The officer who shot Mr. Brown was investigated at the local, state and federal level and no charges were brought against the officer because there was no basis for doing so.
Please note that this was during the administration of Barack Obama, our first black President, and while Eric Holder, another black man, was Obama’s head of the Department of Justice.
If there had been any grounds for bringing charges against the officer don’t you think they would have been discovered and used by Obama and Holder?
And, of course, don’t forget that portions of Ferguson were burned down by rioters. Exactly why is it these “activists” should be glorified?
58
Black community lionizing Michael Brown,a “gentle giant”, impersonating lifestyle wise Richard Wright’s Native Son “Digger”?
17
'Hands up, don't shoot' ranked one of biggest 'Pinocchios' of 2015
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/hands-up-dont-shoot-false-216736
34
Please. We need more black police officers, so the false narrative of "bad cops, good criminals" can go away.
15
How about balance and responsibility in this story. Eric Holder, President Obama's attorney general, completely exonerated Darryl Wilson. Michael Brown was attacking Wilson and going after his gun. While there are certainly cases of police brutality, this was certainly not one of them.
52
The spirit of Al Sharpton is alive and well in Ferguson.
41
We have a problem. When an entire constituency of Americans feel they’re singled out by police, work must be done by cities and states to fix it. Beyond protest and BLM, the black community has to play its part. While each death is a tragedy, they’re not all the same cases. While Eric Garner, Grey, Brand (her story and the behavior of the belligerent officer is chilling and so sad) and Castile seem like they just should have gone down differently. In Michael Brown’s case, I wish a parent, teacher or leader could have cautioned him to show respect for the police and the convenience store owner. His death is a tragic event. But he wasn’t mowed down on the street. He participated and provoked, and could have done his part to stop a situation from spiraling downward. In this case, the officer was acquitted supported by witnesses and due process. I feel sorry for his Mom, and I’m sure she reflects on it all. The case is a bit more complicated than “police brutality.”
35
I wonder what happened to the immigrant entrepreneur whose store was robbed by Mike Brown. Was he able to rebuild his store and business? A truly neglected victim.
59
Boy, some false narratives just won’t die.
61
I don't believe there is any "good guy" in this. The police and the city government mistreated the black community.
Michael Brown attacked a police officer. The officer was trained to shoot to kill, when I believe that he could have extracated himself from the situation. There were 4 shots to Brown's arm. I believe that Brown was momentarily backed off, then attached Wilson again. I think that Wilson could have hit the accellerator of his cruiser before Brown came at him again. Instead he shot twice more to Brown's head, killing him. This is police training - shoot to kill. I believe that the police, the city government and Michael Brown all deserve each other. Add to all this, that Brown's friend witnessed the entire thing and of course he's not going to "snitch" on his friend.
And now, to hear that Brown is somehow a victim in all of this and the NYT is buying in, the NYT is no good guy either. This entire story is all twisted around itself into one big lie. It is not what happened. It's just the story.
25
@Gerry
The police are not trained to run from perpetrators. Police officer takes off and a non-police officer gets killed and still everyone wants the police officer's head. I agree that the NYT continues to publish a very warped "remembrance" of what happened in Ferguson and ignores all the other innocent victims who lost their livlihood to a bunch of street thugs.
32
African American activists should spend more time on black on black gun homicides. These deaths vastly outnumber shootings by white police officers.
50
Lionizing Brown five years ago catapulting trump.
24
Whatever Michael Brown did or did not do, shooting him was a horrible and unnecessary response. Even if some activists take advantage of this shooting, the fact is that the shooting of black men is an epidemic in American culture and blacks are shot by police and treated far differently than whites in almost all circumstances. It is not surprising that bottled up black rage came to the fore after this shooting. Whoever Michael Brown really was, he became a symbol for the racism that all blacks in this counrty feel and experience.
The simple truth is that there are too many guns in the United States. Cops have too many guns; normal people have too many guns. It is a sickness in our culture. Just as racism is a sickness that violates the very fabric of our culture, guns and the radical advocacy of gun rights is eating us away from the inside. It is sick and indefensible.
8
@Robert
Cops are armed because they have to defend us. Remember the thin blue line. America is a violent culture and, if you really want to see mayhem, just give police officers a billy stock and no other weapon.
14
Violently assaulted store clerk, Mr. Patel, not worth profiling 5 yrs. later.
48
Wow - I can't believe this is in the NYTimes without any background context. Once you fully read the proven accounts of eyewitnesses, several of them blacks who backed up officer Wilson's story, and who said they left the scene after some of them were intimidated by other blacks who were newly showing up post shooting and who were making up false accounts about Brown surrendering, aka'hands up don't shoot' - when in fact officer Wilson only shot when Brown was charging him - makes me ill. Talk about handing the far racist right more ammo to feed their moral outrage, which in this case is justified, is a bad move. There are legitimate cases where cops are wrong and should go to jail. But in this case, the blacks making up lies and trying to wear their victimization laurels - should be outed and not given public sympathy.
58
Your story says Edward Crawford’s death was ruled a suicide, but questions linger about his death. What exactly were those “questions?”
3
The US Justice Department under Eric Holder investigated the death of Michael Brown and issued an eighty-page report that was made available for the public on the internet.
The Justice Department determined that there was no evidence of violation of Brown's civil rights. The shooting was, in fact, justified because DNA evidence corroborated the officer's testimony that Brown had attempted to grab the police-issued revolver. Brown was not a martyr to police brutality. The real victim here is the police officer who defended himself against a thug and ended up losing his job for simply trying to do his job.
49
It's a shame Michael Brown is spoken in the same terms as Tamir Rice or Eric Garner. The latter two were unjustifiably killed by the police and their race had a whole lot to do with it. Michael Brown's death was a 100% justifiable police shooting that happened right after Michael Brown had just committed a strong armed robbery. The unwillingness of BLM and the press to distinguish between these types of cases is what makes them vulnerable to criticism and ultimately hurts the cause of reducing police shootings. Honesty matters a lot to a movement because if they are constantly using disingenuous examples to prove their case, they it will be dismissed as fraudulent.
43
Mr. Williams and Mr. Eligon with their journalism have proven beyond a doubt, the printed word is mightier than the sword. It's articles like these that win Pulitzers. God bless.
Surprised and pleased to read the many responses from readers countering this article with the truth. It's infuriating to see Michael Brown linked with Eric Garner and so many other truly repulsive examples of police brutality. There is, quite simply, no comparison.
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The "activist" industry is a booming business.
This article helps prop up these charlatans.
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“The day before, the body of Michael Brown, a young black man fatally shot by a white police officer, was left lying for hours on a street in Ferguson, Mo., while a disparate group of people gathered in anger.”
Here we go again. How about a fact-based story on the testimony under oath in court by witnesses to the incident? Five years later, surely your reporters have had time to look at the evidence. But no. Instead, five years later, we have another story leading again with the above, leaving out the context.
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Dear NYT:
This would be a good time for The Times, and all major media, to reflect on the role they played in creating the false and incendiary narrative of "Hands up, Don't Shoot," and exploiting a factually murky situation prior to release of the Grand Jury report to feed racial hatred and division.
Sensationalism, jumping to conclusions, elevating feelings of hatred and fear as the unifying strands of narrative over reason -- these have become hallmarks of media coverage of these racially charged events.
America is in the grip of an unrelenting political reality show psychosis, manifested again and again whenever we are triggered.
President Trump exploited these cycles of "fake news" to win election, substituting his own brand of high drama, personalized, tabloid narrative that the media has too often emulated.
Ferguson stands for Fake News, and its malign effects on young ideologues unwilling to think first, before shouting.
This is a perverse form of racism in the media -- the assumption that people of color cannot wait for or grasp the facts, and that "white" people are all structural supremacists who don't know their own hearts.
Is this media cowardice, false consciousness or the hunt for clicks?
The media needs to do a much better job reporting the facts and keeping their intersectional bias in check, or we will be plunged again and again into hate and chaos.
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It absolutely eludes me as to why there is such a terrible blind spot about this incident and why the NYT and other media continue to perpetuate the myth that Michael Brown was some sort of civil rights hero and icon. He was not. He was a criminal who viciously attempted to murder a police officer after he committed a crime. A police officer whose actions were completely vindicated by multiple investigations, including the DoJ.
There are many examples of bad policing in our country and, certainly, there is room for improvement. However, Michael Brown is not an example of bad policing nor, for that matter, is Eric Garner. If the NYT wants to "expose" the problem of bad or racist policing, no problem. Just be more judicious in what you choose to exemplify the problem. Political correctness is not always correct.
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Odd how so many great revolutions begin it seemingly remote out of the way unknown places like Birmingham, Montgomery or Selma , Alabama or Ferguson Missouri. Places like Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina.
Or great rivers like the Amazon, Congo, Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile and the Ganges.
2
Please read the Department of Justice Investigation of the
Ferguson Police Department dated March 4, 2015.
This report was begun and concluded under Attorney General Eric Holder.
It does not conclude that policies were racist. Instead in points principally to a government clawing for revenue and abusing its citizens with parking tickets to get it. This had its most onerous effects on the poor of all races.
27
The irony of Ferguson was that the shooting of Michael Brown appears to be justified certainly compared to other police shootings. It does show us however, that if there is anger and pent-up hostility in a community even a justified police shooting can set off a series of events that quickly got out of hand that no one could have anticipated.
14
I know Deray did very well for himself. Not sure about anyone else.
14
I am still amazed at the deification of Michael Brown, particularly after watching the videotape of him stealing items from the store and then assaulting the manager.
Did he deserve to die for that? Of course not. In his subsequent conduct, could he have precluded that? Of course. But he chose not to. And, that's the tragedy.
45
Articles like this one is why large deaths of the country distrusts the mainstream press. Obama's DOJ exonerated Darren Wilson, yet this article acts as if these activists were protesting something that actually occurred.
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I didn’t read the article but has something changed from him robbing a store and assaulting the owner and being stopped by the police and then him attacking the police officer and being shot.
36
What is the community doing since this incident occurred to teach their children that armed robbery is wrong and that resisting and fighting the police can be fatal so maybe don't do it ?
It is ridiculous to think that all the changes need to come from the side of the police.
The left will go to any end to diminish personal responsibility and blame anyone but the perpetrator.
Truly sad.
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I'm still trying to figure out the Eric Gardner cover up. Nothing could be clearer than that video or do I need bifocals?
The spotty inconsistency afforded to these events apparently rests on far different measures of reality and consequence that the average person is unable too decipher.
No event can now invite the attention it deserves unless it is wrapped in an immigration blanket. How bizarre and twisted has the country become? Facts no longer dictate its warped perception and social media that stirs your coffee every single day.
7
"Though Mr. Crawford’s death has been ruled a suicide, questions have persisted among those who knew him. He is one of at least six activists with connections to Ferguson who have died violently, some from apparent suicides." One of Six? Suicides? This is not a small matter to be overlooked--something is very Wrong Here.....
5
Years ago I saw a doc on police training. The instructor said there were 3 errors that commonly ended in death for somebody:
1.Rushing in; failure to assess the situation
2. Getting too close to a person
3. Rudely yelling at a person
1
Michael Brown was shot for charging a police officer after multiple warnings. He had just committed theft in the convenience store and lack the judgement and intelligence to understand that charging an armed police officer is likely to have very negative consequences. It’s too bad and sad that this young man was killed. It was a justified shooting.
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I can't believe some of these people are being treated like heroes. I was a Ferguson resident and saw the protests and riots first-hand.
You call Bassem Masri a provocateur? Is that the word for someone who repeatedly threatened to rape police officers' wives and kill their children?
And Deray McKesson is a celebrity activist? How about an irresponsible liar who repeatedly spread misinformation on Twitter and made our community more volatile and dangerous?
I doubt you'll publish my comment. It doesn't fit the narrative. But it is in fact the TRUTH.
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@shstl
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
27
I'm amazed at how the NYT pushes the "gentle giant" myth and idolizes and mythologizes a criminal who attacked a cop.
Give your sympathy to the real victims, not Michael Brown. There have been countless black people unfairly treated by the community and police over the years. Why do you engage in this divisive rhetoric? Talk about them.
Eric Garner was selling individual cigarettes and died for it. He's a victim.
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@Ernest Montague Well said! If we want to address the racial issue effectively, we need to exam it honestly. Biased view is only harmful for the cause.
15
@Barooby
A white man would never have been stopped. White people can commit any crime and get away with it. America revolves around white men and white women. Its all about being white.and getting over.
1
It seems that the narrative that was being sought by many activists and many media outlets was not proved out my the facts in this specific case. Despite this fact the narrative was pushed anyway. We need to be diligent to the facts and not assume anything until all information is gathered. What happens when over zealousness like this occurs mirrors the results from folk story, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.
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Wow, there is shocking ignorance about the impact of systemic racism and the prevalence of police violence reflected in some of the comments here. Regardless the outcome of the investigation, Darren Wilson acted as judge, jury, and executioner that August 9th. That should disturb anyone who believes in the rule of law. Michael Brown was not a Boyscout, but he did not deserve to die that night. The other thing that the detractors miss is that the property destruction took place during a very brief time in a one block area, and the police overreacted with a militarized assault on civilians who were primarily protesting nonviolently. They have continued to assault nonviolent protesters in our city and county at other protests, most recently the Stockley protests. Police violence is epidemic and much of it stems from internalized racism both of individuals and embedded in the system of policing. The Ferguson protests shined a light on this nationwide problem and sparked a national conversation and movement that was desperately needed. We cannot solve these problems while they are hidden, not discussed, and glossed over. Racism is the dark underbelly of this nation and it is time to bring it into the light and repair the harm that was and is being done because of it. I am disappointed that Melissa McKinnies was not interviewed. She was on the front lines and her son, Danye Jones, was found hanging from a tree in her back yard-ruled a suicide but facts say otherwise.
21
I believe we should separate this specific incident from the larger sociological problems impacted by racial disparity. One can argue the latter more logically by excluding the former. This specific case was revealed to have factual information that did not fit the the initial narrative.
The larger point is that the police are the most important part of our governmental system ( without them we devolve into chaos). We put way too much burden on them to solve racial inequality, mental heath services, drug addiction,etc. The leaders in our government shouldn’t blame the police for all of our ills. Rather, they should accept responsibility for fixing those problems. But, that would take too much work, and it ends up being easier to simply blame the police. Now we are in a position where the self proclaimed pro-government Democrat party is continually telling us that the police is the problem. It hurts me because I am a Democrat myself.
20
@Green Sangha There certainly are problems with racism in this country. However there are different ways to go about addressing the problem. One is a sober and nonviolent approach as represented by MLK. The other is to inflame anger and hatred by promoting lies and half-truths which often leads to violence and bloodshed...and this is represented by Al Sharpton. It's sad that while a beloved African American was POTUS for eight years more progress was not made in a peaceful way on these issues. The fact that this movement was punctuated with riots, looting, arson, hate chants, assassinations and a massacre in Dallas cannot simply be ignored. I believe it not only backfired, but it brought us Trump.
11
@Green Sangha. No, police violence is not systemic nor does it happen frequently. Every one has the right to be a racist in the USA anyway, you can think, believe or feel a preference for a certain look, sex, race or level of education. It’s not a crime and we don’t have “thought police” -yet. Only when it damages some one materially like for example in a law enforcement situation, rental, sale or hiring event does it change into discrimination. That’s prohibited.
11
Many activists were paid and bused in to protest, ask people who actually live there about this. Al Sharpton (love him or hate him) paid (or promised payment which never came to fruition) for protesters as well. This situation which was bad enough on its own had gas thrown on the fire and hurt race relations in Ferguson and the neighboring communities.
55
@David I tried doing a search for "paid Ferguson activists" and could not come up with any results. May I ask where you acquired this information?
5
@Sue Salvesen - David is correct. Some protesters did get paid. This is one group of them:
http://www.stlamerican.com/ferguson/cutthecheck-is-not-a-movement/article_b712cdc0-04e4-11e5-824b-83e71b951fc3.html
10
See the link posted below-Al Sharpton also refused to have a white limo driver in St Louis- that’s racism at its finest!
5
One cannot but have sympathy for the parents, but let's also be honest about the facts .. he was a thief, resisted and arguable was aggressive to the police officer. All of these protests are built on a sea of exaggeration and 'feelings' vs. facts
94
Why would you publish such an article? What is the Motivation? I wish I could understand. For so many years, I heard the term “liberal press” and was bothered by it, because is so many cases the “liberal press” was nearly speaking a truth that conservatives with an alternate agenda in conflict with the truth endeavored to challenge. Only recently, when I read an article such as this, with such bias, as so many other readers have commented on, and from such a distinguished organization as the NYT’s, I shake my head in wonder. Dishonest, biased articles such as this do nothing to unite us, truth and honesty, which takes courage, lacking in this article, brings people together. Sadly, this type of warped and pandering piece only motivates more Americans to seek an opposing position, and unfortunately, in this climate, helped along with this journalistic bias, that helps the most tragic threat our democracy has ever encountered, our current president. Please, please, find the courage to be fair, honest, and unbiased.
115
Most of these activists came to Ferguson for the protests and never had to deal with the aftermath.
Will the Times be interviewing longtime residents whose homes have plummeted in value, amid a sea of rental property? What about the business owners who lost their livelihoods when their buildings were burned down or they could no longer get insurance or attract customers? Or the exhausted city employees, just trying to do their jobs under a constant barrage of threats, harassment and turnover?
Most of these people are black, by the way. But it seems like the media only has interest in the narrative and not the day-to-day reality.
97
@shstl
Great thoughts. Well said. I think we do understand tho, unfortunately, why the NYT does not write about the negatively affected folks, from the riots, you mention. It is because that does not fit their current narrative. Sensation sells, facts, reality,.... not so much
16
@crosbyk
NYT seeks to be the anti-Fox, not recognizing they are losing their credibility which is more valuable than being the "opposition voice" and whatever ad revenue they generate from the clicks. To borrow from their competition, democracy dies in darkness...and lies.
12
Ferguson is a prime example of the negative impact of not being committed to the truth. The popular story of Ferguson is a fiction and anyone with a basic commitment to being objective knows it. In many ways the fictional story pushed by the MSM, including the NYT with this story, gave space to the element of our society that talks about fake news. The death of truth is one of the major legacies of Ferguson.
126
@Rich - I believe you can draw a straight line from Ferguson to the election of Trump. But it's not purely racial, as the media has harped on incessantly.
I think many Americans had a very visceral reaction to the chaos and lawlessness they saw in Ferguson. And on a basic human level, they felt unsafe, like things were spiraling out of control.
Then a guy stands up and says he's going to reclaim law and order, that he's going to take control and steer the ship right again. And boom, he gets elected.
Right or wrong, I think Trump made some people feel safer.
55
@shstl
Again, very well said, and I have discussed this same issue with friends. What is always missing from the liberal narrative (and for my entire life, I have considered myself to be very liberal!, so it pains me to even use that phrase), is the extremely difficult job the police have, what they face, with attempting to do their jobs, and then all we ever see in the media is criticism of the police, never ever is it considered that the officer was in serious danger, or how it is possible for them to do their jobs without any respect or understanding. Study what has happened in Baltimore (also in the NYT this week), as another prime example of how broken the policing system has become.
16
@shstl
"... I think Trump made some people feel safer."
Perhaps, but he made many more feel very unsafe.
4
OMG, the comments are heartbreaking.
13
The truth often is.
52
@ThoughtPartner I live in St. Louis and it was heartbreaking to see how many lives were upended and what disservice the media did in reporting what happened here. Small businesses were affected many had to close......vandalism was rampant in many areas of our city all the while the media was presenting this as if Michael Brown was an innocent player.
There were "protests" were there were more news people than protesters. By the way and just in case you think I am a right wing nut...... I am drastically against Trump.
55
The national media's biased reporting of the Michael Brown incident (my guess is the vast majority of African Americans and white liberals think Brown shot while he had his hands up saying "don't shoot" and that he never attacked the officer) as well as the media's massively biased reporting on the illegal immigration issue could very well have contributed to the election of Donald Trump.
102
Is it still O.K. to mention that Michael Brown, while high on drugs committed a strong armed robbery of a store then attacked a lone responding officer within his police vehicle, causing two shots to be fired and losing a finger tip and some blood on the gun; then (according to independent witness) appeared ready to resist and attack again? What about the shameless slander on Officer Wilson, effectively ruining his life; or the fact that Eric Holders Justice Department and every subsequent local jurisdiction could find no fault by the officer? Finally what about cherry picked incidents out of hundreds of thousands of police/public contacts used to stereo-type cops everywhere, all playing into the hands of Trumpsters trying to destroy credibility of anyone interested in true justice?
155
@Robert Mescolotto Save it for the PBA gala
3
@Robert Mescolotto - Thank you, sir. Well said.
11
The robbery is on video. Brown was not a good guy.
14
Michael Brown robbed a convenience store, pushed its owner out of his way as he left and then attacked a police officer and tried to steal his weapon
Eric Holder's Justice Department investigated the incident and concluded that the officer acted in self defence, that the witnesses who supported the officer's version of events were credible and those who contradicted were not, that Michael Brown did not put his hands up and say "hands up don't shoot" and that Brown's civil rights were not violated.
All that looting and protesting and burning and it was all based on fiction.
149
@John You think the protest was over just one incident.
The protests were about years of racial inequities. Years.
10
@Stumpy
Every single slogan and chant was based on the lies about Michael Brown's shooting.
When you base a "movement" on a blatant lie, don't be surprised when people don't sympathize with the cause.
94
How are the victim shopkeeper and the police officer who was forced to shoot to kill?
70
@O'Brien I'm pretty sure they are still alive.
4
If Michael Brown's dad had taught him how to behave, he would still be alive. He attacked a cop and participated in strongarm robbery.
103
I was taught to respect the police. If I get stopped I will follow the instructions of the officer. If I believe I have been mistreated I would file a formal complaint with the superiors of the officer. What happened in Ferguson was that Michael Brown attacked the officer and what followed was vandalism with the support of the media including The Times. The protests never amounted to large crowds the largest was 1500 people or so. The St. Louis metropolitan area has about 2.8 million people with about 500,000 of them African Americans. It never had the traction that the media claimed including with the great majority of African Americans.
58
Interesting article. It shows that activism isn't for the faint of heart. As for the issue, however, all of these articles miss the reasons why there is so much police violence: In smaller localities, police are undertrained and underpaid, and the forces don't always attract the best people. In larger municipalities such as New York, the police officers' union protects the bad apples. Until there's more money for local law enforcement and until the power of the major police unions is broken, we can expect to see more shootings of unarmed people, both black and white, by police.
3
Yes, we do have a problem with overzealous police using unnecessary lethal force in certain circumstances. What happened to Michael Brown is not a good cause to push, however. He was big and strong and attacked a police officer. Essentially, he died from his own stupidity. You never, ever attack a police officer. You never, ever actively resist arrest. A cop, like everyone else, wants to safely go home after work. In the case of Tamir Rice, he was pointing what appeared to be a real firearm at police. Of course he got shot! Police are trained to look for hands holding weapons before they look at anything else. What is troublesome is the shooting of unarmed individuals who are not actively attacking police or any third party. Yes, this needs to stop. Definitely.
71
I guess my perspective differs from The Times.
I see arson and looting as a riot, not a protest.
Was the absentee father, Michael Brown Sr., who screamed to burn the town down during the riots, the same man you profile here?
Wasn’t the Justice Dept forced, against its initial beliefs, to conclude that Officer Wilson did nothing wrong?
Wasn’t Michael Brown left lying for hours on a street in Ferguson, Mo., BECAUSE a disparate group of people gathered in anger?
138
@Charlierf You can't believe everything you saw on TV and YouTube because TV and YouTubers go for the controversy. If there's a tear gas canister being tossed, they want that on camera. If someone is going crazy, many YouTubers want that on film. It's "good video".
What you didn't see was the rest of the street. Peaceful protestors, marching and carrying signs. Not burning, not looting, just raising their voices. Major media didn't have cameras set up everywhere. They tend to look for, and run toward, flashpoints.
It was not at all like the L.A. Riots of 1992. But cameras can make it look that way depending on what they film and how they edit the film.
4
@Stumpy - You are right in some respect. The media only captured certain angles. However, I lived in Ferguson at the time, a couple blocks from the police station, and it was maddening to constantly hear "peaceful protests" reported. Because MANY of the protests were nowhere near peaceful.
35
@shstl
No doubt some turned riotous. Partly because the protestors were met by police outfitted in riot gear and military tanks.
2
Here are some things that this article fails to mention...
1. There is shocking video of Michael Brown robbing a store and threatening its owner just minutes before the fatal shooting.
2. Michael Brown assaulted the cop and tried to steal his gun which caused it to discharge.
3. A jury found the cop innocent of wrongdoing.
4. Protests were far from peaceful and featured hate chants about killing cops.
5. The "energy of the street" and unbalanced media coverage helped set off a disturbed assassin who shot two cops in NYC while sitting in the car.
6. The "energy of the street" and unbalanced media coverage led to a massacre of innocent cops in Dallas by a crazed shooter who shot fourteen.
7. The "energy of the street" probably helped Trump win by offending millions of two-time white Obama voters turned off by the hatred and violence.
185
@rpe123 Robbing a store is not punishable by death in any of the 50 states. Not even in Missouri.
16
@Stumpy No, but he attacked a cop and the cop shot him in self-defense.
69
@Stumpy Correct.
That said, Law enforcement officers are trained to respond when violently attacked. The officer’s life was in danger when Brown sought to wrest the gun from the officer’s hand.
28
While there is little doubt that Ferguson police and courts showed racial bias, those of us living in St. Louis clearly remember what led to the encounter - the video on the daily news of Brown assaulting a store clerk half his size while committing robbery and that the "hands up" lie was disproved by witnesses and the liar himself when he admitted he was running away and made up the lie. We also remember the burning and looting of Ferguson businesses was not done by Ferguson residents, but by those that traveled to Ferguson, as arrest records show, not to protest injustice, but solely to burn and loot.
132
You might want to remind readers at some point that the reason no police officer was indicted was that the testimony of Michael Brown's friend was totally unreliable and that Michael Brown at 6'5" and over 300 lbs had physically assaulted the police officer in question and had attempted to wrest his weapon away from him. The officer protected himself by firing his weapon at Brown and killing him. The heady, exciting, and violent protests were all based on a very shaky foundation that Michael Brown was a gentle young man minding his own business and trying to avoid trouble.
165
There were two official investigations into this incident, one by a Grand Jury and another afterward by Eric Holder's DoJ. Both investigations took months to complete and interviewed dozens of witnesses. The conclusion? The forensic evidence backed up Darren Wilson's account and Brown's witnesses gave conflicting (and in some cases, recanted) testimony. The DoJ's report is in pdf format online for anyone wishing to read it.
121
No legitimate “social justice movement” begins with a convenience store robbery or an assault on a police officer. By no means do I always unconditionally accept the official version of events, but the correct place to address what really happened is in a courtroom, not brawling with the police in the street.
109
No mention in this article that even Eric Holder’s Department of Justice concluded that the “Hands up, don’t shoot” story that got people all riled up was false, and that the evidence supported the cop’s account of what had happened.
119
Please help me to understand.
The DOJ investigation found that the forensic evidence supported the account of the LEO responsible for Michael Brown's death.
"Based on this investigation, the Department has concluded that Darren Wilson’s actions do not constitute prosecutable violations under the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute, 18 U.S.C. § 242, which prohibits uses of deadly force that are “objectively unreasonable,” as defined by the United States Supreme Court"
How is it the death was found wrongful?
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf
75