The Ferguson, Missouri thread

[Mertron]

police officers show up at the scene of a domestic violence incident

OH MY GOD, THAT GUY HAS FISTS! IM GETTING THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!

[Nephlite]

Glad to see the same folks defending doughboy's awful canned testimony and Bobby's non-prosecution and data-dumping strat. Good times.

I leave ya'll with this nugget of wisdom shared by a friend of mine yesterday: "If DW was in the car fighting for his life, taking two mighty wallops through the window, why didn't his pussy ass hit the gas pedal?"

To that I have no reply. There has to be some magical negro forcefield preventing him from moving, or MB pinned his leg down when he was Dhalsim'ing inside for the gun before/after DW unholstered. The world will never know, but thank god for white folk's imaginations.

Imagination as in thinking he could have hit the gas and possibly killed Brown anyway, or ran someone over, hit some car, or something along those lines? Sure, use your 3000 pound vehicle to cause more mayhem. And the way it was angled would have surely hit a kid, or parked car nearby with kids inside given the alignment of the stars.

You watch too much TV. You and your friend.

I can see why he wasn't indicted (though he really should have been, even if just for the public trust).

I suppose after all this the real discrepancies are why a kid would just randomly reach into a cop car and start pounding a cop in the face.

With all these shootings I have to be honest and say it's really eroded my trust in cops, and I typically get along with them really well.

An indictment would have just meant that much more of a shitshow trial.

Things get dirty during trials. Defense could have easily painted Brown as a violent psychopath with equally violent parents. Discrediting and defamation of character? Wait until a defense attorney uses everything in your past to haunt you. Happens to police officers when we're on the stand. Stole some gummy bears in elementary school? Oh, so now you're an expert on theft. Officer Nephlite? How about Undetected Crimes and is a Police Officer Now Nephlite?

And then, the witnesses. That'll be a show.

Prosecution has to disclose everything to the defense. The trial will be dead before it reaches the disclosure phase. That'll be a show, and the riots would happen anyways.

That is why I forfeit armchair discussions, punditry, and blogger op-eds (which I have been able to tie some of these so-called discrepancies to shit-holes like the Blaze) and rely on professionals, instead. Thank god for the internet and the ease of connecting with said professionals.

Since this is about the closest to humility you'll get to, I'll bid you good day. See you at the next shooting.

[Charismatic]

Not that this stopped them from printing out a statute claiming otherwise and giving it to the grand jury before Wilson's testimony, and then offering a half-assed (and unexplained) 'correction' weeks later right before the decision was made.

God damn. How is this shit allowed?

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/w...y-364273731666

[notorious bum]

I already posted that piece my dude, prepare to get schooled by Lt. Neph.

[archibaldcrane]

I think I figured out how to put what bothers me about Ferguson.

For the GJ to say there was no probable cause to indict Wilson, the are essentially saying that Brown, beyond a reasonable doubt, struck Wilson to make him fear for his life, grabbed his gun and tried to take it/point it at Wilson, and charged Wilson after running from him.

And clearly, reasonable doubt exists about whether any of those 3 things occurred.

[kuronosan]

I think I figured out how to put what bothers me about Ferguson.

For the GJ to say there was no probable cause to indict Wilson, the are essentially saying that Brown, beyond a reasonable doubt, struck Wilson to make him fear for his life, grabbed his gun and tried to take it/point it at Wilson, and charged Wilson after running from him.

And clearly, reasonable doubt exists about whether any of those 3 things occurred.

I think that's what bothers me about it. No cross-examining, basically they found Brown guilty and Wilson innocent. Which I'm fine with if that's what the evidence points to... But the evidence suggests either one could be culpable.

Worthy of a trial, but Neph has a point that it would be a dog and pony show at best.

I still think it should have went to trial.

[notorious bum]

Some folks made storify archives of Lisa Bloom's dismantling of the GJ circus. I love this woman, mad that I only recently just found out about her.

https://storify.com/laurahib/lisa-bl...d-darren-wilso

https://storify.com/tessalaprofessa/story#publicize

[notorious bum]

Major support happening in STL protests, there's about 2k protestors who just shut down a mall, looks like they're going to shut another one down soon. BART shut down. 2k protestors in Times Square atm....lot's of jimmies being rustled out there lol

[Quicklet]

The statute did not say that an officer is allowed to use Deadly Force specifically, and the reporter who did the segment on it was using the outdated version of the law to make an argument. It did not say anywhere specifically in the amended statute that the action is authorized, and was changed by ruling.

It did. That's why the prosecutors had to issue a new sheet weeks later that presumably did not have the unconstitutional part of the statute, except they didn't bother to tell the grand jurors which part of the statute was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. And then when some grand jurors asked for clarification, they basically were just like "don't worry about that". So for the vast majority of the grand jury presentation, the jurors were operating under the assumption that it was legal to use deadly force against a fleeing suspect.

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/...g-instructions

[Salodin]

But by the end they did know it's illegal to use deadly force on a fleeing suspect right? Very shady by the prosecutors indeed, but it shouldn't have affected the final verdict.

Unless they really did not know it's illegal.

[Kyreth]

The forensics proved that he moved back towards Wilson, while still at a considerable distance. Not that he necessarily ran. The forensics also proved that Wilson was not struck hard enough to be on the edge of consciousness or to fear the next blow may kill him.

Of course, you don't have to worry about how hard you got struck if the other guy gets control of your gun.

http://elmira-corning.twcnews.com/co...-suspect-dies/

That happened this March. You try and take a cop's gun, you've already passed the point of "threatening the officer's life"- and it's clear that Brown had at least gotten one hand on the weapon during the fight.

[archibaldcrane]

It's not clear whether he was doing so offensively or defensively.

For all we know, Wilson yelled at them to get out of the street, they said they were almost to their destination, he gets mad, backs up, hits Brown with the car door, grabs him through the window and says "look here you little nigger, let me show you what happens when you talk back" and points his gun at Brown, who, fearing for his life grabs it, Wilson fires (striking him in the hand), Brown takes off running with Wilson in pursuit, Wilson fires at him (missing), Brown stops, flinging blood from his wounded hand another 10 feet beyond where he stopped, says "ok ok ok ok!" puts his hands up and turns around, and Wilson fires the second volley, gunning him down.

No part of the physical evidence makes this impossible, right?

[Quicklet]

It's not clear if he was doing so as a defensive measure to avoid getting shot, though. The issue is that the bulk of the Wilson self-defense / reasonable fear narrative hinges on his own testimony which was not rigorously cross-examined for inconsistencies with other testimony. Given how fantastical his account was, all the more reason to go to a trial.

[kuronosan]

It's not clear whether he was doing so offensively or defensively.

For all we know, Wilson yelled at them to get out of the street, they said they were almost to their destination, he gets mad, backs up, hits Brown with the car door, grabs him through the window and says "look here you little nigger, let me show you what happens when you talk back" and points his gun at Brown, who, fearing for his life grabs it, Wilson fires (striking him in the hand), Brown takes off running with Wilson in pursuit, Wilson fires at him (missing), Brown stops, flinging blood from his wounded hand another 10 feet beyond where he stopped, says "ok ok ok ok!" puts his hands up and turns around, and Wilson fires the second volley, gunning him down.

No part of the physical evidence makes this impossible, right?

Forensic evidence only demonstrated the following:

1) At some point Brown either touched or attempted to grab Wilson's gun.
2) He was shot in the front, not the back.
3) At some point Brown physically assaulted Wilson (to what extent is not known).
4) Wilson did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
5) Wilson's cruiser was damaged during the scuffle.
6) The gun discharged in the cruiser.

The rest is all about witnesses and testimony. My issue is still that they tore apart the eyewitness testimony (deservedly so) but didn't even question Wilson (and the FPD) and the changing story. The only "consistent" story has been "he charged me, I charged muh lazer".

[NynJa]

It's not clear whether he was doing so offensively or defensively.

For all we know, Wilson yelled at them to get out of the street, they said they were almost to their destination, he gets mad, backs up, hits Brown with the car door, grabs him through the window and says "look here you little nigger, let me show you what happens when you talk back" and points his gun at Brown, who, fearing for his life grabs it, Wilson fires (striking him in the hand), Brown takes off running with Wilson in pursuit, Wilson fires at him (missing), Brown stops, flinging blood from his wounded hand another 10 feet beyond where he stopped, says "ok ok ok ok!" puts his hands up and turns around, and Wilson fires the second volley, gunning him down.

No part of the physical evidence makes this impossible, right?

Where were Browns fingerprints on the gun?

[Acevalefor]

I don't know about any of you, but if someone was trying to lift a gun to point it at my face, I would do everything I could possibly think of to make sure that didn't happen. I would punch, gouge, grab the gun, etc. fear for your life does not stop when you don't have a badge and a gun. Why does it always turn into "Brown went for the gun"? How about "Wilson got mouthy with a punk kid and took a fist to the face then grabbed his gun to show this nigger who's boss and Brown tried to stop him from drawing the gun"? You know, like Archi said.

[Salodin]

If that was the case, they'd examine his history with other blacks in Ferguson. Does he have a history of violence? Was he ever questioned about racist actions or remarks?

Iirc his record doesn't have anything in it to indicate he would go pulling a random black man from the street into his car window where he already has the disadvantage. Then again, maybe some one knows more about that subject.

[kuronosan]

That's actually not true. He does have a history of unbecoming behavior.

[Salodin]

Didn't know, please share.

[kuronosan]

Well, not necessarily proven to be specifically him but he was part of the Jennings police force that was disbanded due to repeated "behavior violations" between the white and black community (sorry, not officers).

He was able to get a new job in Ferguson.