#BaltimoreRiots: What did happen to Freddie Gray?

This story makes no sense.  

I am definitely not justifying rioting and mayhem, but how does a 25 year old man go into a police van and come out with his spine almost severed and with injuries that shortly thereafter killed him?  I am inclined to give the police the benefit of doubt, but a case like this one (at least with what little Baltimore P.D. has released) quickly erodes that sentiment. The Baltimore P.D. won't even disclose why Freddie Gray was arrested in the first place. Baltimore's handling of Freddie Gray's death makes Ferguson's initial public relation effort in connection with the Michael Brown shooting look downright competent.  

Instapundit: As Baltimore burns, O'Malley speaks out and Hillary talks about bumper stickers, Hope and Change, and Loretta Lynch's first test
Wombat: Baltimore erupts in riots
Katie Pavlich: Mom slaps son
TOM: Anarchy in Baltimore and (Smitty) Mayor of Baltimore in Dire Straits
EBL: Wasn't that White House Corespondent's Dinner Just Fabulous? 
Regular Right Guy: Democrats Burning Down Baltimore

Instapundit: Roger Simon: Why Baltimore? An American Tragedy and CNN Blames Military Veterans?
Michelle Malkin: Baltimore citizens are running with the space the Mayor gave them
Twitchy/Kevin Williamson: Baltimore is the left, fighting the left, over the failed policies of the left
Instapundit: Remember O'Malley's Anti Gun Law
Smitty: Forgiving Brooke Baldwin

#Ferguson Update: Violent Right Wing Tea Party Member Arrested for Cop Shooting

The Other McCain has more.
So does American Power Blog
Instapundit: Dennis Ross is trying to make the connection and it pays to be a race baiter.

Who is responsible for the cop shooting in Ferguson?  
This individual incited the mob "Many times."
Twitchy: Hands up Part 2
How Ferguson was made worse…
TOM: Riot Ideology in Ferguson and Can We Make #FactsMatter Trend?

#Ferguson: Who is responsible for cops being ambushed and shot?

Check out this LOL email from Hillary!

Twitchy
Lem: Two officers shot
Legal Insurrection: #Ferguson no win for police

TOM: Two officers shot in Ferguson and three questioned after shooting…

Instapundit: Eric Holder Left Wing Activist  and the Wages of Rabble Rousing
AmPowerBlog: Holder does not take responsibility for his own contribution to cop shooting
RRG: Ed Shultz: The Ferguson Solution, #Ferguson Cops Ambushed- Al Sharpton was not there, Holder: Hands Up Don't Shoot
DaTechGuy: Erick Holder and Al Sharpton's wins are Black Community Losses
Twitchy: Classic Narcissist President Obama on Jimmy Kimmel

Rush Limbaugh

Update:
TOM: Jeffrey Williams arrested for shooting two cops in Ferguson

Shake Down Al Sharpton exploited families he said he was going to help…

Al Sharpton is all about the money!

James O'Keefe: Sharpton exploited the Garner, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown families…

If MSNBC is supposedly changing political tack, why hasn't Al Shapton been cut loose? If NBC executives are embarrassed over Brian Williams, what about the guy who exploited Tawana Brawley?

Comcast and Sharpton hit with 20 billion dollar lawsuit…
Al Sharpton strikes back: Nobody says what I did with the money I got...
Frivolous lawsuit explains why Comcast employs ratings loser Al Sharpton
More from Legal Insurrection

More from Truth Revolt: Here and Here
RRG: It's About The Money

Rioters storm Police Headquarters in St. Louis

TOM: Anti-Police Protestors Rioters Storm Police Headquarters in St. Louis

On the other hand: Police can't be above the law either…I do not look at the protests by the NYPD to be at that level yet, but I recognize cops need to respect citizens and political process (even if the political process is not always fair).

Instapundit : Popehat/Galt City Blues

Instapundit : People are missing the point about the NYPD slow down: I get why prosecuting lawlessness (even petty lawlessness) is necessary but why are revenue offenses a good thing in the first place?
AmPowBlog: Buzz Feed busted…and NYPD on High Alert

Gang members threaten NYPD
Jim Geraghty: Blurring of Lines

What is ailing the black community in the USA?

Police officers are not what's ailing the black community, it's liberalism.
— Brad Thor (@BradThor) December 21, 2014

Via Twitchy

EBL: Two Cops Executed In Brooklyn 
Instapundit: How about that cop killing video?
Yankees pay for slain cop's kids' education
Instapundit: Islam a motiviation?
Michelle Malkin: Protesters get what they sought
TOM: NYT Obfuscates the real reason for this attack
Trooper York is also right about this:

Obama and De Blasio will never say “That could have been my son” about these cops. Because you know that their children or the children of any of the professors or journalists or pundits will ever be cops or fireman or soldiers. Cops and fireman come from the working class. Contrary to Obama and Holder and Sharpton and De Blasio they are not all racist white guys from Long Island. They are Spanish and Asian like the two cops who died. They are black like the sergeant who was in charge when Garner died. Working class men and woman with families who put their bodies between you and the criminal class like Michael Brown.
Those are the people who they hate. Those are the people who they want dead. Those are the people that they scorn. These murders are directly due to their actions. To hateful rhetoric and political posturing. They have blood on their hands.

Blaming cops just perpetuates the victimhood.   

2 NYPD Officers Executed in Brooklyn in revenge for Garner and Ferguson

Shooter Ismaaiyl Brinsley commits suicide when police close in…

RIP

RIP

Hot Air

DeBlasio Time
Instapundit : Things are getting ugly in NYC
Some celebrating the shooting of the police
Instapundit: Tweet of the Year
AmPowBlog: I can breathe
Instapundit and The Lid: Cops turn their back on DeBlasio
Hot Air: Time for DeBlasio to resign
Lem's Place
Instapundit: Hey what about the cop killing video?
TOM: NYT Obfuscates Cop Killer's Motive
Legal Insurrection: Aftermath of cop execution

#Ferguson Skit that got cut from Saturday Night Live

The SNL skit that never aired…

Charles Barkley: Looters are scumbags

Charles Barkley: The media loves controversy…looters are scumbags

Instapundit: Only 19 students in the Patterson, NJ school district ready for college?
Instapundit: Charles Barkley pushes back
Hot Air: Barkley: The Grand Jury got it right…
Wombat : Barkley: Why the profiling?

Benjamin Watson on Ferguson

Benjamin Watson's Ferguson Facebook Post

Lecrae on music and Ferguson

Lecrae on Ferguson

Darren Wilson: Grand Jury Decision in Michael Brown shooting UPDATE: NO INDITEMENT, NO PROBABLE CAUSE

Officer Darren Wilson

EBL: So when will that decision come down in Ferguson, Missouri?  Well, the decision is coming now.
Legal Insurrection: #Ferguson Grand Jury Watch
Instapundit: Decision from Grand Jury made, to be announced

Update:

So has Hurricane Race War made landfall yet?
— Juliette A. Ochieng (@JulietteAkinyi) November 24, 2014

Drudge: NO PROBABLE CAUSE

Instapundit: No Inditement, Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
Legal Insurrection: No Inditement
Ed Driscoll: No Inditement…
AoSHQ
Raw Story
Daily Kos
Gateway Pundit
The Blaze
Legal Insurrection: Andrew Branca Analysis…
Smitty: He Stands There Appealing His Fruit
Legal Insurrection: #Ferguson protests boil over…
Instapundit: Seasons Greetings from Ferguson
Nickelback's #Ferguson Protest Song!
TOM: Why Ferguson?
Instapundit: Obama's big fat Ferguson failure...
RRG: #MikeBrown gets justice
Smitty: Al Sharpton cashes in
RRG: Media reveals more about self than Wilson
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Barack Obama and Ferguson
AmPowBlog: Ta-Nehisi Coates, more spiteful than ever… and getting their EBT card replenished to buy explosives…
Instapundit: Hey media: how not to screw up the next Ferguson, teaching #Ferguson…, plot to blow up the St. Louis Arch…, Darren Wilson would have been acquitted but he should have been indicted …, how did the police in Ferguson get all those weapons (hint, from Obama), donations to destroyed Ferguson bakery (something to be thankful for), more Ferguson hoopla, documents from the Grand Jury.
RRG: Hands up meme disavowed by Eric Holder

So when will that decision come down in Ferguson, Missouri?

TOM: Two Black Panthers Terrorists Arrested in Ferguson Bomb Plot?

Drudge Report has a bunch of links:

No Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Until Monday Earliest...

Bizarre holding pattern...

Signs of rising tension…

Ferguson on edge while awaiting grand jury's decision...
Officer Darren Wilson masters disappearing act...
FBI Sends 100 Agents...
BOMB PLOT FOILED...
'We Don't Give a F**K about Your Laws'...
Women find their voice in protest movement…

Legal Insurrection:Anti Israel agitator in Ferguson

#Ferguson Officer Wilson in process of resigning

NPR: Ferguson braces for decision

CNN: Grand Jury working behind closed doors

Huffington Post: KKK threatens lethal force against protestors (is there even a KKK left or are these posers)

Instapundit: Black panthers arrested in Ferguson gun and bomb plot 

Do people know what the Grand Jury is going to do or are they speculating? My guess is the later. I would not be at all surprised if the inditement goes forward and I would not be surprised if it does not. The snips of testimony that have come out seem to point to reasonable doubt (if inditement is given) but they have been leaks and except for people actually involved with the Grand Jury, we do not know all the evidence or what the deliberations have been. 

I know that an 18 year old man getting shot over essentially nothing is tragic. That does not mean Officer Wilson is guilty or even liable. Do I know if the shooting was justified? I still don't. I have heard a lot of conflicting evidence. I am reserving until I hear all the evidence. 

Wombat : Weasel Zippers

Bill Maher remains mendoucheous

As soon as there is any crime involving firearms, you can be sure the spin cycle will be set to agitate and the facts don't really matter any more when you can create a good headline. Which brings us to Ferguson and how that investigation is going.

Officer Darren Wilson is a murderer?  Really, nice adoption of prosecution, jury, and judge roll there Bill.  How about waiting for the evidence?  Especially when the evidence is increasingly supporting Officer Wilson's version of events.  

As far as Ferguson goes, we are getting snippets of evidence and both sides are trying to present their case, how about everyone wait for all the evidence to come in and then try to be objective.  And while I do believe the police handled the Michael Brown shooting poorly from the start, why isn't the media getting called out for prompting the riots in the first place?

Smitty: New Rule on Firearm Reporting

Branca/LI: The Brown autopsy another blow to the #Ferguson racist theory and forensic evidence supports Officer Wilson's version of events.
Instapundit : Dems on wrong side of history

Ferguson Update: Officer Wilson testifies to the Grand Jury and forensic evidence supports his version of events

Andrew Branca reports.  Here is the NYT story.

Branca, btw, has a book on and webinars on self defense laws.  

Update: Instapundit: Oh, oh, get ready for non stop race baiting…

Race in America and Ferguson: Nicholas Kristof does not get it

Nicholas Kristof does not get it. 

Nicholas Kristof says in the light of Ferguson race deserves more attention than it gets. Mr. Kristof points out the economic disparity between black and white Americans.  As Kristof notes: "The black-white income gap is roughly 40 percent greater today than it was in 1967." The question that Mr. Kristof raises that deserves far more attention is why is that the case?

Could it be that the Democrats' Great Society and War on Poverty Programs were (and remain) a disaster (for both the poor and tax payers) that made economic disparity worse, not better? Why are black Americans voting 90% for a party that is intent on keeping them dependent and in poverty?

Why aren't Democrats (supported by people like Nicholas Kristof) being held accountable for these failed policies? 

Instapundit: The new class conflict is not just racial.

Update:
Congressional Black Caucus votes for more police militarization?
Deep racial divides continue
Game changer?

Missouri Tea Party People come out to help Ferguson businesses damaged in riots

Tea Party Buycott: People helping People

h/t Darleen at Protein Wisdom

Was Charles Belk's detention by the Beverly Hills Police Department unreasonable and racially motivated?

Charles Belk detained on the curb in Downtown Los Angeles

I understand Charles Belk's anger.  He was not guilty of any crime but got detained for six hours, missed a pre Emmy celebrity party, and had his vehicle impounded over a case of mistaken identity.  The Beverly Hills Police Department had a report of a tall, bald, black male involved in a bank robbery.   Mr. Belk was near by where the crime occurred and fit the description. On that basis of that general description they arrested Belk.  

I can understand the police initially stopping Belk given his appearance and description. Obviously the initial stopping was racially motivated (in a proper way) because the police were looking for a black male and Belk met the general description and was in the vicinity of the crime. 

But it took the BHPD six hours to figure out that Belk was not the suspect (and it is alleged the BHPD did not allow Belk to call his attorney)?  Some of this may be timing, 5:20 p.m. on a Friday is probably not a good time to get arrested and timely cleared of a crime you did not commit.  And as noted at this legal aid site, booking in New York City can often can take "four to six hours." Hmmm, Is that true for Beverly Hills too? Still, the question is would this have happened the same way if Belk happened to be a white guy who generally matched a suspect's description?  I suspect the answer to that is it depends. 

I know people are jumping to racial accusations especially in the light of Ferguson, but I would be furious too if detained for six hours over something like this. "A witness to the robbery allegedly identified Belk as the thieves accomplice, leading to his detention," but I doubt the BHPD did a full line up.  They do full line ups for a reason.  Witnesses can end up IDing the wrong person if shown just a person who generally matches the description of the suspect.  Eyewitness IDs are notoriously inaccurate.  

I would really like to know how long it took the BHPD to first let Belk contact his lawyer and from then how long it took the attorney to inform the BHPD who Mr. Belk was.  

I am not sure if Axel Foley is available for comment: 

The police in America are still the good guys

I don't always agree with Michael Medved, but this article is spot on:

Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol

The objective statistics are overwhelming in support of the police generally doing a great job in America. 

I significant number of black Americans would disagree. Black Americans and their communities suffer mostly from black on black crime (white on black crime and police shooting of blacks are in fact rare), yet they often do not see the police as their saviors. They feel like they are targeted more by the police and have a resentment of that.  But Medved makes a legitimate point here:

Even at a time of intense public controversy over policing in the black community, it's worth remembering that literally tens of thousands of African-American lives have been saved due to enhancements in police training, tactics and equipment in the past two decades. With black people making up nearly half of all homicide victims, no community has benefited more substantially from plummeting homicide rates.

I still do not know whether Officer Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown was justified or not. I do not have enough facts to determine that. Rationally investigating this matter and then objectively reviewing the evidence is the frist step before jumping to conclusions.  If Officer Wilson is guilty of a crime then he should be prosecuted, but sacrificing an individual officer so politicians can personally benefit from it before the evidence is even collected is not justice. And that is the message I would expect our leaders to convey on this particular case. President Obama should have cut short one of his golf outings so he had sufficient time to point this out, but his failure is one of omission and politics. The President is not leading but trying to pander to both is base and public opinion. Governor Jay Nixon's performance in connection with Ferguson has been a failure and a disgrace and I hope his national political ambitions are finished over this matter.

There is a huge separation of perception and perspective regarding the events in Ferguson.  Attitude matters and it is a problem at the federal as well as local level. The police are certainly not blameless. Some claim the police started violence, but it is also clear outside agitators went to Ferguson with the goal of causing an incident.

These policing principles formulated in 19th century England are still completely true today:

PRINCIPLE 1 “The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.”
PRINCIPLE 2 “The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.”
PRINCIPLE 3 “Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.”
PRINCIPLE 4 “The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.”
PRINCIPLE 5 “Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.”
PRINCIPLE 6 “Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.”
PRINCIPLE 7 “Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”
PRINCIPLE 8 “Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.”
PRINCIPLE 9 “The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.”

Police body and dash cameras are an excellent idea for avoiding disputes like this, provided there are proper policies in place to go along with those cameras.  There is also a very strong argument that overly militarizing police (as a national policy) is not a good idea. These are debates we should be having.

But in the short term on Ferguson, The Other McCain offered the best advice.

Update:
They are not so smart at The New Republic!
Star witness against Officer Wilson
Seachange on Military Weapons (hint, people don't like them)

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke: Eric Holder Needs to Apologize to Cops http://t.co/2QGXUtS14g pic.twitter.com/eajBkbM4ta
— Michael Weston (@michaelwweston) August 23, 2014

MC Hammer resurfaces alive in Darren Wilson's head
Fredrick Wilson II on Ferguson

#Ferguson and its Lottery

I still do not know what specifically happened between Darren Wilson and Michael Brown, other than Michael Brown ended up dead as a result of it. It is reported, but not confirmed, that Darren Wilson was physically attacked by Brown and suffered a fractured eye socket. While people certainly have opinions, whether that shooting was justified or not is still unknown to most people. 

But the way this story is playing out, with Governor Jay Nixon calling for Wilson's vigorous prosecution, is troublesome. Is Nixon nuts? Shouldn't we have a full investigation first before any talk of prosecution happens? 

Smitty's post about it almost being like a script is playing out, reminded me of this classic short story from The New Yorker:

The Lottery: It isn't fair.

Just ask Chris Hayes! Of course it depends who is throwing the rocks!

Especially bringing in the outside ringers for protesting!

Update:
Banana Republic
It is reported Wilson did not suffer an eye socket fracture
Is this it?