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Topic: Ferguson Police tighten ranks -"thin blue line"
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Los Angeles Times
Nation Now
The nation's news, events, people and culture

Robbery matters little in shooting death of Michael Brown, experts say


Policing experts say robbery details change little about the Ferguson, Mo., shooting of teen Michael Brown


Do robbery details alter circumstances of shooting of Michael Brown? Experts weigh in
August 15, 2014, 2:29 PM


The fact that Michael Brown was a suspect in a strong-arm robbery that happened moments before he died should do little to quiet critics who have wondered why a Ferguson, Mo., police officer shot and killed the unarmed 18-year-old last week, law enforcement experts said..

On Friday, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released surveillance footage and a police report that revealed Brown was suspected of stealing a box of cigars from a local convenience store shortly before he was gunned down Saturday.

“I think the longer they wait, the more they are calling into question the legitimacy of the shooting.”
- James Lasley, professor of criminology, on the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department response to shooting


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But in a second news conference, Jackson said Officer Darren Wilson did not know Brown was a suspect in the robbery before approaching him. Brown was stopped for impeding traffic, police have said.

“If the robbery in any way caused the initial contact it has relevance … if it didn’t, it has none,” said Wayne Fisher, a professor with the Rutgers University Police Institute in New Jersey. “The use of deadly force in this situation will be authorized if the office reasonably believed his life was in danger, that question does not appear to be directly related to whether or not Brown was a suspect in a robbery.”


l Related
Officer who shot Michael Brown didn't know he was a robbery suspectNation NowOfficer who shot Michael Brown didn't know he was a robbery suspect.

While Jackson said he released the information regarding the robbery due to public records requests filed by reporters, other experts suggested the information could be used to sully Brown’s name and in some way justify the fatal shooting.


“The officers did not know that he was a suspect. But he was a suspect, so the only thing I can think of is they are trying to come up with some more evidence that has not been released yet of his dangerousness,” said James Lasley, a professor of criminology at Cal State Fullerton and former advisor to the Los Angeles Police Department. “Maybe they’re trying to separate the two events, because obviously a strong-arm robbery is not going to justify the use of deadly force.”

Eugene O'Donnell, a former district attorney in New York City, said police may have released the robbery details to suggest Brown was acting erratically on the day of the shooting. While the police officer may have stopped Brown for the minor traffic violation, Brown may have been thinking the officer knew about the robbery.
Los Angeles Times
"Obviously the cop's reaction is not affected, but what could be affected is [Brown's] reaction to the cop," said O'Donnell, who now serves as a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Fisher and Lasley questioned the Ferguson Police Department’s resistance to releasing information, saying the delays likely led to the growing skepticism and anger in the St. Louis County community where clashes between police and citizens amid clouds of tear gas have been the norm for the past week.

“I think the longer they wait, the more they are calling into question the legitimacy of the shooting,” Lasley said. “Usually, in a shooting that is fully justified, [the police] are usually the first to go to the media and show that it was. The fact that they hesitated adds to the whole mystery of the situation. That’s very odd.”

Fisher said law enforcement in the area must do a better job of updating the public as to the status of the case if they hope to repair the already strained, if not destroyed, relationships between police officers and residents in Ferguson.

“There needs to be clear communication as to what happened and that communication needs to take place as soon as the information has been accurately compiled,” Fisher said. “If police officers are going to be authorized to use deadly force, then going forward, there needs to be public disclosure about the use of that authority.”

O'Donnell also said Jackson might want to recuse himself from future press conferences, as he is the face of the agency the community is railing against.

In short, O'Donnell said, residents and protesters are unlikely to believe anything Jackson says.

“You’re in a delicate time when you’re releasing sensitive information and it needs to be done as objectively and comprehensively as possible," he said. "It’s perfectly understandable in human nature that the chief is going to try and portray his agency in as favorable a light as he can."

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for breaking news


Last edited by untanglingwebs on Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:00 am; edited 2 times in total
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:19 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

As I watched the Press Conference of the Ferguson Police Chief, I felt it was obvious that he was attempting to rehabilitate his officer involved in the shooting of Michael Brown. Of the 53 Ferguson Police Officers, only 3 are black. Yet Chief Jackson made sure he had a black female officer displayed prominently behind him.

He stated repeatedly that the investigation into the shooting was not being handled by his office, yet he spoke about how badly the officer felt about the incident. He praised the officer as kind, gentle and an excellent officer.

He then released the video which showed Michael brown as a bully when he stole some Swisher Sweet mini cigars at a convenience store. Now the story varies depending on which story you read. The Chief first said they were unsure it was Michael Brown in the video. You see the individual grab more than once and leave with something in one hand.

First reports were one 99cent box of Swisher Sweets, followed by grabbing additional boxes. Now the reports claim it was a nearly $50.00 box of cigars. That would be about 50 boxes. Could that be carried in one hand?

The Chief announced the robbery was unrelated to the shooting. That created anger among the reporters, who recognized this tactic as a "blame the victim". I was later surprised to find out the Chief later returned to the press and announced the officer was aware of the robbery and that Brown may be a suspect. He then produced a timeline.

The robbery was reported while the office was dealing with a sick call. Brown was assassinated in a 3 minute window of their timeline and backup appeared within 4 minutes.

Is it any wonder that many are calling for the removal of this inept Police Chief?
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:38 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Officer who shot Michael Brown didn't know he was a robbery suspect

by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Matt Pearce, Tina Susman contact the reporters

This article is related to: Crime, Jay Nixon

The fatal encounter between a police officer and an unarmed young man began when the officer stopped the man because he was walking in the street, Ferguson’s police chief said Friday in a revelation that added to public anger and confusion over Michael Brown’s death..

The disclosure came hours after police released a report identifying Brown, 18, as a suspect in a robbery that occurred minutes before Brown was shot dead by Officer Darren Wilson, who was publicly identified Friday after nearly a week of public pressure.

The Brown family’s attorney accused Police Chief Thomas Jackson of character assassination for tying Brown to the crime.

“He chose to talk about something to darken up this man’s past,” attorney Anthony Gray said at news conference. “Let me be real clear to everyone here,” he added. “This family has never said Michael Brown was a perfect kid.”

Whatever Brown did, the family’s attorney and many residents who have taken part in protests and marches said he should not have ended up dead in the street, and they said the outcome spoke to racism in a police department that is overwhelmingly white. Brown was African American.

“I think it’s a coverup, basically,” said Jessica Holmes, who lives in Ferguson and who like many locals followed the flurry of news conferences that took place throughout the day, beginning with Jackson’s.

The renewed skepticism was echoed by others throughout the day and threatened to derail the relative calm that settled over the area Thursday, after Gov. Jay Nixon put Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson in charge of Ferguson’s security.

Angry protests punctuated by police in military gear throwing tear gas were replaced by an almost festive atmosphere Thursday night. By Friday afternoon, officials and the Brown family’s attorney were appealing for continued calm, even as they expressed anger and bewilderment at the latest turn of events.

“Do not take the bait from anybody who is trying to character assassinate Mike,” Gray said. “Don’t take that and begin to riot....This family is not for that.”

At a separate news conference, Jackson described Wilson, who has been placed on administrative leave, as a distinguished officer. He said the policeman was devastated by what had occurred and said Wilson suffered a swollen face during his encounter with Brown.

“He never intended for any of this to happen,” said Jackson, who also said that his “heart goes out” to the Brown family. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

Nobody answered the door of Wilson’s red brick house Friday. “He’s not there,” said one police officer parked nearby, who was not authorized to speak to the media. “You're probably wasting your time if you're hoping for him to come back,” another officer said. “Let me ask you: Would you stay there?”

According to Jackson, Wilson had just finished responding to a call that was unrelated to the robbery when he came upon Brown and a second man. Wilson stopped them because they were “walking down the middle of the street,” Jackson said.

After the news conference, the chief told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Wilson was aware that cigars had been taken in the robbery of a store nearby, but did not know Brown and the other man, Dorian Johnson, might be suspects. Jackson said Wilson then saw cigars in Brown’s hand and realized it might be connected.


The fact that the store incident came out is good as well as the fact that the report stated that there was no connection between the initial stop incident and the robbery. What's happening is the entire series of events is being made known. There will be a lot more coming out over time as...

Police have said that when Wilson tried to get out of his vehicle, Brown pushed him back into the car, then entered it and began fighting for the officer’s gun. A shot was fired inside the car. Wilson and Brown got out of the vehicle, and the fatal shooting occurred, police have said.

Witnesses, including Johnson, say that Wilson made the first move toward Brown. Johnson said the officer ordered the two to “get the eff onto the sidewalk,” then grabbed Brown around the neck. Another witness, Piaget Crenshaw, said she saw police chase Brown. “They shot him and he fell,” Crenshaw said.

Police released a copy of a police report on a call that was received regarding a strong-arm robbery that occurred at a convenience store minutes before the shooting. Portions of the incident were captured by surveillance cameras. Jackson did not identify Brown as a suspect in that incident, but the police report did.

According to the report, Brown and Johnson entered a convenience store on Aug. 9. It said information from three surveillance cameras, a clerk and a patron in the store, whose names were redacted, indicated that Brown handed a box of cigars to Johnson.

As Johnson set the cigars on the counter, “Brown turns away from the counter with another box of … cigars and walks towards the exit door,” the report says. It goes on to describe an altercation between Brown and someone who came out from behind the counter and “stands between Brown and the exit door.”

“Brown aggressively pulls” the person toward him “and then immediately pushes him back into a display rack,” the report said. “Brown towers over” the person, “appearing to intimidate him,” it said. According to the report, Brown then followed Johnson out the door. Johnson was not charged with a crime, Jackson said.

When still photographs of the robbery were shown on a television at a nearby McDonald's, viewers started comparing details of the suspect's clothing to what Brown was wearing when he was shot and killed, arguing that Brown wasn't the man shown in the pictures.

Outside, the Rev. Erick Winston, 42, a minister in Ferguson, said he had brought his daughter to Jackson’s news conference “just to see how the process goes, so that the facts come out.”

Of the robbery revelation, Winston said, “Even if he was a robbery suspect, he was still unarmed. The procedure [for police dealing with robbery suspects] is to call for backup. How this ended was totally uncalled for, regardless of whether he was a suspect, and if he did it at all, we don't know.”

Local authorities are investigating the case, as are the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department.

Johnson, the Highway Patrol captain, offered his own criticism of the police department’s release of the information, expressing concern that it had given out details of the robbery without answering questions about it or Brown’s alleged involvement.

“These are two separate issues,” Johnson said of the robbery and Brown’s death. “I’m not going to say one justifies the other. I think if we’re going to give answers, we need not give hints. We need to say it.”

He and Nixon appeared before the media and an impassioned crowd of citizens for a news conference that exposed the simmering anger and distrust among many residents.

“We have children and families that we love. If we cannot trust our police officers, who can we trust?” Michelle Foster, who lives in neighboring Florissant, asked Nixon.

Nixon said people should look to Johnson, who grew up in the community and who has been on the streets reaching out to angry residents.

Foster was skeptical.

“This distrust has been going on for so long it's going to take many years” to rebuild, she said later.

Another resident, Curtis Royston III, expressed doubts in Johnson’s ability to lead Ferguson through the turmoil unless he could guarantee an improvement over police in disseminating information to the public.

Otherwise, Royston predicted more violence because “we’re back where we were before.”

Nixon was asked whether he thought heavily armed Ferguson police had mishandled the situation after Brown’s shooting. He said no. But he described the community reaction as “an appropriate outpouring of angst,” and said the focus should be on how and why Brown died.

He also said that the investigation would take time.

“I think there are going to be some bumps along this road to justice,” Nixon said. “I think there are going to be some moments of angst between now and the finish line.”

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

matt.pearce@latimes.com

tina.susman@latimes.com

Hennessy-Fiske and Pearce reported from Ferguson, Susman from New York. Times staff writer Maya Srikrishnan in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:51 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The strained relationship between the community and the Ferguson Police is evident, especially since the FBI has reported that 85% of all arrests in Ferguson were African American by a 97% white police force. After the show of force and the billowing clouds of tear gas that struck residents in their own back yards, the Governor was forced to adopt new methods to stop the violence and unrest.

In my opinion, Chief Jackson did more harm when he blatantly used his first press conference to build a basis of criminality for Brown as he attempted to rehabilitate his officer. Jackson alleged he released the video of the robbery because of FOIA requests. Reporters later claimed no such requests as they were unaware of the incident. It appears suspect that Jackson would release a 12 to 15 page incident report of the robbery with no suspect names and yet did not release the officer's incident report of the shooting. That report under Missouri law is public record. This lack of transparency only fuels suspicion of a cover-up.

Does the one act of a robbery under $50.00 justify what the three witnesses describe as an assassination. Are the police, under Chief Jackson, attempting to divide the community more and stop the momentum of community outrage that the whole nation has been watching.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:09 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

An MSNBC report revealed how in 2009, the police beat a man severely and then charged him with property damage because he bled on their uniforms. Now the Ferguson Police are attempting to elicit sympathy for the shooting involved officer by reporting he had a swollen face.

Already the Ferguson Police Union is involved. Attorney Karen Desoto descried in an interview how "stories change after the depositions with the police union".

Professor Eugene O'Donnell from John Jay College, described how the Chef was only willing to give up only information that was beneficial to his department. This is not place to defend the officer, said O'Donnell, and he indicated this information should be coming through an official that was further removed from the incident.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:23 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Under what circumstances is an officer justified in shooting an unarmed suspect? When is there a compelling rationale to use deadly force? Who initiated the incident? Was Brown reacting because he believed the officer was aware of the robbery? When a suspect demonstrates submission, is there any justification for deadly force? Can an officer's "State of Mind" be considered when a suspect surrenders and poses no immediate threat?

The bias of the Ferguson Police Chef in his press conferences only injected the community with more mistrust and anger. New incidents of rock throwing and other expressions of anger had to be resolved last night . There were reports of police protecting the market where the robbery occurred for fear of harm to the store and it's employees.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:32 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

After the release of the robbery report, but no shooting incident report, the Brown family's attorneys appeared to be in disbelief as the held a press conference.

Attorney Anthony Gray pointed out the family never said Brown was a perfect kid and they had indicated they had to push him and work with him. Gray pointed out that the only thing that mattered is the few minutes before the shooting. Witnesses say he had his hands up in the universal position of surrender, said Gray, and bullets were pumped into his body. Race doesn't matter stated Gray, he surrendered and he was killed.

The attorneys described the Chief's decision and timing on the release of information about the robbery as a strategic denigration of Brown a to divert attention from the real issue.nd character assassination. A relative of the family angrily denounced the move as "smoke and mirrors"
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:47 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The autopsy has been completed, but the Brown family attorney's are refusing to release it. They plan a second autopsy and have asked the Department of Justice for an in-depth autopsy.

The attorney's stressed that "hardened criminals", even those with far worse crimes, are allowed to surrender and are taken into custody. They used Saddam Hussein as an example.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:52 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Professor Dorian Warren of Columbia University called the Ferguson Police Chief "incompetent" and the press releases "bizarre". Warren indicated the Chief miscalculated the response of the community nd indicated the polkice force was sub-par. One cannot trust these local police to serve ustice, said Warren. He described the Ferguson police as a "tribal government" that was cloing ranks and using the narrative of a gentle officer and a violent victim.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:59 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The media is indicating this Chief and his handling of the incident is a case study in how not to deal with a racially charged police shooting incident. There seems to be agreement that the Ferguson Police need a PR person or a better PR person.

There have been reflections on the racial unrest of the 50's and 60's. Kent State and the killing of 4 students has resurfaced. Some media has gone so far as revive Tiannemin Square.

Since the robbery was not a Capital Crime, the shooting has been embellished and has further polarized the community. Can either side accept a resolution of the case? Most media appears to view the Police Chief's press conference as a desperate attempt to close his ranks and rehabilitate his force.

For many, the tactic worked. A I went through nearly 1200 comments from the Los Angeles Times articles, I was struck by a number of racially charged comments condemning Brown.

Indeed I went to lunch at the White Horse and got thrown into a violent and bitter discussion on this issue. The first comment from one patron was "turns out your boy wasn't so pure". Out of line since I hadn't been there in at least 6 days and hadn't discussed it with hm. As Fox News blasted Brown on the TV above, another patron argued with me about facts not yet revealed in the case. and defended the shooting.

Somehow the discussion turned to the opinion that Obama should not ever discuss racially based incidents. When I pointed out to the individual making these statements that he hated Obama, he just screamed I was right and got more abusive on the subject. Hard to take seriously a person who wanted to find a way to enforce restricted deed covenants blocking blacks from moving into his Mundy Township neighborhood. Tried to tell him he was over 50 years too late.

I have got to find a new place to socialize.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:12 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

As I watched the Highway Patrol Captain Ronald Johnson in his press conference, the ineptitude of Chief Jackson became even more apparent. After having the handling of the situation removed from him after the show of military style force, Jackson failed to include Captain Johnson or Governor Jay Nixon in his decision to release the robbery tape.

Captain Johnson stated that neither he or the Governor had seen the tape or any documents. The Captain stated his plans were to review the tape before he went to the area of protest to discuss it with the protesters. Captain Johnson wanted a policy of inclusion and the prevention of further polarization and violence.

Brown's friend, Dorian Johnson, will not be charged. His attorney and spokesperson, is former St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. who also questioned the timing of the press release. Bosley called it "grabbing at straws". "Their whole press conference was a disaster and unprofessional", said Bosley. Bosley stated that at the end of the day the issue would be about whether the officer used excessive force to kill Michael Brown.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:41 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The time line as given:

11:48 to noon the officer was on a sick call and an ambulance was present.

12.01 the office encountered Michael Brown and Dorian Jackson as they were .
en-route to the the Quick Tripstore

12.04 Brown is dead when a back up officer arrives
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:47 am 
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twotap
F L I N T O I D

11 reply's (well 12 if you count mine) all in the span of 3 hours and all by the original poster. Rolling Eyes Laughing

_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:04 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Daily Kos staff

.
Fri Aug 15, 2014 at 09:24 AM PDT.

Ferguson police beat a man and then charged him with 'destruction of property' for bloody uniforms
by
Jen Hayden .



The Ferguson, Missouri police once wrongly arrested a man, beat him, then charged him with destruction of property. What property? His blood got on the uniforms of the four officers involved in his beating:

“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.
To make matters worse, they had the wrong man.

The booking officer had no other reason to hold Davis, who ended up in Ferguson only because he missed the exit for St. Charles and then pulled off the highway because the rain was so heavy he could not see to drive. The cop who had pulled up behind him must have run his license plate and assumed he was that other Henry Davis. Davis said the cop approached his vehicle, grabbed his cellphone from his hand, cuffed him and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car, without a word of explanation.
The police later said, in a civil court deposition, that there was no blood. And the camera recording the cell malfunctioned.

The contradictions between the complaint and the depositions apparently are what prompted the prosecutor to drop the “property damage” allegation. The prosecutor also dropped a felony charge of assault on an officer that had been lodged more than a year after the incident and shortly after Davis filed his civil suit.
Read the full account at The Daily Beast. The lawsuit filings can be viewed here. .


.

Originally posted to Scout Finch on Fri Aug 15, 2014 at 09:24 AM PDT.

Also republished by Daily Kos.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:14 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The Daily beast
U.S. News

08.15.14

The Day Ferguson Cops Were Caught in a Bloody Lie

The officers got the wrong man, but charged him anyway—with getting his blood on their uniforms. How the Ferguson PD ran the town where Michael Brown was gunned down.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.

“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.

The address is the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department, where a 52-year-old welder named Henry Davis was taken in the predawn hours on that date. He had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number.

“I said, ‘I told you guys it wasn’t me,’” Davis later testified.

He recalled the booking officer saying, “We have a problem.”

The booking officer had no other reason to hold Davis, who ended up in Ferguson only because he missed the exit for St. Charles and then pulled off the highway because the rain was so heavy he could not see to drive. The cop who had pulled up behind him must have run his license plate and assumed he was that other Henry Davis. Davis said the cop approached his vehicle, grabbed his cellphone from his hand, cuffed him and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car, without a word of explanation.

But the booking officer was not ready just to let Davis go, and proceeded to escort him to a one-man cell that already had a man in it asleep on the lone bunk. Davis says that he asked the officer if he could at least have one of the sleeping mats that were stacked nearby.

”He said I wasn’t getting one,” Davis said.

Davis balked at being a second man in a one-man cell.

“Because it’s 3 in the morning,” he later testified. “Who going to sleep on a cement floor?”

The booking officer summoned a number of fellow cops. One opened the cell door while another suddenly charged, propelling Davis inside and slamming him against the back wall.

“I told the police officers there that I didn’t do nothing, ‘Why is you guys doing this to me?’” Davis testified. “They said, ‘OK, just lay on the ground and put your hands behind your back.’”

Davis said he complied and that a female officer straddled and then handcuffed him. Two other officers crowded into the cell.

“They started hitting me,” he testified. “I was getting hit and I just covered up.”

The other two stepped out and the female officer allegedly lifted Davis’ head as the cop who had initially pushed him into the cell reappeared.

“He ran in and kicked me in the head,” Davis recalled. “I almost passed out at that point… Paramedics came… They said it was too much blood, I had to go to the hospital.”

A patrol car took the bleeding Davis to a nearby emergency room. He refused treatment, demanding somebody first take his picture.

“I wanted a witness and proof of what they done to me,” Davis said.

He was driven back to the jail, where he was held for several days before he posted $1,500 bond on four counts of “property damage.” Police Officer John Beaird had signed complaints swearing on pain of perjury that Davis had bled on his uniform and those of three fellow officers.

The remarkable turned inexplicable when Beaird was deposed in a civil case that Davis subsequently brought seeking redress and recompense.


Schottel figures the courts might take the problems of the Ferguson Police Department as more than de minimis as a result of the protests sparked when an officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown.

“After Mr. Davis was detained, did you have any blood on you?” asked Davis’ lawyer, James Schottel.

“No, sir,” Beaird replied.

Schottel showed Beaird a copy of the “property damage” complaint.

“Is that your signature as complainant?” the lawyer asked.

“It is, sir,” the cop said.

“And what do you allege that Mr. Davis did unlawfully in this one?” the lawyer asked.

“Transferred blood to my uniform while Davis was resisting,” the cop said.

“And didn’t I ask you earlier in this deposition if Mr. Davis got blood on your uniform?”

“You did, sir.”

“And didn’t you respond no?”

“Correct. I did.”

Beaird seemed to be either admitting perjury or committing it. The depositions of other officers suggested that the “property damage” charges were not just bizarre, but trumped up.

“There was no blood on my uniform,” said Police Officer Christopher Pillarick.

And then there was Officer Michael White, the one accused of kicking Davis in the head, an allegation he denies, as his fellow officers deny striking Davis. White had reported suffering a bloody nose in the mayhem.

“Did you see Mr. Davis bleeding at all?” the lawyer, Schottel, asked.

“I did not,” White replied.

“Did Mr. Davis get any blood on you while you were in the cell?” Schottel asked.

“No,” White said.

The contradictions between the complaint and the depositions apparently are what prompted the prosecutor to drop the “property damage” allegation. The prosecutor also dropped a felony charge of assault on an officer that had been lodged more than a year after the incident and shortly after Davis filed his civil suit.

Davis suggested in his testimony that if the police really thought he had assaulted an officer he would have been charged back when he was jailed.

“They would have filed those charges right then and there, because that’s a major felony,” he noted.

Indisputable evidence of what transpired in the cell might have been provided by a surveillance camera, but it turned out that the VHS video was recorded at 32 times normal speed.

“It was like a blur,” Schottel told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “You couldn’t see anything.”

The blur proved to be from 12 hours after the incident anyway. The cops had saved the wrong footage after Schottel asked them to preserve it.

Schottel got another unpleasant surprise when he sought the use-of-force history of the officers involved. He learned that before a new chief took over in 2010 the department had a surprising protocol for non-fatal use-of-force reports.

“The officer himself could complete it and give it to the supervisor for his approval,” the prior chief, Thomas Moonier, testified in a deposition. “I would read it. It would be placed in my out basket, and my secretary would probably take it and put it with the case file.”

No copy was made for the officer’s personnel file.

“Everything involved in an incident would generally be with the police report,” Moonier said. “I don’t know what they maintain in personnel files.”

“Who was in charge of personnel files, of maintaining them?” Schottel asked.

“I have no idea,” Moonier said. “I believe City Hall, but I don’t know.”

Schottel focused on the date of the incident.

“On September 20th, 2009, was there any way to identify any officers that were subject of one or more citizens’ complaints?” he asked.

“Not to my knowledge,” Moonier said.

“Was there any way to identify any officers who had completed several use-of-force reports?”

“I don’t recall.”

But however lax the department’s system and however contradictory the officers’ testimony, a federal magistrate ruled that the apparent perjury about the “property damage” charges was too minor to constitute a violation of due process and that Davis’ injuries were de minimis—too minor to warrant a finding of excessive force. Never mind that a CAT scan taken after the incident confirmed that he had suffered a concussion.

Schottel has appealed and expects to argue the case in December. He will contend that perjury is perjury however minor the charge and note that both the NFL and Major League Baseball have learned to consider a concussion a serious injury.

Schottel figures the courts might take the problems of the Ferguson Police Department as more than de minimis as a result of the protests sparked when an officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown on the afternoon of Aug. 9.

“Your chances on appeal are going up,” a fellow lawyer told him.

At least one witness has said that Brown was shot in the back and then in the chest and head as he turned toward the officer with his hands raised.

“I said, ‘Well, that doesn’t surprise me,’” Schottel told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “I said I already know about Ferguson, nothing new can faze me about Ferguson.”

Schottel has also deposed the new chief, Thomas Jackson, who took over in 2010. Jackson testified that he has instituted a centralized system whereby all complaints lodged against cops by citizens or supervisors go through him and are assigned a number in an internal affairs log. Schottel views Jackson as “not a bad guy,” someone who has been trying to make positive change.

“He wants to do right, but it was such a mess,” Schottel said Wednesday.

Jackson has seemed less than progressive as he delayed identifying the officer involved in the shooting for fear it would place him and his family in danger. Jackson would only say the officer is white and has been on the job for six years. This means that for his first two and most formative years the officer might have been writing his own force reports and that none of them went into his file.

“It’s hard to get people to clean things up, especially if they’re used to doing things a certain way,” Schottel said.


On Friday, police finally identified the officer as Darren Wilson, who is said to have no disciplinary record, as such records are kept in Ferguson. We already know that he started out at a time when it was accepted for a Ferguson cop to charge somebody with property damage for bleeding on his uniform and later saying there was no blood on him at all.
Post Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:19 am 
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