I think that Harold Meyerson should have ended his column with this sentence (in reference to the grand jury that determined not to indict the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson):
That jury may have had reasonable grounds for declining to bring an indictment.
but he followed it up:
But that failure to indict came as a culmination of a string of unpunished killings, going back to Trayvon Martin’s, in which young black men were summarily gunned down by police or neighborhood-watch zealots.
continuing with a string of half-truths, over-generalizations, false analogies, and speculations. He should have quit while he was ahead.
Whatever because of the presumption of innocence? What the rioters knew of Trayvon Martin or Rodney King or, in most cases, even Michael Brown is what journalists like Mr. Meyerson have told them. In a very real sense the riots were caused at the urging of those journalists.
There is no excuse, repeat no excuse, for the burning of auto parts stores and bakeries owned by individuals who live in the community who are just trying to get by. Trying to clothe wanton destruction in the garments of the greater good is heartless, grotesque immorality.
If there was a case to be made, it probably was botched by the media. I don’t think people understand the suggestibility of memory, and the process of changing memory that occurs over time. The family lawyers advised witnesses to not talk to the cops. While waiting for approval, they were hearing things and talking about them, their stories will change. That’s why police and personal injury lawyers try to get statements immediately. And it’s not the lapse of time, so much as the number of times a story is recounted. Eye witness accounts are the least reliable evidence used in trials.
The events of Ferguson seemed to be ruled by emotional interpretation and the predisposition people had about police, black, white people before Brown and Wilson even crossed paths.
In the case of Brown, the Black community appeared to dismiss Brown’s state of mind completely — not factoring in the minor strong-armed robbery minutes before, his cavalier attitude afterwards, his 6’6″ and 290ish lb size (a weapon involving bulk). The emphasis instead was placed on him being “disarmed” and a “teen.” All they wanted was the cop to be charged with murder — end of story.
In the case of Wilson, he became an unknown entity in the minds of everyone — being labeled more for his white ethnicity, his job as a police officer, and little else. However, after the grand jury decision, it was discovered this was the first time he had fired his revolver, that he was soon to be a father, that he had been out on a voluntary call to help a child in respiratory distress (while Brown was engaged in robbing a store owner) — elements that showed no disposition or proclivities to being a violent or angry cop.
Nonetheless, those who wanted to paint Brown as an innocent “gentle giant,” who was a victim of cop brutality will continue to do so. And, those who see Wilson’s part of it, as being a first responder to a criminal act, attempting to apprehend an uncooperative, physically imposing suspect, will find themselves questioning the motives of the black community — do they really want justice, or do they just want to project their own personal set of dissatisfactions with life onto others?
As for the media swarming the area and air waves, the Sharpton race baiters, NAACP/black Caucus/Obama/DOJ bias, the inept, confusing police/National Guard interventions — these are the backdrops uncomfortably raising temperatures that probably contributed to the theater of looting and burning places down.
Having had to fight with very large people in a job well before medical school, bulk is a weapon. With training you know that. That is why you don’t confront them w/o a plan. In this case the plan appeared to be to shoot the guy if things went south. Bad plan, unless you really are facing an emergency. Some kid walking in the street doesn’t seem like a real emergency.
Steve
How well I know. When I was in high school, I wrestled two weight classes above my actual weight (it’s a long story).
The point that too many are ignoring is that we weren’t there. We weren’t there, we didn’t participate in the grand jury’s deliberations, we don’t know what Officer Wilson’s state of mind was (and state of mind is all-important in this case). I think that claiming we would do something else or find something else is irresponsible. It calls the grand jury system itself into question and it ignores the presumption of innocence.
With what would they replace the presumption of innocence? Presumption of guilt? Presumption of innocence depending on group membership? Preponderance of the evidence? I have yet to see a convincing case that even if the standard were lowered to the standard for a civil case that Officer Wilson would not prevail. What I have seen is an enormous amount of second-guessing by people who weren’t there.
I wasn’t there and I don’t know what happened. I do know that the grand jury arrived at its decision and that should be that.
Technically George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin UP, as Martin was sitting atop Zimmerman trying to pound Z’s head into the pavement.
I’m surprised that the cases that keep garnering all the attention are the cases in which black men initiate violence. I’d think that everyone over the age of twenty (to pick an outrageously high age) would know that if you get violent, the likelihood of bad things happening increases dramatically, but apparently many blacks and no leftists understand this.
The case in Cleveland would seem a better case to get outraged about.
The case in Cleveland would seem a better case to get outraged about.
This is what I find odd- there seem to be some real cases that ought to get attention, but don’t- and those that do have involved facts that are not supportive of the narrative of black males being shot and killed for being black.