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Five years ago Michael Brown died, and a movement based on lies was born

Five years ago Michael Brown died, and a movement based on lies was born

The Black Lives Matter movement was launched by lies, and so was its hijacking by anti-Israel activists.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/telekon/15698308208/

Five years ago, on August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, by police officer Darren Wilson. The death, and the claim that Brown was shot with his hands up asking not to shoot, sparked riots and launched the Black Lives Matter Movement to national prominence.

But the narrative was based on a lie. Brown was shot because he attacked and attempted to take Wilson’s pistol. His hands weren’t up, and he didn’t ask not to shoot, as an Obama-Holder Justice Department investigation later proved.

Yet on this 5th Anniversary, the lies are being spread again by many people, including by presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, who falsely claim Brown was murdered.

https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1159893277954514944

https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1159902078103445507

On the two-year anniversary of Brown’s shooting, I summarized the case and evidence. I don’t have much more to add. The truth hasn’t changed. Here is that post again:

Two years ago Michael Brown died, and a movement based on lies was born

On August 9, 2014, Ferguson, MO, Police Officer Darren Wilson shot dead Michael Brown.

Our first post about it was on August 11, 2014, as rioting broke out. We kept the coverage non-evaluative. We learned from prior cases, such as Trayvon Martin, not to accept at face value racial and other narratives being spun. We also learned from events such as the Boston Marathon and Newtown shootings that initial facts reported by the media often are wrong.

We embedded this news reports of the looting:

Within days, various supposed eyewitnesses would claim Brown was a passive victim — an account we now know to be untrue — as summarized in this MSNBC report we posted on August 13, 2014:

https://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08/ferguson-missouri-domestic-war-zone/

It did not take long, however, for facts to come out indicating that all may not be as it seemed, as we posted on August 15, 2014, UPDATED: Brown Was a Robbery Suspect, Cop Identified in #Ferguson:

Michael Brown Convenience Store

Very soon thereafter, it became obvious that the narrative of the Brown case would be “hands up, don’t shoot,” in which an innocent Brown was mercilessly gunned down for no reason as he attempted to submit.

That narrative and the racial angles on the case seemed to be just as much a fabrication as the initial narrative in the Trayvon Marting case, as Andrew Branca noted on August 19, 2014, Misleading Initial Narrative of Zimmerman-Martin Case Applied in Ferguson:

Another effort to bolster the “monstrous shooter” fork was the claim that Wilson shot Brown from a considerable distance, shot him repeatedly in the back as Brown was fleeing, while Brown had his hands raised in surrender, and while Brown being entirely compliant with Wilson’s lawful instructions. Were these facts true, Wilson’s conduct would have been monstrous, indeed.

The reality: We now hear that there exists quite another side to the story. This other side recounts how Wilson had just had the fight for his life against not just Brown but also Brown’s robbery-accomplice, Dorian Johnson, as the two men forced the officer back into his car and attempted to strip him of his sidearm….

It is worth noting at this point that many police officers who are killed by gunshot are shot with their own weapon that has been taken from them by assailants. Every police officer in the nation, likely in the world, is aware of this reality.

An attempt to seize an officer’s pistol is nothing short of an out-and-out declaration that you intend to slay that officer. Wilson would have been unquestionably entitled to use deadly force against both Brown and his accomplice to prevent this seizure from occurring.

While Andrew took no position at the time as to what happened, his prediction that if Brown attempted to take the officers gun then deadly force was justified, would turn out to be prophetic.

The Black Lives Matter movement, which was conceived in the Trayvon Martin case, was born in the Brown shooting. Hands Up, Don’t Shoot would be it’s rallying cry. That seminal factual allegation turned out to be a lie, but it gave birth to a movement which now dominated much of the media attention.

We continued to follow the riots and looting throughout August and as it died down by September. As October rolled around, and more evidence was released, Andrew did what he does best — follow the facts:

But by October we took note of another development: The rapid move by anti-Israel groups to exploit the shooting and turn it against Israel, Code Pink to exploit Ferguson “Weekend of Resistance” to bash Israel.

The piqued my interest, led me to research the infiltration of the Ferguson riots and protests by anti-Israel activists. I released my findings on October 25, 2014, Intifada Missouri – Anti-Israel activists may push Ferguson over the edge:

As much tension as there is, an underreported story is the active role of “pro-Palestinian” activists who have exploited the Ferguson riots and tension this summer and fall to push their anti-Israel agenda. That anti-Israeli agenda, which involves encouraging confrontation with police in solidarity with Palestinians, is helping provide the accelerant to an already volatile situation.

It started with a propaganda campaign over the summer when Brown was shot. On Twitter and elsewhere, anti-Israel activists started tweeting messages of “support” for protesters in Ferguson, including advice on how to deal with tear gas.

It was a highly organized effort to exploit the Ferguson tension and co-opt it into the anti-Israel cause….

It also has involved a propaganda campaign to blame Israel for the killing of Brown because a former St.Louis County police chief three years ago attended a one-week anti-terrorism program in Israel. Presumably some Ferguson officers also have attended various training sessions routinely given in the U.S. and elsewhere to police departments, but the one-week training in Israel by someone who wasn’t even on the job when Brown was shot was enough forthe usual suspects to try to blame Israel for everything that happens in Ferguson.

That anti-Israel infiltration would continue for weeks, Anti-Israel activist still stoking fires in #Ferguson. As I wrote the other day, the attempt in Ferguson to blame Israel for police shootings of blacks was a theme long pushed by anti-Israel activists, Exposed: Years-long effort to blame Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks. Ferguson was the opportunity, and two years later the Black Lives Matter Movement has been effectively hijacked, If you are surprised #BlackLivesMatter joined war on Israel, you haven’t been paying attention.

[This was not funny at all, when two police officers in NYC were executed by a perp who used the “pigs in a blanket, fry’em like bacon” phrase used by one of the anti-Israel protesters in Ferguson, “Pigs in a blanket” chanted in #Ferguson long before #NYPD executions.]

When the Ferguson Grand Jury refused to indict Wilson in the shooting, there was predictable outrage. But the evidence was clear — Brown punched Wilson in the fact as he sat in his patrol car and attempted to steal Wilson’s gun. Brown’s hands were not raised, and he didn’t shout “don’t shoot.” The narrative that launched the Black Lives Matters movement and its eventual hijacking by anti-Israel activists was based on lies, as summarized by Andrew:

This result has not been unexpected, as the overwhelming weight of both the eye witness and forensic evidence has been entirely consistent with Officer Wilson’s narrative of self-defense, including:

  • Wilson being attacked by Brown and his accomplice Dorian Johnson in his patrol vehicle
  • a struggle over Wilson’s service pistol
  • shots fired inside the vehicle (which forensic examination confirmed caused a contact gun shot wound to Brown’s right hand)
  • the temporary flight of Brown upon those initial gunshots
  • the return of the 292 pound Brown re-engage the much smaller officer
  • the firing of additional defensive rounds as necessary to halt Brown’s violence

In contrast, the narratives put forward that might have favored an indictment were serially changed as each was proven inconsistent with the evidence:

  • Brown was shot in the back (there are no gun shot wounds to Brown’s back, and contrary to bulk of eye witness testimony)
  • Brown had his hands raised in surrender (inconsistent with forensics and bulk of eye witness testimony)
  • Brown was on his knees when Wilson simply executed him (inconsistent with forensics and bulk of eye witness testimony)

There would be more protests, including the tactic of blocking roads and highways and disrupting shopping malls. Members of Congress got into the hands up, don’t shoot narrative despite the evidence:

congress-members-hands-2

Some tender law students were so traumatized by the non-indictments in the Brown and later Eric Garner case that Columbia canceled finals, and Harvard Law students fell to the ground and demanded the same:

harvard die in

Writing of my Alma Mater, I noted, It’s their law school and they’ll cry if they want to.  An editor of The Harvard Law Review would write one of the most *amazing* posts I’ve ever read, Harvard Law Review Editor on exam delay request: Our Weakness is Our Strength:

Although over the last few weeks many law students have experienced moments of total despair, minutes of inconsolable tears and hours of utter confusion, many of these same students have also spent days in action—days of protesting, of organizing meetings, of drafting emails and letters, and of starting conversations long overdue. We have been synthesizing decades of police interactions, dissecting problems centuries old, and exposing the hypocrisy of silence.

I have seen the psychological trauma brought on by disillusionment with our justice system send some law students into a period of depression…. The hesitancy to recognize the validity of these psychic effects demonstrates that, in addition to conversations on race, gender and class, our nation is starving for a genuine discussion about mental health….

A UCLA law student later would claim to have been traumatized by having to answer a question about Ferguson on a final exam. So intense was the campus trauma that Cornell Univ. Police Chief apologizes for saying #AllLivesMatter instead of #BlackLivesMatter.

The Michael Brown case ended legally when the U.S. Department of Justice, after an intensive investigation, declined to prosectute. Andrew reviewed the DOJ findings, Darren Wilson Cleared by DOJ of Civil Rights Violations:

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.

In particular, Even DOJ Admits: “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” An Utter Lie:

The DOJ report (embedded in our earlier post Darren Wilson Cleared by DOJ of Civil Rights Violations ) particularly noted the lack of credible evidence for the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” meme (page 8):

Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson. As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible for otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time. Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media. Prosecutors did not rely on those accounts when making a prosecutive decision.

While credible witnesses gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson – i.e., balling them, holding them out, or pulling up his pants up – and varying accounts of how he was moving – i.e., “charging,” moving in “slow motion,” or “running” – they all establish that Brown was moving toward Wilson when Wilson shot him. Although some witnesses state that Brown held his hands up at shoulder level with his palms facing outward for a brief moment, these same witnesses describe Brown then dropping his hands and “charging” at Wilson.

The legacy of the Michael Brown case, and Trayvom Martin case before it, is that lie upon lie built a false narrative that changed the political landscape even after the truth came out through the judicial process. But that truth mattered not to the activists involved, who believe in convenient myths.

The Black Lives Matter movement was launched by lies, and so was its hijacking by anti-Israel activists. That’s the cold, hard truth.

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Comments

BerettaTomcat | August 9, 2019 at 7:19 pm

Cultural Marxism, specifically multiculturalism, has made it profitable for the Left to lie. Because they reject empiricism and have redefined truth to encompass their desired outcome, and because lying is easy, fast, and cheap, the Left is always ready with their malicious narrative before facts can be compiled to render the unqualified truth. And, in today’s age of information, the first side to post, air, or print has a decisive advantage, so fast lies are invaluable to the Leftist propagandist.

rabid wombat | August 9, 2019 at 7:59 pm

What was it?

Tell a lie loud enough and long enough…

When you find something the left avers that is not a lie, publish!

I am grateful for his timely demise and the full disclosure of the content of his community’s character.

    BerettaTomcat in reply to NotKennedy. | August 9, 2019 at 8:53 pm

    One of the few eugenic aspects of our Republic founded in natural law that remains is the acknowledgement that it is lawful to use lethal force to protect ourselves and others. One should shoot to stop a violent felon, never to kill him; but, when the violence stops with death that’s the ideal outcome, as it saves society money and ensures the thug will never again inflict violence on anyone. The Left understands this and is acting out in an effort to revoke the right to self defense using lethal force, because dysgenia serves them.

      JusticeDelivered in reply to BerettaTomcat. | August 10, 2019 at 7:55 am

      If one has to shoot someone, it should always be center mass, the point being to not hit an innocent bystander with a stray bullet. Thye may shoot to wound in movies, but it seems to be a really bad idea when dealing with a violent criminal.

      DaveGinOly in reply to BerettaTomcat. | August 10, 2019 at 3:51 pm

      Eighty percent of people struck with handgun fire survive. The handgun is marginally adequate as a defensive weapon, carried only for convenience (it’s smaller and lighter than a carbine or rifle). When using a handgun in a self-defense situation, one is trying to stop the attacker, but one must shoot to kill merely in an attempt to make the stop. Not shooting to kill (shooting center-of-mass or at the head) reduces the chance of making the stop, and reduces one’s chances of surviving the encounter.

Watched “retrospective” on NBC news tonight (Don’t blame me; wife likes it.) INCREDIBLE how biased their report was, even five years later.

Irresponsible yellow journalism.

JusticeDelivered | August 9, 2019 at 8:42 pm

I am really teed off about how black liars have been getting away with destroying good people’s lives. This problem goes far beyond George Zimmerman and Officer Wilson. These pricks need to be held accountable. Black Liars Matter and the various overlapping scheme teams need to be brought to justice.

    Please don’t assume the liars are black. The weirdest stuff comes from people who are black wannabe liars.

      JusticeDelivered in reply to Valerie. | August 10, 2019 at 8:32 am

      Which brings us to All lives matter, as do all liars. I have worked with a number of high performing black people over a very long time frame. They are people who earned their way pre affirmative action. They actually made the grade without any Crake jack free grades. As a result of American blacks average IQ of 85, there are far fewer of these high performers per capita than what other groups with higher average IQs produce.

        healthguyfsu in reply to JusticeDelivered. | August 10, 2019 at 1:20 pm

        I don’t think you are overtly racist, but you should tone down your rhetoric just a bit. Affirmative action is wrong but so is assuming someone is dumb based on the color of their skin.

          JusticeDelivered in reply to healthguyfsu. | August 11, 2019 at 10:33 pm

          I have mentioned before that I am a science and math person. I have stated before that the lower the average IQ of any group, the that per capita rate of higher performing people in that group is considerably lower than what other groups with a higher average IQ will produce.

          People with lower IQ generally are more likely to commit crimes, less likely to defer gratification in the interest of a better life outcome, less likely to raise their children well, and so on.

          My comments are based on skin color, they are based on very well documented outcomes.

          It is also important to pay attention to skin tone racism among blacks, where there is seething resentment between light and dark skinned blacks.

          What bothers me about American blacks is their staggering level of hypocrisy.

          I want to see American blacks succeed, as long as they earn it. The same applies to people of all races. Advancement should always be based on actual merit.

      Char Char Binks in reply to Valerie. | August 10, 2019 at 11:13 pm

      I agree. White leftists are the biggest culprits in this.

The lies, for political advantage of the Democrats were all predictable. It is what they have been doing since they lost the vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, shucked their clan robes and became the public defenders of Black Americans.

What was so disgusting, was that this was all started to secure a large damage payment from the city of Ferguson. These people didn’t care about Michael Brown? They did not care about civil rights. They did not care about blacks being killed by the police. All they cared about was securing a legal extortion payment for a totally legally justified use of force. Toward that end, lie after lie after lie was put forth; just as in the George Zimmerman case; which gained certain parties seven figures in civil payments, in spite of Zimmerman’s actions being totally legal. It was all about the Benjamins.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to Mac45. | August 10, 2019 at 8:38 am

    Not just totally legal, morally right. Both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown received lawful and moral justice.

I guess the Clinton and Obama years were just warm-ups to the agitprop and propaganda that awaits if more power and (ugh!) one party rule comes to the USA.

What the Palestinians are doing is the template for the Left in the USA. They have learned their lessons.

Yes, but you surely know that Trump has lied 181,000 times!

As Biden said, about truth more than facts.

Even if for the sake of argument that Trump is untrustworthy, these others make him look like an amateur.

As he recently said, “Democrats fight a dirtier fight. And it’s too bad.”

Saying Brown was murdered is just another illustration.

A(n) (already formed) movement was in search of an event…..The Gentle Giant was the perfect place to start.

Thanks for the re-cap. it has been put to good use.

I read the new Constitution for Iraq, and saw that it did not codify Sharia law. I wrote a little summary saying so.

Then, every few days, somebody would wander over to Iraq The Model with their hair on fire, claiming that Iraq had adopted Sharia law in their new Constitution. The sock puppet, Ghandi, figured in several rounds of this.

My point is this: the truth bears repeating. Thank you for having something useful and timely. Repetition can be a good thing.

DouglasJBender | August 10, 2019 at 2:19 am

The message for the rioters was, “Pants up; don’t loot.”

This incident and its aftermath, following on the heels of the contrived mythology and fact-averse revisionist history that followed sociopath Trayvon Martin’s attempted murder of George Zimmerman, demonstrated that contemporary Leftists will gleefully dispense with facts and truth in pursuit of promoting a political narrative and agenda, poisonous and destructive societal and individual consequences be damned.

As Harris and Warren continue to propagate the lies about Brown’s “murder,” remember that it’s Trump who’s the racial divider! (At least according to these hypocrites).

Occasional Thinker | August 10, 2019 at 9:46 am

Articles like this is where the conservatives fail. If CNN or another member of the MSM had published an article against the right with similar facts the title would have been “Harris/Warren state Eric Holder lied to support white supremacists in Michael Brown shooting”. Play by the left’s rules until they change them, follow the Rules for Radicals.

Five years ago Michael Brown died.
Five hours ago Jeffery Epstein died.
In the first, the truth eventually came out.
In the second, we will probably never know.

EVERYONE recall when George Bush first took American troops into Afghanistan and Iraq? The killing often seemed excessive, yet it wasn’t myself out on the firing line, it was some other scared SOB who was earning their PTSD.

During that era the news reported back here in the states how the Islamic nations would never accept democracy or freedom, since they were embedded in a tribal culture. The Talking Heads (read bungholes) all claimed the people couldn’t really understand what Freedom or a Constitution was. Well, folks… the ‘people’ understood just fine but their duplicitous leaders understood even better.

When the people have power over their affairs, the tribal leaders loose power. Remember the smiles and all the purple fingers? Joy and liberty, a people willing to work for their future!….and then the bombing started up in earnest. Poor retard children OR shamed women, chained to a steering wheel and driving a bomb.

America seems to have patterned itself after the tribal ideology of the Islamic nations. One thuggish bully dies and it’s free shopping (self-justified) for as many who want to riot. The only problem, I see, with Michel Browns death is that it happened to late in his life and should have been an accident…like kissing a garbage truck going 50 MPH, or meeting a true bully or a dirty needle. Instead a good man stepped up and took the hit as an instrument of the law. Good Job Officer – WELL DONE!

It is not correct to say, as Elizabeth Warren and and many others have said, that Michael Brown was “unarmed.” He was not yet armed, as he was trying to wrest from Darren Wilson the officer’s service weapon, when Wilson shot him to death. A small detail but one that escaped candidate Warren..

    Milhouse in reply to nisquire. | August 12, 2019 at 1:30 am

    he was trying to wrest from Darren Wilson the officer’s service weapon, when Wilson shot him to death.

    No, he wasn’t. That attempt was earlier; he got shot in the hand and ran away. When Wilson shot him he was charging at him with his bare hands, presumably intending to beat him to death.

    But the whole “unarmed” thing p***es me off tremendously. Yes, he was unarmed. So what? He was also wearing pants and was not carrying a grand piano, but neither of these things are relevant; and nor is the fact that he was unarmed. Whether someone is armed when they attack someone makes no difference; if they pose a deadly danger then it is lawful to use deadly force to stop them even if they’re unarmed, and if they don’t then it’s not even if they’re armed. So the whole question is a red herring.

It is not correct to say, as Elizabeth Warren and and many others have said, that Michael Brown was “unarmed.” He was not yet armed, as he was trying to wrest from Darren Wilson the officer’s service weapon, when Wilson first shot and repelled him. Not satisfied, Brown returned in an effort to overcome the officer., who then shot him to death. Small details that escaped candidate Warren..

It is troubling that many news outlets continue to mislead the country. This includes Public Broadcasting, which, in my mind, should not exist as a taxpayer funded entity.

Too bad the race baiting mule preachers and their ilk use the demise of thugs and reprobate to become wealthy and powerful.

Whatever became of Darren Wilson? I never understood why he resigned his job without a whimper or a penny. I’d like to think he’s landed on his feet somewhere, but unfortunately that seems unlikely. And he can’t sue for his job back, because he resigned it voluntarily. So where does he go for compensation? Sue the Browns for a share in their loot?

2smartforlibs | August 13, 2019 at 3:49 pm

If you buy that BS about hands up you are about to stupid to cast an informed vote so do the rest of us the favor and don’t cast an uninformed vote.