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OT: Politics & News... Have at it.

Witnesses Saw Michael Brown Attacking–and Others Saw Him Giving Up
Officer Darren Wilson was spared criminal charges in part because of significant contradictions
in the testimony of bystanders who saw the Ferguson, Missouri, teen get shot and killed.

A grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, has ruled that there is no probable cause to believe Officer Darren Wilson committed a crime when he killed Michael Brown. Put another way, in their estimation, the state doesn't possess enough facts to cause a reasonable person to conclude that criminal charges are true. This judgment was shaped in part by the testimony of eye-witnesses to the shooting. Prosecutor Robert McCulloch has now released transcripts of many witness interviews.

The main takeaway: Eyewitness testimony is highly unreliable. To read through the accounts is to see seemingly honest people contradict one another on basic, significant matters of fact. It is seemingly impossible to know what really happened.

But that doesn't mean nothing is clear.

Officer Wilson's account is a useful place to begin, especially since this is the first we've heard of it after all these months. Here's a condensed version that excises irrelevant details:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/11/major-contradictions-in-eyewitness-accounts-of-michael-browns-death/383157/
 
It's pretty clear that if you go for a cop's gun, it's to shoot him with it, no ?


Why else break the car window to reach for the gun ?
 
A correction on the window, I believe, I had earlier read that it was broken, however, reading more of cop Wilson's testimony, he says it was shattered by his gunshot fending off M Brown.
 
So the door was open, Brown reached inside the car to get the gun....

Question: was the gun still in its pouch, or was it in Wilson's hands when Brown reached for it ?

Because if Wilson had drawn his weapon already, then it makes total sense that Brown would want to defend himself from getting shot.

Only 2 ways to respond to a gun being drawn at you: fight or flight (reach for it, or back-off hands in the air surrendering)
 
hard to say, I wouldn't be attacking a cop in his car in the 1st place. Either way you don't go for the gun....if copper draws it, he means business, you surrender in a heartbeat if you have an iota of common sense left.

I've had a cop draw a gun on me. It was out pointing straight at me, sob. He thought I was robbing my own warehouse at 3am on a Sunday. I tried to stay cool at that point, simply told him it was my place and asked if could show him my keys.
 
Rolex said:
So the door was open, Brown reached inside the car to get the gun....

Question: was the gun still in its pouch, or was it in Wilson's hands when Brown reached for it ?

Because if Wilson had drawn his weapon already, then it makes total sense that Brown would want to defend himself from getting shot.

Only 2 ways to respond to a gun being drawn at you: fight or flight (reach for it, or back-off hands in the air surrendering)
Click to expand...

No one really knows if Brown was reaching for the gun inside the car or not....

However, I don't think it really matters.

Wilson shot Brown while the two were near the vehicle.... then Brown ran away.

The moment he runs away... and does not have the gun in his hand... the first part of the altercation is over.

When Wilson pursues Brown and then shoots him, and Brown is 150 feet away from the vehicle... the "he is trying to grab my gun... my life is in danger" portion of the incident is long over... and he shoots him 6 times at this point.
 
lol.

Coulda put him in his place. No Rolex, I invited the gun pointer and his partner inside...it all went fine after that. Personally, I was glad they were doing their jobs. They weren't dicks about it either, probably glad I wasn't too..
 
northernlou said:
lol.

Coulda put him in his place. No Rolex, I invited the gun pointer and his partner inside...it all went fine after that. Personally, I was glad they were doing their jobs. They weren't dicks about it either, probably glad I wasn't too..
Click to expand...

The fact you look Italian probably saved you.
 
The White House ‏
Today President Obama called U.S. troops to express his appreciation on #Thanksgiving on behalf of a grateful nation.
 
edit: I edited you because you're essentially calling me a racist and I told you not get personal. You want to keep that shit up, it's your call.
 
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WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
edit: I edited you because you're essentially calling me a racist and I told you not get personal. You want to keep that shit up, it's your call.
Click to expand...

Translation: Some of my best friends are black.

Let's get something straight right now: I never called ANY poster here a racist. Aside from one or two guys here I don't know any other posters personally so I couldn't say one way or the other and frankly I couldn't care less. I merely asked a question because all you've done in this thread is repeat the Fox News talking points about how an unarmed victim who got shot by a cop 6 times is to blame. I don't think you're going to find too many posters here who agree with that argument.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
Translation: Some of my best friends are black.

Let's get something straight right now: I never called ANY poster here a racist. Aside from one or two guys here I don't know any other posters personally so I couldn't say one way or the other and frankly I couldn't care less. I merely asked a question because all you've done in this thread is repeat the Fox News talking points about how an unarmed victim who got shot by a cop 6 times is to blame. I don't think you're going to find too many posters here who agree with that argument.
Click to expand...

No you're not calling me a racist outright. You're too nuanced for that by translating my last post as "Some of my best friends are black"?? huh?... or saying in a post of yours which I deleted, that has me sympathizing with tea bagger racists. And what for? Disagreeing with your take on this controversy?

I provided plenty of links from the likes of CBS, PBS, the Atlantic and some others, none of which are Fox that you claim I'm repeating. I feel like I'm dealing with the antithesis of McCarthy with your nuanced suggestion.

Just bring it to pm if you want to go on with this, and lets both of us stop derailing this conversation.
 
Andy Mailly-Pressoir ‏
La très solide caricature du @JdeMontreal ce matin. Happy Black Friday. #Ferguson

B3ieGJdCYAAsWW9.jpg
 
BKerr said:
No one really knows if Brown was reaching for the gun inside the car or not....

However, I don't think it really matters.

Wilson shot Brown while the two were near the vehicle.... then Brown ran away.

The moment he runs away... and does not have the gun in his hand... the first part of the altercation is over.

When Wilson pursues Brown and then shoots him, and Brown is 150 feet away from the vehicle... the "he is trying to grab my gun... my life is in danger" portion of the incident is long over... and he shoots him 6 times at this point.
Click to expand...

I'm just curious, should all criminals just be left to run away? Officer Wilson was pursuing Brown, just like any police officer would be, especially considering the altercation that had just happened. Regardless of where his police vehicle is, that's not really relevant. The fact is, Brown attempted to charge the officer, be it 10 feet from his vehicle or 150. The life in danger part is not over, it's only over when a suspect is properly detained. Either way, I do think 6 times was excessive, however, I do not think this had anything to do with race. I think if the officer was chinese, or black himself, most likely Brown would have been shot, that's almost a gaurantee when a suspect grabs an officer's holster and charges them. The question is, was Officer Wilson just a trigger happy cop? He had never fired his weapon while on active duty prior to this call, so, I just think he might not have ever been put in a situation like this before and didn't have proper training on subduing a suspected criminal, which Brown technically was.
 
Attempted to charge the officer is very much in dispute.

5/70 eye witnesses report attempted to charge. Far more report turned around to surrender.

Also wilsons own testimony here is a bit of a joke.

The kid was hulking up and charging forward through gunshots. They were putting him down he was charging faster until the very last shot.
Also he was charging head down and his hand in his waistband al bundy style.

This is pretty unbelievable and unreliable testimony from wilson if you ask me.

A kid charging forward.. getting stronger with each bullet hitting him... and running with his hand tucked in the front of his waistband and head down.

This is farcical. If the scene the officer described was in a movie... the movie wpuld have to be a superhero movie where the kid has special powers cause anything else is just not believable
 
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