Police shooting of unarmed teen leads to protests and Riot

[Senator Clay Davis]

For the first time ever, Amnesty International is coming to America. And the National Guard has now been deployed to Ferguson which I'm sure will end well. What a ####ing debacle and it'll probably only get worse

As anger erupted again on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, a human rights team from Amnesty International worked on the ground in the US for the first time ever.

Confrontation flared up after an autopsy found that Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager who was fatally shot by an officer on 9 August, had suffered at six bullet wounds including one in the top of his head.

Eye-witnesses report seeing police, with no visible ID badges, hurling tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters and threatening members of the press in another night of demonstrations.

Amnesty International, said it would be observing police and protester activity and gathering testimonies as well as training local activists “on methods of non-violent protest” in an “unprecedented” move by the campaigners.

The fresh dissidence has led to Jay Nixon, the Governor of the state of Missouri, ordering the deployment of National Guard troops to “protect life and property”, he said in a statement this morning.

The military will, he says, will “maintain peace and order” by closing streets and thoroughfares, if it must, after the events that have unfolded have “continued to create conditions of distress and hazard to the safety, welfare and property of the citizens of the community beyond the capacities of local jurisdiction”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...d-9675149.html

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

It was hours before scheduled curfew. They may have been under the false assumption that they'd be safe since the police spokesperson today was preaching sunshine and rainbows.

I certainly don't think you should be determining who is qualified to be a parent.

It still is just plain common sense. Do you have children? Would you bring your child/children to a protest where looting and violence has already occurred? It is just stupidity.

[terminator]

I don't know why someone would bring their child to a protest in which the police are known to shoot without warning or purpose.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

The media gets better play, and inadvertently helps along some racial tensions and rioting as a side affect. It's almost the news creating the news.

[llwhiteoutll]

Perhaps we could get a reply for the “he was shot into he back running away” contingent. Results from the pathologist would seem to invalidate a bunch of the eyewitness testimony people are lauding as the holy grail.

[longsuffering]

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

Perhaps we could get a reply for the “he was shot into he back running away” contingent. Results from the pathologist would seem to invalidate a bunch of the eyewitness testimony people are lauding as the holy grail.

Posted above

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Lady who who witnessed and filmed immediately after the incident just interviewed on CNN. She said cop tried to get victim into police car. He struggled and got away and tried to flee. The cop chased him and fired a few shots and looked like he grazed victim's arm. The victim turned around and got shot some more times.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

It amazed me watching the news the other day that they were showing a picture of him that looked like he was a sweet little 15 year old. And it didn't look at all like the very large man that was stealing and threatening the store owner. The media gets way more out of a story about a gentle unarmed kid being wrongly shot than it does about a thug attacking a cop.

The media gets better play, and inadvertently helps along some racial tensions and rioting as a side affect. It's almost the news creating the news.

Did you miss the story last week when most media outlets were using a photo of Brown that made him look like a stereotypical gang member, prompting the Twitter hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown?

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcomm...-shooting.html

Some have taken issue with the photos of Brown being shared by new outlets in particular, pointing to a larger problem with the representation of minorities in the media — specifically the representation of young, black men.

While some outlets initially ran a photo of Brown in a cap and gown at his high school graduation, many eventually landed on a photo of the teen wearing a basketball jersey and throwing up what some have perceived to be a gang sign.

[...]

According to BBC News, the #IfTheyGunnedMeDown hashtag was started by criminal defence lawyer CJ Lawrence of Jackson, Mo.

Lawrence juxtaposed two photos of himself — one that shows him making a speech at his university graduation next to Bill Clinton and another that shows him dressed as a rapper for a Halloween party — and tweeted them asking his followers "Which photo does the media use if the police shot me down?" on Sunday afternoon.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

Posted above

What eye witness was this? Was it one who had already said he appeared to be shot in the back or a new one who's story is plausible with the new information? And if so, why wasn't that account being reported on prior?

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

What eye witness was this? Was it one who had already said he appeared to be shot in the back or a new one who's story is plausible with the new information? And if so, why wasn't that account being reported on prior?

Her video showed who the cop was who fired the shots and since his name hadn't been released yet, she didn't want to be the one who identified him. The video had also been taken from her by the cops and she hadn't been given it back for a few days.

[Ryan Coke]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Did you miss the story last week when most media outlets were using a photo of Brown that made him look like a stereotypical gang member, prompting the Twitter hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown?

http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcomm...-shooting.html

No, I didn't see that. It certainly can go either way, absolutely. I really got a chance to watch this for the first time on Friday on ctv news net, so that is what my comment was based on.

[neo45]

The results of the autopsy dont really make me lean one way or the other. It kind of lines up with the cops story and some of the witnesses...

[MelBridgeman]

it's not easy to shoot a moving target from a fair distance in the head...

[Vulcan]

Here's the interview with the witness.

http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/...-my-apartment/

[nik-]

Originally Posted by TheJoeGreene

6 shots, all front entry.
1 shot to the top of the head = likely ducked down and charging.
Eyewitness saying he charged the cop before shots fired.
Cop with a spotless 6 year career.
6'4" 290 adult who had just committed a felony and had attacked the cop once already.

Somehow that equals a media firestorm about gunning down an innocent child and sparks riots/looting in an area with deep lying racial tensions that are worse than most of the deep south in the US. Just a despicable job of race baiting and reporting falsehoods by nearly every media outlet during this past week. No investigative journalism at all.

BTW, whomever decided to start firing tear gas tonight should be out of a job immediately. The situation is already a mess, they likely know the autopsy that contradicts the eyewitness accounts is about to be released, and the cops incite the situation further. Just a terrible lack of leadership for most of the police action after the initial incident.

This post is hilarious.

Lol at "likely charging" ... yes, charging the cop with a gun head down, because he's a Rhino.

Second, where are these eyewitnesses who said he charged the cops?

Third, the media doesn't need to create racial tension in the states. It's already there.

[neo45]

To be fair it was the guy who did the autopsy report who mentioned that it was possible Brown was charging the police officer because his head was down


How else does someone sprint forward? By leaning back?


He also could have been falling forward when shot in the top of the head. The autopsy just adds ammo to both sides

[nik-]

Fair enough. But where are these eyewitnesses saying he charged the police, because that post was the first time I'd heard that.

[RyZ]

Originally Posted by nik-

Fair enough. But where are these eyewitnesses saying he charged the police, because that post was the first time I'd heard that.

There are none. However, some eye witnesses claimed that he was "executed" from behind as well, which we now know he clearly wasn't.

Eye witness reports are usually hazy at best, which is proving no different in this case.

[nik-]

I don't recall seeing that executed one either. Where was that from?

[ernie]

I'm not sure executed was necessarily something I saw but many "witness" accounts talked about how he was chased down and shot. That to me suggests being shot from behind. Which did not happen.

It'll be interesting to see if the placement of the shots in his arm can differentiate between arms up or arms down/coming at the officer.

If he's coming at the officer after a previous scuffle through the window/at the squad car the officer may be justified in using lethal force. This was not a small kid and an officer doesn't have to put himself in harms way just to avoid public out cry.

Shooting aside where we don't know what truly happened, the way the town and state has handled this has been straight up terrible. I do find it hard to believe that this confrontation wasn't actually captured on some cell phone or something.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Actually there was. One person called into a radio show, so take that for what it's worth but I believe was adamant that there would be no shots in the back. While another person can be heard in a video (the one that shows the body) telling another individual that Michael just kept charging (also in the video you can hear people say he was shot in the back/surrending) so take that for what it's worth too. But you would think the police would have mentioned it if Michael Brown was charging at the officer so something still doesn't add up