Brown family lawyer blast St. Louis Post-Dispatch for ‘racist speculation’
The attorney representing the family of slain Ferguson, Missouri teenager Michael Brown is coming down on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for reporting “gossip and racist speculation” instead of news surrounding Brown’s death.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represented the family of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin, is upset about the local paper’s pursuit of Brown’s juvenile records. Crump accuses the reporters of failing to apply the same interest to obtaining background information on the police officer Darren Wilson, who killed Brown.
“In this new age, where there is a war being waged for clicks and eyeballs, it appears the Post-Dispatch has chosen to forgo its duty to report facts and provide meaningful context and has instead opted to pursue gossip and racist speculation,” Crump said in an open letter to the newspaper’s editor. “This is deeply disappointing.”
Telephone messages and emails from CNN to the newspaper’s public relations office and editor were not immediately returned Friday afternoon. Violent protests in the St. Louis suburb. The Brown family believes the teenager was unfairly killed. Wilson has not publicly given a statement, but police have said the two struggled over the officer’s gun.
Race has been at the heart of the case. Brown was black, like two-thirds of his neighbors in Ferguson. Wilson is white, like most of the city’s police department.
Crump’s letter comes after a decision by a St. Louis County Family Court judge to reject the newspaper’s request to obtain any juvenile records related to Brown. A juvenile court official told reporters that Brown had never been found delinquent on juvenile charges and was not facing any charges at the time of his death.
The official’s disclosure, the Post-Dispatch said Tuesday, “put to rest claims by a California-based blog and others that Brown was facing a murder charge at the time he was shot to death.” Crump is accusing the paper of continuing to press the case despite statements that Brown was facing no charges.
Black lives matter.
Sound off below!