Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Stupid is as Stupid Does

I don't have any particular opinion on the meaning or import of the "new" (to most people) footage of Michael Brown's earlier interactions with staff at a store that he was infamously portrayed as having committed a "strong-arm robbery" on shortly before he encountered and was killed by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson.

Wait, I take that back. I do have an opinion on it: I do not think it would have changed the outcome if the whole affair had been handled according to Hoyle. If Wilson had been charged with a crime in the matter, as anyone on the face of the earth who didn't have a shiny badge would have been, based on the known facts, he would almost certainly have been acquitted on reasonable doubt at trial (both because there was plenty of reasonable doubt, and because something like 96% of cops who actually get charged for killing mere mundanes are acquitted regardless of the circumstances).

BUT!

St. Louis County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch calls the conclusions of filmmaker Jason Pollock, who included the footage in his film "Stranger Fruit," "just stupid" and "just nonsense."

McCulloch has precisely zero standing to comment on the case. He handled it in such a ham-handedly corrupt manner that he should have been removed from his position, disbarred, deemed to have forfeited any pension benefits he had coming, and maybe even run out of the county on a rail, covered with tar and feathers.

Instead of charging Wilson, or not charging Wilson, or going to the grand jury with a genuine case, he faked up the whole process, making a big show of going to the grand jury while, behind the scenes, abandoning his duties as prosecutor to act as Wilson's defense attorney (as the accused, Wilson was not entitled to counsel, let alone to have that counsel be the guy who was supposedly seeking his indictment).

McCulloch needs to have a nice hot cup of Shut The Fuck Up.

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