Wilson Leaves Lawn Half Mowed

1750Texan said:

You don't have a clue as to what the function of this grand jury was...do you?

The function of a grand jury is not to consider all the evidence presented by the police investigation to determine whether there is cause for the incident. The function of a grand jury is to evaluate the evidence presented by a prosecutor seeking an indictment of the accused.

The grand jury is never used to determine if a case exists...that is up to the DA. The DA never treated this case as a prosecutor.

That's ok, live in your delusion of due process and the rule of law. It has served you well till now.

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Oh, so you want the GJ to be used as a bludgeon as you see fit....You're wrong, but I am sure I, nor anyone else can convince you of that....

"A grand jury is a legal body that is empowered to conduct official proceedings to investigate potential criminal conduct and to determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may compel the production of documents and may compel the sworn testimony of witnesses to appear before it."

Grand jury - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Grand juries listen to evidence and decide if someone SHOULD be charged with a crime. "

What is a grand jury

"Grand jury proceedings are much more relaxed than normal court room proceedings. There is no judge present and frequently there are no lawyers except for the prosecutor. The prosecutor will explain the law to the jury and work with them to gather evidence and hear testimony. Under normal courtroom rules of evidence, exhibits and other testimony must adhere to strict rules before admission. However, a grand jury has broad power to see and hear almost anything they would like."

- See more at: How Does a Grand Jury Work? - FindLaw

Maybe it's you who doesn't understand the GJ process...

upsideguy said:

Its not simple, its actually quite complex. Let's start with the fact that you have no basis to declare him a thug, other than that "thug" has become a euphemism for black man. The question is whether Wilson could have acted differently such that Micheal Brown would be alive today.... alive not only to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family, but alive to tell his story, which has not been told.

Its simple, because to far too many, all inner city black kids are thugs and all white cops are peacekeeping heros. The world has one less thug; must be a good day. Sorry, but life ain't that simple.

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Many of us have used the word "thug" for decades in the context the word has always had. It's only in your world that it has become a "euphemism for black man".

I emphatically refuse to stop using a word I first heard my parents use to describe Italian mobsters in New York City, and to describe punks who beat up other kids in school, and even some members of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1970s.

Stop making everything a code word or a euphemism.

Michael Brown was a thug. His stepfather is a thug. George Zimmerman was a thug. The Thuggees in India to whom we owe the term "thug" were thugs. It isn't a "euphemism for black man". It's a term that means what it means and aptly describes a whole lot of people who ain't black.

Texmex said:

Although it appears that Wilson has escaped justice here, he will face the court of public opinion. This senseless act of his will cost him and his family dearly for years. I feel bad for his family, not for him.

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I agree that he's pretty much ruined life as he and his family knew it. I'm thinking that if I were that small of a man, and trying to corral two individuals suspect of any crime, I'd bide my time, follow them in the safety of a police cruiser at a safe distance, call for a backup unit or two, and wait for their arrival, logically speaking of course. After all, when police go to question or confront an average citizen, they know not if those citizens are carrying concealed weapons or not. Please note,
I used the word citizen and not civilian, this is sometimes where some people blur the line between civilian, citizen, cop, and military member.

Bad decision making on Wilson's part, number one, maybe not playing the situation as safe as he could have, which is why I've stated that he probably should have been a security guard and not a cop in the first place.

Police departments across the US are going to need to rethink procedures to keep cops from pulling guns on citizens as their first option.

jimbo said:

A lot of minconstruing of what we now know in this post. It would hardly be unusual for a LEO to ask a couple of people walking in the middle of the street to get on the sidewalk. I don't know the law in Ferguson, but in many areas streets are for driving, sidewalks are for walking. There was traffic on the road, unless you don't count police cars as traffic.

Wilson did not escalate the situation at that point. He let the matter drop and drove off. It was after he received the BOLO concerning a theft at his location, and realized that the two he had just confronted fit the description of the alleged thiefs that he backed up and readdressed the two. Then the confrontation started. Wilson was still in his car, and at least one shot hit Brown while Brown was reaching into the car. Wilson had injuries, indicating that Brown's intent was more than just offering Wilson one of the cigars he had just stolen.

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So, basically what you're saying is that Wilson's bad decision making is what ended up as a cold blooded murder.

CanadaJohn said:

It does seem that the media in the US gets away with subtly inciting violence. Perhaps one day a brave prosecutor will take up your challenge.

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you mean the media who manipulates the tape of a 911 call to make a certain person look like he was declaring a person was black -- like that's all the justification he needed to be following him rather than the 911 Operator asking what the suspect's persuasion was? That kinda gets away with stuff?

AJiveMan said:

So, basically what you're saying is that Wilson's bad decision making is what ended up as a cold blooded murder.

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No, that's what I'm basically saying.