In case you haven't heard, the person who fired shots that hit two police officers in Ferguson, MO has been caught. Other diarists have covered this, so my diary isn't about the capture so much as it is about disturbing behavior by DKos members last week.
As it turns out, the suspect is a 20 year old local man and he was apparently shooting at somebody in the crowd of protesters over a personal dispute. He was not targeting police. Of course, you wouldn't have known that on Daily Kos late last week. A recommended diary informed us it was "likely that they [the police officers] were shot with a rifle" in a "potential sniping event".
This has proved false.
The gun used was a pistol. It was fired from a car behind the protesters. The target was one of the protesters, as was the shooter apparently, and the shooting itself was likely a botched attempt at personal vengeance. Nothing goes together quite as well as rage and firearms, right?
St. Louis County Police have confirmed that the suspected shooter of two police officers early Thursday morning outside of the Ferguson police department is in custody. Jeffrey Williams, 20, of north St. Louis County, has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault, firing a weapon from a vehicle, and two counts of armed criminal action.
-- Suspect admits to firing shots that struck two officers in Ferguson
What I found troubling about the coverage of the incident here on Daily Kos last week was the tendency to rush to judgment without any facts to back up the judgment. My suggestion that the bullets were possibly strays rounds from a pistol used in a street fight was pooh-poohed as "Possible, yes. Likely, no." Horace Boothroyd's depiction of the wounds as minor was derided with "How in the fuck can you aim for the face on purpose to be a minor wound?"
One comment was titled "American sniper", and in other comment threads, lively discussions ensued about various rifles, sniper scopes, ballistics, and the technique required for a successful downhill kill shot. Another commenter suggested that if someone shoots cops just because they're cops, that's a hate crime and DOJ needs to get involved.
Wow.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said that Williams has admitted to firing the shots that struck the officers. Williams was at the protest in Ferguson Wednesday. He left, possibly after a dispute, and then later returned and fired shots from inside a vehicle, possibly at someone other than police. A handgun has been recovered and matches shell casings from the scene.
-- Ibid.
The feverish speculation running rampant in that diary will likely cause no lasting harm. And I suppose armchair crime-solving can be fun. But are breathless diaries really something we wish Daily Kos to be known for? Of course, one can point to what our very own Attorney General Eric Holder said:
Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday condemned the shootings of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, as "heinous and cowardly" and the work of "a damn punk." ... He called the shootings "a pure ambush," echoing a description earlier in the day by the chief of the St. Louis County police.
-- Ferguson Shootings: Eric Holder Says 'A Damn Punk' Ambushed Police
Really? Oopsies, never mind.
I suppose my title for this diary was facetious. I don't really believe anyone will apologize for jumping to conclusions before all the information was in. And it's somewhat understandable that people wanted to get out in front of this incident so that ordinary people protesting the death of Mike Brown wouldn't be associated with an "ambush" attack on innocent police officers.
Perhaps, though, we can take a small lesson from this. All of us should think twice before publishing our diaries, especially when information is sparse. After all, we wouldn't want to have to write an apology diary, now would we?