[My other posts on the DOJ reports, 1 & 2.] I have read (most of) the incredibly damning DOJ’s report on the Ferguson P.D. I tried to read it a bit as Thomas Jefferson edited the Bible. Thomas Jefferson thought that even if Jesus isn’t the son of God, even if there are no supernatural events, there’s still something good…
Tag: Ferguson
DOJ on Michael Brown Shooting: Justified
So many reports. So little time. [My other two posts on the DOJ reports: 2 & 3.] First the easy one: the DOJ report on Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown. The press seems more interested in the other DOJ report, the one that reams the whole criminal justice system in Ferguson a new one (more on that, later). But what…
It’s a Dirty Job…
I’ve always been a big fan of Mike Rowe and his TV show, “Dirty Jobs” (now on a different channel and called, “Somebody’s Gotta Do It”). Here Rowe talks about recent police events. As always, he approaches issues with a certain degree of kindness and empathy. Also, he’s nobody’s fool. (I suspect he would make a very good police officer.)…
The real Michael Brown
Yesterday I had a nice walk and dinner with a good group of cops who were to appear on CNN’s Cops Under Fire about cops who have been involved in shootings. I also met Darren Wilson’s lawyer. So I asked him a few things about Officer Wilson and Michael Brown. The decisive evidence? Brown’s actual skin on the slide and…
“To say it’s all the fault of racist cops is letting the system off the hook”
A quote from me in an interesting article by James Reinl in Al Jazeera. I go on to say: “Some people honestly believe that cops don’t shoot white people and don’t give tickets to white people for minor issues. This view is demonstrably false,” Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore lawman and academic at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told…
Would a Grand Jury Really Indict a Ham Sandwich?
My man Gene O’Donnell (former police officer and prosecutor and current colleague of mine at John Jay College of Criminal Justice) on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show. Well worth listening to. Unless, of course, you fully understand what a grand jury is and how it works… which you, like I, don’t. Also, if you click through that link, there’s a great…
Racial progress, nicer white people, and black-on-black crime (Or: Why don’t white people care about justice?)
There is a great interview with Chris Rock in New York Magazine. What stuck with me was his insight that “black progress” is a misnomer. What America has seen over the years (in fits and starts) is “white progress”: So, to say Obama is [black] progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president.…
“Professor” who assisted in Mike Brown autopsy revealed as “fraud, con artist”
From BoingBoing (whatever that is… but backed up by many other sources). You can’t make this shit up! I don’t actually think this changes anything in terms of the actual shooting… but it still seems newsworthy.
“Finished him off”
A good article AP article by Holbrook Mohr, David Lieb, and Phillip Lucas about something every cop knows: witnesses make up a lot of shit. Some witnesses said Michael Brown had been shot in the back. Another said he was face-down on the ground when Officer Darren Wilson “finished him off.” Still others acknowledged changing their stories to fit published…
Who do you believe?
Let me start by saying we’ll never know for certain what happened when Officer Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown. [Update: but we not do have a much better idea based on a DOJ report.] No. Seriously. Think about it. You don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened. So whatever you think, whatever I think… the only thing…