What’s with white kids and their parents getting down on both knees on our streets and sidewalks and raising their hands over their heads? And this repetitive call-and-answer chanting of “Hands up!”, followed by “Don’t Shoot!” What’s that all about?
Its practitioners believe it replays a scene of racial injustice and murder. It doesn’t. It never happened.
Believers believe they are reenacting the Michael Brown incident in Ferguon, Missouri. Their catechism is that an unarmed Mr. Brown, accosted without justification by a white police officer, begged to surrender, fell to his knees and raised his hands above his head. They believe that officer then murdered Mr. Brown in cold blood.
This myth is now such a pillar of racialist fundamentalism that bringing out the facts is tantamount to questioning the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. What happened with Michael Brown is nothing at all like what happened to George Floyd, but the two incidents are treated as evidence of a pattern of police violence. That does a great injustice to Mr. Floyd and the police officer who found himself being attacked by Mr. Brown.
The facts are readily accessible in the grand jury testimony. Most of the eyewitness evidence in that proceeding was provided by Blacks who were there and saw what happened. They substantially confirmed the officer’s testimony. Combined with forensic evidence, they told a story of violent aggression by Mr. Brown and a police officer fighting for his life.
You can read the grand jury transcripts here. Give yourself many hours. There are thousands of pages, and nowhere in them does any witness stick to the “Hands up, don’t shoot” mythology.
The facts, not the fable, go like this:
Ferguson, Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson had just received a radio call of a strong arm robbery at a nearby convenience store (video tape later revealed that robbery involved Mr. Brown). He rolled up on Mr. Brown and another man as they walked down the middle of a street. He asked them why they couldn’t walk on the sidewalk instead. Mr. Brown taunted Officer Wilson and tried to open the patrol car door. He said the officer was “too much of a pussy to shoot him,” and then attacked the officer through the open window. He struck Officer Wilson repeatedly and went for the officer’s gun. Mr. Brown outweighed Officer Wilson by nearly 80 pounds and was an inch or so taller. Much of the right side of Officer Wilson’s face, according to photographs taken that day, showed massive bruising where Mr. Brown punched him. He had other bruises on his neck and chin.
The gun went off as Mr. Brown wrestled Officer Wilson for his gun. A bullet struck part of Mr. Bown’s hand. Mr. Brown’s blood was later found inside the vehicle. Officer Wilson barely managed to fight Mr. Brown off. He said he felt like a child fighting the larger man. Mr. Brown fled. Officer Wilson got out of his vehicle, pursued Mr. Brown for a short distance and ordered him to stop. Mr. Brown turned and charged Officer Wilson.
While witnesses give varying accounts of what Mr. Brown was doing with his hands–balled into fists, under his shirt reaching into his waistband, extended in front–they agree Mr. Brown charged Officer Wilson. Officer Wilson testified that Mr. Brown’s face was contorted with rage and hatred such as he had never seen. Mr. Brown was closing the distance as Officer Wilson fired, striking Mr. Brown in the arm. Mr. Brown did not slow down. Officer Wilson hit him three more times in the arm and still he came on, until a shot to his head killed him, eight feet from Officer Wilson.
Forensic evidence confirmed the eyewitness accounts. Mr. Brown’s DNA was found inside the patrol car and on the gun. Mr. Brown’s finger had gun discharge, confirming Officer Wilson’s testionty that Brown had reached for the gun and his hand was on it or very close when it discharged inside the patrol car. A blood trail showed Mr. Brown covering a distance of approximately 25 yards from where he was first hit in the arm to where he was stopped, and showed he had been running at Officer Wilson.
At no point did Mr. Brown ever offer to surrender, or fall to his knees, or raise his hands and plead, “Don’t shoot.”
Violent, destructive rioting–that destroyed scores of Black owned businesses and took Black lives–spread for weeks from Ferguson across the country. Vowing to “ensure that justice is done,” President Obama ordered his Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a thorough, independent federal investigation. The Department of Justice and FBI reviewed all the grand jury testimony, reinterviewed witnesses, examined the forensic evidence, and pursued their own lines of inquiry.
The Obama Administration cleared Officer Wilson. The DOJ found no credible evidence that he had murdered Mr. Brown. It found no credible evidence that Mr. Brown had ever knelt, raised his hands and said or implied, “don’t shoot.” You can read the entire DOJ report at this link.
That report was released in March 2015. How much some people forget–or choose to forget–in just five years.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
Leftists care little about truth, choosing instead to fabricate and successively repeat the Big Lie until it become truth to their poorly educated, agenda-driven followers. While eating lunch I (regrettably) browsed through the Port Townsend weekly (mis)Leader, its front page festooned with a half-page photo of a mass of young people prostrate on the street, begging their Black Lies Matter masters for forgiveness. For what, I’m not sure. Yes, a black man, George Floyd, was unjustly killed by a white cop 2,000 miles east of here. The courts will likely put that cop and his partners in prison for many years for their horrific and unforgivable crimes. But does this give BLM and Antifa cause to spend the next week destroying property, looting and burning businesses and homes in 140 American cities, not to mention take the lives of several police officers, some of them black? The Democrats and their lying media think so, demanding folks like us bow down to our leftist masters, pay $Trillions$ in reparations and disband not only all city, state and county police departments, but the courts also. Are these people insane or do they think we are all fools? Judging from the actions and rhetoric depicted in the (mis)Leader, I’d say both are true.