Police are now investigating Louis Head, the boyfriend of Michael Brown’s mother, for incitement to riot, after he urged people to “Burn this bitch down” immediately after the grand jury decision in the Ferguson case.
After the police announced the investigation, Head apologized, saying:
“This is my family,” Head said. “I was so angry and full of raw emotions, as so many others were, and granted I screamed out words I shouldn’t have screamed in the heat of the moment. I was wrong, and I humbly apologize to all those who read my anger and my pain as a true desire for what I want for the community.”
But perhaps not so much spur of the moment. He and Michael’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, had been given a heads up about the decision some time before, so he hadn’t just learned it.
Moreover, right before he got up on the platform and encouraged his audience to “Burn this bitch down”, Head said that “If I get up there, I’m going to start a riot”. So he indicated he knew full well the effect his words could have, yet stepped up anyway to say them.
Pictures reveal at least one person who was standing with him on the platform was thereafter in the crowd which sets a police car on fire:
