They're tear gassing peaceful protesters and arresting journalists in Ferguson tonight.

^You know how horrendously unreliable eyewitness accounts are?

Nothing astonishing about it.

The police didn't know who he was. When they found out it was after he had gotten a lawyer. Who no doubt is telling him not to talk to the police. Police can't force the interview.

As difficult as believing the police officer just jumped out of the car and started shooting for no good reason?

And he was a young man not Ghandi. Everyone throws around the peaceful thing like he would never ever lift a hand in anger or do something stupid. I'm not saying he's violent but the whole "oh he would never do that" is crazy. You don't know him, I don't know him, and both of us should have enough experience to know the media will spin things a certain way if they don't like something. In this case they don't like the cop.

Lot's of "peaceful" people do stupid things.

This is why we are waiting on the investigation.

If those eyewitness interviews are accurate - fuck, that cop needs to be put down!

The name of the officer has been released: Darren Wilson

Darren my ass......DERWOOD as Samantha's mom used to say on Bewitched!

Fascinating.....

Apparently there was a armed robbery at a convenience before Brown's encounter with the officer. The bad guy according to Don Lemon at CNN was wearing the exact same clothes as Michael Brown.

Here's the robbery photo:

And here is Brown:

They look practiucally the same. Right down to the shoes.

Now I just found this while looking for the Don Lemon link:

Michael Brown suspect in robbery before he was shot to death, police say
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/us/missouri-teen-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

So maybe not the "peaceful" guy we've all been told he is.....

Police officer encounters him. Tries to take him into custody. Brown knows what he did earlier attempts to escape by fighting the officer and gets shot.

Things are starting to make a little more sense as to why Brown would attack a police officer or why the police officer would shoot Brown......

We shall see......

That sure looks like him.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michael-brown-suspect-robbery-ferguson-police-shooting

Some of the photos contain the police report of the robbery at the convenience store.

Here's a very important part:

"It is worth mentioning that this incident is related to another incident detailed under Ferguson Police Report #2014-12391 as well as St. Louis County Police Report #2014-43984. In that incident, Brown was fatally wounded involving an officer of this department. I responded to that scene and observed Brown. After viewing Brown and reviewing the video, I was able to confirm that Brown is the primary suspect in this incident. A second person, also at that scene, identified himself as being with Brown. That person was was later identified as Dorian Johnson. After observing Johnson and reviewing the video I confirmed he is the second suspect in this incident."

It would appear his friend Dorian Johnson knows the truth about what happened as is trying to save his own neck by lying.

So here is what COULD (not did, but could) have happened. Brown was resisting arrest, cop panicked and shot him. Not likely given the cop had been doing the job for six years, but you never know what level of actual "holy shit!" physical incidents the cop has been through before this.
Was Brown stupid enough to try to get a gun away from an officer? Not likely. Yes, it's possible, but not likely. That takes time - Brown most likely was trying to get away as fast and far as possible. Then again Brown is not a slim man - was he even a very fast runner? Would running be an effective strategy for him?
What really pisses me off is the police department had dash-cams but they aren't employed yet. Fucking unreal, unless they just got the cameras last week.

And it is telling how often gul "likes" his posts.

Interesting about the store robbery. This is why you wait for all the facts to come out before acting out.

Clearly, this is a racist liberal tragedy, that police would shoot a robber, resisting arrest.

It's hard to be sure -- something about the shorts don't look quite right, but if nothing else, it's close enough to explain why the cop stopped him. I'd be interested to see more about the accomplice. Is there any security footage of him?

Yeah, I didn't rep that shit, but it doesn't surprise me that you would expect people to reflexively respond based on who said it, rather than what was said. That is, after all, the past 18 months of the Volpone posting style.

It certainly adds more context, we'll see how it turns out.

Hopefully it doesn't detract from the issue of militarization and how police respond to certain situations.

It's that the picture given to the media from the store is darker.

If you read the police report the store clerk says the robber is wearing khaki shorts, a white shirt, yellow socks, and a red cap.

And the accomplice in the store is on the tape. That's how they know it's Dorian Johnson who is the same guy saying the police just shot Brown for no good reason.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/08/15/ferguson.police.documents.pdf

Sooooo, the stories of Brown and his friend just skipping down the street when the mean, white cop opens fire just might be slightly exaggerated? Or a flat out lie? The cop probably screwed up somewhere, but I highly doubt he just opened his car door and opened fire "just because".

Not only do the eye-witness accounts vary, a couple of people varied their own story over time.
Dashboard cameras would be....oops never installed them.

If you watch the actual footage and not just photos of the video like what was posted here, you can see the accomplice.

The video footage also doesn't look as bad as those still shots (it's not as dark and you can tell the shorts are tan) and the guy they say robbed the store sure looks like the same kid who got shot.

Uh oh.......I think I see a chant/rally/mantra coming up:
SHOT DOWN OVER A CIGAR! It barely scratches the surface of what may have happened, but this can be easily memorized, put on a sign or t-shirt, shouted by Reverend Al with a bullhorn, etc. Nobody is going to pass this up.

BREAKING: OFFICER THAT KILLED BROWN WAS UNAWARE OF ROBBERY AT THE TIME

I can't post a link from my phone, but this makes the robbery irrelevant, since the murderer couldn't possibly have based his actions on it. Fuck the Ferguson PD for trying to use it to muddy the waters.

Here's a link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/15/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKBN0GF0LP20140815

Of course, the officer not knowing doesn't make too much difference. If the guy in that security video is the victim, it's a lot easier to believe the cop's story that he acted up. Proves nothing, but I wouldn't say this clears up much regarding the likelihood of an altercation.

Yup, playing out pretty much exactly as I expected.

And so...it begins.

To me there are too many inflammatory (though innocuous sounding) code words being used that make me leery of condeming the police immediately.

1) "kid", "teenager"- used to denote youth and often "innocence". We can debate all we want about levels of maturity, but by EVERY accepted definition in the United States, an 18 year old is legally an adult. They should be treated as adults and reported upon as adults unless they have a diagnosed, verifiable mental problem rendering them incapable of exercising judgement.

2) "unarmed"- excuse me but "unarmed" has NEVER indicated to be "harmless". Plenty of people, including 18 year olds have been quite capable of lethal force without a weapon. Note also, most police don't walk around with weapons drawn. Until they are able to draw a weapon, then they are also effectively unarmed.

3) "eyewitness account" As stated above, the most UNRELIABLE source of evidence.

It appears that Garamet was right about you.

I'm still waiting on more facts before coming to a definite opinion on the shooting, but let me throw out some random thoughts:

1. It's possible that Brown was the robber AND he was wrongfully killed. The choices aren't necessarily "innocent child executed" and "violent thug served justice."

2. The officer who confronted Brown did so because Brown and his companion were walking down the middle of the street.

3. Though the officer did not suspect Brown of the store robbery, Brown would not have known that. If Brown had just committed a robbery, the appearance of a police officer might've led him to conclude his arrest was imminent.

4. The militarization of the police and their response here are still important things to consider no matter whether the shooting of Brown was justified.

5. In matters like this--where race is involved or suggested to be involved--people stake out very hard positions at the outset that they're unable to relinquish even when facts emerge that paint a different picture.

6. Maybe you have a hard time imagining that a college-bound kid like Brown who was just walking down the street would resist arrest/assault an officer. Maybe you have a hard time imagining that a cop could shoot a kid down in the street when he didn't need to. But ask yourself: whichever side of that you're on, why do you find it so easy to believe the other side could do something bad?

7. If Brown is the guy pulling the robbery, his companion may not be a very reliable witness.

Camera's are not flawless either. Look at just how bad having something filmed worked in the Rodney King case. If ALL of that incident had been caught on camera, dozens of lives and millions of dollars might've been saved.

I'll just leave this...here.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

The answer I gave there applies, your history does not exist in a vacuum.

Now that it's coming out the "victim" wasn't a sweet little angel out getting flowers for his sick grandmother, you guys will shift into overdrive trying to keep him painted as a victim killed by an evil white man.

I don't know what it is about the lefties of WF (oh noes, talking about posters again), but you guys always try to act like every topic exists in an absolute vacuum and no one should reference your history...sorry, doesn't work that way.