The Ferguson, Missouri thread

[Quicklet]

Potential third witness (in addition to Brown's friend and a woman who was picking up someone in the area for work) who tweeted about it as it happened.

https://twitter.com/7im/timelines/499639344613695488

[Edelweiss]

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...about-ferguson

"The kid wasn't really innocent," chimed in a woman at the other end of the table (they all declined to give their names). "He was struggling with the cop, and he's got a rap sheet already, so he's not that innocent." (While the first point is in dispute, the second isn't: The police have said that Michael Brown had no criminal record.)

As for the protests, well, they weren't about justice; they were just an excuse. "People are just taking the opportunity to satisfy their desire for junk," said one woman, knowingly. As if black people, the lust for theft encoded in their DNA, are just barely kept in line by authority.

This was a sore subject with several of the people I spoke to. A major problem with the protests—and they very clearly did not mean the militarized police response to the protests—was that they were tarnishing St. Louis's image as a nice place.

"I'm embarrassed to say I'm from St. Louis," the "bullshit" woman grumbled.

"Me, too," said her friend. "I don't tell people I'm from St. Louis anymore."

"This is not representative of St. Louis," said one of the older women, back at Starbucks. "St. Louis is a good place. And Ferguson is a very good place."

"We have never had anything like this in St. Louis!" her friend exclaimed, flustered, as if trying to clear the city's good name. "Ever!"

[Karbuncle]

Those seem so goddamn biased i can't take em seriously.

[Edelweiss]

Those seem so goddamn biased i can't take em seriously.

What do you think the point of this was?

[Enkidu]

I think it's conceivable Brown thought he was being arrested for theft when the cop stopped him. The cop not knowing about the robbery would make me more likely to believe that Brown did go after the gun or at least attempt to assault the officer. I mean, unless you believe this cop just wanted to shoot a black person that day, he had no real reason to assume Brown was dangerous and pull a weapon. Obviously things escalated far more then necessary and it's sad a dude died over a $50 theft, but I'm not ready to send the cop to prison until more evidence is released.

Wonder if the officer had audio recording during the scuffle, not as good as a video, but could still be very telling. Isn't audio pretty standard for cops? Witnesses are probably a little emotionally charged so personally I'm hesitant to take them at face value.

[Edelweiss]

Wonder if the officer had audio recording during the scuffle, not as good as a video, but could still be very telling. Isn't audio pretty standard for cops? Witnesses are probably a little emotionally charged so personally I'm hesitant to take them at face value.

Considering his patrol car didn't even have a dashcam..

[Niiro]

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...about-ferguson

Group of random old white people from the mid-west are ignorant bigots.

More at 11:00.

[Edelweiss]

Random old white people from the St. Louis-area, 15-minutes from Ferguson, are ignorant bigots.

More at 11:00.

Fixed that for you.

The context does kind of matter, given whats to come in the investigations and courts involving certain officials.

[Khajit]

I'm pretty sure the rate of immigrants coming in is greater than the rate of brown people getting shot.

Only a temporary problem. I'm sure many people in America look forward to the day when they can protect themselves from the horrible brown people just like our allies in Israel. People are hard at work to achieve this future.

[Quicklet]

I think it's conceivable Brown thought he was being arrested for theft when the cop stopped him. The cop not knowing about the robbery would make me more likely to believe that Brown did go after the gun or at least attempt to assault the officer. I mean, unless you believe this cop just wanted to shoot a black person that day, he had no real reason to assume Brown was dangerous and pull a weapon. Obviously things escalated far more then necessary and it's sad a dude died over a $50 theft, but I'm not ready to send the cop to prison until more evidence is released.

Wonder if the officer had audio recording during the scuffle, not as good as a video, but could still be very telling. Isn't audio pretty standard for cops? Witnesses are probably a little emotionally charged so personally I'm hesitant to take them at face value.

As opposed to a cop being encouraged to lie about his witness account to protect himself. Or the local prosecutor who would bring charges against him already having a shady past when it comes to covering up lies in a case involving police shooting.

There is giving the benefit of the doubt and there is turning a blind eye to strong evidence that this was an unjustified murder and an attempt to cover it up.

[Dimmauk]

Am I the only who keeps seeing the "The" in the title as "Turd"?

[Kohan]

Yes, but I understand what you're going through.

[Enkidu]

Shouldn't the autopsy pretty much either prove the cops version of events or the witnesses version of events? If dude was shot up close a few times, officers story is more legit. If he was shot from a distance/in the back, witnesses story is more legit. That said, why not wait for more evidence before taking such a strong position?

What's the attempt to cover it up though? Brown did rob a store prior to this, that's unquestionable now... Personally I think it makes it more plausible that a violent encounter with an officer took place. I don't think it would be wrong for the DA to take a similar stance with the evidence at hand... We'll see as more comes out.

[kuronosan]

I thought the clerk said he didn't actually steal anything.

[Quicklet]

You just had a paramilitary level suppression of the media and civilian populace and you have to ask why they might want to cover up the murder of an innocent teenager? The autopsy might also be able to tell you if he was shot while having his hands up in a submissive posture. However, given the conduct of the local police force up until now, I wouldn't put it past them to try to tamper or cover up evidence that would corroborate the murder of an unarmed, surrendering person.

Legally, the "robbery" (which really should be called what it is, shoplifting) is completely irrelevant to the matter of whether the cop continued to shoot at Brown after any possible initial scuffle and after he allegedly raised his hands up. If that's the case, the cop has no justification to continue to use deadly force. With regard to the robbery, the cops can't even give a coherent answer as to how this was relevant to the encounter with the cop. The only possible way you can interpret it is as a character assassination to make the kid look bad or an attempt to change the facts of the encounter afterward.

By all accounts so far, the cop is the one who escalated this situation, and the burden needs to be on him to show that his actions were justified (given evidence to the contrary), not the other way around. If the police want to start providing some clarity to this situation, the first thing they could do is release the incident report and the autopsy results.

[Kuya]

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/15/340419...ntent=20140815

Maybe if more white mothers had black kids this would start changing.

Alex Landau, who is African-American, was adopted by a white couple as a child and grew up in largely white, middle-class suburbs of Denver.

Still, "we never talked about race growing up," Landau tells his mother, Patsy Hathaway, on a visit to StoryCorps. "I just don't think that was ever a conversation."

"I thought that love would conquer all and skin color really didn't matter," Hathaway says. "I had to learn the really hard way when they almost killed you."

Landau thought he was safe. He wasn't in handcuffs, he says, and he'd already been patted down. "Plus there's three officers on the scene. And I had never had a negative interaction with police in my life.

"So I ask them, 'Can I please see a warrant before you continue the search?' " Landau says. "And they grab me and began to hit me in the face. I could hear Addison in the background yelling, 'Stop! Leave him alone.'

"I was hit several times, and I remember gasping for air" and spitting blood, he says.

"And then I hear an officer shout out, 'He's reaching for a gun,' " he tells his mother. "I immediately started yelling, 'No, I'm not. I'm not reaching for anything.' "

Landau felt a gun against his head, he says. "And I expected to be shot. And at that point I lost consciousness. ...

[Charismatic]

I thought the clerk said he didn't actually steal anything.

lol, of course he did. Look at that skin, are you crazy?

[tyven]

God I hope I'm not late with this but here is cell phone footage shortly after his death.

Cell Phone Footage From the Scene of Mike Brown's…: http://youtu.be/dfAkvcbU2pw

[Charismatic]

God I hope I'm not late with this but here is cell phone footage shortly after his death.

Cell Phone Footage From the Scene of Mike Brown's…: http://youtu.be/dfAkvcbU2pw

You are indeed late but I love that guy had the decency to say worldstar in the video.

[6souls]

Police have so far pointed their guns at protesters and the protesters all put their hands up. Shit almost went down, but members of The Nation of Islam were there to hold back the crowd before the police had used their flash bangs. Both sides have shown restraint, but it still remains tense.

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench