It Was Built on a Lie': Don Lemon's CNN Panel Clashes Over 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot

Commentators clashed Thursday during a "CNN Tonight" panel discussion hosted by Don Lemon about the "hands up, don't shoot" rallying cry that followed the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown last year.

Conservative commentator Kevin Jackson admitted that he was likely the most outraged participant on the panel, saying the narrative surrounding the phrase was "built on a lie."

"The fact that it was built on a lie, the fact that people continue to want to propagate the lie, the fact that they've embarrassed the city of Ferguson," he said. "All the things leading into Ferguson, the statistics, all lies."

But Monifa Bandele, senior campaign director for MomsRising.org, said that she's not convinced "hands up, don't shoot" didn't happen in Brown's case.

"'Hands up' is the ultimate truth, and the reason why hands up has gone viral across the country is because it's a posture known to black people, whether they are in the halls of congress, whether they are in the NFL, or whether they live in the most marginalized communities — or whether they're on the campuses of Yale University," she said. "It's a posture known to them."

The panel really heated up when David Klinger, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said the evidence in the case makes it clear that Brown was charging toward Officer Darren Wilson when the cop fatally shot him.

"It is clear from the physical evidence … that Mr. Brown was coming back at Officer Wilson," he said.

Watch the panel clash below:

The discussion comes after liberal Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehartconceded on Monday that the “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative was "built on a lie," writing that he was forced to confront “two uncomfortable truths” in the case follow the release of the U.S. Department of Justice's report on the shooting: "Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown."

(H/T: Mediaite)