Incompetent Journalists At McCulloch Press Conference Fail To Ask The Most Important Questions About Michael Brown's Murder

You know by now that killer cop Darren Wilson got off scott-free, just as I predicted he would. Three months ago, on the day that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced that a grand jury would be convened to look into the shooting death of Michael Brown, I knew the fix was in and I said so on this blog site. In his 24 years as the county prosecutor, McCulloch, whose father was a St. Louis cop shot and killed in the line of duty, has never indicted a single police officer for any crime. In fact, to my knowledge, no St. Louis County policeman has ever been censured, suspended, or even chastised for any wrongdoing whatsoever. This is one remarkable record! Either the St. Louis County cops are the most professional, fair-minded, unsullied, tolerant, racially blind, and incorruptible police force in the history of mankind...or, Bob McCulloch is a master at covering up and dismissing police misconduct and brutality. As someone who has lived here all my life, I can assure you it is not the former.

So it galled to me to no end that he was not grilled, fried and sauteed about his record when reporters had their chance last night. As I sat and watched McCulloch's press conference, I grew more frustrated with each stupid question asked by the so-called "journalists" present. It was as if they were McCulloch "plants" the way they lobbed softballs in his direction. The local media, who know McCulloch and his ways better than the national media, were particularly culpable. Granted, McCulloch has ways of intimidating and bullying local "journalists," but you would think at least one would ask a tough question. Instead, what we got were questions like these:

"What was the grand jury's vote?" McCulloch explained that the grand jury's ballot is secret and, by law, no one is allowed to ascertain how the vote broke down. This question was asked by three different reporters!

Someone clumsily asked McCulloch about his presumed bias because of his father's murder. McCulloch brushed it aside without much effort.

Another newsman asked about the racial makeup of the jury. McCulloch toyed with him.

There were half-hearted efforts to explore the actual evidence, but the reporters seemed to have a tenuous grasp of the facts. One even asked McCulloch if the videotape of the shooting would now be released. McCulloch barely restrained a smirk as he pointed out that there was no videotape of the shooting.

Here's what McCulloch should have been asked:

1) "Why didn't you instruct the jury as to their options regarding the various counts the grand jury had to consider." In other words, in any murder case, the prosecutor, as a matter of course, would detail the various indictments (or true bills) for the jury to consider--everything from murder one to involuntary manslaughter. McCulloch did not do this in the Brown case. Why did he deviate from normal prosecutorial methods? Was it to go easy on Officer Wilson and induce a no-true bill from the jury?

2) "Isn't this a case of overkill? Brown sustained 10 bullet wounds, most of them from a distance of 150 feet. That's half a football field's length. How can it be argued that Officer Wilson was in imminent danger from half a football field away?" It is undeniable that Brown was already critically wounded and of no threat to Wilson when Wilson delivered the kill shot."

3) "Why was Brown's body left to lie in the middle of the street for four hours? Was a cover-up being concocted during this delay?"

4) "If, as you say, Officer Wilson knew that someone matching Brown's description was suspected in a petty theft, why is there no record of this in Wilson's broadcast conversation with the police dispatcher? Wilson's own supervisor, the Ferguson Police Chief, himself admitted just days after the shooting that Wilson had no knowledge of Brown being a theft suspect at the time of the shooting."

5) "How is it that no policeman, on your watch, has ever been suspended, much less indicted or convicted of any crime, in your 24 years as County prosecutor? No county in the country has such a record for the last 24 years. This is despite the fact that hundreds of officer-involved shootings have occurred since you took office in 1990. All those shootings were justified? That is one remarkable record. How do you account for that, Mr. McCulloch?"

6) "Did your office prosecute this case with the same zeal as you would have prosecuted a case which involved an officer being gunned down by a private citizen?"

7) "Why is your prosecutorial record of convicting black offenders wildly disproportionate to the racial composition of St. Louis County?"

I should have been at the press conference to ask these questions myself, but I am much too educated, unintimidated, and independent to obtain a media credential in this town.

[You can read more of my excoriation of the St. Louis County police in my historical novel The President's Mortician.] http://neverlandpublishing.com/tpm.html