No indictment: Open thread to discuss Ferguson

@Paradoxical

… Oh bloody hell I hope so. Is it too early to cross every body part I have that’s capable of crossing?

https://www.change.org/p/the-supreme-court-of-missouri-take-the-case-of-michael-brown-popularly-dubbed-the-ferguson-case-to-the-missouri-supreme-court-with-ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-as-the-accused

Here’s another petition to sign.

ParadoxicalIntention | November 25, 2014 at 3:26 pm

https://www.change.org/p/the-supreme-court-of-missouri-take-the-case-of-michael-brown-popularly-dubbed-the-ferguson-case-to-the-missouri-supreme-court-with-ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-as-the-accused

Here’s another petition to sign.

Is this something that can legally happen? I’m pretty sure that, at a minimum, someone would have to bring suit to bring a ruling from the SCOM–Supreme Courts rarely, if ever, just hop in with a ruling without some sort of appeal to their authority. I’d like efforts at remediation to focus on the stuff that the system actually allows for (and, of course, to changes in the system itself.)

(OTOH, I note that apparently double jeopardy does NOT apply to grand jury decisions, so another GJ could be convened to re-hear the evidence, presented by a prosecutor who isn’t softballing the presentation, and the indictment could come from that.)

Conservative Troll: I’ve deleted your disgusting comment. Fuck off and don’t come back.

acrannymint

I can only assume McCullough has his eyes on a bigger prize after that speech last night. And why the hell would anyone who knew the potential results of the announcement do it at night? Answer: he wanted all hell to break loose so the ignorant could say “see how those people are”

I also heard a very interesting theory that the reason they held the grand jury yesterday is because the media will be so focused on Black Friday and the upcoming beginning to the holiday season that most outlets will forget about all of this by tomorrow because OHEHMGEE SHOPPING FOR CHRISTMAS HAPPENS.

The police, the government, they all want to forget this ever happened, and they want media attention away from them so they don’t have to restrain themselves anymore.

I am confused as to why Conservative Girl assumed that mocking misogyny had to include hating black people. Perhaps she misread the tagline?

Bye bye, asshole. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out and so on.

Fuck. I am mad. I wasn’t going to pay attention to any of this, just for personal reasons, at the moment, and I go to facebook, purpsosely ignore the posts and go play games, but no. I had to take a look at a news post from back home in California and I had to click on it, and see the comments.

omg. People get mad because other people protest things?
Why? I know why, I’m just venting. So mad. So sad.

Anonymous apparently has evidence that Darren Wilson is connected to the KKK, but the person who gave the information asked them not to release it until they can independently verify it because it could be traced back to the source, and that person would be killed.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-ferguson-killer-cop-darren-wilson-linked-kkk-ghoul-squad-1475953

http://theantimedia.org/veterans-national-guard-in-ferguson/

I’m commenting from another country, but I have to ask Americans why they don’t instigate a system similar to the military, ie. a separate judicial system for police.

Because we’re not in charge?

Wilsons story is obviously bogus in a number of ways. That is so not what goes down when you are apprehending a perp. I was particularly puzzled by his saying how very frightened he was of a guy the same size as him. Drive away d00d. If you are scared and sitting in an SUV you do not reach out and grab the suspect. You drive away till backup comes. There is no point anywhere in his story where he followed procedures, None. He violated all the rules from start to finish, one violation after another, any one of which ought to have been cause for disciplinary action.

Necroing this thread to comment: I did three months of grand jury service earlier this year. Here are my thoughts based on that experience:

Yeah, I’m getting the sense that the jury went way beyond the call of duty and seemed to actually try to reach a guilty/not-guilty verdict rather than simply deciding if there should be a trial

This was a constant issue and caused some heated arguments between jurors. That being said, one of the judges (before the Michael Brown shooting) mentioned that multiple days of deliberation is pretty much standard in police shooting cases. He also said that police shootings are pretty much the only cases where there’s ever any doubt whether or not an indictment will be issued.

the grand jury is made up of laypeople who don’t know about nuances of the law, so they are instructed by the prosecutor(s) as to what to pay attention to, and what the laws are.

At least at the level I was on, there’s no judge involved in the grand jury proceedings until the end of the day when they sign indictments/warrants. The prosecutor has total control and forcing a “no” would require no significant effort.

– the law the grand jury was given described when and what kind of force police are permitted to apply–and it had been declared unconstitutional years before the prosecutor even went to law school

This was more than we got – we were told we could examine the law if we wanted too but it was only ever described in detail if one of us asked a specific question.