Police in Ferguson Missouri have revealed new bombshell information that Michael Brown was a Robbery suspect when he was shot and killed on August 9th.
This new information surfaced almost a full week later and after several nights of unrest and clashes between Police and angry residents who are demanding justice for the 18 year old.
The new Information comes to light after President Obama who is vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard addressed the Nation on the subject. Missouri’s US Senator, Claire McCaskill speaking at a Church said ‚” “This kind of response by the police has become the problem instead of the solution”, . Senator McCaskill was responding to the heavy handed approach adopted my Ferguson Police in response to the demonstrations. Senator McCaskill also said the Ferguson Police should be demilitarized .
The Ferguson Police released the information along with footage from a convenience store video, alleging that Brown is the person in the video roughing up a clerk and walking out with a box of sweet cigars valued at just under $50.00. They also acquiesced to residents demand by revealing the identity of the officer who shot and killed Brown . He is identified as 6 year veteran Darren Wilson.
Why did it take 5 days for Ferguson Police to reveal this new information? Even if true, does the police realize doing it this way creates more questions than answers. Ferguson Police also stated that Officer Wilson had no prior complaints against him. What the Chief did not reveal is that his Department had a policy of allowing Officers to complete those reports and that they never get placed into Officers personnel files. This Daily Beast story by Columnist Michael Daly speaks to this issue. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/15/the-day-ferguson-cops-were-caught-in-a-bloody-lie.html.
In these Blogs we speak frequently to the issue of the Militarization of local police forces. It is refreshing to see Claire McCaskill speak out against this frightening phenomenon. Ferguson like most other Police Departments benefits from a Pentagon’s Excess Property Program, known as 1033, which distributes
surplus military equipment to police. The program began in the early 1990s to assist anti-drug efforts and grew after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
When Police Departments gets equipped with Military hardware and manned by people many of whom have recently returned from war, you end up with these kinds of situations.
Here we talk a lot about the growing trend of Cops to be rude, aggressive, abrasive, and disrespectful. This blatantly disrespect tends to escalate rather quickly into violence when police deal with certain sector of the society some of them have scant respect for. This kind of behavior does nothing to foster better relationships between police departments and the communities they serve.
It also jeopardizes the safety and hard work of good officers as they jeopardize their own.