From Darren Wilson’s public comments, he apparently believes
he handled the encounter with Michael Brown perfectly. According to Wilson he was just doing his job.
That comment in itself is chilling since
the result of his “doing his job” was the death of Michael Brown.
In reading Wilson’s description of the initial physical
confrontation with Brown, I wondered why didn’t Wilson simply drive his police
car several feet away from Brown when the alleged punching began? Wilson stated that he had called for backup. If so, why didn’t he wait until backup came
before he confronted the two African American men walking in the street? Why would he initiate a confrontation with
two suspects when there was no other physical police presence there with him? Did Wilson really want to buy time until his
back up came? If so Wilson had the
option to use his vehicle to follow the suspects from a safe distance also protecting
himself from harm. Instead after the
initial verbal exchange with the two Black males, he backs his car up in
reverse to approach two suspects not knowing if they were armed or not. Was Wilson taught this back up approach
maneuver in his “training”?
During his grand jury testimony Wilson was asked wouldn’t he
have been more mobile in dealing with the suspects in his car rather than on
foot? Wilson replied he wanted to stay
where he could keep Brown in one place while keeping himself safe. He is also later asked about why he didn’t
think about driving away after the confrontation, again until backup came? His response was he was attempting to deal
with the threat. So, Wilson made a conscious
decision to put himself into a situation where he could claim he was fearful which
allowed him to use his gun.
Wilson said his training was not to flee. Was he trained to back up his vehicle in the
manner that he did? Why not turn the car
around rather than put it into reverse? Was
he trained to escalate encounters with minorities into a deadly force situation
where firing his gun was the best alternative to diffuse the situation? If you’re afraid of getting beat up in your
car, then move the car away from the person while maintaining sight of that
person until backup arrives!
Wilson played the “I feared for my life card” and by the
grand jury’s decision played it well. The
grand jury apparently believed that a 6’ 4” policeman, driving an SUV police
vehicle, and armed with an automatic weapon rightfully felt threatened by and should
have been fearful of an unarmed Black male. A Black male whom Wilson said he feared was
going to beat Wilson to death or take his gun away and shoot him. Hollywood couldn’t write a better science
fiction script. All the protections
Wilson had from being harmed and feeling fearful he decided to give up. Attempting to get out of his vehicle, and not
distancing himself from the suspects until help came were decisions made by
Wilson.
Did Wilson really believe that someone he already had shot
at least 3 times would be able to tackle him?
Did Wilson, a trained policeman, really believe the only option was to
shoot Brown? Did Wilson panic and cover
up his panic by claiming he feared for his life from an unarmed person?
Wilson, why didn’t you distance yourself from Brown in your
V6 engine SUV car! Wilson says he was
trying to buy some time until help arrived.
Moving his car away would have bought some time. Was Wilson afraid that backing off until help
arrived would be seen as being cowardly? After the shots in his car, Wilson inferred
that he was fearful that an unarmed Brown would get away and possibly hurt
someone else responding to the scene. How was an unarmed Brown going to hurt others
after already having been shot by Wilson?
After the shooting Wilson walked back to his SUV police car
and turned the engine off. Wilson was
told to drive back to the station alone in another car. After killing another human being he was not
monitored by the police. Instead he was
given the honor system method to police himself while driving back to the
police station. No one monitored what
self inflicted injuries he could have made to himself to prove Michael Brown
struck him. The grand jury transcripts
showed that Wilson, a supposedly well trained cop, was on the wrong radio channel
when initially reporting “shots fired”. One
witness said that after Brown was shot he staggered toward Wilson. Another witness said Brown stopped turned
around and walked towards Wilson. That
witness wondered why Brown didn’t stop approaching Wilson. Wilson said he backed away from Brown some
but as Brown continued towards him chose to stop his retreat and end the
encounter by shooting Brown until he was dead. Wilson made a conscious choice
of ending the encounter by killing Michael Brown. Wilson chose the method of encountering Brown
initially. Wilson chose to approach the
two men before backup arrived. Wilson chose to pursue unarmed suspects after
they ran away.
So he thinks he did the right thing? As the civil authority in the situation, his poor
judgments are partially why the mother and father of Michael Brown are now
without their son.
The Ferguson community grand jury had their chance to
properly address the killing. Now it’s
time to put the case into the category of a civil rights crime and carefully
review each decision point of Wilson.
All policemen have the right to fear being injured when you enter
an unknown situation. But you also need to
avoid giving away all the protections you have from being harmed. Wilson gave away his protections and helped to
elevate the situation into an execution. Is that doing your job?
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