Pictured are National Cleveland NAACP President Cornell William Brooks (in white tie), Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (in purple tie), St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCullough (in blue tie), Fergurson police officer Darren Wilson, and slain Fergurson teen Michael Brown (in blue jacket)
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
BALTIMORE, Maryland- The national NAACP is outraged at the decision by Missouri Gov Jay Nixon not to appoint a special prosecutor in place of St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCullouch in the case of a Black teen slain two weeks ago in Ferguson, Missouri by police officer Darren Wilson, who witnesses say gunned down Michael Brown, 18, when he was surrendering with his hands up. The case is currently before a county grand jury on whether to charge Wilson, who is White, with crimes relative to the unprecedented shooting.
"We cannot let this decision stand ," NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news. "Tweet Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster and asked them why they won't support transparency and justice right away."
Wilson says that Brown allegedly assaulted him.
The incident has unleashed riots in the majority Black city of some 21,000 people, and protests in over 50 cities across the country including in New York, Washington D.C. and Cleveland, Ohio, a largely Black major American city also dealing with the deadly shooting of two unarmed Blacks by 13-non Black police officers slinging 137 bullets.
Wilson is currently on administrative-leave with pay. Protesters want him arrested and prosecuted. Ferguson police, and Wilson's supporters, who have donated nearly a quarter-of million dollars to a legal defense fund, say the officer acted in self defense.
NAACP officials say that Brown's death by police is symbolic of a climate across America of flagrant police brutality and excessive force against the Black community, and is indicative of an atmosphere of gross impropriety and unjust actions in largely White police departments nationwide, including in majority Black cities like Cleveland and New York.
Brooks said that McCullouch is a county prosecutor who is pro-police even when police officers exhibit wrongdoing, and that he "has personal, family and professional ties to a local police department [Ferguson] that has repeatedly failed its community."
Only four of Ferguson's 58 police officers are Black, and it shows.
President Obama has called for calm, the National Guard is trying to keep the peace after days of violent protests and clashes with protesters and police in Ferguson, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is conducting his own independent investigation, visited the city on Wednesday.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE THE NAACP WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE NEED FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FOR THE GRAND JURY PROCESS AND OTHERWISE IN THE MICHAEL BROWN FATAL POLICE SHOOTING CASE IN FERGUSON MISSOURI
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) /(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
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