In the wake of the violent protests in St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri over the decision by the grand jury not to charge officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, it’s reported the Justice Department will not be filing any charges against the former officer.
The prosecutors within the Justice Department did not find sufficient evidence to support any charges, including civil rights charges.
The FBI’s investigation into the incident destroyed many of the claims that Michael Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was shot by Officer Wilson. The FBI’s investigation showed Brown was actually charging toward Officer Wilson in a manner consistent with the officer’s report of the incident.
The Justice Department plans to release a report explaining the decision but spokeswoman Dena Iverson would not tell the New York Times when that might be released to the public.
A larger investigation into the Ferguson police department remains open and active according to Justice Department officials.
A Missouri middle school student has been banned from reading his Bible during free class time.
Loyal Grandstaff, 12, attends Bueker Middle School in Marshall, Missouri. Last month, he was reading his Bible quietly to himself during free time in class when his teacher confronted him.
“I was just reading,” he told local television station WDAF. “I was reading because I had free time. I had time to do what I wanted to, so I just broke it out and read. … I like to read my Bible because it’s a good book.”
“He doesn’t want me reading it in his class because he doesn’t believe in it,” Grandstaff said.
The boy’s father said that the teacher is violating his child’s rights.
“I feel like it violated his freedom of religion but also his freedom of speech,” Justin Grandstaff told reporters. “There’s kids walking around disrespecting their teachers, kids walking around cussing and everything else, and they’re practically getting into no trouble at all.”
Principal Lance Tobin said that he will be investigating the matter because “Bibles are not banned on campus.”
Baby Shirley’s first moments of life involved being thrown into a pit toilet and then set on fire by her mother.
The child, born in Swaziland, survived her mother’s attempt to kill her. Two Americans who were on a mission trip were informed of the child and they brought her to Cape Girardeau, Missouri for life saving surgery.
Police in Swaziland had taken the woman into custody and left the baby at the hospital. Under the country’s law, the baby had to be taken back to the mother to be nursed. That’s when Raeleena and Jeremy Ferguson stepped in.
“It was just surreal,” Raelenna Ferguson said. “It truly is just a miracle they said yes.”
Yes to everything the couple wanted to do…bring the baby to the states, caring for the child and giving her a chance at life.
The move was coordinated by Heart of Africa who requested a passport for the child and miraculously had it approved before the Ferguson family left the country.
After the surgery, Baby Shirley will return to the Heart of Africa shelter to grow up as adoptions by Americans of children from Swaziland is not allowed.
Rioters burned down multiple businesses and destroyed property throughout the night after hearing the grand jury’s findings that Michael Brown charged at Officer Darren Wilson resulting in the officer’s actions being justified.
KMOV-TV reported that the majority of the businesses that were destroyed by the looters were minority owned.
A large block of businesses on West Florissant Avenue were burned to the ground including Walgreens, Little Caesars Pizza, Title Max, Family Dollar, Autozone and O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Fire department officials say at one point last night there were so many fires started by the supporters of the Brown family that they did not have enough manpower and equipment to fight them all.
The rioters were shooting so much that the Federal Aviation Administration put in place a temporary ban for aircraft over the area out of fear they would be struck. Flights into the St. Louis Airport had to be diverted around the area.
Police reports say 80 people were arrested as a result of the riots.
The grand jury in St. Louis County Missouri has issued no indictments in the case of officer Darren Wilson.
The grand jury made up of nine whites and three blacks examined every piece of evidence collected by the local, state and federal investigators. They heard hours of testimony and were able to ask direct questions of those involved including officer Wilson.
The evidence showed the claims of supporters of Michael Brown did not know the facts of the case.
One witness said Brown charged at officer Darren Wilson in a manner that was “like a football player. Head down.”
Wilson said that Brown attempted to grab his gun while the officer sat inside his cruiser. When the officer fired a round through his car window in an attempt to back off Brown, the 18-year-old showed an “aggressive” posture.
“The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked,” Wilson told the grand jury. “He comes back toward me again with his hands up.”
“Just coming straight at me like he was going to run right through me,” Wilson said. “And when he gets about … 8 to 10 feet away … all I see is his head and that’s what I shot.”
The Justice Department says their investigation against Officer Wilson is still open and no decision has been made regarding charges.
Missouri’s governor is preparing for violence in the wake of the release of a grand jury’s decision on the Michael Brown case by deploying the National Guard and declaring a State of Emergency.
Governor Jay Nixon said the troops would only play “a backup role to police” in response to protesters breaking the law if they are dissatisfied with the grand jury’s actions.
Police in Ferguson had been criticized for their response to the violent protests following the death of Brown because some felt they acted in a too “militarized” manner.
St. Louis aldermen were upset about the declaration of the governor.
“The National Guard is called in when policing has failed. Military presence in my city will mark a historic failure on the part of (government),” Antonio French, a St. Louis alderman, said on Twitter. “This is not a war. There is no military solution.”
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the city’s police force will handle any issues and that they will wear normal police attire unless “conditions become violent.”
A Missouri church is stepping up to help residents of Ferguson, Missouri whose businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed by looters in the wake of the Michael Brown situation.
The Episcopal Church said it will provide $40,000 in grants to help those in need.
“This joint effort helps restock food pantry shelves to feed the hungry today, but it also provides nutritional counseling and food preparation education for a more healthy future,” said Bishop Stacy Sauls. “… it helps local businesses get back on their feet, but it also partners with public and private groups to encourage entrepreneurship and sustainability; it provides a mechanism to deliver food and other assistance to shut-ins, but it does so by offering skills training to young adults and older youth that will help improve their lives for years to come.”
The Reverend Michael Dunnington of All Saints Episcopal Church told the Christian posts that he sees the grants helping multiple parts of the community.
“I think that this grant will go a long way to show the residents of Ferguson that the Episcopal Church cares about the immediate effects of the August troubles, and that we are interested in addressing longer-term needs in their community,” he told the Christian Post.
Dunnington added while protests are continuing in the town, they have been peaceful and not lead to further destruction.
In an attempt to quell the violent protests that have rocked the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, police have now named the officer involved in the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Officer Darren Wilson, a six-year member of the force, has been removed from duty with pay and he & this family evacuated to an unknown location because of fear the same people who sparked the violent rioting would attack him. Governor Jay Nixon said the family would be under 24-hour protection.
“I was pleased to hear the chief indicate this would be a day in which, finally, that initial name would come out, and we’ll work to make sure that his family [is safe] and there’s security around that,” Nixon told ABC News. “I think those kinds of concrete steps of transparency leading to justice are vitally important now to heal the old wounds that have been made a fresh by this difficult and horrific situation.”
Police noted that Officer Wilson has been treated for an injury that was sustained on the night he shot Brown. Witnesses had been trying to claim that Brown had done nothing wrong.
Police also handed out a report to those attending the press conference showing that Brown was a suspect in a “strong arm” robbery that had taken place in the area not long before the shooting incident.
An anti-Christian organization is threatening to sue the Missouri National Guard because a display of Bibles was located on a base.
The anti-Christian American Humanist Association had a lawyer send a threatening letter to the Missouri National Guard demanding the removal of a display of Gideon Bibles from the General Services Administration building in St. Louis.
The AHA claims that the Bibles in a government building “represents a clear breach of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.”
“The machinery of the U.S. military … is being used to distribute Bibles,” the letter claims. “ … The religious endorsement is particularly egregious in this case because unlike in many of the school cases where private citizens distributed the Bibles, the government is the entity distributing the Bibles here.”
The Bibles are available for someone to take if they want them but they are not given to soldiers nor are soldiers required to take them. Various courts have permitted similar placement of Bibles across the nation.
However, the anti-Christianists say the mere existence of the Bibles is coercion.
A small country church in Carthage, Missouri wanted to honor veterans and soldiers during their Vacation Bible School. The military banned troops from going to the event.
Paramedics, police and firefighters in the community showed up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to talk to the kids, teach them some basics of their jobs and receive thanks for their efforts to make the community better.
On Thursday, when the National Guard was supposed to show up, no one was there.
The military told the National Guard troops they were banned from the event and if they showed up at all on the grounds of the church they could face discipline. The military said that just the presence of the troops or any National Guard asset meant they were sponsoring the Baptist religion.”
The military officers were more concerned about someone who is not a Christian being offended by the troops appearing at the church than they were about any Christians who might be upset at being told they weren’t worth visiting.
The Missouri National Guard reportedly tried to do all they could to attend the event but it was at the federal level where the ban on associating with Christians was ordered.
National Guard troops were furious at the Defense Department’s actions.
“We had a lot of disappointed kiddos because of the National Guard being unwilling to allow a Humvee and a few soldiers to spend an hour at a Baptist Church,” a Guardsman said. “It makes we wonder what I’m actually fighting for.”
