As someone from Louisiana, I am sad because I thought this thread would be about finding people to chill with.
But of course it is about Ferguson.
I absolutely agree that police think they are above the law and get away with a lot of shit. Who watches the watchman? The watchman does, of course, and he isn't going to throw his own in jail (unless they go against the grain and "whistleblow," then they just leave you to die, as Frank Serpico can tell you).
HOWEVER, police use of force in Ferguson may have, perhaps was even probably, justified. Micheal Brown turned out to be a bully and a thief, who resisted arrest and assaulted a policeman. Under Missouri law, lethal force was justified.
Not that we will know, however, because the case never went to trial, which is kind of fucked up.
It really does suck that Micheal Brown is what made Ferguson blow up. The police in Ferguson have killed a lot of people. Mike Brown was the last straw, but Mike Brown may have been a case when lethal force was justified. We will never know, however, because it was not taken to trial. And that is what should be the main issue of the case.
The grand jury will send the defendant to trial if and only if there is probable cause. Because none of the testimony agreed, such as witness accounts, differences in autopsy results, the fact that Officer Wilson's story changed, etc., I find it hard to believe there was not probable cause to send this case to trial by jury to truly lay everything in the open.
However, that is why we have grand juries. They heard a lot more evidence than what we heard and they obviously felt that Wilson's actions were justified. Ok.
The part where this gets fucked up is that grand juries almost NEVER fail to indict (except against police of course). Couple this with the prosecutor, who had a clear conflict of interest (his father was a cop killed in the line of duty, his brother is a cop, several of his nephews are cops). He was the guy who came out last night, called the media cunts, told the lit pipe bomb that is Ferguson to calm down and jerked off a few cops. Yes, HE was the lawyer who was supposed to be AGAINST the cop.
So we have a cop who was justified to use lethal force, a prosecutor who is extremely empathetic to cops and a dead kid who was 6.5 ft tall, weighed 300 lbs and committed the crimes of theft, assault and resisting arrest. Not a good case to use to unite the people against the misuses of power of the police.
However, this case DOES seem to be pushing the use of police cams, which is AWESOME. Every city that has implemented body cams has fewer reports of mistreatment by police.
Topic: Louisiana (Read 60244 times)
