Yesterday there was a leak that the Justice Department – with great media fanfare – is about to issue a “scathing” report suggesting there is systematic racism in the Ferguson, Missouri police department. The charges stem from, among other things, extremely high percentages of traffic stops and searches being conducted against Black citizens versus Whites. I’ll reserve judgment until the report is issued and we can all take a look at it. I hope you do too.
But here is an interesting coincidence. This leak has overwhelmed a report – not a leak, but the actual report – which not only exonerates Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown, but makes most witnesses who told police that Wilson was at fault to be either remarkably consistent in not seeing what was in front of their eyes, or flat-out lying.
From Matt Apuzzo’s just-published article on the New York Times web site:
The Justice Department has cleared a Ferguson, Mo., police officer of civil rights violations in the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager whose death set off racially charged and sometimes violent protests last year.
The decision, which was announced on Wednesday, ends a lengthy investigation into the shooting last August, in which Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Mr. Brown in the street. Many witnesses said Mr. Brown had his hands up in surrender when he died, leading to nationwide protest chants of “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
But federal agents and civil rights prosecutors rejected that story, just as a state grand jury did in November. The Justice Department said forensic evidence and other witnesses backed up the account of Officer Wilson, who said Mr. Brown fought with him, reached for his gun, then charged at him. He told investigators that he feared for his life.
The report found that witnesses who claimed that Mr. Brown was surrendering were not credible. “Some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witnesses’ own prior statements with no explanation,” it said.
“Although some witnesses state that Brown held his hands up at shoulder level with his palms facing outward for a brief moment, these same witnesses describe Brown then dropping his hands and ‘charging’ at Wilson,” it added.
“Those witness accounts stating that Brown never moved back toward Wilson could not be relied upon in a prosecution because their accounts cannot be reconciled with the DNA bloodstain evidence and other credible witness accounts.”
In other words, the claim that Darren Wilson murdered Michael Brown while Brown was surrendering to him, or running away with his back turned – which generated months and months of protests, arson, looting and general violence – complete with a “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” narrative – was a complete fraud. A lie. A hoax. A made-up crock of BS.
I have a question for you. What if the situation were reversed? What if the forensic evidence proved that Officer Wilson had shot Michael Brown while he had his hands up in surrender, after a bunch of White “witnesses” lied by saying no such thing happened? What would media be saying about those witnesses? About the lying racist Whites of Ferguson, Missouri?
Think about your answer. Then look to see if it in any way coincides with how media will be treating this story as it actually has unfolded. And keep thinking racism…just a different version of it.
