I am sorry, but the police have screwed this up from the beginning.

I agree, but that has little to no relationship to Wilson’s guilt or innocence.

In the comments herein is the “grocery boy error”. A young man who graduated from high school with my first wife around 1960 celebrated by driving his car at great speed along route 97 just north of New York City. The laws of physics had the boy leave the serpentine road and crash into a large rock. The boy was not perfect as shown in his propensity to speed, but speeding is not a capital offense. His death was tragic. Had police been nearby, the boy’s death would have been blamed on them.

In Ferguson, a son died at a tender age of 18. Steeling cigars is not a capital offense, and neither is walking in the street. Since police are not charged with punishment, the arguments are irrelevant as to culpability. Clearly the youth was walking in the street and the policeman was justified in asking the boy to go to the sidewalk. Why didn’t the boy just do as was asked of him? That is the problem. As to the ridiculous claim that the youth surrendered to the policeman by raising his hands, one would extend one’s hands to brake a fall to the pavement. If the boy surrendered, why didn’t he just go to the sidewalk in the first place?

Rioting is turning into “performance art.” And, Missouri? Who knew they could out-do Watts!

The Watts riots of 1965 resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage. The comparison of Ferguson to Watts can best be described as “uber-hyperbole.”

Do you know the police had been called because (Michael, as ID’d on the video), was inside a convenience market where he STOLE cigars!

I am unsure of your point here.

Officer Watson did not know of the theft at the convenience store, a little fact that was left out of the Chief of Police’s early Friday press conference.

Brown was not an angel and no one ever claimed he was. However, unless you are willing to say that Watson’s shooting of Brown was justified because of a $43 box of cigars (which Watson did not know about), you are still left with the idea that Brown was unarmed and according to witnesses, had his hands up and was not a threat being 25 – 30 feet away from Officer Watson.

And yes, the place from which the cigars were stolen was looted and burned. No one – and I mean no one – has defended the looting and destruction of property that occurred.

However, within Olson’s post and links is the fact that while the looting and the arson was taking place, the police were rolling down residential streets, lobbing tear gas onto private property and toward people that had not done anything. The police were also telling citizens and press they could not film the actions of the police – actions that took place out in the open. At the same time, the police were telling people they could not stay in a McDonalds to the point of arresting people even though the manager of the restaurant did not ask the police to clear the building or ask that people be charged with trespassing (which they were.)

Whether Officer Watson did anything wrong is still up for debate and will be decided by the legal system. However, what has happened is that across political and racial lines, the majority of people believe the police have not handled the actual shooting, the investigation, and the protestors well.

Olson nailed the fact that instead of being confrontational, the head of the MHP decided to work with people in the community instead of pointing guns at people expressing their opinions. The result was a quiet night on Thursday and what looks to be a quiet Friday night.

There is much to be learned from this incident. Hopefully communities and LEO’s will take the lessons and apply them.

The Ferguson police chief has reported that the officer didn’t know that Brown was a suspect in a robbery, so you will have to abandon that part of the narrative. I am certainly keeping an open mind until the whole story gets out, but I am still having a problem figuring out why the officer shot Brown so many times if he had foiled the attempt to take his weapon.

Still, this has nothing to do with the issues that gitacarver has eloquently outlined in his post.

Well, that wins the prize for bizarre comment of the week. Here, from the Washington Post, is a more sober assessment of the role of libertarians in the Ferguson controversy:

http://wapo.st/1nTPhj9

Now that the truth is out there (especially thanks to Drudge), I think most of the press has hightailed it out of there!

Did you know the people who live in Ferguson knew all along how tough and uncontrollable Michael Brown was?

Rioting is turning into “performance art.” And, Missouri? Who knew they could out-do Watts!

Cops were the villians? In an insane world, perhaps.