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Mike Brown appears to have paid for those cigars |
by OllieGarkey |
The youngster Michael Brown is holding reflects the love this young man gave and received. |
“Ferguson police’s attempts to demonize Michael Brown, the unarmed African-American teen killed by Officer Darren Wilson, may have hit a small snag,” reports Crooks and Liars. “The very video they released at the same time as they identified Wilson as the officer responsible for shooting Brown six times, including twic... |
“Supposedly, the video shows Brown robbing the store, taking a box of cigars. However, the attorney for Ferguson Market says that it was not anyone from the store who called police to report a robbery. In fact, a customer called to report what he viewed as a robbery. |
“How, then, did police get the tape? According to St. Louis News, ‘The attorney said, during the course of Ferguson (PD)’s investigation, they came to the store and asked for to review the tape.” In other words, the tape was not viewed by police until after Michael Brown was dead in the street. |
“While it is difficult to be 100 percent certain, the video appears to show Brown purchasing some cigars but lacking the money for the amount he wished to buy. Brown seems to purchase some cigarillos, pay for them, attempt to buy more, then replace the ones he could not afford.” |
“The confrontation between Brown and the clerk may have been because Brown impatiently reached across the counter. Perhaps it was wrong for Brown to shove the employee – it is impossible to know what words were exchanged – but this footage seems to exonerate him. It is important to note that Brown only shoved the clerk... |
C&L does a good job discussing how media jumped on the “thug” bandwagon and attempted to aid the character assassination of Michael Brown. |
Anyone attempting to justify this shooting by calling Michael Brown a “thug” or a “criminal” or who says that “he had a rap sheet,” as various people have claimed over the past few days is, clearly, a racist. |
Even if Brown did commit the petty theft of a $5 pack of cigars, a pack he appears to have paid for, gunning him down in the aftermath is murder. Petty theft is not a capital crime. |
Henry Davis, 52, arrested Sept. 20, 2009, in a case of mistaken identity, was beaten by Ferguson PD, then charged with property damage for bleeding on an officer’s uniform. Davis insisted this photo be taken at the hospital before he was treated. Later, in court, the officer denied there’d been any blood on his uniform... |
The police themselves are never supposed to dispense punishment. Their job is never to punish. That is the job of the courts. Yet when the police in this country act to punish, they are given a pass by people who don’t seem to understand the rule of law, or the importance of our laws and rights. |
Yet there has been this parade of forces attempting to justify the police action as if it could possibly be justified. |
This cannot possibly be justified. There is no scenario in which the shooting of an unarmed teenager is remotely acceptable. |
And the Ferguson PD have proved themselves to be liars, yet again. Just like the time that they charged a man with four counts of destruction of city property for bleeding on their uniforms while they beat him. |
The fact that the Ferguson PD are liars shouldn’t surprise anyone. But perhaps this bit of evidence can help us push back against the character assassination they’re using against an innocent murdered American teenager. |
Will McLeod (OllieGarkey) resides in Washington, D.C. He has been active in the progressive movement across state lines, spent time in Zuccotti Park as part of the Occupy movement and can be reached at Twitter.com/WillMcLeod99. McLeod writes frequently for Daily Kos, where this story first appeared. Bay View staff cont... |
1. Don’t worry their will always be a sick demented segment of feces which will try and defend race murdering white cops. If African American heavily armed police officers stalked their neighborhood they will resist to the death. |
• Of all the police shootings in America, more whites are killed by police. On the other hand 13% of the population is black yet they account for 49% of all murders in the country. 90% of those are blacks killing blacks. So I ask you, where are the real issues here. Your ignorance to fact and reality is amazing |
• Discuss that on a story that is dedicated to those stories. This is not dealing with those. I know you and your FOX NEWS talking points needs to desperately change the subject, but people aren’t as ignorant as you need/wish them to be. |
• “If you watch the video real close, you’ll see that Mike pays for the cigars, the clerk gives the change, then a hsand from behind, probably Johnson, scoops up the change.” |
Yeah, and if you watch closer you’ll see Valedictorian Brown help a Little Old Lady across the street, get a cat out of a tree, rescue a child from a burning building, and read to a bunch of pre-school children. |
The guy was a thug. Good Riddance ! |
• See this is the real deal. Blacks kill blacks and whites kill whites. Herein lies the difference. The police force country wide is predominantly white. It is a sad but notorious truth that the media, history, and utter lack of full disclosure makes black people ‘look’ like they are in the majority for everythin... |
A close friend’s son was shot dead in the street because he had a BBgun. no warning, no loud speaker from the car…nothing. The boy was 14 and white. What we don’t get is that this is more of a CLASS issue than a race issue. WHITE COPS WILL SHOT POOR WHITE KIDS, POOR BLACK KIDS, POOR HISPANIC KIDS. I love my fri... |
2. Excellent reporting…… If you disregard the fact that Dorian Johnson with his lawyer admits that Green stole the cigars. |
3. I watched the video. The video shows a man handing stolen swisher sweet cigars to an accomplice directly behind him. Then the video shows the same man stealing more swisher sweet cigars from somewhere inside the “cashier’s cage” and in his attempt to grab too many to hold, he dropped some of the cigar packs. Shows... |
4. It doesn’t matter if he stole the cigars or not. No one has the right to pick a fight with you in the middle of the street and when they lose that fight pull a gun and shoot you. If that was any of us we would be charged with assault and murder. |
But to then continue shooting after the person surrendered is clearly murder regardless of what authority you may have. |
These are the pertinent issues that the media and government wants us to ignore. |
The police do not have the right to use violence and threat of violence to get their way and they don’t have a right to execute you once you submit to their violence. |
• What he is suggesting is that as a grounds of surrendering, you should not be shot 6 times. Twice in the head by the way, after an initial shot was fired. With no weapons or anything to convey you were a threat needing lethal force used upon you. |
5. That video shows brown paying for cigars? Really…I didn’t see it. I did see him spill a few on the floor…then pick them up and leave. |
• I saw the video too. If he paid for the “sweets”,then why did this six foot-four,292 pound “kid” lift the store clerk off the floor by the neck and throw him on his back with one hand on his way out the door. Someone is grossly misportraying this hood as an innocent. Come on……………give me a bit of a break! I would ... |
• Isn’t that how you pay for things?Milk, eggs, throttle the clerk…oops how about some doughnuts, slap ’em around, oops forgot my free range organic arugula, shove the clerk. Have a nice day. |
This is a reminder to me of how awful it must be in San Francisco. Are there any sensible people in that town? |
6. Officer Wilson acted in self defense. Had he not done so, we would have a dead policeman and an armed homicidal giant walking the middle of the streets of Ferguson right now. Had the policeman been black, he would have had the same law enforcement duties and the same sense of self-preservation, and so would have d... |
7. So your a “thug” because u steal cigars , doesn’t make sense to me I thought wen you steal your a thief . I work at a grocery store and bums steal all the time, so since they steal their “thugs” too right. Cause if you apply that kind of thinking everyone who steals should be labeled a “thug”. All races have peopl... |
• When you commit assault and battery against a store employee trying to stop you from stealing, it becomes felony robbery. You need to come up with better lies. |
Nicholas Stix, Uncensored |
• That makes your ALL of your thieving forefathers THUGS by your logic! They stole Africans, they stole land from Indians, they stole land from Mexico, and they didn’t do it with a “pillow fight”. |
• Kwane Jackson wrote: “That makes your ALL of your thieving forefathers THUGS by your logic! They stole Africans, they stole land from Indians, they stole land from Mexico…” |
Logic? Er, like so many of the comments supporting Brown, you’ve made some unwarranted assumptions. 1) First, learn the definition of “ALL.” I’ve always warned my statistics students to avoid absolutist terms like “all” and “none” because just ONE example would disprove your claim. Since you’ve brought up the... |
2) Why are you assuming that we’re all white, or of European ancestry? Please quote where we’ve given that indication. How do you know that we’re not Latino, Asian, African-American, Native American, etc? You do realize that American is a multiracial melting pot, right? And if I am Asian, for example, how did... |
3) Finally, what’s your point? That our ancestors were thugs? You’d find no disagreement here. Civilization was very different in the past and yes, conflicts were often resolved with force and intimidation. So tell me something I don’t already know. And that’s true of ALL races, including Africans (and yes, t... |
Here’s the thing: You thought you were being clever in saying that white forefathers were all thugs. But that’s a point no one here ever disputed! Not only was your argument illogical and irrelevant, but it proved your ignorance about European, American and African history — specifically the history of slaver... |
Think about it. |
• Thank you Life Messenger……Bryan knows so much..he is too blind to see Brown’s friend put the cigarettes BACK ON THE COUNTER! What is the standard deviation of the happening Bryan? Perhaps the store clerk store didnt see when Dorian put them back and when he confronted Mike about it….Mike got upset and pushe... |
Bryant also….Middle Eastern people took down the Twin Towers and a plane and you REALLY think they are afraid to report stealing? |
• RNBSNLSU ranted: |
“What is the standard deviation of the happening Bryan?” |
Er, do you know what “standard deviation” means? Not only is that question nonsensical, it doesn’t appear to be English either. What is “the happening”? |
Care to give me the time signature of that happening? If he had returned the cigars, then: |
1) Why did Dorian admit to stealing the cigars to MSNBC? He said nothing about returning them. If he did return them, don’t you think he would have said that? |
2) Why is the title of this blog entry, “Mike Brown appears to have paid for those cigars”? If Dorian had returned the cigars, why would Mike Brown pay for it??? Are you contradicting the writer of this blog, who supports the Brown family? |
3) Why did Brown’s cousin also tell ABC News that Brown might have paid for the cigars? Again, if Dorian had returned the cigars why would Brown pay for it? |
4) Why was a box of cigars found in Brown’s possession at the shooting? |
Do your research and THINK before you post. Seriously, saying that he put the cigars back basically cancels the TITLE of this blog entry. So are you saying that this blog was wrong? And FYI, they were cigars, not cigarettes. |
That’s irrelevant because ANY physical violence from Brown contradicts the family’s claim that he’s “a gentle giant” and Dorian’s claim that “Big Mike wouldn’t hurt anyone.” If Brown reacted violently toward the clerk for something minor, what makes you think he wouldn’t have also reacted violently toward t... |
I don’t know how things are handled where you live, but in my neighborhood, adults handle conflicts with discussions, not shoves. If I was mistakenly accused of something, I’d simply point out the mistake. Since you claim that he put the cigars back, both Mike and Dorian could have simply shown that the cig... |
Who is Bryant? And I can’t believe you just wrote something so stupid. First off, the liquor store’s owner is an American of Middle Eastern descent. He’s been in business for 18 years. Secondly, he’s from Israel (which, if you don’t know, is also Middle Eastern). Does that match the demographics of the 9/11... |
If you think I’m joking, watch the news tonight. Those thugs just looted his store AGAIN. That means he’s been victimized THREE times: first by Michael Brown, then by looters in August, and now again, after the Grand Jury decision. If you don’t think he’s afraid, it’s clear you don’t watch the news. Don’t b... |
BTW, no one from the Brown family has apologized to the store for the initial crime, or shown any sympathy. THINK ABOUT IT. |
• ohkay.. you get sensitive when someone says ‘all white ppl’ but dont forget that ‘all white people’ benefit from being simply white.. thats called white privilege. (just google it or some shit) And you can nit pick my comment for minor inncorrections and deem me as an idiot just like your people nit pick pe... |
8. What about when you look at every white cop with suspicion – does that deem you a racist or just knowledgable? @Tyrell- maybe I’m not up on the definition of ‘thug’, but isn’t a thug someone who bullies people along with |
breaking the law? |
• Actually, this is the definition of a thug:a member of a religious organization of robbers and assassins in India. Devotees of the goddess Kali, the Thugs waylaid and strangled their victims, usually travelers, in a ritually prescribed manner. They were suppressed by the British in the 1830s. |
• The etymological definition of a word is mostly irrelevant. The current working definition of someone who intimidates or strongarms his (her?) will has been around since the 30’s or so, when America was dealing with organized crime and its soldiers. Today, it’s often used in the context of gangs, or gangstas. |
9. Actually, no, the video doesn’t help Brown. Regardless of whether he stole, there’s no doubt he physically threatened the clerk. And that’s the issue: whether Brown is a violent individual. The video is relevant because immediately after the shooting, you had all kinds of testimonials claiming that Brown is “a gen... |
Paul Callen of CNN also pointed out that if Brown had stolen or cheated the store, he would have been in a state of paranoia — expecting to be arrested. He had no idea that the officer didn’t know about the incident; in his mind, he was about to be arrested. Being just weeks from starting college, this would have r... |
10. In the article, OllieGarkey wrote: “…it is impossible to know what words were exchanged…” |
Wrong. That’s because the clerk was a participant, and he is available as a witness. I don’t see OllieGarkey complaining about all the THIRD PERSON witnesses giving accounts of the shooting. Yet when we have an actual FIRST PERSON participant (victim) of the cigar incident here, s/he claims that it’s “impossible” t... |
The bottom line is that Brown physically threatened the clerk, suggesting that he is not the “gentle giant” many claimed he was. In fact, I think it’s very telling that this article ONLY includes a photo of Brown smiling benevolently. Where are all the other photos with Brown in thug poses? I certainly agree that p... |
11. One would think that honest police should have released the entire video footage not just the footage which served their purpose of protecting their officer who coincidentally unloaded his gun into the young man and killed him. The young man can no longer speak for himself. The entire video raises questions. For ... |
What words were exchanged? Racial Slurs, derogatory language or something to cause a peaceful person to behave differently or peaceful words and by whom? There is always more to view and more points of view. The entire video should be as readily available to the press and public, after all, the young man was gunned... |
The answer is very simple. You’re forgetting that ALL tobacco products are behind the counter due to age restriction. So if Brown wanted to steal cigars or cigarettes, he NECESSARILY had to stop by the counter. You’re also confusing shoplifting with brazen stealing. It’s true that a shoplifter would try to sneak ... |
Here’s a slightly more benign scenario. It has been suggested that he went in to buy something else. Upon paying, he saw the cigars behind the counter and decided he wanted a box. He then either didn’t have enough money to pay, or had no intentions of paying, and simply took the cigars. |
No matter the scenario, the flaw in your question is that he MUST go to the counter if he wanted cigars. It had nothing to do with his motives. It had everything to do with going where the cigars are located. Regardless, he physically threatened the clerk, proving that he wasn’t always the “gentle giant” his frie... |
• @Avidread100 used the term “young man” 4 times. His age actually works against the Browns. First, it’s not relevant when talking about the officer because he had no way of knowing whether Brown was 18 or 25. It was a chaotic situation, and all one can see is a 6’4″ 290lb man allegedly charging — or falling wounde... |
12. I don’t claim to know what happened but it baffles me that some can not imagine a scenario where it would be reasonable that the policeman would gun a person down. Lets be reasonable. If as some say a 6 ft 4 inch 290 pound man is bull rushing you and you have reason to believe he is coming for your gun, wouldn’t ... |
• If the Cop felt he responded reasonably; why would he NOT call in the incident; or write a report. Why did they wash the body, prior to the family requested autopsy. Why have they taken so long to turn over Mike Brown’s clothing, Why, why, why are there so many policy violations. You kill someone; and you don’t w... |
You’re confusing several issues here, and making unwarranted conclusions. First, this has nothing to do with whether Brown robbed the store and physically threatened the clerk, which is the topic of this article (that’s two crimes, by the way). Addressing your claims: |
1) According to the AP timeline, the encounter occurred at 12:01p, so the shooting occurred somewhere from 12:01p to 12:03p. Then at 12:04p, “Another officer arrives on the scene after the shooting, and an ambulance is contacted to treat Brown’s wounds.” That means, AT MOST, 3 mins passed before someone was con... |
2) Who told you that a report was NEVER written? Do you have proof from a reliable source, i.e. the AP, Reuters, NY Times, etc (NOT some blog) that a report was never written, even back in the station? If you’d listen to the dispatcher recording, you’d see that the incident escalated quickly into mob mentality,... |
3) The rest of your post is meaningless without a normative reference. In my field of medical research, we call that a control. In other words, how did Ferguson police handle previous incidents? Did they wash the body? Did they take long in handing over clothing? Etc, etc, etc. To prove that this was a coverup,... |
4) Your conclusions can’t be drawn from the “evidence” you claim. For example, bureaucratic irregularities and failures can easily be attributed to poor management, understaffing, laziness, etc. |
5) Furthermore, how do DEPARTMENTAL failures disprove that “the Cop felt he responded reasonably”? The keyword here is “felt.” How does ANY of what you cite give us a psychological profile of how Wilson felt as he fired? And that’s key. The law generally allows an officer to shoot, and kill, if he felt mortally... |
6) Finally, as with any crime, you need a motive to say Wilson “killed this young man in cold blood.” So what was it? Was it out of racism? Does he have a proven history of racism? Did he hate men over 6′? Was it a crime of passion? Was he jealous? Was he anti-Semetic and mistakenly thought Brown was Jewish? Or... |
13. We must see what we want to see. I don’t see any money changing hands. I don’t see him reaching for a wallet and paying for anything. I don’t see any change, I don’t see a receipt, nothing like what i would expect to see from a transaction. I see him reaching on the far side of the counter and taking something, t... |
• This. Everyone is trying to dismiss the fact he stole the cigars even when his friend admitted they were stolen. That doesn’t mean and prove anything having to do with the shooting, but enough with the fake bs please from both sides. Thanks and bye. |
14. Anyone who claims that Brown paid is simply ignorant of the news. This issue is not debatable because his friend/accomplish DORIAN JOHNSON ADMITTED TO MSNBC THAT THEY STOLE THE CIGARS. Since it was WILLINGLY told to the media — and THROUGH AN ATTORNEY — you can’t claim that Johnson was coerced for a false confess... |
• Sim Wortham asked: “If he stole the cigars why didn’t the store report it?” |
1) There were only a few minutes between the theft and Brown’s death. You don’t know if the clerk would have reported the theft later that day. It was not an emergency situation so busy victims often wait to report minor crimes. |
2) More importantly, reporting it would have done nothing. The thief would not have gone to jail, and he would not have gotten his cigars back, nor money for them. Worse, he might be subject to revenge for any arrest. This is why many Asian and Middle Eastern store owners don’t report small crimes, or even admit ... |
To see how scared the store owners are, watch theFox2News report titled, “Store owners speak out about surveillance video after release.” They want to make clear that they were not the ones to call the police, and that they did not willingly hand over the tape. Furthermore, he said that he didn’t want to get invo... |
• The police officer didn’t stop him for stealing anyway. It was for Jay walking. The theft isnot even the reason he was being stopped. Could be why he (brown) may have been paranoid but not why he was questioned or shot. |
• The paranoia (and marijuana in his blood) would explain why he might have behaved aggressively toward Officer Wilson. And that really is the key to this: Did Brown behave in a way that made Wilson justifiably fear for his life? The forensics support Wilson. |
1) The gun wounds suggest that Brown was NOT fleeing when shot |
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