There’s no question
in my mind that a St. Louis County Ferguson ,
Missouri
The fact that they
didn’t is a travesty.
The grand jury,
overseen by Prosecutor Robert McCulloch, met for weeks to review the case of
Wilson, who shot the 18-year-old Brown, who was black, in Ferguson last August.
The case has been
fraught with racial overtones, since Wilson
is white and Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting.
Many
African-Americans maintain that the shooting is one more example of a pattern
of unjustified killings of young black men by white police officers.
In the incident,
Brown and a friend were walking down the street in Ferguson ,
when Wilson pulled up in a squad
car and asked the two to walk on the sidewalk. According to Wilson ,
the two refused, and words were exchanged. When Wilson
pulled his car ahead and tried to get of his car, he said Brown slammed the
door on him, and a tussle occurred. Wilson
maintained that Brown reached for Wilson ’s
gun. In the struggle, Wilson got
control of the gun and fired two shots, with one grazing Brown.
Brown then ran, and
Wilson got out of the car and
pursued him, apparently with gun in hand. He told the grand jury he shouted to
Brown to ‘get down the ground’ but Brown refused. Then, the officer claimed,
Brown turned around and began running at him. This claim, however, is disputed by eyewitnesses
who said Brown stopped and put his hands up.
Though Wilson
never testified that he “feared for his life” before shooting Brown, he said in
his testimony that he was frightened by Brown who was bigger and who he said
had a “crazed” look on his face and looked like a “demon.”
Frightened or not,
Wilson had an obligation as a trained police officer to use all methods or
means at his disposal short of using deadly force to deal with Brown. By his
own testimony, he had Mace in his car. Why didn’t he attempt to use it? He also
had an asp (like a blackjack) in his car. Using a blackjack is not very nice, but
it’s generally not going to create fatal injuries. Why didn’t he prepare to use
that? Finally, all officers are trained in self-defense without a weapon. Why
didn’t he plan to deal with Brown using those fighting techniques if need be,
until backup help arrived?
Why was there such a
ready willingness to use deadly force?
Contrary to the
blather I’ve heard on FOX news, that the officer was “presumed innocent” from
the get-go in this case, I think there was a heavy burden on Wilson and the
Ferguson Police Department to show that Wilson absolutely had no alternative but
to use deadly force on Brown, who did not have a weapon The burden was clearly on
the police to prove Wilson’s actions were appropriate.
When you consider
that Wilson had other non-lethal
means of dealing with Brown, and that some witnesses even contradicted Wilson
in his claim that he was being threatened,
I don’t think this burden of proof was met.
Certainly, District
Attorney McCulloch had enough probable cause to bring an indictment.
It is troubling
that apparently McCulloch did not try to direct this grand jury, as prosecutors
usually do. Instead he just threw a lot of information to the grand jurors, who
are ordinary citizens, and said in effect, ‘you decide.’
It’s pretty clear
McCulloch didn’t want to bring charges against Officer Wilson.
What a disgrace.
Hopefully, federal prosecutors will step in and do justice in this case.
