pretty decent overview of Ferguson via Michał Its been several days since the grand jury decision was announced, and its taken a while for me to take it all in. I am now however convinced that foul play and breach of federal and Missouri law have occurred in the decision, and this whole affair is not simply our system failing us, but a calculated effort by local prosecutors, police departments, and the local district attorney to prevent the indictment of Darren Wilson. We know that immediately after Michael Browns death, no incident report was filled out as is standard procedure for even minor incidents with the police, and the lack of an immediate investigation afterward left the case closed before it even began. With the release of Wilsons testimony, we learned further details about the court proceedings surrounding the case, in which Darren Wilson and his defense had 3 months to prepare a description of the events that they were sure would successfully exonerate him. The testimony is highly surreal and unbelievable, and makes a point of depicting Brown as an aggressive, vengeful, and almost superhuman individual, and makes clear that Wilson feared for his life. A police officer is only allowed to kill a civilian if they are a direct threat to the officers life or the lives of those around him, something Wilsons testimony made clear to illustrate. Wilson claims that Brown was punching him repeatedly, and felt that another punch to his face would have left him dead. However, immediately after the event, he had little more than a few minor bruises on his cheek and neck - far from life threatening. theatlantic/…/the-photos-of-darren-w…/383155/ And then today we learned that the district attorney in the proceedings handed the grand jurors a copy of a Missouri state law that stated that it is legal for a cop to shoot a crime suspect if they are fleeing from the police, but failed to mention that the law was from 1979, and had since been overturned by the US Supreme Court. When one of the jurors asked about the details, he was told not to worry about it. msnbc/…/shocking-mistake-in-darren-wilson-gr… On top of this, unlike in most grand jury proceedings in which prosecutors present only enough evidence for the case to go to trial, the prosecutors in Ferguson made a point of displaying more evidence than would have been necessary to indict Wilson, including evidence in his favor, and made little effort to cross examine his testimony. https://news.vice/…/darren-wilson-to-grand-jury-i-had-t… Why go to these lengths? In order to protect the status quo where Black people in this country are forced to live under the oppressive heal of law enforcement, and where any resistance to this order is met with tear gas and bullets. Think this wasnt about race? The Ferguson PDs racial profiling database includes a disparity index, where the racial proportions of the citys population are compared to the racial proportion of stops. A disparity index of 1 signifies no disparity, less than 1 means that stops were disproportionately lower for a certain race than would be expected by looking at population statistics, and more than 1 means that they were disproportionately higher. The index for whites is .38 while the index for Blacks in 1.37. ago.mo.gov/VehicleStops/2013/reports/161.pdf Obviously this is part of a pattern. The same result was handed down by a grand jury for the police killing of John Crawford III, who was shot dead in a Walmart for carrying a toy gun. theroot/…/grand_jury_no_indictment_for_cops_… The list goes on, and will continue to go on. There is no other explanation for this trend other than that there exists a deliberate effort within the United States legal system to oppress racial minorities, whatever the cost. Im pissed off; you should be too.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 06:03:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015