CNN report on Ferguson cop who shot Michael Brown (courtesy cnn.com)

“CNN broadcast a report Friday that showed the house, including the street number, of the Ferguson police officer who police say shot Mike Brown,” thegatewaypundit.com reveals. “The officer has been in hiding due to death threats since the shooting last Saturday. His name, Darren Wilson, was just released Friday morning. Another news outlet apologized for broadcasting video of Wilson’s home while others have virtually drawn a map to Wilson’s house for those bent on vengeance. Yahoo News named the community Wilson where Wilson resides and published a photograph of the officer. The UK Daily Mail also named the community, posted photos of the officer and gave a description of the house. USA Today also named the community and reported a local police presence. The Washington Post named the street where Wilson lives.” Etc. Are these media outlets right to ID Wilson’s 10-40? What public interest is served here?

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90 COMMENTS

  1. Absolutely not. All evidence from the crime scene indicates that Mike Brown was running towards him when he was shot (after being commanded to stop)
    Let the courts settle it. These rioters are gonna feel like idiots in a few months when all of the evidence is compiled.

    • I got into a heated argument with my mother-in-law over the nature of the Zimmerman/Martin shooting. Facts do not matter, even when they’re all out and part of the public record. First impressions are the only thing that matters.

        • Why, for example, would a 6’10″ NBA player who makes $10 million a year see himself as a “victim”? Why would a successful, respected, wealthy, Jewish physician regard himself as a “victim”? Conversely, why might a wheelchair bound woman who lives on government disability NOT regard herself as a victim?

          I would argue it’s because the basketball player and the physician believe that their identities are dependent on being victims — not because they have actually been victimized, but because they’re members of groups that claim victim status. Conversely, the disabled woman was probably raised to believe that she is responsible for her own success or failure.

          Solid gold! Many thanks for the link.

    • We could have HD-video evidence of the young man charging at the cop with a chainsaw and it wouldn’t change the opinion of those who have already made up their minds. If the cop is cleared – and I believe he will be – get ready for more riots.

      • Flashback to a daytime talk show in the 1990s shortly following the Rodney King event in California: the talk show host had a special audience of about 40 black people and showed them the entire video of Rodney King brutally attacking three police officers who had not yet used any physical force. The audience erupted in anger and shouted something to the effect of, “That never happened!” and “That video isn’t real!”.

        I was absolutely speechless. There was the entire video in full color: Rodney King savagely attacked three cops before the remaining cops jumped in … and the audience denied the video. Keep in mind this was before the days where it was possible to concoct a video. So I agree with your statement that the people of Ferguson have already made up their minds and hard evidence is not relevant to them.

      • My first expectation is not that the cop will be cleared. TTAG has a post that states the cop shot the unarmed teen at least six times. I’ve heard mention that the teen was shoplifing, which is why the cop was there in the first place. We should try to stay away from speculation, and just wait and see… but the kid shoves the cop, the cop empties his revolver … the cop is cleared … more looting … I really hope not!

      • We could have HD Camera evidence of what actually happened if the Chief of Ferguson didn’t actively resist lapel and patrol car cameras. Cameras protect all parties involved.

    • Honest question (seriously, not trying to argue or antyhing, just asking) do you have any sources/links for evidence showing what happened? All I have come across so far is either he-said/she-said type stuff or just supposition. I have been withholding forming any sort of personal opinion on the shooting itself because so far I have no real info to base it on. If you (or anyone) has good evidence of what actually happened that day I would really be interested in it. Thanks!

      • There is credible video of Michael Brown perpetrating a strong-arm robbery of a convenience store just minutes before he died. If that is Mr. Brown in the video, he demonstrated a thug personality. (According to reports, the robber had the same baseball cap and shirt as Mr. Brown and the convenience store is a stone’s throw from where police shot Mr. Brown.)
        http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/08/16/surveillance-video-convenience-store-robber-confirmed-as-michael-brown-just-before-shooting-139055

        We also have a video which recorded a witness telling an interested party what happened. The witness states that Mr. Brown advanced on the police officer at which point the police officer fired multiple times.
        http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/17/does-this-video-vindicate-the-officer-who-shot-michael-brown/

        Finally, we have a drawing and brief statement of a preliminary autopsy from a physician who Mr. Brown’s family hired. The preliminary results of that are consistent with Mr. Brown advancing on the police officer.
        http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/08/daniel-zimmerman/breaking-michael-brown-was-shot-at-least-six-times-reports-of-shot-fired-in-ferguson/

        • The way the family and media have propped up this Brown mut like he was such a nice young man just starting his life is total BS. Watch the video of him and his buddy casing and ripping off the convenience store. It’s clearly not the first time he/they have done this kind of thing. At 6’5″ near 300 lbs I’d wager he’s gone through much of his life strong arming anyone he wanted to have his way with doing or getting whatever he wanted. He finally got to the point of such confident complacency bullying his way through life that he picked the wrong person – a cop who apparently had values – to pull his sh1t on, with the results that played out.

          ‘He was such a good boy.’ Yeah, right. Just keep those blinders on; that or I call BS. More “victims” looking for a big payday, and opportunist race baiters playing the race card looking for more unrest and notoriety – Farrakhan and Jackson.

          And of course the disingenuous media repeatedly showing a younger ‘innocent’ teenage smiley faced Brown (a la Travon Martin) wearing headphones looking nothing like the young adult thug who tried to jamb up a cop and because of his violent viciousness and overwhelming size got taken down with defensive deadly force in response.

          The way I see it, the path Brown was on and how he was behaving, he had it coming, and it was inevitable sooner or later.

        • Oh how convenient the cops release a video to distract from their obfuscating and stonewalling, OH LOOK HERE’S A VIDEO OF HIM COMMITTING A CRIME, WE STILL CAN”T COUNT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE BULLET HOLES. As if a petty crime excuses a fucking execution in the streets.

    • “These rioters are gonna feel like idiots in a few months when all of the evidence is compiled.”

      Uh…no, they won’t.

      You’re projecting your own sense of justice and morals upon those who for the most part don’t share or care about those attributes unless it’s mob justice. The biases of many of these folks are so deeply ingrained that even video of the incident would not convince them that the conspiracy against them doesn’t continue, and it’s a cover-up.

      In that regard, law enforcement’s historical record of self preservation and justifying virtually all deadly force shootings doesn’t help them.

    • Don’t kid yourself. The small percentage of protestors who are actually doing the rioting and looting are just thugs, plain and simple. The race card merely provides cover for their actions. If they weren’t rioting and looting, they’d be doing what the two suspects in video were doing – robbing stores and roughing up the shopkeepers.

      Many of the protesters are justifiably angry and the police have not set things up to get the benefit of the doubt from the community. Brown may well have been a thug, but today, he’s a former altar boy who spent his life helping widows and orphans.

      • YOU CANNOT GENERALIZE ALL PROTESTORS AS PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE LOOTING AND STRONGARMING PEOPLE ON THE DAILY. There are CHILDREN out there in the protest. There are elderly people. There are white people. There are black people. There are people in fucking wheelchairs. There is EVERY KIND OF PERSON out there, fighting for a cause that you are too blind to see exists, and you generalizing them just perpetuates this fucking self righteous attitude that keeps racism alive. Get over yourself.

        ALSO even if Brown stole some god damn cigars…you don’t shoot him 6 times and twice in the head. Shot to kill. He shot to kill. That’s not protocol. If you wanna be all fucking law-abiding about it. That cop broke the law. Then he let Michael Brown’s lifeless body lay in the sweltering heat for 4 hours. Then he got put into hiding because he felt “unsafe.” Yeah, well, boys like Michael Brown walkin’ around ANYWHERE feel unsafe ALL THE TIME. And no one seems to want to protect THEM.

    • Through psychological imbalance, piss poor politics, and a near total lack of respect for the people they were sworn to protect, many officers who DO deserve the negative criticism have trashed the reputations of decent officers who are forced to work beside them.

      Unfortunately, unless or until those in command positions decide to throw out their own trash, the decent officers will be continually earmarked by ignorant members of the population as being part of the problem. In this case, Mike Brown turned out to be just the next angry black, who felt justified in stealing from a store owner, and Wilson wound up catching the shit end of the stick.

    • Could be that nobody’s willing to be the first to try and torch the home of a man that’s already got at least one notch on his gun.

    • And that’s exactly what CNN wants. They get off on the whole angry mob justice BS.

      • Releasing the personal information about the cop serves no legitimate interest other than making him a target for the most violent. Stinkin’ media trying to be the first to inspire a lynch mob reaction; gives them more to report after the house is destroyed and the cop found and attacked.

        That’s not ‘news’, that’s instigation

        • Just because they can legally release the info (1st Amendment), doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

          Likewise, just because you might be able to legally open carry a rifle (2nd Amendment) in a playground, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

          The Bill of Rights is a restraint against tyranny, not a permission slip to be a butthead.

  5. They’re trying to get a motherf**ker killed. Same reason they like printing permit holders’ info.

    • To you, yes.

      And yes, quite a few people would be able to get it. I would posit that the media is enabling those dumb enough to actually burn someone’s house down and who may not be able to pull that kind of information on their own.

  8. Yup. If media reveals the name and address of crime suspects – and they do every night on the news – then they should, here, too.

    Some animals are NOT more equal than others in America.

    • Names are often revealed but I don’t recall hearing that many addresses given out. Though I’d say in any case this is special due to the threat of violence towards the ‘suspect’

  9. Public interest is served here. They hand the officer over to the lynch mob as a sacrifice, they brutally kill him and his family, and, hopefully, their bloodlust sated, they all go back home patting themselves on the back for dealing with the hater without the useless due process.

  10. Man, that’s awful. I see no public interest served other than to jeopardize the safety of the officer (and his family), who may or may not be guilty of an unjustified killing / homicide. In fact, it’s downright irresponsible, which I guess is par for the course with the sensationalist media. I certainly hope he didn’t kill that man in cold blood. I guess we’ll see. I’m on the fence right now. Maybe 50/50 either way. If they storm his house in the meantime, the media has blood on their hands.

  11. I’d hate to be his homeowner insurance agent right now. That guy’s bonus is going to be pretty weak this year.

    • I wouldn’t be surprised if his home is “torched” before this is over. And, all because mr. Browns buddies lied about which way he was moving when he was shot.
      Note: Capitol “M” not used, he doesn’t deserve it!

  12. Once his name was released, finding the cop’s address was easy. Addresses are the most public of all public info. So releasing the officer’s address serves no public purpose, but it also does not place the officer in any danger that he wasn’t in before.

    • Its like how some people “check in” on facebook when they get home or anywhere else for that matter. Facebook is a real treasure trove pf personal information and ill leave it at that.

    • Yes it does. One could spend time digging into public records to find out where he lives, but it sure is a lot easier for angry and not particularly smart mobs to make their way to that location when media outlets give them maps with best routes for avoiding traffic highlighted.

      • Agreed. There’s a not-subtle difference, even in this day and age, between the information being available and the information being published, broadcast, and disseminated via the news. When they draw a map and give directions to his house, if something bad happens they should be guilty of contributory negligence or something similar.

          • Right, but that’s because you looked. My point is that if it’s publicly available, yeah, some people will look it up, and some smaller subset of that group might even think about acting on their anger, and then an even smaller subset would take steps to carrying those thoughts out. Any or all of those steps require a certain amount of dedication to the task. When someone has to find it themselves, that in and of itself sets a pretty high bar to action, due to apathy. They’re mad enough to be mad, but not mad enough to put any effort into it. Think of it as the angry version of clicking “Like” on Facebook to end world hunger vs actually feeding someone.

            On the other hand, if a map to his house is published in the paper for every idiot to see, you’ve already removed the first step on the apathy ladder.

  13. If i was Wilson i would have gotten my family out of the state following the shooting. And now that his home is compromised for a lack of a better word, id be getting out of town, regardless of what that could imply

    • I hope it’s poorly photoshopped. It looks that way to me. Shadows and all. Plus that funny grip. It looks like the guy in the orange hat is holding it.

      • The guy in the orange hat is holding it, in his left hand. The guy with the face bandana is holding a handgun in his right hand, on the right shoulder of Orange Hat. I don’t think it’s been photo-shopped; it is just a weird pic. I hope nobody has a ND… muzzles don’t look like they are pointing in a safe direction, but maybe it’s the camera angle. :-/ Or not…

        Hopefully Shannon W. won’t see it. (By the way, did you all see her on NBC news last night? They did a piece on that nice little restaurant in Rifle, Colorado. Shannon had an opinion.)

  15. Lots of pissed off OFWG talking at the local gun shop. And the autopsy report “seemed” to back up the cops story. Sorry the pot soaked “gentle giant”(thug?) got plugged. Yep wouldn’t matter if Jesus and a choir of angels came down vouching for Wilson. He’s f###ed.

  16. In several different possible circumstances, a non-LEO person of interest would have had all his firearms removed from the house for “safety”? Has this officer been disarmed before handing him over to Al Sharpton’s pals? For the children?

  18. Ever since there has been “media”, ‘Media’ [those who wield it] have been paid by one group or another to distribute some sort of message. If they can’t raise interest, they can’t get paid to raise interest, so they have to do crazy crap like this.

    There needs to be reciprocal ‘outings’.

  19. What ever happened to the rule of law? Nobody knows exactly what happened other than the officer involved and the deceased. The riots and lawlessness are totally unacceptable in a civilized society, and should be dealt with accordingly.
    Based on the video in the convenience store earlier in the day, Mike Brown was not a very friendly fellow stealing some items, then shoving the clerk out of the way. If he acted that way to Officer Wilson, it was clearly a mistake and justified shooting. As usual, the main street media is manipulating the truth just like they did in the Zimmerman incident.

  20. It’s okay to publish the man’s name, photo, address, his wife’s age, height, photo, measurements, etc. because free speech has never led to any deaths. /end_sarcasm

  21. As long as the police release the name (and effectively his address) of George Zimmerman then Mr. Wilson should expect the same treatment.

  22. Do I detect a change of heart on the part of TTAG commentators or is it just that the members of virtual lynch mob have faded away?

    • Ive noticed a change here in the past weeks as well. The typical comments about police militarization seem to be missing or there just arent as many

    • Being against police militarization doesn’t mean I want an officer, especially one who might’ve been in a justified shooting, to be harmed.

      I don’t know the man and it could have easily been any one of us being attacked by the 6’4″ 250+ “child.”

      Changing the subject a bit, I am mystified as to why police departments would hire smaller guys to be cops, though. Officer Wilson doesn’t look like he’s that big.

      • Not fond of police militarization, just not fond of lynch mobs if the cop was actually doing his job.

      • There’s always someone bigger. Since so much of what police do is investigative and writing most departments don’t ask them if they lift… bro.

    • Calling out the problems with police militarization does NOT equate to endorsing a lynch mob.

      Both mentalities are based in aggrandizing violence.

  23. It always fills me with a sense of wonder when the media not only publishes addresses of folks but practically gives directions to someone’s house.
    Talk about chumming the water…

  24. I have little sympathy.

    If I were accused of murdering someone, my name would be all over the news, along with where I lived.

    The handling of this homocide, justified or not, showed contempt for the people. I see no reason why this man, simply because he is a policeman, should be allowed anonymity. He has a badge and the people of that city pay him. It was an official action and he should be more forthright with the facts.

  25. The public has a right to available information – period. The only restraint on personal information are those placed on victims’ rights – not the criminals who victimized them.

  26. What happened to the rule of law?
    It was murdered by Progressives, the media handed them the ammo
    All for the children ofcourse and more voters to give the leftists ever more power. Taxpayer you will pay for it All!

    AB

  27. No. Knowing where the guy lives serves absolutely no journalistic purpose other than to incite violence. Maybe the officer is guilty of homicide, maybe it was a DGU. EITHER WAY it’s not up to any angry mob, justified or not, to judge and punish him. What are we doing, trying to bring back lynchings?

  28. Simple solution, what ever happens to the cop in this case, by the medias actions of outing him, should happen to the editor responsible for letting that out!

    Sounds fair, just like outing that editor in Arkansas who posted all those gun owners names in 2008, boy he squealed like a stuck pig!

  29. No, it serves no purpose, but neither does most of what CNN et all does. For those who say the police should have released his name immediately I say at least he had a little less than a week to get everything and everyone out of that house that he’ll probably never be able to safely return to again.

  31. The man is innocent until proven guilty. Showing his home and address on national news, considering the volatility in the area, was a remarkably irresponsible thing for them to do. I don’t think they should have even released his name until charges were filed or the situation drastically calms. The element that is taking advantage of the protests in order to fulfill their criminal tendencies could very well show up at this guy’s house. They don’t tend to respect the concept of innocence util proven guilty.

  32. Definitely. If I shot someone, even in self defense, I my address would be all over the news because of my property records. It’s public information. Why shouldn’t the police be subject to the same public scrutiny that I am subject to?

  33. This is ridiculous. Who the hell would be so fucking stupid as to reveal the location of officer Wilson at a time like this. All news reporters acting this way should all be fired and if any harm is done to Wilson or his family because of their actions those in the media stupid enough to act like this should be held accountable for their actions.

  34. As I read the comments in this thread I begin to wonder a few things. Hopefully some of you will stop to ask these questions.

    1. IF you were in a situation where an individual twice your size was beating on you and you had a gun, would you use it or risk dying? None of us have any idea the fear Daren Wilson may have had with a man that size acting aggressive.

    2. What do you expect to happen if you start beating on a police officer that’s much smaller than you. If you are that much bigger, does being “unarmed” matter? His size IS his weapon is it not?

    3. How credible is a witness that just robbed a store? Two of the three autopsies prove he was lying.

    4. Many criticize the officer for shooting six times. Have you tried firing accurately after being punched in the head. Is it possible that since Michael was still coming at him that he thought he was missing? Possible is all I’m asking…assuming he was physically assaulted.

    5. With the unofficial announcement that his eye socket was fractured, that would have made him handicapped IF it was his right eye.

    5. Lets say the officer did know Michael robbed the store. Wouldn’t that add to the his fear? If I put a gun on your hip and told you to go subdue a 6’4″ 300 pound man that just robbed a store might you use it if he came running at you again after already breaking your eye socket? I absolutely would!

    I’m sure many of you will disagree with me, and that’s ok. I don’t know all the evidence, heck, everything I’ve heard could be a lie and Darren Wilson could in fact be a racist killer, but I doubt that will be proven.
    One fact remains, Michael robbed a store and OBVIOUSLY didn’t cooperate with the POLICE officer.
    My new motto, “If you don’t want to get shot, don’t give someone a reason to shoot you”. If you break into my house, I will give you one verbal warning and if you don’t drop to the floor in a matter of seconds, I will assume you will harm myself or my family, therefore I will shoot.

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