten at least four calls warning of the barrage to come.
Knowles told his father to sign up for LifeLock, a protection service. Before the day was done, the company, which monitors the use of clients’ names and Social Security numbers, had contacted the family with a credit application in his father’s name.
The next day, there were three more. Two, the following day. Then two more. And so on.
The hackers accessed the Knowleses’ bank accounts, changed passwords, emails and home addresses. They changed the Knowleses’ home phone number — a number they’ve had for 35 years. They set up credit cards, cellphones, home loans.
“Why would somebody do that?” his father asked.
But the $16,000 brought Patti Knowles to tears. The money was pulled from their business accounts — they own a heating and cooling company — and the temporary loss (the bank refunded the cash) led to bounced checks, included one to the IRS for business taxes.
The bank declined to say whether the checks were cashed.
The data leaks led to other problems, too. Someone, for instance, broke into a house they owned, tore out some piping and left water pouring into the basement. Knowles’ father found the house in 6 inches of standing water. The basement — two bedrooms, a full bath and family room — had to be gutted.
But the most frustrating moment for Knowles’ father came at the start of October. His wife noticed they hadn’t gotten any recent LifeLock notices.
When he tried to call, the company wouldn’t let him into this own accounts. Someone, it seemed, had broken into LifeLock, too.
“I pay you money to protect my stuff,” Knowles’ father said. “And you get hacked?”
A spokeswoman for LifeLock declined to comment.
Knowles was irritated, calling the Anonymous actions criminal. Still, the mayor seemed to have had largely evaded the same fate.
Until a few days ago.
“Excuse me Mr. Mayor,” OpFerguson tweeted Tuesday, “the communications director wanted me to tell you, “Anonymous just leaked your credit card data.”
Anonymous emailed late Saturday that the tweet was a joke.
For now!!!
FERGUSON • The first call came on a Thursday, 12 days after Michael Brown was shot. Patti Knowles and her granddaughter were watching “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
The caller warned that the collective of computer hackers and activists known as Anonymous had posted data online — her address and phone number and her husband James’ date of birth and Social Security number.
Anonymous had been targeting Ferguson and police officials for days. But this seemed to be an error. Patti and James weren’t city leaders, they were the parents of one — Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III.
Within hours, identity thieves had opened a credit application — the first of many — using the leaked data.
The second call came on a Friday, nearly two months later. This time, it was their bank.
Someone, posing as James, the mayor’s father, had called in and changed passwords, addresses and emails. Then the individual sent $16,000 in bank checks to an address in Chicago.
The name on the address?
Jon Belmar. Same as the chief of the St. Louis County police.
Knowles figured Anonymous was either aiming to frame them both — or was just being mischievous. Belmar, who has been targeted previously, refused to discuss the issue with the Post-Dispatch. His wife had spent hours every day for weeks dealing with fraud and identity theft.
Anonymous denied responsibility for sending the checks.
“Pfffttt. No. Sounds like corruption if you ask me,” an organizer for Anonymous’ Operation Ferguson, who wouldn’t give his or her name, said in an email to the newspaper.
But Anonymous openly claims credit for the first set of actions: Scouring the Internet for personal and private financial information on hundreds if not thousands of police officers, mayors, judges and officials, in governments big and small, worldwide.
Two years ago, a hacker affiliated with Anonymous claimed he published the personal information of former CIA chief and four-star U.S. Army General David Petraeus and his wife, Holly.
In March, Anonymous targeted Albuquerque, N.M., after the fatal police shooting of a homeless man. Hackers went after the mayor, police chief and multiple officers.
“I think we’re just seeing the tremors of what can happen,” said Peter Ambs, Albuquerque’s chief information officer. “Nobody is immune. It’s not a matter of if, but when. ... How much money are we going to have to spend on hardening our systems, monitoring them to the point of locking them down so they have no value to anybody?”
Here, Anonymous operatives have outed at least 18 police officers, officials and residents over the past three months.
‘VERY UNNERVING’
It started in the first days after Brown’s death.
Just after 5 p.m. on Aug. 9, rapper and local activist Kareem Jackson, known as Tef Poe, sent out a call for help: “Basically martial law is taking place in Ferguson all perimeters blocked coming and going,” he wrote on Twitter. “National and international friends Help!!!”
Jackson didn't return a call seeking comment. Jackson's attorney, James Wyrsch, denied that the intent of the tweet was to request the involvement of Anonymous.
Still, Anonymous responded to Jackson within hours, and, by the next day, had created the Twitter account OpFerguson, plus a warning on YouTube:
“We are watching you very closely. If you abuse, harass or harm in any way the protesters in Ferguson we will take every Web-based asset of your departments and governments offline,” Anonymous’ idiosyncratic electronic voice hummed. “That is not a threat. It is a promise.”
Anonymous said it would begin publicly releasing personal information “on every single member of the Ferguson Police Department,” among others.
Then it did.
Early on the morning of Aug. 12, hackers posted county police chief Belmar’s home address and phone number online. They tweeted pictures of him, his house, his wife, his children. “You said our threats were just hollow,” wrote TheAnonMessage. “See, that makes us mad. You shouldn’t challenge us.”
Anonymous isn’t a group with members or a sign-up list. Informal leaders set up operations, chat rooms and often identify targets. Others then jump in.
On Aug. 20, they posted personal data on Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson. On Aug. 22, Col. Ronald Replogle, superintendent of the state highway patrol. On Sept. 18, Gov. Jay Nixon. And on Sept. 20, Steve Stenger, St. Louis County councilman and county executive candidate.
It’s unclear who used the data following the releases. OpFerguson said it didn’t care.
But the consequences are clear:
Jackson said identity thieves used his information to buy a horse in Turkey. Ferguson police Sgt. Harry Dilworth said someone tried to purchase a $37,000 truck in his name. All six Ferguson City Council members have signed up for an identity-theft alert service.
Even those unconnected to Brown have been affected.
Dilworth said one of the officers he supervises, mistakenly outed by Anonymous as Brown’s shooter, ended up moving his family out of state.
The social media pages of St. Ann dispatcher Bryan Willman, also errantly identified as Brown’s killer, were so flooded with death threats, he shut them down. St. Ann police stationed a car outside his house; he didn’t leave for nearly two weeks, Police Chief Aaron Jimenez said.
And one woman, who declined to give her name, said Anonymous identified her number as Willman’s. “My phone rang for three days straight,” she said. “Day, night, you name it. Two o’clock in the morning — saying some very unnerving, very disturbing things.
“It was a very scary situation for me,” she said. “It still is.”
Jimenez, the police chief, called for more federal scrutiny. “I certainly hope the FBI is going to take this seriously, and make an example out of Anonymous,” he said. “Enough is enough.”
Joe Bindbeutel, chief of the Consumer Protection Division with the Missouri attorney general, said it’s tough to fit such actions into the conventional criminal code and tough to locate the operatives. “The real pros at this are really hard to find,” he said.
The FBI, which has worked with websites to take down Anonymous postings, declined to comment for this story.
BOUNCED CHECKS
Mayor Knowles got two calls on Aug. 21. The highway patrol called first. The officer thought Knowles’ personal information was posted online.
Then Knowles’ mother called. She had gotten at least four calls warning of the barrage to come.
Knowles told his father to sign up for LifeLock, a protection service. Before the day was done, the company, which monitors the use of clients’ names and Social Security numbers, had contacted the family with a credit application in his father’s name.
The next day, there were three more. Two, the following day. Then two more. And so on.
The hackers accessed the Knowleses’ bank accounts, changed passwords, emails and home addresses. They changed the Knowleses’ home phone number — a number they’ve had for 35 years. They set up credit cards, cellphones, home loans.
“Why would somebody do that?” his father asked.
But the $16,000 brought Patti Knowles to tears. The money was pulled from their business accounts — they own a heating and cooling company — and the temporary loss (the bank refunded the cash) led to bounced checks, included one to the IRS for business taxes.
The bank declined to say whether the checks were cashed.
The data leaks led to other problems, too. Someone, for instance, broke into a house they owned, tore out some piping and left water pouring into the basement. Knowles’ father found the house in 6 inches of standing water. The basement — two bedrooms, a full bath and family room — had to be gutted.
But the most frustrating moment for Knowles’ father came at the start of October. His wife noticed they hadn’t gotten any recent LifeLock notices.
When he tried to call, the company wouldn’t let him into this own accounts. Someone, it seemed, had broken into LifeLock, too.
“I pay you money to protect my stuff,” Knowles’ father said. “And you get hacked?”
A spokeswoman for LifeLock declined to comment.
Knowles was irritated, calling the Anonymous actions criminal. Still, the mayor seemed to have had largely evaded the same fate.
Until a few days ago.
“Excuse me Mr. Mayor,” OpFerguson tweeted Tuesday, “the communications director wanted me to tell you, “Anonymous just leaked your credit card data.”
Anonymous emailed late Saturday that the tweet was a joke.
For now!!!
Anon >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
@jackgillum
"When police requested #Ferguson no-fly zone, they argued safety. But we found it was to keep the press away.
1:41pm - 2 Nov 14"
AP Exclusive: Ferguson no-fly zone aimed at media
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests.
On Aug. 12, the morning after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the first flight restriction, FAA air traffic managers struggled to redefine the flight ban to let commercial flights operate at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and police helicopters fly through the area — but ban others.
"They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out," said one FAA manager about the St. Louis County Police in a series of recorded telephone conversations obtained by The Associated Press. "But they were a little concerned of, obviously, anything else that could be going on.
At another point, a manager at the FAA's Kansas City center said police "did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didn't want media in there."
FAA procedures for defining a no-fly area did not have an option that would accommodate that.
"There is really ... no option for a TFR that says, you know, 'OK, everybody but the media is OK,'" he said. The managers then worked out wording they felt would keep news helicopters out of the controlled zone but not impede other air traffic.
The conversations contradict claims by the St. Louis County Police Department, which responded to demonstrations following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, that the restriction was solely for safety and had nothing to do with preventing media from witnessing the violence or the police response.
Police said at the time, and again as recently as late Friday to the AP, that they requested the flight restriction in response to shots fired at a police helicopter.
But police officials confirmed there was no damage to their helicopter and were unable to provide an incident report on the shooting. On the tapes, an FAA manager described the helicopter shooting as unconfirmed "rumors."
The AP obtained the recordings under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. They raise serious questions about whether police were trying to suppress aerial images of the demonstrations and the police response by violating the constitutional rights of journalists with tacit assistance by federal officials.
Such images would have offered an unvarnished view of one of the most serious episodes of civil violence in recent memory.
"Any evidence that a no-fly zone was put in place as a pretext to exclude the media from covering events in Ferguson is extraordinarily troubling and a blatant violation of the press's First Amendment rights," said Lee Rowland, an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney specializing in First Amendment issues.
An FAA manager urged modifying the flight restriction so that planes landing at Lambert still could enter the airspace around Ferguson.
The less-restrictive change practically served the authorities' intended goal, an FAA official said: "A lot of the time the (lesser restriction) just keeps the press out, anyways. They don't understand the difference."
The Kansas City FAA manager then asked a St. Louis County police official if the restrictions could be lessened so nearby commercial flights wouldn't be affected. The new order allows "aircraft on final (approach) there at St. Louis. It will still keep news people out. ... The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway so they, with the (lesser restriction), it still keeps all of them out."
"Yeah," replied the police official. "I have no problem with that whatsoever."
KMOV-TV News Director Brian Thouvenot told the AP that his station was prepared at first to legally challenge the flight restrictions, but was later advised that its pilot could fly over the area as long as the helicopter stayed above 3,000 feet. That kept the helicopter and its mounted camera outside the restricted zone, although filming from such a distance, he said, was "less than ideal."
None of the St. Louis stations was advised that media helicopters could enter the airspace even under the lesser restrictions, which under federal rules should not have applied to aircraft "carrying properly accredited news representatives." The FAA's no-fly notice indicated the area was closed to all aircraft except police and planes coming to and from the airport.
"Only relief aircraft operations under direction of St. Louis County Police Department are authorized in the airspace," it said. "Aircraft landing and departing St. Louis Lambert Airport are exempt."
Ferguson police were widely criticized for their response following the death of Brown, who was shot by a city police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9. Later, under county police command, several reporters were arrested, a TV news crew was tear gassed and some demonstrators were told they weren't allowed to film officers. In early October, a federal judge said the police violated demonstrators' and news crews' constitutional rights.
"Here in the United States of America, police should not be bullying and arresting reporters who are just doing their jobs," President Barack Obama said Aug. 14, two days after police confided to federal officials the flight ban was secretly intended to keep media helicopters out of the area. "The local authorities, including police, have a responsibility to be transparent and open."
The restricted flight zone initially encompassed airspace in a 3.4-mile radius around Ferguson and up to 5,000 feet in altitude, but police agreed to reduce it to 3,000 feet after the FAA's command center in Warrenton, Virginia, complained to managers in Kansas City that it was impeding traffic into St. Louis. A police official assured the FAA he had no objections to commercial air traffic entering the zone, according to one recording.
The flight restrictions remained in place until Aug. 22, FAA records show. A police captain wanted it extended when officials were set to identify Wilson by name as the officer who shot Brown and because Brown's funeral would "bring out the emotions," the recordings show.
"We just don't know what to expect," he told the FAA. "We're monitoring that. So, last night we shot a lot of tear gas, we had a lot of shots fired into the air again. It did quiet down after midnight, but with that ... we don't know when that's going to erupt."
The recordings do not capture early conversations about the initial flight restriction imposed a day earlier, but they nonetheless show the FAA still approved and modified the flight restriction after the FAA was aware that its main intent was to keep the media away.
One FAA official at the agency's command center asked the Kansas City manager in charge whether the restrictions were really about safety. "So are (the police) protecting aircraft from small-arms fire or something?" he asked. "Or do they think they're just going to keep the press out of there, which they can't do."
___
"When police requested #Ferguson no-fly zone, they argued safety. But we found it was to keep the press away.
1:41pm - 2 Nov 14"
AP Exclusive: Ferguson no-fly zone aimed at media
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests.
On Aug. 12, the morning after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the first flight restriction, FAA air traffic managers struggled to redefine the flight ban to let commercial flights operate at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and police helicopters fly through the area — but ban others.
"They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out," said one FAA manager about the St. Louis County Police in a series of recorded telephone conversations obtained by The Associated Press. "But they were a little concerned of, obviously, anything else that could be going on.
At another point, a manager at the FAA's Kansas City center said police "did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didn't want media in there."
FAA procedures for defining a no-fly area did not have an option that would accommodate that.
"There is really ... no option for a TFR that says, you know, 'OK, everybody but the media is OK,'" he said. The managers then worked out wording they felt would keep news helicopters out of the controlled zone but not impede other air traffic.
The conversations contradict claims by the St. Louis County Police Department, which responded to demonstrations following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, that the restriction was solely for safety and had nothing to do with preventing media from witnessing the violence or the police response.
Police said at the time, and again as recently as late Friday to the AP, that they requested the flight restriction in response to shots fired at a police helicopter.
But police officials confirmed there was no damage to their helicopter and were unable to provide an incident report on the shooting. On the tapes, an FAA manager described the helicopter shooting as unconfirmed "rumors."
The AP obtained the recordings under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. They raise serious questions about whether police were trying to suppress aerial images of the demonstrations and the police response by violating the constitutional rights of journalists with tacit assistance by federal officials.
Such images would have offered an unvarnished view of one of the most serious episodes of civil violence in recent memory.
"Any evidence that a no-fly zone was put in place as a pretext to exclude the media from covering events in Ferguson is extraordinarily troubling and a blatant violation of the press's First Amendment rights," said Lee Rowland, an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney specializing in First Amendment issues.
An FAA manager urged modifying the flight restriction so that planes landing at Lambert still could enter the airspace around Ferguson.
The less-restrictive change practically served the authorities' intended goal, an FAA official said: "A lot of the time the (lesser restriction) just keeps the press out, anyways. They don't understand the difference."
The Kansas City FAA manager then asked a St. Louis County police official if the restrictions could be lessened so nearby commercial flights wouldn't be affected. The new order allows "aircraft on final (approach) there at St. Louis. It will still keep news people out. ... The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway so they, with the (lesser restriction), it still keeps all of them out."
"Yeah," replied the police official. "I have no problem with that whatsoever."
KMOV-TV News Director Brian Thouvenot told the AP that his station was prepared at first to legally challenge the flight restrictions, but was later advised that its pilot could fly over the area as long as the helicopter stayed above 3,000 feet. That kept the helicopter and its mounted camera outside the restricted zone, although filming from such a distance, he said, was "less than ideal."
None of the St. Louis stations was advised that media helicopters could enter the airspace even under the lesser restrictions, which under federal rules should not have applied to aircraft "carrying properly accredited news representatives." The FAA's no-fly notice indicated the area was closed to all aircraft except police and planes coming to and from the airport.
"Only relief aircraft operations under direction of St. Louis County Police Department are authorized in the airspace," it said. "Aircraft landing and departing St. Louis Lambert Airport are exempt."
Ferguson police were widely criticized for their response following the death of Brown, who was shot by a city police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9. Later, under county police command, several reporters were arrested, a TV news crew was tear gassed and some demonstrators were told they weren't allowed to film officers. In early October, a federal judge said the police violated demonstrators' and news crews' constitutional rights.
"Here in the United States of America, police should not be bullying and arresting reporters who are just doing their jobs," President Barack Obama said Aug. 14, two days after police confided to federal officials the flight ban was secretly intended to keep media helicopters out of the area. "The local authorities, including police, have a responsibility to be transparent and open."
The restricted flight zone initially encompassed airspace in a 3.4-mile radius around Ferguson and up to 5,000 feet in altitude, but police agreed to reduce it to 3,000 feet after the FAA's command center in Warrenton, Virginia, complained to managers in Kansas City that it was impeding traffic into St. Louis. A police official assured the FAA he had no objections to commercial air traffic entering the zone, according to one recording.
The flight restrictions remained in place until Aug. 22, FAA records show. A police captain wanted it extended when officials were set to identify Wilson by name as the officer who shot Brown and because Brown's funeral would "bring out the emotions," the recordings show.
"We just don't know what to expect," he told the FAA. "We're monitoring that. So, last night we shot a lot of tear gas, we had a lot of shots fired into the air again. It did quiet down after midnight, but with that ... we don't know when that's going to erupt."
The recordings do not capture early conversations about the initial flight restriction imposed a day earlier, but they nonetheless show the FAA still approved and modified the flight restriction after the FAA was aware that its main intent was to keep the media away.
One FAA official at the agency's command center asked the Kansas City manager in charge whether the restrictions were really about safety. "So are (the police) protecting aircraft from small-arms fire or something?" he asked. "Or do they think they're just going to keep the press out of there, which they can't do."
___
A Former Marine Explains All the Weapons of War Being Used by Police in Ferguson
Tear gas filled the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, on August 19, 2014. (Photo: Mike Ludwig)
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As smoke hangs over the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, it's important to understand its source. Some of this understanding will require us to reassess the history of police militarization in the United States. This will mean acknowledging its origins in the aftermath of the Watts Riots (1965) and the birth of the SWAT team shortly thereafter. It will mean noting the conservative reaction to the Warren Court's civil libertarian protections in the 1950s and 60s to President Nixon's launching of the drug war at the end of that same tumultuous decade. It will mean harping on President Reagan's wholehearted embrace of racial policing and mass incarceration in the 1980s. It will mean interrogating the devastating effects of the 1208 Program (1990), which became the 1033 Program (1996), both of which authorized the transfer of military hardware to domestic precincts, a practice that has only accelerated in the wake of the Battle of Seattle (1999) and the attacks of September 11, 2001. The basic contours of this trajectory can be found in Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces (2013). As Tamara K. Nopper and Mariame Kaba argue in Jacobin, however, any serious reckoning must account for the ongoing dehumanization of black people, tout court.
One small way to measure the police violence against black people in Ferguson is to attend to its details. It is in that spirit that I present this simple catalog.
Combat Load
Police react as they clash with protesters on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri, the night of Aug. 19, 2014. (Photo: Eric Thayer / The New York Times)
There is a growing chorus of military veterans who have chimed in on the absurdity of photographs like this one. Let me join the parade. What we're seeing here is a gaggle of cops wearing more elite killing gear than your average squad leader leading a foot patrol through the most hostile sands or hills of Afghanistan. They are equipped with Kevlar helmets, assault-friendly gas masks, combat gloves and knee pads (all four of them), woodland Marine Pattern utility trousers, tactical body armor vests, about 120 to 180 rounds for each shooter, semiautomatic pistols attached to their thighs, disposable handcuff restraints hanging from their vests, close-quarter-battle receivers for their M4 carbine rifles and Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights. In other words, they're itching for a fight. A big one. It's a well-known horror that the US military greets foreign peoples in this fashion as our politicians preach freedom, democracy and peace. It's an abomination that the police greet black communities in the States with the same trigger-happy posture. Especially on the occasion of an unarmed teen's death by cop.
Smoke Grenade and Smoke Bomb
There's at least one line every Marine knows. It's ingrained at boot camp or Officer Candidate School and follows us to the front lines and back home again. It's a simple command and it's the second of the four weapons-safety rules. It says, "Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot." The St. Louis County Police Department apparently never received the memo. Either that or they intend to shoot. Although their tactical flashlights might be assisting them in spying on (and blinding) their targets, I suspect their air-purifying respirators and the smoke and CS gas they've released might be getting in the way of said objective. It's unclear whether it was cheap fuse-operated smoke bombs (think fireworks) or more expensive pin-operated smoke grenades that are responsible for the fog. Both tools have been reported onsite. For what it's worth, such smokescreens are usually executed during flanking attacks, retreats, close air support missions or casualty evacuations. All of these situations are presumed to take place under real or potential conditions of heavy enemy fire. Make of this what you will. My guess is that they've got a surplus of toys to play with, and a powerless demographic to experiment on.
Stun Grenade
Diagram of the M84 stun grenade. (Photo: US Army)
There are scattered reports of stun grenade use in Ferguson. Also known as flashbangs or flash grenades, this weapon of choice for American SWAT teams (and Israeli soldiers) originated in the British special forces community more than four decades ago. Ostensibly less than lethal, stun grenades have been known to kill or severely injure numerous victims, and the device was recently in the news for burning a 19-month-old baby in Georgia, resulting in a coma, during one of the thousands of domestic police raids this year. They are designed to temporarily blind and deafen, thanks to a shrapnel-free casing that is only supposed to emit light and sound upon explosion. Nonetheless, the list of casualties is long, and the number of flammable mishaps is disconcerting. In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Balko recounts a story of an FBI agent accidentally lighting himself and his vehicle on fire.
Riot Gun
ARWEN 37 6-shot grenade launcher in the center. (Photo: US Army)
Before moving on to the ammunition most visible in the media, it's important we consider the machines from which they are being shot. The most likely culprit is the ARWEN 37, which is capable of discharging 37mm tear gas canisters or wooden bullet projectiles. Another possibility is the SL6, a 37mm six-shot rotary magazine projectile launcher that is seemingly capable of firing every relevant "non-lethal" round in the book. When a Marine or other warfighter is introduced to one of these for the first time, he likely thinks of the M203 Grenade Launcher as a point of comparison. This is because they're all part of the same family. They're all grenade launchers.
Triple Chaser CS
Tear gas canister that has just exploded and bounced off the ground. (Photo: Athens Indymedia)
The police used tear gas unsparingly the past week, and it was perhaps the most disturbing ingredient in the stew. As others have noted, the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 actually bans the gas as a permissible means of warfare. Then again, it is allowed for domestic riot control, and nations like Turkey, Bahrain, Israel and the United States have exploited the loophole to great avail. If you're interested in the weapon's mechanics or science, the Internet has your back. In the meantime, I can assure you its effects are far from pleasurable. Every Marine has his or her own story about their time at the "gas chamber," the place we go to become familiar with our gas masks (so they tell us). Suffice it to say it sucks out your organs, hogs your oxygen and burns you inside and out. Interim blindness and extended coughing fits are common, as well as an overall sense that you are dying or dead. And they're dispersing this poison in people's backyards.
Pepper Spray Projectile
These "pepper balls" are lethal; the Boston Police Department banned them after a young woman was killed by one. It passed right through the eye and skull to the brain. She was guilty of being present in a rowdy crowd after a Red Sox v. Yankees game in which the former won. The ACLU condemned the use of such projectiles for the purposes of crowd management back in 1997, following an unfortunate incident in Eugene, Oregon. They even convinced Eugene officials to do the same. It's about time St. Louis County and the rest of the country followed suit.
Rubber Bullet
You can find pictures elsewhere of the kinds of welts these things leave. The key takeaway is that, like so many of the other "safe" items on this list, they disable and kill. It appears the preferred method of discharge in Ferguson is by way of the 60-cal Stinger, which contains approximately 42- or 27 32-caliber rubber balls per casing.
Wooden Bullet Projectile
Again, the wounds are nasty. All these injuries remind me of the after-affects of Simunition training for Marine officers at The Basic School, except worse. Like the stun grenade, employing wooden pellets as a form of riot control was spearheaded by the British decades ago, mainly in Hong Kong. As the ACLU makes clear, considerable litigation has proceeded in the aftermath of such tactics, including suits brought by protesters in Oakland who bore the brunt of these measures around the beginning of the Iraq War. Longshoremen on their way to work also suffered and sued accordingly. As a result, the Oakland police department caved and beating residents with wooden projectiles as a means of crowd management was rendered illegal.
Bean Bag Projectile
Two views of intact bean bag shotgun round, with a view of exposed bean bag round projectile in the center. (Photo: Techjess)
The Super-Sock constitutes yet another less-than-lethal impact munition that kills people. It also happens to have been directed at KSDK-TV photojournalists and Al Jazeera America TV crew members in Ferguson, along with a good dose of tear gas. Numerous suits concerning bean bag usage are also pending.
BEARCAT
Police Lenco Bearcat CBRNE Armored Rescue Vehicle. (Photo: S.D. Lewis)
The BEARCAT G3 is the SWAT team's version of the military's Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, or better yet its MRAP All Terrain Vehicle. Seeing that there aren't any mines or IEDs in Ferguson, that the chances of an ambush are slim to none, and that the terrain is relatively boring, the decision of the St. Louis County Police Department to roll out with (or even own) one of these is questionable. The same could be said for SWAT teams across the nation, some of whom are presently operating actual MRAPs. As Balko reports in Rise of the Warrior Cop, some are even fitted with 50-caliber machine gun turrets. A rumor in the warfighting community has it that a 50 cal can maim or kill a target even when it misses by a few feet. I don't think this is true, but it speaks to a certain truth about the gun in question. Why any of this is still allowed anywhere, much less in our neighborhoods (especially in our neighborhoods of color) is beyond me.
Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)
The LRAD is a sonic weapon that my psychological operations (PSYOP) friends could probably discuss more intelligently. All I can tell you is that the sound is so pain-inducing that in addition to being used to keep pirates at bay and break up groups of protesters or black people, it is wielded in order to regulate the movements of wildlife. Here's how it looks and sounds when targeting human beings.
MD Helicopter 500 Series
MD Helicopters, also called Hughes 369E. (Photo: Adrian Pingstone)
Local police departments no longer just rate military-grade armored personnel carriers and combat loads. They also rate the kinds of helicopters that can only make the North Korean Air Force blush. And one of them presumably spent the middle days of August patrolling Ferguson town folk from the skies. I'm sure they appreciated the service.
K-9
Whenever the St. Louis County or Ferguson Police aren't protecting the public via tear gas, impact munitions or sonic pain, they have been conducting civic outreach by way of growling German shepherds. As a good many military veterans are now lamenting, if cops are going to steal our gadgetry, they might consider adopting our overarching strategy too. Say what you like about Counterinsurgency Doctrine (COIN)—and I've said quite a few not-so-nice things about it in the past—but what is taking place in the above photograph spits in the face of everything COIN represents. The point, remember, is to win the hearts and minds of the people, not infuse them with helplessness and rage.
Lord knows we keep failing at this mission overseas. What's so shocking is that we seem to have abandoned its most decent ideals altogether here at home. As Balko has shown, "community policing grants" have been used to fund more SWAT teams. Any commitments to empathy held by cops has given way to an "Oakleys and crew cuts" bravado that hides behind gargantuan slabs of metal and increasingly deadly ordnance. Most of all, Martin Luther King's dream is dying a slow death. One officer of the law feels comfortable shouting to the black citizens he is sworn to protect, their iPhone cameras in hand, "Bring it, you fucking animals! Bring it!" This only echoes another quote in Rise of the Warrior Cop, where a SWAT member boasts, "When the soldiers ride in, you should see those blacks scatter."
The arsenal on display in Ferguson is not the arsenal of riot control. In a town whose population is 67 percent black while its police force is 94 percent white, we are dealing with something more insidious, both locally and as a nation. We are dealing with an arsenal of racial oppression. It's time we look it in the face, in all its awful detail. It's time we call it by its name. And it's time we finally do what we were tasked to do over a half century ago. It's time we challenge, transcend and extinguish it.
Tear gas filled the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, on August 19, 2014. (Photo: Mike Ludwig)
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As smoke hangs over the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, it's important to understand its source. Some of this understanding will require us to reassess the history of police militarization in the United States. This will mean acknowledging its origins in the aftermath of the Watts Riots (1965) and the birth of the SWAT team shortly thereafter. It will mean noting the conservative reaction to the Warren Court's civil libertarian protections in the 1950s and 60s to President Nixon's launching of the drug war at the end of that same tumultuous decade. It will mean harping on President Reagan's wholehearted embrace of racial policing and mass incarceration in the 1980s. It will mean interrogating the devastating effects of the 1208 Program (1990), which became the 1033 Program (1996), both of which authorized the transfer of military hardware to domestic precincts, a practice that has only accelerated in the wake of the Battle of Seattle (1999) and the attacks of September 11, 2001. The basic contours of this trajectory can be found in Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces (2013). As Tamara K. Nopper and Mariame Kaba argue in Jacobin, however, any serious reckoning must account for the ongoing dehumanization of black people, tout court.
One small way to measure the police violence against black people in Ferguson is to attend to its details. It is in that spirit that I present this simple catalog.
Combat Load
Police react as they clash with protesters on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri, the night of Aug. 19, 2014. (Photo: Eric Thayer / The New York Times)
There is a growing chorus of military veterans who have chimed in on the absurdity of photographs like this one. Let me join the parade. What we're seeing here is a gaggle of cops wearing more elite killing gear than your average squad leader leading a foot patrol through the most hostile sands or hills of Afghanistan. They are equipped with Kevlar helmets, assault-friendly gas masks, combat gloves and knee pads (all four of them), woodland Marine Pattern utility trousers, tactical body armor vests, about 120 to 180 rounds for each shooter, semiautomatic pistols attached to their thighs, disposable handcuff restraints hanging from their vests, close-quarter-battle receivers for their M4 carbine rifles and Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights. In other words, they're itching for a fight. A big one. It's a well-known horror that the US military greets foreign peoples in this fashion as our politicians preach freedom, democracy and peace. It's an abomination that the police greet black communities in the States with the same trigger-happy posture. Especially on the occasion of an unarmed teen's death by cop.
Smoke Grenade and Smoke Bomb
There's at least one line every Marine knows. It's ingrained at boot camp or Officer Candidate School and follows us to the front lines and back home again. It's a simple command and it's the second of the four weapons-safety rules. It says, "Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot." The St. Louis County Police Department apparently never received the memo. Either that or they intend to shoot. Although their tactical flashlights might be assisting them in spying on (and blinding) their targets, I suspect their air-purifying respirators and the smoke and CS gas they've released might be getting in the way of said objective. It's unclear whether it was cheap fuse-operated smoke bombs (think fireworks) or more expensive pin-operated smoke grenades that are responsible for the fog. Both tools have been reported onsite. For what it's worth, such smokescreens are usually executed during flanking attacks, retreats, close air support missions or casualty evacuations. All of these situations are presumed to take place under real or potential conditions of heavy enemy fire. Make of this what you will. My guess is that they've got a surplus of toys to play with, and a powerless demographic to experiment on.
Stun Grenade
Diagram of the M84 stun grenade. (Photo: US Army)
There are scattered reports of stun grenade use in Ferguson. Also known as flashbangs or flash grenades, this weapon of choice for American SWAT teams (and Israeli soldiers) originated in the British special forces community more than four decades ago. Ostensibly less than lethal, stun grenades have been known to kill or severely injure numerous victims, and the device was recently in the news for burning a 19-month-old baby in Georgia, resulting in a coma, during one of the thousands of domestic police raids this year. They are designed to temporarily blind and deafen, thanks to a shrapnel-free casing that is only supposed to emit light and sound upon explosion. Nonetheless, the list of casualties is long, and the number of flammable mishaps is disconcerting. In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Balko recounts a story of an FBI agent accidentally lighting himself and his vehicle on fire.
Riot Gun
ARWEN 37 6-shot grenade launcher in the center. (Photo: US Army)
Before moving on to the ammunition most visible in the media, it's important we consider the machines from which they are being shot. The most likely culprit is the ARWEN 37, which is capable of discharging 37mm tear gas canisters or wooden bullet projectiles. Another possibility is the SL6, a 37mm six-shot rotary magazine projectile launcher that is seemingly capable of firing every relevant "non-lethal" round in the book. When a Marine or other warfighter is introduced to one of these for the first time, he likely thinks of the M203 Grenade Launcher as a point of comparison. This is because they're all part of the same family. They're all grenade launchers.
Triple Chaser CS
Tear gas canister that has just exploded and bounced off the ground. (Photo: Athens Indymedia)
The police used tear gas unsparingly the past week, and it was perhaps the most disturbing ingredient in the stew. As others have noted, the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 actually bans the gas as a permissible means of warfare. Then again, it is allowed for domestic riot control, and nations like Turkey, Bahrain, Israel and the United States have exploited the loophole to great avail. If you're interested in the weapon's mechanics or science, the Internet has your back. In the meantime, I can assure you its effects are far from pleasurable. Every Marine has his or her own story about their time at the "gas chamber," the place we go to become familiar with our gas masks (so they tell us). Suffice it to say it sucks out your organs, hogs your oxygen and burns you inside and out. Interim blindness and extended coughing fits are common, as well as an overall sense that you are dying or dead. And they're dispersing this poison in people's backyards.
Pepper Spray Projectile
These "pepper balls" are lethal; the Boston Police Department banned them after a young woman was killed by one. It passed right through the eye and skull to the brain. She was guilty of being present in a rowdy crowd after a Red Sox v. Yankees game in which the former won. The ACLU condemned the use of such projectiles for the purposes of crowd management back in 1997, following an unfortunate incident in Eugene, Oregon. They even convinced Eugene officials to do the same. It's about time St. Louis County and the rest of the country followed suit.
Rubber Bullet
You can find pictures elsewhere of the kinds of welts these things leave. The key takeaway is that, like so many of the other "safe" items on this list, they disable and kill. It appears the preferred method of discharge in Ferguson is by way of the 60-cal Stinger, which contains approximately 42- or 27 32-caliber rubber balls per casing.
Wooden Bullet Projectile
Again, the wounds are nasty. All these injuries remind me of the after-affects of Simunition training for Marine officers at The Basic School, except worse. Like the stun grenade, employing wooden pellets as a form of riot control was spearheaded by the British decades ago, mainly in Hong Kong. As the ACLU makes clear, considerable litigation has proceeded in the aftermath of such tactics, including suits brought by protesters in Oakland who bore the brunt of these measures around the beginning of the Iraq War. Longshoremen on their way to work also suffered and sued accordingly. As a result, the Oakland police department caved and beating residents with wooden projectiles as a means of crowd management was rendered illegal.
Bean Bag Projectile
Two views of intact bean bag shotgun round, with a view of exposed bean bag round projectile in the center. (Photo: Techjess)
The Super-Sock constitutes yet another less-than-lethal impact munition that kills people. It also happens to have been directed at KSDK-TV photojournalists and Al Jazeera America TV crew members in Ferguson, along with a good dose of tear gas. Numerous suits concerning bean bag usage are also pending.
BEARCAT
Police Lenco Bearcat CBRNE Armored Rescue Vehicle. (Photo: S.D. Lewis)
The BEARCAT G3 is the SWAT team's version of the military's Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, or better yet its MRAP All Terrain Vehicle. Seeing that there aren't any mines or IEDs in Ferguson, that the chances of an ambush are slim to none, and that the terrain is relatively boring, the decision of the St. Louis County Police Department to roll out with (or even own) one of these is questionable. The same could be said for SWAT teams across the nation, some of whom are presently operating actual MRAPs. As Balko reports in Rise of the Warrior Cop, some are even fitted with 50-caliber machine gun turrets. A rumor in the warfighting community has it that a 50 cal can maim or kill a target even when it misses by a few feet. I don't think this is true, but it speaks to a certain truth about the gun in question. Why any of this is still allowed anywhere, much less in our neighborhoods (especially in our neighborhoods of color) is beyond me.
Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)
The LRAD is a sonic weapon that my psychological operations (PSYOP) friends could probably discuss more intelligently. All I can tell you is that the sound is so pain-inducing that in addition to being used to keep pirates at bay and break up groups of protesters or black people, it is wielded in order to regulate the movements of wildlife. Here's how it looks and sounds when targeting human beings.
MD Helicopter 500 Series
MD Helicopters, also called Hughes 369E. (Photo: Adrian Pingstone)
Local police departments no longer just rate military-grade armored personnel carriers and combat loads. They also rate the kinds of helicopters that can only make the North Korean Air Force blush. And one of them presumably spent the middle days of August patrolling Ferguson town folk from the skies. I'm sure they appreciated the service.
K-9
Whenever the St. Louis County or Ferguson Police aren't protecting the public via tear gas, impact munitions or sonic pain, they have been conducting civic outreach by way of growling German shepherds. As a good many military veterans are now lamenting, if cops are going to steal our gadgetry, they might consider adopting our overarching strategy too. Say what you like about Counterinsurgency Doctrine (COIN)—and I've said quite a few not-so-nice things about it in the past—but what is taking place in the above photograph spits in the face of everything COIN represents. The point, remember, is to win the hearts and minds of the people, not infuse them with helplessness and rage.
Lord knows we keep failing at this mission overseas. What's so shocking is that we seem to have abandoned its most decent ideals altogether here at home. As Balko has shown, "community policing grants" have been used to fund more SWAT teams. Any commitments to empathy held by cops has given way to an "Oakleys and crew cuts" bravado that hides behind gargantuan slabs of metal and increasingly deadly ordnance. Most of all, Martin Luther King's dream is dying a slow death. One officer of the law feels comfortable shouting to the black citizens he is sworn to protect, their iPhone cameras in hand, "Bring it, you fucking animals! Bring it!" This only echoes another quote in Rise of the Warrior Cop, where a SWAT member boasts, "When the soldiers ride in, you should see those blacks scatter."
The arsenal on display in Ferguson is not the arsenal of riot control. In a town whose population is 67 percent black while its police force is 94 percent white, we are dealing with something more insidious, both locally and as a nation. We are dealing with an arsenal of racial oppression. It's time we look it in the face, in all its awful detail. It's time we call it by its name. And it's time we finally do what we were tasked to do over a half century ago. It's time we challenge, transcend and extinguish it.
