Skip to footer

Does this video show Michael Brown beating an old man? Not likely.

A 2012 video purportedly showing Michael Brown beating an old black man is likely a false claim, according to Snopes.com

|
YouTube

Beware what is shared online. 

The latest case of false labeling is a video that's gone viral which shows a large, young black man violently beating an old, black man for stealing a backpack.

A number of websites and viewers have claimed that this is Michael Brown. 

On Saturday, the conservative site Clash Daily posted the video with this headline: 

"SHOCKING VIDEO: Supposedly This Is MICHAEL BROWN Beating & Robbing An Old Man."

The only information provided by Clash Daily: "Here’s a video that supposedly shows the ‘gentle giant’ beating the crap out of an old man. VIEWER WARNING. Please share and forward to Obama and Sharpton."

But Snopes.com (a site that examines rumors and urban legends), concludes that the claim that this video shows Michael Brown is "probably false."

Yes, this low-quality video depicts a large man, similar in size to Michael Brown. But Snopes notes, Michael Brown was 6-foot 4-inches tall. The unidentified man in this video is shorter.  His skin tone is also not the same as Michael Brown's. His facial features don't match Michael Brown's. He has pierced ears, Michael Brown did not. 

This beating was filmed at Woodland City, a large apartment complex in Dallas, and it was originally posted to YouTube in 2012. Michael Brown, who would have been 16 at the time, has never lived in Texas. 

There have been other false claims circulated online that claimed to support a narrative that Michael Brown had a history of criminal activity prior to the cigar theft and confrontation with Ferguson police officer Darrell Wilson, notes Scopes:

Since Brown's death in August 2014, several rumors have circulated about him that have later been proved entirely false: one involving his supposed arrest record, another claiming he had gravely injured Officer Darren Wilson, and one displaying a photo of gun-wielding murder suspect Joda Cain that was touted as depicting the "real Mike Brown." 

This latest "Michael Brown" video made this week's Washington Post list of "What was fake on the Internet this week" 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Does this video show Michael Brown beating an old man? Not likely.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/1213/Does-this-video-show-Michael-Brown-beating-an-old-man-Not-likely
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe