Just because there’s no evidence that “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” ever happened, and plenty of evidence to the contrary, that doesn’t mean you should change your opinion. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
Included in the grand jury material released tonight after the announcement that no charges would be filed in the Michael Brown killing is a handwritten witness account stating that the teenager charged at Officer Darren Wilson “like a football player. Head down.”
The unidentified witness wrote that the 18-year-old Brown “has his arms out with attitude,” while “The cop just stood there…”
The witness’s account of the unarmed Brown charging Wilson–even after he had been shot in the hand during a struggle at the cop’s patrol car–supports the officer’s contention that he fired a series of shots as Brown bore down on him.
During his September 16 grand jury testimony, Wilson, 28, recounted how he tussled with Brown when the teenager grabbed for his gun while lunging into the squad car. As they fought over the weapon, Wilson testified, the teenager taunted him, yelling, “You’re too much of a pussy to shoot me.”
I predict that the new narrative will be as follows (and maybe it already is): “That racist cop shot the black kid for questioning his manhood!” Never mind that this lie directly contradicts the previous lie. That’s the great thing about lying. You can just say whatever you want, and there’s no inconsistency because you’re the one saying it.
But it doesn’t matter anyway, because “innocent until proven guilty” is racist or something. Take it from Slate’s Jamelle Bouie:
@Jeremy_Levine a lot of (white) people have concluded that because Wilson has a story that fits, therefore Wilson is telling the truth.
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) November 26, 2014
Take that, you crackers. Just because the evidence backs up Darren Wilson’s account, that doesn’t mean anything. The onus is on him to prove he’s not lying. And you can’t count any of the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony that backs him up, because… well, you just can’t, okay?
The narrative has been set in stone. You will obey the narrative, despite any and all contradictory evidence, or else. You have been warned, (white) people.
P.S. “Civil rights? About 50 years ago. I don’t know if y’all know: We won. Google it.”