<p>I find very interesting how outright EAGER some people are to label the kid a “thug” and say he deserved it. </p>
<p>It makes absolutely NO SENSE that the police would withhold for days the information that the officer stopped them because he was investigating a robbery. What did his original report say? If it didn’t say that, then they have altered it to make him look better after the fact. If this policeman was looking for a pair of thieves, how come the second kid wasn’t arrested? What was Michael Brown wearing when he was shot? How can they rationally claim that Brown “went for the officer’s gun”–that old chestnut, it is laughable–if what he did immediately was try to run away? How could he “go for the gun” anyway? Had the policeman drawn it and was he pointing it at him through the window? Is it normal procedure to draw a gun on a person who is suspected of UNARMED theft? If he were intent on killing the officer, he could have jerked the door open. </p>
<p>When was the last time a cop gunned down a white teenaged girl who shoplifted?</p>
<p>It’s not just the protests that revealed the police bungling. Reports say that an ambulance didn’t arrive until half an hour after Brown was shot. That’s unconscionable. Moreover, Brown’s body was left lying in the street for, reportedly, four hours. Brown now appears to have been a petty criminal, but leaving a kid’s body in the street for hours when his family was known to be right there shows contempt for the neighborhood people. </p>
<p>The whole situation shows a police force that thinks the whole community is its adversary. There’s no “protect and serve” there. Instead of trying to defuse tensions, the police acted like they were kids dressing up and playing army. Excessive force in handling protests suggests to me a police force that uses excessive force.</p>
<p>On the other hand, plenty of people are eager to believe that a police officer assassinated an unarmed kid for no reason. The problem I see is that once you draw lines, nobody wants to deal with inconvenient facts, so nobody is satisfied by the ultimate conclusion.</p>
<p>The police chief is holding another news conference now. He says the second kid was not complicit in the crime. He also says the original stop had nothing to do with the robbery, which is interesting.</p>
<p>The Ferguson police chief has now admitted the police officer who shot Brown did not know Brown was a suspect in any crime, but only thought he was walking in the street when he should have been on the sidewalk. </p>
<p>Ferguson PD was leading and coordinating the effort by bringing in that county SWAT team. This fact makes them responsible for those arrests even if they weren’t directly involved. </p>
<p>Excellent points by Cardinal Fang, Hunt and Musicprint.</p>
<p>And no, the protests were not “basically a riot.” The crowd of peaceful protesters was invaded by nihlists, criminals and ordinary thugs who exploited and took cover under the legitimacy of the people who came to voice their fear and dread of injustice. And their fears were basically verified by the deploying of tanks etc. into their town.</p>
<p>Anyone who is interested might want to read about the Newark riots of the 1960s. Turns out that most of the reports of shots fired at the National Guard and the police were false. In fact, nearly all the gunfire and the deaths attributed to gunfire came from Guardsmen, some of whom have candidly admitted years later that they randomly opened fire on anyone and everything that wasn’t identified as passive. </p>
<p>Good grief, is there no end to the bungling by the local police in that town? Is it any wonder why the Governor took command of the situation? Incompetence in mavericks with firearms and the color of law is a bad mix.</p>
<p>Some have complained about how long Brown’s body was in the street. Jackson said Brown’s body was left on the street to make sure the investigation wasn’t compromised. He did not say exactly how long it was before Brown’s body was removed.</p>
<p>“You only get one chance at that crime scene,” Jackson said. “We wanted to make sure we got it right.”</p>
<p>He said shots were fired from a nearby building several times while investigators were working, slowing the investigation.</p>
<p>“Now we have to make sure the crime scene investigators are safe,” he said.</p>
<p>He said Brown’s body was covered when possible.</p>
<p>Have they released the video at the store, or just stills from it? Now I could imagine that Brown tried to shoplift the cigars, was caught by the store clerk, there was a shoving match, and the kid left without the cigars. That’s a crime, but it’s quite a different crime than was originally presented. Where are those cigars anyway?</p>
<p>The police captain says they released the video of the incident at the convenience store because of demands from the press. Members of the press are saying that no one knew about the video or the alleged robbery, so how could they have been demanding it? The press has definitely been demanding copies of the police report of the shooting, and the police have refused to release that. </p>
<p>Let me get this straight: the police give in to pressure from the press for a document the press didn’t know existed, but staunchly resist actual journalists’ pressure over 6 days for a document that does exist and which law dictates be released? </p>
<p>I hope you folks who are on the other side see why people like me have a hard time taking the police’s word at face value. </p>
<p>It wasn’t just the reporters in McDonalds who had their First Amendment rights violated. Local TV recorded a film crew, set up outside the police perimeter, who were tear-gassed. When the crew fled, the soldier-cops came over and pointed the camera to the ground. Now why would they do that, I wonder?</p>
<p>You know what I find frustrating? It’s that the police and media pull out these facts about these victims that have nothing to do with the event as if it had anything to do with them being gunned down. </p>
<p>Just yesterday a young white male was shot and killed while following police order to get on the ground. Shot and killed. What information is pulled out? He was a “fugitive” who broke probation, YET the police officers didn’t even know that at the time that they shot him. </p>
<p>This is why I’m mighty suspicious when all these less than stellar facts about the victims trail out days later. It’s as if the police are trying to damage their character. </p>