Is It A Cover-Up?

When news of the strong armed robbery was released the other day, many people asked why this bit of information had been withheld.  Some felt that this was a cover-up and that the police were working backward to fabricate a justification for the murder.

I'll admit that I too wondered why the police would have withheld this information.  Yesterday I finally got the answer.

It turns out that the Justice Department had warned the police that releasing the video could inflame racial tension. This means that the same Justice Department that is doing a review of this case is also offering guidance about how to frame the incident to the public at large.

Is it just me or don't you think that transparency would have helped lessen the tension in Ferguson.

Next we come to this video on YouTube.  As my former students would say "Dah-yum"  If you listen to the video beginning at 06:28 you will hear one of the witnesses telling the person making the video that when Officer Wilson tries to get out of his vehicle the "gentle giant" and his friend slam his car door shut violently.  Then the officer exits the car.

And then what happens?  According to this witness Michael bum-rushes the officer and shoves him back into his vehicle then punches the officer in the face.  At that point the officer grabs for his gun.  Brown also grabs for the gun and the gun goes off.

Brown then takes off and the officer pursues him.  The officer yells for Michael to "FREEZE"!  Michael then taunts the police officer.  (NO by the way taunting does NOT give you the right to fire upon an unarmed citizen or for that matter an armed citizen)

According to the witness Brown then charged the officer and the officer began firing.  Brown continued to come forward.

This sort of eye-witness statement is known as an "excited utterance."  For those of you not familiar with this term, an excited utterance is a statement relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant (the person making the statement) is under the stress or excitement that is caused.

Was Michael Brown really on his knees with his hands in the air as his friend has declared?  Did Michael Brown actually run up on the cop as this witness claims?  How did the policeman sustain an injury to his face?  How many shots were fired?  How many times was Michael Brown actually shot?  Sadly there is no dash-cam to release so that some of these questions can be answered.

African-American Males Are Murdered At A Rate 6 Times Higher Than For Whites

I have always found it interesting that Liberals proclaim that by the virtue of their incredibly high IQ's and scientific acuity THEY alone can make rational decisions based upon reason and not emotion.

Recently the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri has the talking heads in an uproar about young black males being targeted for murder.

I would concur that they are. As a matter of fact statistics bear this out with the odds that an African-American male will be murdered about 6 times higher than for whites according to Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The vast majority of murders are intra-racial.  This means that generally whites kill white and blacks kill blacks.  As a matter of fact according to government statistics 93% of all murders committed by whites are against white victims, and 83% of all murders committed by African-American are against black victims.  

Having said all this, I was deeply concerned when I learned about the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed youth by a uniformed police officer in Ferguson.  It was and is  a tragedy when anyone is murdered.  

My heart cries out for the murder victims in Chicago where the death toll surpassed the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan.  Could it be that there are no shouts of "No Justice. No Peace" in Chicago because these these murders are primarily intra-racial?  Do these murders not have the talking heads demanding something be done because 79% of the murder victims in Chicago have prior records?  Do Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson not feel that these lives also had value or is a victim's only value the race of the perpetrator?

Big Mike, the "Gentle Giant" was portrayed as a young man eager to begin college before being gunned down in the street for no other reason other than he was a "Black Man Walking".  

Since then we have seen photos of this gentle soul committing a strong armed robbery of a local convenience store.  

Does this mean that Michael Brown should be shot for stealing a little less than $50 worth of merchandise?  No.  Is that what happened.  I don't know.  I am waiting to hear what the autopsy says about where he was shot and how many times he was shot.  Then again, I have the luxury of waiting because Big Mike was not my son.  My sons were not shot to death.  I can understand that the family wants answers NOW!

My problem is that the talking heads on TV seem quick to jump on board and hype stories that portray the narrative that black youths are endangered by white men who seek to kill them at every opportunity for no other reason than their race.  

These same "journalists"  ignore black on white crime and for that matter black on black crime.  There were no nightly updates about the brutal Shannon Christian and Christian Newman murders.  Have you even heard of the Witchita Massacre which prosecutors refused to treat as a race crime?  

I suppose those really smart journalists choose to ignore the fact that the according to Bureau of Justice Statistics that when inter-racial crime is committed it is more likely to be black on white than the opposite.

Let's take a look at what the Bureau of Justice statistics has to say:

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/[i]pdf/cvus06.pdf Table 42, Violent Crime Rates by Race:

-The Black-on-White rate was 35 times more than White-on-Black.
-Black-on-White rape rate was 84; White-on-Black rape was statistically insignificant and listed as zero.

“Criminal Victimization in the United States” DOJ Table 48, race of “multiple offender” (gangs) and their victim/s involved in violent crimes:
-In 2005 Blacks committed 70 times more such crimes against Whites than Whites committed against Blacks.
-In 2008 Blacks committed 147,749 such crimes against Whites; Whites committed ten against Blacks.
-The DOJ stopped identifying the race of gang crime offenders in 2008. I can’t imagine why.

Note: The DOJ lists Blacks as the victims of “hate crimes” 30% MORE than Whites (NCJ244409, Characteristics of Violent Hate Crime Victims).

The point I am trying to make is this, let us be outraged at the deaths of young African-American males in this country.  Let us not get wrapped up in the media hype and take a good look at the statistics as well as studies that give us insight as to what can be done to turn this all around.

Violence Erupts in Post Racist MO

Protesters in Ferguson attacked police cars and looted and burned a QuickTrip to the ground early Sunday morning..

Protesters also  looted a tire store on Chambers road and stole hair extensions from a Hollywood Beauty store.  There were reports that the violence and looting spread into the neighboring area of Dellwood where AutoZone, Taco Bell, and other businesses were vandalized.

In one instance an officer said his home was "kicked-in" and he had a shoot-out with the looters.

The aftermath of the rioting thirty-two people were arrested and two officers injured.

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Last night the violence continued as people began rioting and looting in the Galleria mall in St. Louis.   Several stores were evacuated and the mall was closed shortly after 6 PM.

Police also had to shut down a section of Interstate 270 in North St. Louis County because rioters were throwing bricks onto the highway.

What triggered all this violence?  Michael Brown, an unarmed young man who was supposed to begin college on Monday was shot ten times by police on Saturday.

According to the St. Louis County Police Chief, the officer who fired upon Michael Brown tried to leave his vehicle just before the shooting.  Brown pushed the officer back into the car "where he physically assaulted the police officer and struggled over the officer's weapon. There is a claim that a shot had been fired inside the police car.

According to the police version of the incident,Michael Brown was allegedly shot as he attempted to flee.

Brown's friend Dorian Johnson tells a different story about the incident saying that he and Brown had been confronted by the officer when they ignored his order to get out of the street.

According to Johnson the officer reached his arm out of the window and grabbed Brown by the neck in an attempt to pull him into the squad car.

Johnson claims that when Brown was shot he turned around and put his hands in the air.  The officer, however continued to approach with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots at Brown.

This case has launched its own investigation into the case which is separate than the one that has been launched by the St. Louis County Police.

The officer's identity will be revealed within today around 2 PM.

UPDATE!!!!

Police say that they won't be releasing the name of the officer who shot and killed the unarmed teen, Michael Brown.  Due to death threats that were called in to the police department and posted on social media.