Jonathan Capehart was one of the early media pundits who took to the broadcast airwaves and penned numerous columns about how police officer Darren Wilson was guilty of murder.

Today, he tries – and fails- to walk it back. Sort of…

capehart_145x100Dorian Johnson hands up

Capehart pens a column stating the obvious: “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” was built on a lie. He then goes into details found in the DOJ report on the shooting to pin the origin of the hoax on Dorian Johnson.

[…] What DOJ found made me ill. Wilson knew about the theft of the cigarillos from the convenience store and had a description of the suspects. Brown fought with the officer and tried to take his gun. And the popular hands-up storyline, which isn’t corroborated by ballistic and DNA evidence and multiple witness statements, was perpetuated by Witness 101. In fact, just about everything said to the media by Witness 101, whom we all know as Dorian Johnson, the friend with Brown that day, was not supported by the evidence and other witness statements.

Why did the truth make Mr. Capehart ill? Because the sunlight strikes at the very core of the deception? Because the media narrative he participated in selling was false? Because guilt can make you feel ill?

Not hardly.

Capehart points the finger at Dorian Johnson and keeps it pointed there while simultaneously never recognizing the role the media, his media, played in the fraud from the outset. Sure Dorian Johnson was a liar, that is true – However, what is equally true is how obvious the lie was from the moment of its inception.

[…] The DOJ report notes on page 44 that Johnson “made multiple statements to the media immediately following the incident that spawned the popular narrative that Wilson shot Brown execution-style as he held up his hands in surrender.” In one of those interviews, Johnson told MSNBC that Brown was shot in the back by Wilson. It was then that Johnson said Brown stopped, turned around with his hands up and said, “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!” And, like that, “hands up, don’t shoot” became the mantra of a movement. But it was wrong, built on a lie.

The empirical evidence was obvious, it was right there in the pictures of the crime scene – it was obvious in the placement of evidence cones and markers placed around the body of Michael Brown. It was all right there for anyone, including Capehart, to see and query. But they didn’t.

Canfield Map New 2

They didn’t because telling that truth would have run in direct opposition to the advancement of the media goals.

The media not only ignored the evidence present in the pictures of the crime scene, but worse they ignored the obvious inconsistencies in the stories of Dorian Johnson, Piaget Crenshaw and Tiffany Mitchell because those stories ran counter to the agenda now exposed in front of the entire world. Well, actually, for those within the world willing to see it…. and accept it.

Within 48 hours of the shooting we had already established the general parameters of the shooting itself. Those parameters were based on accepting the evidence as it existed, and researching the various bits and pieces of available information from the very media who now are beginning to admit they got it wrong.

Following the trail of evidence, factual evidence, was simply a process of searching through hundreds of hours of uploaded video and pictures from the scene itself, and within a week the factual construct of what took place was as obvious as it could have been to any media doing the same.

Nothing about our first week outline was incorrect – It was 100% Accurate.

So no, it’s not ok for Jonathan Capehart to look back and say “I got it wrong”, seemingly placing himself upon his own high-horse of magnanimity. For what? For accepting the truth?

[…] Now that black lives matter to everyone, it is imperative that we continue marching for and giving voice to those killed in racially charged incidents at the hands of police and others. But 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. (full article)

No, the real issue, the issue that Capehart and all others will never confront, is the REASON they got it so wrong in the first place.

None of that reasoning had anything to do with Dorian Johnson.

sharpton hands up 2

Share