Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2014. UPI/Handout |
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GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The parents of slain Ferguson teen Michael Brown appeared Tuesday before the U.N. Committee Against Torture to present a report on racial profiling and police violence.
Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden traveled to Geneva to present a document compiled by HandsUpUnited, the Organization for Black Struggle and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, examining the circumstances surrounding their son's death and police use of force against the protests that followed.
"We understand that whatever the grand jury decides in Missouri, it will not bring Michael back," Brown Sr. told the committee. "We also understand that what you decide here may save lives."
Brown said a police officer acted as "judge, jury and executioner" when he shot his 18-year-old son, arguing that police should have to report all officer-involved homicides to the FBI.
While the circumstances around the shooting of Michael Brown Jr. at the hands of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 are disputed, the report says Wilson's actions "represent violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment."
Citing "racial profiling and racially biased police harassment across the jurisdictions surrounding Ferguson" and elsewhere, the report called for the Department of Justice to "conduct a nationwide investigation of systematic police brutality and harassment in black and brown communities, and youth in particular."
"We need the world to know what's going on in Ferguson and we need justice," McSpadden told CNN. "We need answers, and we need action. And we have to bring it to the U.N. so they can expose it to the rest of the world, what's going on in small-town Ferguson."
The shooting occurred after Brown and a friend were walking in the middle of the street, and Wilson drove up and asked (or shouted at them) to move.
Several people claiming to know Wilson's side of the story say he shot at Brown after the 6-foot-4 man charged at him, but eyewitnesses say Brown was running away, and the fatal shot was fired while the teen had his hands in the air.
Written Statement on the Police Shooting of Michael Brown and Ensuing Police Violence Against Protesters in...
