Ferguson P.D. Now Trying To Pin Robbery On Michael Brown. This Should Go Well. (Updated)

The police in Ferguson, Missouri, had a whole bunch of "supplementary information" for reporters today when they identified the police office r who shot Michael Brown. And in that packet were some photos and a police report on a convenience store robbery that occurred minutes before Brown was shot. The official narrative is now that officer Darren Wilson was responding to a convenience store robbery when he stopped Brown, grabbed him through the window of his SUV, and then the two either wrestled over Wilson's gun OR Brown tried to not get pulled through the window of a police SUV, after which Brown was shot to death. Something along those lines.

Did the packet include any information on the actual encounter between Brown and Wilson? Don't be Ridiculose! The main thing you need to know is that Wilson was on the lookout for a Big Black Guy who had just robbed a convenience store, and so it's perfectly understandable that a Big Black Guy (who also had hands capable of throwing Gang Signs ) ended up being dead. So let's take a quick look at the incident report, shall we?

 Ferguson Incident Report 

<p>God knows the details of this will be hashed out for weeks on the interwebs and cable TV, so let's just look at a few initial impressions. First off, let's remember that Officer Wilson didn't have access to this report when he drove up to Michael Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson -- the full report wasn't compiled until after the cops interviewed the <del datetime="2014-08-16T03: 43:56+00:00">Quik Trip</del> convenience store manager (corrected -- this was not the QuikTrip store, but another market), and on the very first page of the report, we see that happened on August 13: </p><p><a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/17683517/origin.jpg"><img id="7fdae" data-rm-shortcode-id="14e9d1a9d24c61b10929e96100ddeaa4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" class="rm-shortcode " loading="lazy" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY4MzUxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY5Nzk1ODk2M30.Aul2d5AHq8WXjhLOWXaVoqKu-6ldcPzNzp5O1jFVBc0/img.jpg?width=980" /></a> </p><p>So whatever was going through Wilson's head when he encountered Michael Brown, he wasn't working with much more than a radio call that said... well, we don't know yet. The report, written four days later, definitely identifies Brown as the suspect, but he was conveniently dead by then. (<strong>See update</strong> at end of post, however) </p><p>The other thing we might want to ask about is, if Michael Brown was a subject in a robbery, why is it we didn't hear that on Sunday, when the police first started letting information out? Or Monday? Or Tuesday? Or maybe Wednesday, when the report was finally prepared? Instead, it was handed out at the press conference identifying the shooter, and so now, all we are talking about is the robbery, not some other questions that COULD have been answered -- if not the full report on the shooting, could we at least have been told how many times Brown was shot? If we can have the store's surveillance video today, why hasn't the audio or video from Wiolson's dash cam been released? Here's an MSNBC copy of the video: </p><p/><p style="text-align:center;"><iframe border="no" height="500" scrolling="no" src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/EmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_mitchell_1video_140815_282845" width="635"/></p> <p>The robber, Michael Brown <del datetime="2014-08-15T17:58:47+00:00">or not</del>, looks like he's very definitely very mean to the tiny convenience store guy. But we don't kill people for robbing grocery stores or manhandling clerks. </p><p>Also, too: wasn't the original story that the cop had told Brown to "get on the sidewalk," not, "Hey, I spotted a robbery suspect! I think I'll try and apprehend him by...pulling up next to him and yanking him into the car through a window"? </p><p>Another question: if the police in Ferguson thought that Dorian Johnson was a witness or accomplice to a robbery (involving a guy that they shot to death), why wasn't he among the first people questioned? <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/8/15/6005903/dorian-johnson-ferguson-suspect-michael-brown-witness" target="_blank">Why isn't he under arrest?</a> </p><p>If Brown just stole some cigarillos, why wasn't there a box of cigarillos on the ground anywhere? </p><p>And one more time: Why do we have a very detailed report on a convenience store robbery, and <em>not even the slightest shred of paperwork about the shooting of Michael Brown?</em> </p><p>We would think there are as many holes in the Ferguson PD's story as in Michael Brown's body. Except we still don't know how many that might be. </p><p>But as Joshua Holland noted on <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshuaHol/status/500308593510338564" target="_blank">Twitter,</a> at least we know how many cigars he allegedly stole. </p><p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> Dorian Johnson's attorney <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ferguson-police-name-michael-brown?cid=sm_m_main_1_20140815_29822566" target="_blank">has confirmed </a>that Brown had stolen the cigars, according to MSNBC: </p><p/><blockquote>“We see that there’s tape, that they claim they got a tape that shows there was some sort of strong-armed robbery,” said Freeman Bosley, Johnson’s attorney. “We need to see that tape, my client did tell us and told the FBI that they went into the store. He told FBI that [Brown] did take cigarillos. He told that to the DOJ and the St. Louis County Police.” <p>In an interview earlier this week, Johnson described the events of the shooting but did not mention that he and Brown had been in a convenience store just before, or that Brown had stolen anything.</p></blockquote> <p>Now we just need to know why Officer Wilson found it necessary to shoot a cigar thief while he had his hands in the air. </p>