Fox News is running a story saying that Darren Wilson, the policeman said to have shot Michael Brown, was seriously injured by Brown during their encounter. He “suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department’s top brass told FoxNews.com,” the story says.
Just this morning the story was that Brown was approaching Wilson in a threatening manner, and Wilson fired when Brown was six or seven feet away. This is starting to remind me of the Zimmerman defense; every few hours some unnamed source dribbled out a new version of what happened, or new details to make Zimmerman look better and Trayvon Martin look worse. And it worked for Zimmerman.
All kinds of things could have happened in Ferguson. Whatever the facts are, I hope there is an honest investigation, and I sincerely hope Officer Wilson gets a chance to present his version of events to the public, if not to a court. But this business of dribbling out details from unnamed sources to support the side of authorities is too obviously intended to cover everyone’s ass.
The article from this morning said the officer’s case could turn on whether he had reason to believe that Brown –Â six or seven feet away when he was shot — was moving toward him in a threatening manner. Gee, it’s a shame law enforcement doesn’t have any way to incapacitate threatening but unarmed people except to shoot them multiple times and kill them. (/sarcasm)
Charles Johnson points out that among all the conflicting reports, there is testimony from both police and eyewitnesses that the first shot was fired as Wilson and another man were running away. Then it seems Brown turned around and walked back toward Wilson, either with his hands raised or in a threatening manner depending on who you ask. One of he several shots that penetrated Michael Brown entered at the top of his skull, news stories have said. Was he already falling? And somehow moments before the shooting Brown beat Officer Wilson nearly unconscious. Right.
I think this whole thing hinges on the possibility that Brown went for Wilson’s firearm. If there’s actual real proof of that, that’s pretty much it. Once you cross that line, all bets are off, and certainly your next move toward the cop is gonna be your last.
My guess is that they do have that proof, and that’s why this things dragging on w/o any charges. Could be fingerprints. Could be witnesses. Could be both.
Shades of Trayvon Martin!
CZ… Your theory is that the cops have proof that Brown went for a cop’s gun. And while there have been angry demonstrations and looting, the police have kept the evidence that would defuse the allegations that this was murder a secret because ???
Well Doug,
I can see that people wonder why the robbery video was leaked like that, and other evidence (like say, pics of the cops face after the beating) has been kept under wraps. I think it’s because whoever leaked it assumed that was all that was really needed, and there were enough rational people out there.
In other words, rational people would easily envision a scenario where that same person bumped into a cop, behaved badly and got himself shot, instead of hitching their wagons to the idea that there really was a case of “racist pig cop guns innocent black kid for being blackâ€.
Perhaps they’ve realized that the rational people are outnumbered, leaving the option of releasing the evidence the old-fashioned way. Thru due process.
You’d think that the fact that, with a week of riots and unbelievable political pressure and various agencies looking at this, Wilson still hasn’t been charged might be an indication that aforementioned narrative might be a loser.
But we’ll see.
ChenZhen — By “rational people” I assume you are being sarcastic.
Why wasn’t the orbital fracture news released immediately?
Police in St. Louis County shot and killed a knife-wielding black man not two days ago. They have already released the police report exonerating the officers in the shooting.
If they had ANYTHING to exonerate Darren Wilson that did not need to be fabricated, it would have been released by now.
Imo:
Nothing the police Chief or the Mayor of Ferguson, MO, has done anything to inspire any confidence in me
They have mishandled every aspect of this terrible incident.
It’s hard to believe Joe Isuzu (FSM, am I showing my age) when he says anything, after he’s lied or exaggerated with every comment.
Maybe they’re telling the truth. Maybe not.
I sure as hell don’t believe any single thing FOX “News” has to say – ON ANYTHING!
They make Joe Isuzu look like the most truthful person on the planet.
I say let the DoJ handle the investigation.
The authorities in Ferguson seem like all they want to do is to protect their phony-baloney jobs.
Gulag, I think Joe Isuzu (whom I remember well) is probably the subcontractor for the police department’s public relations group. This is such a snafu from the get-go that it is going to just fuel what the racists want to believe and leave the fact-seekers unsatisfied even up to trial, if there is one.
FOX “News” is the go-to place for older white people to feel better about their bigotry, hatred, and fears – as well as Reich-Wing talk radio and Op-ed pages.
It’s like when they tune in or read, they’re granted absolution for the sins of bigotry, hatred, and fear.
Feel even a tinge of guilt over hating our President, or the killings of Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown?
Or anything else for that matter?
Tune to FOX, or Reich-Wing talk radio, where there’s a dedicated team to show you that you’re right to hate the President, and not feel any guilt whatsoever about the deaths of black teenage males at the hands of sociopathic gun-nuts, and cops.
Reich-Wing media:
They had it coming.
They ALL had it coming.
And here’s why: __________________________.
Don’t feel bad.
You’re right.
And, you’re here amongst friends who are here to support you.
Murdoch, and people like Rush, and other “conservatives,” have done far more damage to America than any “Fifth Columnist’s” their little fevered imaginations were terrified of decades ago.
This will be a big scoop for Gateway Pundit if verified and entered into the evidence.
Bigger than LGF’s debunking of Dan Rather’s fake TANG memo. I can see why Charles Johnson is trying hard to discredit him so quickly.
And of course we still have Joe the Plumber, whose 15 minutes of fame have been renewed and renewed by the right wing media, just had to weigh in with the comment that they should hold a job fair in Ferguson, which would make the protesters scatter like cockroaches.
“Cockroaches” was one of the epithets that fueled the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Fitting that Joe the Plumber should use it now.
Maha, I think ChenZhen is being quite serious. If so, you’re seeing cognitive dissonance in action, and it’s scary when it’s this bad.
I will grant that the cop had a narrative in mind when opening fire. That’s the glorious thing about use of force training: they make sure that the good cops understand when force can be used, and the bad cops have a narrative to apply when they use force.
But if they had evidence, yes, they would be laying it out. That they have to say “oh, he might have stolen some tobacco, he might have shoved someone” means that they don’t have stronger evidence.
What bugs me about this is that we’ve got this ridiculous meme. You can’t question *any* use of force by the cops. If you do, the cops will circle the wagons. Now, I’m all for loyalty to an ideal, but we don’t respect cops because they’re *cops*. We respect them because they’re supposed to be symbols of civilization. And that should include their own organizational sense of shame when a wrongful shooting occurs, or when needless brutality occurs.
Are you talking about Union the Joe – the never was plumber.
? – not .
Also, too – Union Joe: not Union the Joe.
OY!!!
And I haven’t even had my first drink yet!
BTW – this clown’s now got a union job.
I hope some of his African-American union co-workers have a word or two about this with this bigoted @$$clown.
Isn’t it Joe the journalist extraordinaire.
“This will be a big scoop for Gateway Pundit if verified….”
That’s a good one, Dennis.