No probable cause exist to file any charge against officer wilson and return a no true bill on each of the five indictments. As soon as mr. Mcculloch announced the victim the officer started to take rocks and batteries. I heard 150 shots fired. [ gunshot ] we are a nation built on the rule of law. We need to accept that this decision was the grand jurys to make. There are americans who agree with it and americans who are deeply disappointed even angry. I join michaels parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully. [ gunshot ] our community has got to take some responsibility for what happened tonight. We talk about peaceful protests and that did not happen tonight. Welcome to morning joe. Tuesday november 25th, a lot to cover today with us on set. Mike barnacle. Information Communications Director for president george w. Bush nicole wallace. And associate professor at Columbia University school of international and Public AffairsDorian Warren and associate editor of the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. The headlines today very clear. No charges on the front page of usa today. The New York Post streets of rage. From the daily news, americale
holds its breath. From the New York Times, grand jury chooses not to indict officer. And wall street journal officer not charged in killing. Theres so much to talk about. Unfortunately, i think the first thing that we would, i would at least want to know is why the hell, why the hell did they release this information the way they did. Why did they have this build up, this slow crescendo, this slow crescendo to say well be announcing at 9 00. Most people knew how this was going to come down. Just given sort of what local authorities have been suggesting before and all the calls for calm. And then to announce i want at 9 00 at night. The time lapse was mystifying. Mindboggling a community and state that so mishandled this
case from the very beginning continued to mishandle it at the very end. And the results, gene robinson, very predictable. They were horrible results. The Washington Post talking about at least two police cars and half a dozen buildings were set aflame. People looted liquor and convenience stores. The missouri authorities, president obama and browns family had requested, while the president was making his request on a split screen while the riots were going on. People are responsible for their own actions and it was horrific the actions that were engaged in but i cant believe that the officials in missouri couldnt have done a better job after botching this case and lets face it, botching the way Fergusons Police Department was run for so many years. Yeah. This was totally foreseeable. And, you know, look i hate conspiracy theories. I spent a lot of time telling people how dumb their conspiracy theories are. But if you wanted to, you know, if you knew you were going to announce it and you wanted to shift attention to the reaction away from the decision itself, well i guess this would be a way to do it. This would certainly be a, you know, an awful way to do it. But why in the world do you announce this thing at 9 00 at night . I just dont ill never understand that. Especially when the decision apparently was ready at 2 00 p. M. Or Something Like that. 2 00 in the afternoon. You have been doing the Police Officers a favor, the black owned Small Businesses that were torched last night. You would have done the family a favor. People who went out to protest peacefully and you would be doing them a favor. If you were going to go out and protest peacefully you would do it at 3 00 in the afternoon. You would not do it given thirst of hats been going on since august at 9 00 at night. Willie geist why dont we get
everybody caught up in case they are just waking up right now to exactly what happened last night not just in ferguson but across america. This continued deep into the night. Lets get right to it. Unrest broke out moments after the county prosecutor announced grand jury verdict did not indict officer Darren Wilson. Thats the Police Officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager in august. This is one of the results of the protests, at least a dozen businesses in ferguson going up in flames including a drugstore and a pizza restaurant. Protesters also set fire to numerous vehicles including at least two police cars. Other Police Vehicles damaged after being vandalized. Some demonstrators smashed windows. There was some gunfire as you heard earlier and looting was reported at several stores in the area. President obama addressed the country last night urging demonstrators to show restrain but as joe just said it was a remarkable split screen. His speech came just as the violence began to unfold
creating some pretty surreal images on tv. Lets look at this. Do you think somebody at the white house might have figured this out. Ill ask nicole, do you think somebody at the white house might have figured this out that maybe the speech should have been before the announcement so you dont have that split screen right now going last night . The speech couldnt before the announcement because he had to react to the announcement and theres nothing the white house can do how the Cable Networks will handle it. They all used the split screen. It was horrendously since people knew seemed to know what was coming down. Seemed like everybody was tipping their hand at 2 00 in the afternoon. Im curious if you wouldnt have a peremptory speech, nicole wallace. I thought he should have gone there. I think the most brilliant speech of his presidency was his speech on race. I think that the words he used last night were perfectly crafted. They were not written and handed to him by some speech writer. I think they came from his heart. I think that the white house staring at a bunch of bad options. Im impressed they went ahead. They didnt cut him short. They were watching that too. They were watching this. They knew what was happening. It was important enough for them. I actually think the fact that he stood in the briefing room, he gave his remarks, he took questions because i had a moment where i thought, you know, hes going to rush out of there. He didnt. I actually think as the days go on it will endure as a powerful message that he delivered and i hope he keeps it up. I hope he does visit ferguson in the coming days. It was one of his better moments and he spoke clearly for the last ten minutes. That was the best part of the speech. It gets back to your original question that you pose, though. Why they wait seven, eight hours for a crowd to gather on the streets, give the crowd eight hours to gather and to get ready when they had so many options. They could have delayed this
announcement until tomorrow afternoon, the eve of thanksgiving at about 4 00 in the afternoon. They could have done anything. The thing is they tipped their hat i had no where over the weekend. I still thought over the weekend the Police Officer would be indicted. When they started when officials started coming out early urging calm, urging calm, urging calm, you knew how this movie would end. We all knew. What also infuriated people watching the press conference from mcculloch. The 25 minutes of explanation as to why no indictment. He looked like a defense attorney in that moment and not a prosecutor. If theres that much to explain then why not take it to trial, right . So i think it was the long press conference that really infuriated people of the explanation, the detail, you know, talking about contradictory witness testimony all of that stuff infuriated people even more so. Gene robinson you brought up a good point in way too early. You look at the evidence and the
evidence looks like theres not a jury, theres not a jury in missouri that probably would convict this Police Officer if you look at all the evidence. That said, you usually take care of that in trials where you are in grand juries you are actually youre the prosecutor. You are doing Michael Browns bidding. Not doing justices bidding as far as with a blindfold. Youre not the defense attorney and the prosecutor. Youre looking if theres probable cause to possibly convict this Police Officer, that didnt happen from the very beginning. For whatever reason. Youre there to represent the victim and society. Youre the prosecutor. Youre not there to represent the defendant. And the standard is, as you said, is probable cause. Its not reasonable doubt. Low, low standard. Very low standard. And do you not have probable cause when you have, you know,
an unarmed young man who is shot multiple times by a Police Officer, you saw the photos of officer wilson and despite those early reports about a broken eye subjective. He had a contusion. I read the medical report to go home and take aleve. That was the extent of his treatment that night. So, all that leads to probable cause. To believe a crime was committed. Again, what i said at first looking at all this evidence, youre not going i just dont think youre going to find evidence to convict this officer. But thats not the stage were at. Were at a much different stage and, willie, that obviously will cause some concerns i think with legal scholars moving forward. Dont you know as an attorney
an indictment hearing you just give a loose sketch of the evidence that you have to get probable cause. Its unclear to me how it took months and months. Clearly the prosecutor laid out every detail of the case. 25 hours of testimony. They heard 60 witnesses. But what im curious about now there are two federal investigations, one into the case, and one into whether or not there was a pattern of civil rights abuses by the ferguson Police Department. But i feel like the signal is coming out of the doj and the stories read obviously from sources are that they dont look likely to find him culpable either. They are not going to. Why . Because the standard is so much higher. At this level again, were talking about the standard, mike, and hell, you know this. All the years you were a reporter. This standard is so low when youre looking at a grand jury
situation. This is the lowest bar. This was the lowest bar. You start going to the federal, where a doj is bringing a federal case the bar is so much higher. Without this those cases last week look at it independently. The standard is so much higher. Bluntly if you look at the evidence, the evidence does seem to support the officer. That said im talking about at the end of the day. That said though, mike thats not what these type of hearings are about. Thats not hat grand juries are about. We think this is a bad guy. Look at the evidence we have against this guy. Look what he did to shareholders. I want to take him to trial. The grand jury goes okay thats basically it. Last week i spoke to a prosecutor a friend of mine who has done hundreds of grand juries and we should point out that the grand jury is 12 jurors seated at a picnic table not a jury box. These are ferguson residents,
people of ferguson. You got 12 jurors selected. They have been sitting there for four, five months. This was a case referred to them. You got the prosecutor in the room and you got witnesses who come in and testify. The prosecutor does the questioning. The five counts that perhaps could have been leveled for an indictment against, against the Police Officer here, at a minimum, at a minimum the prosecutor that i spoke to said i would bet you a lot of money that they will end up with Involuntary Manslaughter. At least one. Based on what they have. Based on the evidence. A lot of people say why would do you that as im saying the evidence we look at shows a jury will not be able to convict him because any lawyer will tell you you never know what happens when you walk through that door. There have been a lot of cases that ive seen great lawyers handle that started, they said this looks like a losing case
and then you take a deposition, you get some evidence, you start pulling on a string and suddenly the entire new truth is revealed. Maybe that wouldnt happen here. Maybe it would. Were not going to find out. The range of options as mike said, first degree murder. Required some premeditation. Involuntary manslaughter some people thought would have come up. Lets talk about this grand jury. Seven men, fire women, three africanamericans, nine whites on that grand jury. County prosecutor Robert Mcculloch said the vote will remain anonymous. He said reliable eyewitnesses testified that Michael Brown charged at officer wilson before he was shot. Mcculloch says there were multiple witnesses who either changed their stories or gave conflicting accounts. He also said three autopsies contradicted witnesses who claimed they saw brown shot in the back. Im ever mindful this decision will not be accepted by
some and may cause disappointment for others. But all decisions in the criminal Justice System must be determined by the physical and Scientific Evidence and the credible testimony corroborated by that evidence. Not in response to public outcry or for political expediency. Mcculloch didnt mention in his statement that brown was unarmed when he was shot however he did single out the media saying they contributed to unrest after the shooting initially. These are photos of officer wilson after his altercation with brown. Wilson testified brown first hit him when he approached the teen about a robbery. The officer said he warned brown he would shoot if brown did not get back at which time brown grabbed at wilsons gun and twisted it around. Wilson says brown looked like a demon during their altercation. This is all from the testimony to the grand jury and that he drew his gun out of fear, another punch would knock him out. Officer wilson added when he
grabbed the teenager who is 64 he said quote i felt like a 5yearold holding on to hulk hogan. After the grand Jury Announcement wilsons attorneys released a statement which read in part Law Enforcement personnel must frankly make split second and difficult dess. Officer wilson followed his training and followed the law. Michael browns mother cried and screamed when she learned officer wilson would not be indicted. In a statement the brown family said in part were profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequences of his actions. Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every Police Officer working the streets in this country wear as body camera. We respectfully ask that you please keep your protests peaceful. Answering violence with violence is not the appropriate reaction. The brown family conducting itself with incredible grease and their request was not met in ferguson last night. What sounds to me like a
perfectly reasonable request. And position to take. Body cameras would have told us a lot more about what happened. We wouldnt have to have this duelling, conflicting testimony. We would have a record of this encounter. And, you know, i guess some officers at least in ferguson are now wearing cameras. I wish that were much more widespread. No doubt about it. Thats hopefully that is one thing that can come out of this tragedy. I dont really understand why, mike, there wouldnt be body cameras on cops. I want helps the cops. It helps the good cops. It helps citizens as ive said repeatedly only people that dont want that are bad cops. They do bad things. Use their position of authority to push people around. At times to hurt them and at times to kill them. And we need every cop in america to have a camera on them. Commissioner bratton said that when he was here after the protest, nypd is the largest Police Department in the country that they are looking at it and its a cost issue for a lot of Police Departments but youre absolutely right the only people who can oppose it are the ones who dont want everyone to see. Every profession, gene, has bad actors. I think for the most part Law Enforcement officers do a great job and i commend them forgoing out and putting their lives on the line every night. I think its in their best interest that the two, three, four, five percent of people in uniforms that act like punks from time to time have cameras. If they do that 5 will become 0 really quickly. Its in the interest of all good cops and not in the interest of the bad cops. So there ought to be cameras. One thing we ought to mention is that there were protests last night, peaceful protests in cities around the country. Including here in washington, in los angeles, in new york. There was a big protest. So, you know, this became a National Issue and nationally there was, there was a big response, and for the most part in its vast majority and appropriate response to what frankly most people see as a miscarriage of justice and, you know, well have to go forward from here. Its a bad place to start from but we have to go forward from here and see what good can come out of this awful and i think unnecessary tragedy. All right. There you see pictures of a march in front of the white house. There were marches, of course, throughout new york city including right outside our newsroom on sixth avenue, in oakland, seattle, los angeles and chicago, across america. Well have much more of this ahead on morning joe. Events coming out of ferguson, missouri also ahead. Who says the Obama Administration cant create jobs. The story behind defense secretary position thats now open in his administration and the parallels between george w. Bush and barack obama frightening. Frightening. Both of them firing the secretary of defense after a second term thumping. Plus some nice moments from yesterdays medal of freedom ceremony including the president getting star struck. Lebron james speaks out for the first time about the