With the recent tragic attacks in El Paso, the world once again turned its attention to mass shootings and the supposed danger of rampant
white supremacists. It’s a subject that has captivated America for years with little progress in understanding the nature of the problem.
The topic of mass shootings is dominated by political agendas and a lot of misinformation. Where exactly is the evidence-based analysis?
First, it should be understood that there are different types of mass shootings. A recent analysis by Emma Fridel in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence identified the three most common types of mass shootings: Family killings, felony killings, and public mass killings:
- Familicides represent the most common form of mass murder and are principally defined by a close victim-offender relationship. Perpetrators are typically White, middle-aged males who target their spouse or intimate partner, children, and other relatives (Fridel 2017, 3).
- Felony killings are distinguished by motive. Murder is used to achieve some primary criminal objective, typically involving financial gain. … Due to their general lack of sensationalism, felony killings are not widely publicized despite representing the second largest category of mass murder. Perpetrators of felony mass murders tend to be young black or Hispanic males with extensive criminal records (Fridel 2017, 7).
- Despite their extreme visibility, public mass killings account for the smallest proportion of all mass murders. Formally, these incidents are defined by attack location. Public mass killers are a heterogeneous group and are frequently delineated into several subtypes. Public murderers are often stereotyped as middle-aged white men who have suffered a series of failures in different areas of life, though some research indicates a disproportionate number of immigrants commit public massacres (Fridel 2017, 5). These public mass shootings are what most people (wrongly) consider as typical of mass shootings.
Fridel found that blacks commit twice as many felony mass shootings as whites (50.49 percent versus 22.33 percent).
Fridel notes that the murders serve to eliminate witnesses of a robbery, drug crime, or gang-related attack. While they represent the second largest category of mass murder, we almost never hear about them as they are part of the fabric of inner-city life (Chicago, Baltimore). As Ice Cube said in his lyrics for the now-classic Straight Outta Compton, “When somethin’ happens in South Central, Los Angles…Nothin’ happens. It’s just another nigga dead.”
Things get murky when we cherrypick the data, as in Newsweek’s article
“White men have committed more mass shootings than any other group.”
The Newsweek article is based on a Mother Jones database and analysis that only looked at one of the three types of mass shootings—public mass killings–the rarest type.
Other analysis, white men are no more likely to engage in a mass shooting than any other race. Daniel Engber, writing for Slate, noted that mass shooters are not disproportionately white male. He writes that “the notion that white men of privilege are disproportionately represented among mass shooters—indeed, that they make up ‘nearly all’ of them—is a myth.”
The mental health aspect is a whole other can of beans. As part of the analysis from Mother Jones, they found that nearly 80 percent of the perpetrators in 62 cases obtained their weapons legally. Acute paranoia, delusions, and depression were rampant among them, with at least 36 of the killers committing suicide on or near the scene. Seven others died in police shootouts they had little hope of surviving (a.k.a. “suicide by cop”). And according to additional research, at least 38 of them displayed signs of possible mental health problems prior to the killings.
Are white supremacists roaming the landscape, planning the next mass shooting? No. The bottom line is there is no profile for the typical mass killer.
Public mass killings by white males tend to get a lot of press, but white guys are not alone–Muslim man Omar Mateen killed forty-nine people at a Florida nightclub in 2016, and Asian student Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007.
Mass killing is an equal opportunity employer.
The narrative of the white supremacist killer is embedded in the new American consciousness, but it is a myth, and as Sam Sheppard said, “All Myth is Lie”. The liberal 2019 definition of white male privilege is that your son is predisposed to racism, white supremacy, and murder at birth, and he needs to come to understand this about himself.
This totally false meme, which is typical, is what our sons get to see on social media:
So it goes.
Live Free says
Figures, democrats would be the ones posting the race card comments. What a bunch of dummies.
PF says
This opinion serves no purpose. Once again, a blame-game with no suggested actions. Racism is wrong. Mental health needs to be addressed. People of all color, all races, all religions and cultures want this to stop. Next time, provide solutions to the concerns addressed in this opinion article.
Note: Little opinion, lots of data. I know, if it doesn’t fit the narrative, it’s wrong. Not wasting effort on something that is not a problem seems like a good start.
tokenny says
You might want to check this out https://www.njhomelandsecurity.gov/analysis/domestic-terrorism-in-2018. Take a look at the PDF.
Note: blah, blah, blah.
tokenny says
Wayne, I hate to debunk your shit but then again in the age of Fake News why let some facts hold you back. Check out page 13.
https://www.hoplofobia.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2017-Family-Felony-and-Public-Mass-Murders-in-the-United-States.pdf
Yup, overall whites kill more. yup, blacks commit more Felony mass killings, think Gang-bangers but the two recent mass killings were white, political ideological killings. Your headline is about Mass Killings but your argument is about felony killings which occurs among people who know each other. So you’re comparing apples to oranges.
Fredel’s research even indicates that maybe some social services are needed to cut down on the frequency of Felony killings – don’t you hate that.
Due to the dearth of research on this type, the theoretical underpinnings of
felony mass murder are relatively unclear in comparison with their family
and public counterparts. Although murder is the ultimate goal of the other
two types, killing is only a means toward an end for felony assailants.
Considering their overall similarities to more common instrumental homicides, a wide variety of theoretical frameworks can be applied to felony killings. It is likely that a combination of individual (i.e., low self-control,
disconnect between aspirations and expectations) and community-level factors (i.e., social disorganization and low collective efficacy) help to explain
felony-related mass murders.
Try reading the stuff before you cherry pick it.
Paul Plante says
No mass shootings by black dudes in 2019?
Interesting.
This must all be FAKE NEWS, then:
7 Killed, 46 Wounded In Weekend Shootings – CBS Chicago – CBS …
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/08/05/weekend-gun-violence-mass-shootings/
By Mugo Odigwe August 5, 2019 at 7:31 am. Filed Under:Chicago, Crime, Local TV, Mass … No one was in custody for either of the mass shootings in Lawndale.
So Many People Were Shot In Chicago This Weekend, A Hospital Had …
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/…/chicago-brooklyn-mass-shootings-el-paso-dayton
Chicago had two mass shootings within hours of each other on Sunday. In total, 46 people were injured by gun … Posted on August 5, 2019, at 6:27 p.m. ET.
Chicago Has Its Worst Weekend of Gun Violence in 2019 as 7 Are Killed
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/chicago-violence-guns.html
6 days ago – Another 52 people were wounded by gunfire throughout Chicago from … Gun violence in Chicago tends to peak during the summer months, when school is … Shootings and homicides have decreased in 2019, but there have …
For some in Chicago, gun violence is a daily reality, leaving the same …
https://www.nbcnews.com/…/some-chicago-gun-violence-daily-reality-leaving-same-t…
4 days ago – 7, 2019, 8:54 PM PDT. By Safia Samee Ali. CHICAGO — As the nation mourned the deaths of 31 people in mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, …
end quotes
So there are four news articles in 2019 about the mass shootings by black dudes that never happen according to the Democrats.
And the definition of insanity is believing that a Democrat will ever tell the truth, about anything.
“Truth” to a Democrat is a highly malleable substance much like silly putty, that can be molded and shaped to the needs of the moment.
Sorin Varzaru says
What is the point of this article? White supremacists aren’t bad because they committed less mass murders then democrats said? Let’s say for argument sake that there were mass murders committed by white supremacists. Would that make it what, acceptable to be one?
Paul Plante says
What exactly is the point of your post, Sorin Varzaru?
Murder is murder, period!
It is never acceptable.
Why would you think it was?
If you listen to the HYPE, you would be led to believe by pandering hack politician demagogues like Cory Booker and Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg and goofy “Uncle Joe” Biden that every white person in America is a white supremacist just itching to blow away “people of color” because they are not white, which is horse****!
In the meantime, they say nothing about the continual mass murders in Democrat-controlled third-world ****holes like Chicago or the fact that the Dayton WHACK-JOB was a registered Democrat who was a supporter of Lizzie Warren and barmy Bernie Sanders, according to news reports.
So what I took away from this article was just how HYPOCRITICAL these Democrats really are, and that perhaps is the POINT!
And my message to these pandering Democrats would be to stop lying and to stop demonizing people with white skin.
Stop dividing us for partisan political purposes and maybe some of this endless “racial” bull**** in this country can finally come to an end.
Sorin Varzaru says
I thought they were demonizing people who think they are better then people with other skin colors. I am ok with that, how about you?
Paul Plante says
What I think, Sorin Varzaru, after many years of observation and studying their history, which isn’t pretty, the very last people in America who should be demonizing anyone else for thinking they are better then people with other skin colors would be the Democrats, who have a long history of they are better then people with other skin colors.
And they are hypocritical as all get-out, these Democrats of yours.
They are screeching about Trump branding African “nations” like Kenya and Somalia as “sh*thole” countries, which they are by any definition of the word, but they had absolutely no problem mat all with their own Lyndon Baines Johnson calling Viet Nam a “raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country.”
And they sound like fools, Sorin Varzaru, which they would have to be to even make the claim, that people with skin that is not white are actually some different race than human.
People that stupid are too stupid to be taken seriously.
And people who judge others by skin color are very shallow, which takes us to a POLITICO article entitled “Biden camp jumped into damage control after upsetting Latino leaders” by Marc Caputo and Natasha Korecki on 14 August 2019, where we see the shallowness of the Democrat voter on full display as they demonize goofy “Uncle Joe” Biden for being white, to wit:
The tension between Biden’s campaign and the activist community has roots in his overall campaign strategy.
He’s running as a centrist in a primary in which most of the other top-tier candidates are tilting left.
And many liberal activists aren’t enthused about an old, white moderate leading the ticket.
end quotes
With the Democrats, it is not about competence or integrity or ability – it is all about what color somebody’s skin is, which I personally think is pathetic.
And this article starts out by mentioning “the supposed danger of rampant white supremacists,” and then makes the statement that
“(T)he liberal 2019 definition of white male privilege is that your son is predisposed to racism, white supremacy, and murder at birth, and he needs to come to understand this about himself,” which is horse****, Sorin Varzaru.
I’ve been studying this subject of “white supremacists” like Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Democrats since being an infantryman in VEET NAM, and the most recent figure I have found for how many white supremacists there might be roaming around out there is a whopping 25,000 Americans are hardcore ideological activists for the white supremacist movement.
That is out of a population in this country of some 327.2 million souls in this country, so we are hardly being overrun by white supremacists, in my view, anyway.
So if the Democrats want to demonize people, they really should take some care that their own skirts are clean before they do, and for them to clean their own skirts by this time, I’m not sure there is enough soap in existence in the universe to do that job.
Sorin Varzaru says
Paul, you keep referring to the Democrats as “mine”. They are not mine, not are the Republicans. You on to the other hand, by the way you generalize when you refer to “the Democrats” the way you do, you are looking down at half the country, putting them all in the same bucket. Sure there are some extreme left democrats as there are extreme right Republicans. There are lunatics everywhere, that doesn’t mean everyone that votes Republican or Democrat shares the view of the most extreme member of the party.
My comment to the article was simple, we had white supremacists shoot up places, even one of these is one too many, so we have a white supremacist problem. No sane person claimed all whites are supremacists. I don’t know you personally, but from your writing you come off as extremely beligerant and honestly, I don’t feel like continuing this … Conversation in writing. If you feel like having a civilized conversation over a beer, I’m game, I’ll buy. You know my name, I live across the street from town hall, feel free to stop by.
Note: Just to clear up confusion, the data in the article attempted to point out that there is a gun violence issue, but considering so-called white supremacists a major threat is a stretch; according to the $47 billion dollar budget of DHS, there are hardly 40 that can even be considered violent threats (there are 327 billion people in the US, so what percentage of the population do they make up?). Ideological mass murder is a statistical anomaly. Mass murder is not. If we are serious about gun violence, then we need to focus our education and resources where it matters most, not in chasing a phantasm that is the creation of a political agenda.
Paul Plante says
Check out the statistics, Sorin Varzaru – as of October 2017, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrat, 24% identified as Republican, and 42% as Independent, so we are hardly talking about “half the American people.”
We are talking about a fringe.
And if one did not believe as a Democrat must believe, they would not be registered as Democrats, plain and simple.
And with respect to white supremacy in this country, and here is where the hypocrisy enters in, a study of our history reveals that we have the Democrats to thank for that, as we see from the American Experience article “Grant, Reconstruction and the KKK” where we have as follows:
At the time of Ulysses S. Grant’s election to the presidency, white supremacists were conducting a reign of terror throughout the South.
In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power.
The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865.
White Southerners from all classes of society joined the Klan’s ranks.
But first and foremost, the Klan sought to do away with Republican influence in the South by terrorizing and murdering its party leaders and all those who voted for it.
In the time leading up to the 1868 presidential election, the Klan’s activities picked up in speed and brutality.
The election, which pitted Republican Ulysses S. Grant against Democrat Horatio Seymour, was crucial.
Across the South, the Klan and other terrorist groups used brutal violence to intimidate Republican voters.
In Kansas, over 2,000 murders were committed in connection with the election.
In Georgia, the number of threats and beatings was even higher.
And in Louisiana, 1000 blacks were killed as the election neared. In those three states, Democrats won decisive victories at the polls.
end quotes
So this thing of “white supremacy” has been with us, thanks to the Democrats, for some long time, and people like myself wonder when that fringe group will ever take responsibility for their actions.
Personally, I believe that the Democrat party in this country should have been treated like the Nazi party in Germany and outlawed and disbanded.
But since that didn’t happen, here we are today, and I find it disgusting.
And we don’t have to continue this conversation, Sorin Varzaru, because there really isn’t anything that can be discussed rationally about this subject.
Consider – you say, simply because somebody told you something, that “My comment to the article was simple, we had white supremacists shoot up places, even one of these is one too many, so we have a white supremacist problem.”
At the same time, however, we had a hate-filled registered Democrat who was a supporter of Lizzie Warren and barmy Bernie Sanders and the violent Democrat paramilitary army the antifa, who according to an ABC News article entitled “Suspected Dayton shooter had cocaine, alcohol and anti-anxiety drugs in system, coroner says” by matt zarrell and karma allen on Aug. 15, 2019 was all drugged up, commit a mass shooting.
So why the one-sided conversation on this subject?
And I am not a Republican.
Paul Plante says
And thank you for the kind invitation, Sorin Varzaru, but I am an old disabled veteran who does not travel, except by internet.
And I am in agreement with you as to one white supremacist murderer being one too many, just as I agree with you that one crazed and drugged-up Democrat murderer who is a supporter of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren is one too many, as is some black dude with a gun committing murder by shooting up the hood.
But a strange thing is, this according to a USA TODAY article entitled “Mass shootings not caused by mental illness, experts say” by Kristen Jordan Shamus on 10 August 2019, all those mass murderers are as sane and rational as everyone else in America is, so go figure:
DETROIT – After a harrowing weekend in Texas and Ohio where mass shootings left 31 people dead and dozens more injured, President Donald Trump called for culture change to a stop the glorification of violence in video games and online platforms, an end to bigotry and hatred and reforms to mental health laws.
But his statements about mental health – referring to mass shooters as “mentally ill monsters” and suggesting “involuntary confinement” for some people with mental illness were off the mark, said Kevin Fischer, the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
He noted that there is little correlation between mental illness and violent killings.
“Study after study has shown us that is simply not true.”
“It’s actually more often the reverse,” he said, in that people living with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.
“Racism, hate, white supremacy are not diagnosable mental illnesses.”
Arthur Evans, the CEO of the American Psychological Association, the largest professional and scientific organization of psychologists in the United States, said it’s important for people to understand that there is a fairly weak link between mental illness and mass shootings.
In a 2016 book, “Gun Violence and Mental Illness,” published by American Psychological Association Publishing, researchers reported that mass shootings perpetrated by people with serious mental illness account for less than 1% of all yearly gun-related homicides.
“The biggest predictor of who is going to commit these crimes is violence, a history of past violence,” said Evans.
“That is the single-best predictor of who is going to act in a violent way and commit these kinds of violent acts.”
“In addition, we know that there are other factors – stressors, alienation, disaffection, a history of domestic violence – all of those contribute to people’s likelihood to act out in violent ways.”
“Mental illness is in there, but not as strong as some of these other factors.”
end quotes
So, according to that analysis by people you would have to call the experts, being a white supremacist is a rational act as is murdering people in the name of white supremacy.
So how do we as a nation deal with that reality?
Paul Plante says
And Sorin Varzaru, while we are on the subject of you being okay with demonizing people who think they are better then people with other skin colors, are you aware of an article on the subject of “Black Nationalism” by the Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/black-nationalist ?
For your information, if you were unaware of it, the Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society, using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy to work toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality, so they are hardly Trump mouthpieces, nor am I, for that matter.
According to the SPLC, the black nationalist movement is a reaction to centuries of institutionalized white supremacy in America.
Black nationalists believe the answer to white racism is to form separate institutions — or even a separate nation — for black people.
Most forms of black nationalism are strongly anti-white and anti-Semitic.
Some religious versions assert that black people are the biblical “chosen people” of God.
Top Takeaways
Existing black nationalist groups have grown in size and new groups have formed.
This growth is a response to the current climate of racial divisiveness, specifically police violence and Donald Trump’s derisive remarks about African Americans, including journalists and NFL players, and majority-black countries.
Group leaders have played on people’s fear and distress to recruit new members in 2018.
Leaders have also become emboldened in their rhetoric.
Hashim Nzinga of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense called Hitler a great man, and Louis Farrakhan told congregants at a February conference: “I don’t care what they put on me.”
“The government is my enemy, the powerful Jews are my enemy, and scared to death negroes are my enemy, and weak Muslims and hypocrites are my enemy, but here I stand!”
“Unfazed by a government that wants my life.”
Key Moments
Israel United in Christ, a Black Hebrew Israelite group, led an 800-person march in Tennessee on Aug. 4, 2018.
Louis Farrakhan leveraged his attendance at Aretha Franklin’s funeral to legitimize himself and recruit new members by putting her on the cover of the group’s publication, The Final Call, and distributing 50,000 copies in Detroit, Michigan.
The New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense hosted black men’s conferences and rallied in front of the White House to denounce Trump and praise Farrakhan.
What’s Ahead
Black Nationalist groups will likely continue to expand, coordinate, recruit and unify against what they perceive as their common enemies: Jews, white people and the police.
end quotes
Do you think the Democrats who are demonizing WHITEY should give these dudes a pass?
Or should they be demonized by the Democrats, as well?
But wait – that can’t happen, because to demonize that crowd, the Democrats would have to turn on their own hate-filled base – and I don’t see that happening in my lifetime, anyway.
Sorin Varzaru says
I don’t think the Democrats have a base that is white hating. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. Yes, I do think all racism should be “demonized” regardless of which way it goes. I’m kind of hoping though you are wrong in your assessment on how far gone we are on the race hate downspiral. It would be sad if we were as far gone as you seem to think we are.
Paul Plante says
If we judge by the public language of the presidential-seeking Democrats, we are very far gone on the race hate downspiral and it would be sad if we were as far gone as I seem to think we are, but there we have it.
There is a large bloc of people in this country who totally reject our national history as the history of white oppressors, for example, which makes us a nation of literal or rank strangers with no common heritage to bind us together as a nation and as a people.
And then google the subject “percentage of whites in America,” and what you will see:
* Decline of US White Population | The US Census Reports
http://www.brookings.edu/
Learn from Brookings what a declining US white population means for the future.
* The US will become ‘minority white’ in 2045, Census projects
https://www.brookings.edu/…/the-us-will-become-minority-white-in-2045-…
Mar 14, 2018 – … Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America,” … The new statistics project that the nation will become “minority white” in 2045.
* The US white majority will soon disappear forever – Houston Chronicle
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/…/The-US-white-majority-will-soon-dis…
May 1, 2019 – The demographic shift in the U.S. has resulted in many whites … living in the U.S. in 2015, 82 percent originated in Latin America and Asia.
* America’s white population shrinks for the first time as nation ages …
https://thehill.com/…/393322-americas-white-population-shrinking-as-natio…
Jun 21, 2018 – America’s white population shrinks for the first time as nation ages … The number of African Americans rose 1.2 percent to 47.4 million, and there are 22.2 million people of ….
end quotes
WHITEY is on the decline, and the Democrats and Democratic Socialist wing of that party are well aware of that and so, have aligned themselves with the “people of color” who are going to be the hand on the whip handle not that far into the future,
As to the politics of race which we are now confronted with more and more in this country where it seems somebody new is being accused of being a racist, we can clearly see the politics of race entering into the picture by going to the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH story “Michael Brown’s father demands St. Louis County prosecutor reopen investigation of son’s shooting” by Joel Currier on Aug 9, 2019, as follows:
CLAYTON — Michael Brown Sr., whose 18-year-old son was fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer five years ago, stood outside the Buzz Westfall Justice Center on Friday to demand that St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell reopen the investigation.
“I am demanding evidence to be reanalyzed, and accountability to follow,” Brown told the press.
Brown said his son, Michael Brown, was “murdered in cold blood” by “a coward with a badge,” referring to then-Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson.
A grand jury reviewed evidence of the shooting on Canfield Drive for three months before declining to indict Wilson in November 2014.
end quotes
The LOS ANGELES TIMES gives us this further dimension to that story in their article entitled “Michael Brown’s father to call for reopening Ferguson investigation” by Associated Press on Aug. 8, 2019, to wit:
CLAYTON, Mo. — On the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, his father will publicly call for reopening the investigation into the white police officer who fatally shot the black and unarmed 18-year-old.
Michael Brown Sr. says he will call on the prosecuting attorney to reopen the case when he speaks Friday at a rally outside the St. Louis County Justice Center.
Prosecuting Atty. Wesley Bell, St. Louis County’s first black prosecutor, took office in January after defeating seven-term incumbent Bob McCulloch.
end quotes
So there we have it – they now have a black prosecutor out there, who can see things the way a black person would see things, and so the whole matter should now be reopened so that black justice can prevail where white justice, which everybody knows is prejudiced against people of color, failed.
Except there was no “white justice,” regardless of what the newspapers selling that story want to have us believe, as we can see from the MARKETWATCH story “Justice Department finds no evidence for Hands Up, Dont Shoot” by Steve Goldstein published Mar. 4, 2015, where we had as follows, none of which, although obviously public information, made it into eirther mof those two stories which made it seem that Michael Brown was innocent and the white cop guilty, as Michael Brown senior is stating publicly, to wit:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” became a rallying cry in protests last year over racially motivated police brutality - but a Justice Department report released Wednesday says the facts don’t support the alleged incident at its heart.
The Justice Department released a report on the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson.
To be sure, the report finds widespread racial bias in the department and unreasonable use of force, as well as a focus on revenue over public safety.
But it did not back the narrative that helped spur the protests in the city and around the country - namely, that Brown had effectively surrendered peacefully to Wilson.
As the report states: “Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson.”
“As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible for otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time.”
“Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media.”
While some witnesses say Brown held his hands up at shoulder level with his palms facing outward for a brief moment, the same witnesses said Brown then charged Wilson, according to the report.
The prosecutors concluded that Brown did in fact reach for and attempt to grab Wilson’s gun, that Brown could have overpowered Wilson, which was acknowledged even by Witness 101, and that Wilson fired his weapon just over his own lap in an attempt to regain control of a dangerous situation.
Witness 101 said Brown was shot in the back, but three autopsies concluded Brown had no entry wounds in his back, the report said.
Even clearer was this footnote: “The media has widely reported that there is witness testimony that Brown said, ‘Don’t shoot’ as he held his hands above his head.”
“In fact, our investigation did not reveal any eyewitness who stated that Brown said, ’Don’t shoot’.”
end quotes
Now, those were the findings of a black attorney general serving as consigliere to a black president, which should have put this matter to bed a long time ago.
But festering racial hate is what is keeping it simmering, along with politicians and the news media stirring the pot to bring it to a boil for partisan political gain going into 2020 and beyond and this power struggle between the people of color on the one side, and the diminishing white crowd in America continues to intensify, especially with the Democratic Socialists have based their political platform on taking power from WHITEY to give it to the people of color, which is going to spur more backlash, as history has had these same kinds of struggles going in times past.
Would I hope I was wrong?
Of course!
But based on all that I am seeing and hearing going on in this nation today, which determines where tomarrow is going to be, I would see myself as a fool to believe I was.