I shake as I write this with tears welling up in in my eyes at the awful injustice that has occurred in the great state of Missouri. I live in Hastings county Ontario, a poor farming area whose nearby rural villages are Madoc, Marmora, Stirling and Tweed. This was all farm country until the factory farms reduced the number of cattle farmers from 120 to 5 and the number of small cheese factories has dwindled from 45 to 2 since World War II.

I don't know Big Mike, but I do know Kadeem Francis. I met him 8 years ago when my kids, who are superb judges of character, would travel 40 miles to the next village over to hang out with the "group home kids" - people that had parents or a parent who was unwilling or unable to care for them or had lost their way and had grown up in as close to an approximation of a family setting as the government has money to provide. I drove them and Kadeem stood out as unusually respectful and caring, outgoing and affable, a real surprise when so many kids are rather snotty and spoiled. I've always liked Kadeem and enjoyed talking to him, he's a pretty bright guy and it's easy to see why my kids see him as more like John Candy than Hannibal Lecter. If he was born to wealth he's probably have been a successful comedian, halfway between Chris Rock and John Candy.

Kadeem is one very big black man, he's about 6'5", 380 pounds, an absolute giant of a man and was convicted of manslaughter and now faces sexual slavery charges and one of the finest people I've ever met. Things are not always as they seem in the press and here's why.

Vilified by a sensationalist press if you look carefully you'll see some things that don't support the idea these are dangerous lunatics "During the break on Tuesday, a jovial Francis talked with his mother and a handful of friends who attended the hearing." - jovial is right, Kadeem Francis, the hard luck case from Marmora is one of the funniest most quick witted people this side of Robin Williams. With a twinkle in his eye and always a smile he is one of of the most outgoing and friendly people in my kids circle of friends. He is soft spoken and kind and a pleasure to know.

If you keep reading even more salient facts emerge that show the sensationalist press don't tell the whole story:"

"Layefsky read an agreed statement of "bare bones" facts prepared by the Crown and defense. He said Francis didn't intend to kill or cause bodily harm to Van Diepen.

Hastings County assistant Crown attorney Paul Layefsky said Van Diepen was beaten to death.

But he also emphasized that Francis was merely "a party" to the killing and not directly responsible for it."

and

"Both lawyers said Francis was remorseful and never sought a deal with police or the Crown. "There were no offers made to Mr. Francis," Kafka added. "His motivation. is to ensure the mother of the victim receives some justice."

That kind of empathy and responsibility is to be lauded and ah yes, the victim. Why was he beaten to death by four people?

Because he was a piece of shit, that's why. He went full potato and paid the price and a life was saved, just not his.

In the wee hours of the morning at a large rave at Trudeau Park in nearby town of Stirling, some asshole from out of town was drunkenly and noisily beating his girlfriend to death and people reacted to the screams for help and sound of fists hitting a face.

At that point in time and in that place somebody was about to die in an alcohol fueled rage.

Either the drunken abuser, or his girlfriend had been selected for extinction, and she is alive today because of Kadeem who paid a very large price to ensure her survival was going to die that night. Which one would you pick?

Kadeem was guilty of being there, nothing more, trying to stop anyone from dying, people from out of town did all the beating. We know this because of the dozens of eyewitnesses and this fact was made plain to the prosecutor who understood it well. Regardless, Kadeem was an accessory. All the kids in the area understand Kadeem was trying to break it up, he was a big guy and was used to doing this, something people who knew him understood very well, it has never been in dispute

"Court heard Francis was "a party" to the killing and not directly responsible for it. A murder charge against Colin Rainford, 26, was stayed.

Van Diepen was swarmed by a group of men on May 22, 2010 when he approached their campsite following an argument earlier in the day over a woman, according to an agreed statement of fact read into the record by Layefsky.

Layefsky said Gray "head-butted Van Diepen," and then the group swarmed the man after he fell to the ground. Van Diepen was repeatedly kicked and stomped, court heard.

The victim and the men were consuming alcohol, and toxicology results show Van Diepen's blood alcohol concentration levels were "extremely high," Layefsky said."

Toronto area newspapers paint a different piture of the events of that night.

"A York Region man was sentenced to six years in prison this week for a crime the victim's sister says has “destroyed” her family."

It may have destroyed her family but that may have not been a bad thing, she could have been next. Hitler's family was destroyed too

What would have happened had the victim not been killed? The girl he was beating in a brutal and savage attack from a very drunk more powerful man would have been alive still and while this family may have had their precious snowflake still there's be a dead woman lying bloodied on the forest ground. That will not stand, not in this county so if somebody had to die better him than her I'm sorry to say. Kadeem was trying to get everybody to chill out, but big as he was there were many people who decided this woman beater was to pay the ultimate price for his bad decision and extreme drunkenness. The people that did the actual beating, from suburban Toronto - Rob Ford country, got six years, Kadeem got two.

In an area where kids with good marks cannot find jobs Kadeem's chances were less than slim to none and he fell in with the wrong crowd as people in that situation often to and he ended up selling coke with Breanna Garrison, 20, and Jesse Scullion. A loyal but flaky customer ended up owing them thousands of dollars and offered to prostitute herself to earn that money, staying there to offer her services. The three agreed as there was no other way they'd get their money back. The problem arose when she wanted to leave, the agreement was apparently she was to stay there. The police were called and now they're up on charges drug trafficking and sexual slavery. Both Kadeem and Breanna have been in my house albeit years ago and this sounds like the sort of bad idea I'd expect to hear. Breanna is another kid that needs help and never got it.

In both cases it could be argued the law and the police failed here. If a policeman had killed a drunk beating his girlfriend you know he would not be going to prison and the reason there is so much drug crime is people cannot go to the police or the court system whe there is a problem. Becoming a prostitute is not a viable alternative.

So there you have it, that's Kadeem's story, the one you'll never see in any newspaper. Kadeem is actually a very nice guy despite all the trouble he's been in and is currently in.

Big Mike wasn't even as bad as this. He lived with his parents which gives him a leg up from Kadeem and he's never killed anyone, he's not a coke dealer with a gun. He was broke and wanted smokes. Drug dealers don't have this problem. He was broke because he was honest and did not choose the life of drug crime that has ruined fo example South Central Los Angeles where crack cocaine made it's debut after it's creation in the valley in the early 1980s.

If Kadeem isn't as bad as he seems and was really a gentle giant how does he compare with Big Mike and is there anyone who will vouch for him? Yes - the governor of Missouri.

"Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Sunday accused law enforcement in the tense St. Louis suburb of Ferguson of trying to “besmirch” Michael Brown when they linked the unarmed 18-year-old shot dead by police last weekend to a robbery in the area.

“It had an incendiary effect," the Democratic governor said on CBS show “Face the Nation” of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson’s decision on Friday to release a video that allegedly showed Brown, just before he was fatally shot by police, stealing a box of cigars from a nearby convenience store."

...and left in the street, dead, for four hours. It's the primary characteristic of humanity to bury the dead ad I'm pretty sure I know who the animal was here and it was not Mike. He was a genuine victim. Who could imagine a world where the governor of the state of Missouri will defend a black man unjustly killed at the hands of a white policeman on national television and point out Mike was unjustly vilified. We call this victim blaming a phrase primarily by the feminist movement but it applies here equally well - it's human problem not exclusive to women although they certainty see their fair share of this.

Good Big Mike	Bad Big Mike	Better Big Mike
Beware of images! Guess which one the media uses?

There are no photos of mike smiling. He's almost certainly depressed and needed medical attention - a sore point in the US, even for acute somatic ailments but especially for mental disease. He needed help not a bullet. While the middle picture looks awful, that's the worst there is - if there was a less flattering photo they would have used hat - the reality is, he walked out. Even the governor complained this was discriminatory and unfair.

On August 10, 2014 an unbiased an article as you're likely to find appeared in print long forgotten in a constant stream of the word "thug" that painted a different picture of Big Mike. First of all he wasn' really that big. He was large framed but only an inch or two taller than his principal and not as big as some of his teachers:

There are only two photos of Mike where he is smiling - one in the snow and one when he was young with his little brother.

"Some 200 angry residents filled the streets in the city of Ferguson, 12 miles north of St. Louis, and screamed at cops Saturday after Michael Brown was gunned down. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the officer to open fire; St. Louis County police promised a ‘lengthy investigation.’

Not a thorough or quick one, a lengthy one. To figure out how to spin this. The Ferguson police knew they'd screwed up, they didn't even bother filing an incident report. If it was as cut straightforward as they'd like you to believe it would be terrbly easy to document but because they knew they were culpable - there were too many witnesses - the Ferguson police passed this off to the St. Louis police who had to file an incident report about a crime that had never witnessed and could have heard about only second hand hearsay by the men who ended Big Mike's life. A promising life it looks like, he had graduated High School and was gong to college to play football.

Here's some of the quotes from the time of the incident that were given to the TV station who investigated:

If the police officer was so in the right why was he suspended? Why was there no incident report? If it's so black and white why did they hand it over to the St. Louis police? To whitewash perhaps? Or to smear Big Mike buying some time so they could do to Mike what the press did to Kadeem perhaps?

Look at how the press began to spin this. "He was no angel" began appearing everywhere as did the word "thug". He was no thug, he had no prior record and no gang affiliation, and it's not possible to find any evidence of any. There's a few photos of him holding his fingers in a weird way, my daughters do that, it's for show. People who are really in gangs are not hard to spot at all.