Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/grand-jury-reaches-decision-in-case-of-ferguson-officer/2014/11/24/de48e7e4-71d7-11e4-893f-86bd390a3340_story.html?hpid=z1
Date: TODAY! (11/25/2014)
The Saint Louis County Grand Jury decided that Officer Darren Wilson will not be charged with murder or involuntary manslaughter. The District Attorney said, “some witnesses maintained their original statement that Mr. Brown had his hands in the air and was not moving toward the officer when he was shot. Several witnesses said Mr. Brown did not raise his hands at all or that he raised them briefly and then dropped them and then turned toward Officer Wilson, who then fired several rounds.” In addition, Officer Wilson testified for four hours to the Grand Jury, which included nine whites and three blacks. In the end, President Obama was on television asking Americans to accept the judicial system's decision, however, protests in Ferguson were almost immediate.
Questions:
Do you believe Officer Wilson's story that Michael Brown was the aggressor and physically assaulted Officer Wilson?
Was justice served?
I do believe that Michael Brown did physically assault Wilson, easy to assume your life is threatened when you're in a not so nice neighborhood and that is why Wilson did what he did which was shoot him. Plus Michael Brown was a delinquent so there's no reason not to believe he is capable of doing something crazy like that. Although it does sound like Wilson did overkill Michael brown. Michael Brown did not deserve to die obviously and justice was somewhat not served and Officer Wilson should have had a minor consequence like a fine.
ReplyDeletei don't believe the officers story and even if he was being aggressive he could have stunted him with a stun gun or shoot him in the leg instead of killing him
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ReplyDeleteDo you believe Officer Wilson's story that Michael Brown was the aggressor and physically assaulted Officer Wilson?
ReplyDelete- Its hard to tell after the release of the reenactment video. Based on the witnesses' statements, I was leaning toward Brown's side. The portrayals of Brown for either sides were polar opposite. Some say he was a young man who fell victim to police brutality, and others say he was an aggressive criminal that was killed by constitutional protocol. Because of this, I am not 100% convinced that Michael Brown assaulted and charged at the Wilson, but I'm willing to keep an open thought if more evidence falls through.
Was justice served?
- The trial for this case was fairly quick compared to other popular "white on black" crimes like Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant. Because of this, I think Michael Brown's family should've been granted a longer time for the police to investigate the murder and come to a FAIR indictment.
I will say that some of the evidence, especially the testimony of witnesses sympathetic to Brown, did lead me to think that Brown was aggressive. Here is a link to a story that has a good example, http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366507379/ferguson-docs-how-the-grand-jury-reached-a-decision
Deletei believe that Michael brown had and unfair trial with the prosecutor not being as aggressive as he should have been in the case. i feel that the case was in favor on officer Wilson favor from the very beginning. the witness on Wilson behalf were nothing to the witness that Michael brown had.I the end i do not agree that justice was served.
ReplyDeleteYou make a fair criticism of the District Attorney. It does seem that the DA was not as objective as many would have wanted. Bias is a difficult reality to deal with. However, the Grand Jury did look at a lot of evidence and I believe the individuals of the Grand Jury did their best.
DeleteI believe Michael Brown pushed the Officer's car door shut, what I don't believe is that Michael Brown was such a threat to Officer Wilson for him to shoot Brown a total of six times resulting in Browns death. If Michael Brown "physically assaulted" Officer Wilson, Wilson should have done one of two things, 1) immediately call for back-up 2) use his stun gun and put hang cuffs on Michael Brown, rather than doing what he did, Justice was not served, Michael Brown was killed and Wilson walked away.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Officer Wilson could have taken several alternative approaches to handle the Michael Brown situation. It is unfair that the government and court systems give police officers such fatal rights against civilians without investigating their "probable cause". If Michael Brown did in fact assault Wilson, Brown he could've been tased, mased, or assaulted back with a night stick. The officer could've reached for any other weapon on his belt, but unfortunately grabbed the most lethal. He knew what he was doing and shouldn't be spared any heat for "being in the moment" or "fearing the suspect because of his size".
DeleteGood thoughts Gabe, unfortunately, the Ferguson Police Department has a limited number of stun guns & Officer Wilson did not have one with him that day. He said he didn't like to wear it because it was bulky. He did have his pepper spray, but he chose to use his gun.
DeleteI believe that the officer is the aggressor in this situation. It is hard to elaborate on this topic because of the true facts still being unclear, but from what I understand Michael Brown was innocent and deserves justice. If he was arrested then I would agree, but the fact that an 18 year old boy was shot 6 times and killed for such a small reason is inexcusable. #JUSTICEFORMICHAELBROWN
ReplyDeleteWhile we will never know a few facts, the amount of witnesses did provide quite a bit of evidence. As I mentioned before, here is a good article:
Deletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366507379/ferguson-docs-how-the-grand-jury-reached-a-decision
I don't believe that Brown was that big of a threat to Officer Wilson. Wilson had no right to shoot Brown multiple times while he was unarmed. No family should have to go through what Michael Browns family is going through just because a Police officer abuses his power. So no I don't think justice was served.
ReplyDeleteI believe that he got away with murder because hes white and a police officer so he had an upper hand. Plus the victim is dead which means he cant defend himself, he cant tell his side of the story, so if he cant tell his side of the story there more likely to believe someone who is alive especially since hes a cop. So no i don't believe that he got justice.
ReplyDelete