Darren Wilson Cleared by DOJ of Civil Rights Violations
The shooting of Mike Brown by the former Ferguson, MO police officer triggered weeks of riots and protests
The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice has released an extensive report (embedded below) clearing former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting death of Mike Brown in August 2014.
Wilson’s shooting of Brown led to weeks of often violent protests, including repeated nights of looting and arson. These protests, largely organized by Al Sharpton and similar racial activists, left portions of Ferguson in ruins.
In November 2014 Darren Wilson received a no true bill from the grand jury empaneled to hear criminal charges against him, sparking additional riots. He shortly thereafter resigned from the Ferguson police department, and has stayed out of the news since. We covered the grand jury’s findings extensively here at Legal Insurrection, including here:
Analysis: #Ferguson Grand Jury: NO Indictment In Michael Brown Shooting
In considering civil rights charges against Wilson the Department of Justice ultimately determined that the credible witnesses and forensic evidence overwhelmingly favored Wilson’s narrative of lawful self-defense. The witnesses whose testimony favored a narrative of racist misconduct were found to be lies, inconsistent with the forensic evidence, or simply not credible relative to the witnesses favorable to Wilson’s narrative.
A Department of Justice investigation continues into the Ferguson police department generally, on the basis that the department has engaged in racist activity. The specific examples noted by the New York Times, however, seem only to illustrate mockery of President Obama and his wife, rather than black people generally.
A report from that investigation found a wide pattern of discrimination by the city’s police force, and said that city officials had sent racist emails on their government accounts. One depicted President Obama as a chimpanzee. Another included a photo of topless African women with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s high school reunion.”
One can’t help but recall the thousands of Progressive depictions of President George W. Bush as a chimpanzee during his administration. Not racism, I guess.
As promised, here is the DOJ report finding no grounds for civil rights charges against Darren Wilson:
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
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Comments
One depicted President Obama as a chimpanzee. Another included a photo of topless African women with the caption, “Michelle Obama’s high school reunion.”
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Which were exactly what you could find WRT Pres. McChimpyHitler Booooooosh and his First Lady on several moonbat sites.
How come “race” is a factor at all?
How come?
Jeez, come on, guy! It’s because, that’s why! Jeez, get a grip! 😉
./sarc off
They know better. It’s like the Presidential rubber masks that have been available at Halloween stores over the last several decades. The Democrats never got excited until a rodeo clown wore the Obama version. Democrats are special snowflakes.
It’s not racism if it’s the chimp being insulted by the comparison.
The thing I notice is that they say “city officials” not “police department officials”.
Holder hates blacks, plain and simple. Why else wouldn’t he do anything about this?
Bui they had to give the riled up people something- so they made a big investigation (of a real problem):
Traffic and other tickets in Ferguson, Missouri.
(Made possible for so long, because most of the blacks are newcomers, and the town is controlled by public employee unions who used to win virtually unpublicized low turnout elections which had very low campaign spending)
But would they ever have done this if there hadn’t been the death of Michael Brown?
WTF are you talking about?
I’m having a little trouble parsing that comment as well, but from the second paragraph I think he may be referring to the investigation’s findings that Ferguson depends a lot on issuing public order violations (tickets, infringement notices) in order to fill their revenue chests.
Not that any of that has anything particularly to do with race – it’s an issue for all poor people of any race. But to the extent that a lot of the poor people in Ferguson also happen to be black, I guess that was a close to “endemic racism” the investigators could find.
Gee. Thanks, Amy.
It’s not like I haven’t written about the evils of using the criminal LEGAL system as a de facto taxing agency.
WHICH I have.
How ’bout letting ol’ sammy answer for himself?
Whoa! Cranky-pants!
Well, this also explains why Holder is militating for changes in the law to make such PERSECUTIONS much easier.
But, really, it’s all part of a piece with the Obamic drive to nationalize police departments.
Please, please, please, Ferguson pols…DON’T sign any “consent decrees”!
Also not racism.
Perfectly acceptable.
Something something truth to something.
And I’ll just leave these here and quietly step away now.
I’d argue with the headline a little … the riots were not over Brown being shot, but over the false narrative of his hands being up, and even of him on his knees, with hands up. The riots and hysteria were manufactured from the top.
Activist Holder even tried to suppress the video of Brown robbing the store, no doubt preferring to sustain the propaganda of the “gentle giant”.
So more black lives will be lost as Obama/Holder/Sharpton make heroes of druggie thugs Trayvon and Brown, and also denounce most cops as racist.
And any racial quota system for policing will take cops away from high crime areas where they are needed most … where gangs want fewer crops, and most residents would appreciate more cops. Obama/Holder/Sharpton encourage the snitches get stitches attitude … especially ironic coming from alleged snitch Sharpton.
The robbery video ended up working in their favor. It was RACIST to smear poor dead Michael Brown with the truth! Anyway, the video shows he PAID for the cigars, and that wasn’t even him in the video after all! And he didn’t shove the clerk and walk menacingly towards him after that — it was a loving caress, and then he “walked innocently” towards him (exact quote from a Daily Kos moron!), or didn’t, because it was some other 6′ 4″ 300 pound black youth wearing the same Cardinals ball cap, t-shirt, saggy shorts and undies, and socks with sandals a five minute walk away from where he sagged his last sag five minutes later. Who can say it was him? They all look alike, don’t they.
Any good liberal will happily tell you that those were different … because those were “TRUE”.
This part of the report sounds very much like the writing of Andrew Branca:
You make me blush, sir! 🙂
It goes without saying I had nothing whatever to do with the writing of the DOJ report, nor have anything else to do with the DOJ–except, from time to time, making use of their excellent FBI Academy shooting facilities. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
So where does Wilson go to get his life back?
Might I suggest Alaska?
Zimmerman not leaving Florida has been his second biggest mistake. His first was having anything to do with women prepared to take advantage of an institutional law enforcement eagerness to “get the one that got away”.
Looks like Ferguson “city officials” have to get a lesson from Hillary on how to send emails!
Selective outrage is a cornerstone of a pro-choice religion or moral philosophy.
I guess a pregnant Condoleezza Rice carrying a chimpanzee is not racist. http://monroeanderson.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f195bd88834011279107f0c28a4-pi
No wonder Holder’s so upset about this. The DoJ is forced to give up on a perfectly good prosecution simply because the witnesses are liars or simply unreliable, completely at odds with the physical evidence, and cannot satisfy a standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That such small issues can hold back a prosecution the masses yearn for is an indictment of American society.
I am being sarcastic. But someone else thinks this without sarcasm, and that is a bit scary.
It doesn’t seem that they had time to conduct a full investigation. It’s more likely that they are relying on statistical inference or weak evidence. Do the statistics reveal a causal relationship or DOJ prejudice?
Oh well.
At least we have the civil trial to look forward to, because there just may be some money in this for the Brown family yet.