Michael Brown

A TSUNAMI OF EVIDENCE: SDPD'S SIX MILLION VIDEOS

Body-Worn Cameras Ten Years after Ferguson
 
By JW August, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association
 
Photos Courtesy San Diego Police Department. Warning: Photos contain graphic violent content.
 
February 25, 2024 (San Diego) -- Ten years ago, angry widespread protests erupted after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, MO. Called the Ferguson uprising, Brown’s death and the aftermath of unrest and anger brought immediate attention to law enforcement methods in Ferguson and in time was seen as an indictment of policing in the country and here in San Diego1.

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MICHAEL BROWN: A MOTHER'S GRIEF

 

Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, And Love of My Son Michael Brown, by Lezley McSpadden (Regan Arts, New York, NY, 2013, 254 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

Equal rights, fair play, justice are like the air; we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.

  • Maya Angelou

August 21, 2016 (San Diego) - I feel honored and privileged to write this review of Lezley McSpadden’s book; Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy, and Love of My Son Michael Brown. She and I actually have a lot in common, as we both were born in Missouri, me about 150 miles south of Ferguson in the bootheel, the small town of Charleston. Also, she bears a likeness to my sister Janet, also born in Charleston, mostly through their close set eyes and facial features.


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U.S. JUSTICE DEPT. RELEASES CRIMINAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS REPORTS ON FERGUSON POLICE

 

Federal  civil rights investigation finds blatant, systemic racism in Ferguson Police Dept., but criminal probe finds no grounds to prosecute officer who killed Michael Brown

By Miriam Raftery

March 4, 2015 (Washington D.C.) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday announced results of two federal probes into the Ferguson, Missouri police department which drew national attention following the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager. A criminal investigation found no grounds to prosecute Officer Darren Wilson, who killed the teen, Michael Brown. However a separate civil rights investigation found systemic racism in the department and mandates changes.

The Justice Department has ordered corrective action. Holder emphasized in a press statement, “Let me be clear: the United States Department of Justice reserves all its rights and abilities to force compliance and implement basic change.”


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SWAT VEHICLE AND BEANBAG GUN USED TO SUBDUE KIDNAP SUSPECT WITH NON-LETHAL FORCE

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Beanbag round and projectiles similar to those used to subdue kidnap suspect

December 11, 2014 (El Cajon )—“There’s a good chance that our police officers saved the lives of four kids today,” Councilman Gary Kendrick told East County Magazine, reflecting on the dramatic rescue of the  children for whom an Amber Alert had been issued. The body of their mother had been found in another vehicle and their abductor was their father, who was believed to be armed and dangerous.


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PROTESTERS MAR MEMORIAL TO SLAIN OFFICER JEREMY HENWOOD

East County News Service

November 27, 2014 (San Diego) – Demonstrators in City Heights Tuesday night placed a sign over a memorial to slain San Diego Police officer Jeremy Henwood, making it read “Michael Brown Memorial Park.”  The action was part of a protest over a jury verdict not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer who fatally shot an African-American teen in Ferguson, Missouri.

Henwood was shot and killed in his police car after pulling over to assist a vehicle that had flashed its lights on August 7, 2011.  A white beat officer in City Heights, one of his final actions caught on camera was giving a cookie to a young African-American boy at a nearby McDonalds.  By numerous accounts, he was an officer who was respected in the community he patrolled.

The San Diego Police Officers Association has issued a statement after the incident:


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VIOLENCE IN FERGUSON AFTER GRAND JURY DECISION: PROTESTS IN SAN DIEGO

 

Photo courtesy Times of San Diego

Update November 26, 2014:  Two protests were held last night in San Diego. A downtown rally was peaceful, but protesters in City Heights engaged in civil disobedience blocking a bridge; some bottles were hurled at police officers, UT San Diego report.  In Washington, President Obama called for calm after the jury verdict, but voiced concerns over the racial divide and mistrust of police, adding that despite strides made in civil rights, America still has a long way to go.

By Miriam Raftery

November 25, 2014 (San Diego)—A Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri announced Monday night that there will be no indictments against police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager.  Jurors heard conflicting testimony from witnesses including some who said Wilson shot Brown when his hands were up as if to surrender, but others described Brown as confrontational and one witness claimed Brown charged at Officer Wilson, head down.

The verdict has prompted protests in cities across the nation.  California Campaign to End Police Terror has announced demonstrations statewide including a protest planned Monday night, November 25th at 6 p.m. at the City Heights library, located at 3795 Fairmount Avenue in San Diego.


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MICHAEL BROWN REMEMBRANCE AND SPEAK THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO DIED IN SAN DIEGO

 

August 29, 2014 (San Diego) - Activist San Diego (ASD), a coalition of community organizations, in an effort to keep the issue of lives lost at the hands of law enforcement, will have a rally at the City Heights Performance Annex in San Diego. As will many other such rallies throughout the country, the rally will be in remembrance of Mike Brown and the town of Ferguson, Missouri.


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DEJA VU: PRELUDE TO MICHAEL BROWN AND FERGUSON, MISSOURI

 

The Lynching of Cleo Wright, by Dominic J. Capeci, Jr. (The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 1998, 274 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

August 25, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - Terry Teachout, a New York Times critic, playwright, and inveterate blogger, and I have something in common. He and I were both born in the “bootheel” of Missouri, he in Sikeston and I in Charleston – in the area of one of the most tragic and heinous lynchings in the annals of America; the lynching of Cleo Wright. We both, also have weighed in on Dominic J. Capeci’s book; The Lynching of Cleo Wright, which has been described as “a creatively conceptualized anatomy of a lynching, and “Capeci places the lynching of Cleo Wright within the context of the city of Sikeston, the state of Missouri, and the nation.” This book should also be viewed in context with the ongoing furor and debate of Ferguson, Missouri and the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white policeman.


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READER'S EDITORIAL: POLICE RESPONSE IN FERGUSON ROOTED IN SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE AND MILITARISM

 

By Brian J. Trautman

August 25, 2014 (Ferguson, Missouri)--The police response to public protests in Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the deadly August 9 shooting of Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed eighteen-year-old black man killed by a white police officer, was a prime illustration of the hyper-aggressive nature of policing in America today. The residents of Ferguson fed up with hostile and abusive police behavior continue to flood the streets to demand justice for Mike Brown and other victims of police brutality. They have been joined in solidarity by people of conscience in other cities (e.g., Oakland, NYC). Their anger and frustration was exacerbated by the heavy-handed tactics used against the mostly peaceful protestors in Ferguson during the first week or so of the demonstrations – tear gas, rubber bullets, smoke, deafening sirens as well as assault rifles fixed on protestors were some of the violent methods employed by law enforcement. In addition, a mandatory curfew imposed by the Missouri governor, verbal threats of physical harm from police, and arrests of journalists, among other ill-advised and counterproductive reactions, only escalated the tensions between protestors and police.


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"HANDS UP, DON'T SHOOT:" DAY OF RAGE COMES TO SAN DIEGO

 

By Nadin Abbott

August 22, 2014 (San Diego)--Members of the community, including a coalition of Occupy groups, came to Balboa Park for an evening in support of people in Ferguson, Missouri after the police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown there prompted outrage nationwide.


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HUNTER SPEAKS OUT ON MILITARIZATION OF POLICE

 

East County News Service

August 17, 2014 (San Diego’s East County)--The shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager in Missouri, and riots that followed have drawn national attention to the militarization of local police departments across America.


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MISSOURI TEEN SHOOTING HAS IMPACTS LOCALLY

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo posted at Wikipedia by Loaves of Bread under Creative Commons (attribution required)

August 17, 2014 (San Diego)--City Heights residents organized a “hands up” tribute late Thursday in San Diego as part of a nationwide event calling attention to the police shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Missouri. About 100 gathered, wearing red ribbons on their arms. They joined hands and held a moment of silence for all victims of police violence.


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