CLAYTON • The grand jury considering whether Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson should be criminally charged in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown now has until Jan. 7 to decide…
A St. Louis County grand jury usually sits for four months, a period that for the current panel expired last week. State law provides for a term of up to six months, which moves the date to November. On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Carolyn Whittington issued an order adding 60 days more.
“She extended it to the full amount allowed by law,” Court Administrator Paul Fox said Monday. But he added that the grand jury will keep meeting until Jan. 7 only if it needs to.
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
I’m not surprised at all. Given the nature of the shooting, I would prefer that a thorough, honest, and complete investigation compliment a likewise presentation to the Grand Jury. I think this would go a ways towards easing some of the mistrust that some in the Black community have with law enforcement and the media as well.
While I hold out hope for a fair investigation and Grand Jury presentation, the cynic in me doesn’t think such a thing exists. There have been far too many “eyewitness” leaks and reports that appear to have been missed or ignored by the police investigating the shooting. You also have the hearsay “eyewitness” testimony of the officer’s friends who are relaying what they say is the officer’s story. Add the multiple false flag reports on Brown including the fake criminal record, the juvenile murder charge, the shattered orbital bone, and the fake officer photo, and I don’t see how a fair and impartial trial can happen anywhere.
I fault the media for this as some have gone out of their way to display the worst behaviors in Ferguson while completely ignoring the stories of those who are trying to bring the community back together. That opinion is shared by the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as well as he explained in an interview with Media Matters.
“I think the national media has done a good job of capturing the story,” Bailon said. But he later said of Fox News: “I do think sometimes … it looks like the whole community was in flames, and it was really a few block area. Significant, but it wasn’t like St. Louis was on fire or out of control and there was mass chaos everywhere … it wasn’t like an all-consuming entire metropolitan area was hit by that, yet it commanded a huge presence of what was there.”
He added, “I think Fox took a different angle, their view was more of the view of the chaos, was really focusing on the looting and less of what was going on in the community pre-dating the looting. The looting was very dramatic…but there was the deeper story there. Some stayed on in town longer, I think there was a different viewpoint on them and less on the undercurrent. [Fox] didn’t look at it as deeply and as long as others, CNN did make an investment, MSNBC was there a lot.”
He also cited a Washington Postreport that Brown had marijuana in his system and another from the New York Post that the officer who shot Brown suffered a fractured eye socket as facts his paper has yet to report because they cannot be verified.
Source: Media Matters For America
Recent polling has also shown that Blacks, along with Hispanics, have a healthy distrust of the media in reporting the events of their communities. We will find out whether or not this mistrust is unfounded on or before January 7th.
The Mind of Brosephus 