with emphasis only on the fact that Michael was not "facing" any criminal charges and not "facing" any murder charges at the time of his death. It makes no assertion regarding whether Michael ever faced any charges in the past, or whether he was ever invovled in the juvenile justice system. Which is fine. If there are records, they are sealed pursuant to state law and will be only be unsealed if good cause exists.
But it's all so carefully crafted to bolster their tale. Which is designed to stir up emotions and increase conflict. There just can't be any admission of truth here. In their version, there was no store robbery, no drug use (despite tox screen results), no aggression toward the officer, no aggression possible at all by this victim. He was just a harmless child innocently walking to Grandma's, executed by a racist cop for absolutely no reason while he pleaded for his life.
There are no people of good faith speaking hard truth, explaining the justice system and representative democracy to this community. Just willful incitement based on emotion. I can see so many needs the people of that community have. The outside attorneys and professional agitators have no intention of sticking around to effect any change that would actually benefit those people. They know how the system works but aren't about to share that knowledge and dampen the "enthusiasm" that brings the cameras and keeps the focus and thus ups the ante for the payday that will benefit very few.
It's just a very sad situation. I feel like, if anything, that community will end up even worse off and more divorced and alienated from the social norms most of us depend on. If only the "leaders" would teach them how to organize for change, register voters, groom candidates, teach our representative democratic system so they can participate. But then, what would the agitators agitate for? I feel like they have a vested interest in perpetuating a victim mentality because it's their bread and butter.