Washington Post finds Darren Wilson guilty by association
Attacks prior police force racial problems in a different town and his family’s legal problems, none of which involved Wilson.
The Washington Post has convicted Police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Michael Brown, of guilt by association with a former troubled police force in a different town in a prior job than the one he held in Ferguson, MO, and of having parents who were in trouble with the law.
Seriously.
There is nothing, zero, nada, in the WaPo story linked below that shows Darren Wilson ever did anything wrong himself. In fact, to the extent his own conduct is even mentioned, it’s in the context of staying out of trouble.
But that does not stop WaPo from trashing Wilson by association.
Here’s an excerpt on that prior police department from Darren Wilson’s first job was on a troubled police force disbanded by authorities:
The small city of Jennings, Mo., had a police department so troubled, and with so much tension between white officers and black residents, that the city council finally decided to disband it. Everyone in the Jennings police department was fired. New officers were brought in to create a credible department from scratch.
That was three years ago. One of the officers who worked in that department, and lost his job along with everyone else, was a young man named Darren Wilson.
Some of the Jennings officers reapplied for their jobs, but Wilson got a job in the police department in the nearby city of Ferguson…..
What he found in Jennings, however, was a mainly white department mired in controversy and notorious for its fraught relationship with residents, especially the African American majority. It was not an ideal place to learn how to police. Officials say Wilson kept a clean record without any disciplinary action.
Why would WaPo focus its story on racial problems with the police department in a different town in a prior job when Wilson himself is not accused by WaPo of participating or doing anything wrong?
WaPo goes into great detail on another shooting of a black women by a Jennings police officer, with no claim Wilson was involved in any way. Just the opposite, WaPo, deep down in the story admits:
Robert Orr, the former Jennings police chief who retired in 2010, said of Wilson: “He was a good officer with us. There was no disciplinary action.”
The entire tale of Jennings and the shooting of the black woman is meant to smear Wilson as a racist by association, which is precisely how the media is playing the WaPo story.
Then WaPo really gets nasty, trashing Wilson’s family and upbringing, although again WaPo admits at the end that Wilson emerged wanting to help people:
Wilson has had some recent personal turmoil: Last year, he petitioned the court seeking a divorce from his wife, Ashley Nicole Wilson, and they formally split in November, records show….
Wilson was born in Texas in 1986 to Tonya and John Wilson, and he had a sister, Kara. His parents divorced in 1989, when he was 2 or 3 years old.
His mother then married Tyler Harris, and they lived in Elgin, Tex., for a time, records show. Tyler and Tonya Harris had a child named Jared.
The family later moved to the suburban Missouri town of St. Peters, where Wilson’s mother again got divorced and married a man named Dan Durso, records indicate.
Wilson attended St. Charles West High School, in a predominantly white, middle-class community west of the Missouri River. He played junior varsity hockey for the West Warriors but wasn’t a standout.
There were problems at home. In 2001, when Wilson was a freshman in high school, his mother pleaded guilty to forgery and stealing. She was sentenced to five years in prison, although records suggest the court agreed to let her serve her sentence on probation.
She died of natural causes in November 2002, when Wilson was 16, records show. His stepfather, Tyler Harris, took over as his limited guardian, which ended when the boy turned 18.
A family friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of threats, said Wilson sought out a career in law enforcement as a way to create a solid foundation in his life that he’d been missing.
Why all this personal background on his family’s legal problems? What does that have to do with anything?
If Wilson himself did something wrong potentially related to the shooting of Michael Brown, that would be one thing.
But this is guilt by association with a former employer and his parents.
This reminds me of the Rick Perry hunting ground rock story two years ago, where WaPo devoted it’s enormous energies to smearing Perry as racist based upon rank speculation over a rock at the family hunting grounds.
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