Police Handler Let Dog Urinate on Michael Brown Memorial the Day He Was Killed

[DonViejo]

By Ben Mathis-Lilley

Several hours after Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, a police dog handler let his dog urinate on a makeshift memorial that had been created on the street where Brown fell, a Mother Jones piece citing "several sources" says:

The incident was related to me separately by three state and local officials who worked with the community in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. One confirmed that he interviewed an eyewitness, a young woman, and pressed her on what exactly she saw. "She said that the officer just let the dog pee on it," that official told me. "She was very distraught about it." The identity of the officer who handled the dog and the agency he was with remain unclear.

Police also drove their cars over the top of candles and flowers that Brown's mother had helped spread on the spot that her son fell, the article reports:

Missouri state Rep. Sharon Pace ... joined Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, and others as they placed the candles and sprinkled flowers on the ground where Brown had died. "They spelled out his initials with rose petals over the bloodstains," Pace recalled.

By then, police had prohibited all vehicles from entering Canfield Drive except for their own. Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.

St. Louis alderman Antonio French took a picture:

Antonio French ✔ @AntonioFrench

Police cars trampled the rose petals and candles at the memorial for #MikeBrown.
10:02 PM - 9 Aug 2014

-snip-

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/08/27/ferguson_police_dog_urinated_on_michael_brown_memorial.html?wpsrc=slatest_newsletter

[FarPoint]

1. Why are the Ferguson police treating her citizens like enemy combatants?

I have heard such stories of disrespect regarding our soldiers to Iraqi and Afghan people... They were ultimately confronted by the military superiors....Now, the same behavior lives in our local police? WTF!!!! This is epidemic...

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. I am reminded of the trouble they had at Parris Island after the Viet Nam War with Jungle trained

D.I's training some recruits to death....

Some can never quite get over it (meaning war)....and they live among us...and they are often hired as police officers...

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. I was thinking something similiar ...

I was wondering what percentage of current police officers (especially in small towns/rural counties) have military/combat backgrounds.

My quick google produced a Kansas City example: http://cjonline.com/news/2011-08-14/ex-military-lining-police-jobs .

Turns out the Department sought out people with a military background, especially combat. And in a recruitment (recent to the article) 60% of the candidates declared eligible for the 10 jobs, had a military background.

I also found a much older graphic (from 2003) indicating that police forces experienced as much as a 30% Call Up Vacancy rate due to its Officers being activated.

So that would mean that we have/had a significant number of police officers/Reservists cycling between foreign war zones and domestic precincts ... I don't imagine it would not take many cycles before the lines blurred.

[VanillaRhapsody]

6. I would be willing to bet almost all of them these days....

[libdem4life]

3. Just those from a "certain continent" with a wink and a nudge.

Or, just because they can. Seems to be quite the "rage" these days.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. If that's the exact place where Michael Brown died

it looks to me like the blood on the ground is all in one spot (probably where the body just fell). If he had been bull rushing, it would seem to me he wouldn't have just dropped straight down but would have probably lunged forward and skidded for a few feet, smearing blood on the way. Also, the blood spatter where the bullets came through him seems to be closely behind where he would have last stood (not last ran).

[pintobean]

7. I'm skeptical

especially with Antonio French being involved in any way.

If these things really did happen, the cops involved should be disciplined.

[frylock]

8. fuck tha police