Well, a couple blocks of Ferguson went up last night.
It went down like pretty much everyone expected. Also like we all expected, there’s a lot to question about a grand jury’s decision not to try Officer Darren Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. From Prosecutor Robert McCulloch’s hyperdefensive announcement of the decision, it seemed clear prosecutors were dismissive of witnesses who didn’t hew to Wilson’s account of the shooting. Some of those witnesses changed their stories, McCulloch said, or their narratives didn’t match up with physical evidence. It’s clear, though, that there were a wide range of versions of Brown’s death presented to jurors. All involved a scuffle at Wilson’s SUV, shots fired during that scuffle, and Brown fleeing before turning around. The fatal shots came a short time later.
And Officer Wilson’s version? Believable and disinterested. Basically, Brown was a villainous “Hulk Hogan” bent on murdering the officer, revealing himself as “a demon,” and “bulking himself up to run through the shots” that would kill him, berserker-style.
Many are suggesting McCulloch’s staff treated the months-long grand jury process like a trial, minutely going over every trace of evidence the way a court would. But it’s not a trial. Trials have attorneys arguing both sides. Grand jury hearings are purely to establish whether there is probable cause to try someone in a crime. With most defendants, that’s an easy call for jurors. But grand juries don’t indict cops. (It should be noted McCulloch’s father was a cop, killed on duty by an African American man.)
You can read every snippet of testimony here, if you’ve got a couple days.
How did non-Ferguson America handle the decision? Largely with peaceful protests. Enough New Yorkers showed up that bridges had to be closed. A bunch of people and Macklemore marched in Seattle, briefly shutting down I-5. Portland’s turnout was more benign, and minutely chronicled, via Twitter, by our own Denis Theriault. (There’s a more-formal event scheduled this afternoon.)
I called Portland’s demonstration benign. It actually might have been one of the country’s more brilliant IF it can be proved that a guy who set five police horses free last night was motivated by the events in Ferguson. It might have just been a burglary, which would be a shame. Sad update: The Portland Police Bureau sent out a release this morning saying their suspect, 24-year-old Bradley Sean Miller, was probably just drunk. Not protesting.
There are other things happening. Like the Food and Drug Administration deciding, once and for all, that you WILL know how many calories are in that food you just ordered. All of it. Let the shame wash over you.
Oregon’s GMO-labeling measure lost by an astoundingly tight margin, according to the final tallies: 809 votes, or .06 percent. It’s going to a recount, of course. Man, I bet Monsanto would love to drop a couple million bucks into that recount.
Oregon lawmakers’ most-pressing concerns about legal pot: That all the cookies are going to be pot-laced, and no one will be able to tell!
Link to the “more formal event scheduled this afternoon” http://www.albinaministerialcoalition.org/…