Question to John Heilemann: what's your proof? On his With All Due Respect show this evening, interviewing Ice Cube of NWA, Heilemann flatly stated that the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Freddie Gray in Baltimore were instances of "police brutality." In the Brown case, the grand jury, which included three African-Americans, declined to bring an indictment against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot Brown. And President Obama's Justice Department under then AG Eric Holder cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting.
In Baltimore, the the only result to date has been a mistrial. So what does Heilemann know that the judicial system doesn't about "police brutality" in those cases? Or was this just a case of Heilemann trying to prove to Ice Cube--who by the way displayed more equanimity than Heileman in his comments on this and other issues--that he was down with the struggle?
Note: Heilemann also alleged that the death of Eric Garner while in police custody in Staten Island was another incident of "police brutality" although there also the grand jury declined to indict.
JOHN HEILEMANN: So the movie comes out last year, right, Straight Outta Compton. And it comes out at this moment when you got Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island: all these incidents of police brutality. And it was like a lot of the stuff you guys were talking about in 1988 and 1989 was suddenly like super-relevant again to a bunch of stuff that was going on, right?
