Tag: Darren Wilson

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News The Fly-By

Ferguson Decision Brings To Mind Memphis Police-involved Shootings

CREDIT: Louis Goggans

Protests were organized across the country last week, following a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury’s decision to not indict police officer Darren Wilson in the August killing of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Some in Ferguson held peaceful protests. But others looted and vandalized local shops and burned buildings and cop cars. In other areas of the country, including Memphis, demonstrations in opposition to the decision remained peaceful.

Louis Goggans

A protester at the Ferguson solidarity demonstration in Memphis last week

On Tuesday, November 25th, more than 100 people gathered at the intersection of Poplar and Highland, holding signs and chanting. Jordan Brock, a 24-year-old University of Memphis student, was among the peaceful group of protesters. However, he said he didn’t feel like the local protest would bring change.

“I was under the impression that we were going to march somewhere to try to talk to some kind of public official [and] get some answers to prevent a Mike Brown [incident] happening in Memphis,” Brock said. “But no, it was just us with signs on the intersection making good chants every five minutes. I understand that everybody wanted to be a part of a movement, but there’s no point of doing that if you don’t know what you’re protesting about.”

On August 9th, Wilson, 28, reportedly stopped Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson as they walked down the middle of a two-lane street in Ferguson. While in his Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicle, Wilson requested the two get on the sidewalk. After an exchange of words, a tussle ensued in the SUV between Wilson and Brown.

During the struggle, Wilson’s weapon was unholstered and discharged inside his SUV, according to reports. After being grazed in the hand by one of the bullets, Brown reportedly ran away from Wilson, who pursued him.

But at some point, Brown allegedly stopped running, turned around, and charged toward Wilson, according to Wilson’s account of the story. Subsequently, Wilson fired 10 shots, several of which struck Brown in his head, chest, and right arm, killing him.

Despite avoiding indictment in the shooting, Wilson resigned from the Ferguson police department on Saturday. He attributed his resignation to being concerned about his continued employment jeopardizing the safety of colleagues.

Although locals have focused attention on Ferguson, numerous controversial police-involved shootings have taken place over recent years in Memphis.

Following the December 2012 death of Martoiya Lang, a police officer who was fatally shot while serving a search warrant at an East Memphis home, several people were shot by Memphis police officers.

Memphis attorney Howard Manis is the defense attorney for the families of two of those victims: 24-year-old Steven Askew and 67-year-old Donald Moore. Both families have filed lawsuits against the MPD and city of Memphis, alleging civil rights violations.

On January 11, 2013, Memphis police officer Phillip Penny fatally shot Moore with an assault rifle at his Cordova home. Penny alleged that Moore pointed a gun at him and several Memphis Animal Services employees who were there to serve an animal cruelty warrant.

A week later, on January 17th, Memphis police officers Ned Aufdenkamp and Matthew Dyess shot and killed Askew as he sat in his car in the parking lot of the Windsor Place Apartments. The officers shot Askew nine times after he allegedly pointed his handgun at them.

Manis said with police-involved shootings occurring locally as well as across the nation, it’s imperative for officers to receive additional training on how to handle people of all races during intense situations.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of the police, and the police shouldn’t be afraid of us,” Manis said. “No matter what the color of our skin, what neighborhood we live in, the way we dress [or] act, no one should make generalized assumptions about people and then act solely based on those assumptions.”

According to Memphis Police Department policy, “Officers shall use only the necessary amount of force that is consistent with the accomplishment of their duties, and must exhaust every other reasonable means of prevention, apprehension, or defense before resorting to the use of deadly force.

“Officers are authorized to use deadly force in self-defense if they have been attacked with deadly force, are being threatened with the use of deadly force, or has probable cause and reasonably perceives an immediate threat of deadly force. An officer can also use defense if a third party has been attacked with deadly force, is being threatened with the use of deadly force, is in danger of serious bodily injury or death; or where the officer has probable cause and reasonably perceives an immediate threat of deadly force to a third party.”

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Prosecution Rests

Like many Americans, I watched St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch make his announcement on television Monday night regarding the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case. And like many Americans, I wasn’t surprised that the grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, nor was I surprised at the unrest that followed.

The signs had been clear. For days in advance of the announcement, we’d heard and read stories about an increased police and National Guard presence in St. Louis. The Ku Klux Klan had announced they’d be there to help stir the pot. Protestors had been organizing for weeks. The kettle was simmering, just waiting for the heat to be kicked up a notch. McCulloch’s announcement was all that was needed.

As any lawyer will tell you, prosecutors use grand juries to build a case for indictment, which sends the case to trial. They are not obligated to present both sides of the story, and they seldom do. And it is a rare grand jury that does not indict when presented with prosecutorial evidence. For example, prosecutors at the federal level pursued more than 160,000 cases in 2009-2010 (the most recent available data), and grand juries voted not to return an indictment in 11 cases. If a prosecutor wants a grand jury to indict, they will, literally 99.9 percent of the time.

It was quite apparent, given his long recitation of evidence supporting Wilson’s story, that McCulloch did not want to prosecute. And it’s true, police have the right under law to shoot to kill if they feel their safety or the safety of others is threatened. That’s pretty much a “get-out-of-prosecution-free” card, unless there’s strong evidence to the contrary, especially given the symbiotic relationship between prosecutors and police.

There’s a reason those photo-ops for drug busts and gang arrests always feature the district attorney and the police chief standing side by side. Cops need the district attorney to validate their arrests by prosecuting the offenders, and district attorneys need cops to testify in their prosecutions.

So why go through the charade? Why not just say there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute? And why, for heaven’s sake, would you make the announcement at 8:30 p.m., when crowds are most likely to be able to gather and when darkness provides cover for looters, making the situation more dangerous for the police, businesses, legitimate protestors, and citizens just wanting to stay safe in their homes? Wouldn’t common sense suggest a better time might be, say, 8:30 a.m.?

There are many questions lingering around this story, and many witnesses and much evidence that will never see a courtroom, and that’s where the frustration comes from. It’s possible that Wilson’s story would have held up in court, and it’s also possible that a forthright prosecutor could have torn holes in his story. Now we’ll never know. The truth is lost in the fire and tear gas and darkness of night.

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Editorial Opinion

After Ferguson …

CREDIT: St. Louis Public Radio

St. Louis Public Radio

We are tempted to say there are no easy answers. Or is that too easy an answer? As we go to press, in the wake of a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, chaos has descended once more on Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb where the shooting of the unarmed black youth occurred in August. Even the first reports of arson, looting, and actual and potential violence made it clear that the reaction this time was more serious than the relatively controlled protests that occurred at the time of the shooting. 

And perhaps more general. Even before the grand jury’s decision was known, there had been widespread apprehension in other places. Advance emergency preparations had been made by local governments everywhere, including Memphis and Shelby County. 

There had been fears that the testimony and other proceedings of the grand jury would remain sealed — a circumstance that surely would have fueled the discontent. But the transcripts have been released, and the story they tell indicates that Officer Wilson underwent something less than relentless interrogation.

That won’t help assuage the sense of violation that is clearly felt, not only by the African-American population of Ferguson, nor will it allay the outrage of numerous other Americans, regardless of ethnicity, who suspect not only a miscarriage of justice, but, as a lawyer for the aggrieved Brown family said on Tuesday, that “this system is broken.” Meaning not just the system of American jurisprudence, but the very idea of fairness and equality in the nation at large.

Nor are such feelings confined to those who see Brown as the victim. Another whole slice of the nation is convinced that law enforcement itself is under siege, that Wilson was in the position of a scapegoat, that, at worst, he may have overreacted to extreme provocation in the course of doing his duty as a guardian of the peace. There is, after all, a surveillance clip of young Brown apparently bullying a diminutive Asian proprietor as he walks out of his store without paying for a clutch of cigars. Did he then, as Wilson apparently insisted, become threatening and grapple for the officer’s weapon when challenged to get out of the middle of the street?

Was Brown advancing on Wilson at the time he was shot? Or was he backing off with his hands up? The one thing we know is that Wilson shot to kill, and that action can never be undone.

Even had the grand jury process been truly thorough-going — and there is general agreement that it wasn’t — the actual truths of this matter might have remained obscure. They might indeed have been undiscernible. And that may be the real lesson of Ferguson, that there are circumstances that, by their very nature, do not permit complete answers. 

But that does not obviate the need to establish conditions of justice. And, come what may, it cannot be said that justice had a complete chance to prevail in Ferguson, Missouri.

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News News Blog

Locals Protest at Intersection of Poplar and Highland

CREDIT: Louis Goggans

Louis Goggans

A protester near the intersection of Poplar and Highland.

A day after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting unarmed teen Michael Brown, a large group of protesters gathered at the busy intersection of Poplar and Highland.

Wielding signs emblazoned with words like “Film the Police,” “Protect Us, Don’t Kill Us,” and “No Justice,” the group began gathering around 5 p.m. The amount of protesters quickly increased from a couple dozen to more than 50 by 5:30 p.m.

Protesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” and “Stand up, stand down, we’re doing this for Mike Brown!” as a handful of Memphis police officers looked on.

Several people spoke to the large crowd, motivating them to fight against police brutality and racial injustice. And numerous cars that passed by honked their horns in support of the protest. 

The event was orchestrated by the Mid-South Youth Collective, Enough is Enough Memphis, and the Brotherhood & Sisterhood.

View some images from the protest below. 

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News News Blog

Memphians Oppose Missouri Grand Jury Decision, Plan Protest

After months of deliberation, a Missouri grand jury decided Monday that Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer responsible for fatally shooting unarmed teen Michael Brown in August, would not be indicted.

The decision reportedly sparked protests in Ferguson, Chicago, New York, Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

Protests are also slated to take place in Memphis.

This evening, locals opposed to the grand jury’s decision will hold a peaceful demonstration at the intersection of Poplar and Highland. The protest is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

Representatives from Mid-South Youth Collective, Enough is Enough Memphis, and The Brotherhood & Sisterhood are spearheading the gathering, which seeks to help cease the use of excessive force by law enforcement and racial profiling.

“The unjust murder of Michael Brown Jr. is only a small glimpse into growing issues surrounding police violence,” said Sha’ona Coleman of the Mid-South Youth Collective in a statement. “The use of excessive force on unarmed black and brown people of color in America has been increasing. We have to challenge and address the system of how white supremacy in America shapes rules and regulations of our police departments. There is no reason I should fear the people that are put in place to protect me.”

In the light of the possibility that violent protests would occur following the Missouri grand jury’s announcement, Memphis Police Department (MPD) had its day shift officers work later to increase available manpower on Monday night. However, things remained peaceful. 

“I anticipate the citizens of our great city to exercise their right to free speech and demonstrate in wake of the Ferguson, Missouri’s grand jury decision not to indict; however, it is expected that our citizens will do so in a lawful manner,” said MPD Director Toney Armstrong in a statement. “The Memphis Police Department will be visible during such demonstrations and in the unlikely event that unlawful conduct arises, the men and women of this Department are prepared to take the necessary action to prevent violence and maintain public safety. While the public has the right to demonstrate, by no means will violence and lawlessness be tolerated.”

On August 9th, Wilson, 28, reportedly stopped Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson as they walked down the middle of a two-lane street. While in his Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicle, Wilson requested for the two to get on the sidewalk. After an exchange of words, a tussle ensued between Wilson and Brown.

During the struggle, Wilson’s weapon was reportedly un-holstered and discharged inside his SUV, according to an autopsy obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After being grazed in the hand by one of the bullets, Brown began to run up the street; Wilson chased after him.

Brown eventually turned around and started charging toward Wilson, according to reports. Wilson then reportedly drew his weapon and discharged it 10 times at Brown. The 18-year-old high school graduate was struck multiple times, including in the head, chest, and right arm, according to the autopsy.

Brown’s death sparked months of protests and looting in Ferguson, along with a public outcry against police brutality and racial injustice.

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently in the process of investigating whether Wilson violated Brown’s civil rights as well as the practices of the Ferguson Police Department.