In the Ferguson case, the numero uno lie that CNN told repeatedly was that Michael Brown stuck his hands up and hollered repeatedly at the officer "hands up, don't shoot".
Millions believed that lie, contradicted by eyeball witness testimony, including US Representatives and other newsmakers.)*
.\
..................................................................................................................
Regrettably poster
Polish, you do not offer some of the key nuances that complicate this story:
1. CNN (and many other news reportage outfits) reported what they were being told by witnesses on the scene. That is what reporters do......they report the who, when, where, what....of developing stories. The key word is 'developing'. Subsequent reporting, ....and serious competent research .....indicate that the
'hands up,
don't shoot' narrative was seriously flawed. Some individuals....no one has been identified.....loudly and clamorously stated such to the gathering police, to the news media, and to the growing crowd of neighbors. And as flash crowds can do.....a falsity too hold. The growing crowd didn't know it was false. CNN, NPR, Wall Street Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch...reported....what they were being told on the scene at the time.
2. The victim appears to have been a bully, if not a thug. The video of him muscling the shop-owner to steal cigars shortly before the shooting is credible evidence of that. And subsequent witness indicated that Brown reached into the squad car to attempt to get at the officers gun. Bad things can happen in such exercises.
3. So Brown was legally and rightfully shot.
4. Regrettable, sad, and tragic.
But then it got worse. As the neighborhood assembled, first with curiosity and puzzlement, then growing anger as the false narrative of '
Don't Shoot' spread.......well, no police, no city authorities attempted in anyway to address the crowd or calm the crowd. And the fervor began to grow more strident as they saw.....in front of their very own eyes, right in the street of their neighborhood, they saw the disrespect the police showed to Brown's corpse.
5. Mind you, this is southern Illinois on a hot humid summer day. Brown is dead on the hot surfaced street. And he stays there for hours and hours ..
.over 4hours. The body began to bloat. And the crowd grew furious with their perception that is was an intentional gesture of disrespect towards a dead black neighborhood kid who they believed was wrongly shot, and disrespect towards their community.
6. And then it got out of control.
7. In my opinion, if it wasn't an incident like the Brown shooting, it was gonna happen sooner or later. As subsequent investigations revealed...this was heavily black community, policed and governed largely by whites. It was discovered that the police preyed upon the black population with nickle/dime traffic violations as a strategy and tactic to fund the city government. Way way disproportionately than to whites, to other communities, to the national averages. Get a ticket or two or three that you can't fight in court because you can't get off from work ........ and you get, ummmm, annoyed? Or friggin' pissed.
Michael Brown bloating in the hot sun for hours was only.....only.......the
in-the-moment spark to the powder keg.
*(btw, you say that U.S Representatives and other "newsmakers" witnessed the shooting of Brown.
OK, who? Name names, and then give sourcing for your assertion.)
..................................................................................................................................................................................
In short, poster
Polish Prince, I offer that you do not know what you are talking about when it comes to the Ferguson riots. No disrespect intended.
