The principle of reasonableness is one of the cornerstones of Anglo-American law. If Darren Wilson had a reasonable fear for his own life, and reasonably believed that his only protection was to shoot and kill Michael Brown, then he would have been legally justified in killing Brown. It would have been a case of justifiable homicide. And this is precisely the conclusion that grand jury reached. But there is absolutely nothing reasonable about the racial fantasy of the young super-predator that Wilson was so obviously drawing on. The notion of someone mysteriously “bulking up” to run through a hail of bullets? That belongs in a comic book—and not a very good one, at that. And here is where we return to Lisa Bloom’s critique—any prosecutor worth their salt, even a rookie—should clearly have seen how wildly unreasonable Wilson’s mindset was, and cross-questioned him accordingly. The grand jury should have been left with no doubt that Wilson’s mindset and attitudes were anything but reasonable. He was right in one thing, though. His self-description as a five-year-old had a disturbing element of truth in it, because his fantasy view of Michael Brown’s predatory superpowers is not the sort of thing that anyone much older than five can reasonable believe in.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:29:28 +0000
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