DOJ Ferguson Report: Witnesses scared to tell truth, threatened and scared
According to the 86-page report issued by the Department of Justice, six of the most credible witnesses to the shooting of Michael Brown were afraid to give testimony in support of Ferguson, MO, police officer Darren Wilson, because they knew it would undercut the “Hands up, don’t shoot” narrative being advanced by their neighbors and the media.
Several expressed concern for their safety should they choose to contradict that narrative publicly. As one witness noted, there were signs in the neighborhood reading “snitches get stitches,” as summarized by Breitbart.
photo Jennifer Moo via Flickr
The fear experienced by witnesses to the incident is a constant refrain in the DOJ report. Witness 102 is described as a “27-year-old bi-racial male.” The report describes why witness 102 left the scene a few minutes after the shooting:
Witness 102 did not stay on Canfield Drive long after the shooting, but rather started to leave the area after about five minutes because he felt uncomfortable. According to Witness 102, crowds of people had begun to gather, wrongly claiming the police shot Brown for no reason and that he had his hands up in surrender. Two black women approached Witness 102, mobile phones set to record, asking him to recount what he had witnessed. Witness 102 responded that they would not like what he had to say. The women responded with racial slurs, calling him names like “white mother****er.”
Witness 102 eventually presented himself to authorities because he was worried “witnesses would not come forward to tell the truth in this case because of community pressure.”
Witness 103, a 58-year-old black male, expressed concerns because there were signs in the neighborhood of Canfield Drive stating, “snitches get stitches.”
Witness 105 is a 50-year-old black woman who was driving a minivan down Canefield Drive at the time of the shooting. She later contacted the police but was hesitant to identify herself. She eventually agreed to meet detectives in a library parking lot.
“She explained that she was coming forward because in speaking with her neighbors, she realized that what they believed had happened was inconsistent with what actually happened.”
Witness after witness in the report detail harassment and attacks for contradicting the narrative or validating the accout from Officer Wilson. Breitbart has a detailed analysis on this topic from the report – here
Initial coverage on the DOJ report still painted the police force as racists – more here
Michael Brown
