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

Ferguson Police Chief Admits Mike Brown Shooting Not Related To Robbery

Video at the link.

I've read about things like that happening before. It is usually a classic "overcharging" manuever. Throw every possible charge at a person in order to get a better negotiating position

As was pointed out already, the "victim" may not have known that the cop didn't know about the robbery.


While of course possible, it's a pretty huge coincidence for both to be entirely unrelated.

Clearly, you didn't even read my post, since it was pretty much the opposite of 14th Doctors. And I suppose you also missed a few of my earlier posts, where I indicated I found it credible that Brown might not have behaved in the manner his friend claims.

The truth is we don't know, and if you bothered to read people's actual statements, you'd see that this is the position of most people who have posted in this thread. Maybe you don't have such a lock on understanding the rest of us as you think you do.

An interesting theory, gul, but one he's unlikely to read.

Seems reasonable that a guy who just participated in a robbery might over react if he's coincidentally stopped by a cop after said robbery. Doesn't mean much, just an observation.

Yep. I thought the same thing.

The cop's state of mind may not be influenced by the recent robbery, but Brown's may well have been...

DAMN! Paladin for the win! Very good points I must say. Agree or not, all are solid points.

I'm sorry but in my experience almost all the "bad cops" are "bad" because they are idiots. Not because they are racists and/or sociopaths.

You have extremely...limited...experience.

Never claimed otherwise. The last encounter I had with police was when one asked me to keep our dog on a leash when I walked her.

That was year and a half ago.

Your statement, "In my experience...almost all..." certainly implies something more than your now admitted "limited" knowledge.

I've been ticketed all of once for speeding. Stopped lots of times for various things on the road but pretty much let go due to who and what I was.

Supremely ironic, a CDL holder and bus driver beyond anything else.

I don't really have any special insight into this. I've been through the Ferguson area many times and it seemed pretty safe, it's right by Hazelwood and Florissant, but then I'm a white guy who's mostly just passing through. Or stopping by Flo Valley for a math contest.

I do feel that if a cop doesn't have good reason to shoot someone, I mean seriously no good reason, he or she ought to be prosecuted just the same as anyone else. Murder is murder, manslaughter is manslaughter. Occasionally someone's going to get shot for acting like an idiot around armed officers, but that should be the clear-cut exception.

Apparently the ACLU actually filed suit demanding the officer's name be released RIGHT NOW OR WE'LL KICK AND HOLD OUR BREATHS UNTIL WE PASS OUT. What a bunch of idiots. Yes, let's put the man's family in danger, and his own life in danger just like Liet would want it, just because you can't wait a couple of weeks like adults until the furor has died down some.

Oh, and some internet warrior idiots have taken down the St. Louis County website, because I guess how dare they try to stop the looting and violent things.

Oh and, uh, yeah, militarizing police is an ugly thing. But it's so tempting, I mean there's all this perfectly good stuff going to waste because the armed forces don't want it anymore and it's so big and shiny . . . but no, I think we're seeing that it leads to trouble.

I'll be honest, I'm a big opponent of militarizing the police but when I heard that the Ferguson PD has only 53 officers (assuming that is true) then I'm not sure I blame them for wanting to tap into as much firepower as they can get. 53 police officers amounts to about TEN to ELEVEN on duty at any one time on the average.

I would imagine that such woeful numbers have caused a severe "sense of seige" among the officers and with those kinds of numbers which probably amount to an average of 4 to 6 on the street they have exactly ZERO time for any kind of community outreach.

That seems like a lot of cops for a city of only 21,000 people.

The only comparably-sized suburb I can find around here (and even then it's significantly larger at 34,000 people) has around 45 officers.

Other factors are in play as well. If a small town is a county seat it also has the Sheriff's Dept. close at hand for support. Depending on the location it might also have state police and/or state troopers in the area

More on the way the Ferguson PD is handling this. The attempted ass-covering is especially blatant.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/why-did-ferguson-police-release-the-convenience-store-video

One thing worth remembering:

What does that have to do with the subject at hand?

I was taking it into consideration as a factor regarding total the amount of resources available to local LEOs.

Another thing worth considering is are there nearby smaller communities that the PD has to cover for various reasons WITHOUT additional resources.

I know a town near where I grew up had to cover several nearby communites as well.

So the Ferguson PD can call upon even more resources to police such a small town, proving my point even further.

I don't know if they can or not.

They might be spread even thinner than numbers appear as I indicated

53 doesn't work out to a lot, really. We have ~50. When you start subtracting Admin and Investigations, the numbers start getting thin. Ideally, this Department's Patrol Division would have eight people per shift (One LT, one SGT, and six Patrolmen). It really works out to six per shift. Then you've got holidays, vacation days, sick days, etc. There are supposed to be six people working as I type this. The SGT is out sick and one of the Patrolmen is on vacation. So, there's a LT and three patrolmen for a busy Friday night. 50 doesn't go as far as most people think it does.

I did a quick comparison with my town, which has a 1:300 ratio of police officers to total population. Ferguson is close to 1:400. But what are the typical policing needs for a small suburb compared to a major city? I doubt Ferguson has specialty units, for example. Also, we know that at least in the recent riots, some sort of county force was involved. Is Ferguson PD routinely supplemented in this fashion? Some of the small towns in Massachusetts share police, fire, and school resources as a way to achieve better economies of scale. Does Ferguson do that? On the face of things, 53 seems a bit slim, but maybe it isn't.

When I was a kid, the town I lived in had a 1.5:4,000 ratio of police to total population (ie, 1 full time cop and 1 part time cop for a town of just under 5K people).

The town .. my house is in - just under 7,000 people has a total police force of 45, 17 patrol officers and two community service officers (not sure what that means) - plus another 10 seasonal community service officers. But, there's not a lot of crime. It's tucked up against Lake Michigan and the Wisconsin border. People drive through on the commute to and from work or, in the summer, head to the marina.

The real problem city is about 12 miles south of there - just last week our "security department" sent out an email letting us know there'd been a murder in the area, there was a manhunt, and not to leave the premises. As it turned out, the shooting took place directly across the intersection where my ex-husband works.

My small home town of 1,100 people has always had two full time police officers.

But that is misleading. Whenever there is something serious more than a dozen LEOs show up.

I remember back around 1990, a man with known mental problems started firing randomly at passing cars and neighbors houses.

Something like 20 officers eventually showed up and surrounded his home. He fired more than 150 rounds before charging the police line (suicide by cop). A three round burst by the officers killed him. The only shots fired by the police during the incident.

Of interest, Game Wardens also typically show up at such incidents.

Huh.

Ferguson got a new police commander.

Some cities have done that in order to make sure that the candidates they need for a selected group. They do not per say lower the standards. In Los Angeles when they have been required by courts to meet quotas, they will have the applicants that fall into the groups they have the quotas for start off with extra points. If everyone begins with say 100 points, than the people who are the special group would begin with 105 points. They do the same thing for applicants that are military veterans as well.

I know exactly who'll mock this, and I know exactly what they'll say, but IMO this incident may be, if not a turning point, at least a stop-and-think: