Seattle’s anti-cop activists will be dangerous after Ferguson

The threat of violence and protests after the inevitable grand jury decision on whether or not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown is not relegated to just Missouri. There’s significant concern that it will happen here in Seattle, thanks in large part to a fringe activist group called the October 22nd Coalition Against Police Brutality, Repression and The Criminalization of a Generation (or the O22CAPBRCG – it just rolls off the tongue).

As you heard here on KIRO Radio, the city is setting up its emergency operations center in anticipation of protests. We’re not yet sure when the grand jury decision will come down, but there’s been some mumbling that it’ll happen on Friday or possibly over the weekend.

I think we can expect action in the streets of Seattle if some nutty activists have their way. According to the Stranger, “[d]emonstrations are already being planned ahead of the Ferguson decision. ‘Hundreds are preparing… to take to the streets of Seattle’ to protest the grand jury decision when it comes,’ according to [O22CAPBRCG].”

They’ll go to Westlake Park at 6 p.m. the day of the grand jury decision.

And the quote by Emma Kaplan, one of the members of O22CAPBRCG, provides good indication that these people don’t actually care about what happened between Darren Wilson and Michael Brown, they just want to exploit an incident to push their anti-police agenda.

And make no mistake: they’re anti-police. I don’t think people are anti-police simply by being critical of cops or wanting to push for reform or even complaining at some actions police officers take. That’s normal.

But these folks believe a phony narrative unsupported by actual data.

Check out this quote from Kaplan. “Whatever the decision, people everywhere must pour into the streets to demand justice for Michael Brown. If the grand jury refuses to indict Darren Wilson for murder, this country must come to a halt. We cannot accept this murdering cop walking free. We will not accept a future where Black lives count for nothing, where our youth will be cut down by police with complete disregard for their humanity. We must pour out by the tens of thousands, and raise our voices in the streets, loudly saying NO MORE!”

In another interview with KING 5, she said, “I think that if people don’t speak up, things are going to get ugly.”

Emma Kaplan appears to be an anti-cop partisan who doesn’t want justice; she wants to be judge, jury, and executioner. She’s just some activist who doesn’t know what the hell happened in Ferguson, but thinks because she hates cops, all cops should be punished. And she will never be happy unless she gets her way.

“There needs to be an indictment,” said Kaplan, who wasn’t present during the confrontation. “And people need to demand that.”

Thankfully, that’s not how our justice system works. Thankfully, some partisan troublemaker doesn’t set the rules. In this country, we present evidence and if there isn’t evidence to convict (if there’s no evidence to even suggest a law was broken), we tend not to simply indict.

Whether or not Wilson gets indicted, I have no idea. If the information that has been leaked is accurate, then Wilson won’t be indicted. I’d ask Kaplan and her ilk to read the documents, but it would make no difference. She tweeted: “If Wilson walks, will be stamp of approval to murder black youth with impunity. Act when verdict comes in.” (Yes, this is a remarkably ignorant statement, but her Twitter feed is full of dumb comments.)

Here’s what happened according to the official autopsy on Michael Brown, as reported by the St Louis Post Dispatch:

A source with knowledge of Wilson’s statements said the officer had told investigators that Brown had struggled for Wilson’s pistol inside a police SUV and that Wilson had fired the gun twice, hitting Brown once in the hand. Later, Wilson fired additional shots that killed Brown and ignited a national controversy.

St Louis medical examiner Michael Graham said the autopsy “does support that there was a significant altercation at the car.”

What was that altercation? This story has never changed.

A source with knowledge of Wilson’s statements said the officer had told investigators that Brown had struggled for Wilson’s pistol inside a police SUV and that Wilson had fired the gun twice, hitting Brown once in the hand.

Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco, said the autopsy supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound. She added, “If he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.”

Melinek also said the autopsy did not support witnesses who have claimed Brown was shot while running away from Wilson, or with his hands up.

She said Brown was facing Wilson when Brown took a shot to the forehead, two shots to the chest and a shot to the upper right arm. The wound to the top of Brown’s head would indicate he was falling forward or in a lunging position toward the shooter; the shot was instantly fatal.

A sixth shot that hit the forearm traveled from the back of the arm to the inner arm, which means Brown’s palms could not have been facing Wilson, as some witnesses have said, Melinek said. That trajectory shows Brown probably was not taking a standard surrender position with arms above the shoulders and palms out when he was hit, she said.

These angry activists don’t want justice; they want to believe the police are bad in every case because they don’t like police. And let’s say they have legitimate concerns with the conduct of officers against black people in this country; let’s assume, for the sake of the argument, they’re right. Darren Brown should pay for the sins of police if he did everything right?

Michael Brown isn’t the gentle giant he’s been made out to be. He’s a thief, for sure (we know he robbed a store before his confrontation with Wilson). And he may be a bad guy who tried to steal an officer’s gun and then charge the officer to do him harm. When you’re a bad guy who tries to kill an officer, you ought to have the expectation that you’ll be shot and killed.

Yet, I still don’t know what happened. I’m willing to wait and get the actual evidence presented (and if Wilson broke the law – the actual law, not an activist’s interpretation of law – he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law).