Ferguson: Police Officer Kills 18yo Michael Brown; Protests/Riots Continue

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kess said:
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Backstoppers is a local charity that supports the families of first responders. They do good work.

Rapid Response, Ongoing Assistance

Within hours of the death of a police officer, firefighter, publicly-funded paramedic or EMT his or her family receives a check for $5,000 from The BackStoppers, with assurance of further help.

Follow-up

Assumption of financial obligations (i.e., mortgage payments, automobile payments, credit card debt, loan debt, taxes, insurance, etc.) as funding permits
Health and dental insurance, if needed
Elementary and secondary educational assistance grades K–12 (per child: $2,000 per year public, $4,000 per year private)
College/vocational tuition assistance to spouse/survivors
$1,000 payment to spouse at Christmas
$1,000 U.S. Savings Bonds to surviving children at Christmas and on birthday up to age 21
Miscellaneous assistance as approved by board of directors (i.e., home repairs, unusual medical expenses, etc.)
Financial counseling
These benefits are not all-inclusive and the amounts of assistance indicated are guidelines only and can be increased by the Board of Directors based upon need or other circumstances.
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From their website.
 
People are upset because the person who is prosecuting is Vice President of an organization that is actively raising money for Darren Wilson.
 
Coins said:
Backstoppers is a local charity that supports the families of first responders. They do good work.



From their website.
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There's nothing wrong with the organization, it's the DA's involvement in it that is problematic. How can the people of Ferguson have faith in the DA's ability to investigate and/or prosecute this case when he is involved in an organization that supports Officer Wilson or benefits financially from a campaign to support Officer Wilson?
 
Big Baybee said:
People are upset because the person who is prosecuting is Vice President of an organization that is actively raising money for Darren Wilson.
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And that hasn't happened. Some person made a t-shirt design on teespring that sold 19 shirts, with proceeds going 50/50 to Support Darren Wilson and BackStoppers. It's like a $200 donation so I doubt BackStoppers is particularly aware of it.
 
watershed said:
There's nothing wrong with the organization, it's the DA's involvement in it that is problematic. How can the people of Ferguson have faith in the DA's ability to investigate and/or prosecute this case when he is involved in an organization that supports Officer Wilson or benefits financially from a campaign to support Officer Wilson?
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Because he risks his law license if he unfaithfully executes the law? A lawyer, by his very job description, is tasked with switching sides on the same issue at least ten times a day. Unless he went to podunk law school, he probably has the skill set to do so.
 
watershed said:
There's nothing wrong with the organization, it's the DA's involvement in it that is problematic. How can the people of Ferguson have faith in the DA's ability to investigate and/or prosecute this case when he is involved in an organization that supports Officer Wilson or benefits financially from a campaign to support Officer Wilson?
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Backstoppers isn't raising money for Darren Wilson.
 
Allez Phill said:
Living in St. Louis is so depressing for me. Do any of you people on Neogaf live here?
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For starters, there is a huge disparity between St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Ferguson and similar problem areas tend to be on the inner belt of the County, not part of the city. That said, while St. Louis City cops are far better at dealing with people who's skin runs a bit darker than mauve, it isn't like North City isn't a massively disadvantaged swath of people itself.

St. Louis is, overall, a great city. It is however still dealing with racial issues many other cities made progress on because it's geographic location made white flight too convenient. The end result is that every neighborhood is effectively it's own little cultural enclave.

The whole "what high school did you go to" question really fucked with my wife when we first moved here. She didn't get why everyone always asked that. Then I explained to her that for the average St. Louis resident the high school they went to basically identifies the following:
1. race
2. religion
3. economic background
4. cultural background
5. likelihood of having gone to college
etc. etc.. If you say over the phone or on an application that you went to Vashon or Roosevelt the person you're talking to or employer doesn't need to ask race, they know you're 99% likely to be black. If you go to Lindbergh you're almost definitely white, at least middle class, likely upper middle to high end period, christian etc..

It basically isn't really a city. It is a collection of tightly clustered medium to large towns. In some ways that's really nice. The Hill is great in large part because the Italian american culture there never faded. Dogtown is similar in that regard (though not quite as well off and developed). There are clear examples of where neighborhood gentrification isn't actually a bad thing like Tower Grove and all the beautiful historic brick homes that have been restored. Overall it is a pretty great city for those of us who aren't burdened with a pejorative view towards the traditionally "bad" (i.e. BLACK) neighborhoods.

You wouldn't believe how many people I've worked with were concerned for my safety when the wife and I chose to live in Tower Grove, or are dumbstruck when I talk about going to Crown Candy Kitchen or Pappy's, both located north of the 64/40 interstate imaginary line that so many St. Louis county people treat like a contemporary Mason-Dixon Line in reverse.

The biggest thing I keep trying to tell people in St. Louis is this: we make this city what it is, for good or for bad. If you don't like St. Louis being portrayed as a racially biased part of the country then do something about it, because right now it sure as hell is. It has problems, but the solutions to those problems are the same things that make St. Louis an interesting city with the potential for vibrant cultural and economic booms in the near term if and when people finally stop making assumptions based on what their parents told them were the bad neighborhoods and instead get out and experience those neighborhoods.
 
TheChocolateWar said:
Because he risks his law license if he unfaithfully executes the law? A lawyer, by his very job description, is tasked with switching sides on the same issue at least ten times a day. Unless he went to podunk law school, he probably has the skill set to do so.
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Ever since the local investigation was announced people in the community have been highly skeptical of his ability or even interest in prosecuting this case. I've included some links and quotes below to illustrate.

Coins said:
Backstoppers isn't raising money for Darren Wilson.
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Backstoppers is gaining financially from the campaign quoted above, a campaign to support Officer Wilson. But again, this is not the first or only issue concerning the DA's connection with police, his attitude regarding police and the community, or his history of prosecuting cases involving police officers. See below:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/ferguson-prosecutor-mcculloch/

While protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, are demanding justice for the killing of Michael Brown by police, questions are being asked about the man who at the moment is responsible for pursuing any prosecution and whether he can be impartial.

Some residents and community leaders contend St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch has deep ties to the police and has favored law enforcement in criminal cases.

McCulloch's father was a police officer and was killed on the job in 1964 by an African-American man, when McCulloch was 12, McCulloch's spokesperson Ed Magee confirmed to CNN. In addition to his father, McCulloch's brother, an uncle and a cousin all served with the St. Louis Police Department, and his mother worked as a clerk at the department, Magee said.

McCulloch, who as a teenager lost a leg to cancer, made it his career ambition to become a prosecutor. He was quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as telling a reporter, while first campaigning for the office: "I couldn't become a policeman, so being county prosecutor is the next best thing."

The petition being circulated points to a 2000 incident in which two suspected drug dealers were killed by two police officers, McCulloch never brought charges against the officers, concluding they acted in self-defense. A subsequent federal investigation found that the men were unarmed and not moving in the direction of the officers, but because the officers felt endangered, the investigation found that the shootings were justified, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/news/background-of-prosecutor-in-ferguson-case-has-some-suspicious-of-bias/
But some black leaders - including U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and state Sens. Maria Chappelle-Nadal and Jamilah Nasheed - have called on McCulloch to consent to a special prosecutor.

Nasheed started an online petition that has gotten about 25,000 signatures in four days seeking a special prosecutor.

"In the past, justice has not been achieved in these types of police shootings," said Clay, who represents the area. "So I have no comfort with local-authority prosecution, the judicial system or even police conducting a thorough and conclusive investigation that delivers justice to the family of Michael Brown."

"Simply put: he has a natural bias," added Chappelle-Nadal. "My community doesn't trust him."
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Edit: One more quote and source just to demonstrate how the DA thinks. This is what he said when Gov. Nixon put the Highway Patrol Captain in charge:

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch Thursday night blasted the decision by Gov. Jay Nixon to replace St. Louis County Police control of the Ferguson situation with the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

“It's shameful what he did today, he had no legal authority to do that," McCulloch said. "To denigrate the men and women of the county police department is shameful."

McCulloch noted that no one was seriously injured in the effort led by County Police Chief Jon Belmar until Nixon handed control of the Ferguson over to the state agency on Thursday.

“For Nixon to never talk to the commanders in the field and come in here and take this action is disgraceful," McCulloch said.

"I hope I'm wrong, but I think what Nixon did may put a lot of people in danger."
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DreamDrop said:
Anyone still think justice will be served?
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Well I'm sure Mr. McCulloch will still stand up for the rights of his citizens and conduct himself in a fair, impartial manner --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._McCulloch_(prosecutor) said:
In 2001, two undercover officers fired 21 shots, killing two unarmed victims. McCulloch elected not to prosecute the shooters, and drew controversy when he said of the victims: "These guys were bums."
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Oh.
 
watershed said:
Backstoppers is gaining financially from the campaign quoted above, a campaign to support Officer Wilson.
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No, they aren't.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/the-backstoppers-not-benefitting-from-darren-wilson-shirt-sales/article_361f0089-a36b-5f2d-93b3-8a4f83c0351b.html

The Backstoppers Inc., does not know who is selling T-shirts that read: “I support Officer Darren Wilson,” and will not accept money from the sales if it is offered, said the charity’s executive director, Ron Battelle.
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watershed said:
Oh well that's good on them, but please don't then ignore the rest of my post which points out the significant issues the community in Ferguson has raised about the DA's involvement in this case.
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I wasn't discussing the DA. I will feel free to ignore discussion about him. I wanted to defend backstoppers.
 
Coins said:
I wasn't discussing the DA. I will feel free to ignore discussion about him. I wanted to defend backstoppers.
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You're right that Backstoppers is not gaining financially from the campaign to support Wilson, thank you for clearing that up. But beyond that initial misconception no one in this thread has attacked Backstoppers. Nor is Backstoppers an issue at this point. The issue that is of significant concern is the DA and his investigation.
 
DreamDrop said:
Shaun King is a treasure.

https://storify.com/laurahib/shaun-king
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They changed from having a decision from the grand jury in October to January? EDIT: according to the link I posted they did extend it to January. What the fuck?!

Apparently Wilson has testified in front of the grand jury

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/darren-wilson-testifies-in-front-of-grand-jury/article_74022ab8-756f-5e1d-81b3-3c577f1e9208.html

State law says grand jury proceedings must be recorded if it includes testimony or other information from a witness who is granted immunity from prosecution. It's unclear if that's why the recording is being made in this case.

Magee said "we normally don't" record grand jury testimony. "(McCulloch) decided to record them," Magee added.

Magee mentioned one other case in which grand jury proceedings were recorded in St. Louis County: when two undercover drug detectives killed a suspect and his passenger in a car on the parking lot of the Jack in the Box restaurant in Berkeley in 2000.
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Asked why a defense lawyer wouldn't want the defendant to testify before a grand jury, Rogers replied, "You don't always want to preview what your defense would be at such an early stage. A prosecutor's presentation to the grand jury has a huge impact on the decision of the grand jury, " he said. "I would only consider allowing my client to testify at a grand jury proceeding if I was convinced that the prosecutor presenting the evidence to the (grand jury) was convinced that his testimony would help them reach the decision not to indict."

Attorney Chet Pleban, who has represented a number of police officers, said that grand jury testimony can be used against a defendant in any potential state or federal prosecution, and testifying could set a potential defendant up for damaging questions by the prosecutor.
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He won't even go to court.
 
CrimsonCommie said:
They changed from having a decision from the grand jury in October to January? EDIT: according to the link I posted they did extend it to January. What the fuck?!
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The extension is for the grand jury itself, not the proceedings.

The grand jury hearing the evidence was already empaneled before the shooting. Its term would have expired last week, but prosecutors received an extension to Jan. 7. McCulloch originally said a decision could come by mid-October, but the extension allows more time, if needed, to present evidence.
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CrimsonCommie said:
He won't even go to court.
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Anyone who thought otherwise before Shawn King's series of tweets today was being hopelessly optimistic.

Anyone who thinks otherwise after also thinks that the sky is pink and that they have telekinesis.

Despite the amount of traction this has gotten, mainstream America will stick by police officers no matter what. We've seen it in all of these threads about police abuses. A few people trip over themselves to justify why exessive force was used, why someone might have had it coming, ect. It's just like that in the real world, except it's not a vocal minority like it is here. That he's got Nixon and McColough and Rooda all going hard to protect him is just the obvious conclusion, but reading it still burns me to my core.

I don't believe there will be any justice for Michael Brown. And that infuriates me more than I can even articulate.
 
For what we've collectively been through, black people in America are fucking angels deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize. If you didn't know any better, you'd think there would be black terrorist groups, fighting our oppressors, throughout America's history (lol unfortunately, our "terror groups" just terrorize fellow black people). Century after century we keep having faith in the legal and political process and in 2014 shady bullshit like Ferguson boldly exists. This shit doesn't surprise, water is fucking wet.

It's 2014 and there are only pockets of places in the country where we are what? 4/5ths human at best? God bless the Martin, Brown, Grant, Bell, and all other families who have had their children senselessly killed by these stupid pigs, for not being so consumed with rage as to seek vigilante justice.
 
Chie Satonaka said:
Anyone who thought otherwise before Shawn King's series of tweets today was being hopelessly optimistic.

Anyone who thinks otherwise after also thinks that the sky is pink and that they have telekinesis.

Despite the amount of traction this has gotten, mainstream America will stick by police officers no matter what. We've seen it in all of these threads about police abuses. A few people trip over themselves to justify why exessive force was used, why someone might have had it coming, ect. It's just like that in the real world, except it's not a vocal minority like it is here. That he's got Nixon and McColough and Rooda all going hard to protect him is just the obvious conclusion, but reading it still burns me to my core.

I don't believe there will be any justice for Michael Brown. And that infuriates me more than I can even articulate.
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This was such a clear case of 1st degree murder that I couldn't believe that he wouldn't even face charges until the grand jury proceedings started.
 
As depressing as some of this sounds, I think (or at least have hope) that the Feds can somehow make a case out of it. There's just too much evidence that contradicts the original statement and if the fucking idiots in charge of the state won't indict, hopefully Holder's office does.
 
BobLoblaw said:
As depressing as some of this sounds, I think (or at least have hope) that the Feds can somehow make a case out of it. There's just too much evidence that contradicts the original statement and if the fucking idiots in charge of the state won't indict, hopefully Holder's office does.
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The DoJ intervening is pretty much the only hope this case (and the people of Ferguson) has.
 
CrimsonCommie said:
They changed from having a decision from the grand jury in October to January? EDIT: according to the link I posted they did extend it to January. What the fuck?!

Apparently Wilson has testified in front of the grand jury

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/darren-wilson-testifies-in-front-of-grand-jury/article_74022ab8-756f-5e1d-81b3-3c577f1e9208.html





He won't even go to court.
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God fucking damn it. Seriously, fuck everything about this.

It's a travesty to let this guy prosecute this case. The absolute worst. This is not how our justices system works.

I don't give a shit what anyone says about whether or not Wilson is guilty. Brown and the people of Ferguson deserve a fair trail at the very least. You can argue reasonable doubt all you want, but the probable cause for a trail should be abundantly clear to everyone on all sides, and that's all you need to bring this to a public trial.

Even if Wilson is 100% innocent, and hell, he might somehow actually be innocent, but I would still consider this 100% proof that McCullock and Nixon are downright evil and treasonous for making a mockery out of our justice system. Fuck them. Forget a recall, McCullock deserves to be in jail for acting like this as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how the law works regarding that, but that's how I feel about it.

The one hope is McCullock at least does follow through on his promise to dump literally every single piece of evidence on the jury, and not just the stuff that favors Wilson, if only out of fear of civil rights violations, and that somehow the jury can find a conviction from that.

I'm so pissed off right now as it is, I can't imagine how pissed off I'll be after the news of no conviction comes out.
 
GK86 said:
Those tweets are sad to read. Fuck those people and fuck cops.
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Hold on, just to be clear...You don't mean every single instance of a police officer ever in the world, right? I can't continue my day unless this is clarified, and that the thread understands what precisely you mean. Just the context of police that are abusing their power nation wide.

Right? Or what?
 
commedieu said:
Hold on, just to be clear...You don't mean every single instance of a police officer ever in the world, right? I can't continue my day unless this is clarified, and that the thread understands what precisely you mean. Just the context of police that are abusing their power nation wide.

Right? Or what?
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LOL
 
commedieu said:
Hold on, just to be clear...You don't mean every single instance of a police officer ever in the world, right? I can't continue my day unless this is clarified, and that the thread understands what precisely you mean. Just the context of police that are abusing their power nation wide.

Right? Or what?
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Pretty sure he means each and every one of them..right in the ear, too!

#AllCops
 
watershed said:
The writing is on the wall. No charges, no trial, nothing. It seems no one at the state level is interested in this case, they just want it to go away. Jay Nixon is a coward. He should have replaced the DA from the beginning but he's as interested in making this "old news" as the DA and police department are.
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I don't understand how Nixon doesn't see that every step he's taken (or not taken) aside from instating the Highway Police that one day, has only hurt his chances of ever getting elected again. Wasn't he trying to groom himself as a potential Vice President? That's gone now.

At least the Feds are on this.
 
So from what I'm reading the findings of the Grand Jury don't have to be released to the public at all? Everyone will know the verdict obviously because it will go to trial or not, but no information is released unless the witness chooses to talk about their testimony and only their testimony, if they feel like it. So it's possible he won't go to trial and people will hear nothing, depending on what other agencies, Like the DoJ, decide to release of course. Only had a quick read of a long document btw, so I could be wrong.
 
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