A couple hundred people marked the two-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by a police officer in Ferguson, attending Tuesday’s memorial service, with a moment of silence to follow. Other services were held across the country.
The crowd gathered at the spot on Canfield Drive where the black, unarmed 18-year-old was shot by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014, after a confrontation. The shooting led to months of sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson.
A state grand jury declined to press charges against Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department later cleared him, concluding that he had acted in self-defense. He resigned in November 2014.
While Michael Brown is being remembered for dying at the hands of law enforcement, the details of that death are conveniently left out. Brown committed a robbery and when Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson asked him to get out of the street (without knowledge of the robbery), Brown attacked him. Brown was shot dead in the ensuing violent assault against Wilson.
The mantra, “Hands Up…Don’t Shoot” came out of Ferguson but that was completely debunked in the DOJ Investigation. Michael Brown is no martyr. He was a violent criminal and to not tell the truth about those facts has done much damage to law enforcement and those that maintain that lie.