GRAND JURY CONCLUDES MURDER OF MICHAEL BROWN JUSTIFIED
Prosecutor Acts As Defense Attorney, Misuses Grand Juary As A Trial Without
Professional Legal Cross-Examination
Statement By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
November 24, 2014
It has been fairly obvious from the beginning that the predominate belief in Ferguson and
St. Louis was that Darren Wilson, the killer of Michael Brown, was not going to be
indicted by a Bob McCullough-led grand jury. In a rambling statement of the grand jurys
process and conclusion - which did little to inform - Bob McCullough acted in the
capacity of a defense attorney who mis-used the grand jury process as a trial without
professional legal cross-examination.
Political and legal authorities in the area had not been preparing for a trial. They had
been preparing for civil unrest. And just as the legal authorities and police initially misreacted to the shooting, then overreacted to the communitys initial protest of the Michael
Brown killing, which contributed to the original civil unrest in the face of mostly
peaceful demonstrations. The legal and political authorities have mostly said and done
all the wrong things. While I had urged and hoped that the reaction to the Bob
McCullough-led grand jurys decision would be peaceful, the community is not crazy. It
is reflecting a hopelessness in the quest to achieve justice for Michael Brown. But this is
not the end. We must continue to seek justice for Michael Brown through whatever
avenues still remain open to us, including a federal indictment. The shooting down of
unarmed young Black men like dogs by the police across the nation must stop!
Instead of a public trial for Darren Wilson, with the presumption of innocence until
proven guilty, the legal authorities in Ferguson and St. Louis put Michael Browns
character on trial in the public and a secret grand jury decided that his murder was
justified. Recently the armed White cop killer in Pennsylvania, who was trying to kill
even more cops, was captured alive, but an unarmed Michael Brown was shot down in
cold blood. Michael Browns murder can only be described as a homicide. The issue is
not the unfortunate and unwise violent protests that followed. The issue is the lack of
federal uplift for the community even now. The issue is the lack of federal enforcement
of civil rights laws. The issue is that Fergusons police and fire departments do not
represent the people, are in violation of the law, yet it continues to receive federal funds.
Fergusons police department, fire department and contracts issued are all subsidized by
the federal government - including the equipment that was used to put down the protests
yet the federal government is still not enforcing its own civil rights laws. Ferguson and
St. Louis are under military occupation and martial law. Ferguson does need federal
involvement and occupation, but for the purpose of uplifting the community and denying
federal funds to its police and fire departments because they are in violation of the law.
The EEOC should enforce the law in Ferguson. The Office of Federal Contract
Compliance should enforce its laws in Ferguson money must be denied to Ferguson at
every point that it has violated federal law. Federal funds and the law should be used to
provide jobs and job training, and to end racial discrimination in the police and fire
departments and wherever else it exists in Ferguson, St. Louis and around the nation.
This federal ghetto policy of reckless and unaccountable police behavior and military
occupation must end. Its a policy of community containment rather than community
development. USA Today reported that Blacks are arrested 10 times more often than
Whites, but we dont commit 10 times more crimes. Current community development in
the ghetto is new jails, for profit jails, judges, new courthouses, new police stations,
increased police presence and new military equipment, not new jobs and job training, not
new schools and more teachers, and not business development that would lead to
permanent economic stability for our communities. This is about Michael Browns
murder, but its not just about Michael Browns murder. Its about a national ghetto
policy guns in, drugs in, jobs and services out, contained with military occupation like
South African apartheid. This federal ghetto policy is true whether youre in Ferguson,
St. Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Birmingham, Milwaukee or wherever. Its the
federal governments national ghetto policy.
Michael Browns murder was mishandled from the beginning. Public officials and law
enforcement have handled things almost all wrong: releasing the video of Michael
Brown stealing cigarellos at the store in an attempt to paint a negative profile of him
immediately after he was shot which was totally unrelated to his being killed by Darrell
Wilson; leaving Michael Browns body in the street and summer heat for over four hours;
no Ferguson police report on the shooting; no transparancy by the Ferguson Police
Department relative to Mr. Browns killing; misinformation about Officer Wilsons
injury and eye socket; police covering up their badge names; police wearing I am Darren
Wilson bracelets; overreaction and provocative behavior by law enforcement toward
peaceful demonstrators (of course police have a right to stop illegal behavior); the lack of
presence and absence of leadership by Ferguson Mayor Knowles during the protests and
civil disturbances; the initial use of military equipment and tactics more appropriate to
military behavior against an enemy than a police force sworn to serve and protect its
citizens; there was enough evidence, eye-witness testimony and probable cause, for Bob
McCullouch to have indicted Darren Wilson on his own so that evidence, facts and sworn
testimony could be presented at a public court trial and Mr. Wilson could be tried by a
jury of his peers, but Bob McCullough refused; both Governor Nixon and Mr.
McCullough refused to appoint an independent prosecutor given the fact that Mr.
McCulloughs father, a politiceman, was murdered by an African American male and the
community had no faith in his dispassionate consideration of the facts in this case; the
unprecedented actions by Mr. McCullough to present evidence in a neutral manner in
order to let the grand jury totally decide on its own to indict or not indict; the ridiculous
timing of the announcement - 9pm at night, 7 hours after a decision had been reached; the
selective leaking of grand jury testimony designed to favor Darren Wilson; the
unprecedented and tough talking by Govenor Nixon when it came to the African
American community and protesters all directed exclusively toward the demonstrators while totally ignoring the previous misconduct by law enforcement officers; and Mayor
Knowles, a conservative Republican, showing up in public wearing an NRA cap. In
other words, the legal atmosphere in St. Louis was closer to Dred Scott in 1857 than to a
commitment of equal justice under the law of Brown in 2014.
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