On the eve of the decision not to prosecute of Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, state prosecutors are considering charges against Michael Brown’s family. While potentially explosive in light of the rejection of civil rights charges, the case is based on what is reported as criminal acts of assault and theft by Brown’s mother Lesley McSpadden and other family members.
The incident stems from who is entitled to cash in on the name of Michael Brown. A “Justice for Mike Brown” stand was set up outside of a restaurant to sell teeshirts and other items. One of the vendors was Pearlie Gordon, 54, the mother-in-law of Michael Brown Sr. (who is divorced from McSpadden).
The police say that a group of about 20-30 suspects “jumped out of vehicles and rushed” Gordon, Tony Petty, and Matthew Cosey. McSpadden, 34, is quoted as saying “You can’t sell this shit.” What reportedly ensued was an intense debate of who had trademark options on the name of the dead teenager. Gordon reportedly states that “unless McSpadden could produce documentation stating that she had a patent on her son’s name she (Gordon) was going to continue to sell her merchandise.” Police say that Desureia Harris, McSpadden’s mother, then began to rip down t-shirts while other family members began “tearing her booth apart.” Gordon allegedly was knocked to the ground and repeatedly struck in the head. Gordon accused McSpadden of running up and punching her while one of McSpadden’s group encouraged her to “get her ass.”
Also accused is McSpadden’s husband, Louis Head, who was previously the subject of calls for prosecution in his encouraging protesters to “Burn this bitch down” after no charges were brought against Wilson.
Petty was also transported to a local hospital for treatment of “injuries sustained during the assault.” Police also found that more than $1500 in merchandise and $400 in cash “was stolen by unknown subjects” during the assault and that they fled before the arrival of the police.
To make matters worse for the Brown family, there is a witness as well as a videotape showing the assault on the vendors, according to police.
That record would seem highly compelling for criminal charges. They have sworn statements from the alleged victim, third-party witnesses and a possible videotape showing a vendor being pinned on the ground. That does not rule out defenses based on claims that the vendors started the fight. However, self-defense would not excuse the alleged taking of merchandize and cash.
In a normal situation, there would have already been arrests and charges in such a case. However, this case seems anything but conventional and prosecutors may be more timid after prior events triggered arson and looting. The delay may be a reflection of that caution, but (absent new evidence) there may be no avoiding arrests in the case since at least two people were sent to the hospital and violence was involved in the alleged crimes.
Here is the police report: Brown Family police report
I don’t see how you interpret anyone’s comments to mean these two members of the police force were “sorta shot”.
They were shot. The extent of their injuries from said shot is different.
This 6 year old is “sorta” dead and a white officer tried to save him but they are trying to keep that out of the news.
http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/crime/2015/03/11/child-shot-in-north-city/70183344/
Being as that is not politically correct for the area
T Justice – I don’t have to look up Ferguson. It went up to 61 percent just recently to African Americans I adopted my little dog from a Hispanic lady from there and she agreed with me on statistics and how they were moving on out. I could trade war stories with you for hours. Really. Like when I was in Woodson Terrace next to a Shake and Bake shop and they brought in every little sh!t burgh and the County Mountys too and evacuated all of us an d still couldn’t catch my dirt bag white neighbors, I lived in Overland and St Ann and Bridgeton too and had to leave there because of the airport expansion I had to move because my Husband had a stroke and I couldn’t do steps anymore(in Ferguson). I used to live up by 70 and S Florissant Okay. I got along real well with my Black neighbors. I did not make a racist remark. Your mind is twisted by propaganda. If you lived back in the days when it was really bad, then I would understand, but you don’t . So, stop complaining and get a life. I moved from there to 10th and Washington and had to move again because it was okay at first. I let my car go and rode a bike did the metro and the bus, they moved it up to 14th street and then I got tired of not quite being able to always get past the little “parks” fast enough. When I got shot at twice – I moved my husband to a clinic for head injuries in SE Missouri because that’s where the Veterans home was I was gonna put him at eventually and it was the best move I ever made.
Now I want you to understand this and let me be clear – I am not complaining. I am proud of what I have done with my life because I have overcome more adversity than any of my women friends I know and I am an example to them. I have been able to become a Christian because of this out of the ashes of despair of atheism and I am now whole.
So, are we good?
So, they were just “Sorta shot?” Enabling and rationalizing.
Nick – if they are ‘sorta shot’ do they ‘sorta heal’ or ‘sorta die?’
Nick Spinelli
you also fail to mention that the shots were not fired amongst the group of peaceful protesters. I know that doesn’t go-along with you narrative, but that is what is being reported as fact.
@Nick Spinelli
“You all do know 2 Ferguson cops were shot today. I’m sure they had it coming. Enabling has consequences. Tough love is needed.”
Fortunately, I read that the two were treated and released.
Who’s been or needs to be enabled and by what or whom, and who needs tough love?
I feel like I need my Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring, and I don’t know where it is 🙂
You all do know 2 Ferguson cops were shot today. I’m sure they had it coming. Enabling has consequences. Tough love is needed.
Nick Spinelli
Mespo would crap his pants if he ever wandered out of his lily white area of Richmond. He likes black folk, just not in his zip code.
==============================================
You gonna lend him your guide, bwana nick?
Bob Stone is ahead on points 23-2. Mespo needs a knockout, but he’s got no knockout punch, and the clock is ticking.
Mespo would crap his pants if he ever wandered out of his lily white area of Richmond. He likes black folk, just not in his zip code. He like them in the abstract, like all limo and Prius liberals. He is part of the Al Sharpton posse.
It’s tribalism, Ken, more than authoritarianism. Brown was the “other” to Wilson and the other cops in Ferguson as subsequent events have born out. Hence his difference made him the object of suspicion.
Bob:
The Brown family’s version of events is their dead son’s position. Sadly he’s not around to give it. Officer Wilson made sure of that fact with a fusillade of bullets even as other cops were just minutes away from the scene. Btw you sure look like you’re defending the power structure with your vituperative attack on anyone who disagrees with you. You want to carry water for this coward in a squad car? Be my guest, but at least acknowledge you’re supporting a racist system in the process.
Mark,
It’s truly amazing how intent you are in clinging to a narrative that was shown to be a fairy tale by the DOJ.
Brown is Dead because he assaulted a cop and nearly killed him while wrestling for his gun, fled, and thence charged towards said cop threatening round 2 after being told several times to stop.
See pages 82-85 and stop spreading lies.
Ken Rogers
Let’s be clear, I’m no more defending a “power structure” any more than I’m carving an ice statute at the moment.
I simply don’t like being forced to accept lies as gospel.
I didn’t like it in Bush v. Gore; I didn’t like it in the lead up to the war with Iraq, and I especially don’t like it when I find myself in a modern day version of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”
I’m still waiting for an answer as to why the “Brown family’s version of events” would be relevant to a detached, neutral and COMPETENT investigator and what facts and evidence you have to allege a possible manslaughter or negligent homicide charge.
I have news for you.
No matter how many times you repeat the fairy tale you were told and accepted as gospel; it won’t make it true.
“Their crime was walking single file in the middle of the street.”
This is Rush Limbaugh level lying.
Ken:
When you really get to know him you’ll learn he’s a man for all seasons imbued with the common touch even though he’s been everywhere, done everything, and walks equally well with princes and paupers but yet is humble and circumspect. Truly the Sage of Madison or San Diego or wherever he lays his head. Some call him libertarian. I call him a liberal godsend. He just keeps on giving.
@mespo727272
“It’s tribalism, Ken, more than authoritarianism. Brown was the ‘other’ to Wilson and the other cops in Ferguson as subsequent events have born out. Hence his difference made him the object of suspicion.”
I hear what you’re saying, and not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive, but my theoretical and practical experience of the two incline me to give more weight to the authoritarianism. I’ll get back to you after I’ve had time to re-read some things and think about it some more.
Thanks for your own observations about the tragedy of the sunshine on the community pillars in Ferguson. Who knew it would make them crumble like that?
@Bob Stone
“Ken Rogers Let’s be clear, I’m no more defending a “power structure” any more than I’m carving an ice statute at the moment. I simply don’t like being forced to accept lies as gospel. I didn’t like it in Bush v. Gore; I didn’t like it in the lead up to the war with Iraq, and I especially don’t like it when I find myself in a modern day version of Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible.’ ”
Bob,
I haven’t been following the Ferguson saga as closely as I take it you and Mespo have, so I don’t know what you’re alluding to when you say you “don’t like being forced to accept lies as gospel” or what you mean about being a character in “The Crucible.”
Can you ‘splain me?
Ken
Bob,Esq:
Read page 12, Bob. Their crime was walking single file in the middle of the street.
“Read page 12, Bob. Their crime was walking single file in the middle of the street.”
Actually, as early as page 6 the DOJ shows how that narrative you’re so fond of is not true:
“As Wilson drove toward Brown and Witness 101, he told the two men to walk on the sidewalk. According to Wilson’s statement to prosecutors and investigators, he suspected that Brown and Witness 101 were involved in the incident at Ferguson Market based on the descriptions he heard on the radio and the cigarillos in Brown’s hands. Wilson then called for backup, stating, “Put me on Canfield with two and send me another car.” Wilson backed up his SUV and parked at an angle, blocking most of both lanes of traffic, and stopping Brown and Witness 101 from walking any further. Wilson attempted to open the driver’s door of the SUV to exit his vehicle, but as he swung it open, the door came into contact with Brown’s body and either rebounded closed or Brown pushed it closed.”
The problem is, Bob, that the DOJ totaled disregarded Wilson’s supervisor’s remark immediately after the shooting that Wilson knew nothing about the prior incident at the market.
The problem is, Mark, that you didn’t read the report to find out how and why they arrived at their conclusions regarding Wilson’s actions.
@mespo727272
“Nick is classy, Kenny. Isn’t it obvious? And witty too.”
He seems intent on my becoming aware of these things, yes.
Nick:
“You do realize black cops working the inner city turn into racists, hating black people as well. Of course you didn’t.”
*******************
Give yourself a rose there, Nick. You’ve reached a new level of twisted. By “black cops” I assume you mean you.
Give it up Bob. The community has spoken: Wilson’s out of job and on the run, his chief is fired, his city manager fired, too. The judge and his racist clerk are out along with various cops who epitomized the race based law enforcement in Ferguson. You’re missing the forest as you defend the tree and condoning a racist system now standing only in ashes. And for what? Out of some loyalty to a cowboy cop who thought hassling some black kids for jaywalking was his raison d’être. You got funny ideas about what’s important.
Mark,
“Out of some loyalty to a cowboy cop who thought hassling some black kids for jaywalking was his raison d’être. You got funny ideas about what’s important.”
That’s not in the DOJ report because it didn’t happen. Reading is fundamental.
Your refusal to read the report shows that you were less interested in ascertaining the truth of what happened than deriving a cheap pornographic thrill from watching a man be put on trial for his life in the name of some “greater cause.”
Jamie Leigh Jones would be proud.
@mespo727272
“Give it up Bob. The community has spoken: Wilson’s out of job and on the run, his chief is fired, his city manager fired, too. The judge and his racist clerk are out along with various cops who epitomized the race based law enforcement in Ferguson. You’re missing the forest as you defend the tree and condoning a racist system now standing only in ashes. And for what? Out of some loyalty to a cowboy cop who thought hassling some black kids for jaywalking was his raison d’être. You got funny ideas about what’s important.”
Regarding “loyalty to a cowboy cop hassling some black kids for jaywalking,” one of the things that has begun to dawn on me from reading the comments of the defenders of Wilson and the Ferguson power structure is a possible connection I had never considered before between racism and authoritarianism. Many of the power structure’s defenders have written things in this and in other threads that suggest authoritarian tendencies, if not a commitment to it. This hypothesis of such a psychological nexus would account for the oddly shrill defense of both Wilson and the racist power structure in Ferguson, and I think I’ll explore it further.
By the way, what did you mean when you wrote that Wilson is “on the run”?
mespo – Wilson doesn’t have a job because his life was being threatened and his home address had been exposed. The 33 million spent by George Soros to inflame the public and support the protesters was well spent. Between that and the DoJ investigation, his life was not worth living in the community because a bunch of ignorant sluts were defaming him. YOU have been offered both the grand jury testimony and the DoJ report and your refuse to accept either. Rather sloppy for an attorney, even from a Southern state.
The agenda is enabling. The huge elephant in the room is the lack of a family structure in the inner city. Young, black, males, uneducated, unmotivated, and no work ethic. Drug and alcohol abuse rampant. Gun violence a daily occurrence. Young, black, females, treated inhumanely by black males and having babies w/o husbands @ an astounding >70% rate. This is white folk, who know nothing about the inner city, enabling this dysfunction. And, Al Sharpton is leading them. A racial pimp leading allegedly intelligent people. Hard working black folk are fed up w/ the white guilters and the their dysfunctional brothers and sisters. They are embarrassed. I have friends who talk about this all the time. This is like a bad soap opera. Some real tough love is what’s needed. But white folk, consumed by guilt, are just enabling. And, this Ferguson thing makes it abundantly clear. Prius liberals.