"Hands UP, Don't Shoot" Was Built on a Lie

[Jack Hays]

The Ferguson, MO city government and police department obviously needed change. The irony is that the movement generating change was based on a lie.

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

built on a lie"> Jonathan Capehart
The Justice Dept. report on the shooting of Michael Brown forced me to face uncomfortable truths.

"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. . . . ."

 

[OrphanSlug]

Not this **** again...

Yes, we know already that "hands up, don't shoot" was based on an event in which no one's hands were up and he got shot for advancing on a police officer. But that was not helpful to those that make a living finding racism at every corner, if it is really there or not is immaterial to these groups. And worse, the media listens to them.