Ten years ago Michael Brown died, and Black Lives Matter based on the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie was born

Ten years ago Michael Brown died, and Black Lives Matter based on the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie was born

I’ve written a lot about the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014. Dozens of posts, one of which on June 4, 2020, caused some people at Cornell Law School to lose their minds.

As much as I’ve written, I don’t track the date of his death, but I was reminded of it by this post on X today from someone named Nina Turner, who apparently is some sort of Democrat political type. In the post she claimed that Michael Brown was shot with his hands up.

A decade ago, a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed Black teenager with his hands up in Ferguson, Missouri.

Michael’s life matters. Black Lives Matter, and we will continue to say it until it becomes the truth in this nation’s eyes.

A decade ago, a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed Black teenager with his hands up in Ferguson, Missouri.

Michael’s life matters. Black Lives Matter, and we will continue to say it until it becomes the truth in this nation’s eyes. pic.twitter.com/zo3gdcBsMS

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) August 9, 2024

Here we go again.

The claim that Michael Brown was shot with his hands up, usually compounded with the additional claim that he was saying ‘don’t shoot’, was a massive lie.

But is was a politically convenient lie for Democrats.

That lie created the Black Lives Matter organization, which previously was just a hashtag.

That lie changed the trajectory of this country. That lie was the kindling that erupted in fire when George Floyd died in late May 2020. That lie continues to be repeated.

We have covered this territory many times in prior posts, including:

• Two 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
• Reminder: “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case
• Reminder (Again): “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case

That lie allowed anti-Israel activists to hijack the nascent Black Lives Matter movement and turn it against Israel and Jews from the start:

• Intifada Missouri – Anti-Israel activists may push Ferguson over the edge.

In reality, Brown was a low-level street thug who had just strong-arm robbed a convenience store:

Brown then sucker punched police officer Darren Wilson while Wilson was seated in a patrol car and tried to steal Wilson’s gun.

The Department of Justice — that would be Barack Obama’s and Eric Holder’s DOJ — thoroughly investigated the shooting after local prosecutors refused to charge Wilson, and the 86-page report showed that “hands up, don’t shoot’ was a monstrous lie:

“Wilson and other witnesses stated that Brown then reached into the SUV through the open driver’s window and punched and grabbed Wilson. This is corroborated by bruising on Wilson’s jaw and scratches on his neck, the presence of Brown’s DNA on Wilson’s collar, shirt, and pants, and Wilson’s DNA on Brown’s palm. While there are other individuals who stated that Wilson reached out of the SUV and grabbed Brown by the neck, prosecutors could not credit their accounts because they were inconsistent with physical and forensic evidence, as detailed throughout this report. Wilson told prosecutors and investigators that he responded to Brown reaching into the SUV and punching him by withdrawing his gun because he could not access less lethal weapons while seated inside the SUV. Brown then grabbed the weapon and struggled with Wilson to gain control of it. Wilson fired, striking Brown in the hand. Autopsy results and bullet trajectory, skin from Brown’s palm on the outside of the SUV door as well as Brown’s DNA on the inside of the driver’s door corroborate Wilson’s account that during the struggle, Brown used his right hand to grab and attempt to control Wilson’s gun. According to three autopsies, Brown sustained a close range gunshot wound to the fleshy portion of his right hand at the base of his right thumb. Soot from the muzzle of the gun found embedded in the tissue of this wound coupled with indicia of thermal change from the heat of the muzzle indicate that Brown’s hand was within inches of the muzzle of Wilson’s gun when it was fired. The location of the recovered bullet in the side panel of the driver’s door, just above Wilson’s lap, also corroborates Wilson’s account of the struggle over the gun and when the gun was fired, as do witness accounts that Wilson fired at least one shot from inside the SUV.

Although no eyewitnesses directly corroborate Wilson’s account of Brown’s attempt to gain control of the gun, there is no credible evidence to disprove Wilson’s account of what occurred inside the SUV. Some witnesses claim that Brown’s arms were never inside the SUV. However, as discussed later in this report, those witness accounts could not be relied upon in a prosecution because credible witness accounts and physical and forensic evidence, i.e. Brown’s DNA inside the SUV and on Wilson’s shirt collar and the bullet trajectory and close-range gunshot wound to Brown’s hand, establish that Brown’s arms and/or torso were inside the SUV.

After the initial shooting inside the SUV, the evidence establishes that Brown ran eastbound on Canfield Drive and Wilson chased after him. The autopsy results confirm that Wilson did not shoot Brown in the back as he was running away because there were no entrance wounds to Brown’s back. The autopsy results alone do not indicate the direction Brown was facing when he received two wounds to his right arm, given the mobility of the arm. However, as detailed later in this report, there are no witness accounts that could be relied upon in a prosecution to prove that Wilson shot at Brown as he was running away. Witnesses who say so cannot be relied upon in a prosecution because they have given accounts that are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence or are significantly inconsistent with their own prior statements made throughout the investigation.

Brown ran at least 180 feet away from the SUV, as verified by the location of bloodstains on the roadway, which DNA analysis confirms was Brown’s blood. Brown then turned around and came back toward Wilson, falling to his death approximately 21.6 feet west of the blood in the roadway. Those witness accounts stating that Brown never moved back toward Wilson could not be relied upon in a prosecution because their accounts cannot be reconciled with the DNA bloodstain evidence and other credible witness accounts.

As detailed throughout this report, several witnesses stated that Brown appeared to pose a physical threat to Wilson as he moved toward Wilson. According to these witnesses, who are corroborated by blood evidence in the roadway, as Brown continued to move toward Wilson, Wilson fired at Brown in what appeared to be self-defense and stopped firing once Brown fell to the ground. Wilson stated that he feared Brown would again assault him because of Brown’s conduct at the SUV and because as Brown moved toward him, Wilson saw Brown reach his right hand under his t-shirt into what appeared to be his waistband. There is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson’s stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety.

Ballistics analysis indicates that Wilson fired a total of 12 shots, two from the SUV and ten on the roadway. Witness accounts and an audio recording indicate that when Wilson and Brown were on the roadway, Wilson fired three gunshot volleys, pausing in between each one. According to the autopsy results, Wilson shot and hit Brown as few as six or as many as eight times, including the gunshot to Brown’s hand. Brown fell to the ground dead as a result of a gunshot to the apex of his head. With the exception of the first shot to Brown’s hand, all of the shots that struck Brown were fired from a distance of more than two feet. As documented by crime scene photographs, Brown fell to the ground with his left, uninjured hand balled up by his waistband, and his right, injured hand palm up by his side. Witness accounts and cellular phone video prove that Wilson did not touch Brown’s body after he fired the final shot and Brown fell to the ground. 7

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.”

Years later, another state prosecutor reexamined the case, and again refused to prosecute, St. Louis Prosecutor Re-opened Michael Brown Case, Will Not Bring Charges.

Despite the through DOJ forensic and evidentiary analysis and the refusal of two state prosecutors to bring charges, news organizations like The Independent today ran factually disproven claims:

Dorian Johnson, Brown’s friend, said that Wilson initiated the conflict by grabbing Brown by his neck through his patrol car window.

The confrontation ended when Wilson shot and killed Brown.

Witnesses said at the time that Brown had his hands up when Wilson shot him, and some reported Brown had yelled “don’t shoot,” which gave rise to the protest chant “hands up, don’t shoot.”

People Magazine joined in the deception:

Johnson claimed to detectives that when the pair were first confronted by Wilson for walking in the street, Wilson backed up his patrol car and opened the car door. Johnson told detectives that the door hit him and Brown, causing it to shut again. Subsequently, according to Johnson, Wilson grabbed Brown by the neck and an altercation ensued through the open window while Wilson was still in the vehicle.

Johnson said he heard Wilson say, “I’ll shoot you,” before his gun went off and Brown was hit. Then, according to Johnson, both Brown and Johnson began to run, and Brown was shot again. Brown stopped running, and, according to Johnson, turned around and put his hands in the air to surrender.

“As he turns around, the officer’s face-to-face with him now and he goes to tell the officer that he’s unarmed or he does not have a gun,” Johnson told detectives, according to a transcript of the interview shared by The New York Times. “I couldn’t hear him verbatim from where I was standing but I know he tried to talk to the officer and he tried to get out a second sentence, but before he could fully get out the sentence, the officer fired several more shots.”

“Hands up, don’t shoot” is a lie that won’t die because it’s a lie that has been the core Black Lives Matter narrative for a decade. Black Lives Matter was launched based on a fraud, and that fraud continues to be perpetrated by people who are wholly ignorant or wholly dishonest.

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