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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWilson is NOT a Grimm. Brown was NOT a Wesen. People who "see" demons should not be armed.
Or on the street in police uniforms.
I posted on this topic over the holiday weekend.
Prosecutors should have asked if Wilson regularly saw "demons" while on duty. They should have asked how he "knew" Brown was a demon - had he seen one before? What do 'demons' look like?
They should have asked if he is on medication to help him NOT see demons, and then they should have double checked the handbook of "fact versus fantasy" and pointed out that Michael Brown was a TEENAGER, not a DEMON.
But they didn't, because "demon" was code for "scary black man".
And that is why I think the Prosecutors weren't just INCOMPETENT, but are RACISTS.
Because they DIDN'T challenge the "DEMON" description.
Because to them, it was a perfectly normal adjective, instead of the rantings of a Crazy Person.
logosoco
(3,208 posts)I still am curious about how he said something along the lines of - he looked like he was mad that I was shooting him.
I've never shot at anyone, but I am thinking there aren't many people who look happy when they are being shot at.
The testimony I have read so far leads me to believe this case is not over at all. If it is, our system is badly broken.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)Wilson's UNCHALLENGED Grand Jury Testimony.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025865763
He goes on to describe how, in absolute terror for his life, he just kept shooting at the demon, who wouldn't stop trying to come at him despite all the bullets he was being riddled with.
Yeah, that's things happen in real life.
PDJane
(10,103 posts)For instance, anyone with ties to racist organizations should not be allowed to wear a uniform. The racism in the US justice system is endemic, and I'm not sure that there is a way to rid ourselves of it.
How can you shoot a 12 year old, estimate his age as 20, and refuse to give first aid? (Mind, it makes sure that the main witness to what was said can't talk.) No one wants to confront racism, but it has to be done at some point. Well, unless we want to go back to the dark ages.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)He was employed at Jennings, the local police force that was disbanded due to corruption and racism.
He polices a beat that has "issues" with high numbers of black people pulled over, searched, and warrants issued.
His fellow officers, knowing they were being recorded, referred to protesters (at that point, mainly black) as "f*ck*ng animals" on NATIONAL TELEVISION.
Anonymous says he has ties to the KKK, and they (bless their hearts!) did fundraising on his behalf.
Racism appears to be "the normal" there. A total house cleaning would probably be best - and who wants to be unemployed because of your "social KKK" affiliations?
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)The idea that we are producing super criminals - that a black guy was somehow incredibly dangerous even unarmed. This turns out to be racialist nonsense, but it's been absorbed into the police mindset. That's why his descriptions of seeing a demon or being held by the incredible Hulk are given weight despite their crazy connotations.
Bryant
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)"Fact versus fiction" is a topic discussed in lower elementary school in depth. Television shows demonstrate how make-up artists create fanciful creatures for television.
Mike Brown was not wearing a demon mask, except in the eyes of the guy who either needs medication or is just a flat-out racist.
I want to know why the Prosecutors and the rest of the Police Force didn't put his ass out there as a sacrificial lamb so fast it made his head spin.
I have asked this before - just what are they hiding?
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)The Super Predator theory arouse out of the works of several 1990s criminologists.
(I)nfluential criminologists in the 1990s issued predictions of a coming wave of superpredators: radically impulsive, brutally remorseless elementary school youngsters who pack guns instead of lunches and have absolutely no respect for human life. Much of this frightening imagery was racially coded.
In 1995, John DiIulio, a professor at Princeton who coined the term superpredator, predicted that the number of juveniles in custody would increase three-fold in the coming years and that, by 2010, there would be an estimated 270,000 more young predators on the streets than in 1990. Criminologist James Fox joined in the rhetoric, saying publicly, Unless we act today, were going to have a bloodbath when these kids grow up.
This is from an article by Heather Digby Parton, published at Salon. She traces how the racist imagery of slavery and the jim crow imagery was given a scientific veneer in the 1990s and used to justify gunning down black people.
Leaving aside the specifics of the Michael Brown case which others will inevitably dissect in great detail, its fair to note that this trained police officer, a man inside of a car with a gun and a radio with which to call for back-up (which he did) was so frightened by this young black male, whom he saw as having superhuman strength and the look of a demon, that the situation escalated to deadly violence in the span of 90 seconds.
It is stunning when you look at it like that.
I have no way of knowing if they are also covering up something, but I don't think it's necessary for them to be covering up something for them to believe that Wilson was legitimately afraid.
Bryant
Oktober
(1,488 posts)All he has to say that it was not literally a demon but reminded him of the angry faces that one sees in mythology and religious culture.
Not quite the smoking gun you were hoping for...
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)verb [T] /ˈdɪ·məˌnɑɪz/ US
to try to make someone or a group of people seem completely evil:
to refer to any characterization of individuals, groups, or political bodies as evil.
See also[edit]
Dehumanization
Yeah, defend his crap.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)Mythology and religious culture have many types of "demons", and unfortunately, Evangelical Christianity truly believes that "demons can possess people" with "good Christians" able to "see" these demons.
This needed to be explored -- was he making a simple visual comparison (based on his previously undisclosed extensive background in medieval art history?), as you say, in which as I am interested in "which artist" and "which time period". Or is he a member of a religious or other sect that believes in demonic possession? Or is he just plain crazy? Or was it just "code" for "black people = demons because I am a racist"?
I have had the unfortunate experience of being present when a guest began "speaking in tongues" and "casting out demons" in my dining room. I also know at least one person who is bi-polar who (during one particular episode) announced his divinity. I have also met a few racists.
I would like to know which one Darren Wilson is and why NO ONE called him out on this.
"Demon" is a pretty strong adjective, especially when it is being applied to an unarmed teenager who has just been killed.