Michael Brown

Brown Case: Judge Asked To Appoint Prosecutor, New Grand Jury

January 6, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Organize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Darren Wilson, Grand Jury, Michael Brown, Police abuse

Under Missouri law, MO Rev Stat § 56.110, the presiding judge of the Circuit Court is empowered to “appoint some other attorney to prosecute” if the prosecuting attorney ‘be interested,’ (i.e. has a conflict of interest). The knowing false testimony of witnesses by itself should result in a special prosecutor and a new grand jury, but that was one of many abuses of the grand jury investigating the death of Michael Brown. Sherrilyn Ifill and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has written to Judge McShane raising issues that undermine the credibility of this grand jury. In her letter (below) she urges the judge to convene a new grand jury and appoint a special prosecutor. In the 9 page letter she describes a series of abuses by McCulloch and the assistant prosecutors that “call into question both the integrity of the process and the lawfulness of the prosecutors’ conduct.” All of this, Isil concludes, demonstrates a failed grand jury and raises ethical questions about the behaviors of the prosecutors. She reminds Judge McShane that she has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor and convene a new grand jury. She asks the court to take action to “vindicate the public’s faith in the criminal justice system.”

Reaction To Police Deaths Reveals Challenge To Raise Consciousness

December 27, 2014 Ta-Nehisi Coates, www.theatlantic.com Strategize! Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality

For activists and protesters radicalized by the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, this weekend's killing may seem to pose a great obstacle. In fact, it merely points to the monumental task in front of them. The response to Garner's death, particularly, seemed to offer some hope. But the very fact that this opening originated in the most extreme case—the on-camera choking of a man for a minor offense—points to the shaky ground on which such hope took root. It was only a matter of time before some criminal shot a police officer in New York. If that's all it takes to turn Americans away from police reform, the efforts were likely doomed from the start. The idea of "police reform" obscures the task. Whatever one thinks of the past half-century of criminal-justice policy, it was not imposed on Americans by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies—the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects—are, at the very least, byproducts of democratic will. To challenge the police is to challenge the American people, and the problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that we are majoritarian pigs. When the police are brutalized by people, we are outraged because we are brutalized. By the same turn, when the police brutalize people, we are forgiving because ultimately we are really just forgiving ourselves.

This Saturday National Day of Action: Wave Of Indignation

December 10, 2014 Staff, www.millionsmarchnyc.org Resist! Eric Garner, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

This movement for justice has been dubbed a “Wave of Indignation” across the country. What started as an urban revolt of young black people in Ferguson, MO has grown into a national movement for Black lives. The entire nation is awakening to the reality of our broken criminal justice system. We cannot stop or slow down now. This Saturday, we’re taking it to the next level. We’re asking you to join everyone in the streets this weekend and #ShutItDown. It’s our civil disobedience, marching and chanting that got us this far— and we must keep going. When you hit the streets, you’re letting them know: body cameras are not enough. Blue ribbon commissions are not enough. We need broad, decisive action NOW.

Three Nights Of Protests And Aggressive Policing In Berkeley, CA

December 9, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Berkeley, Eric Garner, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Police riot, Racism

The corporate media has described protesters in Berkeley destroying property and being violent, but reports from protesters describe it as a police riot. Police have repeated trapped protesters in kettles and made mass arrests, used billy clubs aggressively to attack protesters and used smoke bombs. They describe an organized protest being turned into confused havoc as a result of the 'police riot.' Protesters have been shutting down roadways and highways. The aggressive policing is not stopping the protests. On the third night of protests highways were shutdown and people laid down in front of an Amtrak train; once again there was police kettling and more than 100 were arrested.

Ferguson: The Evils Of The Grand Jury System

November 27, 2014 Lauren Regan, www.cldc.org Educate! Ferguson, Grand Jury, Michael Brown, Police abuse, Racism

A grand jury is a secret tribunal where a citizen is forced to answer questions by a prosecutor, often against their will. They are not allowed to have an attorney in the grand jury room to advise them while the questioning takes place. There is no Judge in the grand jury room to oversee the fairness or legitimacy of the proceedings. The prosecutor alone determines what evidence will be provided to the grand jurors, and that alone forms the basis of their deliberations and their determination regarding whether a felony indictment will issue. The prosecutor becomes the grand jurors’ friend: he controls their bathroom breaks, meals, and whether they can return to their work, families, and lives.

Post Ferguson Reaching Tipping Point: No Business as Usual

November 26, 2014 Ferguson Action Team, www.fergusonaction.com Resist! Ferguson, killed by police, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

We are at a national tipping point and we are organized and ready to sustain this movement. Below is a calendar of actions for the next few days. We ask that you join us in solidarity to make it clear to the country and the world that enough is enough. Below are suggested actions from Thursday through Sunday from the Ferguson Action Team. Remember at Michael Brown's family, there will be an empty chair at the Thanksgiving table. Discuss that with your friends and family. Leave an empty chair for Michael and others missing as a result of police violence. On Saturday, turn out big and include 4.5 minutes of silence for Michael. On Sunday consider Jeremiah 6:14-15: “They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not ashamed..." And, on Monday -- a mass walkout.

Protests Across US In Response To Grand Jury Decision

November 25, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.or Resist! Ferguson, killed by police, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

Across the United States, the grand jury's decision sparked mainly peaceful protests as Americans spoke out on racial bias and police violence, issues so raw and emotional that they are often like a tinderbox waiting for a match. In New York marchers chanted "Black lives matter" as they snarled traffic in Times Square. In Chicago, demonstrators walked up Lake Shore Drive carrying banners that read "Justice for Mike Brown" - the 18-year-old who was shot and killed in Ferguson on Aug. 9 by police officer Darren Wilson. In Seattle, protesters blocked a downtown street in a "die-in" protest as they lay down on the ground. Protesters in both Boston and Seattle observed the 4.5 minutes of silence that the Brown family requested after the decision was announced, with protesters in Boston then marching from City Hall to the statehouse. Police in Ferguson used smoke canisters and trucks to force waves of violent protesters down the street away from the police building soon after sporadic gunshots were heard. Flames from a burning car rose into the night sky.

Day After Grand Jury Take To The Streets

November 25, 2014 Hands Up United DC, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Ferguson, killed by police, Michael Brown, Police abuse, Racism

Day After Verdict Rally/March -- 7:00 p.m. Mt. Vernon Square Park, Washington, DC The Hands Up Coalition DC will peacefully assemble at the Justice Department every Monday at 4:00 PM, beginning December 1, 2014 Hands Up CoalitionDC Condemns Ferguson Grand Jury Findings Calls on Justice Department to Intervene and Adopt 6 Urgent Demands November 24, 2014, Washington, D.C.—The Washington-based Hands Up CoalitionDC condemned the findings of the Ferguson Grand Jury that exonerated white Police Officer Darren Wilson for his August 9, 2014 shooting and killing of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. "The entire Grand Jury process was abused from day one in this case," said coalition spokesperson, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo. "The system is anti-black, the policies are anti-black, shooting first and asking questions later is anti-black and slandering slain black men and women in choreographed leaks to the press after these people are dead and can no longer speak for themselves is anti-black."

Ferguson Grand Jury To Announce Decision Sunday Morning

November 22, 2014 Staff, www.sparrowmedia.net Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Ferguson, Michael Brown, Racism

A St. Louis County Grand Jury returned Thursday and with them a decision whether or not to levy charges against Darren Wilson for the August 9th shooting of Michael Brown Jr.. Despite having the decision, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, for logistical purposes, has opted to announce the jurors’ conclusions on Sunday morning. Area schools have responded by announcing closures for next week, and over the next 48 hours, the media, who has once again descended upon Ferguson, MO, will repeat iterations of the same lede, variations of hysterical accounts, or ominous foreshadows of impending violence. Few will ask how locals about their desires to create a more equitable Ferguson and even fewer will provide a platform to those who already laying the foundation for that prospect. We set out to fill this void.

#DCFerguson Opposes DC Chief’s Threat Of Riot Squads Against Protests

November 22, 2014 #DCFerguson, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse

DC Police Chief Kathy Lanier announced there would be civil disturbance platoons (riot squads) and electronic surveillance units in response to the supposed threat of unrest in reaction to the grand jury decision in Ferguson. Reportedly Chief Lanier has activated 17 civil disturbance platoons and told all members of the special operations division they will be working on Sunday and Monday (there is some expectation that the grand jury decision will be announced on Sunday). She also said that special operations units that include K-9, the bomb squad and the emergency response team would be activated. Lanier has also deployed the electronic surveillance unit which has the capability of recording any protest or demonstration. This is the kind of provocation that will actually increase the chance of violence. There have been many protests in response to the killing of Michael Brown and none have been violent, none have caused any property destruction or looting. Why would Chief Lanier make such an announcement?

Dear White People: Our State Of Emergency

November 21, 2014 Dennis Trainor, www.acronymtv.wordpress.com Educate! Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse, Violence

As you know, a preemptive State of Emergency has been called in Ferguson, Missouri as the country waits to hear if officer Darren Wilson will be charged with the murder of Michael Brown. Let’s focus on another State of Emergency for a moment. Like me, you are the beneficiary of unearned white privilege. I’m not going to insult your intelligence, nor should you insult other members of this club we were born into, by cataloguing the laundry list of data that point to the clear fact that, taken as a whole, people who are or who present as white, experience privileges that are regularly denied to people who do not present as white. It is a fact. Deal with it. It is from that place of privilege that you and I will watch events unfold when the grand jury comes back with, as all indications seem to point, something less than a murder charge for another member of the white privilege club, Officer Darren Wilson.

Who Says Ferguson Can’t End Well

November 19, 2014 David Swanson, www.warisacrime.org Organize! Ferguson, Michael Brown, Nonviolence, Police abuse

We should understand that the violence in Ferguson is not new and is not limited to Ferguson. It did not begin with a particular shooting. It did not begin with any shooting. It began with a system of oppression that keeps people in misery amidst great wealth. Just as that injustice is inexcusable, so is any violence in response to it. . . courageous, disciplined, principled, and truly loving actions of those resisting injustice creatively and constructively. Such actions are not always successful and not always well-planned to the satisfaction of scholars. But they have long been far more common than is acknowledged on the television or in the history books. As AJ Muste told strikers confronted by the military "...Then I told them, in line with the strike committee's decision, that to permit ourselves to be provoked into violence would mean defeating ourselves; that our real power was in our solidarity and in our capacity to endure suffering..."

In Ferguson Justice Is What Comes After Grand Jury

November 16, 2014 Tony Messenger, www.theguardian.com Resist! Ferguson, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, police murder, Racism

What does justice look like? The answers from Ms Bynes and Mr Russell were profound. Neither one of them talked about putting Officer Wilson in jail, as much as they might think that’s a good idea. They didn’t focus on the grand jury that continues to mull whether or not the Ferguson police officer will face charges in Mr Brown’s death. They talked about children. About broken institutions. About breaking down barriers. About having a job and a reliable way to get to work that didn’t involve a car breaking down or running out of gas. As St Louis teeters on the edge of whatever is to come next, much of the talk in some segments of the community is about the grand jury, and about what might or might not happen in the streets following that fateful decision. Justice is about what comes after that. It’s about Ms Bynes driving to work in Chesterfield without having to navigate a patchwork of municipalities, most of which shouldn’t exist, that rely on traffic stops to pay their bills. It’s about her neighbors having that little extra money in their pockets to feed their children, or put gas in their cars, rather than pay fine upon fine in city court upon city court that prey upon blacks in ways most whites in the community don’t understand.

#OpFerguson: No Indictment of Officer Wilson Coming Nov. 10th

October 29, 2014 #OpFerguson, www.pastebin.com Educate! Anonymous, Ferguson, Michael Brown

On or about November 10, 2014 the Grand Jury decision will be announced. Darren Wilson will NOT be indicted on ANY charges related to the murder of Mike Brown. All local police Chiefs and jail commanders have been notified to begin preparing for major civil unrest. Governor Nixon has been notified of the impending announcement and has ordered the Missouri National Guard to begin preparations for a possible re-enstatement of the martial law that was declared at the beginning of the Ferguson protests. As additional evidence that neither the State nor Federal authorities intend any legal action against Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown, one of our sources has provided a very intriguing close up glimpse of Darren Wilson – his current where abouts and lifestyle. Darren Wilson is still in the St. Louis area and recently attended a Blues game.

Ferguson and Beyond – Next Steps to End Police Brutality

October 27, 2014 Staff, www.clearingthefogradio.org Strategize! Ferguson, Mass Incarceration, Michael Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, police murder, Racism

This edition of Clearing The FOG Radio, co-hosted by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, focuses on where the movement against police abuse is going. With the decision of the grand jury possible any day now, and the likely result being no indictment according to law enforcement leaks to the press, how should the people of Ferguson and the nation react? What would be a constructive to response for the lack of justice for Michael Brown? And, what should the movement be demanding. In the first half hour two guests who have worked in Ferguson as part of the movement for justice for Michael Brown discuss next steps, the mood of the community and how those of us outside Ferguson can help. In the second half hour, two African American activists in Washington, DC and New York City comment on the situation, not only in Ferguson but regarding police abuse nationally. In DC, Kymone Freeman has been part of the #DCFerguson coalition and in NYC, Glenn Ford long-time commentator on African American issues and editor of Black Agenda Report comments. Ford proposes that rather than "community policing" we need "community controlled policing" that includes the ability of communities to remove officers who are racist or abusive.

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