Michael Brown: The Killing Of A Bolshie Unarmed Black Teenager In Photos
WHEN Michael Brown, 18, was killed by police in the Ferguson suburb of St Louis, Missouri, there was outrage. Michael Brown was an unarmed, black teenager. The story goes that Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson, 22, were walking down the middle of the road. It was around noon.
The police car approached. They were told to move.
Dorian Johnson says police yelled: “Get the f*** onto the sidewalk”.
He says the pair told the cop they were almost at their destination. So. No. They would not move. The cop reversed his car to drive along beside them.
Safety first.
There is talk of a scuffle before the killing.
Johnson says the cop oppened his car door. It hit Brown. It bounced closed. The cop got out.
Johnson: “It’s like tug of war. He’s trying to pull him in. He’s pulling away, that’s when I heard, ‘I’m gonna shoot you. I seen the barrel of the gun pointed at my friend. He had it pointed at him and said ‘I’ll shoot,’ one more time… I seen the fire come out of the barrel… The whole time [the officer] was holding my friend until the gun went off.”
They ran.
More shots.
There is the fact that Mr Brown was shot several times about 35ft from the police car.
Johnson claims Brown told police: “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting.”
Tiffany Mitchell, a witness, told CNN: “The kid, he finally gets away and he starts running. As he runs, the police gets out of his vehicle and he follows behind him, shooting. And the cop continued to fire until he just dropped down to the ground and his face just smacks the concrete.”
Killed for jaywalking and being bolshie. Killed for being a leary teenager.
What really happened? We don’t yet know. But a young man is dead for what reason? Nothing worthwhile. No cause.
Riots ensue.
And the police? Well, they have the big guns:
“The Pentagon might not have boots on the ground in Ferguson, Mo., where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by police on Saturday, but it does have wheels on the street. Michelle McCaskill, media relations chief at the Defense Logistics Agency, confirms that the Ferguson Police Department is part of a federal program called 1033 that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus military equipment to civilian police forces across the United States. The materials range from small items such as pistols and automatic rifles to heavy armored vehicles such as the MRAPs used in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Photographer Whitney Curtis was struck by a rubber bullet while covering the scene.
Jeremiah Parker, 4, stands in front of his mother, Shatara Parker, as they attend a protest Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo
People raise their hands in the middle of the street as police wearing riot gear move toward their position trying to get them to disperse Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. The FBI opened an investigation Monday into the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who police said was shot multiple times Saturday after being confronted by an officer in Ferguson. Authorities in Ferguson used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse a large crowd Monday night that had gathered at the site of a burned-out convenience store damaged a night earlier, when many businesses in the area were looted. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
A confrontation Monday in Missouri over a black teen’s death http://t.co/zfmCzolSJP (Photo: Whitney Curtis for NYT) pic.twitter.com/EnKiRFJxMd
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 12, 2014
Phaedra Parks, left, comforts Desuirea Harris, the grandmother of Michael Brown, during a news conference Monday, Aug. 11, 2014, in Jennings, Mo. Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo, on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, center, stands with the parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, right, and Michael Brown Sr., left, during a news conference outside the Old Courthouse Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, in St. Louis.
Posted: 14th, August 2014 | In: Reviews Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
