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“Why Was Michael Brown’s Body Left There for Hours?”

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St. Louis Paper Compiles “Most Comprehensive” Account

Whites, Blacks Split on Whether Shooting Was Justified

Movement Veteran Says Organizing Doesn’t Get Its Due

Peterson Case Prompts Discussion of Black Discipline

Lead Sentence of Column on Ray Rice Gets a “WTF?”

Vox.com Hires Jenée Desmond-Harris of The Root

Michel Martin to Host Forums in N.Y., Charlotte, Dallas, Miami

Short Takes

St. Louis Paper Compiles “Most Comprehensive” Account

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch told readers Sunday that it had “put together the most comprehensive public account chronicling the police response” in the hours after the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last month.

“To determine why the body remained on the street for hours, the Post-Dispatch analyzed public records, police testimony, medical examiner procedures and data from previous crime scenes, and interviewed medical examiner staff, police officials, Canfield Green residents and others,” David Hunn reported. “The newspaper has put together the most comprehensive public account chronicling the police response in the hours after Brown’s death.” Brown was shot in the Canfield Green housing complex.

“Forensic professionals from across the country and local police officials contacted for this story acknowledge that sometimes bodies remain at a crime scene even longer than Brown’s did. But they agree that four hours is a long time on a public street, particularly at a volatile scene when police have killed a man.

“Now, five weeks later, some police officials say they have learned from the experience and wish they had moved more quickly to get Brown’s body off Canfield Drive and quash the flash point that fed the crowd’s anger.”

Hunn also wrote, “Experts say some of the delays could have been caused by inexperience. Computerized medical examiner reports in St. Louis County list only a handful of officer-involved fatal shootings where the victim died at the scene. They took place in the early morning on weekdays.

“This shooting was on a Saturday, with a skeleton crew on duty and an earlier incident miles away that delayed detectives from getting to Ferguson. . . .”

Despite explanations from police, the story said, ” ‘You’ll never make anyone black believe that a white kid would have laid in the street for four hours,’ said Mike Jones, an African-American and chief aide to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley. ‘It defies any understanding of reality.’ . . .”

Whites, Blacks Split on Whether Shooting Was Justified

“A new public opinion survey of St. Louis County residents shows the public perception of the death 18-year-old Michael Brown and its aftermath is sharply divided along racial lines,” Steve Giegerich reported Monday for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“The survey, released Monday morning by the Kansas City-based Remington Research Group, found that 65 percent of African-American county residents believe that Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson acted unjustly when he ended Brown’s life Aug. 9 on a Ferguson street.

“Conversely, 62 percent of the white residents surveyed by Remington believe the shooting death of Brown was justified.

“The fissure broke even wider when surveyors asked if Wilson should be ‘arrested and charged with a crime’ with 71 percent of African American residents responding ‘yes’ opposed to the 71 percent of white survey-takers who believe the police officer should not be arrested or charged.

“An equally stark divide emerged on the question of whether Brown was ‘targeted because of his race.’

“Over three-quarters of the white respondents — 77 percent — responded ‘no’ while 64 percent of the African-Americans answered in the affirmative.

“Remington Research, which was founded by Republican political consultant Jeff Roe, based its findings on questions posed to 604 county residents on Saturday and Sunday. . . .”

Movement Veteran Says Organizing Doesn’t Get Its Due

The recent events in Ferguson, Mo., are a “classic example of abysmal black leadership,” according to journalist and author Charles E. Cobb Jr., whose recent book, “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible,” discusses the Southern civil rights movement of which he was a part.

“Only 6 percent of black voters are registered. Black leadership failed to organize black people. National black leaders parachute in and out, but are not around to do the organizing. How are they ‘black leaders’? ‘I don’t know why Martin Luther King III is a leader, or why Al Sharpton is a leader.’ “

Cobb, a former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, told a luncheon meeting of Washington journalists on Sunday, “News is shaped by what’s left out. The same thing is true of history.” What has been insufficiently emphasized, according to Cobb, has been the role of organizing in the civil rights movement as well as in ongoing efforts to secure justice.

Speaking of television reporters who covered the movement, such as Dan Rather of CBS News, Cobb said that television gravitates toward drama and said that orientation drove coverage.

To report on the organizing behind the drama was considered boring, Cobb said. There was no violence in the black community. “The only point in which we have contact with whites is when we bring people to the county courthouse. Guys like Rather ignored most of the work.” That resulted in an incomplete definition of what the movement was about and made important people invisible, he said.

Cobb, who teaches about the civil rights movement at Brown University, quoted Julian Bond‘s comment about how Americans are taught about the era: “Rosa Parks sat down, Martin Luther King stood up and the white folks saved the day.”

Cobb returned to the importance of organizing when asked about how the movement’s lessons for today. “More important [are] the challenges black people make to other black people,” he said. “Challenge black people. Tell them there is no excuse for you not standing up for yourself. That’s the great lesson of the movement,” he said.

Peterson Case Prompts Discussion of Black Discipline

“Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings’ All-Pro running back who faces child abuse charges in Texas, never appeared in the locker room while it was open to the news media Monday,” Pat Borzi reported Monday for the New York Times.

” ‘The only indication Peterson was back at the team’s Winter Park headquarters came from a note taped to the chair at his locker, summoning him to report for a random N.F.L. drug test.

“The Vikings announced Monday that Peterson, whom the team deactivated for last Sunday’s 30-7 loss to New England, would practice this week and play Sunday at New Orleans.

“Moments after Peterson released a statement on his Twitter account apologizing for hurting his 4-year-old son, Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman faced a barrage of questions about why Peterson, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, was being allowed to return.

” ‘This is a difficult path to navigate regarding the judgment of how a parent disciplines his child,’ Spielman said. ‘We believe he deserves to play while the legal process plays out.’

“Hours after Spielman spoke, KHOU-TV in Houston reported a new allegation about Peterson involving a different son. . . .”

Borzi also wrote, “Peterson is accused of injuring his son while disciplining him with a tree branch, commonly referred to as a switch, last May in Spring, Tex., north of Houston.

“Photographs obtained by a Houston television station showed cuts and bruises on the boy’s buttocks, back and legs. . . .”

The incident prompted a debate over child discipline practices in the black community and elsewhere.

Lead Sentence of Column on Ray Rice Gets a “WTF?”

“Predictably, the lead sentence of New York Times . . .  columnist Michael Powell’s latest item has generated an instant, massive outcry. From fellow journalists and others,” Richard Horgan wrote Monday for FishbowlNY.

“Say this for Ray Rice: His left cross was of professional quality, a short, explosive punch. And his fiancée’s head snapped back as if she’d been shot. . . .”

After citing two tweets reacting with “I don’t have any words . . .” and “wtf?” Horgan continued, “But also via Twitter, Powell is insisting that these first few article words take on proper contextual meaning if his piece is fully read and understood. He also suggests that “Twitter is beyond parody. Like a swarm of bots programmed to misquote out of context and scream OMG.’ . . .”

Vox.com Hires Jenée Desmond-Harris of The Root

Jenée Desmond-Harris, features editor of The Root, has been hired at vox.com, the online startup headed by Ezra Klein, formerly of the Washington Post’s Wonkblog. Earlier in the year, Vox.com became a lightning rod for complaints about the lack of racial diversity at Internet startups.

Desmond-Harris follows Lauren Williams, her former colleague at The Root, who was hired in June as vox.com’s lead editor, editing stories across subject platforms, establishing and implementing an efficient editorial process, facilitating daily copy flow and working with senior editors on daily editorial planning, as Williams described the job then.

“I can’t wait to work with her again,” Desmond-Harris said by email of Williams. She said she would be writing about race, law and politics. 

“Ezra reached out to me to discuss what they were looking for and I immediately knew it would be a great fit. I’m passionate about the subject area I’ll be covering and I think race, especially, lends itself to the explanatory journalism Vox is known for,” Desmond-Harris said. “I’ll report to Ezra and work with the team covering national issues.” She starts Oct. 1.

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