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Thread: The Michael Brown case (Ferguson, MO)

  1. #41
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    During our riots there was an incident where Turks and Kurds had formed militia to protect their businesses from looters, they were armed with bats.

    You can do that in England, because unless you live on a farm or know gangsters, your chances of encountering people with firearms are minimal.

  2. #42
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Malkin: Meet the Cops Who Gave Their Lives


    By Michelle Malkin

    If you’ve been watching cable news, reading Hollywood celebrities’ tweets and listening to race-hustling opportunists, you might think that every police officer in America has a finger on the trigger, hunting for any excuse to gun down defenseless youths.

    This hysterical nonsense must be stopped.

    The Cirque du Cop-Bashing, with Al Sharpton as ringmaster, is working overtime to exploit the deadly incident in Ferguson, Mo. That means stoking anti-law enforcement fires at all costs.

    Are there bad cops? Yes. Does the police state go overboard sometimes? Yes. Do the demagogues decrying systemic racism and braying about “assassinations” know what happened when teenager Mike Brown was tragically shot and killed last week? No.

    Here’s a reality check. While narcissistic liberal journalists and college kids are all posting “Hands Up” selfies in hipster solidarity with Ferguson protesters, it’s law enforcement officers who risk their lives in “war zones” every day across the country.

    The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) reports that a total of 1,501 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 58 hours or 150 per year. These include local and state police officers, federal officers, correctional officers and military law enforcement officers.

    Fact: Last year, 100 law enforcement officers were killed. On average, over the past decade, there have been 58,261 assaults against law enforcement each year, resulting in 15,658 injuries.

    Fact: New York City has lost more officers in the line of duty than any other department, with 697 deaths. Texas has lost 1,675 officers, more than any other state.

    Just this week, NLEOMF released preliminary fatality statistics from August 2013 to August 2014. Total fatalities are up 14 percent, from 63 last year to 72 this year. “Five officers were killed in ambushes, which continue to be a major threat to law enforcement safety,” the group notes.

    Among the men in uniform who gave their lives this summer:

    — Police Officer Scott Patrick of the Mendota Heights Police Department in Minnesota. He was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop on July 30. Patrick leaves behind a wife and two teenage daughters.

    — Police Officer Jeffrey Westerfield of the Gary Police Department in Indiana. Westerfield was shot in the head and killed in a July 6 ambush while sitting in his police vehicle after responding to a 911 call. The suspect had been previously arrested for domestic violence and for kicking another officer. Westerfield, a 19-year police department veteran as well as an Army veteran, leaves behind a wife and four daughters.

    — Officer Perry Renn of the Indianapolis Police Department. He was shot and killed while responding to reports of gunfire on July 5. After 20 years on the job, Renn chose to serve in one of the city’s most dangerous areas, even though his seniority would have allowed him to take a less dangerous role. “He chose to work in patrol to make a difference in the field,” Police Chief Rick Hite said at Renn’s funeral. “Every day, Perry got out of his police car.” Renn is survived by his wife.

    — Deputy Sheriff Allen Bares, Jr. of the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana. The 15-year law enforcement veteran was shot and killed on June 23 while investigating two suspicious suspects. Bares had been mowing his lawn while off-duty when he witnessed a suspicious car crash. When he went to investigate, he was gunned down. The assailants stole his truck as he lay dying. “He’s the type of person that would give his shirt off his back to anybody,” a cousin said in tribute. “Anyone that knows Allen will tell you that he was that kind of person.” Bares leaves behind a wife and two children.

    — Police Officer Melvin Santiago of the Jersey City Police Department in New Jersey. Santiago, a proud rookie cop who loved his job, was ambushed on July 13 by a homicidal armed robber. Santiago was 23 years old. After Santiago’s killer was shot dead by police, the violent Bloods street gang vowed to “kill a Jersey City cop and not stop until the National Guard is called out.”

    Al Sharpton, concocter of hate-crimes hoaxes and inciter of violent riots against police, had no comment.

    http://www.newsherald.com/opinions/s....360370?page=0
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #43
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    'This has to stop': 31 arrested after fresh confrontation in Ferguson

    By Eliott C. McLaughlin, Michael Pearson and Holly Yan, CNN

    (CNN) -- More violence. More tear gas. No answers.

    Stun grenades and tear gas canisters arced through the night sky and into crowds of protesters overnight in Ferguson, Missouri, after police said they had been targeted with rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire amid continuing demonstrations over the death of Michael Brown.

    Two people were shot -- not by police, authorities said. Four officers were injured. Police arrested at least 31 people.

    Police and protesters blamed outside agitators for the gunplay and violence.

    "We don't need these antagonizers out here," said protester Jerrell Bourrage, who earlier grabbed one of the bottle-hurling demonstrators and told him to stop. "We need people who can stand out here to the side and still let your word be known."

    The protests are the latest spasm of violence over the shooting of Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, by white police Officer Darren Wilson on August 9.

    As police and protesters search for a way to stop the chaos, Brown's parents appeared on NBC's "Today" to appeal for justice and say there's just one way out of all this.

    "Justice," Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, told the NBC show. "Justice will bring peace, I believe."

    Situation deteriorates

    Monday evening began peacefully enough.

    For almost two hours, police in riot gear formed a barricade and stood watch as hundreds of protesters marched in a single-file line that stretched so long that different parts chanted different slogans.

    "Hands up, don't shoot," some repeated. "No justice, no peace," others said. Still others were singing church hymns.

    But the scene quickly deteriorated after a handful of protesters threw rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at police. Officers responded by firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters.

    Amid the frenzy, gunshots could be heard. Police found two people shot within the protest site, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is in charge of protest security.

    One group of protesters made a barricade with portable toilets and orange cones. Some ripped out street signs, including a symbolic "Do Not Enter" sign.

    Armored vehicles rolled down the streets with officers perched atop, their hands steadied on guns. Other officers darted into the protest crowd to make an occasional arrest before retreating.

    Johnson said that a building and an unoccupied house were set on fire, and that his officers came under "heavy gunfire."

    "We have been criticized for using SWAT trucks during protests. We did not deploy them into crowds until things deteriorated," he said. "Once again, not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack."
    CNN accounts of the protest varied.

    On Monday night, CNN's Jake Tapper echoed the frustrations of many in the crowd.

    "Absolutely there have been looters, absolutely over the last nine days there has been violence, but there is nothing going on in this street right now that merits this scene out of Bagram. Nothing.

    "So if people wonder why the people of Ferguson, Missouri, are so upset, this is part of the reason. What is this? This doesn't make any sense."

    However, on Tuesday morning, CNN's Steve Kastenbaum said the police response was among the more restrained in several nights of demonstrations. Police, he said, appeared to be very targeted in responding to "bad actors."

    "There are people in this crowd who are here to do more than protest, who come here armed" Kastenbaum said.

    To be sure, Johnson displayed weapons seized early Monday.

    "This has to stop," he said. "I don't want anybody to get hurt."

    Outside provocateurs

    Protest leaders tried to calm the situation.

    CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera told of watching community religious leaders "get up in the face" of troublemakers in a failed effort to dissuade them from violence.

    "Get out of the street! Don't fight!" some protesters bellowed on bullhorns.

    Others, like Bourrage, told hold of the agitators and tried to get them to stop.

    "I came to keep my brothers safe," Bourrage said. "We have fathers, brothers, mothers and aunties out here."

    Malik Shabazz, national president of Black Lawyers for Justice, blamed unspecified outside provocateurs for the trouble.

    "We can't allow this movement to be destroyed," he said.

    Johnson, during an early morning news conference, urged demonstrators to protest during the daylight hours Tuesday and not after dark.

    "Make your voices heard where you can be seen and you're not the cover for violent agitators," he said.

    "There is a dangerous dynamic in the night. It allows a small number of agitators to hide in the crowd and then attempt to create chaos."

    Complete coverage of the Ferguson shooting


    Parents speak out

    Monday's chaos followed a day rich in developments, including details of a private autopsy, an account said to echo what Officer Wilson reportedly says happened and an open letter to the Brown family written by the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed in a scuffle with neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

    The autopsy, conducted for the Brown family, showed that Brown had been shot at least six times, including twice in the head. The findings are more than enough to justify Wilson's arrest, Brown family attorney Daryl Parks said Monday.

    On "Today," Brown's father, Michael Brown Sr., said the autopsy didn't answer the family's one key question: Why?

    "What was the cause of that excessive force?" he said. "Nobody deserved that."

    Also on Monday, an account emerged of a telephone call to "The Dana Show" on the Radio America network from a woman claiming to know Wilson's version of events. According to the account -- which a source with detailed knowledge of the investigation said tracks with Wilson's version of events -- Brown rushed Wilson in the moments before the shooting.

    Witnesses who have come forward publicly say Brown was standing with his hands in the air when he was shot.

    In her open letter
    , published Monday by Time, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, told the Brown family that good will come of their sons' deaths.

    "While we fight injustice, we will also hold ourselves to an appropriate level of intelligent advocacy," she wrote. "If they refuse to hear us, we will make them feel us. Some will mistake that last statement as being negatively provocative. But feeling us means feeling our pain; imagining our plight as parents of slain children."

    But first, the Browns must mourn their son, she told CNN on Tuesday.

    "He needs to be buried and he needs to be laid to rest," she said.

    What's next?

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to check in on the Justice Department's civil rights investigation into Brown's death.

    On Tuesday, a senior White House official told CNN that President Barack Obama isn't currently planning to visit Ferguson. Such a visit would tax law enforcement resources, the official said. He hasn't ruled out a trip sometime later, the official said.

    In addition to Holder, who will spend only a day in Ferguson, the government is sending the director of the Justice Department's community policing program for a longer visit to advise law enforcement on how to deal with protesters peacefully, the official said.

    A grand jury could begin to hear testimony from witnesses and decide on whether to return an indictment in the case as early as Wednesday.

    Meanwhile, fallout continues to affect the community.

    The Ferguson-Florissant School District has canceled school for the week, and two nearby districts -- Jennings and Riverview Gardens -- opted to remain closed again Tuesday as well, according to CNN affiliate KMOV.

    Some businesses have also been looted or burned, prompting some store owners to arm themselves and stand guard over their shops, according to local media reports.

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/mis...html?hpt=hp_t1
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #44
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    Grand jury to decide on Ferguson officer charges

    A Missouri grand jury could begin hearing evidence as soon as Wednesday to determine whether any charges should be filed against a white suburban police officer who fatally shot unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown.

    State prosecutors are wading through contradictory narratives as they decide which account to present. Federal authorities also could take legal action against Officer Darren Wilson, especially if they decide their state counterparts are drawing the wrong conclusions.

    Here's a look at some of the legal issues:

    ___

    What state charges could Wilson face?

    Although the stiffest possible charge is first-degree murder, which can carry the death penalty, legal experts say that's highly unlikely. It would require proof Wilson plotted to kill Brown, said Peter Joy, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. "It'd have to be a cold and deliberate killing — almost execution style," he said.

    If Wilson is charged, a more likely option could be second-degree murder, which is often applied to killings that occur after someone hastily draws a knife in the heat of a fight. Unlike in first-degree murder, the second-degree charge doesn't require evidence of premeditation. Two lesser but still-serious charges are voluntarily or involuntary manslaughter, which would follow a finding Wilson acted recklessly or negligently in causing Brown's death.

    ___

    How critical is motive?

    It's extremely important to the case. Prosecutors essentially have to get inside Wilson's head, said Anders Walker, a professor at Saint Louis University School of Law. Did he fire in a fit of racially charged anger, perhaps subjecting him to second-degree murder? "They have to decide what the officer was thinking," Walker said. "A lot hinges on that."

    ___

    Are there other relevant state laws?

    Yes. One is called "defense of justification law," which provides some legal leeway for officers to shoot suspects they believe are fleeing a serious crime and refusing to surrender, Joy said. In this case, some witnesses say Brown was surrendering. And police have said Wilson didn't know Brown was a robbery suspect. Wilson could try to argue the crime Brown was fleeing wasn't the robbery; he could contend the crime was Brown pushing or hitting Wilson.

    ___

    What's the role of autopsy results?

    Bullet wounds to the back of Brown's body could render incredulous any theory Wilson killed Brown from fear for his life, Joy explains. If all of the bullets entered went through the front of Brown's body at close range, that could support claims Wilson fired in a struggle.

    ___

    Could prosecutors opt not to charge Wilson with anything?

    Yes, if they conclude he acted in self-defense. But, Joy said, prosecutors do have to account for the fact someone died one way or another. That means it's unlikely they'd decide on a relatively minor charge, such as assault. "It's likely you're going to have the state charge him with murder or manslaughter — or nothing at all," Joy said.

    ___

    What charges could federal authorities pursue?

    Bringing a murder charge isn't among their options. They could charge Wilson with a criminal civil rights violation, which carries a maximum life sentence, said Joel Bertocchi, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. They'd have to show Wilson, perhaps out of racial bias, deprived Brown of his civil rights by killing him.

    It could take months or even a year for the feds to decide, said Samuel Bagenstos, a former Justice Department official. It would hardly be the first time they took such action under the statute, called "Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law." The Rodney King case was brought under these post-Civil War federal laws protecting civil rights.

    And in the first four years of Barack Obama's presidency, the Justice Department brought more than 250 such cases.

    Read more at http://www.wral.com/grand-jury-to-de...rbf5MAOqGQ0.99
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  5. #45
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Shooting Accounts Differ as Holder Schedules Visit to Ferguson

    By FRANCES ROBLES and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
    The New York Times

    FERGUSON, Mo. — As a county grand jury prepared to hear evidence on Wednesday in the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer that touched off 10 days of unrest here, witnesses have given investigators sharply conflicting accounts of the killing.

    Some of the accounts seem to agree on how the fatal altercation initially unfolded: with a struggle between the officer, Darren Wilson, and the teenager, Michael Brown. Officer Wilson was inside his patrol car at the time, while Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, was leaning in through an open window.

    Many witnesses also agreed on what happened next: Officer Wilson’s firearm went off inside the car, Mr. Brown ran away, the officer got out of his car and began firing toward Mr. Brown, and then Mr. Brown stopped, turned around and faced the officer.

    But on the crucial moments that followed, the accounts differ sharply, officials say. Some witnesses say that Mr. Brown, 18, moved toward Officer Wilson, possibly in a threatening manner, when the officer shot him dead. But others say that Mr. Brown was not moving and may even have had his hands up when he was killed.

    The accounts of what witnesses have told local and federal law enforcement authorities come from some of those witnesses themselves, law enforcement authorities and others in Ferguson. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

    The new details on the witness accounts emerged as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was scheduled to visit Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with F.B.I. agents who have been conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

    Mr. Holder and top Justice Department officials were weighing whether to open a broader civil rights investigation to look at Ferguson’s police practices at large, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal talks. The issue came up after news reports revealed a 2009 case in which a man said that four police officers beat him, then charged him with damaging government property — by getting blood on their uniforms.

    Under Mr. Holder, the Justice Department has opened nearly two dozen such investigations into police departments, more than twice as many as were opened in the previous five years, according to department data.

    Also on Tuesday, federal authorities learned the results of an autopsy performed on Mr. Brown by military coroners that showed that he had been shot six times, though they declined to release further details until their investigation was finished. An autopsy conducted on behalf of Mr. Brown’s family also found that he had been shot at least six times — including once in the face and once in the top of his head — with all bullets striking him in the front. The county has also done its own autopsy, which found evidence of marijuana in Mr. Brown’s system.

    The Brown family has scheduled a funeral for Monday.

    While clashes between the police and protesters have become a nightly ritual, on Tuesday the scene was calm well after darkness fell. The authorities took their positions before sunset, and Missouri National Guard soldiers staffed checkpoints at the shopping center that is now a police command post. Demonstrators marched without incident while officers watched.

    In a statement on Tuesday night, Gov. Jay Nixon expressed sympathy for the Brown family and praised residents for “standing against armed and violent instigators.” But he also said that “a vigorous prosecution must now be pursued.”

    “The democratically elected St. Louis County prosecutor and the attorney general of the United States each have a job to do,” Mr. Nixon said. “Their obligation to achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown must be carried out thoroughly, promptly and correctly, and I call upon them to meet those expectations.”

    The fatal confrontation began on Aug. 9 shortly after the police received reports that two men had robbed a convenience store in Ferguson. Officer Wilson, who was not responding to the robbery, had stopped to speak with Mr. Brown and a friend, Dorian Johnson. The Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, said that it was around the time that Officer Wilson started talking to the two that he realized they fit the description of the suspects in the convenience store robbery.

    A lawyer for Mr. Johnson said that his client was interviewed by the F.B.I. and the St. Louis County police last week for nearly four hours. In that interview, Mr. Johnson admitted that he and Mr. Brown had stolen cigarillos from the store, said the lawyer, Freeman R. Bosley Jr.

    Mr. Bosley said that the officer told the two to get off the street, adding that Mr. Johnson told the officer that he lived nearby. They got into a bit of a verbal dispute with the officer about whether walking in the street constituted a crime, Mr. Bosley said.

    Contrary to what several witnesses have told law enforcement officials, Mr. Bosley said that the officer then reached out of the window with his left hand and grabbed Mr. Brown by the throat.

    He said Mr. Brown pushed him off, and the officer then grabbed Mr. Brown’s shirt.

    “My client sees the officer pull a gun and hears him say, ‘I’ll shoot you’ — then ‘pow!’ there was a shot,” Mr. Bosley said, referring to the one that apparently went off in the car. “He did not describe a scuffle. It was more of a scuffle for him to get away.”

    Asked if Mr. Brown had punched the officer, Mr. Bosley said that Mr. Johnson “did not observe that.”

    However, law enforcement officials say witnesses and forensic analysis have shown that Officer Wilson did sustain an injury during the struggle in the car.

    As Officer Wilson got out of his car, the men were running away. The officer fired his weapon but did not hit anyone, according to law enforcement officials.

    Mr. Johnson took cover near a parked car as he saw the officer confronting Mr. Brown, Mr. Bosley said.

    A man who lives nearby, Michael T. Brady, said in an interview that he saw the initial altercation in the patrol car, although he struggled to see exactly what was happening.

    It was something strange,” said Mr. Brady, 32, a janitor. “Something was not right. It was some kind of altercation. I can’t say whether he was punching the officer or whatever. But something was going on in that window, and it didn’t look right.”

    Mr. Brady said he had been interviewed by county investigators, but not the F.B.I.

    Mr. Brady said he could see Mr. Johnson at the front passenger side of the car when he and Mr. Brown suddenly started running. Mr. Brady did not hear a gunshot or know what caused them to run. But he said he did see a police officer get out of the patrol car and start walking briskly while firing on Mr. Brown as he fled.

    What happened next could be what the case turns on. Several witnesses have told investigators that Mr. Brown stopped and turned around with his arms up.

    According to his account to the Ferguson police, Officer Wilson said that Mr. Brown had lowered his arms and moved toward him, law enforcement officials said. Fearing that the teenager was going to attack him, the officer decided to use deadly force. Some witnesses have backed up that account. Others, however — including Mr. Johnson — have said that Mr. Brown did not move toward the officer before the final shots were fired.

    A lawyer for the police union, Greg Kloeppel, did not return calls for comment.

    The F.B.I., Mr. Bosley said, pressed Mr. Johnson to say how high Mr. Brown’s hands were. Mr. Johnson said that his hands were not that high, and that one was lower than the other, because he appeared to be “favoring it,” the lawyer said.

    James McKnight, who also said he saw the shooting, said that Mr. Brown’s hands were up right after he turned around to face the officer.

    “I saw him stumble toward the officer, but not rush at him,” Mr. McKnight said in a brief interview. “The officer was about six or seven feet away from him.”

    Also Tuesday, a few miles from Ferguson, St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers shot and killed a 23-year-old black man. The shooting threatened to further inflame a community still reeling from Mr. Brown’s death.

    Sam Dotson, the chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, said two officers encountered a man at the Six Stars Market in northwest St. Louis behaving “erratically” and brandishing a knife. The officers repeatedly warned, “Stop, drop the knife,” but he refused, Chief Dotson said.

    The man approached the officers, knife raised, and was shot after he came within three or four feet, the chief said.

    In a sign of how tense the situation remains, Chief Dotson went out into a crowd at the scene of the shooting to tell it what the police understood had occurred. “I think it’s important that people understand what happened,” he said. He said witnesses, including a local alderman, had confirmed the account of the officers. “I want this message to be out as truthfully and quickly as possible,” the chief said.

    But not all in the crowd were willing to listen. A small group of protesters, most of them black, gathered at the scene chanting, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”

    “Even if this is a legitimate shooting, they are going to capitalize on this and try to use it for their martial law agenda,” said Christopher Hobbs, 21, who had joined dozens of other residents at the scene.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/us...les-visit.html

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    Ferguson protests: Russia, China, Iran criticize human rights in U.S.

    The images out of Ferguson, Missouri, this past week — replete with tear gas and police in riot gear — have not only prompted vigorous debates here in the U.S.

    They're also provoking an almost giddy reaction from countries with human-rights offenses.

    "We're currently in Ferguson, where tensions have been flying high ever since Saturday when 18-year-old Michael Brown who was killed by multiple shots by police officers." (Video via RT)

    That Hollywood-style report was from Kremlin-backed TV network RT. RT has been characterizing the St. Louis protests as a "nationwide" phenomenon.

    RT isn't alone. The protests are getting prime-time coverage across other Russian television networks, as well.

    There are some obvious comparisons missing from these stories. Naturally, Moscow's deadly 2010 race riots and widespread allegations of police brutality in Russia aren't mentioned. (Video via ABC Australia, Vice)

    But it's not just Russian media weighing in on Ferguson. China and Iran also have used the opportunity to promote anti-American propaganda.

    As Vox's Max Fisher joked: "Senior staff at China's foreign ministry popping champagne for the anti-American mileage they will get out of Ferguson crackdown. For years."

    Sure enough, China's state-run news agency published a biting commentary suggesting the U.S."concentrate on solving its own problems rather than always pointing fingers at others."

    This from a country that frequently witnesses ethnic riots between police and Muslims who say they're oppressed by the government.

    And in Iran — it wasn't the destructive earthquake that injured hundreds that made top billing on the state-run agency's site Monday. Instead, the Ferguson protests were front and center.

    The Twitter account thought to be run by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also had a lot to say on the subject. One tweet called the U.S. the "biggest violator of #HumanRights" — an interesting stance to take on Twitter considering Iran doesn't even allow its citizens to use the social media site.

    Still, while it may be easy to dismiss the judgment coming from Iran, China and Russia as hypocritical propaganda, how the U.S. is perceived abroad does have an impact.

    Perhaps Julia Ioffe at The New Republic sums up the global criticism best: "Like it or not, this is what the world is seeing, the world to which we strive to be an example."

    http://www.fox23.com/news/news/world...2014_partners2
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    Missouri cop was badly beaten before shooting Michael Brown, says source

    By Hollie McKay

    Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer whose fatal shooting of Michael Brown touched off more than a week of demonstrations, suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department's top brass told FoxNews.com.

    “The Assistant (Police) Chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” said the insider. “He was beaten very severely.”

    According to the well-placed source, Wilson was coming off another case in the neighborhood on Aug. 9 when he ordered Michael Brown and his friend Dorain Johnson to stop walking in the middle of the road because they were obstructing traffic. However, the confrontation quickly escalated into physical violence, the source said.

    “They ignored him and the officer started to get out of the car to tell them to move," the source said. "They shoved him right back in, that’s when Michael Brown leans in and starts beating Officer Wilson in the head and the face."

    The source claims that there is "solid proof" that there was a struggle between Brown and Wilson for the policeman’s firearm, resulting in the gun going off – although it still remains unclear at this stage who pulled the trigger. Brown started to walk away according to the account, prompting Wilson to draw his gun and order him to freeze. Brown, the source said, raised his hands in the air, and turned around saying, "What, you're going to shoot me?"

    At that point, the source told FoxNews.com, the 6-foot-4, 292-pound Brown charged Wilson, prompting the officer to fire at least six shots at him, including the fatal bullet that penetrated the top of Brown's skull, according to an independent autopsy conducted at the request of Brown's family.

    Wilson suffered a fractured eye socket in the fracas, and was left dazed by the initial confrontation, the source said. He is now "traumatized, scared for his life and his family, injured and terrified" that a grand jury, which began hearing evidence on Wednesday, will "make some kind of example out of him," the source said.

    The source also said the dashboard and body cameras, which might have recorded crucial evidence, had been ordered by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson, but had only recently arrived and had not yet been deployed.

    A spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department, citing the ongoing investigation, declined late Wednesday to say whether Wilson required medical treatment following the altercation.

    Edward Magee, spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCullough, said the office will not disclose the nature of the evidence it will reveal to a grand jury.

    "We'll present every piece of evidence we have, witness statements, et cetera, to the grand jury, and we do not release any evidence or talk about evidence on the case."

    Nabil Khattar, CEO of 7Star Industries – which specializes in firearms training for law enforcement and special operations personnel – confirmed that police are typically instructed to use deadly force if in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily injury.

    “You may engage a threat with enough force that is reasonably necessary to defend against that danger,” he said.

    Wilson is a six-year veteran of the Ferguson police force department, and has no prior disciplinary infringements.

    Massive protests have since taken over the St. Louis community, prompting Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon last Thursday to place Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson at the helm of security operations in an effort to calm ongoing tensions. The federal government is also investigating the death, and Attorney General Eric Holder has taken the lead – calling “the selective release of sensitive information” in the case “troubling.”

    On Friday, Ferguson police released surveillance video showing Brown stealing cigars from a convenience store just before his death. Jackson came under intense criticism for disclosing the tape and a related police report as he also insisted that the alleged robbery and the encounter with Wilson were unrelated matters. Brown’s family, through their attorney, suggested the tape’s release was a strategic form of “character assassination.”

    However, FoxNews.com’s source insisted that there was absolutely no spin agenda behind the tape’s release and that there were a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) media requests filed by media outlets seeking it. Tom Jackson is said to have waited on publicly releasing it, and did not want it shown until Brown’s grieving mother first had the chance to see it.

    “He defied the FOIAs as long as he could,” noted the insider. “A powerful, ugly spin has completely ruined public discourse on this whole situation.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/20...n-says-source/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  8. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Richard86 View Post
    During our riots there was an incident where Turks and Kurds had formed militia to protect their businesses from looters, they were armed with bats.

    You can do that in England, because unless you live on a farm or know gangsters, your chances of encountering people with firearms are minimal.
    Exactly and I bet in England no one was killed.

    Tpg, just the opposite is true! Ferguson is why there should be no guns! You cannot wipe out a group of people from dozens of feet away with knife or bat. If there were no guns the Ferguson business owners would have a lot less to worry about. The stats back it up too because most all western nations with strong gun control not only have MUCH lower gun death rates but lower overall murder rates as well.

    You know even gun owners know guns are much deadlier otherwise they'd give them up and just use a knife or club instead!

  9. #49
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    That knife or bat, in a sane persons possession, can be left on the coffee table and harm no one. Just like ANY other weapon.

    Common denominator...........people.

    You cannot take the 'E' out of MC squared.

    I just can't get the thought out of my head as to why the officer didn't use a taser or spray.

    Maybe he thought it wouldn't have an effect? He couldn't fend off both with either?
    “Ninety-nine percent have made peace with their God. Their victims didn’t have that choice.”

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gavil View Post
    I just can't get the thought out of my head as to why the officer didn't use a taser or spray.

    Maybe he thought it wouldn't have an effect? He couldn't fend off both with either?
    My thought is that Brown was already wounded by the gunshot that went off in the car, then after a short foot chase Brown turned to charge the officer. He also has an "accomplice" with him which the officer does not know what he might do in the situation. I also have a suspicion that Brown was under the influence of some substance other than marijuana, if that is the case the taser is much less effective. Spray just tends to piss criminals off more once they are hyped up.

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