Officer Wilson "Extraordinary Service in the Line of Duty" finally explained and more troubling.

[gordianot]

Video of the presentation shown on Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/photos-ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-received-police-award-earlier-this-year-021255893.html

After stopping a "suspicious vehicle" he reached inside and took the keys. I asked my son who is a Police Officer who does that? His answer "Someone who does not care if they get hurt". That runs contrary to any Police training my son ever received.

Out of control Police.

[Lee-Lee]

1. It is contrary to most training

But as with anything its all situational and a judgement call.

If it did stop a person from leaving, he may have judged it worth the risk,

I see nothing "troubling" here, except people looking to make every single little detail out to be "troubling"

[gordianot]

3. At least he did not have to shoot him/her in the drivers seat they only wrestled.

The kid he wrestled two weeks ago got shot when they wrestled did not work so well.

[R B Garr]

19. Yeah, he also could have just shot out the tires.

That's also situational and a judgment call.

[JaneyVee]

2. Extraordinary service?!

They just hand out awards for any stupid thing these days, huh?

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. All the police are above average

[Chan790]

8. I shit you not...

I once sat in an education-related meeting when I was a literacy activist where someone proposed firing any teacher whose class was not better than 60% above-average for grade-level compared to peers. Not compared to national average...peers. If that's not clear enough: He proposed firing any teacher 60% of whose students were not above-average proficiency where average is "the average reading-proficiency of the class."

I may have been a literacy educator...but I surely know a person who needs math tutoring when I see one.

That or I was, unbeknownst, in Lake Wobegon where all the students are above-average.

[dsc]

18. actually that is possible to happen

if average is defined as mean but I doubt that would make one a good teacher. It would require having one or more very low scoring kids to lower the average far enough below the median to gain the 10 percent of the kids you would need to have 60 percent be above the mean. Or if it were to be rewritten slightly to at or above then it could require a class all of whose students scored the same score on the test. Again, not such a great teacher.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Dude apparently likes reaching in and out of car windows

[gordianot]

6. My son's next line that is how you get your arm removed.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. He's going to have to explain why he decided to make a felony stop through a car window

Wilson: Then I realized that these may be the suspects from a Robbery 2, so I pulled up next to them and rolled down my window to apprehend the 6'4" 290 pound suspect.

Prosecutor: And you have acted heroically through an open car window before, haven't you?

Wilson: Yes.

Prosecutor: And you even received a commendation for your heroic trans-car-window actions against dangerous criminals, haven't you?

Wilson: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Your honor, permission to treat prosecutor as a friendly witness?

Judge: Granted.

[csziggy]

9. DUzy!

[gordianot]

10. Further:

Prosecutor: Which arm did you use when you reached in the car?

Wilson: My dominant right/left arm sir.

Prosecutor: Damn, how would you have shot him if you had to?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. His great stupendous triumph involved preventing a sale of marijuana

According to ABC news, that's what this Texas born officer's great victory and commendation involved. As Archie Bunker would say: 'whooptie doo!"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/picture-emerges-officer-ferguson-shooting-25057305

"...During a Ferguson City Council meeting in February, Wilson got special recognition from Jackson for what the chief said then was his role in responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle, then struggling with the driver and detaining him for arrest until help arrived. Jackson said the suspect was preparing a large quantity of marijuana for sale. His proclamation in hand, according a video of the meeting obtained Tuesday by the AP, Wilson returned to his seat with a broad grin. ..."

[gordianot]

12. Weed figures huge bust definitely worth sticking your arm in a car window.

[TheKentuckian]

13. Our hero!

Q: What would our intrepid "security forces" do without the DRUG WAR?

A: jack shit to justify their budgets or numbers, pissing off their fan club writing a billion tickets a month to demonstrate any purpose in line with their present costs.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. Supposedly, one of the principal ways police departments are paying for military arsenals

is through drug war asset forfeitures, where according to a dubious informant, the SWAT team goes in and the home owner finds himself having his house, car, and the clothes off his back taken and sold, whether he had drugs or not. Under the forfeiture laws, the police can take your property and the burden is on you to take them to court to prove your innocence, which becomes hard when you lose everything of value and can no longer afford an attorney. It's an obscene, mafia-like racket.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/14/11-ways-the-militarization-of-police-is-wreaking-havoc-on-innocent-americans/

11 ways the militarization of police is wreaking havoc on innocent Americans

"...8. Asset forfeitures are funding police militarization. In June, AlterNet’s Aaron Cantu outlined how civil asset forfeiture laws work.

“It’s a legal fiction spun up hundreds of years ago to give the state the power to convict a person’s property of a crime, or at least, implicate its involvement in the committing of a crime. When that happened, the property was to be legally seized by the state,” wrote Cantu. He went on to explain that law enforcement justifies the seizing of property and cash as a way to break up narcotics rings’ infrastructure. But it can also be used in cases where a person is not convicted, or even charged with, a crime.

Asset forfeitures bring in millions of dollars for police agencies, who then spend the money for their own uses. And for some police departments, it goes to militarizing their police force.

New Yorker reporter Sarah Stillman, who penned a deeply reported piece on asset forfeitures,wrote in August 2013 that “thousands of police departments nationwide have recently acquired stun grenades, armored tanks, counterattack vehicles, and other paramilitary equipment, much of it purchased with asset-forfeiture funds.” So SWAT teams have an incentive to conduct raids where they seize property and cash. That money can then go into their budgets for more weapons. ..."


I wonder if the vehicle stopped by Darren Wilson carrying marijuana for sale wasn't forfeited by the owner to buy a few grenade launchers for the Ferguson P.D.

[TheKentuckian]

16. Of course. Vicious cycle.

[underpants]

14. Maybe he was going to steal the car. The F'edPD clearly shake down the citizens for their salaries

24,000 arrest warrants for 12,000 individuals in 2013. The town has 23,000 people in it. The 2nd largest revenue source for that F'ed up town.

[Cha]

17. Such a brave asshole who shot down an armed kid in the street with

the coup de grâce a couple of kill shots to his head.

Michael Brown

thank you, gordianot