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
“Inga and mespo feel that justice is being served when individuals, who had nothing to do with the death of the thug, known as Brown, lose their jobs. Same warped mentality of the criminals looting and burning stores. Just destroy anything in your path so that you can feel better. Someone’s gotta pay for the death of Brown, even if it was more than justified due to the circumstances. Sick.
******************
Speaking for just me, I think Justice was greatly served by rooting out not just the cop who caused the tragedy but the proven racist power structure that preyed on African-Americans in a systematic way per the findings in the DOJ report. Bottom line, those protestors accomplished more than a mere prosecution of a renegade cop with an attitude; they toppled the whole kit and koboodle of the power structure. The rats went scurring for cover once the light of day was shown on their little scam. If there were innocent, they would have stayed and disputed the charges. They didn’t. I’d call that game, set and match and the racists have to be seething.
mespo
Honestly, just for a moment, think about what you just wrote. If you take the findings, by both the grand jury and the DOJ, to what would be considered a LOGICAL CONCLUSION, where there was no finding of wrongdoing on the part of Wilson, how can you argue that these changes in personnel will root out a racist power structure? Are the players all inherently racist just because they are white? Who is the racist now? Contrary to your belief that Wilson caused the tragedy, the reality is that Brown’s own criminal behavior brought about his untimely death. How is justice being served when a man, who dedicated his life to becoming a police officer, has his life destroyed because he dared to protect his own life, including the life of others, when he shot Brown? You just need a poster boy for your narrative, so regardless of guilt, regardless of the facts, Wilson needs to be prosecuted as a renegade cop. It’s a frightening way of thinking. Really.
CB:
They’re racist because they spewed racist emails, made racist jokes and engaged in a systematic fleecing of African-Americans via the judicial system. Don’t you have cable?
The grand jury fails to indict Wilson and the DOJ, headed by Holder, was salivating in an attempt to pin something on Wilson but, alas, couldn’t do it. Well, we need to hold SOMEONE responsible. Let’s get rid of court clerks, judges, prosecutors and cops as a sacrifice to the rabid savages. Maybe if we throw enough virgins into the volcano, the gods will be appeased.
Inga and mespo feel that justice is being served when individuals, who had nothing to do with the death of the thug, known as Brown, lose their jobs. Same warped mentality of the criminals looting and burning stores. Just destroy anything in your path so that you can feel better. Someone’s gotta pay for the death of Brown, even if it was more than justified due to the circumstances. Sick.
There’s hope after all.
Ferguson police chief resigns. Cops, clerk, judge, now chief of police out. A little Justice, maybe.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/ferguson-police-chief-resignation-report#.pxOxQ8kwb
Done. Effective March 19th.
Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson resigns, according to letter
03/11/15 03:04 PM—Updated 03/11/15 04:25 PM
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-police-chief-tom-jackson-expected-resign-source
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/us/ferguson-police-chief-thomas-jackson-steps-down-michael-brown.html
“The chief, Thomas Jackson, who took over the Ferguson Police Department five years ago, becomes the latest high-ranking city official to fall in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report that accused the city of using its municipal court and police force as moneymaking tools that routinely violated constitutional rights and disproportionately targeted blacks.”
(“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”.)
Al Sharpton and his ilk have conquered Ferguson, Mo. What’s next, Overland Park, KS? El Reno, OK?
Nick – Al Sharpton and his organization are being sued for billions, yes billions of dollars by black network owners.
@Nick Spinelli
“Al Sharpton and his ilk have conquered Ferguson, Mo. What’s next, Overland Park, KS? El Reno, OK?”
What troubles you, exactly, about the resignations of Ferguson’s integrity-challenged sucklings at the taxpayers’ teat whose malfeasance in office is amply documented?
Nick
I hated Sharpton but that might keep the Oversight Comittee away because he was a major roach. Seriously. He needed to go. I know these things
“I hope they both find employment at 7-11s.” -Ken
Ken,
Perhaps stocking shelves, yes. Best for them to have limited contact with the public, IMO. And, of course, with Brokmeyer, there’s that little matter of unpaid taxes. Maybe a few years in the pokey would do him some good.
@alyssa
Whether or no he gets to spend some quality time in his beloved slammer, his karmic life review will persuade him of the error of his ways, I’m sure.
And another one:
“Ferguson police chief to resign later Wednesday: Fox News”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/11/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKBN0M728120150311
(Reuters) – The police chief of Ferguson, Missouri, will resign later on Wednesday, Fox News reported, citing police sources.
CNN, meanwhile, reported Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has indicated he is willing to step down but first wants to ensure that the police department stays in place and is not dissolved. CNN, which cited a source from city hall, did not have a time frame for the resignation.
Fox said Chief Tom Jackson was not pushed out or fired. Protesters have called for his removal since the shooting of an unarmed black teenager last summer, which led to a Justice Department probe that found his department followed racially biased practices.
Attorney General Eric Holder said last week the Justice Department would use its full authority to reform the police department, including possibly dismantling it.
Jackson would follow Ferguson City Manager John Shaw, who resigned on Tuesday, and Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, who quit on Monday. Last week, three police department employees were fired for offensive emails cited in the Justice Department report released on March 3.
@alyssa
More good news, except, perhaps, to authoritarians who hate to see other authoritarians denied their platforms of action.
Does memory serve me that “the arc of the moral universe…” was written or spoken by Martin Luther King?
Ken,
Forgot the link.
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/rutherford_institute_asks_us_supreme_court_to_protect_citizens_against_poli
This just in:
“Ferguson City Manager Cited in Justice Department Report Resigns”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/ferguson-city-manager-resigns.html
Alyssa,
No problem. Thanks for the two heartening articles. Reading about Shaw’s and Brockmeyer’s resignations alone made my day. I hope they both find employment at 7-11s.
Ken
@alyssa
Good on the Rutherford Institute. I’ll look online for the details.
Did you see the post above (“State Takes Over Ferguson Court System to Restore Order and Implement “Reforms”) regarding the Missouri Supreme Court’s appointment of a judge to implement reforms in Ferguson?
Don’t you know what an Oversight Comittee is?
First, they could agree to the recommended changes in a “consent decree.” That formalizes their agreement in federal court with the Department of Justice. The “consent decree” gives federal authorities oversight as changes are implemented.
“When a city wants to work with the Department of Justice, they negotiate based on the Department of Justice’s investigation,” explained Marcia McCormick, a professor of law at St. Louis University. “And together they’ll come to an agreement on what new policies should be put into effect.”
Either option will be lengthy and costly, said former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch.
“If you decide to comply, and agree with the Department of Justice, it’s going to cost you millions. If you decide to fight it and say, ‘We’re not going to do these things,’ it’s probably going to cost you millions. So there’s really no quick fix or easy solution,” he said.
Fitch now serves as an assessor for a national police department accreditation team. He said he assessed two agencies that were under federal consent decrees: Prince George’s County, Md., and Cincinnati.
Ferguson prosecutor: Don’t lift grand jury gag order
”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/10/mcculloch-ferguson-grand-juror-lawsuit-gag-order/23172129/
Decrying the Use of Tasers, Excessive Force by Government Officials, Rutherford Institute Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Protect Citizens Against Police Brutality
March 09, 2015
“In a police state, there is no need for judges, juries or courts of law, because the police act as judge, jury and law, and their version of justice is one-sided, delivered at the end of a gun, taser or riot stick,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State. “Unless the courts and legislatures act soon to change this climate of government-sanctioned police brutality, we may find that there is no real difference between those who are innocent, those accused of committing crimes and those found guilty, because we will all suffer the same at the hands of government agents.””
Ken,
I’m not sure if I saw your other post — I don’t recall it. I don’t have a lot of time and miss many of the comments, here.
Just stumbled on this older posting — an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates (March 5 2015) — titled “The Gangsters of Ferguson, Darren Wilson was innocent. If only the city’s cops offered their own citizens the same due process he received.”
“The innocence of Darren Wilson does not change this fundamental fact. Indeed the focus on the deeds of alleged individual perpetrators, on perceived bad actors, obscures the broad systemic corruption which is really at the root.
Darren Wilson is not the first gang member to be publicly accused of a crime he did not commit. But Darren Wilson was given the kind of due process that those of us who are often presumed to be gang members rarely enjoy. I do not favor lowering the standard of justice offered Officer Wilson. I favor raising the standard of justice offered to the rest of us.”
Repeating: “Indeed the focus on the deeds of alleged individual perpetrators, on perceived bad actors, obscures the broad systemic corruption which is really at the root.” This cuts to the heart of the matter, IMO.
And there is indeed “broad systematic corruption.”
@alyssa
“Ken,
“I’m not sure if I saw your other post — I don’t recall it. I don’t have a lot of time and miss many of the comments, here.”
Alyssa,
That’s from the very post I was referring to.
Ken
The link posted by Ken Rogers in his comment at 12:41 a.m.:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/law-enforcement-corruption–abuse-1/new-us-report-shows-ferguson-police–worse-than-we-thought.html
A direct link to the excellent video:
http://youtu.be/_kAyqbnLkQ4
(Again, thanks to Ken Rogers.)
@alyssa
“Thanks, Ken Rogers.”
You’re more than welcome, Alyssa. Did you see my other post regarding the appointment of a judge for Ferguson by the Missouri Supreme Court?
Thanks, Ken Rogers.
Karen S
Wow, I feel so bad that my skin is not black and it was okay for me to be abused and shamed in Ferguson but I want justice for Mr Wilson and I know what a Joke that the spy ring from the Federal Oversight Committee really is being called down this week. Now they get to be babysat by the feds. I hope that will turn out for them as well as it did for Detroit those 11 years they were under Occupation.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/03/the-next-steps-in-the-ferguson-doj-case/24354333/
@Karen S
There’s another reason the jaywalking teenager might “get it into his head” to assault a police officer, which may not have occurred to you from just reading the DoJ report on the extortion of Ferguson residents by city officials, including the police officers.
Maybe this will help:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/law-enforcement-corruption–abuse-1/new-us-report-shows-ferguson-police–worse-than-we-thought.html
@happypappies
“Wow, I feel so bad that my skin is not black and it was okay for me to be abused and shamed in Ferguson…”
Who in the world said it was okay for you to be abused and shamed in Ferguson? Whoever it was needs to read this about the endemic abuse of Ferguson’s citizens:
“State Takes Over Ferguson Court System to Restore Order and Implement “Reforms
By Elliot Hannon, Slate 10 March 15
“In the wake of the Justice Department’s scathing report on the bigoted all-around conduct of the Ferguson police department and its corrupt municipal court system, the Missouri state Supreme Court took over the operation of the municipal court, appointing an appeals court judge to hear all of the court’s cases, in an effort to try to restore some semblance of credibility to the legal system in the area. Judge Roy Richter will now be in charge of the municipal court that covers Ferguson and has been given the authority to “to overhaul court policies to ensure defendants’ rights are respected and to ‘restore the integrity of the system,’” according to the Associated Press.”
“Last week the Justice Department called on the city to overhaul its criminal justice system, saying Ferguson had engaged in so many constitutional violations that they could be corrected only by abandoning its entire approach to policing, retraining its employees and establishing new oversight,” the New York Times reports. “The report described a city that used its police and courts as moneymaking ventures, a place where officers stopped and handcuffed people without probable cause, hurled racial slurs, used stun guns without provocation and treated anyone as suspicious merely for questioning police actions.”
Well, how Michael Brown was raised is now on display, and all the world can see how possibly this young man would get it into his head to assault a police officer.
Everyone is subject to the law, and McSpadden is no exception. If she assaulted and robbed people, she should be held accountable. How many times will this make that she has been arrested now?
I am also curious if McSpadden’s husband’s call to “Burn this b&*(&h down” is protected free speech or crosses the line to inciting a riot. I imagine the shopkeepers who suffered losses at the hands of the mob might have an opinion.
This use to be a decent blog…but since Turley became a TV star, the only fans of this blog appear to be hater and bigots….the people seem to be bitter. Time for me to lose this blog.
Ken Rogers
I think most people on here do care about civil liberties. But the underlying political concerns, and the political will of upholding/declining civil liberties bring various debate. Look at what is argued about on this post. The politics intertwined with civil liberties is rather important to people.
TJustice
I hope you learn to care about Politics no matter how boring it is to you because it is how you do change things. Surely you must realize we were young once. I was a Hippie once you know. 😉
Ken Rogers
@happypappies
“Ken Rogers
“When Jesus told us to ‘Love our Enemies’ he did not want us to get down and wallow with them in the dirt.”
“Get real Hypocrite.”
Why do you consider the Browns your “enemies”?
About what am I being hypocritical?
When they come in and trash a neighborhood and start riots just like anyone else would. I don’t know why I am answering this post after seeing your posts with Inga last night