The Washington Post fact checked the "Hands up, don't shoot" rhetoric from top to bottom and found it patently false.
It then proceeded to track the origins to people who for one reason or another lazily chose to believe it, or simply chose to repeat what they heard from their friends, members in their community or social media. Others still felt pressured to stick to the false narrative. That is until the DOJ report was released nearly three weeks ago:
The rhetoric then permeated to Washington, where members of the Congressional Black Caucus made the now infamous and misleading gesture with their hands in the air, both on the House Floor and on the steps of the Capitol Building:
However, if that weren't enough, the liberal media chose to further the lie when members of a panel on CNN made the gesture in a live broadcast. Other media outlets such as MSNBC chose to perpetuate the lie in the same manner:
Then preceding a football game in November of last year, St. Louis Rams players Stedman Bailey, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, Kenny Britt and Tavon Austin came out of the tunnel making the same gesture in solidarity with Micheal Brown with their hands up in the air:
Using facts and the DOJ report, the WaPo finally puts this myth to bed once and for all:
Hands up don t shoot did not happen in Ferguson - The Washington Post
It then proceeded to track the origins to people who for one reason or another lazily chose to believe it, or simply chose to repeat what they heard from their friends, members in their community or social media. Others still felt pressured to stick to the false narrative. That is until the DOJ report was released nearly three weeks ago:
Some witnesses who claimed they saw Brownâs hands raised had testimonies that were inconsistent with physical and forensic evidence. Some admitted to federal investigators they felt pressured to retell the narrative that was being spread after Brownâs shooting. Others recanted their initial testimonies saying they had heard it through media reports or via social media. A few witnesses said Brown had his hands out to his side with his palms up, as if saying âWhat?â Others said Brownâs hands were not raised, as he was charging at Wilson. A few said Brownâs hands were âballed up.â
Investigators narrowed down the âhands upâ claim to a witness â Witness 128 â who had told his family and neighbors his inaccurate version of events as crowds gathered minutes and hours after the shooting, the report says. Another witness could not confirm what she saw because of her poor vision, but she heard a man running around the apartments along the street where Wilson shot Brown. The man was saying something to the effect of, âThe police shot my friend and his hands were up.â The witness said that âquickly became the narrative on the street, and to her frustration, people used it both as an excuse to riot and to create a âblock partyâ atmosphere.â
A key passage from the report:
Investigators tracked down several individuals who, via the aforementioned media, claimed to have witnessed Wilson shooting Brown as Brown held his hands up in clear surrender. All of these purported witnesses, upon being interviewed by law enforcement, acknowledged that they did not actually witness the shooting, but rather repeated what others told them in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. ⌠Witness accounts suggesting that Brown was standing still with his hands raised in an unambiguous signal of surrender when Wilson shot Brown are inconsistent with the physical evidence, are otherwise not credible because of internal inconsistencies, or are not credible because of inconsistencies with other credible evidence. In contrast, Wilsonâs account of Brownâs actions, if true, would establish that the shootings were not objectively unreasonable under the relevant Constitutional standards governing an officerâs use of deadly force.
The rhetoric then permeated to Washington, where members of the Congressional Black Caucus made the now infamous and misleading gesture with their hands in the air, both on the House Floor and on the steps of the Capitol Building:
However, if that weren't enough, the liberal media chose to further the lie when members of a panel on CNN made the gesture in a live broadcast. Other media outlets such as MSNBC chose to perpetuate the lie in the same manner:
Then preceding a football game in November of last year, St. Louis Rams players Stedman Bailey, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, Kenny Britt and Tavon Austin came out of the tunnel making the same gesture in solidarity with Micheal Brown with their hands up in the air:
Using facts and the DOJ report, the WaPo finally puts this myth to bed once and for all:
The Pinocchio Test
Catchy phrases like âHands up, donât shoot,â âBlack lives matter,â âan unarmed black person is killed every 28 hoursâ (which we have fact checked) have resulted from protests over the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. They are emotional messages spread easily, like the âWe are 99 percentâ mantra of Occupy Wall Street.
We care about facts, how theyâre used and the context in which the facts are portrayed. In this case, it is important for us to note that the initial âHands up, donât shootâ chant after Brownâs shooting has evolved into a message that is no longer connected solely to the Ferguson event. A series of other fatal shootings by police occurred following Brownâs death, and the âHands up, donât shootâ came to symbolize the need to hold law enforcement accountable. And the DOJ report on Ferguson Police Department confirmed the agency systemically profiled black residents.
But we also care about setting the record straight. Investigators have overwhelmingly rejected witness accounts that Brown had his hands up in a surrender before being shot execution-style. The DOJ has concluded Wilson did not know whether Brown was armed, acted out of self-defense and was justified in killing Brown. The majority of witnesses told federal investigators that the initial claims that Brownâs hands were up were not accurate. âHands up, donât shootâ did not happen in Brownâs killing, and it is a characterization that deserves Four Pinocchios. Politicians should step carefully if they try to highlight this expression in the future.
Hands up don t shoot did not happen in Ferguson - The Washington Post
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