Tiffany Mitchell was an eyewitness to the horrible events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown, and she's one of the most articulate voices yet heard in this tragedy. On MSNBC last night, she spoke calmly, clearly and precisely about exactly what took place, and she independently confirmed what Michael Brown's best friend had been saying earlier, while supplying a broader sense of the context without a hint of embellishment. She does an extraordinary job contradicting any accusations that Mike Brown had provoked this by actively fighting with the officer and trying to grab his gun, which always sounded ridiculous-- he was shot from a distance, with his hands up, when he was moving away from the police car, not in any way threatening the cops there. As the legal commentators made clear after her statements, that's an act of cold-blooded rage and murder committed against Michael Brown, with a lot of after the fact fabricating and covering up.
Yes, the investigation is still ongoing and will be for awhile, but Mitchell's testimony adds to the ugly picture that's coming together here, and it confirms a lot of our worst fears: that the cops were acting with murderous brutality here, and likely have in many other cases, while covering for each other afterward and getting away with violent crimes. This obviously isn't news to the African-American and Latino communities in the US, who've been disproportionately targeted by this, but it's helping to shake away the naivete of a lot of fence sitters and excuse makers who were constantly wiling to wink at cops' behavior and bogus claims before.
Sad to say but true, a lot of this is also because of the militarized cops' treatment of those two white reporters in the McDonald's. I've noticed a big change among some of my own (mostly white) friends who finally had their blinders taken off, and been forced to realize that yes, the cops often rough up and charge innocent people, and yes the cops often casually make things up to justify such acts of bullying. While some are still trying to spin away their worst fears, more and more they're being forced to admit that if the cops could so casually attack and rough up those reporters while fabricating charges against them afterward, that they very likely could have followed the same practice with far more horrible results against Michael Brown himself. Ms. Mitchel''s statements back that up further. In the reporters' case, the police clearly acted in an unprofessional and horribly authoritarian manner, laughing while roughing up the reporters, giving them contradicting instructions and then making up charges as an excuse to hit them with accusations of resisting arrest. In fact, the only reason Lowery and Reilly were set free is that they were reporters, so it's clear there are a frightening number of other cases where the victims don't have that protection, and are falsely charged with assaulting the police or resisting arrest, and likely forced into a plea even though they're innocent. I think we can safely say this happened a lot during the Occupy protests, and it likely happens all the time in communities throughout the US where the victims lack the power or protection from higher ups to fight back.
Maybe the scariest lesson of all here is what Ms. Mitchell said late in her interview-- that she simply can't trust the police anymore, even if in danger of becoming a crime victim herself. And she has every reason in the world to feel that way. We're witnessing a fundamental and very frightening breakdown of basic institutions in US society here.