Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of the lynching of a police officer named Darren Wilson. On the morning of August 9th, 2014, Wilson tried to detain 18-year-old Michael Brown, who had just robbed a convenience store and attacked the clerk.
That&#8217;s when, according to the Obama DOJ, &#8220;Wilson and other witnesses stated that Brown &#8230; reached into [Wilson&#8217;s] SUV through the open driver’s window and punched and grabbed Wilson.&#8221; Investigators made that determination by observing &#8220;bruising on Wilson’s jaw and scratches on his neck, the presence of Brown’s DNA on Wilson’s collar, shirt, and pants, and Wilson’s DNA on Brown’s palm.&#8221; Brown then tried to grab Wilson&#8217;s gun; Wilson shot him; Brown ran away, then turned around and charged at Wilson; and Wilson fatally shot Brown in self-defense. 
The Obama DOJ did everything it could to find a way to charge Darren Wilson, yet those were their conclusions. Wilson did nothing wrong, much to the dismay of those who wished to sacrifice him on the altar of racial justice. Despite media reports, not a single witness ever claimed Brown said &#8220;don&#8217;t shoot.&#8221; And all the witnesses who claimed that Brown&#8217;s hands were in the air were either contradicted by the evidence, or later recanted their testimony. Those are the factual details. If you&#8217;re so inclined you can read the full <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf">DOJ report</a> online. 
What you can&#8217;t find online, however, is what happened to Darren Wilson. His name is never mentioned in the media. It&#8217;s as if he never existed. The handful of reports on Wilson in recent years suggest he&#8217;s living a life of anonymity in the middle of nowhere, and that he&#8217;ll never be able to work as a police officer again. His life was destroyed. Nobody who defamed him as a racist killer ever apologized. Nobody who took part in the destruction of an innocent man’s life was ever held accountable.
In a country that cared about police officers, or the truth, that would be a national scandal. But we don&#8217;t live in a country like that, so instead, yesterday the only name you heard was Michael Brown. They canonized him all over again. Here&#8217;s how one local news report talked about the case:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="St. Louis news | Aug. 9 | Noon update | Anniversary of Mike Brown&#039;s death" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WxukhWjA1iM?start=133&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A &#8220;ceremony to honor Michael Brown, the teenager shot and killed by a police officer after a confrontation.&#8221; That&#8217;s how a &#8220;news station&#8221; in 2023 is talking about a thug who attacked a store clerk, then tried to kill a police officer. They don&#8217;t mention any of those facts we just reviewed, because they&#8217;re inconvenient. Instead, the &#8220;news station&#8221; informs you that Brown&#8217;s body lay in the street for several hours after the shooting, as if that&#8217;s somehow incriminating or even relevant. Of course they leave out the fact that the mob made processing the crime scene so difficult that Ferguson had to call in the SWAT team to control the situation. They don&#8217;t mention all the lies that the supposed &#8220;witnesses&#8221; told the media, like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7tTsEYE3Ms">false claim</a> that Michael Brown had been shot in the back.
It wasn&#8217;t just one news station that decided to lie yesterday. They all did it. Here&#8217;s how the local Fox station described what happened:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Michael Brown&#039;s father speaking on &#039;Chosen for Change&#039; Foundation 9 years after fatal shooting" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5-dTsi3S3g4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Again, without mentioning any details of what Michael Brown actually did, we&#8217;re told that his case has something to do with &#8220;police brutality and injustice faced by African-Americans.&#8221; That intro was followed by a sympathetic clip with Michael Brown&#8217;s family. Apparently Darren Wilson&#8217;s family wasn&#8217;t available. Maybe they&#8217;re in hiding. We really don&#8217;t know.
What we can say for sure is that there weren&#8217;t any memorial events honoring Darren Wilson yesterday in St. Louis. Instead the city put on a series of events celebrating the legacy of the thug who robbed stores and attacked a police officer. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="St. Louis honors Michael Brown on 9th anniversary of his death" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v00nMb2ucN4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Michael Brown &#8220;Was shot and killed followed by a confrontation,&#8221; the reporter tells us. Wow, there&#8217;s that word again. It was a &#8220;confrontation.&#8221; It doesn&#8217;t imply any kind of fault by one side or the other. It doesn&#8217;t tell you anything. It leaves you completely in the dark, which is the exact opposite of what the news media is supposed to do. They just want you to know that the community came together to quote, &#8220;honor Michael Brown&#8217;s life and legacy.&#8221; They don’t bother explaining why Brown’s life and legacy deserve to be honored. 
These so-called reporters know exactly what they&#8217;re doing. Anyone with Google can prove it is a lie in about five seconds. But obviously, none of these people can think for themselves. So the question becomes, Where are they getting the idea to do it? 
We know that the Obama administration benefited from lying about Michael Brown all the way back in 2014, just as they benefited from lying about Trayvon Martin and all the other race hoaxes. That&#8217;s why the Obama DOJ investigated Ferguson&#8217;s police department (and many other police departments), and <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf">claimed</a> they must be racist because they pull over more black people than white people. It didn&#8217;t matter to the DOJ that Ferguson is an overwhelmingly black town; they just ran with that reasoning, because they knew the city didn&#8217;t have the money or the PR resources to fight them. In fact, when the city publicly announced that it disagreed with the Obama DOJ&#8217;s ridiculous reasoning, the DOJ called the city racist again, just for daring to challenge their narrative. &#8220;You&#8217;re racist, and if you deny that you&#8217;re racist, then that&#8217;s just more evidence you&#8217;re racist.&#8221; That&#8217;s basically what the DOJ said. Again, the document is online if you want to read it.
But that still doesn&#8217;t answer the question of, &#8220;why now?&#8221; Why is the media still lying now about this shooting, even nine years later, when everyone knows they&#8217;re lying?
It could be that they&#8217;re still taking orders from the Democratic Party, which, somehow, has not given up on the lie. Squad bench warmer Cori Bush (D-MO) tweeted yesterday, &#8220;Today is the 9th anniversary of Mike Brown’s killing. He would be alive today if the institutions of racism and white supremacy were eradicated. He should be alive today. We will never forget. We will continue to fight for justice and accountability.&#8221; Ben Crump and various Left-wing groups said more or less the same thing.
But it&#8217;s not just a couple of race-hustling lawyers and politicians from Missouri who are lying about Michael Brown. The Biden administration, at the highest levels, is also portraying Michael Brown as a hero. This was the State Department&#8217;s new &#8220;equity representative,&#8221; speaking yesterday as Tony Blinken looked on:
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the state department&#39;s new &#39;equity representative&#39; just eulogized violent thug Michael brown, with Tony blinker looking on. impossible to overemphasize how their entire movement is built on lies and repeating lies despite all evidence. it&#39;s not just cori bush and ben crump <a href="https://t.co/aL4fTVDFlO">pic.twitter.com/aL4fTVDFlO</a>
&mdash; Gregg Re (@gregg_re) <a href="https://twitter.com/gregg_re/status/1689404929926991872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Well, that&#8217;s interesting. The State Department, which uses coordinated disinformation campaigns to inspire color revolutions overseas — with the express goal of overthrowing foreign governments — is now deliberately lying about a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri from nine years ago. They&#8217;re telling you an &#8220;unarmed black teenager&#8221; was just murdered by a cop for no reason, nine years after that narrative was completely and totally debunked.
Why are they doing that? They know exactly how destabilizing that lie has been over the past decade. Take a look at <a href="https://www.fergusoncity.com/855/Crime-DataGraphs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this chart</a>. It shows the rate of violent crime in Ferguson over the past few decades. That&#8217;s the red. It also shows you how many cases police solve in the city. That&#8217;s the green. Notice any trends? It’s hard to miss. You see a big bump in violent crime around 2014, when the U.S. government decided to pretend that Michael Brown was a hero, while the number of violent crime cases actually solved goes the other direction.
<div id="attachment_602507" style="width: 590px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-602507" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-602507 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Document55.png" alt="" width="580" height="361" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Document55.png 580w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Document55-300x187.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" />Courtesy Fergusoncity.com</div>
You can find similar charts from every major city in America. In recent years, police were either defunded or scared away. No cop wants to be lynched for doing his job, after all. And so, predictably, cities got much more dangerous. A lot of people died. And it started with the Ferguson lie, which was the genesis of the modern BLM movement.
To the Left, all those deaths were collateral damage. They think it was all worth it, because the rise of BLM meant more political power for them. They recruited a mob of enforcers who could literally set entire communities on fire with impunity, as a message to the rest of the country. They were able to demonize local police departments, and empower the FBI, which they controlled. And, for the corporations who bankroll Democrats, the rise of BLM was also a welcome diversion from rising populist sentiments in both parties.
The lying about Ferguson, in that sense, isn&#8217;t so remarkable. The State Department and the Democratic Party are pushing for an internal revolution here for the same reason they push for color revolutions elsewhere. They want to tear down the system of government we have in this country, and our rule of law and our traditions. And they want to replace them with something very different — something &#8220;equitable,&#8221; with them in charge.
So far, their strategy is working. It&#8217;s a perfect example of how the Left plays the long game. They&#8217;ve obtained total narrative control.
Sure, their whole narrative was debunked, but what do they care? They’ll just keep repeating the lie year after year after year until eventually the other side gets tired of correcting it, and their version makes it into the history books. It does make you question how much of the stuff you find in history books can actually be trusted. If Cori Bush and the State Department and the entire media and Democrat Party can lie about something that we all remember, what happens when there is nobody left who remembers it?
The unfortunate reality is that historical lies gain more power and momentum as time goes on and we move further away from the event they’re lying about. The truth, however, does not benefit from this kind of distance. If anything, its road becomes much harder. And this is exactly what the Left is counting on.

Matt Walsh 2

The Media Is Still Lying About Michael Brown 9 Years Later. Here’s Why.

Ferguson

Matt Walsh

Michael Brown

Missouri

Police

Readers Pass

Long before <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/college-board-debuts-george-floyd-inspired-african-american-studies-ap-class">George Floyd</a> tragically died under the knee of disgraced former police officer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/just-in-derek-chauvin-appealing-murder-conviction-in-george-floyd-case">Derek Chauvin</a> on a Minneapolis street in May of 2020, police officers across the country were being maligned as racist murderers by the media and their puppeteer politicians.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last eight years, you most likely saw or heard the fiery rants at the anti-police BLM protests.
Chants like “Hands up, don’t shoot” were heard, referring to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in August of 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. “I can’t breathe” was the mantra for the tragic death of Eric Garner in 2014 in New York City, and then “All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie Gray,” was heard in the streets of Baltimore following Freddie Gray’s fatal encounter with police.
Those catchphrases and the names of the deceased, along with others who have died in violent encounters with police, were plastered on the jerseys of prominent athletes all across the sports world, of which some took a knee during the national anthem in protest of a “racist” country.
Hollywood celebrities starred in PSAs maligning the police. The NBA painted Black Lives Matter on their basketball courts, while former Mayor Bill de Blasio did the same on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
It was reported that Brown, Garner, and Gray were murdered by racist police officers roaming the streets looking to shoot “people of color.” It was broadcasted that they were victims of a systemic racism that permeates through the 18,000 police departments across the country and the courts in all of those jurisdictions.
No matter that those departments and courts &#8211; especially those in large metropolitan cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago &#8211; have been run by liberal lawmakers for decades and are among the most racially diverse in the world.
No matter that each state and city has its own police department acting independently of each other.
No matter that they have their own chiefs, commissioners, district attorneys, and mayors making and enforcing the laws and dictating policy.
In each of the officer-involved shootings detailed above, the fiction that was shoved down the public’s throat by corrupt, irresponsible, leftist media, in order to create a narrative and shape public opinion against the police, isn’t even close to the truth.
The public has been lied to, manipulated, and used, and the effects of the propaganda these ideologues are spewing will continue to be felt by citizens for many years to come. It’s what many in the law enforcement community are beginning to refer to as the “Ferguson Effect.”
The tallest tale the media told was in Ferguson, Missouri. Within hours of Michael Brown’s death, the media dubbed him “The Gentle Giant.” To further cement their characterization of him as an innocent, lovable teenager, they adorned the front pages of their newspapers and websites with his high school graduation photo and another seemingly innocent, prepubescent photo of him wearing headphones.
Initially, there was no mention of him having committed a strong-arm robbery of a convenience store moments before his deadly encounter with officer Wilson. 
There was no mention that Wilson was a six-year veteran of the department with a spotless disciplinary record. Rather, officer Wilson was vilified as a cold-blooded murderer who executed an innocent young man and an aspiring student.
Brown’s sidekick, Dorian Johnson, had a story the propagandist hacks in the media seemed to be waiting for. Johnson insisted that Brown was shot in the back while running away from Wilson, and he was then executed while kneeling on the ground with his hands up, begging for his life.
No matter the story had almost no corroboration from anyone. It fit the false narrative the media was all too ready to broadcast. 
Violent riots and looting sprang up in the streets of Ferguson, and, as the city burned, people sat in their living rooms watching the carnage, listening to the pundits and faux journalists spew outrage at another injustice due to the so-called systemic racism of our criminal justice system and our out-of-control cops.
There was no way of knowing that virtually none of what Johnson said was true. 
No way of knowing that, years later, all of the six accused officers in the Gray case would be exonerated in court by grand juries of their peers in their liberal cities. 
No way of knowing that those same officers would be reinstated in their jobs or that the prosecutor in the case would be forced to resign for prosecutorial misconduct. 
No way of knowing that police officer Daniel Pantaleo, accused of murdering Garner, would not be indicted.
No way of knowing that it wasn’t the first time Dorian Johnson was accused of lying to the police &#8211; Johnson had an active warrant for filing a false police report in nearby Jefferson County in 2011.
Any doubt that Johnson was lying was quickly dismissed by the word of a St. Louis County Grand Jury and then United States attorney general Eric Holder &#8211; perhaps the most left-winged, corrupt attorney general in the history of the country before Merrick Garland.
Yet, by March of 2015, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf">Justice Department’s comprehensive investigation</a> and report into the death of Michael Brown completely exonerated officer Wilson and rejected Johnson’s story. The forensic evidence was overwhelming and succinctly corroborated Darren Wilson’s step-by-step version of the events. Wilson was not a criminal. He was a hero.
Aside from the great loss of Michael Brown’s life and the pain caused to his family, other damage resulted from this incident. Police Officer Darren Wilson and his family were destroyed in the aftermath. He was stripped of his livelihood and reputation before the fires in Ferguson were extinguished. 
<a href="https://www.thebluemagazine.com/new-blog/2019/4/12/the-dirty-work-of-protection-winning-the-battle">Charles H. Webb</a> said it best when he said, “There is no nice way to arrest a potentially dangerous, combative suspect. The police are our bodyguards; our hired fists, batons and guns. We pay them to do the dirty work of protecting us. The work we’re too afraid, too unskilled, or too civilized to do ourselves…We just don’t want to see how it’s done.”
Unfortunately, what happened in Ferguson, and in the years following, has made police officers afraid to do their jobs.
A <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/11/20/survey-says-more-than-half-nypd-wishes-they-werent-blue/">recent survey</a> conducted by the NYPD in 2022 found that 80% of its officers and their supervisors feared aggressively fighting crime for fear of lawsuits or being unfairly disciplined.
Experienced officers are retiring or resigning in droves, and, while they walk out the door in places like New York City, departments are struggling to recruit qualified candidates. In the <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/07/05/nypd-makes-fitness-tests-easier-after-increased-retirements/">NYPD’s July 2022</a> class, they were only able to recruit half the number they hoped for, even after lowering physical fitness standards for new applicants.
For the police officers coming in and those who remain, the leftist, anti-police propaganda has made the job of policing extremely difficult. This is especially true in large, liberal run cities where rules implemented in the name of protecting the public from the “lawless cops” have compromised the safety of the officer in the street and completely neutered their ability to enforce the law.
There is, however, a glimmer of hope. Things are changing. More people are paying attention. Residents in the higher crime areas and those who no longer feel safe in their upscale neighborhoods are beginning to make noise. They are clamoring for more police on the street. They aren’t buying the insane notion that less incarceration makes us all safer. That is where the change has to start. The people of these cities have to demand it from their political leaders.
As I’ve stated in other columns: change starts at the top. Let’s hope this is the beginning of real change and a major step toward removing the handcuffs from our brave officers in the street and making the Ferguson Effect a thing of the past.
John Dove is a retired NYPD Detective Lieutenant and the former co-executive producer of CSI-NY starring Gary Sinise.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Dove – The Ferguson Effect

The Ferguson Effect: How False Media Narratives Fueled A Generation Of Anti-Police Activism

George Floyd

Media Bias

Sitting members of Congress – and several others — marked the 8th anniversary of 18-year-old <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-seems-to-suggest-michael-brown-was-victim-on-anniversary-of-death-obama-biden-doj-said-officer-acted-in-self-defense/">Michael Brown&#8217;s</a> death in Ferguson, Missouri, by promoting the long-debunked claim that he was &#8220;murdered&#8221; and had been shot while holding his hands up in surrender.
<a href="https://dailywire.com/news/left-tries-rewrite-story-saint-michael-brown-ben-shapiro/">Brown</a> was fatally shot by former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson — who initially attempted to detain Brown because he matched the description of a suspect in a <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/leftists-say-michael-brown-didnt-strong-arm-rob-frank-camp/">strong-arm robbery</a> at a local convenience store — and according to the police report, Brown attempted to pull Wilson out of his marked vehicle and grappled for his service weapon. He was reportedly running toward Wilson, who had by then exited the vehicle, when he was shot.
One witness, who later admitted to fabricating the claim, alleged that Brown had been trying to get away from Wilson when he was killed — and claimed that he had his hands up in surrender at the time of the shooting.
According to multiple investigations, however — including one undertaken by then Attorney General <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-a-movement-built-on-the-illusion-of-martyrdom/">Eric Holder</a> — the shooting was ultimately deemed justified and Wilson was not charged.
&#8220;This morning, the Justice Department announced the conclusion of our investigation and released a comprehensive, 87-page report documenting our findings and conclusions that the facts do not support the filing of criminal charges against Officer Darren Wilson in this case,&#8221; Holder said in a statement marking the close of the investigation. &#8220;Michael Brown’s death, though a tragedy, did not involve prosecutable conduct on the part of Officer Wilson.&#8221;
Despite that, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) went ahead on Tuesday with the assertion that Brown had been &#8220;murdered&#8221; by police.
&#8220;Today marks eight years since Michael Brown was murdered by police in Ferguson, MO,&#8221; Jayapal tweeted. &#8220;We need to honor Michael&#8217;s life with action. Let&#8217;s keep fighting to dismantle white supremacy, so we can ensure racial justice for all.&#8221;
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Today marks eight years since Michael Brown was murdered by police in Ferguson, MO.
We need to honor Michael’s life with action. Let’s keep fighting to dismantle white supremacy, so we can ensure racial justice for all.
&mdash; Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) <a href="https://twitter.com/PramilaJayapal/status/1557013334532276224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO), who was among the protesters on the ground in Ferguson in the days after the shooting, made the same claim.
&#8220;8 years ago today, Michael Brown Jr. was murdered, so we took to the streets for over 400 days. We were maced and tear-gassed, &amp; beaten by police — all for saying that Mike&#8217;s life mattered,&#8221; Bush tweeted, leaving out several key details such as the number of police officers who were attacked and the number of businesses that were <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366452769/ferguson-businesses-burn-crowds-confront-police-in-overnight-chaos">looted and/or burned</a> by the protesters she claimed were simply &#8220;saying that Mike&#8217;s life mattered.&#8221;
&#8220;Our fight for justice will not stop. We do this for Mike Brown,&#8221; she added.
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8 years ago today, Michael Brown Jr. was murdered, so we took to the streets for over 400 days.
We were maced, tear-gassed, &amp; beaten by police—all for saying that Mike’s life mattered.
Our fight for justice will not stop. We do this for Mike Brown. ✊🏾
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1557214781756657666?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, who has made a name for himself through a series of high-profile cases involving police officers and minorities, took the claim a step further and repeated the debunked claim that Brown had his hands raised in surrender when he was killed.
&#8220;8 years ago, Michael Brown was killed, with his hands up in surrender, by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. Michael&#8217;s future was stolen from him mere DAYS after he attended his high school graduation ceremony. We’ll ALWAYS remember him! Rest In Power, Mike,&#8221; he tweeted.
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8 years ago, Michael Brown was killed, with his hands up in surrender, by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. Michael&#39;s future was stolen from him mere DAYS after he attended his high school graduation ceremony. We’ll ALWAYS remember him! Rest In Power, Mike.🙏🏾 <a href="https://t.co/8vhnGGgEe0">pic.twitter.com/8vhnGGgEe0</a>
&mdash; Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1557038011556237313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Several people pushed back on the claims, however, like St. Louis-based radio host Annie Frey. &#8220;Peddling the Hands Up lie drains all credibility from your cause. I follow you because I value seeing your side of this issue. But this is a LIE and you&#8217;re using it for your own personal benefit. It&#8217;s disgusting,&#8221; she said.
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Peddling the Hands Up lie drains all credibility from your cause. I follow you because I value seeing your side of this issue. But this is a LIE and you&#39;re using it for your own personal benefit. It&#39;s disgusting. <a href="https://t.co/HaDIFaQh2Y">https://t.co/HaDIFaQh2Y</a>
&mdash; Annie Frey (@anniefreyshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/anniefreyshow/status/1557259786806231041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Activists Across The Country Gather For March For Our Lives II To Protest Against Gun Violence

Sitting Members Of Congress — And More — Commemorate Ferguson Police Shooting By Lying About It

Sitting Members Of Congress Commemorate Ferguson Police Shooting By Lying About It

Cori Bush

Pramila Jayapal

Shooting

On Monday, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) claimed that white supremacists fired on Ferguson protesters after former police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in 2014.
“When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us,” Bush tweeted. “They never faced consequences.”
“If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it,” she added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us.
They never faced consequences.
If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1460335492415819786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
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However, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ferguson-police-former-mayor-dispute-cori-bush-claim-that-white-supremacists-shot-at-ferguson-protesters">The Daily Wire</a> reported, “Ferguson Police Chief James McCall Jr. and former Ferguson Mayor James Knowles disputed Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush’s claim that white supremacists shot at Ferguson protesters.” 
When asked if he could recall any such incident, McCall Jr. <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/rep-cori-bush-says-white-supremacists-shot-at-ferguson-protesters-but-chief-not-aware-of/article_fbf2b08a-a49e-504b-8080-13dfb6f9f947.html">responded</a>, &#8220;Not that I’m aware of.”
Moreover, numerous mainstream fact-checkers either ignored or downplayed the claim.
As of Friday morning, CNN’s fact-checker <a href="https://www.cnn.com/profiles/daniel-dale">Daniel Dale</a> had not commented on Bush’s claim. Neither had many other fact-checking organizations, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/news/factcheck/">USA Today</a>, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/personalities/cori-bush/">Politifact</a>, <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/search/#gsc.tab=0&amp;gsc.q=cori%20bush&amp;gsc.sort=">FactCheck.org</a>, and <a href="https://leadstories.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&amp;search=cori+bush">Lead Stories</a>.
Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cori-bush-ferguson/">Snopes</a> did investigate Bush’s claim, but they gave it a more forgiving “Unproven” rating:
<blockquote>Bush’s claim was a remarkable one, and suggested that white supremacists were effectively given license to shoot at Black protesters in Ferguson, and never brought to justice for what would be very serious violent crimes. It was also one that could not be quickly or readily corroborated, which prompted <a href="https://archive.md/rgKYz">significant skepticism</a> about its veracity. Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall no doubt added to that skepticism when he <a href="https://archive.md/952Rx">told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a> he was not aware of any such incident having taken place. 
The congresswoman’s claim was not fabricated out of thin air, but rather related to a specific alleged incident in January 2015. However, we have not yet been able to obtain evidence that supports her core claim, namely that known white supremacists did indeed shoot at protesters, in their capacity as protesters. Moreover, a key figure in the alleged events of that day told Snopes she never saw any individual responsible for the shooting (and therefore could not corroborate the claim that they were white supremacists), and also did not recall having seen Bush at the time. 
In the absence of concrete evidence which clearly establishes the accuracy or inaccuracy of Bush’s claims, we are issuing a rating of “Unproven.” If solid evidence becomes available, we will update this fact check accordingly. </blockquote>
According to the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/rep-cori-bush-says-white-supremacists-shot-at-ferguson-protesters-but-chief-not-aware-of/article_fbf2b08a-a49e-504b-8080-13dfb6f9f947.html">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>, a spokesperson for Bush’s campaign appeared to double-down on her claims, despite widespread skepticism.
“While on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes. The question we need to ask is why white supremacists feel empowered to open-carry rifles, incite violence, and put Black lives at risk across our country,” they said.
Local activist Ohun Ashe also referenced the account of Bush.
&#8220;I vividly remember hiding under porches in Canfield as shots were fired at us,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/Ohun_Ashe/status/1460338181413478401" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Ashe tweeted.</a> &#8220;No one came to help us. Ferguson police would be nearby. We would come from under porches using cars as shields in between gun shots to make it out.&#8221;

Fact Checkers Ignore Cori Bush’s Claim That White Supremacists Shot At Ferguson Protestors, Snopes Give ‘Unproven’ Rating

Fact Check

Ferguson Police Chief James McCall Jr. and former Ferguson Mayor James Knowles disputed Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush&#8217;s claim that white supremacists shot at Ferguson protesters.
Bush was a regular presence at the protests that rocked Ferguson, Missouri, after former police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/no-charges-brought-against-darren-wilson-in-michael-brown-shooting-countys-first-black-prosector-says/">Michael Brown</a> — and Bush claimed in a tweet Monday that protesters had been targets for &#8220;white supremacists&#8221; who shot at them from behind a hill while police did nothing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us.
They never faced consequences.
If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1460335492415819786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Bush tied her claim to the Kenosha protests following the officer-involved shooting that left Jacob Blake paralyzed, arguing that if <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/rittenhouse-day-2-jury-dismissed-still-no-verdict/">Kyle Rittenhouse</a> was acquitted after shooting three people and killing two in August of 2020, it was proof that white supremacists could get away with murder. There is no evidence that Rittenhouse has ever been connected with any white supremacist group.
&#8220;When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us. They never faced consequences,&#8221; Bush said. &#8220;If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.&#8221;
Bush&#8217;s campaign followed her tweet with a statement reiterating the congresswoman&#8217;s claim, saying, &#8220;While on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes. The question we need to ask is why white supremacists feel empowered to open-carry rifles, incite violence, and put Black lives at risk across our country.&#8221;
But when the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/rep-cori-bush-says-white-supremacists-shot-at-ferguson-protesters-but-chief-not-aware-of/article_fbf2b08a-a49e-504b-8080-13dfb6f9f947.html">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a> asked whether Chief McCall knew of any such shootings, his response was simple: &#8220;None that I’m aware of.&#8221;
The former mayor took things a step further, telling NewsTalk STL radio host Tony Colombo – who covered the Ferguson protests on the ground — that the only shots fired during the Ferguson protests were fired at police officers or between rival gang members.
&#8220;I reached out personally to James Knowles, who was the mayor of Ferguson at that time,&#8221; Colombo said during a November 16th broadcast. &#8220;He called it 100% BS, what Cori Bush said. He said the only gunshots were people taking shots at cops and rival gangs shooting at each other, ending up with injuries at different times.&#8221;
LISTEN: (7:25 mark)
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1161519052&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true" width="100%" height="300" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
<div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;"><a style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" title="NewsTalk STL" href="https://soundcloud.com/newstalkstl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NewsTalk STL</a> · <a style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" title="Colombo And Katie Hour 1 11 - 16 - 21" href="https://soundcloud.com/newstalkstl/colombo-and-katie-hour-1-11-16-21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colombo And Katie Hour 1 11 &#8211; 16 &#8211; 21</a></div>
The <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ferguson-ambush-is-still-fresh/article_7bd9bbe3-7afb-5b68-a601-103b7bb1ae83.html">Post-Dispatch</a> also reported on two shootings that took place in Ferguson in March of 2015, seven months after Brown was shot.
<blockquote>In March 2015, two police officers who were part of a security line outside the Ferguson police headquarters were shot, causing some protesters to flee and others to drop to the ground. One officer was hit in the shoulder; the other, in the cheek.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-found-guilty-of-shooting-two-officers-at-ferguson-protest/article_5c37a53e-faf1-52ba-9907-fa0afc4e3def.html">Jeffrey Williams</a>, 21, was charged and later convicted for shooting and wounding the two officers, but claimed that he had not intended to fire at police. &#8220;Nobody aiming at no police. I ran up the hill and he (an unidentified person) shot at the car. … I shot back,&#8221; he said.
Then St. Louis County Police Chief <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/12/431978076/oath-keepers-say-theyre-defending-ferguson-others-say-theyre-not-helping">John Belmar</a> noted that, while he did not believe their presence to be particularly helpful, there had been members of the Oath Keepers present in Ferguson and reports that local Ku Klux Klan members planned to be there as well. However, no one associated with either group was charged in any of the shootings that took place during the protests.

Rep. Cori Bush Sleeps Outside Capitol Building In Push To Extend Federal Eviction Moratorium

Ferguson Police, Former Mayor Dispute Cori Bush Claim That White Supremacists Shot At Ferguson Protesters

Black Lives Matter

Kenosha

Kyle Rittenhouse

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) faced backlash online on Monday evening following remarks that she made on social media, claiming that white supremacists shot at her in Ferguson, Missouri, following the 2014 death of Michael Brown Jr.
&#8220;When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us,&#8221; Bush tweeted. &#8220;They never faced consequences. If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.&#8221;
Bush&#8217;s claim that Brown was murdered is false, as The Washington Post&#8217;s fact-check previously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/13/harris-warren-ignore-doj-report-claim-that-michael-brown-was-murdered/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>[Kamala] Harris and [Elizabeth] Warren have ignored the findings of the Justice Department to accuse [police officer Darren] Wilson of murder, even though the Justice Department found no credible evidence to support that claim. Instead, the Justice Department found that the popular narrative was wrong, according to witnesses deemed to be credible, some of whom testified reluctantly because of fear of reprisal. The department produced a comprehensive report to determine what happened, making the senators’ dismissal of it even more galling. Harris and Warren both earn Four Pinocchios.</blockquote>
Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr. said on Monday that he was not aware of any record of such an incident occurring, according to the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/rep-cori-bush-says-white-supremacists-shot-at-ferguson-protesters-but-chief-not-aware-of/article_fbf2b08a-a49e-504b-8080-13dfb6f9f947.html">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us.
They never faced consequences.
If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1460335492415819786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Some notable responses included:
<ul>
<li>Chris Barron, political strategist: &#8220;How about the GOP members of Congress grow a spine and introduce a resolution to censure Cori Bush for lying and attempting to intimidate a jury.&#8221;</li>
<li>Dan McLaughlin, National Review: &#8220;Did you file a police report?&#8221;</li>
<li>Greg Pollowitz, Twitchy: &#8220;Merrick Garland should open up an investigation to find out why ~checks notes~ Eric Holder didn’t do anything about this.&#8221;</li>
<li>Ellen Carmichael, writer: &#8220;Were you marching with Jussie Smollet?&#8221;</li>
<li>Kurt Schlichter, attorney and columnist: &#8220;Shut up, liar.&#8221;</li>
<li>John Cardillo, political commentator: &#8220;This is an absolute lie. I guarantee this never happened. @CoriBush is a sitting Congresswoman blatantly lying to the American people to stoke rioting and looting. She could not be worse if she tried.&#8221;</li>
<li>Ian Miles Cheong, writer: &#8220;This is incitement.&#8221;</li>
<li>David Marcus, writer: &#8220;This should be fully investigated immediately.&#8221;</li>
<li>Guy Benson, Fox News: &#8220;This is wild — a falsehood, a dodgy/unsubstantiated allegation, and a baseless non sequitur.&#8221;</li>
<li>Larry O&#8217;Connor, radio host: &#8220;I could be wrong&#8230; But I&#8217;m pretty sure there were plenty of sympathetic reporters covering the Ferguson marches. I&#8217;d think if &#8216;white supremacists&#8217; were taking pot shots at protesters it might have made the news.&#8221;</li>
<li>Harry Khachatrian, writer: &#8220;Is Cori Bush saying they were using WMDs.&#8221;</li>
<li>Matt Walsh, The Daily Wire: &#8220;They never faced consequences for the same reason that Magneto and the Joker never faced consequences. They’re all fictional. A sitting US congresswoman is claiming that armed white supremacists were shooting at people in the middle of a city and it never made the news and no witnesses noticed. This is the kind of brazen lie you can only get from the Left. She knows she won&#8217;t be called on it.&#8221;</li>
<li>Jesse Kelly, radio host: &#8220;I bet those were the same snipers who shot at Hillary!&#8221;</li>
</ul>
Related:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-this-is-where-the-far-lefts-darkness-comes-from">Tulsi Gabbard: This Is Where The Far-Left’s ‘Darkness’ Comes From</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-manchin-takes-high-road-in-response-to-cori-bush-suggesting-hes-racist-for-opposing-biden-agenda">Joe Manchin Takes High Road In Response To Cori Bush Suggesting He’s Racist For Opposing Biden Agenda</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cori-bush-unloads-senator-joe-manchin-hes-anti-black-anti-child-anti-woman-anti-immigrant">Cori Bush Unloads On Senator Joe Manchin: He’s ‘Anti-Black, Anti-Child, Anti-Woman, Anti-Immigrant’</a></li>
</ul>

US-POLITICS-Congress-Biden

‘Incitement’: Cori Bush Called Out For Rittenhouse Remarks, Claims White Supremacists Shot At Her

A group of liberal activists are demanding the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) return some of the millions they raked in last year.
The International Black Freedom Alliance (IBFA) are asking for $20 million of the more than $90 million in donations that BLMGNF made last year in the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s death.
Michael Brown Sr., the father of the black teen who was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, wrote to the organization in a letter: &#8220;Where is all that money going?&#8221;
&#8220;Who are they giving [the money] to, and what are they doing with it?&#8221; Brown asked. &#8220;Why hasn&#8217;t my family&#8217;s foundation received any assistance from the movement? How could you leave the families who are helping the community without any funding?&#8221;
&#8220;The group of Ferguson activists alongside Mike Brown Sr. and many other families say they will utilize this funding for multiple years to re-establish community efforts, provide mutual aid and programs for the Black community as well as establish a community center in honor of Mike Brown Jr. to serve the community,&#8221; reads a statement from IBFA.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Even before the article that <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronlmorrison?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@aaronlmorrison</a> came out <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ferguson</a> Mike Brown Sr. and many Black community members have had questions about the money <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter</a> was raising. Here is their statement <a href="https://t.co/ykpGZ5Z4KJ">pic.twitter.com/ykpGZ5Z4KJ</a>
&mdash; TheIBFA (@THEIBFA) <a href="https://twitter.com/THEIBFA/status/1366743442370539524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2021</a></blockquote>
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In a letter reported on by the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/black-lives-matter-pressure-share-wealth" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Washington Examiner</a>, local BLM chapters called for more transparency from its leadership: “For years there has been inquiry regarding the financial operations of BLMGN and no acceptable process of either public or internal transparency about the unknown millions of dollars donated to BLMGN, which has certainly increased during this time of pandemic and rebellion.”
&#8220;To the best of our knowledge, most chapters have received little to no financial support from BLMGN since the launch in 2013. It was only in the last few months that selected chapters appear to have been invited to apply for a $500,000 grant created with resources generated because of the organizing labor of chapters. This is not the equity and financial accountability we deserve,” the letter added.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-foundation-raked-in-more-than-90-million-last-year-report">reported</a> regarding BLM&#8217;s windfall last year:
<blockquote>The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) made more than $90 million amid the unrest that swept the U.S. in 2020.
Disclosing their financial situation for the first time in their eight-year history, the foundation revealed in documents shared exclusively with <a href="https://apnews.com/article/black-lives-matter-90-million-finances-8a80cad199f54c0c4b9e74283d27366f" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Associated Press</a> that much of the windfall came from small donations gathered via their main fundraising platform.
The average donation, according to the report, was approximately $30.
“We want to uplift Black joy and liberation, not just Black death. We want to see Black communities thriving, not just surviving,” the organization said in an <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/blm-2020-impact-report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impact report</a> provided first to the AP.
[&#8230;]
The AP also noted “the foundation’s coffers and influence grew immensely following the May 2020 death of George Floyd.”
Black Lives Matter had about $8.4 million worth of expenses last year, which included “staffing, operating and administrative expenses, civic engagement, programs and field expenses, rapid response, and crisis intervention,” according to the impact report. They also dispensed more than $22 million in grants to the organization’s local chapters and other black-run organizations around the U.S. They ended the year flush with $60 million.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-lives-matter-foundation-raked-in-more-than-90-million-last-year-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Black Lives Matter Foundation Raked In More Than $90 Million Last Year: Report</a>

Protests Continue Across The Country In Reaction To Death Of George Floyd

Black Liberal Activist Group Demands $20 Million Cut From BLM’s $90 Million Windfall

Diversity only goes so far in today’s <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/woke-joke-harvey-weinstein/">woke landscape</a>.
Yes, Hollywood and major media platforms like Netflix routinely attempt to bring more people of color into the entertainment industry. The moves come after decades of inadequate representation. In many ways the cultural wave is a worthy one.
There’s a sizable catch, though.
Diversity efforts typically shun right-of-center voices that happen to be black or brown. It’s why the media and film critics mostly ignored Larry Elder’s recent documentary “<a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/uncle-tom-imdb-rotten-tomatoes/">Uncle Tom</a>” focusing on the black conservative experience.
There’s no better example of this diversity blind spot, though, than Amazon’s brief, but telling war against “<a href="https://whatkilledmichaelbrown.com/">What Killed Michael Brown?</a>”
The haunting documentary finds author Shelby Steele examining the 2014 death of the Ferguson resident and the racial firestorm that followed. Those embers blazed anew earlier this year after George Floyd’s death following a fatal police altercation.
Why? What do these events say about American culture, police brutality, and efforts to help the black community?
While most documentaries lean Left, “What Killed Michael Brown?” offers a different perspective. Steele questions the media narratives surrounding high-profile police shootings, suggesting that victimization and white guilt end up hurting, not helping, the black community.
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The team behind the documentary approached Amazon to stream the film as part of its Prime Video Direct service. The movie is already available on Vimeo, but millions of potential consumers tap Amazon to watch new releases.
Amazon declined, saying the film didn’t meet the company’s quality standards. A quick peek at the documentary shreds that argument. A variety of conservative news outlets, including Fox News, National Review, and The Wall Street Journal, covered Amazon’s dubious decision.
“What Killed Michael Brown?” director Eli Steele credits that pressure for changing Amazon’s stance. The film is now available for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Killed-Michael-Brown-Shelby-Steele/dp/B08L9Q4J9M/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=what+killed+michael+brown&amp;qid=1603297258&amp;sr=8-1">streaming on Amazon</a>.
“We were very fortunate to have the ability to raise the level of publicity that we did because if we had not had that power our film would have been pushed to the margins,” says Eli Steele, the son of the film’s star.
The production got little help, though, from organizations formed to promote people of color in the arts, as well as major news outlets. The former have ignored both the documentary and its battle against Amazon.
Hollywood in Toto reached out to six organizations dedicated to empowering black filmmakers:
<ul>
<li>Project Involve (Film Independent)</li>
<li>Array Now</li>
<li>Hue You Know</li>
<li>Blackhouse</li>
<li>The Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West</li>
<li>The Black TV &amp; Film Collective</li>
</ul>
We asked if the groups in question had any comment, or reaction, to Amazon’s initial stance against a film featuring black storytellers.
None responded.
Eli Steele says he hopes his film’s victory will help fellow artists as they fight against potential censorship.
“I am hopeful that this experience created an important data-point going forward in the fight to make big tech media giants more balanced and accountable,” Steele says. “We do know that when Amazon makes policies from here on they will do so with this experience on their minds, and we know that if other filmmakers are similarly rejected like we were, they will have a precedent to refer to.”
“That is the moral victory that we sought,” he adds.
A version of this article can be found at HollywoodInToto.com.

Michael Brown memorial

Amazon Buckles, Agrees to Stream ‘What Killed Michael Brown?’

Amazon

St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell announced on Thursday that he will not be bringing charges against former Ferguson Police Department officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Michael Brown, 18, back in 2014.
During a Thursday press conference, Bell announced the news by prefacing it as &#8220;one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do,&#8221; noting that his “heart breaks” for the Browns.
“The question for this office was a simple one: Could we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that when Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown he committed murder or manslaughter under Missouri law?&#8221; Bell posed. &#8220;After an independent and in-depth review of the evidence, we cannot prove that he did.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/30/no-charges-for-darren-wilson-in-michael-browns-death-prosecutor/?utm_source=NYPTwitter&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_medium=SocialFlow">The Associated Press</a>, activists and Brown&#8217;s family were hoping Bell, &#8220;the county’s first Black prosecutor, would reopen the case after he took office in January 2019.&#8221;
Bell said his office conducted &#8220;a five-month review of witness statements, forensic reports and other evidence,&#8221; the AP noted, adding that his investigation &#8220;does not exonerate Darren Wilson.”
“I know this is not the result they were looking for and that their pain will continue forever,” Bell stated.
<div id="attachment_133790" style="width: 668px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-133790" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-133790 size-full" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GettyImages-1220782315.jpg" alt="St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell" width="658" height="487" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/07/GettyImages-1220782315.jpg 658w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/07/GettyImages-1220782315-300x222.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px" />St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images</div>
Jim Towey, Wilson&#8217;s attorney, noted that Bell’s review &#8220;had the same conclusion&#8221; as Bell’s predecessor, a grand jury, and the U.S. Department of Justice: &#8220;There was no crime.&#8221;
“I am just hoping that everybody gets to have some closure, particularly the Brown family,” Towey said, according to the AP.
As highlighted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whitmer-marches-with-demonstrators-chanting-hands-up-dont-shoot">The Daily Wire</a>, the chant “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” was popularized following Brown&#8217;s death, though it was found to be an inaccurate representation of the incident. The Obama Justice Department, in deciding not to prosecute Wilson, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf">stated</a>:
<blockquote>Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson. As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible for otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time. Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media.</blockquote>
Moreover, The Washington Post has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-post-shreds-democrats-claim-mike-brown-james-barrett">fact-checked</a> prominent Democratic politicians who have claimed Brown was &#8220;murdered.&#8221;
“[Sen. Kamala] Harris and [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren have ignored the findings of the Justice Department to accuse Wilson of murder, even though the Justice Department found no credible evidence to support that claim,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/13/harris-warren-ignore-doj-report-claim-that-michael-brown-was-murdered/">said</a> Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. “Instead, the Justice Department found that the popular narrative was wrong, according to witnesses deemed to be credible, some of whom testified reluctantly because of fear of reprisal. The department produced a comprehensive report to determine what happened, making the senators’ dismissal of it even more galling. Harris and Warren both earn Four Pinocchios.”
Bell, the AP noted, &#8220;faced no restrictions in re-examining Brown’s death for potential murder charges. Wilson was never charged and tried, so double jeopardy was not an issue. There is no statute of limitations on filing murder charges.&#8221;

Darren Wilson, Michael Brown

No Charges Brought Against Darren Wilson In Michael Brown Shooting, County’s First Black Prosector Says

As you&#8217;ve heard, an unknown person for an unknown reason sent crude pipe bombs to several Democrats this week. None of the bombs went off. None of the targets were ever in any actual danger. We don&#8217;t know the motive of this attack and we don&#8217;t even know if it was meant to be an attack. It&#8217;s certainly an act of terrorism either way, but there is no reason to believe, as of now, that the unknown terrorist actually intended to kill or maim the people whose names he wrote on the envelopes.
None of this has stopped the media from explicitly passing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37603/no-trump-isnt-responsible-attempted-bombings-and-ben-shapiro">blame</a> to President Trump and other Republicans. There has been little to no restraint on the Left in this regard. They have already determined the cause (anti-Democrat prejudice) and the culprit (Donald Trump, by proxy). CNN announced that the intended recipients of the bombers were &#8220;Trump&#8217;s targets.&#8221; Much ink has been spilled and bloviating done about the <a href="https://www.postbulletin.com/opinion/columnists/trump-rhetoric-is-problematic-and-dangerous/article_76cfc5b0-d853-11e8-aade-ef52bfee35a1.html">dangers</a> of &#8220;divisive&#8221; rhetoric. Indeed, judging by the media&#8217;s reaction, you might think that this is the first example of (allegedly) political violence in years, or that every such example has been committed at the hands of right wingers. That, of course, couldn&#8217;t be further from the truth.
Let&#8217;s review some recent cases of liberal violence that the media, for some strange reason, never thought proper to blame on Democrats:
1) Ricin sent to President Trump and other administration officials. 
This <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ricin-charges-trump-1.4850715">happened</a> just a few weeks ago. It was in the news for a brief time and forgotten immediately. Of course, Trump was never in any danger. His mail is screened and there&#8217;s no chance that a letter containing potential polson would ever make it to his desk. But the pipe bombs weren&#8217;t any threat to their targets, either. The people screening Barack Obama&#8217;s mail aren&#8217;t going to hand him a suspicious envelop with a heavy object in the shape of a pipe bomb protruding out the sides. The fact that the attempt was a dud was reason enough to ignore the story in Trump&#8217;s case, but not in Obama and Hillary&#8217;s.
2) Attack on GOP at congressional baseball game.
An outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter went to the game with a hit list of Republican names. He inquired as to which party was on the field. When he found out it was Republicans, he opened fire. Rep. Steve Scalise was nearly killed in the assault. This was a politically motivated, pre-planned assassination attempt targeting dozens of GOP lawmakers at once. Yet the FBI called the attack &#8220;<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/21/533795038/shooting-at-gop-baseball-practice-seems-to-have-been-spontaneous-fbi-says">spontaneous</a>&#8221; and Nancy Pelosi <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/politics/nancy-pelosi-steve-scalise/index.html">expressed</a> deep outrage at anyone who might try to pin the blame on Democrats.
3) Mass murder of police at Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas.
In 2016, a murderous radical went on a rampage during a BLM protest, shooting 14 police officers and killing 5 of them. The media took great pains to clarify that the killer had nothing to do with BLM, liberals, or Democrats. Even though many prominent Leftists had spent years up to that point claiming that racist police were hunting down innocent black men and executing them in broad daylight, still we were informed that this sort of propaganda couldn&#8217;t possibly have anything at all to do with the killing spree.
4) Riots in Ferguson and Baltimore.
Violent chaos gripped the streets of Ferguson and Baltimore for days on end. Buildings were burned to the ground. Stores were looted. Cars were set on fire. Homes were vandalized. Innocent people were assaulted by mobs. With these situations, especially in the case of Ferguson, we can say without a doubt that left wing rhetoric fueled and encouraged the violence. Liberals and Democrats were the ones who spread the patently false &#8220;hands up, don&#8217;t shoot&#8221; myth, which became the rioter&#8217;s rallying cry.
But none of these terrible events prompted a national conversation about dangerous rhetoric. CNN never blamed Obama for the Ferguson riots or the Dallas massacre, even though he helped amplify the false narrative that motivated them. MSNBC never made Nancy Pelosi or Maxine Waters or any other Democrat politician answer for the shooting spree at the congressional baseball game. The media rejected the idea that anyone other than the specific perpetrators could be responsible. Only now have they changed their mind on that point.
I wonder why.

WALSH: 4 Examples Of Liberal Violence That The Media Didn’t Blame On Democrats

Baltimore

Democratic Party

Steve Scalise

A man with a long-standing beef against the Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper Capital Gazette entered the paper&#8217;s headquarters with a shotgun and murdered five staffers. It represents the deadliest attack on U.S. reporters in modern history.
Before learning about the suspect&#8217;s mental issues and his long-standing feud with the newspaper, some in the media blamed President Donald Trump. After all, critics said, Trump routinely denounces &#8220;fake news&#8221; as an existential threat to our republic. Connect the dots, they said. Blame Trump! CNN aired a montage of Trump&#8217;s attacks on the media. Rob Cox, a Reuters editor, tweeted: &#8220;This is what happens when @RealDonaldTrump calls journalists the enemy of the people. Blood is on your hands, Mr. President.&#8221; Another reporter, who later resigned, even falsely tweeted that the shooter was wearing a MAGA cap. How do you get that wrong?
How dare the President call out the anti-Republican media for its decades of biased reporting? Pew Research, in 2013, found that only 7 percent of reporters called themselves Republican. How dare Trump attack The New York Times, which has not endorsed a Republican presidential candidate since 1956? How dare Trump go after The Washington Post, which has never endorsed a Republican presidential candidate. And how dare Trump refer to CNN &#8212; one of whose &#8220;news&#8221; anchors, Don Lemon, has called Trump &#8220;a racist&#8221; &#8212; as fake news.
Did the media hold President Barack Obama responsible for the murders of 10 cops in Dallas, Baton Rouge and New York City, all at the hands of black men apparently incited by their belief that cops murder blacks without consequence? After all, Obama frequently criticized the police and bemoaned America&#8217;s racism as &#8220;part of our DNA.&#8221;
President Obama&#8217;s anti-cop rhetoric started right after he took office. Obama&#8217;s friend, a black Harvard professor, was arrested in his home. Professor Henry Louis Gates, back from a trip, couldn&#8217;t open his front door and reportedly asked his driver to help. A neighbor, observing two people trying to force open the front door of Gates&#8217; home, called 911. But when the cops arrived and asked Gates to exit the home so he could determine its ownership, Gates mouthed off and was briefly arrested. Obama said, &#8220;The Cambridge police acted stupidly.&#8221; The Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association and the Cambridge Police commissioner insisted the officer followed protocol. Obama&#8217;s statement infuriated officers all across the country and set up a template for the Obama administration: Cops engage in unlawful anti-black racial profiling.
Obama and his attorney general also offered verbal support to the so-called Black Lives Matter movement that argues, without facts, that blacks are regularly and illegally profiled by an institutionally, systemically and structurally &#8220;racist&#8221; criminal justice system. It did not help that during the first six years of the Obama administration, the anti-police incendiary Rev. Al Sharpton, according to The Washington Post, visited the White House 72 times. What kind of message did that send to the police?
When a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, shot and killed a black 17-year-old named Trayvon Martin, President Obama promptly sided with the deceased teen, saying, &#8220;If I had a son, he&#8217;d look like Trayvon.&#8221; A jury found Zimmerman not guilty, and one juror later said that during the deliberations, race never came up.
Then there&#8217;s Ferguson. A grim President Obama, at an address before the United Nations, said: &#8220;In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri &#8212; where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.&#8221;
But the Ferguson grand jury did not indict the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, and a Department of Justice report exonerated the cop. Contrary to the lies told by his friend who witnessed the shooting, Michael Brown did not have his hands up when the officer shot and killed him. Brown, did not say, &#8220;Hands up. Don&#8217;t shoot.&#8221; Yet before the investigation even began, Obama&#8217;s BFF, Sharpton, took to the streets of Ferguson yelling, &#8220;No justice, no peace.&#8221;
The DOJ&#8217;s investigation of Ferguson&#8217;s nearly all-white police department criticized its alleged &#8220;institutional racism.&#8221; But its actual findings do not support that conclusion. Ferguson, the investigation noted, is 67 percent black, but 85 percent of its traffic stops involve black drivers. To the DOJ, this 18-point statistical imbalance equals systemic racism. But in New York City, where the department consists mostly officers of color, 55 percent of traffic stops involve a black driver in a city with a 25 percent black population. This is a 30-point statistical imbalance. Wouldn&#8217;t this make the NYPD even more &#8220;institutionally racist&#8221; than the Ferguson PD?
Trump, say the media, has created an atmosphere that puts reporters in danger. Obama often unfairly criticized the police. But the media did not blame Obama for the murder of officers by angry black men consumed with the wrongheaded belief that blacks are victimized by the &#8220;institutional racism&#8221; of the criminal justice system.
Larry Elder is a best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an &#8220;Elderado,&#8221; visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

ELDER: Trump Blamed For Death Of Reporters: Did Media Blame Obama For Cop Killers?

Barack Obama

Donald Trump

George Zimmerman

Law Enforcement

Media

Trayvon Martin

In anticipation of the New York City debut of FERGUSON on October 23, I interviewed playwright Phelim McAleer about his work, as well as the controversy surrounding it.
As background, McAleer and his partner, Ann McElhinney, are no strangers to controversy. Together, they wrote a book and film about abortionist Kermit Gosnell. While the film has not yet been released, the book, Gosnell: The Untold Story of America&#8217;s Most Prolific Serial Killer, is available on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EEQ9D0I/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">Amazon</a>. Additionally, they&#8217;ve produced several documentary films, including FrackNation and Not Evil Just Wrong.
FERGUSON, which debuted in Los Angeles in 2015, is what&#8217;s known as a &#8220;verbatim&#8221; play. Every word spoken on stage is actual Grand Jury testimony from key eyewitnesses to the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014.
What made you pursue a Ferguson play?
It&#8217;s a very dramatic story &#8212; the last hours of a man&#8217;s life as told by multiple eyewitness points of view. It&#8217;s also a great way of bringing the truth to people.
Why did you choose the &#8220;verbatim&#8221; style?
Again, it was more dramatic than anything I could have created &#8212; during the staged reading, people were hanging on every word &#8212; because they knew this was real, not the invented words of a playwright.
What was the reaction for the first showing in Los Angeles?
Well, when we had the staged reading in L.A., nine members of the cast walked out because the truth didn&#8217;t match what the media had told them, and what they had wanted to believe in. One actress described taking part in the play as akin to taking part in a KKK rally.
One critic, Kevin O&#8217;Keefe of Mic.com, called the staged reading &#8220;dangerous&#8221; and a &#8220;powder keg ready to reignite racial tensions.&#8221;
However LA Weekly, whose critic actually attended the reading in L.A. (unlike Kevin O&#8217;Keefe), <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/arts/yes-the-new-play-ferguson-is-divisive-but-its-riveting-5522547">said</a> it was &#8220;riveting&#8221; and &#8220;an incendiary night of theater.&#8221; They also said it was revitalizing theater in L.A. &#8212; a city normally dominated by the movies.
How have audiences reacted to seeing real testimony? Have any minds changed?
Yes. I have spoken to people who have thanked me for doing this &#8212; introducing them to things they did not know.
Regarding the actors walking out at the L.A. show, did they not know what it was about? Can you explain the situation more?
They probably heard Ferguson and thought it would be a play reflecting what the media said was the truth. I opted to go with the actual truth. To quote Jack Nicholson, it looks like they just couldn&#8217;t handle the truth.
What do you expect from a New York City crowd?
Let&#8217;s see.
Do you expect more actor walkouts, or are these actors well-versed in what&#8217;s going on? 
Well, I assume they know how to use Google, so they will be clear about what the play is. I also assume they will be professional and do what they agreed to do &#8212; although this assumption cost me dearly in Los Angeles.
What is your intended impact for this play?
To get the truth out. I&#8217;d also like to bring the play on tour &#8212; eventually to Ferguson itself.
Information:
FERGUSON debuts October 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the 30th Street Theatre in New York City.
Previews begin October 19, and the show runs through November 5. For more information, including how to acquire tickets, visit the show&#8217;s Indiegogo page <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ferguson-the-play-world-premiere-in-nyc#/">here</a>.

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