Ferguson is currently deadlocked due to race conditions.

[KrazyHorse]

I saw a picture of the scene of the shooting and I'm puzzled. The police car is shown as stopped in one lane of the road. Adjacent to the car were some blood splattering, 2 bullet casings and Mr. Brown's cap. About 30 feet down the roar Mr. Brown's sandals were found, then about 70 to 80 feet from the police car there. Mr. Brown's body and 10 bullet casings.

Yes, that's consistent with the evidence presented.

Did the police get out of the car and pump bullets into Mr. Brown after he had hit the officer in the car and then begun to flee the scene?

Yes, that was in fact the testimony of the police officer. He testified that after the struggle in the car (resulting in a minor wound to Mr. Brown's thumb) he pursued Mr. Brown, who after a brief chase turned on him and charged, at which point the officer rapidly fired at Mr. Brown, killing him.

Did more than one officer fire his gun, because I don't know of any semi-automatic pistol which carries 12 rounds in a clip?

Police handguns generally carry around 15 rounds. I believe that the total number fired was around 10 in this case (2 in the car, 8 at the scene of Mr. Brown's death, the last of which was the fatal headshot - I'm not sure if the ordering is confirmable by the physical evidence, but I'm also not sure it matters given the relatively minor nature of the other wounds). The wounds to Mr. Brown's torso and head were from the front.

EDIT: per this cnn story, the gun he was carrying was a sig p229 .40 calibre with 13 rounds. 12 casings were found and 1 round was left in the gun. http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/justic...ury-documents/

Overall the physical evidence is consistent with the police officer's testimony, and the police officer's testimony is also consistent with a justifiable homicide. I'm not sure if there is an alternate theory of events which is consistent with the physical evidence and which is also inconsistent with justifiable homicide - I am more than willing to hear such a theory, if one exists. I am pretty sure that the testimony of eyewitnesses who have made some of the more inflammatory claims are inconsistent with the physical evidence (not that this last point is particularly important in determining whether or not the homicide was justifiable - just pointing out that many of the facts being taken at face value by protesters are in fact lies).

Lastly, I want to point out that police officers have a right and duty to apprehend violent criminals. If (as is consistent with the physical evidence) Mr. Brown attempted to grab the police officer's weapon, or otherwise assaulted the officer, then Mr. Brown immediately becomes the justified target of pursuit and arrest, by that officer or any other. And if he resists arrest in a manner dangerous to the police then they are justified in using the minimal effective force to stop him, up to and including shooting him in the head - which (if the officer's testimony is true) seems like it basically happened, given a lone police officer and an 18 year-old man who weighed 300 lbs and stood 6'4".

[KrazyHorse]

Lastly, I want to say that something can be a tragedy and yet have nobody alive be guilty of any crime. Does Mr. Brown's commission of a robbery and assault on a police officer mean that the world is a better place without him? No. Does his death mean that the police did anything wrong? No. And I think that middle ground is all too often missing in these cases. Most of the discussion I've seen revolved around Mr. Brown as either the innocent martyr or evil thug.

[Kidlicious]

He was indeed a thug. Whether or not that is evil or not doesn't matter. The protesters expect us to believe he was shot because he was black. Even if he were gunned down unlawfully it wouldn't be the case that it was because he was black. Or at least, you would be stupid for believing that.

[Kidlicious]

IOW they are doubling down on stupid.

[Wiglaf]

Wilson has resigned. Does the civil law system in Missouri allow for a wrongful death lawsuit?

Immunity privileges make it very hard to sue a police officer for something they do on duty.

And all of you ******s who want the police to wear body cameras and upload the footage to the cloud will regret that the moment your sister is raped, cops respond to find her dead banged body lying on the floor, and your fat neighbor FOIAs the footage so he can jerk off.

Merry Christmas everyone

[pchang]

Instead of complaining like Wiglaf, I am going long TASR and GPRO.

[Ben Kenobi]

Most of the discussion I've seen revolved around Mr. Brown as either the innocent martyr or evil thug.

Pretty sure when you mug a store owner for smokes you are literally living the thug life. Seriously.

[Kidlicious]

Then attack a cop.

[Berzerker]

twice

[molly bloom]

Molly I think you may have been doing HC a disservice here.

Erm, no.


'Let's burn black businesses to protest the poor treatment of black people! That'll teach the cops to mess with US.'

I would say that the 'us' can only refer to the people who are allegedly burning the black businesses, and that the people being 'messed with' and thus engaged in teaching the cops a lesson, are also rather obviously meant to be black people.

The supposed absurdity or illogicality would not be there if he were implying that the racial identity of the arsonists was unknown or anything other than African American.

[ricketyclik]

Someone please for God's sake take away molly's thesaurus so he can't wound the English language any further. SAT words should be used to enhance meaning, not puff up language to make yourself seem smart. Small words are better than big words when they suffice. Let's rewrite this statement in proper style:.

I have no sense of humour whatsoever

[ricketyclik]

You actually know that you are ill, but you don't want others to know that. That's the motivation for your behavior.

Shall I continue?

Oh wow. It's like you got lessons from the Devil.

[molly bloom]

He was indeed a thug.

Really ?


How long had you and the deceased been acquainted ?

[Kidlicious]

Don't be stupid. (x3)

[Dinner]

I was watching pictures of the protesters looting in Berkley and I was surprised how many of them were young white men. Nothing says I'm just here for free **** than upper middle class white boys looting electronics stores and filming it on their Iphone. ****'em. Time to start shooting looters on sight.