Criminal law, Society

Looting Breaks Out In Ferguson After Grand Jury Refuses Charges Against Wilson

Screen Shot 2014-11-25 at 7.45.44 AMScreen Shot 2014-11-25 at 7.45.10 AMYesterday, I ran a column discussing the curious sight of rioters and looters demanding “justice” when what they are really describing is mob justice in Ferguson, Missouri. I noted that the evidence did not support the initial claims of the shooting of Michael Brown and that demonstrations are not substitutes for demonstrated evidence in a criminal case. The response, however, to the declination of charges has been precisely what President Obama and the Brown family sought to avoid in their public comments. In perhaps the most symbolic incident, Ferguson Market and Liquor, the store that Michael Brown robbed before he was killed, was looted by people demanding “justice” for Brown.


A security camera captured Brown strong arming the store owner after stealing from the store:

Regardless of how one views the evidence of the shooting, the store owner was clearly strong armed by Brown and did nothing beyond being the victim of a reported crime. However, he now has a ransacked store and is somehow blamed for the killing.

The media filmed as people carted out stolen merchandise out of the store last night:

The discussion of the resulting looting and rioting often seemed a bit too enabling and relativistic. There is no rationale connection between ransacking stores and seeking justice, a point that President Obama made eloquently last night as did the Brown family (though reportedly with the exception of Brown’s stepfather). Indeed, some “meanings” drawn from the incident extended all the way to federalism principles.

While St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch detailed the evidence including testimony from African-American witnesses who refuted accounts of Michael Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, and onlookers Piaget Cranshaw and Tiffany Mitchell. He was not shot in his back and was initially shot in a struggle with Wilson in (or partially in) the police vehicle. Nevertheless, the verdict was denounced by various commentators, including MSNBC contributor Michelle Bernard who called Brown the latest “casualty” of what seems to be nationwide “war on black boys.” Bernard curiously blamed federalism and state rights for part of the problem, saying that people see this case and say “we don’t want to hear about states rights.” She also calls on the Justice Department to “get involved” and “intervene.”

However, the Justice Department has intervened and reportedly also found no basis for charges in the case under civil rights provisions. If those accounts are accurate, the declination of such charges may trigger no violence by those who define justice as not a guaranteed process but a guaranteed punishment.

333 thoughts on “Looting Breaks Out In Ferguson After Grand Jury Refuses Charges Against Wilson”

    1. Michael Haz – the New Black Panthers, that would be the group caught with the explosives.

  2. You can search for #OWS on your twitter feed to read more about the dozens of marches, protests and demonstrations that OWS has organized to take place today in various American cities. They are using Michael Brown’s death to advance their agenda.

  3. It’s quite a leap from coming into the community and organizing looting, rioting, etc… I thought all you white wingers wanted to wait and see all the evidence in ALL crimes, not just pick and choose. Any evidence, any arrest, anything at all other than a single photograph?

  4. The woman in this photo is identified as Lisa Fithian</a<, part of the OWS mess. She is shown here in October organizing in Ferguson.

    If you want an example of progressive, anarchist racism, this is it. Progressive whites come into a community and organize blacks to act against their own interest by looting, rioting, shooting, burning down local businesses, destroying jobs. And then they go back to whatever safe community they came from.

    They don't care about Michael Brown; they simply want to use his death to advance their cause. And they surely don't care about helping anyone in Ferguson. It's all about THEIR cause, and the people in Ferguson were duped.

  5. Schulte – you do not have to cite common knowledge.

    Not with Judge Roy Bean Schulte presiding, I guess. Thankfully libel laws view thing a bit differently.

  7. Zedalis:

    “We’ll never know the facts now, happy?”

    Totally untrue. Evidence will be released to the public.

    “I’d start with an open and transparent adjudication of the ones that shoot unarmed citizens. Is that random?”

    According to the legal system in MO, the GJ reviewed all evidence and determined a “no” bill on all 5 indictments.

    Shall we make a whole new legal process just for Mr Brown?

    The evidence will be released to the public.

    It sounds like you are uninterested in reading any evidence, or coming to any conclusion other than Officer Wilson shot Brown for no justifiable reason. Because you seem quite antagonistic towards the very reasonable advice to wait until you read all the evidence to declare a miscarriage of justice.

  11. Schulte –

    So, no citations? Schulte Court of Justice now in session. Schulte presiding.

  13. Just to point out a point that people, including Professor Turley, keep bringing up.

    According to the owner of the store, and the clerk seen on video, there was no theft at the store. The original call was not made by the clerk, but by a 3rd party in the store that believed Brown was stealing. So if the store owner said there was no crime, where do people get off repeating the ‘Brown robbed the place’ as a justification for the events that ended with Brown dead in the street?

    People repeating this are at least as bad as the people claiming Brown didn’t go for the gun. Evidence means something no matter how much someone wishes it didn’t.

    Going on the word of the store owner and the clerk on duty at the time, Brown did not rob the store, which would not have mattered anyways because according to the police, Wilson did not know a robbery had been reported. The only reason to keep pushing the robbery story is to defame Brown after the fact, as if stealing a box of cigars somehow justified the shooting.

    I do not know what happened on that street in August aside from that Wilson confronted Brown for some reason, Brown reacted badly and the officer opened fire in 2 separate volleys of gunfire.

    And while I cannot say if Brown’s death was justified, I can say that it mimics a great many other cases where police used deadly force in questionable ways. Sadly, in cases like those, Oscar Grant as an example, even when there is video and witness evidence that contradicted the police account, the race and history of the victim was used as a way to allow a police office to get away with using unreasonable force.

    The US has a serious problem with uneven justice. What we are seeing in Ferguson has a lot less to do with Michael Brown than it does with the growing resentment of a justice system that seems to come down on one group a lot harder than it does others for similar crimes.

    That is the real lesson here, but most people won’t learn it. They are too set in their ways to ever challenge the idea that this nation has serious problems. Instead they argue that the other side is the real problem when the sad truth is that we all are the problem, and until we decide to fix it, nothing is ever going to get better.

  15. Allegations of misconduct rarely result in charges. Is there something wrong with this picture?

    Yes. You want to convict ONE man based on the actions of other people as some sort of a scapegoat. You don’t want to consider the facts in THIS one case and prefer to pillory someone as an example in a show trial to justify your prejudices.

  17. Schulte

    Please cite any felony convictions. Conversely, please examine your need to become a one-man judge and jury.

    1. zedalis – anyone who attacks an officer of the law has committed a felony and is thus a felon. Have a problem with that?

  18. The evidence reviewed by the Grand Jury has been released to the public. The media has a copy of it and is currently reviewing it.

    What evidence, that someone would consider to be important, was not reviewed by the Grand Jury?

    Perhaps the best question to ask would be;

    If Michael Brown punched Officer Wilson in the face, attempted to flee, then turned around and started to charge at Officer Wilson, was Wilson justified in the use of deadly force?

    If your answer to that question is “No”, then the problem is YOU. Not the Prosecutor. Not the Police Department. Not the laws of Missouri or the United States. If you would answer “No” to that question..the problem is YOU.

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