In an ongoing reaction to the terrible grand jury decision not to indict a white police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed unarmed black youth Michal Brown, hundreds of students participated in a “die in” protest rally in Time Square on Monday December 1, 2014.
The youths gathered at Union Square as part of a national protest directing students to leave their schools at 12:01 p.m. (when Michael Brown was said to have been shot), with signs saying, “Jail Killer cops”, “Black lives Matter” and “ Hands Up, Don’t Shoot”.
While I commend all the students who conducted a peaceful protest for such worthy causes, I long to see the day when they will incorporate into their protests strategies, the mass publicizing of the misconduct of the DA’s office and the medical examiner, and all parties that had a roll in the misconduct that helped to get a bogus verdict in favor of guilty officers. And a sustained boycott of businesses and organizations that contribute to the sustained injustices. Hitting them in their pocket has always been the best way to make them change.
Issues that should be kept before the public’s eyes about the case are:
· The almost all white grand jury- 9 whites (6 white men, 3 white women) and only 3 blacks, only one of which was a black male. The jury selection was clearly rigged to favor Officer Wilson.
· Officer Wilson was allowed to wash himself and place his weapon in an evidence bag. Why?
· The Prosecution did not try to get an indictment. Allowed Wilson to testify for 4 hours, and did not cross examine Wilson. Why?
· His gun was never tested for fingerprints. Why?
· The medical examiner did not take pictures of the crime scene, claiming the batteries were dead. He took no measurements of the crime scene, shredded his notes after writing his report and was also allowed to testify about finding marijuana in one of Michael Brown’s pockets. Why? Why?, why?
· County District attorney Robert McCulloch’s father was an officer who was killed by a black man in the line of duty when Robert was 12. This should have been sufficient grounds to remove himself from the case but he was determined to stay. I think to make sure Wilson got off.
· While laying out the grand jury’s findings, McCulloch emphasized that some witnesses changed their stories, insinuating cause to reject their testimony, but he did not emphasize the consistent testimonies that favored Brown. No percentage of testimonies in favor of Brown was mentioned, but that witness testified to seeing Brown running towards Wilson was. (Please tell me what black man is going to run towards a white cop who is shooting at him?).
· Of McCulloch’s comments from the grand jury’s decision all but one favored Wilson. Why was his only comment in favor of Brown, the mention of “One” witness who testified that Brown was not in the police car at any time? McCulloch and the grand jury seemed to go out of their way to defend Wilson. McCulloch’s job was to seek an indictment due to probable cause, not act as a defense attorney for Officer Wilson.
· Why did McCulloch turn the grand jury into a sitting jury in favor of Officer Wilson? Their job was to determine if there was probable cause to believe a crime was committed by Officer Wilson. Even Justice Antonin Scalia was provoked by McCulloch’s behavior to publicly question his activity. In his revealing piece on the Think Progress.org website, Judd Legum shares Justice Scalia’s observations about the actual roll of the grand jury and how the Ferguson verdict was affected by McCulloch’s misuse of the grand jury process.
I could say more but I think you get the point. Keeping before the public the most strikingly outrageous actions by those guilty of bias on the side of a killer cop is important.
And now only a short time later we get the Garner grand jury verdict of no indictment. There is a clear disregard for justice on behalf of blacks in this country and throughout our cities, and people of all ethnicities are speaking out in numbers. The question is, can we make oppressors listen and change.