[NOTE: Please read the updated addendum at the bottom of my diary because I failed to express properly what I was thinking in my original version. When I find myself replying to most of the comments, then it is better I add more clarity to the diary. You still may disagree, but I can handle disagreement, but not chronic misunderstandings. If it is still muddled, I may rewrite this diary tomorrow.]
They supposedly exist. If they did, then they need to take responsibility for the temperature going up to the degree it did by only testifying to the cops and not telling anyone else even anonymously. No matter what the real truth is, I still have a hard time justifying the fatal shooting. Still, they could have saved a lot of speculating and have us narrow our focus on reforming police procedures and finetuning our attacks on Wilson instead of us assuming it was a total no brainer(I am still skeptical of a lot of things and think the prosecutor should have taken this to trial).
What these black witnesses did was like a suckerpunch. Their cowardice has led to the cops gleefully baiting many people into speculating about what happened, and then flaunt their testimony to mock anything mentioned by the witnesses who did talk publicly.
Yeah, I understand the safety issue. They could be viewed as traitors and their lives could be in danger. But if they came forward right away, I don't think it would have been as bad as the buildup wouldn't have happened to a point where they would be seen as ruining the narrative. But their cowardice let other narratives take root and then you had the cops who could chip away at the media testimonies such as Dorian's .Also what stopped these black witnesses who did not want to come forward to call a legitimate newspaper and give their account of what happened? Newspapers are good at keeping their sources anonymous. Hell, we still do not know who in the police department got away with massive lies about the injuries to Wilson. Why did they not tell the NAACP what happened since according to this article NAACP was giving them options to be safe? And if they did, why did the NAACP not include that in the mix so there would be no surprises for the side that still wants to hold Darren Wilson accountable because the fact is Brown was still unarmed.
The St. Louis chapter of the group says it has relocated some fearful witnesses, helped others make ends meet in the wake of losing jobs during the fallout from the teen’s death, and is raising funds to further shield witnesses whose full identities and testimony could be released if a grand jury decides not to indict the police officer who shot and killed Brown.
“Many of them are scared out of their minds,” Adolphus Pruitt, president of the NAACP’s St. Louis Branch told msnbc on Monday. “These witnesses, we are the ones who’ve been protecting them. They are not in the federal witness protection program, they are with the NAACP protection program.”
As this case showed, cops can get away with muddying the waters. They lied about the injuries. They went back and forth on what the stop was about. I still do not believe Brown was charging though it is tough to figure out whether he was stumbling forward or moving normally for 21 feet after getting hit. THe regular people who lack the power don't have that luxury of missing on any speculation.
[UPDATE]: As I read the comments, I obviously didn't make it clear enough. And if you were truly confused, I apologize for my replies to some of you and I am using this update to issue further clarity to what I was thinking. I am for discussion, not for flame fests and it is my responsibility to set the tone. So please accept my apologies for those that I angrily replied to if you genuinely missed the point of my diary. Let me summarize what I think and I won't take it personally if you still disagree:
1) These witnesses have a right to testify and they did nothing wrong by doing so.
2) I wish they came forward early on.
3) once they saw people angry about the police and trying to come up with logical coutner arguments as to why the shooting was wrong, but were putting way too many theories because no one knew the exact vetted facts, they should have called a paper and asked for anonymous sourcing and filled in the picture to help the community understand the incident better. That is the least I expect them to do as being part of a community in turmoil. Yes, itmay seem like a lot, but you have to raise expectations if you want the community to move forward.