The Fraud Who Legitimized 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot!' : Shawn Parcells

The Curious Case of Non-Forensic Non-Pathologist Non-Nothing Shawn Parcells

How Did This Fraud Manage To Insert Himself On Center Stage Of The Michael Brown Case? 

Parcells begins his presentation around 15:29 of the video

What if I told you a guy with no formal forensic training managed to pass himself off to the entire nation as a forensic pathologist & used a nationally televised press conference to sell a false narrative that drastically affected a divisive racial case that resulted in half of a town being burned down and looted?  

Yes, this actually happened.  It happened in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.  

Parcells' presentation begins at around 15:29 of the video linked above.  He doesn't speak long, but then again he didn't have to.  He makes two main points in that presentation: 

1. In his 'expert' opinion, Michael Brown was likely shot in the back and 

2. In his 'expert' opinion, Michael Brown was shot down while he was standing still with his hands up in the air.  

A moment that should live in media infamy

Parcells did his damage in August, operating with impunity because nobody at the time investigated his background.  It wasn't until late November, more than three months later, that the lies began to be uncovered. 

CNN first began asking questions about Parcells in this November 27th report: 

Link: Is 'Professor' Who Helped With Brown Autopsy Who He Says He Is?

On Dec. 2nd, Radley Balko at the Washington Post posted this damning report on Parcells that laid bare just how badly the entire country had been taken in: 

Link:  The saga of Shawn Parcells, the uncredited forensics ‘expert’ in the Michael Brown case

As it so happens, the very first words out of Parcell's mouth at that nationally televised press conference was a lie:  

"First of all, I'm Professor Shawn Parcells." 

Not true. Parcells has never been on the faculty of any college or university anywhere.  Washburn University in Topeka Kansas, where Parcells claims to be an Adjunct Professor on his LinkedIn page, says he has never been on their staff in any capacity.  

It turns out to be a certified forensic pathologist, one must have a medical degree before undergoing formal forensic training.  Parcells has reluctantly admitted he does not have any medical degree. How reluctant was this admission?  Read this exchange he had with a CNN reporter: 

When CNN visited Parcells in his Overland Park, Kansas, home, he presented a photo of himself onstage at what appears to be a graduation ceremony at the New York Chiropractic College. 

“I got a master’s degree in anatomy and physiology, with clinical correlation,” he said. 

Asked where his diploma was, he replied that it was on the way. “It’s coming,” he said. “They mail it to you.” 

The next day, at another on-camera interview, the conversation went like this: 

CNN: So that master’s degree in New York, you have that degree?
Parcells: I will have it next month, yes. 

CNN: I don’t mean the piece of paper. I mean have you been conferred that degree? 

Parcells: Yes, I will. Next month. 

CNN: Right now, as we speak, you have that degree? 

Parcells: No, I do not.

Don't miss the full import of what happened here: a complete fraud got up there invested in an national audiences eyes with medical science acumen he didn't really have and he used that false respect to add credibility to a racially inflammatory false narrative.  

Al Sharpton does what Al Sharpton does: he gets there first and then uses the national media to rush the most racially inflammatory version of what happened out the door to the public.  We expect that.  We've seen it enough times now to know how this works.  

But what Parcells did was far worse. He took that racially inflammatory narrative and he gave it the forensic science 'stamp of approval', which is exactly the last thing that should have been done.  

It *looked* as if a respected, credentialed forensic pathologist has just backed up Dorian Johnson's account of the shooting of Michael Brown.  The moment Parcells stated that Brown 'could have been' shot in the back, and then raised his hands up to show the position he believed Brown's hands were in during the fatal hail of bullets, Dorian Johnson's lies got a huge credibility boost in front of a national audience.  

One can only wonder as the nation watched half of Ferguson go up in flames or be looted, if Parcells even spent a second reflecting on his role in selling the 'hand up, don't shoot!' myth.