Reminder: “Hands up, don’t shoot” is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case

by William A. Jacobson, LEGAL INSURRECTION     June 4, 2020

It’s a lie that gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement, and is chanted by protesters and politicians to this day.

The Black Lives Matter movement was born of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. While the BLM founders started their organizing after the prior Trayvon Martin case, it was Brown and Ferguson which launched the BLM movement into the public spotlight through the protests and riots in Ferguson.

Nothing was more associated with the BLM movement than the chant “hands up, don’t shoot,” based on the narrative that Brown had his hands raised and said ‘don’t shoot’ when shot. That same chant drives protesters and rioters ripping up cities after the George Floyd killing.

I know the history of BLM and how it shot to national fame after the Brown shooting. I followed it closely and wrote about it at the time in 2014. I documented the violent instigators, many of them cross-over anti-Israel activists. See my October 25, 2014 post, Intifada Missouri – Anti-Israel activists may push Ferguson over the edge.

More than anything, BLM seized on the claim that Brown had his hands raised in surrender, saying “don’t shoot,” at the time he was shot by officer Darren Wilson. “Hands up, don’t shoot” became the signature slogan of BLM.

But it was all a lie. Brown wasn’t surrendering and didn’t say don’t shoot. And he wasn’t a victim of police misconduct. Rather than the “Gentle Giant” he was portrayed at in the media, he sucker punched Wilson while Wilson sat in his police car, tried to grab Wilson’s service pistol, and was shot when he charged Wilson a second time.

On March 5, 2015, Andrew Branca wrote here, Even DOJ Admits: “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” An Utter Lie:

The DOJ report (embedded in our earlier post Darren Wilson Cleared by DOJ of Civil Rights Violations) particularly noted the lack of credible evidence for the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” meme (page 8):

Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson. As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible for otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time. Certain other witnesses who originally stated Brown had his hands up in surrender recanted their original accounts, admitting that they did not witness the shooting or parts of it, despite what they initially reported either to federal or local law enforcement or to the media. Prosecutors did not rely on those accounts when making a prosecutive decision.

While credible witnesses gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson – i.e., balling them, holding them out, or pulling up his pants up – and varying accounts of how he was moving – i.e., “charging,” moving in “slow motion,” or “running” – they all establish that Brown was moving toward Wilson when Wilson shot him. Although some witnesses state that Brown held his hands up at shoulder level with his palms facing outward for a brief moment, these same witnesses describe Brown then dropping his hands and “charging” at Wilson.

I summarized how the “Hands up, don’t shoot” lie gave life to BLM in a later post, Two years ago Michael Brown died, and a movement based on lies was born:

The Black Lives Matter movement, which was conceived in the Trayvon Martin case, was born in the Brown shooting. Hands Up, Don’t Shoot would be it’s rallying cry. That seminal factual allegation turned out to be a lie, but it gave birth to a movement which now dominated much of the media attention….

There would be more protests, including the tactic of blocking roads and highways and disrupting shopping malls. Members of Congress got into the hands up, don’t shoot narrative despite the evidence:

…. The legacy of the Michael Brown case, and Trayvom Martin case before it, is that lie upon lie built a false narrative that changed the political landscape even after the truth came out through the judicial process. But that truth mattered not to the activists involved, who believe in convenient myths.

And so it continues. “Hands up, don’t shoot” is chanted by protesters and the politicians who join them, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

It’s all a lie. A lie that gave birth to a movement destroying our cities while demanding defunding of the police.

Concern for black lives, and all lives, is important. But that is not the agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement, they seek to tear down our society to achieve their marxist goals, and it takes a huge deception to get people to go along.