Well, well, well...Michael Brown committed a robbery.... (legal, CNN, 18 year old)

[luzianne]

Now the "eyewitness" story (since the autopsy results have come out) is that Michael Brown WAS running away, but stopped and turned around and was shot. So the story changes now that the autopsy disproves the initial eyewitness account that he was shot in the back while he was running away.

[PrayersForAll]

per post by Marigolds6: "Ferguson doesn't own any of the equipment you are seeing. They are a flat broke department that mostly acts as a speed trap"....and I read that "high powered" equipment was just recently provided by other cities.
[URL="http://www.city-data.com/forum/reputation.php?p=36129490"]http://pics3.city-data.com/images/ratepost.png[/URL]

[zeliner]

Michael Brown committed a robbery. Therefore, he should be shot multiple times and killed...

Doesn't appear that the punishment matches the crime here.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by zeliner

Michael Brown committed a robbery. Therefore, he should be shot multiple times and killed...

Doesn't appear that the punishment matches the crime here.

He didn't get shot for the robbery. He got shot because he went for the officer's weapon and charged the officer. But don't let the facts get in your way.

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by marigolds6

Ferguson doesn't own any of the equipment you are seeing. They are a flat broke department that mostly acts as a speed trap.

Well what did they do, stop off at "Tanks R Us" on the way to the riot and rent it?

Whether they paid for it or it was given to them, they own it.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Well what did they do, stop off at "Tanks R Us" on the way to the riot and rent it?

Whether they paid for it or it was given to them, they own it.

Perhaps the heavy equipment came from and was operated by the St. Louis police.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by rattieracoon

the cop had a choice to taze him or use a rubber bullet or use a killing wepon or possibly shoot him in the foot or somewerelow but come on man not in the chest after all you are inescent on thill proven gilty but in this case he had a choice and slottered the youngster

Let's try to be a little realistic here.

First of all, no officer on regular patrol is going to have his weapon loaded with rubber bullets nor, under circumstances such as those that occurred, is he going to take a time-out to load some up.

Second, perhaps not all officers in this small department have Tasers.

Third, under duress you normally shoot for center of mass, not a small target like a foot.

Fourth, he wasn't shot in the back as some like to allege, the wounds aren't consistent with having his arms raised in supplication and maybe, just maybe, he might have been coming after the officer after maybe having tried to go for his gun. What we do know is that he was 6'4" tall, 292 lbs. and that's a formidable opponent.

Finally, none of us were there so none of know what really did happen.

The jury is still out on most of it!

[kcmo]

luzianne, looks like we finally found a topic where we both have similar opinions.

[luzianne]

Originally Posted by kcmo

luzianne, looks like we finally found a topic where we both have similar opinions.

Wonders never cease!

[marigolds6]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Well what did they do, stop off at "Tanks R Us" on the way to the riot and rent it?

Whether they paid for it or it was given to them, they own it.

Sorry, I didn't make that clear. Surrounding departments own that equipment. SLMPD and SLCPD are about 80x bigger than Ferguson PD with nearly 200x the budget.
Many of Ferguson's 53 officers are actually contract patrol officers with neighboring cities (Ferguson agrees to provide police services and write tickets for other jurisdictions; those jurisdictions hire and pay the officers but do not have to take care of other costs).