Tuesday Morning riot blogging

From Volume VI of the Grand Jury report of State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson, Witness #10 tells the jurors what he observed on a morning last August. The witness was doing some sort of repair or remodeling work on a house in Ferguson Missouri and has walked out to his vehicle to get a tool. He sees Michael Brown with his upper body inside a police car (SUV) and some kind of confrontation taking place between Brown--who the witness had noticed earlier walking in the street, and made an impression on him as being a exceptionally large man--and the police officer sitting behind the wheel.

Then the witness hears a gunshot, followed by Michael Brown running away from the police car. Since the policeman does not immediately exit the vehicle, the man thinks to himself, wow, did I just witness this young guy kill a police officer. Shortly thereafter though, the officer does in fact leave the vehicle and chases after Brown, who has a head start. But, Brown eventually stops and turns around and faces the policeman chasing him.

The witness tells the jurors that Brown's arms are down by his side, and that he makes a 'body gesture' that was not in a surrendering motion of I"m surrendering, putting my hands up or anything.

Then, immediately after that 'body gesture,' Brown came for [sic] force, full charge at the officer.

Which is when the officer opened fire at the NFL-lineman-sized figure charging at him. The 'gentle giant'. The witness, at another point in his testimony says,

Mike Brown continuously came forward in the charging motion and at some point, at one point he started to slow down and he came to a stop. And when he stopped, that's when the officer ceased fire and when he ceased fired [sic], Mike Brown started to charge once more at him. When he charged once more the officer returned fire with, I would say, give an estimate of three to four shots.

Later the witness professes amazement that Brown would stop, turn around and not give himself up.

So naturally, the political powers that be are now excusing last night's rioting as understandable, given the structural racism in, not only Ferguson, Missouri, but in Amerika. We wonder if all the small business owners who lost their livelihoods to vandalism and arson last night, agree.