I had to up vote that because in my book humor is highly productive. Dagny took that stance when she went back to society after leaving the gulch. Just not all that it stands for.

Maybe this may be an argument to reduce the civilian cases, not to belabor this one.

I am much more concerned about LEOs flagrantly violating the speed limit, and bullying people than the far more limited cases of them being individually "trigger happy". Further, departments buying military equipment is similarly worrisome, because it demonstrates a general fear of and need to control the population.

There is little evidence of an epidemic or systemic plot encouraging shooting certain types of people. Separately, more times than not (this one excluded) it saves tax payer money to put down a felon, rather than feeding, caring, educating, petting, grooming them for years...and the inevitable repetition...More times than not the guy is guilty. Ruby Ridge excluded, which is clearly not an example of being trigger happy (root cause), but of being a bully.

Yes. People are making it about everything but what it is.

ok

I knew the picture was fake. I don’t know anything about the juvenile record, and the story of his mother stealing money and merchandise is still an iffy story to me. None of it matters, because it’s never been a question if he was worthy to die or his parents earned their suffering, it has always been a question if an unarmed man posed enough threat for a policeman to shoot him dead in the line of duty. The facts say --yes.

update: I can only find left wing blogs reporting that the picture is a fake. it would be nice if real reporting would actually happen..

1. he had a lengthy juvenile record, including an arrest for 2nd degree murder,
2. his mother, who did not raise him, has been accused of stealing merchandise and money from his grandmother (who did raise him) based on his name.
3. there is a picture going around (no independent confirmation where he is sitting at a table with a a roll of greenbacks in his mouth and holding a firearm. certainly within his right to do so-but hardly gives off the image of "gentle giant"

The video of Brown stealing the cigars was leaked to suppress the narrative that Michael Brown was a ‘gentle giant’ liked by all and was on his way to college before an evil racist cop shot him in the back. Some reports had even claimed he won a scholarship. Far from the truth, Brown wasn’t working, like to smoke weed, and as we learned from viewing the video we may add: psychically confrontational to those who stood in his way. The narrative before the release of the vid suggested Brown was executed for not getting on the sidewalk when he was told to. The video has nothing to do with whether or not Brown deserved to be shot. Nobody said it did.
Since witnesses for the grand jury backed up the story of the officer’s we have learned that Michael Brown held his hand down the front of his pants like he may have had a gun while continuing to approach the officer who was yelling at him to get on the ground.Officer Wilson tried repeatedly to shoot Brown in a way that would disable him, and NOT KILL HIM, but Brown wouldn’t stop coming. This is an open and shut case of a shooting of a potentially life-threatening suspect. Thee isn’t any room for idealism here. The facts are loud. Stop being creative with the truth. because there are real situations of police-brutality that need to be taken seriously. This story ain’t it.
+1 for me.

He put himself at unnecessary risk.

So then, where does the fickle finger of blame end up? The officer followed policy, so he was not indicted. The policy was made by the town (the state) so there is no culpability, no one to go after when things go wrong, and the trail goes cold there. If the same thing happens again, the same thing will happen again.

Who loses: the dead 'aspiring rapper' du jour and this young cop both lose.

Who wins: no one, really, maybe Sharpton and the pilot fish, but really, no one comes out ahead.

How can it be made better?

From http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/fergu...

<quote>
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.
</quote>

<quote>
Cases involving police shootings, however, appear to be an exception.
</quote>

<quote>
A recent Houston Chronicle investigation found that “police have been nearly immune from criminal charges in shootings” in Houston and other large cities in recent years. In Harris County, Texas, for example, grand juries haven’t indicted a Houston police officer since 2004; in Dallas, grand juries reviewed 81 shootings between 2008 and 2012 and returned just one indictment. Separate research by Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson has found that officers are rarely charged in on-duty killings, although it didn’t look at grand jury indictments specifically.
</quote>

In this case not true... and civilians often do not have to argue in court about self defense....unless evidence leans against it. If anything I think having a badge heavily worked against Wilson in this case, but the evidence was overwhelmingly in favor of his side of the story..

If a civilian had shot Brown under identical circumstances, (s)he would go to trial. Self-defense would have to be argued in court. The very different ways in which LEOs and civilians are treated by the USSA "justice system" is a manifestation of the idea that the State's agents are basically above the law. A different law applies to them, and a different one to civilians. That is why LEOs are so trigger-happy - they know they are protected by the "State agent" exemptions to normal laws, even if they use excessive force or lethal force without cause.

I also wondered that, then I heard the prosecutor decided to let them off to not give more fuel to the fire... even through there was plenty of perjury going on. Double standards at play once again.

"I am reminded of an LE I knew who received an official reprimand for having used his baton to take out an assailant"
He was reprimanded for an action that stopped the attacker without hurting any innocent people. That seems unfortunate. He had a high-risk job, he did it great, and still gets in trouble for it.

@hash I agree with all your criticisms of the criminal justice system, but they do not affect the facts in this case. My understanding was Brown attacked the officer. Half the bullets the officer fired missed. He didn't have the option of shooting Brown in the leg to immobilize him. He just shot to protect his own life from someone attacking him.

I completely agree with the broad policing problems. Brown didn't *deserve* to die. The officer had a right to fire in self-defense. If the police officer is a good person, he hates living with having killed someone in split-second decision.

It seems like people hoped this case would be an example of police abuse and would lead to reforms. The evidence showed it was *not* a case of abuse, but people still hoped it would somehow lead to reforms.

Read the comments to the linked article.
If, like "Baby" there, one's mind is made up long before they even see forensic evidence, let alone believe it, for them, forensic evidence is irrelevant to the conclusions they're going to draw.
Read "Baby's" comments .... a very angry and probably sick person.

Um, nah... you can douse a fire after it starts with the right tools or, in this case, words. Obama's speech after the verdict was read and described came across to me as the most limp-wristed, pussified response anyone could have made. Not even a strong call for calm or 'if you don't like the verdict, are you saying you don't like the Grand Jury Process of our legal system?' , which is really what a lot of this shit comes down to.... people who burn and loot cities and businesses because they don't like juries' decisions?

That's another sign of cultural or societal decay.
imnsho...

Why am I thinking apples and oranges?
After I last posted I heard on Fox News that Brown's blood trail matches Wilson and supportive witnesses said--they being black.
There's something that's consistent.
I'm a retired Alabama Corrections officer (aka prison guard) who saw a lot of things that were not fair.
I worked at a maximum security prison that was really rough just after it opened during the 80s.
Despite that, I still do not accept that the USA is a serial-killer genocidal state.
Maybe it will become that if Marxists take over. That's happened to other countries since 1917.

Really good points from those willing to see what went down here. I was in fear of my life, it was not about trying to think of a way to defend myself with anything less than the Model 1911 from WWI I had in my hand and the M-16 that was slung over my shoulder. Notice I said “had” and “was”. These are the true rules of engagement when it really comes down to it, not what someone has told you to do. It just comes out, fear is fear. The battlefield today is not limited to just the areas our government admits to, it includes the areas they create as well (Chicago, Washington DC, Ferguson).

Killing someone makes you sick to your stomach, it just does, trust me, and I had never seen anyone else that did not feel the same thing, at least not the first time. After that it gets a little easier, but it’s something that will stay with you for the rest of your life no matter what circumstances. Little things in life will constantly remind you like unsettle business.

This whole thing could have been avoided if we hadn’t been teaching our youth to disrespect the law, disrespect the people we pay to exercise the law for us, disrespect anyone of authority or even anyone of no authority, and disrespect for a shop owner trying to scratch out a living, disrespect for one’s parents. Can we blame the parents, can we blame the criminal, can we blame our justice department, and can we blame our politicians and or even our own president? I say yes, but nothing will change until people start to realize that their personal ignorance only perpetuates this kind of reaction. Nothing will change.

If Ferguson doesn’t want white cops, then they need to put that into their law. Hire all black cops or pass a law to let the black criminals walk all over the town doing whatever they want. After all it was only about $40 worth of cigars to help cover whatever he was doing with the pot. You don’t want to know my opinion, it would come across as very productive.

Warning shots, it looks to me like they were all warning shots except the last ones to the head. Sometimes you have to make that kind of decision before you run out of ammo. My first shots would have been to the head, but then again I have a little more experience than the average cop.

I’ve come to my conclusion that the demonstrators don’t want to know the truth, they just want to complain and keep this racial nonsense going. They don’t want to do for themselves what it takes to move up on their own. They want someone else to do it for them. Fortunately there are more non-demonstrators that are staying in their homes. Perhaps they need to get out in the streets and express their views. The only thing that will come out of this is destroying one young cops life, further race segregation, and further separation of people around the world. The UN’s already spreading the lies and North Korea scolding us about being racist. You gotta be xxxxing me.

One time I was with a friend and his young son had a tantrum in a restaurant. Rather than scolding him his father had a similar tantrum in response. He always told me his son never embarrassed him again, ever. These are the lessons we’ve got to teach our youth. Respect !!!

And thanks for letting me vent again. My sons took me to the ER around 23:30 on Thanksgiving. I was embarrassed that I was taking their time to drive me just because I couldn't get a good breath of air. Turned out I was diagnosed to have COPD and Pneumonia. Treated, drugged and sent home. It made me realize how unimportant this Ferguson thing should be to me. It also made me realize how this Ferguson thing might be effecting me. And, of course, what about Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, the justice department, etc., etc.? Is this what I fought for and expected when I stepped forward? Maybe demonstrators should be drafted.

JDG my comment exactly, but you beat me to it. Just because an agent of government busts a cap on someone.....doesn't mean it wasn't justified.

Let me reiterate my agreement though with your point....IE: that the state creates a problem and then demands more power to deal with it. This is just not the case to use to use to make your argument. I submit to you that the officer in this case is more akin to the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke, trying to protect the citizenry in his town from the negative results of a rising tide of central government actions.

Agreed. And the second assault was committed by Brown, not Wilson.

They make the news because a certain minority group insists on pretending they're proof of racism. Morons!

Horse hockey.

Yes, we live in a State where police often use excessive force, and where even those who commit robbery and rape get away with it because they have badges.

But this was not one of those cases.

If we're going to take videos to use as evidence against bad cops (and we should!), then when the video and other evidence shows that the cops were right, it behooves us to shut up and accept that fact if we want to be taken seriously.