http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
And clearly, he's not alone. But it has to be said that this particular deluded dumbshittery is truly exceptional as Ben Stein proclaims that Michael Brown wasn't "Unarmed" because he was already "armed" with his "incredibly strong, scary self."
With the Holy Hell is he talking about?
He was 6'3", 300 lbs, and according to what I read in the New York Times on marijuana. To call him 'unarmed' is calling Sonny Liston unarmed or Cassius Clay unarmed.
Cassius Clay? What Century Is this guy from, the man's name is
Mohammad Ali.
Is he saying that Big Bucks like Michael Brown spit Bullets so it's perfectly alright to shoot them when their hands are up? Is he saying Big Scary 18-year-olds need to be shot in the head, or else they don't fall down fast enough?
And he went on, and on...
"CNN is just endlessly assuming facts that are not evidence. Which is, that it is standard procedure for White policemen to kill unarmed black teenagers. First of all it isn't standard procedure it's extremely rare thing that happens."
How exactly does Ben Stein know how rare this type of thing is because neither the FBI Uniform Crime Report section on
Justifiable Homicides by Law Enforcement, nor the Bureau of Justice Statistic
Use of Force Report (which says Black people are
threatened with use of force three times more frequently) - bothers to document this specific information, even though they've required to do so
by law since 1994.
The only estimates we have which have been manually cobbled together from media reports, are that it happens about 300 Times per Year, which is not really that "rare" at all.
"Rare" is once in a while. Maybe twice. Three times TOPS. But 300 Times every year is not even close to medium rare. It wasn't rare for John Crawford, Oscar Grant, Jonathan Ferrel, Kendrec McDade, Renisha McBride, Sean Bell, or Ezell Ford. "Once" was already too much to allow the rest of their lives to continue.
"It's a very sad state of affairs," Stein said. "I mean it used to be, there was a time … when lynchings of African Americans were not that incredibly rare. Now the lynchings are of the police and it's just an outrage."
The Police are being "Lynched"? Asking for an honest investigation, a grand jury indictment and a trial is
lynching now? Does Stein realize that an actual "Lynching" involved everything except all of that? There was no trial. There was no judge. There was no jury. There was just a hanging, frequently of a
completely innocent person.
Stein finished by claiming that in Brown's case, as well as Trayvon Martin's, "it's the very large, so-called victim attacking the policeman who winds up dead."
"I mean if they didn't just, would not attack the policeman, if they would just talk to the policeman in a reasonable way instead of attacking the policeman, nobody would be dead," Stein said.
If they would just talk the policeman in a "reasonable way"? And not "attack them"? Uh, exactly how, or in what manner, has anyone credible alleged that Michael Brown somehow smacked talked the cop? Ugh....
This is what the one person who was there at the scene, besides Michael and Officer Wilson has had to say about what happened.
When the Police car pulled up, these were his exact words, he said "Get the Fuck on the Sidewalk". We said we'd be at our destination in one or two minutes. He went on his way for about one or two seconds, then reversed his truck in a manner that almost hit us, and it blocked both lanes the way he turned his car.
He tried to brush his door open, but he was so close to us it ricocheted off of us and bounced back into him. And I guess that got him a little upset. At that time he reached out the window, he didn't get out the car, reached his arm out the window and grabbed my friend around his neck. As he was trying to choke my friend, and he was trying to get away. Then he reached out to grab his arm to pull him inside the car, and he's trying to pull away.
At no time did the Officer say he was going to do anything, until he pulled out his weapon - his weapon was drawn - and he said "I'll Shoot You" or "I'm gonna shoot" - at the same moment the first shot went off.
We looked at him, and he was shot, there was blood coming from him. And we took off running. As we took off running I ducked and hid for my life. And I hid by the first car that I saw. My friend kept running, and he told me to keep running he feared for me too. As he was running the Officer was trying to get out of the car, and once he got out of the car he pursued my friend - his weapon was drawn - now he didn't see any weapons drawn at him. Or anything like that, us going for no weapon. His weapon was already drawn when he got out the car.
He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot. He turned around, and he put his hands in the air and he started get down. The officer approached with his weapon drawn and he fired several more shots and my friend died. He didn't say anything to him. By then I was so afraid for my life, I got up and I ran.
This is what Tiffany Mitchell Said.
They were wrestling through the window of the car. A shot went off, Michael Broke away and ran. The Officer got out of the car. Micheal jerked "as if he were hit". Put his hands up and turned around. Then the officer "Continued to shoot until he went all the way down".
And here's Piaget Crenshaw - who didn't yet have a chance to hear or talk to anyone else about the event prior to this interview - describing what happened.
Michael was running away. Stopped, turned, put his hands up, and the Officer kept shooting. He's said "Please Don't Shoot. Stop shooting me" I heard that.
And here's a forth witness, who actually does have some differences to her story saying the Officer shot him "From the Car".
You usually don't have this many witnesses who all tell the almost exact same story.
We now have the autopsy report. We now know It's been argued by Crooks and Liars that Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson did not participate in a "Strong-Arm Robbery of Cigarillos". That didn't happen. No one from the Market called the Police, it was a bystander who thought they saw a robbery, but that wasn't the case. If that's why Officer Wilson started to drive away, then suddenly backed up - it would've been a mistaken and improper arrest. We now know that Officer Wilson did not suffer a fracture of his Orbital Bone, and it seems that any injuries he had were either because he tried to open the door directly into Michael and Dorian and it bounced back directly into his own face or his gun kicked back into his face when he fired it in the car, or it occurred after he grabbed Michael by the neck and began to choke him.
How exactly did Michael Brown fail to be "respectful" when the first words spoken to him were "Get the Fuck on the Sidewalk", the next thing that happens is he's nearly run down, then hit by the car door, then choked through the window?
How did Michael "attack the Officer" when all the witnesses - all of them - say that all Michael was trying to do was get away from the Officer who was grabbing him through the window? By The Neck!
There is at this time no credible alternate story as to what happened. I know there was a woman who claimed to be "Darren Wilson's Friend" who called into a radio station with a claim that Michael attacked or charged the Officer, but that's just a story. It's hearsay and not admissible in court. She didn't claim to be there. And if that is the story, if that really is the claim being made by Officer Wilson - why wasn't any of that filed in his incident report on that same day?
Because of the 5th Amendment, that's why. Officer Wilson committing himself to a specific narrative of what happened opens him up to challenges to his credibility. Technically he doesn't have to do that under the law, all he has to do is sit back and take pot shots at the credibility of Michael Brown and the witnesses against him. If it even appears that it's reasonable to believe that Michael even tried to attack Wilson, that Wilson may have credibly thought the way that Ben Stein thinks...
"He was already a weapon with his 6'3" 300lbs, incredibly strong, scary, self".
He's a human weapon. A walking threat simply by daring to
exist. It's perfectly justifiable to shoot him down on sight, even if he's just standing there - holding his hands up - begging for his life. If only he'd been more "respectful" to poor Scared, Terrified, Helpless, Officer Wilson who simply wanted to help the young man cross to the other side of the street where he would be safe and sound from the rush of oncoming traffic that was just around the corner.
If the grand jury buys into this racist bullshit, then all of this is a waste of time. Wilson won't be indicted. He won't be tried. He won't be convicted, he won't be "lynched" and the city of Ferguson will erupt. Again.
There should be a trial, there should be a fair display of the evidence. Darren Wilson should have his day in court. But he probably won't.
Vyan
2:42 PM PT: Just as an irrelevant aside, I've known members of Ali's family for decades. Kranbouya Clay his cousin, is an old co-worker and friend of mine.
