Most people think they know what happened in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014. Most people are wrong. Radio host and author Larry Elder presents a factual account of what actually took place on that fateful day.
Transcript
One of the most significant events of this century happened early afternoon of August 9, 2014. It took place in Ferguson, Missouri, City on the outskirts of St Louis. So embedded in the popular mind is this event, that if you just say the name Ferguson, everyone knows what you’re talking about, police brutality and racial injustice. President Barack Obama referred to it in a speech before the United Nations on September 2014, “I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri -where a young man was killed, and at a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.” The president understated the case.
The shooting in Ferguson lived to nights of riots and gave fuel to a new social movement, Black Lives Matter. Given its historical importance it would be useful then to make sure we have our facts straight. So here’s a quiz to test your knowledge.
First question, true or false? A young, unarmed black man, Michael Brown, 19, was killed by white police officer, Darren Wilson.
The answer is true.
True or False?
Wilson stopped Brown for no good reason?
False.
Wilson, driving a police SUV had just received a call on his radio that a local convenience store had been robbed. He saw two men walking in the middle of the nearby street who met the description of the store thieves. Wilson drove up to them. When he asked the two men to move to the sidewalk one of the men, Michael Brown refused. Officer Wilson then attempted to get out of his car, but Brown block the door punching the officer through the open window. As Brown tried to grab Wilson’s gun, a struggle ensued. Wilson managed to fire his gun woounding Brown in the hand.
True or False?
Michael Brown’s back was turned officer Wilson when he was shot and killed?
False.
After being shot in the hand, Brown ran away from the police car. Wilson got out of the vehicle and pursued him. Brown then suddenly turn and charge Officer Wilson. Here’s how one witness whose testimony closely fits the forensic evidence describe the scene. [Brown] ran towards the officer full charge. The officer fired several shots at him, and . . . Mike Brown continuously came forward in the charging motion . . .” “And when he stopped that’s when the officer ceased fire . . .” “When he charged once more, the officer returned fire with, I would say . . . three to four shots. And that’s when Mike Brown finally collapsed.
The Brown family’s own medical expert respected pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden also conceded this point. The wounds Brown suffered were consistent with round charging toward Wilson, not running away.
True or False?
Before Michael Brown was shot and killed, he raised his hands above his head and shouted “Hands up. Don’t shoot.”
False.
Federal investigators from the Department of Justice found no credible evidence that Brown ever raised his hands in a don’t shoot gesture, or in any way heated the officers commands for him to surrender. The federal report concluded that, “witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender we, recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it.” Investigators also concluded Brown never uttered the now-iconic phrase. Again from the report, “the media has widely reported that there is witness testimony that Brown said “don’t shoot” as he held his hand above his head. In fact, our investigation did not reveal any eyewitness who stated that brown said “don’t shoot.” Where did this phrase come from then? The best guess is that it was made up by Brown’s companion Dorian Johnson immediately after the shooting. Witnesses describe him saying, “the police shot my friend and his hands were up. And like a game of telephone the phrase spread quickly throughout the neighborhood, morphing into “Hands up. Don’t shoot.” Picked up and amplified by the media, it then became an anthem for activist.
True or False?
A local grand jury investigation and a federal investigation both concluded that Officer Wilson was justified in his use of force.
True.
The local grand jury and the federal investigation, supervised by Attorney General Eric Holder, reached the same conclusion. Officer Wilson did nothing wrong. There was no basis on which the prosecutor him. Here’s how Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, put it in her book, The War on Cops.”It was not a question of evidence ‘not supporting’ high-threshold civil rights charges; it was a question of evidence eviscerating virtually every aspect of the pro-Brown, anti-Wilson narrative.”
There’s another way to put this. The statement that an innocent black man was killed by racist cop in Ferguson, Missouri is a lie. Those who say otherwise are either willfully deceiving you for their own purposes, or are wholly ignorant of the facts. Now you know, act accordingly. I’m Larry Elder for Prager University.
