Ferguson Police's PR Stunt Poisons Independent and Impartial Investigation

aclu ^ | 8-15-2014 | Dennis Parker, Director, ACLU Racial Justice Program

[Citizen Zed]

The Ferguson Police Department's actions appear misleading and remarkably cynical. They call into question the department's commitment to ensuring an independent and impartial investigation into the killing of Michael Brown. The video and incident report released are of dubious relevance. The decision to disclose them suggests an attempt to assassinate Mr. Brown's character by showing that he had roughly pushed a convenience store clerk on the day that he was killed. The one-sided and piecemeal disclosure of potentially irrelevant and prejudicial information, while continuing to withhold the critical police incident report that the public has demanded, suggests a desire to confuse rather than to shine a light on what happened.

Mr. Brown's family and the public deserve better. The Ferguson police's disclosures seem more like spin control than objective investigation. The department's apparent attempts to impugn the character of a shooting victim while withholding potentially revealing information about the conduct of its own police officer makes a mockery of the concepts of fairness and impartiality.

Therefore, the ACLU calls for an independent and comprehensive federal investigation by the Department of Justice of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Without this, there can be no justice for the Brown family or honest conversation about excessive force, racialized policing, law enforcement accountability and transparency, and the kinds of systemic reforms that are critically needed to ensure fair and effective policing in Ferguson and throughout our country.

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[fella]

I want to see huge class action law suits brought against the ACLU and it’s membership. Surely their are some greedy lawyers out there who know where the real money is.

[TexasGator]

“I think the video is completely relevant”

True. But the race-baiters have turned the story around demonizing the Ferguson police for releasing when they had to release due to multiple FOIA requests by the media.

[Da Coyote]

IF that’s the best the ACLU’s got, it is proof that these are a collection of dim-bulb progressives with the collective IQ of the Obamadork’s West Wing of felon/cretins.

Sorry, ACLY, your guy robbed a store.

He’s a slimy crook.

Shove it up your collective smelly Obamaholes....along with your 5 cent law degrees.

[DoodleDawg]

Jesus Christ Himself could conduct the investigation and regardless of His findings, half the people would think He’s covering up something.

[sappy]

of course it isn’t one sided to say the cop assassinated the kid! or to suggest he was shot in cold blood and then to incite riots on that suggestion. f the aclu

[W.]

Q: Why don't groups like the ACLU and dems put all this energy, time and effort into doing positive things for the country?

A: Probably because there's no easily exploitable 'victims' along with way less money and lots more real work. Sounds familiar, eh?

[lacrew]

If the video were really so irrelevant.....the ACLU wouldn’t be outraged.

Of course its relevant.

[BykrBayb]

I know, right? Like, he had already taken out his aggression on that store clerk. He couldn’t have had any aggression left in him.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The Zimmerman case is now the template to the MSM for all justified shootings and I’m not sorry the left shot their wad to set it that way. The only way I could get the real story was from here which was later verified in court.

With Crump involved in this case now, law enforcement didn’t have much choice whether to go forward or keep quiet.

[nathanbedford]

The ACLU objects to the release of the video depicting Michael Brown in the commission of a crime, strong-arm stealing which probably amounts to a felony. The ACLU says, " The Ferguson Police Department's actions appear misleading and remarkably cynical."

Misleading? Does the ACLU suggests that the police department has doctored the videotape? If not, the video is not misleading but perfectly accurate and the question becomes should the police department itself have broken the law, The Freedom of Information Act, by withholding the tape from the public?

in The ACLU thinks it should have because to release the tape was "cynical" because the officer who shot Brown was, according to the chief of police "unaware" of the store incident (although there is some indication that the chief of police later recanted) but does the ACLU also suggest that Michael Brown himself was unaware that he just committed theft? Hardly. Is it cynical to suppose that Michael Brown might have thought that the officer was approaching him concerning that theft?

Did that knowledge cause Brown to be belligerent, to be aggressive, to place the officer in reasonable apprehension of grave physical harm? Are those questions relevant? The ACLU says they are not, rather they are "cynical."

Cynical, because it is a "piecemeal" release of information when the police, for example, engaged in "The one-sided and piecemeal disclosure of potentially irrelevant and prejudicial information, while continuing to withhold the critical police incident report that the public has demanded, suggests a desire to confuse rather than to shine a light on what happened."

Just as the ACLU declined to consider that knowledge by Michael Brown of the store incident revealing himself to be a physically intimidating thug who had immediately before committed a strong-arm robbery might be relevant, the ACLU now seems oblivious to the fact that knowledge of the contents of the police report could alert witnesses to shape their stories. It is simply good police procedure to withhold facts such as the number of bullets expended etc. so as to test the veracity of witnesses.

Finally, even assuming the worst motives of the police department and releasing the tape why is it prejudicial of a criminal case? The potential defendant, the police officer, is certainly not prejudiced. So whom is damaged?

Other reports say that the damage occurs because it incites the African-American "community" because it portrays Michael Brown in a demeaning light which is a euphemistic description for a brutal thug and a thief. Presumably, so enraged by the cynicism of releasing this video, the African Americans in Ferguson will proceed to commit more violence, looting, and vandalism.

If this were a rational community and a tape were released which puts the lie to the central narrative of the innocence of the alleged victim, one would naturally assume that the motivation to riot and pillage would be mitigated. But precisely the opposite assumption is drawn about the African-American "community" of Ferguson, Missouri.

The significance of that thought is something to ponder.

[wideawake]

Exactly.

The other aspect of this is: "Hey, the officer was unaware of the robbery when he stopped Brown."

Guess what? Brown didn't know the officer was unaware of the robbery.

Brown probably thought the officer already knew about the robbery, and that he was about to go to jail for robbery.

Brown's behavior was likely spurred by his own guilty mind.

If he hadn't done anything wrong, he would likely have taken the stop much less seriously and been less inclined to grapple with the officer.

[chris37]

LOL, what the Hell is this crap!?

[Stentor]

The significance of that thought is something to ponder.

It is as simple as studying the nature of tribalism. After that, one isn't tempted to look for Western philosophical concepts.

[loboinok]

Surely their are some greedy lawyers out there who know where the real money is.

There is... but most of them are ACLU lawyers!

[wbill]

Report that I heard this morning said that the autopsy revealed that the cop put six in his chest.

Not his back, as otherwise stated by "impartial" witnesses.

I've been swinging back and forth on this one. Between the news this morning, and watching the Right Rev. Mr Brown strongarm a store clerk .....I'm back to siding with the cops.

A feral punk is off the street. End of story.

[Bailee]

He thinks he won the lottery and looking for his check.

[DJ MacWoW]

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[dalebert]

Just heard on NPR radio that Holer, Valarie and Sharpton are the organizers of the protest/riots in Ferguson while Obama parties down on Martha. Government sponsored Crime!!!!

[Citizen Zed]

“It is as simple as studying the nature of tribalism.”

Social media and news media tribalize us with the news we want to hear.

[kiltie65]

And Citizen Zed, admitting he had “roughed up” a clerk, managed to omit Brown had stolen an almost $50 box of cigars. Astoundingly,it was not the clerk who called it in to police (too afraid to reprisals to turn him in), it was another customer in the store.