Reminder (Again): “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case
My June 4, 2020, post turned out to be one of the most impactful posts I’ve written since I launched the Legal Insurrection Blog in 2008. Here it is again.
My June 4, 2020, post, Reminder: “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case, turned out to be one of the most impactful posts I’ve written since I launched the Legal Insurrection Blog in 2008.
We must never stop telling the truth about the fabricated foundational narrative of BLM. So here it is, again:
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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.
On March 5, 2015, Andrew Branca wrote here, 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.
I summarized how the “Hands up, don’t shoot” lie gave life to BLM in a later post, Two years ago Michael Brown died, and a movement based on lies was born:
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….
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:
…. 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.
And so it continues. “Hands up, don’t shoot” is chanted by protesters and the politicians who join them, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer:
.@GovWhitmer @LtGovGilchrist and Bishop Charles Ellis lead a group of marchers in Detroit honoring the life of #GeorgeFloyd. Marchers call out "hands up, don't shoot!" @wxyzdetroit @ABC pic.twitter.com/ExR28L3dIm
— Jenn Schanz (@JennSchanzTV) June 4, 2020
“Hands up don’t shoot” protest in Columbus Ohio pic.twitter.com/8aQs4kqQBT
— THE ONE AND ONLY🏆 (@jussmikeyy) May 29, 2020
Protestors at the White House chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot” @fox5dc #GeorgeFloydprotest pic.twitter.com/39ArwAjI75
— Shirin Rajaee (@ShirinRajaee) May 30, 2020
They have about 20 officers guarding White House and secret service are on top of the roof while protesters chant “Hands Up! Don’t shoot!” #DCProtest #BlackLivesMatters pic.twitter.com/H3yN4rqZNU
— ® (@_maaaaarisa) May 29, 2020
Warriors guard Stephen Curry, along with wife Ayesha Curry, chanting “hands up! Don’t shoot!” During a protest in Oakland today. (Via @106KMEL) pic.twitter.com/cJDSi775MB
— Logan Murdock (@loganmmurdock) June 3, 2020
It’s all a lie. A lie that gave birth to a movement destroying our cities while demanding defunding of the police.
Concern for black lives, and all lives, is important. But that is not the agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement, they seek to tear down our society to achieve their marxist goals, and it takes a huge deception to get people to go along.
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Comments
Everything about the Left is a lie, right down to the claim of some of them to be Americans.
A fantasy world is easier to live in than the real one if your average IQ is 86.
As you demonstrate every day.
Wow, that was hard hitting.
Like your fantasy that you possess some advanced intellect?
ok
now thattt was funny
Not sure what point you are trying to make here (as usual). If you are suggesting some relationship between certain reporting groups and their mean IQs, it is quite easy to look up information on that topic. Since the Army Alpha tests over 100 years ago, IQ test results have generally consistently shown the same rank ordering by reporting groups.
It’s an accounting for disparate impact thing. If by and large your race is at the bottom, a more tempting explanation is that The Man is holding your down, rather than your race is one standard deviation less cognitively gifted. Any story about The Man and his nefarious activities will be gobbled up.
You don’t see East Asians doing that. They’re on the average more cognitively gifted than whites. No need since they make their own way.
Jews vs Palestinians is the same situation from the Palestinian point of view.
The entire BLM (Buying Large Mansions) edifice was built on a foundation of lies and deception, it continues as such to this day, and proves that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
There’s a sucker born every minute, and the grifters of BLM keep proving it.
It was primarily a shake down scheme à la Jessie Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition.
Anthony Shahid, radical community activist and police hater made it up.
Phony from the git go, and no one cared.
“Two years ago Michael Brown died, and a movement based on lies was born:”
The lying, swamp-fed media can concoct and promote any lie it wants, and the low-information American will suck it up.
Why, they created a mythical Ukrainian aviator out of whole cloth and had congressmen singing his praises.
The Almighty and Living God knew what He was doing when, “You shall not bear false witness” was inscribed on the Tablets.
The god of this world is the father of lies, has been practicing a long time, and is very good at it.
The Creator is the God of this world and of all other worlds.
Well Milhouse,
In one way I agree with you,
But in another way the rule of God in this world has been “disrupted” for a while since the disobedience in the garden, latitude given to the rebellion of Satan, his angels, and the rebellion of mankind,
But in the end, and in little bits all of the time (as in the life of Joseph), the Creator will not be overruled.
Exactly how this works out requires a perspective and frame of reference that goes beyond what mere humans cannot understand, for His ways are higher than our ways.
I think the biggest lesson we can draw from the George Floyd incident is don’t shove a lethal dose of fentanyl up your behind.
Biggest lesson is the Bongino rule of “wait 24-48hrs” before commenting on these type of things. Longer if it smells fishy.
But, we ignore Obama’s birth certificate because the entire system has come down like a hammer on any who broach it. Better to play along that it is just a delusion of nutters, thoroughly discredited, an embarrassment, the avoidance of which proves what even-handed arbiters we are of the current hot issue.
Come down like a hammer on those who raise the issue? When did they go after Hillary?
It is a delusion of nutters, etc. The certificate he finally produced was genuine, as affirmed by the Hawaiian authorities. Claims that it was a forgery are based on stupidity, ignorance, paranoia, and outright dishonesty. Face it, he was born in Hawaii, on the date and at the hospital he always claimed he was, and his name at birth was the one he still bears today. So why did he refuse to produce it for so long? He was messing with people’s heads.
Confirmed by Hawaiian Authorities. LOL. I recall the whole charade. You are a Jewish intellectual. Look into the Weizmann Institute scientist who deemed it a vulgar forgery on dozens of counts.
Bullshit.
1. There is no author listed on the document you reference. There is no indication that Israel Hanukoglu had anything to do with it.
2. If he did write it, it would only serve to discredit him. He has no expertise on the subject, the arguments made in it are ludicrous and have been repeatedly debunked by actual experts on the subject. It also contains multiple links to garbage sites like WND.
You know who doubted his Hawaiian birth first?
Obama.
More bullshit.
Mr. Milhouse ignores photographs contained in contemporaneous papers that depict Obama’s self-published, trifold biography distributed with fanfare during his Harvard years. “ Born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” The publisher, decades later fell on its sword, taking blame for this “typo.” The Harvard Law genius never proofread the blaring giant font on this when published?
An Obama biographer even had to cop to it, but wrote Obama was engaged in youthful promotional lying (as opposed to his later mature promotional lying).
I have read that this biography was in a publication which included Obama among the authors. Also that such biographies are usually supplied by the authors.
^^^^facts^^^^^^
That doesn’t mean he was born in Kenya.
The easiest answer is – based on actual evidence – he lied his ass off (ooh, big surprise!) about being Kenyan because it placed him higher in points to do things like get into Columbia. He used his Indonesian citizenship* to become a foreign student there. He has always been a liar, and he told whatever lie was necessary to make himself into someone special.
(* Once he made that declaration as an adult, IMO, his American citizenship should have been moot, and he could no longer claim “native-born citizen.” A just system and a better educated electorate wouldn’t have given him much more than token votes because of that.)
There was no such book, self-published or otherwise. All there was was the idea of a book, and a blurb in an agency’s catalogue of its clients. These blurbs are typically not furnished by the client, and in this case the agent readily affirmed that she wrote it herself.
Even if he had written it himself, this would not support the claim that he doubted his birthplace. He knew damn well where he was born, even if he had written otherwise, which he didn’t.
More BS. Being a foreigner does not make it easier to get into Columbia. As far as I know nobody has ever even alleged that he got in to Columbia as a foreign student. The bullshit allegation that was circulating in 2009 was that he was admitted to Occidental College on a scholarship that was designated for foreign students. The allegation had absolutely no basis in fact; it was completely made up and anyone circulating it as fact was a liar.
That’s more bullshit. No declaration he could possibly have made could affect his status as a natural-born citizen, except maybe an official renunciation of US citizenship, and nobody has even alleged that he’s ever made one of those. He’d have to have been a complete idiot to do that, and he’s clearly no idiot.
Two things:
First the “certificate” he produced was literally “produced”, proven to have been assembled in Adobe Illustrator with a font that did not exist at the time he was alledgedly born in Hawaii.
Second, the Birth Certificat issue was a smokescreen all along. WHERE he was born is immaterial. What DID and STILL DOES matter is WHO were his parents? His purported father was a British Subject at the time of his birth, as he was a resident of the country of Kenya, then a Broitish Protectorate, whus the Brit citizenship. That ntion was later ceded to the people of that country by Britain, and his father later was a Kenyan Citizen, but at the time of Berry Soetoro’s birth he as definitely a British Subject. Tht means Obma, so called, is and never can be a Natural Born Ciizen, as this status is defined as being the child of TWO parents who were US Citizens at the time of the birth of that child.
Kamala Harris cannot be President, as NEITHER f her parents were US Citizens at the time of her birth.
That is a lie. Maybe not your lie, but a lie nonetheless.
Obma, so called, is and never can be a Natural Born Ciizen, as this status is defined as being the child of TWO parents who were US Citizens at the time of the birth of that child. And that is nonsense, a theory that nobody had ever heard of until it was invented for the purpose of challenging 0bama’s candidacy.
Tell me, before you ever heard of 0bama, how did you understand “natural born citizen”? Had you ever head of this two-parent theory?! The overwhelming majority of authorities B0 (Before 0bama) held that it means someone who acquired his citizenship by birth rather than by naturalization. The only other likely theory, derived from Blackstone, is that it means someone born under the protection of US law, i.e. in the USA itself or as the child of a US diplomat. Either way the parents have nothing to do with it.
The framers and ratifiers were heavily influenced by Blackstone, who was more widely read in America at the time than he was in England. But the idea that they were influenced by Vattel has no basis. His book was in print at the time, but not widely available or widely read.
George Washington borrowed the only copy in the Library of Congress, after the constitution was ratified and he had already been elected president; that is no proof that he had ever read it at the time of the Philadelphia convention, and if anything proves that he had not. In all likelihood he never read it, which is why he never returned it. It probably spent the rest of his life in his “to-be-read” stack, and every time he saw it he probably resolved to return it just as soon as he got around to reading it.
And that copy was donated to the library by Ben Franklin, who had three copies shipped to him from Europe, presumably because it wasn’t available in America. But Washington borrowed it soon after, so there wasn’t much chance for anyone else to read it.
Yes, she can, under both theories. John McCain qualified under both theories too. Ted Cruz and George Romney qualified under the prevailing theory, but not under Blackstone’s.
Right up there with DEADLY EXCHANGE – JVP’s lie that Israeli police train American law enforcement in tactics of brutality against minorities – echoed even in Congress today
Lying is just another tool to use to get their way. As Dennis Prater puts it…they lie as easily as they breathe.
Living in the age where Orwell and Pavlov have created a special brew.
Goebbels, too. And, the vile Dhimmi-crats have been drinking deep draughts of that poisonous concoction.
FBI took a knee in Dc, I couldn’t believe it
I can. Only too much so, Gonz. This is the FBI we’re talking about.
LEO shooting unarmed suspects is not good as a.general rule. Obviously if they shoot an ‘unarmed’ suspect who is scuttling with them attempting to gain control of the LEO’s weapon then that is justified. Nuance, context and detached analysis doesn’t sell news nor gin up controversy or aid in fund raising grift.
The interesting part is the availability of the basic stats for police shootings. As of March 5, 2024 there were 178 and 32 suspects were ‘black’. Aggregate #of ‘whites’ are shot by LEO 2 1/3 as many but at a lower % of population. None of this tells us anything about the shooting. Was the suspect armed? Where (what jurisdiction or zip code) did it occur? Was the suspect already known to LEO as dangerous person? What was the reason for the encounter? Was it a traffic stop, a Karen call complaint? Did the suspect have active warrants? Was the suspect ‘high’? I am willing to wager when those additional data points are applied the vast majority of LEO shootings ain’t against some innocent rando minding their own business.
The stats show that white suspects who confront the police are slightly more likely to be shot than are black suspects who do the same. But the difference isn’t significant.
Following Ferguson and the rise of BLM, homicides of black americans as a percentage of all homicides reported in the FBI Crime Databased surged from the mid 40%’s to over 50%. Following a slight dip during the first 3 years of the Trump Administration, the percentage surged even higher following the George Floyd riots and subsequent police “reforms”.
I believe you can still find a link on the BLM website to make donations to the DNC, so mission accomplished.
Guys, guys, guys,
You got the mantra all wrong.
It was never ‘”hands up, don’t shoot”.
It was “pants up, don’t loot”.
Joe Biden told me so himself but maybe I shouldn’t believe somebody who’s uncle was eaten by cannibals.
Pants up, don’t loot!
I had a long conversation with a mixed race resident when hands up don’t shoot happened, I sent him here to see a different view
He unfortunately was all in on the lie and his graduation Class all took a picture with their hands in the air
Sad, just sad
How many of them went on to do time?
and george floyd wasnt a saint
it wonttttt stop lefty and their agenda
Your “t” key is sticking again.
hey my “tttttt” disability is in remission 🙂
dont forget as I posted a week back or so
MORE BLACKS HAVE BEEN SHOT BY THE PD UNDER BIDEN
than during trumps 4 years
BUT BLMPLO LAYS QUIET ABOUT THAT like allll other leftists
UNTIL THE KNOW ITS THE ‘RIGHT” TIME to make noise and riot about it
rinse and repeat
btw
Hands up
dont shoot
is a REALITY
except its said by the real victims of poc crime onto others
And the reason it was extraordinarily successful is shown in the last paragraph of this article: you had to insert a disclaimer that black lives are worthy of concern.
Why? There was nothing in the article that was even remotely racist — on the contrary, it was race neutral in characterizing the founders of these movements.
That tinge of guilt to make sure you are not misconstrued as a racist is the mind-control element, an element that is essential to spreading Marxism.
the transcript of the grand jury is or was online. Yet the news, some of them lawyers, didn’t bother, it seems to read them. I believe he had one hand in his waistband, the police driver’s side window was busted, there was a struggle. They had to secure the area before they could investigate. They had to retreat because of gun fire, the detective was not right on hand, they had to shield Brown from the windows in the apartments, the actual story is not what the news reported, which is par. Not a police officer, nor have lawyers or officers, etc. in my family. But it takes time to process a crime scene, and it appears this one was in a large area, a crowd gathered, and emotions were high.
No, at the time he was shot he did not have one hand in his waistband. Both hands were stretched out in front of him, as he charged at Wilson.
The struggle at the police car was earlier. Brown ran away from that scene, then turned around and came charging back.
Thanks for posting this, Bill!
If the country is fighting with itself they don’t have time to watch the real threats form the left. It’s a tactic companies use when they have more than one union.
Obama pointed to “Ferguson” in a speech to the UN and said it showed the US had more work to do, too, to ensure equality–and this was BEFORE his Department of Justice, under Eric Holder, completed its investigation that showed Off. Wilson was the victim of Michael Brown and acted in self-defense! So who’s really responsible for “Hands up, don’t shoot?”
and the video showing his saintship brown assaulting a store clerk and stealing products
As I recall it, he was not referring to the Brown shooting but to the general situation in Ferguson, where law enforcement was supposedly found to be biased against poor people, i..e black people, largely through the imposition of fines and fees that they couldn’t possibly pay, followed by arrest warrants so they were under constant threat of arrest.
Excellent post Dr. Jacobson, I still get into arguments over that shooting. Intelligent people I know swear Brown was trying to surrender, I point out that around 100 people who gave statements , some pushing the lie of “hands up, don’t shoot,” When confronted with a physical evidence, they “revise their statement.” I have one friend of mine, swearing the 100 people on the ground don’t count as much as two line repairman looking down. He still doesn’t want to believe the physical evidence.
Their minds are made up, don’t try and confuse them with the facts.
All of Leftism is predicated on lies. No reason this would be any different.
Without questioning the merits of the underlying argument, it is important to note the reaction of Prof. Jacobson’s Cornell colleagues to his post. https://medium.com/@mwt57/an-open-letter-to-cornell-law-school-regarding-professor-jacobson-53dcc0cf7449 “Therefore, we believe it is necessary for Cornell Law School to end its association with Professor Jacobson and publicly condemn these views as antithetical to the values of Cornell Law School. ” Cornell’s President did not comment on this blog post, but the then-Dean of the Law School condemned it. No personnel action was taken against Prof. Jacobson. https://www.foxnews.com/media/cornell-professor-says-calls-for-his-firing-over-protest-criticism-almost-totalitarian
Those congresscritters all look like they’re at a revival. “Hallelujah! We got a lie wbout Whitey!”
There’s a whole technique of moving your hands in a way that looks innocent, but is actually very close to fighting position. So someone could say “but I had my hands out” but the position of the arm was such that with a small adjustment and changing the hand position, it could become a chop or a punch or a grab. You swirl your hands around very fast and hope the guy is just confused by it, then you strike.
Perhaps this is what happened, and so the officer was entirely justified in shooting if he recognized it.
If someone is running towards you with his hands out, he is not trying to surrender.
The facts being not quite accurate doesn’t matter because truthiness. Everyone knows black guys with their hands up are shot by racist white cops all the so what if a few minor details of this one case don’t match up perfectly?