As reported by St. Louis TV station KMOV, 90 year-old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein was arrested on Monday during continued protests in Ferguson, Missouri. According to the report, Epstein was placed under arrest with eight other individuals for “failing to disperse.” Here’s what Epstein had to say about her arrest.
“I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. I didn’t think I would have to do it when I was 90,” Epstein told The Nation during her arrest. “We need to stand up today so that people won’t have to do this when they’re 90.”
And in another account of how zealous authorities in Ferguson have gotten, CNN reporter Don Lemon was physically pushed around by police officers while reporting from the scene of protests.
Here’s the video.
And then there’s the case of Getty photographer Scott Olson, who was arrested by police who said media was “required to be in a certain area.” Here’s a photo of Olson being arrested by police.
Getty Images photographer arrested #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/ScOaHO8bjY
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 18, 2014
I am reminded of the classic example of the moron attempting to drive a square peg into a round hole. Repetition of a failed tactic exacerbates the problem.
The racist St.Louis County officials should try providing justice in the form of charging someone with the murder of a Ferguson black teenager. Repeated curfews and more police are likened to a square peg.
Zach, thanks.
I follow a defense attorney, @bmaz on Twitter. He supported the Trayvon Martin verdict. In Ferguson he has speculated that the St. Louis police strategy, worked out with the lawyers from their liability insurance carriers, is to give the family a large civil settlement and NOT arrest Officer Wilson.
MPD arresting a JS photographer @KWGPhoto in 2009: “Mayor says it’s ‘very clear’ arrested photographer was journalist.”
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/flynn-seeks-meeting-with-media-after-arrests-133183378.html
Too late, John, the St. Louis and Ferguson, dumb and dumber, officials waited too long. Now with the Feds in on the investigation, and the continued publicity, thanks to the curfews and physical assault on media members, there is no way Officer Wilson’s murder or “use of excessive force” is going to go unpunished. And the Brown family is going to get a huge settlement anyway.
Just my opinion.
Why should they charge anyone with murder? There is not probable cause yet to charge him. Fact: he was shot in the front, the “best” witness has already been proven a liar by saying Brown was shot in the back. There was a struggle inside the police officers car. A shot was fired inside. Try and think and not use emotion in dealing with this case. If the cop really just wanted to kill a black man, don’t you think he would have just killed the other guy too in order to get rid of the other witness?
Erik:
You wrote:
“Why should they charge anyone with murder?”
Because it’s a crime. AFAIK, Missouri has the death penalty.
You wrote: “There is not probable cause yet to charge him.”
Six bullets says there is.
You wrote: “Fact: he was shot in the front,”
Shot into the top of Brown’s head was from the front?
You wrote: “the “best” witness has already been proven a liar by saying Brown was shot in the back.”
Why hasn’t Officer Wilson’s statement been released?
You wrote: “There was a struggle inside the police officers car.”
I thought you said the “best” witness was a proven liar. Didn’t he say this?
Isn’t Officer Wilson right-handed? Did Brown stick his head inside the window to reach all the way around Officer Wilson to get at his gun? Is this your claim?
You wrote: “A shot was fired inside.”
Where’s that bullet?
Where’s a link to any evidence of powder burns on Browns body from a close-range shot?
You wrote: “Try and think”
Why don’t you try counting from zero to six.
You wrote: “and not use emotion in dealing with this case.”
Fat, outta-shape police officers on national teevee, depriving U.S. citizens of their First Amendment rights, and you want the American public to leave emotion out of this?
I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
You wrote: “If the cop really just wanted to kill a black man,”
So now you think it was pre-meditated? Do you have any evidence that Officer Wilson was a white supremacist?
You wrote: “don’t you think he would have just killed the other guy too in order to get rid of the other witness?”
More shell casings on the ground, just what Officer Wilson and St. Louis PD needed.
1. Six bullets is not probable cause for a murder charge.
2. Yes a shot on top of the is from the front. A bullet can graze the top of the head coming from a number of directions. The person who performed the autopsy on behalf of the Brown family said the shots came from the front. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/us/michael-brown-autopsy-shows-he-was-shot-at-least-6-times.html?_r=0&referrer=
3. I’m asking to leave emotion out of the decision to charge or not charge the officer. The court of public opinion should play no role in determining if probable cause exists to charge the officer.
4. Where did I say anything about it being pre-meditated? The first word is the word IF!
5. Leaving a witness around would be a lot more dangerous to the officers side of the story than a few more shells.
6. Eye witness accounts state Brown pushed the officer back into the squad car. Now this part will be pure projection not based on fact because you or I and almost anyone else know the truth. If you are pushed into a vehicle you don’t automatically go to the sitting behind the wheel position. You CAN have your legs out side facing to the left.
Erik,
You wrote: “1. Six bullets is not probable cause for a murder charge.”
If you’re using drugs, you’re wasting your money.
You wrote: “2. Yes a shot on top of the is from the front. A bullet can graze the top of the head coming from a number of directions. The person who performed the autopsy on behalf of the Brown family said the shots came from the front. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/us/michael-brown-autopsy-shows-he-was-shot-at-least-6-times.html?_r=0&referrer=
How tall is Officer Wilson?
So in addition to Officer Wilson, did someone else shoot Mike Brown?
Where are the bullets? W/R/T the “graze,” are all the bullets lodged in Mike Brown’s body?
You wrote: “3. I’m asking to leave emotion out of the decision to charge or not charge the officer.”
No you’re not. You’re asking people to ignore six bullets.
You wrote: “The court of public opinion should play no role in determining if probable cause exists to charge the officer.”
The only people who think probable cause doesn’t exist can’t count to six.
You wrote: “4. Where did I say anything about it being pre-meditated? The first word is the word IF!”
It’s what you wrote after “if,” that gave you away.
I don’t think it was pre-meditated, before what I consider was a legit traffic stop. Three-minutes, however, is a long time. Based on the lack of powder burns on Brown’s body, it doesn’t appear at this time as though there’s any evidence that Officer Wilson was ever in any danger.
Did Officer Wilson shoot him twice in the head first and then pump four more bullets into him for fun?
If that’s not your position, it looks like he wounded Brown first. Then, he figured he didn’t want Brown hanging around as a “witness,” and decided to execute him.
You wrote: “5. Leaving a witness around would be a lot more dangerous to the officers side of the story than a few more shells.”
You’re comedy gold. How many witnesses were there?
You wrote: “6. Eye witness accounts state Brown pushed the officer back into the squad car.”
Please, provide a link to these “Eye witness accounts,” because you’re making a great case against Officer Wilson?
Why would Brown “push the officer back into the squad car?”
According to your “Eye witness, Brown was NOT going for Officer Wilson’s gun. He was not hitting or otherwise injuring Officer Wilson. It sounds as though Brown was drunk/high, or both and that really hurts Officer Wilson.
You wrote: “Now this part will be pure projection”
That applies to everything you write.
You wrote: “not based on fact because you or I and almost anyone else know the truth.”
Officer Wilson is not George Martin, or John Henry Spooner, http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/family-friends-of-shooting-victim-recall-a-loving-teen-ps5kvgi-156849655.html …
He’s paid a salary with benefits to work as a PROFESSIONAL in law enforcement. No one disagrees with him pulling Brown over for a traffic stop, but he was “on the job.” He has to account to the taxpayers for his actions? It’s an insult to the vast majority of law enforcement, who want to do things the right way, to let a police officer get away with murder/aka shooting an unarmed man SIX times.
Where is Officer Wilson’s statement?
Why hasn’t it been released?*
You wrote: “If you are pushed into a vehicle you don’t automatically go to the sitting behind the wheel position. You CAN have your legs out side facing to the left.”
Please, why did Mike Brown push Officer Wilson into his police car?
Cannot wait for your response.
Another question, why did Officer Wilson leave the door of police car open, after he exited the vehicle?
*Liability attorneys for FergusonPD are worried that more video, photos, and your favorite, “eye-witness accounts,” will surface. They’re trying to delay Officer Wilson’s statement until everything else is “out.”
“George Martin” was supposed to be “George Zimmerman.”
Hey Erik,
according to the last line in this article, Ferguson is considering making all their on duty officers wear cameras.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/19/ferguson-asks-people-to-stay-home-at-night/
If Officer Wilson had been wearing a camera, we could have had video of Brown “pushing him into his police car!”
Erik,
I hope this isn’t too emotional for you:
“LANDOVER, Md. — The “Hands up, don’t shoot” protest has made its way to the NFL.
The Washington Redskins secondary emerged from the stadium tunnel during pregame introductions Monday night with hands raised and palms forward.
It was a show of solidarity with the people in Ferguson, Missouri, who are protesting the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Eleven players took part as the team was preparing to face the Cleveland Browns.
Safety Ryan Clark said Brown “could have been any one of us. That could have been any one of our brothers, our cousins. … When you get an opportunity to make a statement and be more than a football player, it’s good.”…”
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11375414/eleven-washington-redskins-players-show-solidarity-ferguson-missouri-protest
Undergirding this is the disaster that local and state government budgets are in. Over the decades, they have begun to rely more on the revenue from fines from traffic stops, misdemeanor arrests. Law enforcement calls it “paying the rent.” If you don’t generate enough revenue in fines, your path to career advancement is blocked.
We should look at assessing those fines on the basis of a person’s ability to pay. If someone thinks a traffic stop will cost them next month’s rent, and make them homeless, they will run.
Based upon the following link and other accounts, there is one man who has played a major role of responsibility for the current situation in Ferguson and surrounding communities in S. Louis County. It seems too many deaths of black men have been deemed “justifiable homicide.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/background-of-prosecutor-in-ferguson-case-has-some-suspicious-of-bias/