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Scarborough, McCaskill: Darren Wilson getting his life back

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I don’t normally watch Morning Joe. I don’t have the patience for it. I became aware of this clip thanks to a TPM headline I saw.

The TPM piece that goes with the clip above doesn’t contain any analysis of this conversation – only select quotes from it. While I’ve left a link to the piece TPM put out, I don’t recommend solely relying on reading it without watching the video first. There is a lot of implicit subtext and body language that get lost in translation from only reading these quotes, not to mention the fact that they are “select” quotes as opposed to a full transcript.

One more thing… This, from TheRoot.com last week must be factored into what Senator McCaskill had to say.
McCaskill is widely reported as planning a run for governor of Missouri:

Are Missouri Dems Pushing the DOJ to End Michael Brown Investigation?

Questions have been raised in Ferguson, Mo., about the role of that state’s senior U.S. senator: Did either Sen. Claire McCaskill or her staff communicate to the Department of Justice that it should end its Ferguson investigation after the local grand jury ends its own?

It’s been widely speculated that the St. Louis County grand jury—empaneled by police-connected St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch—will not indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in connection with the Aug. 9 shooting death of a black teenager, 18-year-old Michael Brown.

And now multiple sources tell The Root that a small coterie of elected officials—mostly white Democrats—in Greater St. Louis have been working behind the scenes to bring the controversy surrounding Brown’s killing by Wilson to a quiet end.

Curated from https://www.rimaregas.com/2014/11/senator-claire-mccaskill-and-post-election-2014-democrats/

We already knew that Darren Wilson had previously been employed at a nearby police department that was disbanded due to the excessive force and corruption. See this Salon piece for details.

In the past week, new video footage of Darren Wilson has turned up. From Newsweek:

New Video Shows Darren Wilson Arresting Man for Filming Him

Now, three new videos of Wilson have emerged. The first two, obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, are from security camera footage from the Ferguson police department. One, taken approximately two hours after Brown’s shooting, depicts Wilson departing the department for a hospital, flanked by other officers and his lawyer, the Post-Dispatch reports.

The second security camera video shows Wilson returning to the police department. Both videos are grainy and low-quality, but Wilson does not appear to have suffered major injuries during his scuffle with Brown.

The third video, from 2013, depicts an interaction between Wilson and another man, Mike Arman, 30, who runs a small housing nonprofit, according to The Guardian. The video was uploaded to YouTube by pseudonymous user “milk bone” on Friday.

In it, Wilson is seen approaching Arman, who records Wilson with a cell phone camera. “What’s your name, sir?” Arman asks Wilson. “If you want to take a picture of me one more time, I’m going to lock your ass up,” Wilson replies. “Officer, I’m not taking a picture,” Arman replies. “I’m recording this incident. Do I not have a right to record?” he asks. “No, you don’t,” Wilson says. The ACLU of Missouri tells Newsweek it is legal under all circumstances to record police in the state of Missouri.

Read this article on Newsweek

Some things to weigh…
  • Do McCaskill’s statements on the racial bias and the disproportionate state of affairs in Ferguson and elsewhere ring true?
  • Was McCaskill’s concession that Wilson should be left alone, in the event the grand jury doesn’t indict him, appropriate and warranted, given what we know?
  • How does one square her statements on the other two investigations of Wilson against her activities behind the scenes?
Curated from talkingpointsmemo.com

 

 

 

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