BOSTON—From Boston to Los Angeles, police departments across the US are bracing for large demonstrations when a grand jury decides whether to indict a white police officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
The Saint Louis County grand jury, which has been meeting since August 20, is expected to decide this month whether Officer Darren Wilson is charged with a crime for killing Michael Brown after ordering the 18-year-old and a friend to stop walking in the street on August 9.
The shooting has led to tension with police and a string of unruly protests in Ferguson and brought worldwide attention to the formerly obscure Saint Louis suburb, where more than half the population is black and yet, few police officers are.
For some cities, a decision in the racially charged case will, inevitably, reignite long-simmering debates over local police relations with minority communities.
“It’s definitely on our radar,” said Lt. Michael McCarthy, police spokesman in Boston, where police leaders met privately on Wednesday to discuss preparations. “Common sense tells you the timeline is getting close. We’re just trying to prepare in case something does step off, so we are ready to go with it.”
In Los Angeles, rocked by riots in 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King, police officials say they’ve been in touch with their counterparts in Missouri, where Gov. Jay Nixon and Saint Louis-area law enforcement held a news conference this week on their own preparations.
“Naturally, we always pay attention,” said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a police spokesman. “We saw what happened when there were protests over there and how oftentimes protests spill from one part of the country to another.”
In Las Vegas, police joined pastors and other community leaders this week to call for restraint at a rally tentatively planned northwest of the casino strip when a decision comes.
Activists in Ferguson met on Saturday to map out their protest plans. Meeting organizers encouraged group members to provide their names upon arrest as Darren Wilson or Michael Brown to make it more difficult for police to process them.
In the neighboring town of Berkeley, Missouri, officials this week passed out fliers urging residents to be prepared for unrest just as they would a major storm —with plenty of food, water and medicine in case they’re unable to leave home for several days.
In Boston, a group called “Black Lives Matter,” which also has chapters in other major cities, is organizing a rally in front of the police district office in the Roxbury neighborhood the day after an indictment decision.
In October, the group, as part of a larger coalition, rallied in front of police headquarters protesting the department’s “racially biased stop, frisk and search practices” and expressing solidarity with protesters in Ferguson.
Organizers at the time pointed to an American Civil Liberties Union report that concluded Boston’s black residents are more likely to be stopped, questioned or searched by police, an assertion the department has strongly disputed, saying it was based on old data.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, police are expecting demonstrations after having dealt with a string of angry protests following a March police shooting of a homeless camper and more than 40 police shootings since 2010.
But big-city police departments stressed they’re well-equipped to handle crowds.
Indeed, many saw large, mostly peaceful, demonstrations following the 2013 not-guilty verdict in the slaying in Florida of an unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, who was not a police officer but coordinated the local neighborhood watch.
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Here are some of the myths the media/police have sold in favor of Wilson.
1. Johnson changed his story and admitted Brown attacked Wilson and tried to take his gun.
2. There are 12 witnesses who support Wilson’s account of the shooting.
3. The witnesses said Brown was killed with his back turned. (The witnesses said Brown turned around after the first shot was fired.)
4. After Brown ran, Wilson fired his gun only one time before continuing to fire. (False, audio recording proves he fired two bursts, the first one being 4 shots)
5. Brown was charging Wilson when he was killed. (Video of witness seconds after shooting shows him describing Brown as surrendering and not a threat. Not to mention three other witnesses who gave the same account, none of them being Johson.)
6. Hospital pic of a caucasian male with badly bruised face. (Victim was actually a motorcycle rider who died 6 years ago.) Somehow the pic was shared 50,000 times before this was known.
7. CT scan/X ray of an orbital fracture claiming to be of WIlson. (It was actually a photoshopped ct scan from the University of Iowa, origination of this myth is currently known to be gatewaypundit, Jim Hoffit)
8. Ferguson police HAD to release store video of Brown due to tremendous FOIA pressure from the public. (It is currently known there was ONE request for the video at the time)
9. Wilson was “Badly Beaten” before being “forced” to kill Brown. (We have witness video showing Wilson seconds after the shooting, uniform in very tidy and neat condition and he displays absolutely no sign of any physical injury. Also, we see no blood on his uniform either)
10. Wilson was injured so bad he had to be rushed to the hospital. (Wilson left the shooting scene and returned to the police station to meet with his lawyer for 2 HOURS before going to the hospital.)
11. Wilson had an orbital fracture. (Video from police station shows no injuries of any significance and he was clearly 100% lucid. Also take note no other cop or emt offered first aid to Wilson on scene.)
12. Witnesses have given conflicting accounts about final moments before shooting. (They have all given the same basic account with minor variations on placement of his hands but what they all agree on without a doubt is Brown was surrendering when he was killed. The video of the eyewitness, who was working outside, is important because he gave the same account Johnson gave on the final moments before Brown was killed)
13. Autopsy proves Wilson’s account. (The autopsy provides evidence that could reconstruct the shooting in many ways.)
There are more but this is a decent example of how rumors get passed on as facts and sadly, the journalists who provided the false reports will not be held accountable. They are lying cowards.