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Title: Officer Darren Wilson's story is unbelievable. Literally.
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URL Source: http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7281165/darren-wilsons-story-side
Published: Nov 27, 2014
Author: Ezra Klein
Post Date: 2014-11-27 07:48:13 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 1761
Comments: 100
We've finally heard from Officer Darren Wilson. Wilson had been publicly silent since the events of August 9, when he shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. And, even as the grand jury announced its decision not to indict him, he remained silent. He had his attorneys release a statement on his behalf. But on Monday night, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch released the evidence given to the grand jury, including the interview police did with Wilson in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. And so we got to read, for the first time, Wilson's full, immediate account of his altercation with Brown. And it is unbelievable. I mean that in the literal sense of the term: "difficult or impossible to believe." But I want to be clear here. I'm not saying Wilson is lying. I'm not saying his testimony is false. I am saying that the events, as he describes them, are simply bizarre. His story is difficult to believe. The story Wilson tells goes like this: At about noon on August 9th, Wilson hears on the radio that there's a theft in progress at the Ferguson Market. The suspect is a black male in a black shirt. Moments later, Wilson sees two young black men walking down the yellow stripe in the center of the street. He pulls over. "Hey guys, why don't you walk on the sidewalk?" They refuse. "We're almost at our destination," one of them replies. Wilson tries again. "But what's wrong with the sidewalk?" he asks. And then things get weird. Brown's response to "what's wrong with the sidewalk?", as recorded by Wilson, is "fuck what you have to say." Remember, Wilson is a uniformed police officer, in a police car, and Brown is an 18-year-old kid who just committed a robbery. And when asked to use the sidewalk, Wilson says Brown replied, "Fuck what you have to say." WILSON SAYS BROWN REPLIED, "FUCK WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY." Wilson backs his car up and begins to open the door. "Hey, come here," he said to the kid who just cursed at him. He says Brown replied, "What the fuck you gonna do?" And then Brown, in Wilson's telling, slams the car door closed. Wilson tries to open the door again, tells Brown to get back, and then Brown leans into the vehicle and begins punching him. michael brown casket Photos surround Michael Brown's casket in Ferguson, MO. (Richard Perry- Pool/Getty Images) Let's take a breath and recap. Wilson sees two young black men walking in the middle of the street. He pulls over and politely asks them to use the sidewalk. They refuse. He asks again, still polite. Brown tells Wilson — again, a uniformed police officer in a police car — "fuck what you have to say." Wilson stops his car, tries to get out, and Brown slams the car door on him and then begins punching him through the open window. What happens next is the most unbelievable moment in the narrative. And so it's probably best that I just quote Wilson's account at length on it. I was doing the, just scrambling, trying to get his arms out of my face and him from grabbing me and everything else. He turned to his...if he's at my vehicle, he turned to his left and handed the first subject. He said, "here, take these." He was holding a pack of — several packs of cigarillos which was just, what was stolen from the Market Store was several packs of cigarillos. He said, "here, hold these" and when he did that I grabbed his right arm trying just to control something at that point. Um, as I was holding it, and he came around, he came around with his arm extended, fist made, and went like that straight at my face with his...a full swing from his left hand. So Brown is punching inside the car. Wilson is scrambling to deflect the blows, to protect his face, to regain control of the situation. And then Brown stops, turns to his left, says to his friend, "Here, hold these," and hands him the cigarillos stolen from Ferguson Market. Then he turns back to Wilson and, with his left hand now freed from holding the contraband goods, throws a haymaker at Wilson. Every bullshit detector in me went off when I read that passage. Which doesn't mean that it didn't happen exactly the way Wilson describes. But it is, again, hard to imagine. Brown, an 18-year-old kid holding stolen goods, decides to attack a cop and, while attacking him, stops, hands his stolen goods to his friend, and then returns to the beatdown. It reads less like something a human would do and more like a moment meant to connect Brown to the robbery. Wilson next recounts his thought process as he reached for a weapon. He considered using his mace, but at such close range, the mace might get in his eyes, too. He doesn't carry a taser with a fireable cartridge, but even if he did, "it probably wouldn't have hit [Brown] anywhere". Wilson couldn't reach his baton or his flashlight. So he went for his gun. Brown sees him go for the gun. And he replies: "You're too much of a fucking pussy to shoot me." "YOU'RE TOO MUCH OF A FUCKING PUSSY TO SHOOT ME." Again, stop for a moment and think about that. Brown is punching Wilson, sees the terrified cop reaching for his gun, and says "You're too much of a fucking pussy to shoot me." He dares him to shoot. michael brown sign A protestors holds up a sign saying "don't shoot". (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) And then Brown grabs Wilson's gun, twists it, and points it at Wilson's "pelvic area". Wilson regains control of the firearm and gets off a shot, shattering the glass. Brown backs up a half step and, realizing he's unharmed, dives back into the car to attack Wilson. Wilson fires again, and then Brown takes off running. (You can see the injuries Wilson sustained from the fight in these photographs.) Wilson exits the car to give chase. He yells at Brown to get down on the ground. Here, I'm going to go back to Wilson's words: When he stopped, he turned, looked at me, made like a grunting noise and had the most intense, aggressive face I've ever seen on a person. When he looked at me, he then did like the hop...you know, like people do to start running. And, he started running at me. During his first stride, he took his right hand put it under his shirt into his waistband. And I ordered him to stop and get on the ground again. He didn't. I fired multiple shots. After I fired the multiple shots, I paused a second, yelled at him to get on the ground again, he was still in the same state. Still charging, hand still in his waistband, hadn't slowed down. The stuff about Brown putting his hand in his waistband is meant to suggest that Wilson had reason to believe Brown might pull a gun. But it's strange. We know Brown didn't have a gun. And that's an odd fact to obscure while charging a police officer. Either way, at that point, Wilson shoots again, and kills Brown. There are inconsistencies in Wilson's story. He estimates that Brown ran 20-30 feet away from the car and then charged another 10 feet back towards Wilson. But we know Brown died 150 feet away from the car. There are also consistencies. St Louis prosecutor Robert McCulloch said that Brown's DNA was found inside Wilson's car, suggesting there was a physical altercation inside the vehicle. We know shots were fired from inside the car. We know Brown's bullet wounds show he was only hit from the front, never from the back. But the larger question is, in a sense, simpler: Why? Why did Michael Brown, an 18-year-old kid headed to college, refuse to move from the middle of the street to the sidewalk? Why would he curse out a police officer? Why would he attack a police officer? Why would he dare a police officer to shoot him? Why would he charge a police officer holding a gun? Why would he put his hand in his waistband while charging, even though he was unarmed? NONE OF THIS FITS WITH WHAT WE KNOW OF MICHAEL BROWN None of this fits with what we know of Michael Brown. Brown wasn't a hardened felon. He didn't have a death wish. And while he might have been stoned, this isn't how stoned people act. The toxicology report did not indicate he was on PCP or something that would've led to suicidal aggression. Which doesn't mean Wilson is a liar. Unbelievable things happen every day. The fact that his story raises more questions than it answers doesn't mean it isn't true. But the point of a trial would have been to try to answer these questions. We would have either found out if everything we thought we knew about Brown was wrong, or if Wilson's story was flawed in important ways. But now we're not going to get that chance. We're just left with Wilson's unbelievable story. More: Michael Brown spent his last day with his friend Dorian Johnson. Johnson was also there when Officer Wilson stopped Brown. Here's where Johnson's testimony corroborates, and diverges, from Wilson's account.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 40.
#2. To: Ada (#0)
Such a nice little boy???
Yeah and 911 was committed by 19 arab hi jackers and anyone that would suggest otherwise is an outrageous conspiracy theorist who should not be tolerated. The story stinks, and I for one will NEVER SUPPORT POLICE BRUTALITY. Not Ever. NOt for any reason not against any person. Here's the raw footage from the last convenience store in America using low resolution cameras. And even IF it is not doctored footage, it still doesn't justify his murder. When did we go from "we always catch our man" to we always kill our suspect"?
Truth be known, you also don't support White civilians defending themselves against Black thugs. Witness your adoration of Trayvon "Skittles" Martin.
Witness your adoration of Trayvon "Skittles" Martin. I support the defense of the innocent and justice for the guilty. Thats the truth. And I do not support police brutality regardless of the color of the person they're killing. You don't get it but if your cool with them killing blacks just because they're black then you're just plain comfortable with the police state and police brutality period. What they do to blacks they'll do to whites and mexicans. Cops don't discriminate, They'll kill anyone for any reason. And then they'll get away with it. That's not a good thing.
No you don't. You reject legal outcomes (Trayvon & Wilson) based on a lack of knowledge. You emote rather than research.
Even though you try to put words in my mouth and tell lies about what I reject, It just aint so. And I'm not talking about Trayvon because that was a totally different case. I do my research. Extensively and analytically. YOU are the one emoteing with hatred and disregard. I don't really care about what breed of human is involved. I care about the circumstances and events of the incident. You don't shoot an unarmed man running away. Thats not standing your ground , thats murder. And as for trayvon,.... You really don't do your research there. That boy begged for the last minutes of his life. Since the incident Zimmerman has been involved in a few domestic assaults, Toured the gun factory that made the gun he killed with, and it is not possible to made drugs out of skittles and arizona ice tea... thats foolishness. The kind of foolishness emoted by ignorant people hung up on convicted on color and not on evidence. In the case of Trayvon, He was just walking home and was chased down by a civilian. He had no weapon on him. Brown may of been walking away from the scene of a crime he committed but he too was unarmed. Shot dead by real police. Tamir rice didn't live 3 seconds once police rolled up on him and opened fire. What they do to blacks, they'll do to whites. I'm not hating myself or betraying my race or any sillyness like that, I'm looking at the facts as they are and as they are, cops are killing unarmed people and getting away with it. I don't support that.
No you don't. In your #37 you describe the store owner in the vid as a "hindu indian male." Please tell us where this came from. Also the three autopsies dispute your claim that Brown was shot in the back.
#46. To: Jethro Tull (#40)
The Video come from Youtube Courtesy of the BBC and Youtube user Daboo7 I call the store owner a "Hindu Indian" To specify india indian and not native american indian. But for all I know he could be pakistani. www.motherjones.com/polit...ng-michael-brown-shooting Regardless of whatever, HE was still unarmed. Resorting to lethal force to a non lethal threat is unacceptable. He did not call for back up, He did not use mace or his club. There never was any report of weapons being involved anywhere. I ain't calling anyone a saint. And I'm not excusing the murder just because the victim was a black and the assailant was a white cop. That same white cop would just as easily put a bullet into you or me if he felt like it. And he would get away with it just as easily. In there minds if it is ok to kill one kind of person then it is ok to kill any kind of person.
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#3. To: noone222 (#2)
#9. To: titorite (#3)
The story stinks, and I for one will NEVER SUPPORT POLICE BRUTALITY. Not Ever. NOt for any reason not against any person.
#33. To: Jethro Tull (#9)
Truth be known, you also don't support White civilians defending themselves against Black thugs.
#35. To: titorite (#33)
I support the defense of the innocent and justice for the guilty.
#38. To: Jethro Tull (#35)
No you don't. You reject legal outcomes (Trayvon & Wilson) based on a lack of knowledge. You emote rather than research.
#40. To: titorite (#38)
I do my research. Extensively and analytically.
Replies to Comment # 40. In your #37 you describe the store owner in the vid as a "hindu indian male." Please tell us where this came from.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 40.