The maxim "if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth"* often serves our opponents well. In the case of the Big Lie about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, though, it may be unraveling. Candidates' lies about that incident are so clearly contrary to the now-well-known facts that even left-leaning media are calling them out on it. William Saletan reports for Slate:
Last week, in a Democratic presidential debate, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro read a list of black Americans killed by police violence. Alongside Laquan McDonald, Walter Scott, and Eric Garner, Castro named Michael Brown, who was shot dead five years ago in Ferguson, Missouri. Several of the current Democratic candidates have accused the officer who shot Brown of murder. Brown's death was a tragedy, but it wasn't a murder. When Democrats claim it was, and when they refuse to correct that mistake, they cast doubt on their commitment to truth. And they undermine the cause of criminal justice reform.
Brown became an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement for understandable reasons. He was unarmed, and the man who shot him, former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, is white. Racial bias in law enforcement was and is a pervasive problem. Ferguson's police force has a history of discrimination. That history, the well-earned distrust it fostered in the black community, and the indignity of Brown's body lying in the street for hours after the shooting ignited outrage. Ferguson became a flashpoint for protests and riots, and police responded with military gear and excessive force. The whole episode was a disaster. It awakened many white Americans to the mistreatment that black Americans had long felt at the hands of police.* * *But at the core of the story, there was a problem: The original account of Brown's death, that he had been shot in the back or while raising his hands in surrender, was false. The shooting was thoroughly investigated, first by a grand jury and then by the Obama Justice Department. The investigations found that Brown assaulted Wilson, tried to grab his gun, and was shot dead while advancing toward Wilson again.
Despite these findings, three Democratic presidential candidates--Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, and billionaire Tom Steyer--said last month that Brown was murdered. These candidates haven't backed down in the face of press queries and fact checks. Warren even dismissed a face-to-face question about the DOJ report that cleared Wilson.
All the candidates repeating this lie owe a big apology to Officer Wilson, police officers generally, and the American people.
The originator of the "hands up" lie that caused so much destruction was Brown's companion, Dorian Johnson. Johnson had the chutzpah to file suit against Officer Wilson and others claiming he had been seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment. CJLF's brief in support of Officer Wilson is here, and the opinion of the Eighth Circuit en banc accepting our position is here. Johnson has actually filed a certiorari petition, No. 19-345, asking SCOTUS to take the case.
* This quote has been attributed to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Goebbels, but I can't find a solid source that either one actually said it. Even so, it is consistent with both of their approaches to propaganda, just one of the many ways that the "opposite" ends of the inadequate one-dimensional, linear model of politics are actually quite similar.
It's an appalling lie, particularly by Warren, who is a lawyer, and surely knows better.
While I ally myself with the sentiments expressed bu Mr Scheidegger I take issue with his claim that " racial bias was and is " a pervasive issue in law
enforcement. It is only inasmuch as the Left and its media myrmidons make it
so.
I highlighted this in a speech I gave at the Federalist Society's 2015 Lawyers Conference in Washington DC. My position was joined by an African-American civil rights leader and an African-American writer - both of whom hail from my native Philadelphia ( one lived a few blocks from where I lived the other attended the same high school I the wrestling team of which I helped coach).
It is unfortunate that a leading conservative blog has been deceived by this Leftist canard. But there are many reputable studies that refute Mr. Scheidegger's assertion. As a former inner city police officer of a large East Coast urban police force with a graduate degree in Criminal Justice, l would welcome debating him or anyone else about this.
Well I think there is a confusion there.
Kent Scheidegger just quoted at length William Saletan's article to illustrate he is leftist but nonetheless honest about the Ferguson case.
That doesn't mean Kent agree with the particular idea that racial bias is "a pervasive issue in law enforcement".
He can reply for himself, but that's how I understood the post from the beginning.
Correct, Steven.
Everything within the HTML blockquote tags is a quote from the article. These should show as indented on your browser, Elfegobaca. They do on mine. If they do not on yours, please let me know. There may be a technical glitch.