Hand up! Don't shoot! A liberal confesses to his believing a lie

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting of "Gentle Giant" Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, the usual suspects had already planned to use it as another example of institutional racism, police oppression, etc., and the slogan "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" was born. In the days after the shooting one of my family members was convinced Wilson simply got out of his SUV and shot this young man in the middle of the street for no apparent reason, especially since we had "witnesses". As any cop knows about a shooting of a hood rat by another hood rat in front of a 100 people, "Nobody saw anything!" but now people were coming forward. Why? Fifteen minutes of fame like Rachel Jeantel who cannot read the letter she had supposedly written after B Hussein Obama's other son was shot.

I recommended to this family member to wait for the investigation to complete. I specifically noted that many a witness on TV revises their statement when they are put under oath and these punks also know they can be prosecuted if they perjure themselves. And forensic evidence takes months to get back. Not to mention if you look at three simple factors, “Means, motive and opportunity” it didn’t add up. What we were supposed to believe is Officer Wilson, for no apparent reason (there is no evidence Wilson and Brown even met before the shooting) in broad daylight, in front of over 100 people, just drove up and shot the man. Means, yes, Wilson has a gun. Motive? What for, robbing a store? I don’t think so. Opportunity? I think in the middle of a public street is not a private place for a murder.

Well we all know that the story about "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" wasn't based on a lie, it was a bold faced lie. Now it's rare enough for a leftist columnist to admit he was wrong, but that's what Mr. Capehart (more or less) does in this column. Of course he slanders the Ferguson PD with his supporting documentation a report by the Eric Holder Justice Department. Mr. Capehard, maybe you should take them with a grain of salt. They were some of the people trying (successfully) to start a riot there. But let's see what he admits to.

‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ was built on a lie

By Jonathan Capehart

The late evening of Aug. 9, 2014, I couldn’t sleep. I was due to substitute-anchor MSNBC’s “UP with Steve Kornacki” and should have been asleep. But after looking at my Twitter feed and reading the rage under #Ferguson, I felt compelled to type a reaction to the killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson. Tying the shooting to the inane whine of certain politicians about a “war on whites,” I decried the next morning the death of yet another unarmed black man at the hands of a white police officer.

In those early hours and early days, there was more unknown than known. But this month, the Justice Department released two must-read investigations connected to the killing of Brown that filled in blanks, corrected the record and brought sunlight to dark places by revealing ugly practices that institutionalized racism and hardship. They have also forced me to deal with two uncomfortable truths: Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown....

...Through exhaustive interviews with witnesses, cross-checking their statements with previous statements to authorities and the media, ballistics, DNA evidence and results from three autopsies, the Justice Department was able to present a credible and troubling picture of what happened on Canfield Drive. More credible than the grand jury decision to not indict Wilson. The transcript of his grand jury testimony read like so much hand-holding by the prosecution.

What DOJ found made me ill. Wilson knew about the theft of the cigarillos from the convenience store and had a description of the suspects. Brown fought with the officer and tried to take his gun. And the popular hands-up storyline, which isn’t corroborated by ballistic and DNA evidence and multiple witness statements, was perpetuated by Witness 101. In fact, just about everything said to the media by Witness 101, whom we all know as Dorian Johnson, the friend with Brown that day, was not supported by the evidence and other witness statements.

Fight in the SUV

Page 6: 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.

Struggle over the gun

Page 6: 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.

Hands up

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 [or] 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 DOJ report notes on page 44 that Johnson “made multiple statements to the media immediately following the incident that spawned the popular narrative that Wilson shot Brown execution-style as he held up his hands in surrender.” In one of those interviews, Johnson told MSNBC that Brown was shot in the back by Wilson. It was then that Johnson said Brown stopped, turned around with his hands up and said, “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!” And, like that, “hands up, don’t shoot” became the mantra of a movement. But it was wrong, built on a lie.

I've deleted the portions about how the Ferguson PD is nothing but the KKK in blue but again, I must give Mr. Capehart credit for admitting he was wrong in jumping to conclusions like he did. Now we must look into something I didn't cut out.

...Now that black lives matter to everyone, it is imperative that we continue marching for and giving voice to those killed in racially charged incidents at the hands of police and others. But we must never allow ourselves to march under the banner of a false narrative on behalf of someone who would otherwise offend our sense of right and wrong. And when we discover that we have, we must acknowledge it, admit our error and keep on marching. That’s what I’ve done here.

Mr. Capehart, this wasn't an error on the part of the people really pushing this. The race baiting poverty pimps (B Hussein Obama, Holder, Jackson, Sharpton, etc) knew what they were doing, stroked the racist angle in the successful attempt to start a riot. How many people lost their businesses, were injured, etc because of these punks in power? Did "black lives matter" to them? The answer is no. But for some reason you believed them, with no reason to. Why? Maybe you should look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself some ugly answers.