Citing the Missouri "Sunshine Law," Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson
released a packet of information to reporters today supposedly relating to the shooting of Michael Brown. You won't find much mention of the shooting there, though, because the released papers are all about the alleged robbery of a Ferguson convenience store. The most substantive reference to Brown being killed by a department officer is in a single closing paragraph in an unnamed officer's report on the robbery:
It is worth mentioning that this incident is related to another incident under Ferguson Police Report # 2014-12391 as well as St. Louis County Police Report # 2014-43984. In that incident, Brown was fatally wounded involving an officer of this department. I responded to that scene and observed Brown. After viewing Brown and reviewing this video, I was able to confirm that Brown is the primary suspect in this incident.
It
is worth mentioning, thanks. Glad you brought that up. Those other police reports are, however, not included in the released documents. There's nothing in there suggesting the officer that shot Brown considered him a suspect in a robbery case when he was stopped. There's no explanation of why, if Brown and his friend were robbery suspects, his friend was allowed to simply walk away from the scene after Brown was killed.
If it seems like the documents are intended less as "sunshine" and more as smear campaign, you're not alone in feeling that way. Brown's family and their attorneys released a statement soon afterwards reading, in part:
Michael Brown's family is beyond outraged at the devious way the police chief has chosen to disseminate piece mil information in a manner intended to assassinate the character of their son, following such a brutal assassination of his person in broad daylight.
There is nothing based on the facts that have been placed before us that can justify the execution style murder of their child by this police officer as he held his hands up, which is the universal sign of surrender.
The prolonged release of the officer's name and then the subsequent alleged information regarding a robbery is the reason why the family and the local community have such distrust for the local law enforcement agencies.
Given other things
we're starting to hear about law enforcement in Ferguson, it's clear that distrust has been long-standing.