Killer of Michael Brown not indicted

This 24 November 2014 video from the USA is called Protest Demonstration In NYC. St Louis Missouri after Mike Brown Darren Wilson Verdict.

By Andre Damon in the USA:

No indictment for Ferguson cop who killed Michael Brown

25 November 2014

St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Robert P. McCulloch’s statement Monday night that no charges will be filed against Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown is a travesty of justice.

The entire process through which the grand jury arrived at its decision is a legal fraud. The outcome is not the result of fair judicial proceedings, but political calculations. The grand jury returned the outcome the state was seeking: no charges for the police murder of an unarmed African American youth.

Despite the fact that the decision was not announced until after 9:00pm eastern time, there were protests Monday night throughout the United States.

In Ferguson and surrounding cities, police responded by deploying SWAT teams in riot gear, firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Convoys of armored police vehicles rolled through the streets. The roofs of some of the vehicles were lined with sand bags, with marksmen pointing assault rifles at unarmed demonstrators.

The mayor of Ferguson called for the deployment of the National Guard—previously activated by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who declared a pre-emptive “state of emergency” last week.

President Barack Obama spoke immediately after McCulloch’s statement, mouthing a few perfunctory and semi-coherent comments, the main aim of which was to solidarize himself with the grand jury ruling.

CNN broadcast a split screen, showing on one side the police crackdown in Ferguson and on the other Obama declaring, “We are a nation built on the rule of law,” insisting that everyone had to accept the grand jury decision.

…

In an extended speech, which included denunciations of the media and public opinion for “speculation” on the facts, McCulloch sough to obscure the basic fact of the case: an unarmed man was shot six times, including twice in the head, at a substantial distance from Wilson’s police car.

McCulloch said that “physical evidence” had contradicted the accounts of numerous witnesses, but did not specify what that physical evidence consisted of, aside from what he called a short-range gunshot wound to Brown’s hand. He likewise said that witnesses had indicated that Brown “charged” at Wilson, but that these witnesses had never previously come forward.

“Decisions on charging an individual with a crime cannot be based on anything besides a thorough investigation of the facts,” Wilson said. This exercise in self-serving apologetics by the district attorney served only to underscore the illegitimacy of the entire proceeding.

From the beginning, the three-month grand jury process was utilized as a way of bypassing a public trial for Brown’s killer. Under conditions of an actual trial, the facts of the case and the testimony of witnesses would be subject to adversarial proceedings. Instead, the prosecutor, who is known for his connections to police, substituted secret hearings behind closed doors, with evidence manipulated to produce the desired result.

In the end, the political establishment decided that no charges could be filed against Wilson—not even the lesser charge of manslaughter. The prosecutors did not get an indictment because they did not want an indictment.

The decision not to charge Wilson took place against the backdrop of a growing wave of police violence all over the United States, including last week’s killing of a 12-year-old boy playing with a toy gun in Cleveland, Ohio and an unarmed man in New York City.

The decision marked a stand taken by the political establishment that it would uphold the right of police to kill whomever they chose. Like all reactionary classes facing a crisis, the American ruling class decided that any concession to the demands of the population that Wilson be prosecuted would be politically dangerous and serve only to encourage opposition.

The ruling and subsequent police crackdown express the breakdown of democratic forms of rule in the United States, under the pressure of the growth of social inequality and the drive to war. The war on terror, in a word, has come home.

Michael Brown shooting: Protests against grand jury decision spread across America: here.

Michael Brown’s family said they were “profoundly disappointed” by the grand jury’s verdict. In a statement the family urged protesters to remain peaceful: here.

More than 300 demonstrators marched across Los Angeles on Monday night, closing the 110 Freeway and chanting as they protested a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in the controversial shooting of a black teenager: here.

Ferguson National Response Network. Listing of planned responses around the country to the Darren Wilson Grand Jury Announcement: here.

ACROSS THE COUNTRY, A WAVE OF PROTESTS “Thousands of people across the nation turned out Monday night to show solidarity with the protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after a grand jury decided not to indict the officer who shot Michael Brown. Crowds of people gathered in Times Square, outside the White House gates and in downtown Philadelphia. Many protesters were shouting, ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ — a phrase that has become linked to protests over the Aug. 9 shooting of Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.” More protests are expected throughout the country today. Check out today’s front pages. [HuffPost]

Beyoncé, Spike Lee and Alicia Keys add voices to Ferguson protest. Musicians, film-makers and writers express sorrow over verdict not to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown: here.

The law may have spoken but the Ferguson verdict is not justice. The fact that people expected a white cop like Darren Wilson to escape trial shows the process is a sham: here.