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    Avalon Member Jake's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Quote Posted by marlowe (here)
    Here is a 4 day old article from AOL that says the law suite says Michael Brown was ~ or~ is a murder suspect ...You can read every page of the law suite ...I did & it

    looks real to me..

    http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/2...cord/20953546/
    Yep, it's a real article... The only thing it says is that there is a lawsuit pending regarding MB's juvenile arrest records. The rest is heresy, Phil. Can you not tell the difference?? Somebody TOLD this reporter that they were TOLD that MB has an ARREST record.. Sorry, I'm calling again.. So now we are going to dig into the childhood court records of a dead person??

    Second and third person information... We call them rumors,,, and we don't present them as fact,, unless we have run out of REAL facts to bring to the table.. (yawn)

    Besides, if someone from law enforcement told a reporter about confidential court records regarding a minor,, then that member of law enforcement has broken the law.. So, again, you have helped to highlight more cops in Ferguson that are breaking the law.
    Good onya,, Phil...


    Jake.
    Last edited by Jake; 31st August 2014 at 03:53.
    Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. Yoda....

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops

    N E W L O N D O N, Conn., Sept. 8, 2000

    A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

    The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.

    “This kind of puts an official face on discrimination in America against people of a certain class,” Jordan said today from his Waterford home. “I maintain you have no more control over your basic intelligence than your eye color or your gender or anything else.”

    He said he does not plan to take any further legal action.

    Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.

    Most Cops Just Above Normal The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.

    Jordan alleged his rejection from the police force was discrimination. He sued the city, saying his civil rights were violated because he was denied equal protection under the law.

    But the U.S. District Court found that New London had “shown a rational basis for the policy.” In a ruling dated Aug. 23, the 2nd Circuit agreed. The court said the policy might be unwise but was a rational way to reduce job turnover.

    Jordan has worked as a prison guard since he took the test.

    *****************************************


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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Not that I personally see this as even a little bit relevant to the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson...

    Update on StL Dispatch's court request for Brown's Juvenile record (if one exists) & Blogger CCJohnson's assertions that Brown was convicted of Second Degree Murder as a minor. Also National Guard has reportedly finally completed their withdrawal (source).

    If I interpret this correctly then according to the lawyer (for the Family Law Court officer) Brown was not convicted of, nor had been charged with, murder, assault, burglary etc. prior to his death.

    Guess the ol' beak will hand down a decision later.

    Also, Ferguson police have started wearing "body cameras" (source).

    Beware the ever increasing surveillance State.

    ###

    Juvenile court: Michael Brown had no felony convictions, did not face felony charges
    By Jeremy Kohler, 3rd September 2014

    Michael Brown was never found delinquent of the juvenile equivalents of any Class A or B felony charges, and was not facing any at the time he died, a court official said this morning at a hearing on whether his juvenile records should be released.

    The Post-Dispatch had filed a petition in St. Louis County Circuit Court to unseal any records about him in family court, if any existed.

    Cynthia Harcourt, a lawyer for St. Louis County Juvenile Officer Kip Seeley, argued against releasing those records, but acknowledged that there were no convictions or active cases for the most serious types of felonies.

    Class A felonies include second-degree murder and first-degree robbery; the penalties in adult court range from 10 years in prison to death. Class B felonies include voluntary manslaughter, second-degree robbery and first-degree burglary, with a maximum penalty of five to 15 years.

    It is not known whether Brown had ever been accused of lesser offenses; any record of those would be part of a confidential family court file.

    In a hearing before St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Ellen Levy Siwak, Joseph E. Martineau of Lewis Rice & Fingersh, attorney for the Post-Dispatch, acknowledged in the hearing that most juvenile court records are confidential under Missouri law.

    But he argued that the primary reason to keep them confidential — to protect a child from entering adulthood with the stigma of a criminal record — expired with Brown's death. He said Siwak had the discretion to open the files, and said there was heavy public interest in the details of Brown's life.

    Harcourt derided the claim as pure media curiosity that should not lead the judge to open any confidential records.

    The judge took the issue under advisement.

    Source & Jeremy Kohler twitter
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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  7. Link to Post #304
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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    For those who might be interested in finding out more about Dorian Johnson and Michael Brown here's a really good article from the Washington Post:
    Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson, the friend who witnessed his shooting

    I didn't know that just under a year ago Dorian's 16 year old brother died in a car accident (drag racing). I also didn't know that Dorian had recently become a father and works for a local transit authority contractor.

    Seems like Dorian Johnson has turned his life around (or is well on the way to doing that) and is trying to provide for his partner and daughter. The death of a family member, especially seeing the scene while they might still be alive, can have a devastating effect.

    This matches up fairly well with what we already know. He has the old warrant for stealing a backpack (which is itself a strange story) from 3 years ago and hasn't been in trouble with police since then (though that of course doesn't mean he hasn't been smoking a bit of cooch now and then). We also have him putting the cigars back on the counter when something strange happened in the convenience store (it still looks to me that Brown had a verbal with the clerk and walked out). Dorian putting the cigars back also matches up with what we are coming to know about him. He hid behind a car watching whatever happened between Brown and Wilson. This also makes perfect sense given his history and probably not wanting to get charged by Wilson.

    I'm not on the side of anyone in this horrific situation.

    I'm looking at the stories as they appear and seeing what matches and what doesn't.

    Darren Wilson worked for the Jennings police department which had deep problems and was disbanded before Darren transferred to Ferguson. He was divorced last year and has at least one child. He received a commendation for “extraordinary effort in the line of duty” in February and now lives with his girlfriend Barbara Spradling who is also a police officer. He had a troubled childhood with his mother being found guilty of at least 6 counts of fraud having conned 100's of thousands of dollars out of friends and acquaintances. She died while Darren was in his teens and it appears he looked after himself from the age of 16.

    Darren appears to have also moved on from the troubles that surrounded him as a youth. He became a police officer, though as I already pointed out maybe not in the best environment to learn his trade. From what I can gather local police departments in the US are evidently underfunded and continued training is reported as being limited. Never the less, Darren seems to have been trying to make a go of it and the shift to Ferguson PD might have been to escape the Jennings PD environment.

    We don't know why Darren and his wife separated. We don't know much about Darren because he was given a week to clear his presence from the internet. Also, Darren and his partner are being protected because of possible threats to them and have made no public statements. This means we have no idea what his story is. The tactician in me says that this is so he is able to alter his story to suit what all the witnesses are saying (ie find the thread that weaves through their narratives). There again, I've never understood people talking to the press anyway. Just makes no sense (how will a jury be formed from the local population anyhow given what has happened?).

    We simply don't know that much about Darren Wilson and it would be easy to construct a negative narrative around what we do know (just as many people have done with Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson).

    The statistics indicate that Darren Wilson will probably not be convicted of any charges (if he is charged). He is unlikely, if his case is part of the minority against police officers that end in conviction (9.7%), to do jail time (only 3.5% of officers charged end up in jail, that's just over a third of those convicted). Read some interesting statistics on that here.

    Also of interest:
    How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty
    The Justice Department will open a broad civil rights investigation into police practices in Ferguson.

    The St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigative reporter (Kohler) has related the facts stated in court about Michael Brown's juvenile record (or lack there of) and moved on. The blogger, CCJohnson, who alleges being told by 'two law enforcement contacts' that Brown had a juvenile conviction or charge (maybe questioned as a peripheral witness in relation to?) for 2nd degree murder (source) is making a mistake at the moment. He is making the story about himself. It isn't.

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    This was a surprise for me when I saw it:


    How is it a Judge can say that this is acceptable behaviour from a police officer?

    When was it that the "perpetrator" lunged at the officer?

    If this is what St Louis police can get away with while being filmed I wonder what they can do when they aren't?

    Just because someone repeatedly says "Why did you lung at me?" doesn't make it the truth...

    Remember: 'Police videos like these should be used to protect police, not go after them.'

    The full video starts ~@3:15

    So does this mean that "why did you lung at me" & "stop trying to take my gun" are both pre-existing fall-back phrases to circumvent (ie bring into doubt) police video surveillance?

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Quote Just because someone repeatedly says "Why did you lung at me?" doesn't make it the truth...
    It's a tactic. Not moral, but apparently, legal. I've been up against a wall,,, kicked in the groin,,, and asked repeatedly,, "Why did your stomach hit my foot? Why did you hit my foot with your gut? Why are you assaulting my foot,,,?" Whilst other cops laughed...

    I figured it wasn't just me.. I guess it was!! Nobody can fathom cops behaving like this.

    As pointed out in an earlier post... 'Not cowering in fear' is what they are looking for,,, NOT wether or not a law has been broken. Last I checked (and I DID check,,) Not cowering in fear in front of cops is NOT a crime... Whenever a cop dies in the line of duty,, cops EVERYWHERE take the time to reflect (parades, funerals, media chaos,, etc..) on the event. If a citizen is killed in a 'cops' line of duty,,, other citizens are ARRESTED for the same show of support... And cops retaliate!!!

    I wouldn't call the cops on my worst enemy!! We had prowlers about a week ago,, did we call the cops? HELL NO!! What happens if they show up, and I am outside with my flashlight,,,??? I will be thrown to the ground, beaten, and maybe shot dead,,, before they will bother to do any actual POLICE WORK.... This has been discussed with my whole family, and our neighbors... And everyone agrees... Cops only make things worse...

    Feel free to feel free.. I don't..

    Jake.
    Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. Yoda....

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Bogus Photo Does Not Show Ferguson Cop Darren Wilson's Injuries; It's Not Even Him

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5768510.html
    Unarmed teen Michael Brown was fatally shot by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, but the circumstances leading up to his death remain unclear. Though Ferguson police have said that Wilson's face was injured in an altercation with Brown moments before the shooting, Wilson has yet to come forward and speak publicly.

    On Tuesday, Chicago firefighter Kevin O'Grady shared a Facebook photo he claimed showed a injured Wilson in the hospital after the incident. As it turned out, the man pictured is not Darren Wilson, but that didn't stop the image from going viral.


    The man in the photo is actually motocross rider Jim McNeil, who died in a crash while practicing at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2011. The photo above was taken in 2006 after a motor accident at a friend’s house.

    For the record, this is what the real Wilson looks like:

    Despite the fact that these two men share barely a passing resemblance to one another, the bogus image posted by Kevin O'Grady had racked up nearly 50,000 shares by Thursday evening and had been circulated on Twitter and parts of the blogosphere. Some who re-shared the image seemed to take it as proof that Brown had attacked Wilson, thereby justifying the six shots that Wilson fired into Brown's body.

    Quote Here's what the sweet, innocent, gentle giant #MichaelBrown did to #DarrenWilson… pic.twitter.com/p75ZVR0JUo

    — Mike Liberation (@mikeliberation) September 4, 2014
    This isn’t even the first photo misidentification to come out of the Ferguson incident.

    In August, Kansas City Police Department Officer Marc Catron posted an image on Facebook of a young man he claimed was Michael Brown. The man in the picture was pointing a gun at the camera and biting down on a wad off cash. Catron's caption for the image read, “I’m sure young Michael Brown is innocent and just misunderstood. I’m sure he is a pillar of the Ferguson community.”

    That image ended up being of Joda Cain, a young Oregon man who is currently facing charges for killing his great-grandmother.

    ¤=[Post Update]=¤ **************Second Article********************************

    Ferguson Police Chief Lied About Why He Released Alleged Michael Brown Robbery Tape: Report (UPDATED)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5773420.html



    Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson lied when he said he had received "many" specific requests for the videotape that allegedly shows Michael Brown robbing a convenience store, according to a new report.

    "All I did -- what I did was -- was release the videotape to you, because I had to," Jackson told reporters on Aug. 15 when asked why he released the robbery footage. "I’d been sitting on it, but I -- too many people put in a [Freedom of Information Act] request for that thing, and I had to release that tape to you."

    Writing for The Blot, Matthew Keys reports that the police department did not receive any specific requests for the videotape.

    "A review of open records requests sent to the Ferguson Police Department found that no news organization, reporter or individual specifically sought the release of the surveillance tape before police distributed it on Aug. 15," Keys writes.

    There was one reporter, Joel Currier with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who asked for any and all evidence "leading up to" Brown’s death in a FOIA request. The request could have possibly included the tape, since the incident report on the robbery identifies Brown as a suspect in the crime.

    Currier told The Huffington Post's Matt Sledge in a tweet that "I can't recall if I knew of robbery at the time of request. I made it broad in hopes of getting as much material as possible."

    In another tweet, he added, "I think I may have been hearing rumors of a robbery but nothing confirmed."

    Journalist Andrew Perez also said that he has tried to get the documents to show who sent FOIA requests for the recording.

    "I requested all requests for the videotape too, and they produced a ton of docs but no requests for the tape," Perez tweeted.

    Perez also tweeted that, when asked, Ferguson Police spokesperson Tim Zoll couldn't think of any specific requests for the tape.

    Authorities have still not released the incident report for Brown's killing. The St. Louis County Police Department is in charge of deciding when that report will be released.

    UPDATE: Ferguson City Attorney Stephanie Karr released a statement early Saturday morning. She notes that many requests for documents and information were not made in writing because "the City's website and email were down at several points during that week." The release does not say whether any of those requests were for the robbery video.

    Quote Within days of the tragic events on August 9, the City of Ferguson began receiving multiple requests for information and documents. While some of these requests were made in writing, many requests were made verbally due to the fact that the City's website and email were down at several points during that week. City personnel cataloged all requests and treated them in the same manner as it would any Sunshine Law request. (The “Sunshine Law” is Missouri’s equivalent of the federal Freedom of Information Act).

    Several reporters, news organizations and others asked for documents specifically pertaining to Michael Brown. One such request was made by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. On August 12, 2014, the paper requested “all documentation concerning the events leading up to and including the shooting of Michael Brown" which shall include “incident, arrest and investigative reports, 911 audio, photos and video retained by the police department.” Another request, made on August 14, 2014, by Judicial Watch requested all records relating to Michael Brown and dated between August 1, 2013, and August 9, 2014.

    The Sunshine Law dictates that Governmental entities must respond to both general requests and specific requests and release all documents that are responsive to the those requests, unless those documents are otherwise closed.

    The Ferguson police department retained the incident and investigative report of the store robbery which occurred less than 10 minutes before the shooting. The reports, which included the surveillance video, concerned Michael Brown. Under the Sunshine Law, the police department had no reason to close these records and withhold them from the public.

    By the date of August 15, the City having reached its statutory deadline to respond to the information requests, released the store robbery reports, including the surveillance video.
    Last edited by seeker/reader; 6th September 2014 at 15:22.
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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Tineye.com & google reverse image lookup (both have extensions) are good for finding the source of suspect images.

    There have been a number of weird images appear over the last month and these tools helped me weed them out easier.

    For example I used Tineye on the image supposedly of Wilson with the black eye and found a Czech site with it from 2013 so knew it wasn't Wilson in 2014. I looked because it was the wrong socket (supposedly Wilson had a fracture to his left orbital) and I just do that when I'm trying to understand wtf I'm looking at.

    I've been reading some of the right-wing commentators in the US on this and it is amazing how they can twist the narrative to suit themselves.

    I thought the "gentle giant" narrative that was being told about Brown was a bit extreme (and having read his twitter feed and listened to many of his songs he seems to really have been just an average teenager in that environment).

    He did seem to have some sort of epiphany around the 5th of August and seemed to be looking inwards to explain things (this is where his having "found god" comes into the story -- he really did seem to have some things going on there).

    There was girl-friend troubles and he was sending off messages to record labels and magazines to try and get his rap music noticed. It wasn't bad for back yard cut price production. Again, just what I'd expect from a teenager. The lyrics aren't that extreme (for the genre) and most of the metal etc I listen too is a hell of a lot worse. He probably wasn't going to be listening to Beethoven, Bach, Bartok, Enya, Ives or Schoenberg:


    All in all Brown just seems to have been a normal 18 year old. Smoking a bit, drinking a bit, in a bit of strife and having a bit of life before he went off to college. His rap music appears to have been an attempt to not go to college but wasn't his only plan -- he had college as a plan B.

    Appears just like a kid trying to make good.

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Some more witnesses reports (2 workmen nearby saw the shooting and have given their statements to police & FBI):
    Workers who were witnesses provide new perspective on Michael Brown shooting

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Change only occurs when inequity is bought into focus.

    That is the purpose of protest movements, not to cause change but to bring the inequity they speak of into the light so the discourse that surrounds it can change.

    Without this process, little change would occur.

    That is the nature of any control process (eg. Money, Control & Power) and any status quo.

    Take away from the article (emphasis added):
    Quote “The Council believes that this ordinance sends a clear message that the fines imposed as punishment in the municipal court are not to be viewed as a source of revenue for the city,” Ferguson’s Council said in a statement. “We are hopeful that the Council’s clear statement will encourage the municipal judge and prosecutor to explore and utilize alternative methods of sentencing, such as community service, to punish violators and deter similar unlawful conduct.”
    [...]
    The municipal judge has signed an order establishing a special docket for defendants who are having trouble making monthly payments on outstanding fines, the city said, giving people the opportunity to renegotiate their payment plans.
    Weren't we nattering about Community Service as an alternative process just a few pages ago?

    At least they've taken the first step and admitted that there's a problem.

    -- Pan

    ###

    Ferguson Sets Broad Change For City Courts
    By Frances Robles, September 8th, 2014

    FERGUSON, Mo. — In the first major sign of change in this small city since last month’s police killing of an unarmed black teenager, the Ferguson City Council on Monday said it would establish a citizen review board to provide guidance for the police department and announced sweeping changes to its court system, which had been criticized as unfairly targeting low-income blacks, who had become trapped in a cycle of unpaid tickets and arrest warrants.

    Municipal court fines are the city’s second-highest source of revenue, leading many critics to argue that the authorities had a financial incentive to issue tickets and then impose more fees to those who did not pay.

    Young black men in Ferguson and surrounding cities routinely find themselves passed from jail to jail as they are picked up on warrants for unpaid fines, one of the many simmering issues here that helped set off almost two weeks of civil unrest after the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, was killed by a white Ferguson officer on Aug. 9.



    Mr. Brown’s killing put a national spotlight on Ferguson, a small city in north St. Louis County. The unrest served to highlight longstanding complaints by a predominantly black community that they were being routinely harassed by the police.

    On the eve of what was expected to be a tense City Council meeting on Tuesday, the first meeting since the shooting, the city instead pre-emptively announced many changes activists have long sought.

    Among other things, the Council was scheduled to vote on capping how much of the city’s revenue can come from fines. The city also announced a one-month bench warrant recall program, a major victory for the activists and lawyers who had pressed for change and were expected to force the issue at Tuesday’s meeting.

    “The overall goal of these changes is to improve trust within the community and increase transparency, particularly within Ferguson’s courts and police department,” one council member, Mark Byrne, said in a statement. “We want to demonstrate to residents that we take their concerns extremely seriously.”

    Lawyers and activists cautioned that the change could only be truly meaningful if other municipalities followed suit, because Ferguson is not alone in its predatory tactics, said Julia Ho, a community organizer at Hands Up United.

    “The bench warrants and traffic fines were a regressive tax on the poor and criminalization of poverty,” Ms. Ho said. “If people no longer receive these charges, that’s huge: It keeps people from getting stuck in modern debtor’s prisons.”

    The Arch City Defenders, a nonprofit legal group, and law professors at the Saint Louis University School of Law recently wrote a letter to the mayor, James Knowles, asking him to waive all pending fines and warrants for nonviolent offenses. Noting that Ferguson currently has more warrants than residents, the letter said the warrants serve as barriers to employment and housing.

    “I am really glad they responded to our request,” said Thomas B. Harvey, executive director of the Arch City Defenders. “Although it’s not exactly what we asked for, it’s a substantial step forward.”

    Ferguson, a city of just 20,000 people, issued 24,532 warrants for 12,000 cases last year, the group said in a recent report. That amounts to three warrants per Ferguson household.

    About 20 percent of the city’s $12 million budget is paid through fines, Mr. Harvey said. Under the proposal announced Monday, the city will cap that at 15 percent, and spend any excess on special community projects.

    “The Council believes that this ordinance sends a clear message that the fines imposed as punishment in the municipal court are not to be viewed as a source of revenue for the city,” Ferguson’s Council said in a statement. “We are hopeful that the Council’s clear statement will encourage the municipal judge and prosecutor to explore and utilize alternative methods of sentencing, such as community service, to punish violators and deter similar unlawful conduct.”

    Mr. Harvey said he was concerned about the “wiggle room” the city anticipated. “That’s still $1.7 million in fines collected, but it is a million-dollar drop,” he said.

    The city’s traffic fine revenue has increased 44 percent since 2011. When drivers who could not pay failed to show up for court, the city issued warrants and increased the penalties.

    The city said it would commit to funding a community improvement program and would hold ward meetings to elicit community input on what other changes should be made.

    The city said it would also introduce an ordinance to repeal the “failure to appear” offense in municipal court, eliminating the additional fines imposed on those who do not attend court; abolish administrative fees, such as the $25 fee to cover the cost of police personnel who arrange for the towing of abandoned, nonfunctional or other vehicles, as well as the $50 fee to recall a warrant and the $15 notification fee assessed when someone did not show up.

    The municipal judge has signed an order establishing a special docket for defendants who are having trouble making monthly payments on outstanding fines, the city said, giving people the opportunity to renegotiate their payment plans.

    At the behest of the City Council, the municipal judge also established a one-month warrant recall program.

    Meldon Moffitt, 42, of Ferguson, said Monday that he felt the measures did not go far enough.

    Mr. Moffitt said he owed more than $600 in fines for a suspended license, even though he had tried to fight the charge in court. He took paperwork to court that the Department of Motor Vehicles told him would be sufficient, he said, but the judge levied additional fines anyway.

    “To be honest, I don’t see how I should have been fined at all since I did what I was told to do,” Mr. Moffitt said.

    Even if the city cuts back on certain fines, he said, the city will still find a way to get the money it needs.

    “I need to see that if a person misses a court date, there isn’t a warrant out for their arrest,” he said. “The city needs to stop giving people big old fines for a traffic ticket.”

    Source
    Last edited by panopticon; 9th September 2014 at 02:58. Reason: Added source to NYT article at bottom
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Good short docu on how US police became militarised (much of it we've already covered in this thread but its a well presented short so worth popping in the mix):

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Just a quick update.

    CNN have released details of an interview with one of the contractors:
    New Michael Brown shooting witnesses describe scene

    The original phone camera footage used in the CNN report was available a month ago and is here.

    Chucky C Johnson (rightly in my opinion) lost his bid to access Brown's juvenile record as did the STL Post-dispatch.

    The footage from the Ferguson City Council Meeting (9th September) is available (for the moment) and while the audio isn't that crash hot the sentiment is fairly obvious (missing opening section):



    Unrelated. There are reports that the shopping store footage of the police shooting of John Crawford III in an Ohio Walmart shows he was not threatening anyone and was shot in the back while talking on the phone with his partner & parents. In addition the 911 caller has changed his story:
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...tnesss-account

    BTW there is no reason why Crawford shouldn't have been walking around with a gun in Ohio under the legislation.

    The officers are reported to have not asked if he had a permit (which isn't necessary anyway) and if there was no evidence of threatening behaviour then why was he shot?

    The 911 call from a bloke who has changed his story. That's why.

    -- Pan
    "What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
    The only consequence is what we do."

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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

    Video Shows Witnesses' Disbelief Following Michael Brown Shooting

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5801330.html {please go to the link on the left for the video}

    A video airing on CNN Wednesday showed witnesses' immediate reactions to the shooting death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer last month.

    In a cell phone video provided to CNN, two men who were doing construction work on a home near the scene react to seeing Brown shot by Officer Darren Wilson.

    "He had his f**king hands up," one man says in the recording.

    The men later spoke to CNN about what they saw. One worker said he heard two gunshots about 30 seconds apart:

    Quote "The cop didn't say get on the ground. He just kept shooting," the man said.
    That same witness described the gruesome scene, saying he saw Brown's "brains come out of his head," again stating, "his hands were up."
    ...
    The other contractor told CNN he saw Brown running away from a police car.
    Brown "put his hands up," the construction worker said, and "the officer was chasing him."
    The contractor says he saw Wilson fire a shot at Brown while his back was turned.
    The two men in the video spoke under the condition of anonymity to CNN. It is not clear if they are the same construction workers who spoke to St. Louis' Fox 2 and the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

    “I saw him staggering and running and when he finally caught himself he threw his hands up and started screaming OK OK OK OK OK and then the three officers come through the thing and the one just started shooting," one man told Fox 2 last month.

    A friend of Brown's, Dorian Johnson, has also come forward as a witness. Speaking to KSDK in St. Louis last month, Johnson said Brown had not reached for Wilson's weapon.

    "It was definitely like being shot like an animal," Johnson said.

    Federal investigators stepped in to help probe Brown's death after protests erupted in the St. Louis suburb following the August 9 shooting. The Justice Department is also investigating the conduct of Ferguson's police as well as the county police force.
    "The sleeper must awaken," quote by Duke Leto Atreides from the movie, Dune.


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    Default Re: Mayhem in Missouri Breaks Out

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