THE UNBOTHERED: Darren Wilson

St. Louis County grand jury has brought no criminal charges against Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Michael Brown:

The most credible eyewitnesses to the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., said he had charged toward Police Officer Darren Wilson just before the final, fatal shots, the St. Louis County prosecutor said Monday night as he sought to explain why a grand jury had not found probable cause to indict the officer.

The accounts of several other witnesses from the Ferguson neighborhood where Mr. Brown, 18 and unarmed, met his death on Aug. 9 — including those who said Mr. Brown was trying to surrender — changed over time or were inconsistent with physical evidence, the prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch, said in a news conference.

“The duty of the grand jury is to separate fact and fiction,” he said in a statement watched by a tense nation. “No probable cause exists to file any charges against Darren Wilson.”

Mr. McCulloch praised the grand jurors, who met on 25 days over a three-month period and heard 60 witnesses, for pouring “their hearts and souls into this process” and said that only by hearing all the evidence, as they had, could one fairly judge the case.The task facing the St. Louis County grand jury was not to determine whether Officer Darren Wilson was guilty of a crime, but whether there was evidence to justify bringing charges, which could have ranged from negligent manslaughter to intentional murder.

The fact that at least nine members of the 12-member panel could not agree to indict the officer indicates that they accepted the narrative of self-defense put forth by Officer Wilson in his voluntary, four hours of testimony before the grand jury. Mr. McCulloch, in his summary of the months of testimony, said it was supported by the most reliable eyewitness accounts — from African-Americans in the vicinity of the shooting — as well as physical evidence and the consistent results of three autopsies.

At issue, under the Missouri law governing use of deadly force by law enforcement as well as general rules for self-defense, was if Officer Wilson “reasonably believed” that he or others were in serious danger.

FROM PAGE 34 OF OFFICER WILSON’S TESTIMONY

At this point it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I’m shooting at him.

And the face that he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn’t even there, I wasn’t even anything in his way.

View annotated transcript of Officer Wilson’s Testimony »

ForeverMeah says...

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The asinine idea to toss the phrase onto a billboard “in the heart of Florissant,” where most of the Ferguson protests and police counter-actions have occurred, is being spearheaded by an IndieGoGo campaigner from Brentwood, Tennessee, named Don Alexander:

Don Alexander, a IndieGoGo campaigner in support of Darren Wilson, has raised enough funds to post a ‘#PantsUPDontLOOT’ billboard in Florissant—the center of Ferguson, Mo.—where most of the protesting has been taking place.

“PantsUPDontLOOT” is intended to mock “Hands up, don’t shoot,” which is taken from witness claims that Michael Brown, the 18-year-old unarmed teen who was shot and killed by Wilson, had his hands in the air at the time of the shooting.

Alexander wrote: “This crowdfunding campaign is for the purchase of a billboard in the Ferguson, MO area. The billboard will display black text on a white background with the text ‘#PantsUPDontLOOT.’ After some initial confusion we are working with other, undisclosed companies in the area that are willing to create and display this image.

The funds collected from this campaign will be used to purchase this billboard for as long as possible. Lamar originally quoted us ~$2500 for 1 month but others have come in under that amount. Whatever funds we will receive will go directly to keeping the billboard campaign up as long as possible. If we come to an agreement with a company and can fund it for 3 months, 5 months, 7 months… we will.”

Alexander’s goal amount was listed at $3,000, but that was surpassed once he started publicizing his mission on multiple social-media outlets as well as St. Louis CopTalk, a message board for police officers and their supporters.

According to Gawker, one commenter posted to CopTalk on Nov. 13: “There is an effort to crowdfund a billboard in the Ferguson area against the rioting and looting with the hashtag #PantsUpDontLoot on it. It is coming down to the wire of getting it up before the Wilson announcement.”

That very day, Alexander announced on his campaign page that the $3,000 had been exceeded, with a total of $3,081 from 29 contributors.
The campaign has 30 days remaining, and as of Nov. 18 has raised $3,345 from 152 different donors.

Oddly, the one other campaign Alexander seems to be following is the Ferguson Defense Fund, a campaign raising legal funds for protesters who get arrested demonstrating on Ferguson streets. (source)