re-posting this here. apologies to those who see it twice! First and foremost, I want to say its been pretty disgusting reading all the topics here justifying the murder of a teenager. It seems to me, that the media has tainted the hearts and humanity of so many people, to turn the unnecessary murder of a young boy, into a strictly white vs. black scandal and pit us against each other by marketing to interest groups, as theyre so clearly successful, time and time again. The worst part of all this is that, to this day, I have never seen evidence presented that confirmed, without reasonable doubt, that Michael Brown was the perpetrator in the store robbery that is so commonly and wrongly used to justify his killing. This is a kid with no prior criminal record that weve been led to believe decided to choose this day to commit a convenience store robbery, in broad daylight, on camera. Despite the fact that the store owners have stated they do not believe Mike Brown was the one who committed the robbery, the media has had no problem plastering this headline all over every major outlet, every hour and smearing this kids name before jury was ever allowed to deliberate, thereby creating an environment for the assumption of guilt. Another fact which has gone largely ignored, is that the police are the ones who lied about their motivations for releasing this video. The police chief was quoted as saying he received an influx of requests for the video to be released under the FOI act, then we found out no such requests had been made, prior to the police department choosing to release it. I wonder what their motivations could be to implicate a kid who was just murdered by one of their employees, in the robbery of a poor, frightened store owner just trying to make a living. Im sure preying on the emotional, gut reactions of the public to alter the perception of your victim wouldnt be helpful in any way (/s). Thats all hearsay though, right? Okay, so lets disregard all of those facts, assume the worst of Michael Brown. Hell, why would Michael Brown be innocent, the world is full of terrible people (especially those violent blacks we see in all the rap videos), right? Lets talk about the fact that Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Mike Brown 6 times, stated he had no knowledge of Brown even being a suspect in a robbery and that he and his friend were simply blocking traffic. At this point in both accounts, the story of the infamous struggle eventually took place and Mike Brown is shot 6 times, including twice in the head. At no point did the officer suspect, or have reason to suspect Brown of being armed or being a criminal. What we are left with, is two scenarios: the first, is that Michael Brown was guilty of a petty, unarmed theft, which, according to Missouri State Law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment, not exceeding 365 days, in addition to a fine, not exceeding $1,000. The second scenario is that Michael Brown and his friend were guilty of jaywalking, which is punishable by citation in most of the United States. The end result of whichever scenario you choose to believe, was an 18 year old boy, being shot 6 times, including twice in the head. Why are we so divisive bout whether or not THIS constitutes excessive force? Why is race a factor in deciding whether or not this boy deserved to be shot in the head for one of two misdemeanor offenses? The reaction of the public to this story, focusing strictly on the racial aspect, would lead one to believe that police are trained to kill at any time and that this is a normal response. Supposedly, this is not the case. Although each jurisdictions code of conduct is different when it comes to use of deadly force, generally speaking, police officers are taught to suppress and subdue suspects in a number of ways. The act of using deadly force is always meant to be the absolute last resort and many policies highlight this by instructing officers that, even drawing your firearm prematurely, should be done only when entirely necessary and, in fact, LIMITS the officers ability to use alternative methods of controlling the situation. If you are a grown man with any sense of bravery, dignity or respect for human life, what would lead you to forego all means of defense against an 18 year old, other than repeatedly discharging a firearm, pointed above their waist? Police are trained to use hand-to-hand, billy club/nightstick, pepper spray and non-lethal marksman tactics, yet the only method this officer felt comfortable exercising against an unarmed person was to shoot wildly and aim to kill. The psychological reasoning behind that is extremely disturbing and completely indefensible for a trained professional. The facts of a few events leading up to the shooting have been poured over and regurgitated to us 24 hours a day for the past few months and it seems well never get an accurate portrayal of some of those details. What I feel has been forgotten in all of this finger-pointing and racial tension is the human aspect of whether or not it is EXCESSIVE to shoot an unarmed, 18 year old, 6 times for a misdemeanor offense. Considering the penalties for being charged with either of those things, the answer is clear. The only thing that makes this situation about race is that it BEGS the question: would Darren Wilson have been so quick to shoot in a lethal manner if the victim in question were an 18 year old, white kid? The fact that you even have to ask means that this issue is deeper than we can digest with knee-jerk reactions and snap judgments. Time and time again, law enforcement, politicians and media, rely on referring to black victims of police brutality as alleged suspects. It is reported that police are simply doing their jobs by responding to a call or detaining someone resembling a suspect. It seems in America, black men can be killed just because they apparently all look alike. At the end of the day, I just wish there could have been a jury of people that had no cable or internet access or exposure to any of the distracting aspects of this case, to deliberate on the facts of the shooting before misinformation and speculation had an opportunity to cloud us all from having an objective, educated discussion as to what standards we hold our police forces and how much a life is really worth.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:19:13 +0000
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