Transcripts For ALJAZAM Fault Lines 20150121

When gunned down by a white Police Officer in ferguson missouri. An autopsy showed he was hit at least 6 times, twice in the head. His body lay on the street for over 4 hours. His death unleashed an anger that had been building for decades at a system the community here says is stacked against them from birth. And raised questions about policing and race in america. Everything thats happening in ferguson is everything thats wrong with policecommunity relationships, particularly when it comes to black men. One of the reasons that black young men are angry about this because they all see themselves as a Michael Brown. It could have been them. That anger would continue for months to come but while the Legal Process ran its course a Community Held back. Watching and waitingfor justice to be done. Fault lines was there during that time in this special extended episode we look deeper into why so many here feel such injustice from those sworn to protect them. Sit down for Micheal Brown sit down for Micheal Brown sit down for Micheal Brown. When fault lines first arrived in ferguson just days after the shooting we were shocked at what we found. A small crowd of peaceful demonstrators, faced with a police force that looked ready for war. This is an extraordinary display of force to be honest. These guys are armed to the teeth sir, do you know why theyre bringing this equipment in . You all need to move back some ok . Do you know why theyre bringing in Armored Vehicles . Were arent from here. [crowd chanting] mike cant go home mike cant go home we are not out here to start trouble, please dont harass us. It wasnt hard to understand why the Police Response would be viewed as inflammatory. You dont think thats provocative . They provoking it. They asking them to move out of the street. Do you see any violence occurring right now . Its peaceful, they dont have to be here. Has it been like this the last few days . Its been like this for years, for years. This kind of policing . Yes. Its been like this for years, from birth. [crowd chanting] hands up dont shoot hands up, dont shoot hands up, dont shoot hands up, dont shoot hands up, dont shoot hands up, dont shoot . They make us inhuman. What do you mean . They break us down, try to strip us of every right as a human. Were supposed to be innocent until Proven Guilty but we always guilty until proven innocent. That night quickly spiraled into what would be a turning point of the ferguson story. It seems like theyre throwing flash bombs now. Theres explosions going off. Were not quite sure what the police are firing but theres gas coming down too. Were going to get out of here in a matter of hours, the streets went from peaceful protest and calls for justice, to scenes out of a conflict zone. As the military style vehicles advanced, rubber bullets were fired. Anyone on the streets including media was viewed as a target. These scenes would flash across News Networks that night. [crowd chanting] what do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now what do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now . By the next morning, the nation was paying attention. After a call from president obama, missouris governor showed up in ferguson putting the state Highway Patrol in charge of the response relieving local police of their command. Governor, how would you explain the nature of the presence that we saw on the streets yesterday . I mean there were armored personnel carriers about 100 police in militarystyle uniform high powered rifles being trained on the crowd who is in charge of making those decisions and are they going to be held to account for mistakes that you clearly think have been made . That was yesterday, tonights tonight. Tomorrows tomorrow. But in a move that caused renewed anger on the street, fergusons police chief released this video the very next morning. It showed brown stealing from a Grocery Store. His grieving family was incensed. The motives and timing of releasing the video were immediately questioned. Did he know that he was a suspect in the case or did he not know . Im going to read you a statement here. Michael browns family is beyond outraged at the devious way the police chief has chosen to disseminate piecemeal information in a manner intended to assassinate the character of their son. Whats your response to that . We have given you everything that we have now and everything that we can give you. So thats. From our Police Department we have everything weve got. Theres nothing else i can give you. What about the timing of the relese of this video . . . And by that night, news of the videos release had spread. It was the Police Response that made National News but the wider, underlying story we began to hear was about an anger that had started long before mike brown. This city keeps the black people down. Ferguson i get harassed on the daily. Its f ked up laws, its fucked up s t, its harassment that go on every f king day including myself. Including these black males. When you feel like a target. When you feel like a f king target how the f k you gonna react . And thats some real s t catch more faultlines episodes on demand or at aljazeera. Com faultlines. You know how they say that everybody has a purpose in life . Well, at one time, i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. We was starvin, just lookin for a way to succeed. The first time i seen rock cocaine was 1980. The murder rate was skyhigh. South of the 10 freeway, was kind of a nomans land. You know, were selling it for the blacks. I said, you go into these neighborhoods, theres no cops you can sell it where you want and when they start killing each other, nobody cares. I was going through like a Million Dollars worth of drugs just about every day. Thats like gold we can make a fortune he was maybe the biggest guy in l. A. Freeway rick was getting his dope from a very big operator. I think were into something thats bigger than us. Something we really cant deal with. They had been trafficking on behalf of the United States government. She could prove what she was saying. [rapping] crack in the system. [rapping] this is los angeles. The shooting of mike brown sparked something in ferguson. Why did it happen here . On the surface the city looks like any quiet american suburb. But in the southeast corner of the city limits there are densely populated apartment complexes. This is where Michael Brown lived. And this street is where he was walking the day he was killed. What exactly happened the day he encountered Darren Wilson here, remains unknown, but whats clear is that they were two people from two very different worlds. This area has a high concentration of poverty and residents say its heavily patrolled by police. Its predominantly African American. And its typical of the way many places in the st louis area are divided along racial and economic lines. A divide that young men like mike brown say means almost constant interaction with police. You were hit with bullet . No a rubber bullet. Look what night . Look you got hit with those . Yeah which day was that . It was the first day. The first day was monday. Solomon ronald and miller are all from northern st louis county and have been out protesting the Michael Brown shooting. But it wasnt just about Michael Brown, they told us. They were angry at about something more profound than that. They just harass, they just treat you like you dont belong. Who do . The police . Yea the police . Weve got two strikes black and male. So all we got to do is a miss a blinker and were stressed out in the middle of the street. Thats what people say . Two strikes . You make a face at a cop, strike 3 youre out. Youre going to jail for something. What these young men were talking about is more than just a perception of unfair treatment from police. They have no connection to them culturally, other than as Police Officers patrolling the area and enforcing the law. Adolphus pruitt is head of the local naacp chapter which filed a federal civil rights complaint in late 2013 against the St Louis County Police for disproportionately targeting blacks. A young black kid can live in an urban area and when he leaves his house and hes going for a walk or hes going to work, hes going to school hes subjected to be stopped by the police hes subjected to be questioned, hes subjected to have to show identification hes subjected to be run through the system to see if he has any outstanding warrants. And then after all of that they can say ok you can go ahead. And in some cases it happens for no reason at all. Even if they avoid the police these young men have other odds stacked against them the Unemployment Rate for African Americans in this county is three times that of whites. Among black males aged 16 to 24, the Unemployment Rate here in the last few years has reached nearly 50 percent. We comin back to losing hope. What do we have to bank on after school . I went to college and got my medical assistant. I wanted to be in the medical field. They found out i had a felony, guess what happened . I spent 20 thousand dollars for nothing. I get my hands dirty workin on cars now. How does that make you feel . Like a bag of s t. What im supposed to do . Does it make you angry . Hell yeah st louis is probably one of the most segregated communities in the country both racially and socioeconomically. As africanamericans move in, whites move out. And what happens also with that is that some of the highest paying jobs, some of the best of the Living Conditions go with them. So you have somebody who cant find a job you have somebody whos been marginalized in society and then 3 or 4 times a week you get hassled by the police. I mean common how much can a young person stand who doesnt necessarily have the tools to deal with some of the stuff. And sometime it comes up pretty raw. That has to do with some systemic racial issue that need to be resolved. What people here told us is that Police Shootings like Michael Browns are the most violent examples of a system of Law Enforcement that unfairly targets black people. African americans in the st. Louis area are disproportionately stopped and searched by police on a regular basis. Many of those ticketed come from lowincome backgrounds. They can end up in court for minor offenses. Leading to a spiral of debt that is sometimes difficult to escape. Brake lights are 100 driving while suspended is 200 the insurance is 100 you got 100 on each of the failure to appear. 10 on the seatbelt. See the clerk at the window. It is almost always the case that the judge and the prosecutor and the police are white and the defendants are black. Almost always not every time almost always. Thomas harvey is a local st louis lawyer. He says some municipalities get more than 30 percent of their revenue from fines that target mainly lowerincome residents. It looks loke you have a payment due this evening. Is that correct . Yes sir. That is correct. They are facing daily choices regarding their poverty, that it makes sense not to pay to get the car registered, because youre trying to keep your light bill on. And if thats your choice, its always going to make sense to pay your light bill feed your kids pay your rent, before you go get the vehicle registered. I would call it a daily, lowlevel harassment by your government. So psychologically i think its a devastating effect. I gotta strategize before i come out of the house every day. I gotta figure out what not to do to get the polices attention, especially living in spanish lake i get stopped just walking to pick up my kids form school. So i gotta figure out which route should i take with less police. Solomon himself has become stuck in a cycle of tickets and fines that he cant get out of. My kids still gotta get to the doctors i still got doctors appointments. Still gotta go to the Grocery Store so yeah, i drive illegal. Every day. Illegal how what do you mean . No license. Because ferguson wants 3200 to get it back from a 15yearold speeding ticket. How am i supposed to pay that back when wont nobody hire me . I cant pay that back. For solomon as for many in this Community Mike brown was a tragic outcome a symbol of an entire system thats unfairly tilted against black communities. In a white neighborhood if a cop catches a kid stealing in a store hes probably gonna take them to mom and dad. Thats it. Take em to mom and dads house. We dont get those chances. We get shot down. Its different. The laws are different. This world is not for us. America anyways, nothing for us. Saturday. Visibility was 3 to 5 nautical miles. Weathering the storm. We want to show people how to replace property against the worst Mother Nature has to offer. Experts forecast how to stay safe. Im standing in a tropical windstorm. In extreme weather. Oh my god. Techknows team of experts show you how the miracles of science. This is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future . Can affect and surprise us. Dont try this at home. Techknow where Technology Meets humanity. Saturday at 7 30 eastern. Only on al Jazeera America. By late august a grand jury convened by the st louis county prosecutor began deliberations on whether to indict Darren Wilson the officer who shot mike brown. The department of justice and the fbi also launched federal investigations into the shooting and the practices of fergusons Police Department. But while officials promised the community that justice would be done we began hearing stories about other Police Shootings in the area. Shootings were the case never went before a grand jury and where the officers involved had been exonerated shootings that had barely even made the news. Who wrote that . Probably one of carys friends. In april 2013 St Louis Police tried pull over 25year old cary ball jr for a traffic violation. Cary who was carrying an illegal weapon fled the scene first in his car and then by foot. Two officers chased him in pursuit. And at that point gun in his hand and police say he was pointing at them . The police say yeah. Allegedly. Thats what they say and the witnesses have a diff story. The witnesses say gun was on the ground and cary had his hands up. That hed dropped the gun and hed turned around and his hands were up in the air. It wasnt how the police want to try to explain it. Points the gun. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang it wasnt a bang bang thing, it was just stop. Threw the gun. Hands up then he was shot. Cary never fired a shot and the lawyers told us none of the 10 witnesses questioned say cary pointed a gun at the officers. Cary was struck at least 21 times. The familys lawyers say ballistic evidence suggests the police kept shoting as they stood over him. See that spot there . Yeah. There it is right there. Yeah so just come on back this one as well right . Yep thats that one here you need that one down there this is from where the officers were pointing straight down. So that went through carys body the st louis Police Department cleared the officers of any wrongdoing. An fbi review agreed with their findings. We requested comment from the police regarding carys case but received no response. In the wake of mike brown, carlos and his family are hoping for an independent investigation. The police could say you could still pose a threat while youre on the ground. Doesnt matter if youre down. You can still kill a Police Officer. Ok so hes down. Youve got 4 shots in him now. Is he still a threat shoot him 4, 5 more times, thats 8 is he still a threat . Shoot him 4, 5 more times after that, thats 12. Is he still a threat . So now, youre deliberating now. Now youve got time to think what youre doing. After 4, shots yea caught up in the moment. But the continuous onslaught of the shots mean your thinking now. Youve got time to think. Youve got time to deliberate. Youve got time to stand down. This picture right here was from carys last bithday. That was at his 25th birthday. And this was down at the party that they had that evenig whos this . Thats my mom which ones cary . Thats my little brother kevin and thats cary. This is him . Cary was an honors student at a local Community College one year from graduation. Were you close . Very close. He was my best friend. Were just a year apart. We almost did like everything together. There was more to cary than what you know the media wants to say, just because he had, cant judge people just because he had a record. On the news they showed that one day, and then boom it went away. 25yearold male pointed a gun at an officer, shot and killed. Now sports. Its like anything that black males do is punishable by death. Put em down. We are not treated fairly i dont believe by the police period. For over 3 months fault lines has requested to speak to the St Louis City Police the St Louis County Police and the ferguson Police Departments. They all declined. But police in another local municipality called hazelwood did agree to take us out on patrol. This is Nick Lawrence hes been a Police Officer for 13 years. He says in a situation where police feel in danger there is little time to deliberate. Its the adrenaline bump. Its the tunnel vision. Its the loss of fine motor skills. We asked nick what many in the community have been questioning since mike browns death the readiness of police to use deadly force. He tells us their training actually calls for it. Were trained to shoot center mass to stop the threat. So if you are a. Center mass . Center mass. The center mass of the body. So basically the chest does that make sense . When the threat is stopped then you can go back to preserving life. But if your life is in danger, youre not expected to worry about the person whose trying to put your life in danger. Youre worried about his wellbeing until hes not, hes no longer a threat. Suddenly nick spots something down the street its a traffic stop. It was the sort of minor violation wed been hearing people complaining about. He hadnt registered his vehicle so well see what that is. You got a truck plate on your charger here. This is nice by the way. Whats up, you havent had a chance to get it registered yet or did you just get it . Yeah. I just got it. The driver also happened to be black. In 2013, over half of hazelwoods stops were African American drivers, while they only make up only about 30 of the citys population. In the end nick didnt give the man a ticket it wasnt clear whether or not our presence had anything to do with it. Get your plates fixed ok . Yes sir. I appreciate yall all a lot. Nick said he never saw if the driver was black and that race plays no role in who he pulls over. When we pointed to data about Racial Disparities in traffic stops, nick disagreed that blacks are specifically targeted. Is the reason minorities are getting arrested at a higher rate because of their socioeconomic status is it because of lack of the School Systems that theyre in. Theres got to be another reason other than just the cops are bad. That the statistics are like you say, theyre off. I mean i understand that im just saying what is the reason behind that . Is it, and to just basically say because all the cops are racist. Were all smarter than that, arent we . Hazelwood Police Department hasnt had any fatal officerrelated shootings. But last summer, two hazelwood officers stopped a man named Antonio Johnson by the side of the road. Johnson was arrested for driving while intoxicated after parking his vehicle. According to the Police Report he was quote aggressive and resisting arrest. At this point antonio must have. Hes handcuffed his hands pn cuffs right . The Police Report says antonio was trying to quote step out of his handcuffs. He was tazed a total of 13 times and hit repeatedly with a baton. The police had to call medical responders or ems to the scene. His condition was so poor in fact, that the ems officers said to the arresting officers can you please remove his hand cuffs, we cant treat him if youve got these handcuffs on him. They said, no, were not going to take them off. So they asked again, please take the handcuffs off. Again they said, no. They said they had never had a situation before where the Police Officers refused to remove the handcuffs. He said that the condition he was in he wasnt aggressive he wasnt fighting. Two days later antonio died in the hospital. When we asked Hazelwood Police about the incident they told us there was an investigation by St Louis County Police and the case was referred to the fbi. The officers were cleared of any wrongdoing. Antonios mother and family are suing the hazelwood Police Department. Do you think that he might have been in a situation where he was resisting arrest . No. What makes you say that . Because i know antonio. Antonio would sit there and he would let them police talk all the stuff they wanted to talk. And how can he be resisting when he got handcuffs on . While we were at antonios mothers house several Family Members showed up whod been in the hospital room when he died. This man should have seen his kids grow up their kids come. He should be playing with his grandkids right now and with his wife. Not where hes at right now today it was no reason for that to happen. None whatsoever. And ill never get the image out of my eyes of him laying in the hospital bed. Theres nothing you can do there is no amount of money you can give to this family to bring that man back. Nothing. And it hurts. The mike brown case just open the case for all of the other brothers cases just got swept under the rug. Like my cousins case yeah, hes not mike brown, hes not our family but i hurt for that family too. Cause we understand their pain. To me, its just not color. I wouldnt wish this on another black man, white man chinese nobody. Nobody deserves this. Were all humans color shouldnt matter. And everybody seems to know somebody that has encountered this kind of thing. Everyone you talk to around here [everyone agrees] its not just isolated cases. Right eveyone knows somebody thats been killed by the police. Evey odd year since 2009 i done lost a Family Member from the police. In 2009, my uncle was killed on the south side by the police. In 2011, my big brother was killed by the police. In 2013, my father was killed by the police. Like every Family Member ive lost has been because of the police. And no officer has been punished for it. No officer. Right and like with the situation with mike brown, a lot of other people got into that. These officers they kill people and still be out here. As an officer, they know they can kill somebody else and they can get away with it without doing nothing about it. Catch more faultlines episodes on demand or at aljazeera. Com faultlines. Im ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. We are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. We are ment to be your first choice for the news. Primetime news. Welcome to al Jazeera America. Stories that impact the world, affect the nation and touch your life. Im back. Im not going anywhere this time. Only on al Jazeera America. After spending several weeks in this part of missouri we were starting to realize how common it was for people in the black community to have lost Family Members to police. In fact, it happened while we were out filming one night. Weve just heard theres been another officerinvolved shooting just this evening in a neighborhood very close to here. So were heading down to the scene right now. Weve heard theres a crowd gathering and that a teenager has been shot and killed by the police. By the time we arrived the st louis Police Department had already been tweeting out their version of events. The official police story released only hours after the shooting said the victim was not just carrying a gun, but hed fired three times at an officer who shot him down in selfdefense. Do you know what happened . Storys still sketchy but theyre saying 16 shots. A kid, shot 16 times by the police . Its definitely an officerinvolved shooting . Im hearing it was an offduty officer a Security Guard do you know who it was . It was a Police Officer they already took him out they arrested him . No they didnt arrest the cop they put him in the back seat and he left from what people were telling us an offduty officer had stopped local resident Vonderrit Myers nicknamed droop by his friends after he came out of this store. A High School Student it was unclear why he was stopped they insisted he wasnt doing anything wrong. They dont have no reason why they pursued the young man they cant say nothing was stolen. He came from this store and walked there. Now they sitting over there whispering to each other making up stories. Theyre gonna save the Police Officer. But thats alright cos st louis is gonna burn. The f k. Down. Darren wilson, you hear me . All yall. All yall. We just cant take it no more with Police Officers standing guard, detectives began to leave with evidence. But anger amongst the crowd was growing. We are human beings i am droop i am Micheal Brown hands up. Dont shoot hands up. Dont shoot hands up. Dont shoot fight back fight back fight back fight back fight back fight back fight back fight back fight back fight back suddenly they advanced, telling police to leave the scene. You can see the anger of the crowd, theyre pushing the police back. Some of the Police Vehicles have already left and people are really riled up here the tensions are extremely high the visceral anger of those first few days after the shooting of Michael Brown seemed close at hand once again. Outraged at Police Killing of another young black teenager some in the crowd lost control. It was a night where the gulf of trust between these officers and the community they police so badly exposed by the killing of Michael Brown came crashing back into focus once again. Who do you protect . Who do you serve . Who do you protect . Who do you serve . Who do you protect . Who do you serve . Who do you protect . Who do you serve . The Police Department and the city have promised a thorough review of the case but the community here says they are tired of waiting for answers and little is changing. Shoot mother f cker shoot now shoot now shoot now mother f cker you bad. You bad. You bad. Oh you wanna cry cause we in yo face talkin that real s t f k you how do you feel as a man . No respect. No accountabilty who do you protect . Who do you serve . Who do you protect . Who do you protect . Who do you protect . In the African American Community Even the young kids see the police, oh here come the police. White people dont say that. Oh im glad to see the officer. Black people in many instances are not. And white peoplell say, thats because theyve done something wrong. No its not. Its because of the culture and the climate that people have grown up in that caused them to fear that. [crowd chanting] whos streets . Our streets whos streets . Our streets whos streets . Our streets whos streets . Our streets . Most people can understand it intellectually but theres a visceral nature to the interaction that really kind of goes down to the core of who we are as people thats hard to understand unless youve experienced it. [crowd chanting] hands up dont shoot hands up dont shoot we are mike brown we are mike brown we are mike brown and its a phenomenon that extends well outside of st louis. In midoctober thousands descended on ferguson to bring attention to the number of African Americans being killed by police on a National Level. In the last 6 months there has been eric garner Kaijeme Powell john crawford, akai gurley, tamir rice Tanesha Anderson darrien hunt and ezell ford. Thats just this year many more names fill the mouths of protestors here on the streets sean bell. Oscar grant. Rekia boyd. Aiyana stanley jones. [crowd chanting] you cant stop the revolution you cant stop the revolution you cant stop the revolution this is the new Civil Rights Movement thats happening right now. And ground zero is the policing of black communities. Theres no question about it. People are drawing connections that we drew 50 years ago in the Civil Rights Movement that this is a societal problem. This is not just a Police Department problem. And its not just a county problem and its not just a sheriff problem. This is a societal problem because it happens all over the country. It happens constantly. A recent propublica investigation found that a black male teenager is 21 times more likely to be shot by police than a white male teenager. Why does everyone who look like me gotta be criminal . Theres no honor in that badge you dont have to be a criminal to be black. But if you are black a lot of people think you are more likely to be a criminal. And if you live in a community full of black people very often the Police Department would say, im not gonna treat this as a community full of individuals, some of them are good, some of them are bad but they set up their policies to think of black communities as sort of a hot bed of hiding for criminals. There is no comprehensive federal data on Police Officer shootings in the us, let alone the race of the victim. According to the fbi there are about 400 justifiable Police Homicides every year but this number is drastically low. Only a fraction of some 18 thousand Police Agencies report their data because there is no requirement to do so. But even if data did exist on a National Level it would still be rare for a Police Officer to be charged in even the most controversial cases. They dont just have a presumption of innocence they have a super presumption of innocence. And they have that because i think its hard for people to believe that you know the men and women we hired to protect us would then go out and harm us. Laurie levenson was federal prosecutor for 8 years. She says laws in place actually give Police Officers significant latitude. The other thing is, we allow them to carry weapons we have the sliding scale of use of force so there is a lot of deference to when they decide to use the weapons. They are in dangerous situations that are fast evolving. We are loathe to second guess them and the legal standards are very high for convicting a Police Officer. So even if you charge them its not so easy to convict them. But theres also another major factor on if and how police are held to account prosecutors. There is an inherent problem with local prosecutors going after quote one of their own one of their local Law Enforcement. Cause these are the people they work with all the time. And in the back of their mind their thinking two things, one i know these guys by and large they are good guys. Second if i go after them too aggressively whats going to happen to my cases in the future . So theres a very close relationship in a day to day thing then what happens if the Police Department person. The Police Officer becomes the defendant . The question that we have to ask is is that same relationship going to impede a fair and honest assessment of whether that Police Officer did something wrong . So leaving apart the platitudes of the politicians that say oh well its completely fair and impartial we know that a lot of times, it is not fair and impartial. We wanted to see how that relationship might play out in the Michael Brown case. In the past 10 years records show there were 49 officerrelated shootings in st louis county 14 of them fatal. Among all of those cases not one led to an officer indictment. The man who holds that power Bob Mcculloch. St louis countys prosecutor for almost 24 years. He comes from a family of police his father killed in the line of duty by a black man. All factors that many say make mcculloch too close to those in uniform. One of the most controversial cases under his time has been what became known as the jackinthebox case. In 2000, two unarmed black men earl murray and Ronald Beasley were fatally shot at least 20 times during a drug bust. The officers who opened fire said they felt threatened when the mens car moved towards them mcculloch took the case to a grand jury. He refused for months to release key details such as the names of the Police Officers who did the shooting and the number of shots fired. He called the two dead men bums he refused all but the most cursory contact with the African American community which was understandably upset by the Police Shooting of two African Americans Michael Sorkin is a reporter for the st. Louis post dispatch newspaper. After the grand jury decided not to indict the officers sorkin managed to get hold of secret testimony of witnesses in the case. We found out for the first time what actually happened in the grand jury. According to Sorkin Mcculloch maintained to this day that all of the detectives at the jackinthebox that night had testified the car moved towards the officers. What you heard on those tapes were different . Only three of the thirteen detectives testified that the car had gone forward. 2 of the 3 were the shooters. As sorkin reported mcculloch failed to question the discrepancy in the officers stories. And never amitted misrepresenting the truth. Theres a general distrust, rightly or wrongly of this prosecutor and that has not changed since then and it continues to this day. Catch more faultlines episodes on demand or at aljazeera. Com faultlines. Al Jazeera America presents a Breakthrough Television event. Borderland. Six strangers. Lets just send them back to mexico. Experience illegal immigration up close and personal. Its overwhelming to see this many people that have perished. Lost lives are relived. All of these people shouldnt be dead. Will there differences bring them together or tear them apart . The only way to find out is to see it yourselves. Which side of the fence are you on . Borderland, sunday at 9 eastern, only on al Jazeera America. Behind closed doors the latest grand jury called by Bob Mcculloch the one for the killing of Michael Brown dragged on for months. Demands for the prosecutor to recuse himself had been dismissed. There were 70 hours of witness testimony, hundreds of pages of notes. Former prosecutors were bewildered by the proceedings. Thats not how we do it. And you know thats not how we do it. Any other time it would not be happening like this. If he really wanted to indict Darren Wilson, he could get him indicted. Its just a probable cause hearing, its not a trial. Jerryl christmas has dealt with numerous grand juries in the st louis area. He says the threshold is so low that an overwhelming majority of grand jury cases end with an indictment. And the key factor is this ask all around this country how often do prosecutors bring the defendant in to testify . I dont care what the defendant got to say. We the Prosecutors Office we know that we have a case, thats the reason why we are going for an indictment so we can move forward to trial. We dont need the defense version at this point Darren Wilson testified for four hours in september the final straw christmas said for anyone with concerns over the impartiality of the prosecutor. Im saying that you are too close to the police to think that you are going to aggressively prosecute them. And especially in a situation like this where its such a close call i would be more comfortable with just an independent party who doesnt have all of these affiliations late november and all of st louis was on edge waiting for the grand jurys decision. Anonymous leaks from the proceedings began to emerge showing Darren Wilsons version of events increasingly corroborated by witness testimony. Indict. Convict. Send that killer cop to jail the community grew apprehensive missouris governor had preemptively declared a state of emergency, activating hundreds of national guard. Finally on november 24th word came that the grand jury had finally reached a decision mcculloch himself would deliver the announcement. Wed made repeated attempts to speak to mcculloch about the process. Now, we were about to get the entire picture all at once. The News Conference is taking place inside this building and weve been told its going to start imminently and the grand jury will be giving its decision. Media access was extremely limited one camera and only a dozen or so reporters were allowed in. Outside, tension filled the air. A divided Community Held its breath. Protestors whod been mobilizing for months wished for a step towards justice. Supporters of Darren Wilson hoped for an end to months of uncertainty. This was the moment that would be etched into history. Arriving at their collective decision. After their exhaustive review of the evidence, the gand jury deliberated over two days, making their final decision. They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against officer wilson in returned a no true bill on each of the five indictments. No indictment. No indictment. No indictment. The whole state should have egg on their face . Bob mcculloch should have egg on his face, the whole jury should have egg on their face, its an absolute insult the whole state should have egg on their face hands up dont shoot hands up dont shoot hands up dont shoot just a week later a new york grand jury would return with the same decision for the officer who killed eric garner in a chokehold. No indictments no wrongdoing. The question of Darren Wilsons fate had been answered but a much more fundamental question remained what changes . What does everything thats happened in ferguson mean for preventing another mike brown . For these communities, at least for now the message that was sent was one of little hope. Catch more faultlines episodes on demand or at aljazeera. Com faultlines. Start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on al Jazeera America al jazeera on obtained leaked tellephone conversations. Hello and welcome to al jazeera, im Darren Jordan live from our headquarters here in doha. Also coming up kurdish fighters in iraq launch a major offensive against isil. The price of security france announces an 800 million plan to stop attacks on its soil. Reporter im tania page reporting from south africa on the launch of digital classrooms in some public