6 times a gun was fired at the body of a child in broad daylight. That child then laid in the street for hours in full view of the community. This wasn't by mistake but by design. This was a lynching sans tree.
The witness accounts are true.
His mother asked "How did he die?"
Dr. Baden: Fatal shot to the head.
His mother asked "Was he in pain?"
Dr. Baden: He did not suffer.
Mike Brown's mother's final question: "What else do we need to give them to arrest the killer of my child?"
Lack of transparency is the biggest issue in the situation for me. If the information on Mike's murder had been available sooner it would have calmed the community at large and squelched the family's concerns that a coverup may be taking place. At this point its clear that something unsavory is happening. The fatal gun shot wound was known the night of the murder. Additionally, whether or not Mike was in pain was also knowable from day one based on the injuries to his body. The issue here is that this information wasn't released.
Democracy is a contract. This contract is between the Governed and those that the people agree to put into authority over themselves. The Democracy contract requires transparency. The people need to know what the Government is doing because the Government works for the people. The Democratic model is "of the people for the people." Without the people, there is no government. Without transparency there can be no trust.
There is no scientific reason for why 95% of the autopsy findings weren't immediately available.
How Mike died was available the night he died.
When asked why the officer hadn't been arrested Dr Baden replied "Who gets arrested is a political question not a forensic science question."
Now let's talk about some context.
Historically, Black people have been aggressively policed by law enforcement. The idea that Black and Brown bodies are inherently criminal is deeply rooted in the systematic oppression of minority groups that has plagued the supposedly free democracy that is the American Experiment. This aggressive policing includes a presence that is always adversarial in nature and assumes that the Black body has committed, is going to commit, or is currently committing some offense against the state. Because the state has always, until the election of President Obama, been controlled by White men and largely still is the state is actually representative of White men. The creation of this Nation was for White men and offenses against the state can be perceived as offenses against Whiteness. Despite the continued desire to erase the effects of White patriarchal capitalist oppression as the culprit for the nation's ills, the fact remains that this system is alive and well.
As a result of aggressive policing, Black people are not generally in interested in engaging police. Black people don't approach police officers. Black boys are socialized at a young age that the Police are dangerous, not to be trusted, and that their job of "protecting and serving" doesn't extend to them. Black boys are told by their Black fathers how to NOT get shot by the Police. Black boys are taught how NOT to be perceived as aggressive, argumentative, rude, or threatening. The mere idea that a Black boy was aggressive towards a police officer AND tried to take the officer's gun is contrary to the historical precedent. This just isn't the behavior of a Black boy.
The autopsy showed that he was shot in the apex of the head. This means that at 6 feet 4 inches tall, he had to have been kneeling in some sort of position to surrender as was also stated by eye witnesses. The only way someone can be shot from the top of their head with the trajectory of the bullet traveling down is that they are lower than the position of the gun. Additionally, there was no gun powder residue on the skin indicating that the gun was a minimum 2 feet away from Mike Brown's head. For Mike Brown to have been shot in the head from above while standing, Officer Wilson had to have been extraordinarily tall OR Mike Brown had to have been kneeling as the eye witnesses said. Even in military operations, a surrendering individual is taken into custody. We do not summarily execute people who are surrendering. For Americans, we insure due process through the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. We ALSO do not execute someone for something that isn't a capitol crime.
If Timothy McVay wasn't executed until he was tried and appealed his conviction after killing over 100 people in Oklahoma, tell me why Mike Brown wasn't given the same consideration?
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