Ferguson / Staten Island Decisions -- No Indictments

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

This is completely different than the OJ trial. OJ was not presenting a self defense/justification type affirmative defense. In a case like OJ's all the defense has to do is poke enough holes in the state's case to create reasonable doubt. But to successfully defend a case like this the defense attorney has to present his own narrative explaining to the jury why his guy was in imminent and reasonable fear for his life at the moment deadly force was taken, which in this case mean the moment when Wilson fired 7 or 8 bullets into Brown, with the final fatal shot to the head apparently coming when Brown was either bent over or falling.

I don't see how he's having much luck doing that if Wilson does not tell his story and the only extended narrative the jury hears is Johnson's. Perhaps their best alternative evidence is Brown's blood inside the police car, but again, that doesn't mean as much if the only contextual explanation the jury hears for how that blood got there is from Johnson. Apparently there's also witnesses that can corroborate parts of Wilson's story--I'll admit I don't know exactly what they say--but I seriously doubt it's anything that would get his raging lunatic black man tale into evidence.

And, no, he can't backdoor his story into evidence without facing cross examination. I'm fairly certain his statements viewed by the grand jury would be excluded as inadmissible hearsay at trial if he's available to testify but electing not to take the stand.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

But when the same witness returned to testify again on another day, she said she suffers from mental disorder, has racist views and that she has trouble distinguishing the truth from things she had read online. Prosecutors suggested the woman had fabricated the entire incident, and wasn't even at the scene the day of the shooting.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

Everyone has a right to his/her opinion regarding the case. Only 12 people sit on that grand jury and they are the ones charged with making a decision.

It's like people questioning an official's call at a sporting event. Easy to second-guess from the bleachers. You wanna wear stripes and carry the whistle?

I know I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to be on that grand jury. If I had been, I'd get my ass out of town and go into hiding for a while.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

Bloody peasant!

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

The obvious solution to this problem is to quit hiring whites as police officers! They, as a race, cannot be trusted. I can't believe no one has brought that up yet.

Oh, and take away guns from cops and replace them with whistles. REALLY loud whistles.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

I agree that guns with cops are a recipe for disaster. I've seen the profile of individuals who go after those jobs and I wouldn't trust one with a gun, either. Maybe George Zimmerman should have been a cop.

If you had a black officer shooting a black teen. Or a white officer shooting a white teen, I wonder how it would have played out.

But as long as you have black teenagers roaming the streets, it will not end well.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

I love the fact that people keep pretending the Ferguson riots have ANYTHING to do with the death of Michael Brown.
Let's be honest here. These riots are coming because that community has a hostility to their police force and, quite frankly, I doubt anything short of a public execution of Darren Wilson in the middle of the downtown area on live television would have satiated their need for violence. Hell, they probably would have rioted in celebration if that happened.
As is so often the case when Al "I need attention" Sharpton gets involved, this stopped being about the victim ions ago.
Sharpton makes his money piggybacking on emotional families who just suffered a loss and using them to further his agenda of a race war in America.
Does he have some points? Sure. There is a racial divide in this country. But is Al Sharpton going to fix it? Hell no.
You know why? Because the people RIOTING are every bit as responsible for perpetuating the racial divide as the people they're rioting against.
No one holding a "No Justice, No Peace" sign had any intention of respecting the process. They wanted Wilson found guilty, regardless of the evidence in the case and regardless of what he did because at the end of the day he's a white cop who shot a black man.
Forget that Michael Brown was a criminal when he was shot. Forget that he had just strong-armed a convenience store clerk and used his size to take items that weren't his without paying. Nope. He's a black man so, you know, he did nothing wrong.
And let's forget that Wilson was a cop doing his job when he shot Brown. Let's ignore that he has a clean record (From what i've read though I could be wrong) and that he was, in his opinion at the least, trying to defend himself. Nope. He's a white man so, you know, slavery, civil rights, he hates black people.
This whole thing disgusts me.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

If he's a criminal, he clearly deserved to die.

Well, a *black* criminal. Like it or not, that's the key part.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

So that's the reason you're not allowed to vote?

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

Rick, you're RG3ing on this thread.

 

Re: Ferguson Decision -- No Indictment

I never said he deserved to die. And his race has nothing to do with it. If you create a scenario in which a cop feels his life is being threatened, and a grand jury apparently agrees, you're putting your life on the line.
Michael Brown made a stupid decision. Then he made another one. Then he made another one. Now he is dead.
That's really the equation here. That's the story. Add in whatever elements you need to to make yourself feel better or to preach about how bad society is or to minimize the importance of what actually had here by boiling it down to race if you'd like. But at the end of the day, one dumb criminal went up against a cop with a gun and lost.
And that's not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that scenario plays itself out in this world.