Ferguson: Intense Civil Rights March After Execution Video Emerges

Martin Luther King III will be among those participating in a massive civil rights march on Sunday in Ferguson, marking one week and one day since police officer Darren Wilson executed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

As the world watched in horror Ferguson’s militarized police violence, civil rights leaders have been working to demonstrate their intolerance of police brutality there, or anywhere in the nation, according to national rights leader Rashad Robinson. 

 

 

“As Michael stood in the street with his hands in the air, the officer fired the fatal shots. Michael’s last words were, ‘I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!’”

“I am here standing shoulder-to-shoulder in Ferguson, MO with those demanding justice for 18-year-old Michael Brown who was racially profiled and tragically killed by a police officer last week,” stated Rashad Robinson in an email late Friday. “I came to amplify the voices of the more than 100,000 ColorOfChange members calling for immediate accountability and an end to the deep-seated police misconduct plaguing Ferguson and cities across the country.”

Robinson is Executive Director of Color of Change and a board member of the Applied Research Center, Demos, and State Voices.

“Tomorrow, with the world watching, we will march. Show your support by joining and sharing this campaign to pressure federal officials to intervene and ensure real accountability. Justice comes only when we stand up against unlawful police abuse and racially-motivated violence. The time is now.”

Ferguson police officer racially profiled and fatally shot unarmed, Black, 18-year-old, Michael Brown as he walked to his grandmother’s residence with a friend.¹ Eye witnesses report that the police officer Darren Wilson fired several shots at Michael as the youth stood in the street with his hands in the air. 

The family and local community members are calling his death an execution.

Racially-motivated police violence has no place in law enforcement. Join us in demanding a rigorous investigation, prosecution, and firing of all officers involved in this tragic police killing. It only takes a moment.

Witnesses on the scene Saturday claim Brown and a friend were being harassed by a police officer who singled out the boys and attacked them.

Dorian Johnson, Michael’s good friend, experienced the entire police killing from just feet away, He spoke out about it again today, detailing the entire police attack, Robinson said.

“Dorian reveals the officer’s malice from start to finish, with the officer’s first words to the teens, ‘Get the f—k on the sidewalk.’ ” Robinson said. 

As the officer’s aggression escalated, and he fired the first shots into Michael, both youths ran in fear for their lives.  Dorian recounts the killing in the video below.

“As Michael stood in the street with his hands in the air, the officer fired the fatal shots. Michael’s last words were, ‘I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!’”

A second witness,  Tiffany Mitchell, 27, came forward Thursday with video evidence, yet to be made public. Her account, however, has received less media attention as the narrative has changed even more toward the death being the victim’s fault.

Mitchell said she noticed from her car the event as the officer pulled Brown into the police vehicle window and Brown was trying to pull away from the car window. 

News 4 reported that Mitchell’s account concurs with that of Dorian.

 

Mitchell told News 4 she saw a door close on a police car. An officer was inside and Brown, Jr. was on the outside. She said the two were arm wrestling through the car window. Mitchell said she then tried to pull out her phone to record. Shots then rang out.

 

“It just didn’t look right for them to be arm wrestling,” Mitchell said. “The first gun shot came from the window, so I just started getting out of the way.”

 

According to Mitchell, Brown, Jr, began to run away after the first shot was fired.

 

“After the shot, the kid just breaks away. The cop follows him, kept shooting,” Mitchell said.

“The kid’s body jerked as if he was hit. After his body jerked, he turns around, puts his hands up, and the cop continues to walk up on him and continues to shoot until he goes all the way down.” 

Mitchell told CNN’s Don Lemon that she saw Brown break free and start running.

“The kid’s body jerked as if he was hit from behind and he turned around and he puts his hands up like this, and the cop continued to fire, until he just dropped down to the ground and his face smacked the concrete.”

Despite the two eyewitness accounts, according to Robinson, law enforcement officials are working hard to construct a false narrative and make it harder to hold the officers accountable, even refusing to interview the primary eye-witness of the police killing. (Eyewitness to Michael Brown shooting recounts his friend’s death, MSNBC 08-12-2014)

“Enough is enough,” Robinson said. “This tragic police killing is representative of the systemic police abuse affecting Black communities in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country.”

In 2013, Black Missouri residents were 66% more likely to be stopped by police, and more likely to be arrested, even though white residents were more likely to be found with contraband. (Michael Brown and disparity of due process, St. Louis Post-Dispatch 08-11-2014)

Despite representing two thirds of Ferguson’s population, Black people are almost 90% of those stopped by police while driving. (Black residents in Ferguson, Missouri, are stopped and arrested far more than whites, BuzzFeed, 08-11-14)

“Decades of entrenched police violence and racial profiling policies targeting Black youth on the basis of dehumanizing stereotypes has led to the brutal police murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown,” Robinson said. “We cannot allow police to kill with impunity. Demand full accountability and firings today.“

“We’re not out of this yet. We haven’t even had the funeral,” MSNBC host Al Sharpton said on Morning Joe Friday morning. “What happens when the kids see their friend lying in the casket?”

Sharpton said he’s experienced such incidents more than once, and cautioned a panel not to think that the situation was under control just because reporters weren’t getting arrested and military equipment was no longer in the street. 

“We are not out of the emotions because we all of a sudden had one good night of marching,” he said.

Sharpton stated that he would return to Ferguson Sunday to march with the family of Michael Brown and Martin Luther King III.