The Ferguson grand jury process was merely a formality, as there was never any intent to charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown. Ever since Aug. 9, the politicians, police officers, and media voices that make up America’s white establishment have expertly crafted a narrative aimed at keeping white and black Americans from building solidarity with one another – the narrative being that America's justice system is impartial, that police officers need military equipment and a license to kill for basic self-defense, and that black Americans who are killed and persecuted in their own neighborhoods deserve it.
Understanding how the justice process was rigged from the beginning requires having watched the situation in Ferguson develop since August, a high level of media literacy to see through the corporate media’s skewed coverage of events in Ferguson and a grasp of the systemic racism inherent in American justice, culture and society.
From the start, there was a concerted effort in all levels of local and state political power to absolve Darren Wilson of any responsibility for ending Mike Brown’s life. The white establishment also deliberately played on the media’s urge to cover riots and fires – knowing the images would be taken out of context, helping the American public point the finger at angry blacks rather than at a racist police state. Here’s a step-by-step guide to how they pulled this off:
Ferguson Cops Released Convenience Store Video the Same Day They Revealed Darren Wilson’s Name
Six days after Michael Brown was killed, people were demanding to know the name of the officer who killed him. So the Ferguson police released the video of Brown stealing cigarillos from a convenience store on the same day they revealed that Darren Wilson was the officer who killed Brown, allegedly due to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Even though Tim Zoll, a spokesman for the Ferguson Police Department, said he didn’t recall any specific media requests for the video, and even though Wilson didn’t stop Brown over the robbery since the store owner didn’t call 911, and even though the U.S. Department of Justice said releasing the video would only serve to inflame tensions, the video was made public nonetheless. This video served no purpose other than to assassinate Michael Brown’s character and allow viewers to rationalize Wilson’s actions.
Prosecutor Robert McCulloch Wouldn’t Indict, So He Oversaw a Grand Jury and Rigged it to Not Indict
The decision of whether or not to indict Wilson rested on the shoulders of prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch. But McCulloch deflected that responsibility to a grand jury, which he oversaw. It’s important to note that McCulloch conducted the grand jury process very differently than a typical grand jury. Normally, a grand jury hears from investigators who interviewed key witnesses, look over evidence after all law enforcement investigations have concluded, are given a clear range of choices for how a decision can be made, and most importantly, they don’t hear testimony from the defendant.
But in Robert McCulloch’s grand jury process, jurors were deliberately instructed that if they were to issue an indictment, they had to find probable cause that Darren Wilson didn’t lawfully act in self-defense, and probable cause to believe that Wilson didn’t use lawful force in making an arrest. They had to do all of this despite the lack of any real forensic evidence collected from the shooting site. Jurors were sporadically fed an overwhelming amount of evidence that some have called a “document dump,” and heard testimony from over 60 witnesses, as well as four hours of testimony from the defendant. The decision of whether or not to indict had to be made by a nine-member majority of the 12-member grand jury. Coincidentally, nine of the 12 jurors were white.
McCulloch’s Deputies Misled Jurors to Make Their Decision Based on an Unconstitutional Law
A Missouri law from 1979 allowed an officer to use any amount of force necessary to arrest a fleeing suspect, including shooting them. But that law had been off the books since 1985, when the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional. That didn’t stop assistant DA Kathy Alizadeh, one of the two prosecuting attorneys tasked with presenting evidence to the grand jury, from telling jurors to make their decision on Darren Wilson’s actions based on that outdated statute.
Darren Wilson’s four-hour testimony about his actions during the Mike Brown shooting was heard while jurors were assuming that the outdated statute Alizadeh handed them was legitimate. It wasn’t until much later when Alizadeh informed jurors of her “mistake,” even though their minds had already been largely swayed in Wilson’s direction by that point. More importantly, there was no cross-examination done with Darren Wilson – legal expert Lisa Bloom pointed out in several tweets that Wilson was never asked about the lack of lacerations or bruises on his face during his same-day hospital visit, despite his claims that Mike Brown punched him twice in the face.
Robert McCulloch Administered a Darren Wilson Defense Fund and Still Didn’t Recuse Himself
Robert McCulloch comes from a family of cops. His brother and nephew were both St. Louis police officers, and his mother was a clerk in the department’s homicide division for 20 years. McCulloch’s father was a police officer allegedly killed in the line of duty by a black man, and McCulloch himself said he would be a police officer if it weren’t for a leg injury he suffered earlier in life. It came as little surprise when McCulloch didn’t indict two officers in 2001 who killed two black men. He even called the dead men “bums” after not indicting the police officers who killed them.
When McCulloch isn’t shielding police officers from accountability, he’s president of an organization that raises money for them. McCulloch is president of a police support organization called The Backstoppers, which was affiliated with a fundraiser in August that sold t-shirts featuring a picture of Missouri with the text, “I SUPPORT OFFICER D. WILSON.” Money from the shirts went to both the Darren Wilson Defense Fund and The Backstoppers.
When combining McCulloch’s history as someone raised in a household full of cops, with his present role as the head of an organization that raises money for cops – and along with a petition drive of over 100,000 signers calling for his recusal – the fact that McCulloch didn’t recuse himself speaks volumes.
Darren Wilson's Marriage Means His Spouse Won’t Be Called to Testify Against Him
On Oct. 17, in the midst of the grand jury investigation, and while Darren Wilson’s whereabouts were completely unknown, Wilson married Barbara Spradling, another Ferguson police officer. The timeline of events Wilson shared with Spradling in the privacy of their home was likely a little different than the version he entered into public record. Without a marriage license, Spradling could still be called to the stand to testify under oath against her boyfriend, possibly having to tell the grand jury what Wilson shared with her. But now that their marriage is official, Wilson’s secrets can stay with Spradling.
Even if Wilson and Spradling were genuinely in love and wanted to raise a family together, most logical people would have waited for the decision to be announced and the news to die down so they could have a proper marriage ceremony with their families. It’s hard to believe the low-key legal marriage wasn’t a strategic ploy, since Wilson had no income, was in hiding, and was the subject of the most controversial news story of the year – not exactly desirable traits for a partner.
Missouri’s Governor Declared a State of Emergency When There Was No Immediate Emergency
Normally, when a state of emergency is declared and the governor deploys the National Guard, it’s in response to a major disaster affecting people across the state. But when Jay Nixon issued an emergency declaration in anticipation of the grand jury decision, it revealed one of two things – either Nixon knew the decision ahead of time and withheld information from the public, or he had no faith the grand jury would indict.
Either way, giving the police extra powers to operate as a “unified command” and deploying the Missouri National Guard to the St. Louis area gave law enforcement pre-justification for bringing out excessive military gear aimed at intimidating and provoking an already angered community, as well as for any violent action taken against protesters after the decision was announced. The declaration was a veiled threat to the black community that no matter what the decision was, they’d better accept it and go home or face a phalanx of cops with tear gas and flash-bang grenades.
The Grand Jury Decision Was Announced Under Cover of Darkness, and After the Evening News
On the day the grand jury reached its decision, the news had already reported by 12 p.m. Central time that the jurors had come to their conclusion. However, rather than release the decision to the public then and there, Robert McCulloch did it during a news conference at 8 p.m. Central, or 6 p.m. Pacific, coincidentally after all of the 5 p.m. evening news programs in all U.S. time zones had concluded. By the time the 11 o’clock news came on, there would be plenty of footage of riots and buildings on fire, and White America would be led to the conclusion that all the cops are trying to do is restore order in a city full of unruly people.
McCulloch and the white establishment knew the media wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from broadcasting images of chaos in black neighborhoods for the remainder of the night and throughout the rest of the week, and that White America would gorge on Ferguson riot porn. Those images and stories fueled the white establishment's media narrative that black rage is the reason for our heavily-militarized police state, not systemic racism.
While shielding Darren Wilson from justice, America’s white establishment simultaneously made a powerful statement – even though there’s an entire city angry that one of its unarmed children was killed in broad daylight after being stopped for jaywalking, the kid probably deserved it, since a grand jury heard all the evidence and still decided not to charge the killer. And after that narrative has been cemented enough in White America’s minds, they’ll not only accept the authority of a racist, militarized police force, but cheer for it.
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