Quote:
Originally Posted by digamma
There's really clear evidence that the confrontation started for a different reason. The police today said the officer had no knowledge of the robbery and stopped them for some other reason. And of course, the defense may try to get it in. Maybe they should try to get it in. Granted I've only done two criminal trials in my life time and those were both about 13 years ago, but I don't see this one as a very close call.
The pretty simple comparison here, while not perfect, is to the rape defendant who wants to put on evidence that the victim slept with a guy down the street the day before. Most courts aren't going to come close to allowing that to be admitted.
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Of course not, because those two things are completely unrelated.
However, in this case, there's...
1.) Pretty good indication that Mike Brown would be aware that the police might be after him and thus his reaction to this possible encounter may have been pre-meditated. Which kind of diminishes the race angle.
2.) The cop is apparently unaware that he was walking into an unfortunate confrontation with a man who just committed a crime (based on the video) and was about to get jumped. Which kind of diminishes the race angle.
I'd imagine that these things are particularly important if this were to turn into a "hate crime" styled trial, which is what the peaceful protesters, rioters, and looters are angling towards.