Michael Brown: Latest Police Version

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Sat Aug 16, 2014 at 12:04:57 AM EST
Tags: Michael Brown (all tags)

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Ferguson police have changed their story again about whether officer Darren Wilson stopped Michael Brown after suspecting him on robbing cigars from a convenience store. At a press conference today, the police chief said Wilson did not stop Brown because he was a robbery suspect but because he was blocking the streets.

The Ferguson police officer who shot Michael Brown didn’t stop him because he was suspected in a recent robbery, but because he was “walking down the middle of the street blocking traffic,” the city’s police chief said Friday.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson told reporters the alleged “robbery does not relate to the initial contact between the officer and Michael Brown.”

After the conference, he told the St Louis Dispatch the officer might have stopped Brown because he saw cigars in his hand and knew there was a robbery.

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As to why they released the images and robbery report: They say a media station asked for it.

As to whether Brown's shoving the clerk as he was leaving the store elevates what would ordinarily be shoplifting to a robbery, apparently in Missouri it does.

Second degree robbery is defined as:

A person commits the crime of robbery in the second degree when he forcibly steals property.

The definition of "forcibly steal" includes acts done after the taking.

(1) "Forcibly steals", a person "forcibly steals", and thereby commits robbery, when, in the course of stealing, as defined in section 570.030, he uses or threatens the immediate use of physical force upon another person for the purpose of:
(a) Preventing or overcoming resistance to the taking of the property or to the retention thereof immediately after the taking; or....

The Ferguson police seriously need to get some training in public communications. Their woefully inadequate and inconsistent responses are a large part of the reason people are so frustrated.

And everyone needs to keep their attention on the shooting,