Relatives of unarmed black teen shot dead by police condemn St Louis riot

[LeannaM]

Now Al Sharpton is there making things worse.

I've read about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers marching for justice. I don't remember arson, robbery, and violence on the part of the protesters.

As far as the woman shot in the head, I'm not sure if it's directly related or not. Ferguson is part of North St. Louis County, and the whole area is known for high crime rates, higher than South St. Louis and the South St. Louis County. So crime is not uncommon there, and Ferguson's violent crime rate is higher than U.S. average already.

[Johnnny5]

There are now claims by police that Michael Brown may have been involved in an assault and robbery of a local convenience store shortly before the shooting. Not by any means am I saying this warrants getting shot by police, but it may help explain why the interaction between Brown and the officer escalated so quickly.

http://kplr11.com/2014/08/15/video-t...michael-brown/

From the video it appears as if Brown was a huge guy [[6'4" and nearly 300lbs. Of course this is assuming the man in the video is brown). That adds a little bit of perspective as to why the officer may have felt so endangered if they did struggle for his weapon as claimed.

[Jimaz]

There are now claims by police that Michael Brown may have been involved in an assault and robbery of a local convenience store shortly before the shooting....

Although [Ferguson Police Chief Thomas] Jackson says the officer didn’t know the teen was a robbery suspect at the time of the shooting. yet,

Wilson went to the area after a 911 call reporting a “strong-arm” robbery just before noon.

yet again,

“If he’s a robbery suspect, they would have had the lights on,” [Brown’s uncle, Bernard] Ewing said. “If you rob somebody, you would tell them, ‘Get on the ground’ or something, not, ‘Get off the sidewalk.’ ”

Yes, that's awkwardly worded but I think everyone knows what he meant.

Edit: I should have stated my interpretation:

“If he’s a robbery suspect, they would have had the lights on,” [Brown’s uncle, Bernard] Ewing said. “If you rob somebody suspect somebody of robbery, you would tell them, ‘Get on the ground’ or something, not, ‘Get off on the sidewalk.’ ”