re: ACLU: Ferguson police report on Michael brown's death violates law [W: 209]
Wtf? ... They are not shrouded, we know many things.
Allow me to provide links in order to assist in revealing the truth of the matter for you and everyone else who has been done an injustice by the mass media.
1. The police released a video suggesting that Brown may have been involved in a cigar theft at a nearby convenience store. Later that day, the police chief admitted that Officer Wilson “had no knowledge of Brown as a suspect when he shot Brown.” (
Source)
2. To assist in painting Brown as a criminal, a photo circulated depicting a young black man doing questionable things. Turns out, this was not Brown and was purposefully distributed by a Kansas City police officer. (
Source)
3. Last Friday, police chief Jackson released 19 pages of documents regarding the flimsy connection between Brown and the convenience store robbery. Journalists (and Brown’s lawyers) had requested information on the shooting itself and received nothing. “When pressed, however, Jackson said that Officer Wilson was not aware of the robbery reports when he stopped Brown, and that the confrontation between Wilson and Brown occurred because Brown and a friend were obstructing traffic by walking in the middle of the street.” (
Source)
4. According to St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar, “the incident started when Brown physically assaulted the police officer, pushing him into the officer's vehicle. He said there was a struggle inside the car, and at some point Brown reached for the officer's weapon. One shot was fired inside the vehicle. Brown suffered fatal gunshot wounds outside of the vehicle, approximately 35 feet from the car.” This does not match any of the eye-witness reports, nor is there an official report from Wilson on the events. (
Source)
5. Five eye-witnesses have come forward; only two knew each other previously. All five stories are extremely similar. An altercation at the vehicle, single shot fired, followed by the two boys running away. Wilson exited the vehicle and pursued them, continuing to fire his weapon. Brown turned around with his hands up and Wilson shot until he was on the ground. (
Source,
source)
6. Who called in the event? Anonymous hacked the St. Louis County dispatch where confusion regarding the event is noted due to them discovering the event on the news. The dispatcher says, "We’re just getting information from the news, and we just called Ferguson back again and they don’t know anything about it." While this does not necessarily prove that Wilson did not report the event, it does bring up questions of why the Ferguson Police Department has been so close-lipped about this event. (
Source)
7. Journalists have been assaulted, arrested, had guns pointed at them, threatened, shot with tear gas, shot with rubber bullets, and generally harassed. Perhaps they get a little overzealous at times, but documenting the events is not a crime. (
Source)
8. While some of you might not think the situation is a big deal, it has attracted the attention of Amnesty International. They remarked that this event “was more akin to the organization’s work during the 2013 protests in Turkey than it was to any previous action the group has taken in the United States.” (
Source)
Trivializing the situation does a disservice to truth and open discussion.