The white police officer a grand jury declined to indict last week in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager has resigned from this city’s Police Department, his lawyer said on Saturday night.
The officer, Darren Wilson, who had worked in the department since 2011, submitted a resignation letter, said Neil J. Bruntrager, the lawyer. In the letter, first published in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mr. Wilson said: “It was my hope to continue in police work, but the safety of other police officers and the community are of paramount importance to me. It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal.”
For months, some here had called for Mr. Wilson, 28, to step down or be fired following the killing of Michael Brown and the unrest that followed, in August and then again last Monday, after the grand jury decision was announced.
Killing a black teen, it turns out, is very financially lucrative. He made mid to high six figures for his ABC interview, so we’ll say a half million. He’s received about a half million in donations, and I am sure he will get more. The next logical step is a spot on Faux news and a book deal with Regnery that will probably garner a several million dollar signing bonus. The praise and accolades from scared white shut-ins across the country are free.
The only thing holding him back from really doing the wingnut grifting circuit is that he has to watch what he says until the civil suits and the civil rights suit are over, but I’m betting he can make it a year or two on the million he already has.
c u n d gulag
Oh, I’m sure that for at least a while, the ‘Wingnut Welfare Rubber-chicken Dinner Circuit’ will be good to him!
Hey, ‘Joe the (not) Plumber’ made a nice living, and he didn’t even kill a black guy – just criticized one!
Of course, when the Wingnut Welfare ran out, he had to go and get a union job.
Karma!
GxB
Hooo, Hooo, Hooo!
But seriously, “Officer” Wilson has hit the jackpot in a sense, I’m sure wingnut welfare will be much kinder to him than a certain Latino in Florida who also got away with fucking murder – can’t imagine why this should be the case :rolls eyes:
Still holding out for karma to take its pound of flesh though.
scav
Mooching off the RW-teat, murderous option, does seem to be a lucrative career choice. Time will tell if he’s got better money-management and rage-control behaviors than his Zimmerman twin. It’ll also be interesting to see how long their grassroots will continue to contribute to the individual retirement packages of his be-badged and volunteer-posse copy-cats.
WereBear
It does, it always does. When we are talking about people who are paranoid, constantly disgruntled, obnoxious, and always looking for trouble, the odds are extremely good.
Speaking of which, I saw that Ginger Baker documentary discussed here a few days ago. Wow.
Suzanne
As with Mr. Zimmerman, I have a feeling that we’ll be hearing from Mr. Wilson before too long. The only downside to his situation is that he will live long enough to do even more damage to his reputation.
In all honesty, though, I’m glad he resigned. He can’t police that community. He should take his money, leave the state, and then blow through his money and end up penniless like Scott Stapp.
Eric U.
@GxB: Wilson v. Zimmerman cage match
Xenos
He is very, very lucky that nobody caught what he did on tape.
The officers in Cleveland, who shot a child within 2 seconds and then failed to offer first aid, are not so lucky.
Amir Khalid
It’s like Darren Wilson won a lottery by shooting Michael Brown for no good reason. People flat-out gave him money just for that.
But I understood the Feds have been looking at the case with a view to prosecuting Wilson, not just suing him which is what Mike Brown’s parents want to do.
satby
And I hope the damages from the civil suits ruin him, take away all that money, and leave him destitute.
He’d still be better off than Michael Brown.
Patricia Kayden
@Xenos: The cops who choked Mr. Garner to death in NY are still at large even though there was a video. Not sure if that really matters.
Aimai
@Suzanne: probably he will. He had a disorderly home life. He will be like those lottery winners who cant handle it. But add in a dose of paranoia and the need to fight the civil suit? He is going to end up in a sereis of road rage incidents–because he wont ever walk anywhere where black people could walk near him. Or parking lot/box store incidents. basically he can only feel safe close to other racist whites. If he moves anywhere it will be idaho or someplace like that.
SWMBO
@Eric U.: To the death. Then have Trayvon’s mom or Michael’s mom take the winner. I’m betting on mom…
gbear
Slightly Ferguson related: I’m feeling decidedly evil this morning after posting a product review for one of the ‘lightning deal’ items on Amazon.com.
Jay
Did ABC cop (no pun intended) to paying Wilson? Last I saw, wingnut favorite Chuck Johnson was the only person to report that Wilson was, in fact, paid.
c u n d gulag
@Eric U.:
Tonya Harding could kick both of their asses – at the same time!!!
Felonius Monk
@gbear: I saw what you did there!
He may be a “white” Jesus, but it looks like they shot him in the hands anyway.
GxB
@gbear: Christ, In an asshole?
Amir Khalid
@gbear:
The item is just the meditation grotto, isn’t it, without the Jesus/Mary statue which is sold separately. If you have a 24-inch statue of Emperor Palpatine standing around, that might make a more fitting occupant for the grotto than a suspiciously white Middle Eastern religious personage. (Alternatively, your tastes might run more to Darth Maul, or Jar Jar Binks.)
Schlemazel
I would guess his star would flame out in a year or two. There will be some new Great White Dope that will supplant him & in 24 months people will think Darren Wilson was one of the Beach Boys.
Ella in New Mexico
How long before a judge orders that he puts 100K of that money in a fund to pay for a college degree where he will be forced to study American history, psychology and civil rights laws– or else he will be thrown in jail for contempt? And will we be seeing the line-item monthly budget he will be living on, subject to public approval that he’s spending it on the right things?
Anyone?
/crickets/
Tree With Water
Not $urpri$ing is right. So much so that I tend to overlook the fact it’s news to a lot of people, maybe even most.
It would be wise to amend the laws which prevent criminals from cashing in on their bad deeds to include cops involved in fatal shootings.
Bobby B.
“Police work is only easy in a police state.”- Charlton Heston in “A Touch Of Evil.”
Schlemazel
@Tree With Water:
Thats the deal though isn’t it. He is not a criminal. He is not even an accused criminal in any legal sense. He is a free man and there is no law I would want to live under that could prevent him from cashing in big time from his experience as an executioner.
Edit to be clear – that sucks, he should have at least stood trial & it sure would be nice if there were not a financial incentive to execute black men but it is the system of justice we as Americans built
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
Hey, why not? He’s already become one of the most celebrated modern folk heroes in the history of fucking ever. Not to mention helped further solidify the idea that all blacks are the real criminals, otherwise they wouldn’t be protesting and rioting everywhere like the proven animals that they are, am I right?
—-
Fuck it. This whole case just proves how incurably racist this entire fucking country is and just getting worse and more open about it, and just when you think there’s a teaching moment, the only moment that gets taught is ‘BROWN PEOPLES ARE THE DEVIL!!!” All attempts to make things better just seem to result in everything getting worse, and fuck all if I know what to do about it at this point.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: That is an awesomely gruesome idea!
Jebediah, RBG
@gbear:
Good job! So I had to click on “yes”, this review was helpful to me…
Citizen_X
The good news is that he no longer has his police badge–or, as it should be called, the American License to Kill.
@WereBear:
Definitely, as you put it, “paranoid, constantly disgruntled, obnoxious, and always looking for trouble”–but with talent like a god.
Unlike most people with that description.
Lurking Canadian
@Ella in New Mexico: your proposal is so weird that it must be an oblique reference to a real life case that happened to a black person, but I’ve either forgotten or never heard the context. Can you expand?
Jebediah, RBG
@Ella in New Mexico:
Funny how that works, isn’t it? Almost like there are different rules for whites and for non-whites, here in post-racial America.
geg6
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country:
I feel the same way. The only other time I remember being this depressed and upset about my country was on the eve of W’s Iraq Adventure. I hate these people. With a white hot hate.
SatanicPanic
ABC paid him for an interview? Are you serious? They fucking do this? Goddamn, it’s time to start nuking TV stations
WereBear
@Citizen_X: I agree about his talent: it is what saved him from a slow death in the gutter.
Because he is an awful excuse for an adult human being. And so the only ones who hang around are either fellow users or naive worshippers. And as time goes on, that supply grows thinner and thinner.
gbear
@Amir Khalid: $220 just for the pod? I didn’t realize that. Oops.
delk
I don’t think his story is going to have legs. Do you really think we can make it until X-Mas without somebody new going coo-coo for cocoa puffs and grabbing the outrage?
Joel
The best outcome would have been imprisonment. Barring that, a large civil settlement (still a possibility). Given that the first outcome is probably out of the picture, all we can hope for is that he doesn’t hurt any more people. Resigning from the police force is a good start. Getting the money is irrelevant to me, since he received it from people just as awful as he is.
Frankensteinbeck
The living FUCK.
@Jay:
So, this might not be true? That’s really super important information, because ABC paying a man over $500,000 as a reward for killing an unarmed black guy is not a small thing. We really, really need to know if this is true.
WereBear
@SatanicPanic: You must have mistaken network news for journalism. Nonsense! They are all versions of Hard Copy now!
gene108
@Aimai:
Cliven Bundy has a ranch he’d fit right in at.
Also, too why is Bundy not in jail? If he thinks small arms can stand up to the U.S. government, I say call in the national guard and throw some big guns, planes, tanks, etc. on him.
The hypocrites who bitch about illegals breaking the law and do not deserve a way for restitution are fully backing this law breaker.
shelley
….the fuck??!!??
Alex S.
It’s better this way, he would have to fear for his life. He will still have to. But it’s a better life than death, I guess.
scav
@Frankensteinbeck: They also apparently decided to stop paying for interviews in 2011 after some earlier kurfuffle, so there’s layers and layers of pious lies, PR, misdirection and faux-standards. On both sides of the comfy couch with microphones and camera.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@gene108:
Why? Because hey, say what you will about Bundy, but the man takes “responsibility’!
Fuck all, I’m growing to hate that word. Mostly because all it’s used for lately is as a bludgeon against people who dare protest or insist that we shine a light on the structural and institutional inequalities in our country. It’s the perpetuation of the Horatio Alger-esque myth, the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ shit while ignoring all the fucking burdens stacked upon the lower end of the scale. This country isn’t and has never been a meritocracy. And lately, all people have been using it as is to point the finger down at the “Black Community” as all that ails it. You know, “If ONLY the black community would stop whining and playing the race card and instead take responsibility for being full of worthless thugs, they might be just as successful as us and then get treated as Americans for once!!”
Usually said by the same assholes born on third base.
Frankensteinbeck
@scav:
So we’ll probably never know if they actually did, because they hide these payments as a general rule? Whether or not they paid him for that interview is really freaking important information. If it’s an accusation that can’t be proven or refuted… I don’t know what to think.
shelley
That mention of “Joe the Plumber” made me curious as to what he’s been up to. Liked this little nugget:
In February 2014, Wurzelbacher took a job at a Jeep plant which required him to be a member of the United Auto Workers. He complained that his colleagues have called him a “Tea-bagger”.[55]
MattF
Poor baby. I suppose the Ferguson police finally decided he wouldn’t get that promotion.
John Ball
Oh, I think Wilson is going to have to always be very careful about what he says, what with there being no statute of limitations on murder. Remember–there was no trial, so double jeopardy does not apply.
Amir Khalid
@SatanicPanic:
There is, or once was, a part of the journalist’s moral code that said you earned your scoops the old-fashioned way, with legwork; you didn’t buy them. Times are different now, clearly.
No doubt some representative of Wilson’s invited broadcasters to bid for the right to be first to air Wilson’s thoughts. Had the broadcasters all resisted the temptation, a killer (or, if you will, a policeman dong his job) would not have profited from his killing, and this disgusting business could have been avoided.
MattF
@Amir Khalid:
Ha ha.
Amir Khalid
@MattF:
I didn’t say it was much of a moral code, you know.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Joel: Yup.
I wouldn’t be surprised if his on-going legal bills eat up most, maybe all of the donations, payments, etc., that he has received. The lawyers often seem to do well in cases like this…
Cheers,
Scott.
geg6
@MattF:
Yeah, I’d laugh too, if I wasn’t busy crying.
SatanicPanic
@Frankensteinbeck: hmm, yeah, that sounds like a crappy source, maybe it’s not true.
ruemara
ABC says they did not pay him. HOWEVER, and I cannot locate the source because it was a link on twitter, they seem to be calling pay outs something besides “payment” so they can reasonably deny paying for any interviews.
also, gotnews.com is Chuck C. Johnson’s bullshit, neocon hate site, so I’d be skeptical and I’m anti-Darren Wilson.
NotMax
If it turns out that payment was arranged, keep in mind that Disney owns ABC.
Seeya
ABC is claiming they didn’t pay him, but I am having a hard time believing Wilson would do the interview for free. As John Ball said, Wilson has to be very careful what he says because he can still be charged with murder. If you read the initial police report then his grand jury testimony, he significantly changes his story in some instances. It will be tough for him to keep his lies straight.
Unlike Trayvon Martin’s family, the Browns can and will file a civil suit against Wilson and the Ferguson Police Department. And Wilson will plead the fifth in the civil trial because his story will fall apart under even the most basic cross-examination and he could still be charged for Michael Brown’s murder.
Apparently several of the St. Louis Rams did a “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture as they were coming out of the tunnel earlier today and people (pretty much exclusively white people) are going batshit crazy over it.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@ruemara: I found this, but it’s 2nd hand.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Schlemazel
I thought the media really showed their hand in the shooting of the 12 year old. We have become numb to the monster myth created for every black man killed but they couldn’t do that for a child that young. I really thought going after the kids dad would display very clearly what was going on but apparently we are a much more racist nation than I suspected since it has not raised a peep.
JPL
@Seeya: All the Rams need to say is they were honoring the Grotto Jesus. See gbear @13 for a further explanation.
lamh36
@Frankensteinbeck: I don’t know if it’s true.
But the questions to ask is not if they directly paid him, but if like with Zimmerman and CNN the amount of money spent on “incentives “. That’s how a org can get away with saying they didn’t pay when they sorts did
lamh36
ruemara
The idea that ABC will pay a licensing fee is in the possible payment methods category. But they also swear they didn’t do a license.
justsomeguy
All the Sunday morning talk shows will be discussing the case. Will ANY of them mention the bidding war (“won” by ABC) to interview Mr Wilson, and the way he has been enriched ? I highly doubt it. As Werebear said so well in comment 37, this is not journalism.
Tree With Water
@gene108: I figured Bundy was going to have a net dropped on him by the feds the day after the election. Everyone but birdbrain Americans would have understood and approved- the man wasn’t paying his freight, and living off the taxpayer dime. The decision to back off making an example of that freeloader was a very poor one, craven even. It made a folk hero out of him to the same political nihilists who have commandeered the republican party, and who are well on the way to dismantling the republic of our inheritance. For crying out loud, the fuckers pointed rifles at cops and told them to hit the road. And the cops did! How do you think the same scenario would have played out if Bundy and his supporters were black?
scav
@JPL: Orans or Orante position. Decisions decisions . . . . Would I prefer all those little white people in a tizzy over the demonic effrontery, or with their minds blown with the use of a gesture common to early xianity. I’m sure 27% of the 27% could manage both. Win Win Win.
ruemara
@Tree With Water: I believe that scenario is called “Rosewood”.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
@Schlemazel:
And while they didn’t monster-ize Tamir Rice directly, they did demand a maturity and responsibility that they rarely even demand of a white male adult swinging a gun around. Black people are routinely denied their humanity, and black children routinely denied their childhood by the burdens this society lays upon them, burdens outsized compared to any other community. Anything to treat them as something other than a victim. Anything to lay the burden of their deaths upon their own feet or at their own community’s feet as a whole rather than bother to peel back the layers of a racist society.
Tree With Water
Way off topic: The Oakland Raiders are trailing the Saint Louis Rams 35-0 with 8:10 seconds left in the 2nd quarter. It’s like the Rams are playing a high school team.
Schlemazel
@ruemara:
I was thinking more MOVE in Philadelphia as that was a police action
SatanicPanic
@lamh36: @Tree With Water: are these two things connected? I’d like to think so
sharl
OT, on a happier note – maybe of interest for other fans of their site – Wonkette’s Editrix and her underpaid, overworked staff web guy Shypixel got married this weekend. A couple photos, here and here.
gbear
@lamh36: I’m really glad that the players did that. For so many reasons.
Ella in New Mexico
@Lurking Canadian:
@Jebediah, RBG:
Well, to be fair he only became unemployed today as opposed to it being several months, and he only lost it because he was doing his job.. And he WAS a police officer, so surely he’ll be completely logical, responsible and fiscally prudent in the way he’ll deal with his money. No one needs to tell him what to do with the money anyway, since it really was a gift. You know, no strings and all.
I’m betting on his success. $10 bucks says he sets up a rap music recording studio in his garage, cuts an internet release and becomes the next Eminem. Or Macklemore.
grandpa john
Mr. Wilson said: “It was my hope to continue in police work, but the safety of other police officers and the community are of paramount importance to me
And the only officer whose safety he is most concerned with is one named Darren Wilson
WereBear
Joe the Plumber had to take a Union job. Palin the Once-VP is staring down the barrel of diminishing money and increased dependency. Zimmerman is asking to be jailed, judging from his increasingly erratic behavior. And now the right-wing has a new darling… to be used and cast aside.
I recently watched a documentary on Josef Mengele, a most heinous Nazi, whose “scientific” experiments made Auschwitz one of the most notorious of the many death camps. He successfully escaped after the war, and lived in South America on infusions of cash from one of the biggest family fortunes in Germany.
A happy ending, right? This Karma believer does not think so.
He lost his first family, and his attempt at a second. His rich relatives visibly disowned him. The money was just a way of making him stay under the radar, and he had to take jobs, like a farm manager, to keep getting by. He was paranoid, staying up every night to keep watch for those who would come for him. When he was too old to maintain these jobs, he lived in semi-poverty, accompanied by only a dog, tormented by physical illness he dared not seek help with. Finally, he died, alone and unmourned.
The way I saw it, he experienced being torn away from everyone and everything he loved, forced to hide who and what he was, constantly under fear of exposure and arrest, and suffering for years from treatable illness he could not address.
Like his victims. Only, spread out over decades.
It might not seem like enough. But if one believes in an immortal soul (as I do) it’s a start.
Keith G
We will see what he does.
Like most sane people, I am only willing to judge him on what he has done, and not on what is speculated that he might do.
Mike J
I seem to remember reading that NBC had also offered money, but dropped out of the bidding before it hit big numbers. They seemed to think this made them good guys. I was more reminded of the punchline, “we know what you are, now we’re just haggling over the price.”
300baud
Is there any evidence at all that he was paid? I’m perfectly wiling to believe that Wilson is also that kind of wrong, but absent that I think we have enough wrongness to focus on.
Lizzy L
@Tree With Water: I really, really didn’t need to know that. (49s ex-fan here, live in the East Bay so I support the Raiders also, and I hate the Rams no matter what city they live in.) Even though I don’t watch football any more.)
stibbert
Not-officer Wilson gets to spend the rest of his life watching people turn their backs on him, whenever he enters a room. “Why, what’d I do?” he asks.
smedley the uncertain
@gbear: Upvoted you on Amazon.
trollhattan
@Tree With Water:
You are not far off –I’ll go with D-II college. Poking fun at Raiders fans got old five years ago, now I save it for Niner fans.
trollhattan
@Mike J:
Someone posted a supposed NBC document here the other day indicating just that.
NotMax
Shall posit once again that he will be welcomed with open arms (in both senses of that word) at Academi (formerly Xe, formerly Blackwater).
Tree With Water
@trollhattan: The way the Niners offense is currently playing, it shouldn’t take you any longer to get bored with their fans, too.
Aimai
@NotMax: he really wont. He is an undisciplined, uneducated, mope from an undertrained paramilitary full of incompetents. They wont take him because he doesnt have the brains or the talent to be a sucessful mercenary soldier.
Glidwrith
@Lurking Canadian: Shanesha Taylor in Phoenix, AZ had left her two young kids in a car for a job interview. They had been living in the car for months and that job promised enough to live on. She had no good choices, at all, and when someone saw the kids in the car she was charged with felony child abuse. She is, of course, black, with all of the racism the system has brought to bear upon her.
Her booking photo went viral, with myself and several other Juicers contributing funds in the hopes that we could give her a break. The prosecution has done their best to tie that money up with restrictions and trust funds and classes, with the threat that if she doesn’t comply the felony charges would be re-instated.
trollhattan
@Tree With Water:
They’ll be stuck at “denial” for awhile.
mai naem mobile
I’m surprised that BJ r’s are surprised that Wilson’s getting paid. I would be shocked if he didn’t get paid and to be honest if any of us were involved in an extraordinary event and the networks were offering us $$$, the vast majority of us would take it. ABC probably paid the wife or an LLC to be able to technically say they didn’t pay him. I didn’t watch the interview. I’m guessing by the time he gets done with legal fees and taxes he’ll be left with under half a million which is a very nice chunk of change but not enough for him to live off forever. He’s a young guy. He’ll probably blow through a good bit off it. I don’t think he’s an Ollie North type who could turn it into a permanent wingnut welfare gig. His name is common sounding enough and he’s young enough that his looks are going to change and if he grew his hair out.and stuck a pair of glasses on, people wouldn’t recognize him. He could always stop using Darren and start using his middle name. Also, as far as the civil suit, can it be against him personally, or does it have to be against the Police Dept only?
J.D. Rhoades
@gbear:
LOL! Upvoted.
currants
@gbear: Well played!
Mnemosyne
From Vox a few days ago:
Officer Darren Wilson’s story is unbelievable. Literally.
Wilson’s is not the kind of story that would stand up under cross-examination. He may have avoided a criminal trial, but I seriously doubt that Brown’s parents are going to accept a cash settlement if they bring a civil suit.
(Edited for clarity.)
? Martin
California considering extending access to MediCal (our Medicaid program) to immigrants protected under the President’s new plan using state dollars.
Everyone chill the fuck out. We got this.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
Funny story that Linda Ellerbee told in her autobiography:
For one story she was working on, she needed to interview a prostitute. She felt it was only fair to pay the woman for her time, but she had a hard time getting reimbursed by the network, because at the time, the policy was that they did not pay for stories.
Finally, after she submitted the expense several times, someone in accounting took pity on her and explained that while they didn’t pay for stories, they did pay for dinners. So Ellerbee submitted it as “dinner with whore” and got her reimbursement.
(In this case, we’re talking about paying the woman $50 or $100 for her information, not thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.)
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Every Sacramento lobbyist submits dozens of those yearly. Just sayin’.
Elmo
OT, but OMG MY CHARGERS!!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mnemosyne: I loved her reporting when she and Lloyd Dobbyns did Weekend.
(sigh).
Cheers,
Scott.
pat
Don’t forget that Wilson got married in October to a fellow officer who is several years his senior and….. pregnant.
Violet
@pat: Spouses can’t be forced to testify against their husband/wife. So convenient they got married.
satby
@gbear: yes, I voted very helpful review too.
rikyrah
so true
so true
Elizabelle
@gbear: Love it, gbear. Well played.
Jesus in an egg, Batman.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: That’s a clarifying analysis of Wilson’s story.
bemused
It looks like Jesus inside a giant turd.
John M. Burt
@gbear: You should feel especially virtuous, not especially evil. You only spoke the truth, lust like Brother Woody did: youtube.com/watch?v=EDS00Pnhkqk
Tree With Water
@trollhattan: Well, at least I lived to see the Niners golden era. I still remember where I was when it ended, when I first heard Eddie DeBartolo lost the team. Good old Eddie, who loved the Niners and spent money like a drunken sailor. Strange to say, even after the consecutive NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance, the jury remains out on his nephew Jed. That “apology to the fans” he tweeted Thanksgiving after Seattle smothered the Niners did not reflect well on him, or the organization.
NotMax
@Aimai
Ah, but on the other hand he brings notoriety and in certain circles, celebrity. Not invaluable (if twisted) assets for an outfit like that to wring the most from in a non-field position.
John M. Burt
@WereBear: Have you heard Al Stewart’s Mengele song? youtube.com/watch?v=qreupY4ld8g
d58826
@Patricia Kayden: AND THE cops who shot the man in the Ohio Wal-mart are still on the job in spite of the video
trollhattan
@Tree With Water:
Spot on. Eddie did what it took to get the talent, coaching and front office, even (especially) if it meant shredding the salary cap, a cap evidently fashioned of tissue and mayonnaise back then. Folks forget how good their D was–that’s what anchored the offense’s success.
It all began unraveling with shipping Joe off to KC….
samiam
So kind of an accidental version of what Greenwald does for a living. Main difference is Greewald didn’t have to kill anyone…directly….that we know of.
Lurking Canadian
@Glidwrith: thank you for the explanation. I remember the case, now, but I don’t think I had heard of these restrictions on her money. Just vile.
john fremont
@Mnemosyne: Agreed. Lisa Bloom has been picking apart Officer Wilson’s statements as well. She mentions that Wilson ststed that Michael Brown had grabbed his service pistol and tried to take it from him. Bloom says that the forensics on Wilson’s pistol shows no fingerprints or hand prints matching Mike Brown’s on it. A prosecutor could have casted reasonable doubt on Wilson’s testimony from this evidence if this is true. Yeah, I’m very skeptical of Wilson’s version of events. That’s enough for me to warrant a full trial.
Mnemosyne
@john fremont:
People keep saying that because there’s blood inside the patrol car, it’s proof that Wilson and Brown wrestled over Wilson’s gun, just like Wilson claimed. But Wilson is also said to have arrived at the police station with bloody hands and washed his hands there before they could be swabbed. So do we really know for sure how Brown’s blood got into the car?
john fremont
Plus the fact that Wilson, the suspect, and not the lab team prepared his gun for forensic analysis. That and washing his hands is tampering with evidence from a homicide scene. A prosecutor could have cited this as well to the grand jury that these two incidents should cast enough doubt about the reliability of the physical evidence collected from the scene
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@john fremont:
The main problem is that Wilson wasn’t treated as the Suspect, he was treated as the Victim. The WP had a big spread on the evidence presented to the grand jury. The case name was: “Assault on LEO [law enforcement officer]”.
That explains why so little was done for Brown. That’s why he lay in the street for hours, why there was little or no chance of an indictment, why there wasn’t an independent prosecutor, etc., etc.
Thinking about this case without recognizing their mindset from the beginning won’t let you make sense of it.
And that’s why the DOJ needs to make an example of the police system in Ferguson and the St. Louis area. This mindset cannot continue.
My $0.02.
[fixed linky]
Cheers,
Scott.
john fremont
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: No argument there. This whole incident was skewed from the beginning.