While conservative media have pointed out for some time that the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" protest gesture adopted by angry demonstrators after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, is based on a blatant lie, liberals are finally seen starting to admit it.
The Washington Post's
liberal columnist Jonathan Capehart wrote in his column that Department of Justice (DOJ) reports on its investigation of the Aug. 9, 2014, shooting "forced me to deal with two uncomfortable truths: Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown."
Conservative TV hosts such as Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity of Fox News and Joe Scarborough of MSNBC have noted that the DOJ report states that Brown did not have his hands up when he was shot and was, in fact, attacking Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. But liberals so far have ducked explaining why, as the headline on Capehart's article states, "'Hands up, don't shoot' was built on a lie,"
Mediaite notes.
Capehart writes that the DOJ report shows Brown "to be an inappropriate symbol" for protests over police brutality against blacks. He notes that statements that Brown had his hands up at the time he was shot initially came from Brown's friend Dorian Johnson, who even claimed Brown had been shot in the back by Wilson. Those statements were proven wrong by the DOJ, but Johnson's version already had gone out on the media, and it become a protest symbol.
"And, like that, 'hands up, don't shoot' became the mantra of a movement. But it was wrong, built on a lie," Capehart writes.
"We must never allow ourselves to march under the banner of a false narrative on behalf of someone who would otherwise offend our sense of right and wrong. And when we discover that we have, we must acknowledge it, admit our error and keep on marching. That's what I've done here," Capehart wrote in the Post.
Five of the St. Louis Rams football team took the field in November with their hands raised in the gesture, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) flaunted the gesture from the House floor in December,
Politico notes.
CBC member Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, said: "Hands up, don't shoot. It's a rallying cry of people all across America who are fed up with police violence" and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, said, "this has become the new symbol, a new statement, a statement wherein people around the country now are calling to the attention of those who don't quite understand that this is a movement that will not dissipate, it will not evaporate. It is a movement that is going to continue."
However, Kelly said on Fox News: "For months, a segment of our political leaders and pundits attacked cops across this country based on the myth that 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was shot in the back by a cop while surrendering with his hands up.
"Wrong. Totally wrong."
As for the CBC members, Kelly said, "if one of them has so far apologized for misleading America, we haven't heard it.
"Enough is enough!"
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