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Elon Musk Was Right About “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” BLM Narrative – “The Whole Thing Was A Fiction”

Elon Musk Was Right About “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” BLM Narrative – “The Whole Thing Was A Fiction”

The truth still matters. Elon Musk was right, the “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative from the Michael Brown shooting “was a fiction.” Deal with it.

Elon Musk tweeted a hard truth about the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” false narrative from the Michael Brown shooting, which led to the Ferguson (MO) riots and national prominence for the Black Lives Matter movement, which adopted the slogan.

It started when musk tweeted about some shirts he found stocked at Twitter headquarters with the hashtag #StayWoke

According to Business Insider, Musk’s mockery upset some people because #StayWoke was a BLM slogan:

The shirts, which date back to 2016, were made to support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and were promoted by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who spoke in support of the BLM movement at a Recode event in 2016.

Dorsey said that he took two weeks off to work with the civil rights organization in 2014, creating a Twitter hashtag to promote the movement following the shooting of Michael Brown, a Black teen who was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was unarmed at the time, and the shooting sparked protests over police shootings of Black people.

Dorsey said at the Recode event, where Recode said organizers handed out the t-shirts, that the hashtag represents, “being aware, staying aware [of] what you’re seeing on the TV screen [in Ferguson] versus what’s happening on the ground.”

In response to the faux outrage, Musk tweeted a hard truth:

#StayWoke shirts stem from the Ferguson protests. Obama’s own DOJ proved this & exonerated the cop. “Hands up don’t shoot” was made up. The whole thing was a fiction. [links to DOJ report]

Which of course generated more outrage. For some reason, Musk deleted the tweet and substituted a tweet that only had the link to the DOJ report.

But that didn’t stop more outrageous outrage, such as from Tech Times, Elon Musk Deletes His Tweet, Defending the Ferguson Cop Who Shot Unarmed Michael Brown. John Sexton did a good job dissecting how various lefty outlets tried to whatabout the DOJ report in response to Musk’s now-deleted tweet.

Well, yes, Brown was unarmed. Including when just prior to the shooting he strong-armed a local convenience store.

And Brown also was unarmed when he sucker-punched officer Darren Wilson in the face as Wilson sat in a patrol car, and tried to steal Wilson’s gun. That was the first time Brown was shot, and then he was shot fatally when he made a second charge at Wilson.

Wilson was exonerated and never charged by the local prosecutors or the Eric Holder – Barack Obama Justice Department. Here’s the key finding from the DOJ report (embedded in our earlier post Darren Wilson Cleared by DOJ of Civil Rights Violations) particularly noting 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.

Musk should not have taken down the tweet. He was right, as Legal Insurrection readers know well from our own detailed coverage of the Brown shooting when it happened, as well as my numerous posts about the fabricated narrative.

This post of mine in early June 2020 summed it up, Reminder: “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case

The Black Lives Matter movement was born of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. While the BLM founders started their organizing after the prior Trayvon Martin case, it was Brown and Ferguson which launched the BLM movement into the public spotlight through the protests and riots in Ferguson.

Nothing was more associated with the BLM movement than the chant “hands up, don’t shoot,” based on the narrative that Brown had his hands raised and said ‘don’t shoot’ when shot. That same chant drives protesters and rioters ripping up cities after the George Floyd killing.

I know the history of BLM and how it shot to national fame after the Brown shooting. I followed it closely and wrote about it at the time in 2014. I documented the violent instigators, many of them cross-over anti-Israel activists. See my October 25, 2014 post, Intifada Missouri – Anti-Israel activists may push Ferguson over the edge.

More than anything, BLM seized on the claim that Brown had his hands raised in surrender, saying “don’t shoot,” at the time he was shot by officer Darren Wilson. “Hands up, don’t shoot” became the signature slogan of BLM.

But it was all a lie. Brown wasn’t surrendering and didn’t say don’t shoot. And he wasn’t a victim of police misconduct. Rather than the “Gentle Giant” he was portrayed as in the media, he sucker punched Wilson while Wilson sat in his police car, tried to grab Wilson’s service pistol, and was shot when he charged Wilson a second time.

Telling that truth in June 2020 about the Michael Brown shooting almost cost me my job.

The truth still matters. Elon Musk was right, the “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative “was a fiction.” Deal with it.

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Comments

Yes Professor, you were right, as the PO was right to shoot the thug, amd all the thugs who came after…. Saint Floyd ring a bell….

Problem with Musk is he doesn’t stand by his words, he takes half knees, deleting numerous posts

Never apologize to the thugs, never bend the knee

Someone taught me that…

    henrybowman in reply to gonzotx. | November 26, 2022 at 7:59 pm

    Sounds like one of his lawyers told him something in the main text might have been defamatory, so he left just the link up. There’s some wisdom in listening to lawyers, but little wisdom in listening to them slavishly.

    Always look to the media as pushing a narrative that will achieve the goal of their policies. Few exemptions exist that will tell the truth. The majority are totally corrupt.

    ghschirtz in reply to gonzotx. | November 27, 2022 at 11:05 pm

    The ME report about the bullet channels in Brown’s body lead to two conclusions.

    First: The officer was about 10 feet off the ground when he fired on Brown during his last charge at the officer.

    Second, that Brown was charging in a mode typical to what anyone would do to get to a threat at the fastest possible speed.

    The wound channels per the ME all headed downward from entry. That can’t happen if someone is standing up with hands in the air, begging not to be shot.

    I am not an ME but I am a hunter and understand a few things about wound channels, where bullets go when they hit tissue.

    The cop should have been cleared of all malfeasance. I wonder where he and his family found a place to live without the stigma Buy Larger Mansions and other fakirs.

      Milhouse in reply to ghschirtz. | November 28, 2022 at 9:07 am

      The cop should have been cleared of all malfeasance.

      He was. Hence the multiple decisions not to charge him. Fat lot of good that did him.

As ever conservative who doesn’t get their news from the Democrats Propaganda Ministry knew all along

And BLM proved to be just a shake down organization where the heads made off with millions, and no accounting for hundreds p f millions has ever been done even to the IRS, who won’t do anything about it

    Dimsdale in reply to Skip. | November 28, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    And more importantly, they haven’t done a damn thing for blacks in the U.S., unless you count the handful running BurnLootMurder.

Though I do love all those photos up top of Democrat legislators performing “Nazi salutes.” Because remember, they’ve established that’s what those are.

The left advances one lie at a time.

It’s difficult to keep track of every leftist fictional narrative since every narrative they create is fictional.

    henrybowman in reply to technerd. | November 27, 2022 at 5:06 am

    It’s a talent… and to amaze yourself at how many people actually possess it, you only need to attend a few fan Q&A sessions at SF/comix cons.

Does anyone have any idea whether Darren Wilson ever found a job? I never understood why he voluntarily resigned, without even a large payout. But if I were in Musk’s shoes now, I would have tweeted that if Wilson is still looking for employment he’s welcome to join Twitter as a security guard, and that any employees who have a problem with that are welcome to leave.

Yes, the truth matters. However, I can’t help but think that as bad as “wingman” Holder’s DOJ was, today’s Brandon/Garland DOJ would go ahead and prosecute Wilson anyway.

The sad part is there are too many stupid lazy people out there that won’t question these idiots and their gas lighting propaganda

Musk deserves a lot of credit for exposing the many falsehoods of the left

    alaskabob in reply to Steven Brizel. | November 27, 2022 at 12:05 am

    Two of the most deadly sayings…. “Hands up don’t shoot” and “I can’t breathe”…. two felons joining the Dems Hall of Fame .

    Reading on Ukraine famine. Trotsky said that the kingdom of socialism will not be entered with white gloves on a polished floor. In 1917. Still won’t be…

    henrybowman in reply to Steven Brizel. | November 27, 2022 at 5:09 am

    The fact that this man independently/personally publishes these little truth bombs AND is now in charge of the biggest information conduit in public media fills me with so much hope.

“Walk toward the fire. Don’t worry about what they call you.”
– Andrew Breitbart

by way of wattsupwiththat.com

Of all the things that never happened, that never happened the most.

It was a “fiction”, but only in the way any slander or libel or lie is fiction. It was a fiction in the way the Reichstag fire was a fiction. It was far worse than mere fiction…it was a smear. But beyond being a smear it was an awaited pretext which the Democrats leapt on (dare I say “pounced”?) as one more chance to destabilize the society.

From this to “defund the police”, when there was, and remains, ample opportunity for *policing* reform.

Leaping on one narrow, polarizing part of it, something with quick, righteous answers, good guys, and bad guys, shuts down any possibility of actual progress. Law enforcement, taxation, terrorism, health care, financial systems, immigration, poverty, education, mass communication … it’s like the people comfortable in the status quo would rather have the issue, than an answer.

Also, squirrel!

“Brown was unarmed at the time, and the shooting sparked protests over police shootings of Black people.”

A 300 pound man, black or white, running at you at full speed is NOT unarmed. Especially one who just tried to disarm you and most likely kill you.

    henrybowman in reply to NavyMustang. | November 27, 2022 at 9:58 pm

    Hey, remember fat-chick, the street brawler, who was trying to gut her girlfriend on the sidewalk with a big-ass knife, when a cop gave her her very last life lesson? Professional asshole Ben Crump boo-hooed that she was “unarmed,” too.

    There’s a difference between photographs and real life. When you see a photograph of Brown, the scale is not obvious and the first thing you’ll notice is that he’s black. If you’re in the street and he’s coming at you, the first thing you think is that a mountain is walking! And that huge man had already reached into the cop car, hit the cop, and maybe tried to take his gun. The cop was probably still dazed when Brown turned and came for him again.

    I can find one thing to fault the cop for – poor tactics right at the beginning. He stopped his car with the open driver’s side window towards Brown. He should have put the passenger side towards Brown and got out to talk across the car. If Brown started circling around the car to get at him, shooting would be obvious self-defense. If Brown ran, he should have called for backup and followed him in the car. Either way, he would not have taken a punch in the head.

The new saying should be: “Hands up, don’t loot!”

It’s inaccurate to say that Michael Brown was unarmed. He was not yet armed. He died trying to wrest the gun from Off. Wilson.

am glad wilson survived relatively unscathed–a moment or two longer and he could have been seriously injured or killed

find it hilarious that the “leaders” of blm outright scammed millions of blacks along with numerous guilt-plagued whites out of huge unreported bucks

too funny

    Dimsdale in reply to texansamurai. | November 28, 2022 at 9:11 pm

    Yeah, the various wealthy blacks and white guilt lefties got hosed, and are too defiant to admit it. But we all know.

    And yet, they still sell the same bill of goods in the form of CRT and “equity.”

    Wotta scam.

The trolls were thick on this one. That collective of idiots going by the name zacriel no I don’t care enough to spell it correctly was particularly mendacious.

But many deserve honorable mention for flat out lying.