oped: First and foremost Captain Ron Johnson should be relieved of command for his biased comments re: the shooting of Michael Brown, he played the race card and sided with those [Al Sharpton et al] who claim the white officer was guilty when in fact the evidence is coming to light that in fact the shooting now appears to be justified... Captain Ron Johnson obviously failed his courses on arrest,search,seizure,evidence and officer reports.
SEE: http://sharlaslabyrinth.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-jj-witness-video-update3-eye.html
Also the autopsy shows Michael was shot in the front 6 times not as the witnesses stated once in the back then more to the front...and the distance was not close range as they stated.
It also should be noted that Captain Ron Johnson appeared to be running for office rather than trying to calm the situation...he flamed the audience rather than asking for calm!
By Loic Hofsted
Ferguson (United States) (AFP) - The trooper put in charge of tamping swirling racial tensions in this St Louis suburb vowed Sunday to stay "as long as it takes," after violence flared anew.
Captain Ron Johnson also
apologized for a white police officer's shooting of 18-year-old Michael
Brown, which caused long-simmering tensions to spill over for more than a
week since his death in Ferguson, home to a black majority.
A
curfew ordered by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is due to take effect for
a second night Sunday, potentially setting the stage for further
confrontations.
"I want to start off by talking
to Mike Brown's family. I want you to know my heart goes out to you, and
I say that I'm sorry," Johnson said to loud cheering and applause from a
crowd of more than 1,300 people at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson.
"I will be here as long as it takes."
Hundreds more people stood outside the church that was filled to capacity, where passing cars honked at length.
Young
people who had gathered outside held their hands in the air, paying
homage to what some witnesses said was Brown's last gesture before being
shot.
Johnson, who grew up in St Louis, also acknowledged the personal toll the violence has taken on him.
"The last 24 hours have been tough for me," he said.
Amid the growing violence, the federal government has stepped up its involvement in the investigation.
Attorney General Eric Holder is due to brief President Barack Obama on the situation on Monday, AURN radio reported.
"Our
immediate goal is to make sure that the residents of Ferguson are safe,
that the looting stops, that the vandalism stops, that the people who
are living in the community are confident that justice will be done,"
Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett told AURN.
The
US Justice Department announced that a federal medical examiner would
carry out an autopsy on Brown's body, citing the case's "extraordinary
circumstances."
That would mark the third autopsy of Brown, as extraordinary precautions were being taken in the sensitive investigation.
Federal
investigators will take into account the autopsy performed by state
medical examiners, a Justice Department spokesman said.
Brown's
family has also ordered an autopsy by famed forensic pathologist
Michael Baden, who has testified at the trial of OJ Simpson, and was
consulted for investigations into the deaths of John F. Kennedy and
actor John Belushi.
- Renewed violence -
Tensions flared anew overnight Saturday as police confronted around 200 protesters who defied a curfew.
Police
used smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse demonstrators, while in a
separate incident a woman was left fighting for her life after being
shot.
Brown's death at the
hands of a white police officer has reignited a national debate about
law enforcement and African Americans.
The
Ferguson police force's muscular response also drew criticism after
officers were seen facing down protesters in military-grade armored
trucks while toting high-powered assault rifles.
Johnson stressed why resolving the unrest in Ferguson was important to him and other black families.
"When this is over, I'm going to
go in my son's room, my black son, who wears his pants sagging, wears
his hat cocked to the side, has tattoos on his arms, but that's my
baby," he said.
"And we all
ought to be thanking the Browns for Michael, because Michael is going to
make it better for our sons, so they can be better black men. So they
can be better for our daughters, so they can be better black women."
- Calls for police accountability -
A
manager of a special needs institution who gave her name as Angel said
there would only be peace in the community once citizens feel safe and
have made peace with the police, who she said must be held accountable
for what happened.
"Now that St Louis is standing
up and people across the nation are standing up, I think it's noticeable
that people are not going to allow things like this to continue to
happen, they are going to stand for things," she told AFP.
Social worker Tia Mannierre stressed that "injustice is a big problem in a community."
"We
really have to set an example for the youth, we really have to do
better for the community to come together and just make sure that these
officers are held accountable for their actions because it's not okay
for you to just shoot someone in cold blood for absolutely no reason at
all," she said.
Brown's
family has accused authorities of a "devious" attempt to smear their
son's character after police named him as a suspect in the robbery of a
Ferguson convenience store and released a surveillance video of the
incident.
Police said the officer, unaware of the robbery, stopped the teen merely for walking in the middle of the street.
The Brown family's attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, called Brown's death an "execution."
"When
you put your hand up in the air, this means surrender. Don't shoot,"
said Crump, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed
16-year-old black teenager shot to death in Florida in 2012.
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