St Louis police murder scandal (PLUS: riots, idiotic press conferences, etc.)

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I wonder if the usual suspect(s) will come in here and defend this as well.

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Holy christ, people on reddit are racist: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2dnv4s/video_of_mike_browns_alleged_strong_arm_robbery/

Not really seeing anything racist there.

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I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

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I don't understand why the media keeps portraying him as some innocent teenager who "avoided most of the traps that dragged down many of his peers". Obviously he did not as he liked to rob corner stores.

Because whenever a lightning-rod like event such as this shooting happens, some fraction of the country sees the need to canonize the guy and another fraction wants to paint him as Charles Manson. Both because they need to fit him into the narrative they want to story to fit into.

So what's the narrative we should be running with here? "Man steals cigarillos, should be shot dead in street"?

The worst part of this fiasco is the police response to the protests. Nothing can justify that and the police does need to be de-militarized. That being said, him committing this robbery just 15 minutes prior to his death does change the circumstances there. If he thought he was being arrested, is it possible he acted rashly and did something stupid like reach for the officers gun? We still don't know a lot about what actually happened. If he was shot multiple times in the back, it doesn't really matter what  happened at the corner store. He deserved to be in jail, not dead.

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Don't forget that the robbery video was released due to a FOI request. The police department likely wouldn't want to release it otherwise, since it's too weak to be evidence but strong enough to raise tensions.

They didn't want to release it because there is/was still an investigation going on, that is normal protocol.

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He wasn't running away from the cops, he was running back TO the cops.  link

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What I'm guessing happened is this:
1.Mr Brown and his buddy steal some little cigars, store owner confronts them, he physically hassles/threatens the store owner
2.Mr. Brown and buddy leave store
3.several cops are called to the area
4.one of the cop cars (an SUV) sees Brown and buddy walking down the street and asks them to get out of the street
5.Brown assumes that these cops are here to bust him so tries to not get caught, he does that by trying to make sure the cops can't get out of the car
6.when he realizes that ain't going to work he tries to run
7.when he realizes THAT's not going to work he tries to go after the cops again
8.the cops shoot him as he's running towards them
9.everybody freaks out

Yes, these are not the actions of a rational man, which makes me think he was probably high on goofballs.

All just a guess, but it's much more likely than the version of what most people seem to assume what happened.  I'm not saying the cops made no mistakes, then or afterwords.  I'm saying it's ridiculous to freak out, assume the worst before the evidence is in or the investigation is complete.

He may have decided to come back towards the police to negotiate with them or whatever. Did he have his hands up is the question.

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"and the dude started running, coming towards the cops"

I'm pretty sure the bystander would have mentioned if he was trying to surrender...plus, that's not how one surrenders.  It seems you guys WANT the cop to have murdered this guy more than you want the truth.

So you believe that dude and think everyone who said he had his hands up is lying? Maybe he was heading back towards the cop, gets shot in the arm, raises his hands to surrender and then gets a headshot as Darren Wilson keeps shooting. No matter what happened, I think we can safely say that Mike Brown deserves this years Darwin Award. Assaulting the police, then running away and then heading right back is some retarded behavior.

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Hey, where's the president though?

I'm glad he's laying low. This is much too complicated of a case for him to come out and say anything besides generic calls for peace. Let him enjoy his vacation.

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I am on the fence right now (because I don't know what happened obviously), but if they try to push the theory that marijuana made him violent, I am going to reflexively support Mike Brown and listen to NWA for like half an hour.

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Oh no, JJ is back.

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It's quite obvious there was a robbery at the store, otherwise why would he be shoving the owner like that? Just for fun? That is even worse. And it's not as if he was underage and couldn't buy those legally. Maybe he didn't have his ID on him and still wanted the cigars, in which case that is even more idiotic.

No one can justify what the police are doing currently and have been doing for a whole week (seriously dead0man wtf) but there is no reason to justify what mike brown did in that store.

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Also it looks like the St. Louis police murdered another black guy yesterday and are already lying about it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/20/kajieme-powell-shooting_n_5696546.html?1408579745&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

This is absolutely ridiculous. Who wants to defend this now? Do we not have all the facts on this one either? Why do we condone murder by the police?

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Also it looks like the St. Louis police murdered another black guy yesterday and are already lying about it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/20/kajieme-powell-shooting_n_5696546.html?1408579745&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

This is absolutely ridiculous. Who wants to defend this now? Do we not have all the facts on this one either? Why do we condone murder by the police?

The dude did have a knife, he was walking up to the cops, he did just steal sh**t, he was literally asking for the cops to shoot him and his actions were showing that it wasn't just words.  Ok, he wasn't 3 or 4 feet away...he was 5 or 6 feet away (kind of hard to tell at the angle and distance...could be as far as 10 feet I suppose)...how close does an armed crazy guy need to get to a cop before it's ok to shoot him?

Closer than where he was. The problem with the police is that they know they are not going to be accountable for their actions and so they do whatever they feel like. Just because you have been given the authority to shoot to kill when the situation warrants it, that does not mean you don't have the responsibility of avoiding that situation to the best of your ability (even if it is waiting a second longer). The guy deserved to be in a mental institution (aka jail in America), not dead.

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Oh yeah, them lying about it might be even worse than the shooting itself. What are your thoughts on that Dead0man? When you give the police the license to do what they want without oversight, they will abuse it. It's just human nature.

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This is a national problem but it is definitely worse in places. What is wrong with cops in places like St. Louis?

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How far was Brown from Wilson when the fatal shots were fired? That is one of the most important thing to know and this report doesn't provide that. Why?

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No, it's not. Stop grasping at straws. I mean, wow, even I wasn't expecting it to be this bad.

I feel sorry for Obama, actually, for having to have put up with this.

Why is it not important? It makes a great deal of difference if he was 10 feet away and coming towards him or 30 feet away and facing towards him while still.