Wednesday, November 26, 2014

My Final Word on the Michael Brown Shooting

Martin Luther King is quoted by a blogger yesterday as having said "Race Riots are the language of the Unheard".   And indeed the government of Ferguson was bent from the beginning on covering up the truth of that happened in the street on August 9th.  And there is no other way for the people to vent their frustrations.  Not to compare or anything but compared to what we faced in Los Angeles with the Rodney King beating- - these people have a much Stronger Case for protesting.  The officers in the Rodney King beating were put on trial which was televised.  You could see what was going on.  Rodney King also provoked the officers that night.  In the case of Michael Brown he just isn't beaten up - - he's Dead.  And I am not convinced that Brown ever comitted any act that merited being shot multiple times.  Here are more of the specifics.

I wanted to wait to “render my own decision” about the Michael Brown shooting till I was personally satisfied I had all the evidence worth having – to consider.  I would first though refer you to the Chapiquittic incident with Ted Kennedy - - which Rush Limbaugh used in his comic example of “The only man (in Iraq) to cross a bridge bombed”.   Ted Kennedy changed his deposition perhaps more than once in the days following the Mary Jo Kopechney drowning incident, and we were all upset about that.  I didn’t know depositions could be changed like that to somehow “fit the facts” or make the person look better.  I would also ask you in your minds to contrast the George Stephenopolis interview last night with the way the Supreme Court justices hear arguments.  From the git go the advocates of an argument are pelted with confrontative questions all the time and required to clarify and defend their positions.  One would suppose that if you were being grilled by a grand jury this would only be heightened- - out there alone defending your position having to take on any and all questioners with no defense attorney up there calling ‘objection”.   But the best George Stephanopolis could muster is an occasional “Wow! - - or Really?”  There is an element that weighs heavily with me and that is timelyness of testimony - - and also consistency.   These people at least four or five of them - - who said that Darin Wilson was guilty - - got their message out there and on the internet within days, and just yesterday those two Black women for instance, reaffirmed every word they said in their testimony.  Mayor Giuliani stated “Well I believe the grand jury had probable cause to charge with a crime- - but witnesses changed their testimony”.   OK in the first place- - if you as defense attorney believe you can “break down’ someone’s testimony- - that’s why you have a trial.  So all the facts of a crime can be aired.  But here we didn’t even know the name of the officer for a while week, and it was long after that we still didn’t know his testimony.  No police report on the Ferguson shooting was made and NO witnesses were interviewed at the time.  This to me spoke volumes- - and the fact that there were protests shows to me that “the people of the community” themselves had come to the conclusion that the officer was guilty.  Sean Hannity has said that any friend of the shoplifter’s testimony should be thrown out “Because he’s associating with a felon and felon’s testamonies aren’t allowed”.  In the first place, Sean, Felon’s testamonies are used all the time.  The jury is just advised that such testimony could be suspect.  Sean Hannity and the Ferguson people spread the LIE that Wilson’s orbital eye socket was fractured.  Also Wilson testified that Brown was “The strongest man he’d ever encountered”.  And “he was so scarey - - like a demon” and of course there were the endless “I was in fear for my life”.  Again use common sense.  You’ve seen battered women - - swollen and black and blue all over.  You’ve seen what boxer’s faces look like after they’ve been pummeled a while.  Did Wilson’s face look like that?  No.  There was some redness- - it didn’t look swollen and it certainly wasn’t black and blue.  Sean Hannity LIED about another key point.  This tape of the shots being fired was - - dismissed by all the conservative broadcasters almost immediately.  They kept saying “It hasn’t been authenticated”.   But what they DIDN’T tell you was that the FBI got this tape on their own and the tape WAS authenticated.  I learned that from the Norman Goldman show yesterday.  This is a key piece of evidence in terms of the number of shots fired.  There was a whole stream of shots and them a few second pause and then another volley of shots.  This goes to another falsehood of that Ferguson official himself that Norman Goldman highlighted.  This is the fact that - - saying “someone was shot in the back” may be what you SAW happening at the time.  You see a guy fleeing and an officer firing round after round at him, as the tapes show.  Brown had eight bullet wounds and a LOT of shots missed.  Officer Wilson was a bad shot right from the git go in the car.  We also have officer Wilson’s testimony about the number of feet away that Brown was from him.  Norman Goldman said that Brown was 151 feet away from the squad car because that’s the farthest extent of the blood trail.  But then Brown came back - - apparently 25 feet out of 151 feet in total.  As such if Brown was “only ten feet away from me” when I shot him - -  - Brown was running away for 151 feet and only approaching Wilson for a maximum of 25 feet, perhaps less.  We are also told by one government source that “Michael moved tword the officer” just before he was shot.  This prosecuter guy on TV was fond of speaking in the passive voice saying “shots were fired - - more shots were fired at Brown” as if some phantom shooter.   But this whole failure to question Wilson by George Stephanopolis I’d like to address.  First of all we were originally told that Michael Brown opened up the police car door and came in.  This is untrue- - and officer Wilson changed his testimony to conform to the evidence.  It was all “through the window” just as the witnesses said all along about- - the officer reaching through the window at Brown and Brown was trying to get away from the officer.  But there is the whole physics of the whole thing if Brown did try to go for his gun.  It was the driver’s side of the car and Brown would have to reach over the door, and also over the officer himself to his right side where the holster would be- - while the officer was mainly in a sitting position, and then pull out the gun and get in a wrestling match with it.  And let’s use another example your familiar with.  Scrambling for a loose football after a fumble.  Do you generally use one hand or two hands to go for the ball?  Two hands.  To get more traction.  Yet Brown supposedly used one hand and put the other hand in front of the gun to block Wilson from firing the gun- - which would make sense- - if you were trying to protect your body from being hit too badly.  It makes NO sense to put a hand a foot or so from the barrel if you’re going for the gun with your other hand.  I am told some officers have a lock on their holster so that only the police officer can remove the firearm. This brings us to the final lie of officer Wilson.  There were none of Browns fingerprints in the officer’s firearm.  So they could NOT be “wrestling with the gun and it went off - - “ or whatever.  Michael Brown’s hands never TOUCHER the gun.  These jurors haven’t lived in the real world.  Of course Officer Wilson showed the initial hostility by saying “Get the fuck out of the street” so it could be argued that right then Officer Wilson was biased against these two guys.  Which leads me to my final point in that I got through this whole thing without once mentioning the race of the officer or the two “suspects”.  OK.  Let’s see the other side try and to that.  They can’t.  You even hear Officer Wilson justify his actions by saying “It was a hostile environment with all the gangs and stuff in that area”.   One more thing we might as well mention.  Witnesses state that Brown had his hands up when he turned around and says "OK - OK".  There are wounds on Brown's arms consistent with his having his hands raised.  Officer Wilson gave us a whole new story saying that Brown made a Black power fist with one hand and with the other reached for his waist band.  Come on -  is this isn't guilding the lilly I don't know what is.  Officer Wilson says "Perhaps he did have a gun after all that he was reaching for that I didn't see".  Officer Wilson, according to Norman Goldman was "whisked away bu the authorities" and pumped and primed as he honed his story so that he could tell it with a straight face without flinching".   It also bothers me that Sean Hannity has been such a cheerleader for the Ferguson authorities- - having all this 'inside information".  Hannity ought to have as his them song "I've been everywhere".  I mean - he's been to Israel - - talked to the elite there - - he's been to the El Paso border and talked to the authorities there- - and Sean apparently heard some story that the rest of us never did- - that convinced him early on of Officer Wilson's innocence.

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