JUSTICE

-
Michael Brown


A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Winston Churchill


  My sense of justice came from various sources. Primarily my parents but I can't leave out Marshal Dillon. I watched Gunsmoke for much of the twenty years that it was on the air and no matter how evil the "bad guy" was Marshall Dillon was determined to guarantee that the man received a fair trial. Marshal Dillon only killed the "bad guy" in self defense. When I heard about the killing of Michael Brown I was very skeptical of how it was being portrayed by the media. That Michael was holding his hands up in surrender and a police officer shot him down in cold blood. That he was an innocent high school sudent and a gentle giant. This was so reminiscent of the way the media had portrayed the killing of Trayvon Martin. The narrative in that killing was the same as Michael Brown. The media at first portrayed Trayvon as this young innocent kid just minding his own business, innocently walking through an upscale neighborhood until he was gunned down in cold blood by a "white Hispanic" police wannabe. 

 As time went on the truth caught up with the lie and we found out that, like Michael Brown, Trayvon was a violent thug that was killed in a justified shooting. Now we are finding out the facts of this shooting and it is looking even more justified than the Martin shooting. Using the Marshal Dillon test Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin did not deserve to die just because they were thugs. It was their actions toward Zimmerman and Wilson in a moment of confrontation that got them killed. Both Zimmerman and Wilson justifiably feared for their lives. Since the Trayvon Martin incident we have learned that George Zimmerman is no angel and Darren Wilson on the other hand seems to be a man of good character but character, bad or good, does not prove guilt or innocence. 

  Only the facts prove guilt or innocence. Good character is a mitigating factor but nothing else. Facts are a two edged sword. If they bear out that Wilson is guilty I can accept that truth just as easily as I can accept the truth that he is not guilty. Adams said it best as he took the unpopular position of defending the British soldiers charged with murder in the Boston Massacre trial in 1770. He argued that the soldier who fired first acted only as one might expect anyone to act in such confused and potentially life-threatening conditions. "Do you expect that he should act like a stoic philosopher, lost in apathy?", Adams asked the jury. "Facts are stubborn things," he concluded, "and whatever may be our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." The chant in Ferguson Missouri is "no Justice, no Peace but I like Ann Coulter's chant better, "no facts, no peace". If these people really want justice they must be willing to accept the possibility that Michael Brown deserved what he got.
Officer Darren Wilson

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE DEATH OF JAYNE MANSFIELD

-
Image
Jayne Mansfield   Jayne Mansfield died way too young on June 29, 1967 at the age of 34 in a gruesome car wreck, She was killed instantly but contrary to urban legend she was not decapitated. Jayne was called the poor man's Marilyn Monroe. She had enjoyed about a four year stint of popularity on Broadway and in Hollywood from 1954 until 1958. Her career was in decline in the late 50's and early 60's but she was still popular in Europe and on the nightclub circuit. She took her last name from her high school sweetheart Paul Mansfield when she married him at the age of seventeen. Her second husband was a former Mr. Universe named Mickey Hargitay who was from Norway. The third and last husband was Matt Cimber. Mansfield was highly educated, attending Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas and U.C.L.A. She supposedly had an IQ of 163 and was called the smartest dumb blonde ever. Of course she couldn't be too smart. In 1966, a year before her death, while...
Read more

CARNTON PLANTATION

-
Image
   My first association with the Carnton Plantation in Franklin was when I would see the old house while hunting for Civil War relics in the early 1970's. There is a subdivision near Carnton today in the area where I hunted when it was primarily farm land. I knew it was an antebellum home but I wasn't aware of how historic Carnton was. It was in a horrible state of disrepair and I have learned since then that a farmer was using the house as his hay barn. In 1977 the owner of the property donated the house and ten acres to the Carnton Association and they have done a fantastic job of restoring the plantation to it's former glory. Originally the McGavock's owned 1400 acres. It was built by Randall McGavock in the 1820's. He was mayor of Nashville and a close friend of Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. Jackson on several occasions was an overnight guest in the home.    His son John took over the plantation in 1843 upon the death of Randall. In 1848 John mar...
Read more

NASHVILLE AND JESSE JAMES

-
Image
The James brothers with their mother Zerelda James   Most everyone has heard of the notorious outlaws Jesse and Frank James, however; did you know that they lived in Nashville from 1875 until March 1881? Jesse's oldest son Jesse James Jr. was born in Nashville along with his sister Mary. Jesse Jr. was born at 606 Boscobel Street on August 31, 1875. Mary was born on West Hamilton Road in Bordeaux on July 17, 1879. Jesse Jr. went by the name Tim and as far as he knew his last name was Howard. He and his sister would not know their real last names until after Jesse was killed in 1882. Jesse and his wife Zerelda would also lose two male twins in infancy.  Jesse's brother Frank lived on Clarksville Pike. While living there he and his wife Annie Ralston James gave birth to a son named Robert Franklin on February 6, 1877. For a time he would be dressed as a girl and go by the name of Mary. Why his parents did this I do not know.  The brothers were on the run. Nashvill...
Read more