Fields: Support For Michael Brown Misplaced

 

 

BY SAM FIELDS

 

 

sam fields

 

 

Notwithstanding demonstrators on the nation’s streets, Michael Brown was a criminal who, if he got more than he deserved, got what he should have expected.

If you have any doubt about this you need to look at the video tape of him minutes earlier robbing a storekeeper.  Add to that the Grand Jury evidence and testimony he fought with a cop.

Trying to use Brown as an example of racist police practices undermines legitimate complaints about police misconduct in the Black community.

Just take New York City where the Stop and Frisk Law has been overwhelmingly used to control Black and Hispanic males.

Consider Eric Garner, a morbidly obese Black man who was suspected of committing the heinous crime of selling loose cigarettes (a viable business in a place where they are $12 a pack) and ended up choked to death by cops who could’ve just handed him a citation.

Even if a Grand Jury said there was no crime, that’s not the same as saying the police acted appropriately.

What most outrages me is the comparison of Brown to Trayvon Martin.

Martin was a perfectly innocent kid who was exercising his right to walk unimpeded by wannabe cops like George Zimmerman. Zimmerman got away with this crime because he killed the only other witness. There is every reason to believe that if Trayvon was White,  Zimmerman never would have bothered him.

Brown does not compare to Trayvon Martin. He has more in common with Zimmerman.

Portraying Brown as a victim of police brutality would be like using Ted Bundy as the reason to abolish the death penalty.

 

 



37 Responses to “Fields: Support For Michael Brown Misplaced”

  1. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    So says the rich old white guy …

  2. Señor Censor says:

    Put some new tennis balls on your walker, polish up that shingle, get a neon “OPEN” sign and start filing some claims “pro bonooer” for these victims.

  3. Elroy John says:

    In both the Trayvon Martin and the Brown case one side of the story was told and the rest was left to piece together from CONFLICTING evidence. Yet somehow you imply that one of these young men is a symbol and the other is not. So what if Mike Brown was a sinner and Trayvon a saint? That’s your benchmark for challenging the system? I thought the true test of our criminal justice system was whether it works, whether it’s fair, whether it’s equal when even the most undesirable among us is at its mercy. Isn’t that supposed to be the bedrock of a defense attorney’s work?

  4. Lamberti is a Criminal says:

    You had me for the first three paragraphs only….then you went back to your nonsense.

  5. Owl says:

    The media chooses what to present, and often deliberately fosters racism. In addition to Sam’s article and in response to Chaz’ race baiting comment, consider why the press has been quiet about the Dillon Taylor case. This police shooting of an unarmed white 20 year old by a black police officer occurred just two days after the Ferguson case and no one seems to care….

    http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5912976

  6. Sometimes the truth hurts says:

    Yes I’m a black man who agrees with what Sam’s Comments. The murder of Trayvon Martin and the black man in New York Does not compare well with the thug in Ferguson Who robbed the convenience store. Trayvon Martin was murdered And so was mine in New York was The unarmed black man Selling cigarettesthe side of the street.

  7. Snow White says:

    Rich=Successful
    Old=Wise
    white=Majority of population

    Silly insult

  8. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    The white majority will be gone by 2043 (according to published reports).

    Sam Fields will also have moved on…

    Now, if we could just do something about the fucking Repubs.

  9. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    A data point from FiveThirtyEight’s coverage of Monday night’s events in Ferguson is worth pulling out. “U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010,” the site’s Ben Casselman writes, “the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.”

    In Harris County, Texas, for example, grand juries haven’t indicted a Houston police officer since 2004; in Dallas, grand juries reviewed 81 shootings between 2008 and 2012 and returned just one indictment.

    With every defense available to today’s police officer, Wilson chose unnecessary lethal force. If you think Wilson was a victim, you’re probably irredeemable. You have no ability to see this beyond blaming the real victim for the actions of a thuggish cop. I hope the next time an officer detains you, he decides that you need to be strip-searched by the side of the road. It might give you a more realistic view of police aggression.

  10. Making Sense says:

    Since when is there a death penalty for shoplifting and walking in the street in this country? Don’t the Furguston police have Tazers along with their military tanks? Because black lives don’t count?

  11. Crackin' da porcelain says:

    Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    So says the rich old white guy …

    Said the fat, poor, white guy

  12. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    Friends,

    The events in Ferguson and Staten Island, where I grew up, are very different events. But both of them were tragic. Each involved proper use of police tactics resulting in use of force by police officers.

    Each incident was judged by grand juries to not be criminal cases. Yet each was an example of bad policing.

    I have spoken to many police officers about these events. While there’s always error, because you’re dealing with unpredictable behavior of people, the idea of getting pinned down by a suspect in your own car? Like what occurred in Ferguson? No officer will tell you that’s a good idea or something they’re trained not to let happen.

    Cops train constantly to not allow themselves to get into compromised situations like that. Beyond the killing of Brown, any number of innocent citizens could have been struck by the spraying of those bullets. In Staten Island, we have the use of a prohibited choke hold — never to be used — that resulted in the death of a suspect who cops were trying to bring into custody for a non-violent misdemeanor.

    Three things come to mind as a result of these events:

    1) Police departments need better tools and training with respect to use of force and general policing tactics. Existing training does not seem to do the job well enough, and even then we will have understandable exceptions because we’re dealing with the human element. More training and better equipment that brings more suspects into custody safely, while protecting the safety of the police officer and others, is good policy and will make for better policing.

    2) Citizens need to be re-educated. When you’re stopped by a police officer and are given a lawful command, resisting arrest or not following lawful commands can invite force to be used against you to effectively bring you into custody. The dice is now rolled and the odds are not good for you. Better to follow all lawful commands and preserve your safety.

    3) Community policing isn’t just a nice thing to do. It’s essential. PD’s and neighborhoods must form close and strong partnerships to fight crime. They must interact frequently on good terms, they must respect and know and build trust in one another for their own mutual sake. That’s what community policing is all about, and when a tragic episode happens, it’s impossible to suddenly summon up the level of trust needed to deal with an unfortunate situation when trust takes years to develop. The trust had to be there before Brown was pulled over. It wasn’t and what we saw in Ferguson was more than just a kid getting killed, the event ignited an already simmering feeling of oppression between residents and police. In no place in America is it true that there are more bad people than good. Go to the worst of our communities and you will find many more good people than bad. Cops and kids and people and families need to unite against crime, not fight one another. PD’s that do not do these things fail.

    We are in a time when cops need to be better and more strongly equipped than ever before. We live in a time of terrorism, where like in Boston, cops are are first line of defense. They also face a growing threat from more people armed with weapons.

    They also face the threat of behaviors associated with synthetic drugs — where excited delirium sets in, causing super human strength and a desire to do things like chew another person’s face off.

    These people act irrationally and it’s not easy to tell when they are under that influence or something else. Force, the right force, a safe force for all involved, all of that is an evolving science. PD’s need more resources and equipment to train on these essential issues.

    Last is the issue of race. Was that involved in both or either incident? I don’t know yet, the feds are investigating that aspect of the case. If it was, that must be rooted out. There can be no tolerance for race based motivation in a thing as essential to our safety and justice as policing.

    Angelo

  13. Matt says:

    3 situations not even. Zimmerman was tried and acquitted by a jury of peers. Period. Maybe he committed murder maybe he didn’t but reasonable doubt is the standard. In ferguson, was there probable cause. Debatable which is why they have a grand jury decide. In garner case, the evidence shows probable cause although a jury would more than likely have reasonable doubt because garner was resisting arrest; however there was unreasonable force with the chokehold which is why it is outlawed. The cop should have been tried for some crime or another and grand jury was simply off.

  14. Alice McGill says:

    @11

    Thanks for a chuckle!

  15. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    Sure…

    I drive a Ferrari and I’m having my first amateur boxing fight at age 50.

    I’m definitely fat and poor.

  16. Sam Fields says:

    Dear Chaz,
    In 2043 I’ll only be 98.
    Fit as a fiddle and ready for love.

  17. Sam Fields says:

    Dear Elroy,
    It strains all credulity to imagine that Brown, fearful of arrest for the robbery, did not overreact to a stop by Officer Darren Wilson wo may or may not have known what Brown had just done.

    Wilson had every reason to fear for his safety. The unwritten rule of law enforcment is: “Better to be fired by one than carried out by six”.

    I regulary heard that from my father who was a highly decorated Detective in the NYPD.

  18. Owl says:

    So, it’s obvious that everyone wants to continue to make this a race issue and no one else has commented on the Dillon Taylor police shooting (see link above). How about the Chris Lane shooting then?

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/justice/australia-student-killed-oklahoma/

    By the way, neither the Taylor nor Lane killings resulted in riots or Al Sharpton appearances. Both however, did have peaceful but emotional funerals. It’s well past time that the media report more responsibly.

  19. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    My error in post above, I meant to say “improper” in second sentence rather than proper. My obvious error was pointed out to me and I regret the typo.

    Angelo

  20. @angelo says:

    “Citizens need to be re-educated”

    This sounds like something you would hear from a government official in North Korea or Cuba. Let me translate that for those of you who don’t get what Angelo means:
    “Stay in Miramar if you know what’s good for you”

  21. Sam Fields says:

    Dear Angelo,

    You wrote……“We are in a time when cops need to be better and more strongly equipped than ever before. We live in a time of terrorism, where like in Boston, cops are our first line of defense. They also face a growing threat from more people armed with weapons.”

    Do you really believe this or are you just a BSO bureaucrat trying to justify further “empire building”.

    On second thought:

    Perhaps if every NYPD squad car had been equipped with ground to air missiles they might have averted 9/11 and saved the Twin Towers.

    I’m a little unsure of what equipment the Boston cops should have been carrying to prevent that bombing. I look forward to reading that shopping list.

  22. Problems with policing says:

    The police need less equipment and more training. I know a little bit on the subject. Look at your average cop on patrol now. He looks more like GI Joe than Andy Taylor.

    While simplifying the issue, when LAPD and NYPD came out with the Professional Model of policing in the 60’s it took cops off the streets and into cars (because the bond between cop and citizen was so strong cops were getting bribed) that was also the era of the SWAT teams.

    In the late 70’s early 80’s this intensified in this area due to the machine gunnings of the cocaine cowboys.

    In the late 80’s and early 90’s there was a trend to community policing. Making cops part of the community (coincidentally a Peelean principle of policing. You saw the end of black and white or green and white cars. There was an effort to put cops in the community again. That lasted until the 2000’s when the federal terrorism money came rolling in.

    Now the cars are Black and White again (police chiefs even say its for intimidation purposes), cops wear GI Joe vests and can carry 4 magazines (instead of 2) a taser, pepper spray, collapsible baton, flashlight, gloves, pocket knife, radio, shoulder mic with ear piece, BDU or Tactical pants, and an M-16 um I mean “Patrol Rifle” but dont want to wear a camera.

    The police have MRAPS, Bullet Proof Bull Dozers, Tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers, hell they’re better equipped than most armies.

    Every agency has a SWAT Team. Hallandale, Hollywood, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, Plantation, Lauderhill, Coral Springs, Margate, Coconut Creek, and BSO. The FBI, FDLE, ATF, DEA, US Marshal’s all have SWAT Teams locally. Only Lighthouse Point, Sea Ranch Lakes, and Hillsboro Beach dont have SWAT teams.

    There is no way that anyone can justify that many SWAT Teams.

    So why is it that with this many swat teams that even road patrol officers have to look like SWAT? Why have they abandoned community policing?

    It may be simply because it looks cool.

    But the $$$ spent on these toys is really a disservice to the communities they are “protecting the fuck out of”

    This is the real problem.

  23. Crackin' da porcelain says:

    Sure, and I can drive a Lamborghini.
    Doesn’t mean I own one.

  24. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    Sam,

    Ignoring the nonsense, you ask me above if I believe we live at a time when cops need to be better armed than ever before, due to terrorist threats, events like Boston that could threaten any US community, because we have too many heavily armed crazed people in society, and because our police form our first line of defense against all of it.

    The answer to your question is yes, and I don’t know many people that would disagree.

    A number of personal friends of mine died in the WTC attacks of September 11, 2001. While I too have a sense of humor, that’s just not a subject that I find funny. Every event we endure teaches us something about avoiding it. If you’re not aware of how the nation’s forces, both internal and external have better equipped themselves to address threats, do some research.

    Angelo

  25. Elroy John says:

    @Sam Fields

    Except Darren Wilson, per his own testimony, did not “stop” Mike Brown initially. He instead, ever so politely, asked Brown and his friend to walk on the sidewalk. At which Brown, who I agree would have been fearful of arrest and presumably seeking to minimize his contact with police, responds to Wilson’s seemingly benign request by approaching his patrol car, stolen cigarillos in hand and clearly visible to Wilson, knowing Wilson is armed while he himsef is not, and begins hurling expletives at the officer. No strained credulity there.

    http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366519644/ferguson-docs-officer-darren-wilsons-testimony

    My point being that for every argument raised in this case there is a counter-argument. This conflict will likely never be resolved because Wilson’s story will likely never be vetted at trial. Again, one need not be pure as the driven snow to expect to be treated as a human being by the system and Mike Brown should’ve had no expectation to suffer the death penalty over a pack of stolen smokes.

  26. Sam Fields says:

    Dear Elroy

    This was not a petty theft misdemeanor as you imply. This was a Strong Arm Robbery. In Florida this is a Second Degree Felony punishable by 15 years FSP.

    Dear Angelo

    You still don’t answer the question I asked about what more equipment you want BSO and the rest of law enforcement to have and how that would have prevented 9/11 or Boston.

    The only thing I read was that you want the government to have a monopoly on firearms.

    Just to cover Boston we need to add certain pots and pans.

    Well if that is your goal let me say: “They’ll get my pressure cooker when they peel it from my cold dead hand.”

    Sorry you lost friends on 9/11. Well, I lost family in the Holocaust. Bringing that up is just about as relevant.

    I suggest you read and reread the comment by “problems with policing” It was cogent piece that lays out the issues.

    The only thing that I would add is that putting air conditioning in police cars made it possible for patrol cops to never have to talk to the public unless they want to arrest them.

  27. Lamberti is a Criminal says:

    Ding and Dong….I’ll bet neither one of you two can name the “number” of not “relevant” friends and family you lost to terrorists. Punch lines…that is all it is to you.

  28. Commissioner Angeli Castillo says:

    Sam:

    Just read your last comment. In my experience, misrepresentation and personal attack signal the last gasping breath of a lost argument. But to go there so early in the game? Gotta say, it adds dash of disappointment. You’re capable of so much more. If only you’d try. Oh we’ll.

    Angelo

  29. Well Said says:

    @28 / Castillo…………Sam blew you otta the water…..you appear to be kinda smart, but you have a bad habit of tripping all over yourself with long winded posts.

    Just sayin.

  30. SAM FIELDS says:

    Dear Lamberti is a crook,

    On October 14/15, 1941 the remaining members of the Kozvener and Seinfeld branches of my family, still in Europe, were machine gunned to death along with 15,000 other Jews on the outskirts of a Ukrainian city then known as Stanislas and now called Ivano-Frankovsk.

    Years later, by an amazing co-incidence, I ran into a man who was a witness to the mass murder and had written about it in his autobiography.

  31. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    Do you really need to be Jewish, or have family that perished during those hateful days, to understand the significance of the Third Reich?

    Do you need a vagina to be an ObyGyn? Do you need to be a master painter to appreciate Erte? Do you need testicles to appreciate the tea-bagging humor of the tea party?

    Is Sam Fields’ opinion elevated, simply because family members where horrifically executed years ago?

    Nothing against you Sam, or your family…

    911 happened to all of us. The Holocaust happened to all of us. These were crimes against humanity.

    To co-opt these events for your own gain speaks legions about your tactics.

  32. Trina says:

    @#31
    Although I often disagree with Sam on most of what he blathers about, how or what is Fields gaining by his statement? He is merely sharing his heartfelt abhorrence of terrorism and providing a background and context for understanding his conclusions.

    An understanding obviously lost on you.

  33. Observer says:

    @ Lamberti,

    Russ you weren’t there at 9/11 either. Don’t steal lines from A Few Good Men and pass them off as your own.

    I’m sure there were people you knew that died in the towers, they’d be appalled at your stolen honor.

  34. Chaz Stevens, Festivus says:

    Trina;

    Very little is lost on me, however the point lost on you is thus…

    Outside of Dick Cheney, who doesn’t abhor terrorism?

  35. Witness #10 says:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp_u34UWa-g

    You just can’t trust those lying eyes of yours!

  36. Count LF Chodkiewicz Chudzikiewicz says:

    Mr. Fields, an attorney who fights for civil rights for all and I do not agree on many things, but he has intregrity and honesty and in pain wrote some unpleasant truths. The abuse he gets for being honest and clear in his opinions is not cause for abuse from, let’s me honest, the jackels who blog.

  37. I am, I said says:

    Succinct and point on Count.