A video which purports to be Michael Brown and another young man beating an older man senseless, has appeared on Facebook. He was the young man whose murder is Ferguson, MO has caused demonstrations, protests and even looting. The beating is graphic and hard to watch. It was recorded on a cell phone camera and was shared to dispel the image of Mr. Brown being a gentle giant. I took some time to think about this before responding. The video looks real enough. And, the young man in question looks very much like Michael Brown. I havent seen, or for that matter even looked for corroborating or dispelling information. Frankly, I dont care if it is or isnt him. For the sake of moving this along, I will just accept that it is him. So, if Michael Brown mercilessly beat an older man horribly, with the help of another scum bag, does that justify gunning him down? Or, does the combination of him beating this man, then strong arm robbing a store and roughing up the manager, make it OK? Michael Brown was a very large and intimidating man, who attempted to take a Officer Wilsons gun and physically attacked him. This escalated into a life or death decision made by Wilson. Clearly, while he was under attack he was thinking of his own self preservation and took steps to assure it. He shot and killed his attacker. But, it should never have gotten this far and that is entirely on Wilson. His gung-ho approach had led him into a confrontation a few months earlier that also escalated. In that case he severely beat a drug dealer, in a situation that unnecessarily got out of hand when he did not wait for back up. He was given an award for this out of control situation. That set the stage for the killing of Michael Brown. A lot has been written, after the fact, about what an officer should do when confronted by the situation Wilson faced. But, all of this has been generated to support a position specifically relative to what happened in Ferguson. I went national police training source to see what Wilson did to cause this. Kevin R. Davis is a twenty five year veteran police officer who specializes in police training. Here are some relevant quotes from the August 22, 2012 issue of Law Office Magazine: | Advising officers to approach dangerous locations and suspects cautiously is a wise recommendation. Waiting for backup is a sound tactical suggestion and advisement. Far too often officers overextend themselves in situations, handling the call themselves instead of waiting for back-up officers to arrive on scene to provide cover and additional sets of eyes, ears and guns in a worst-case scenario. Yes, sometimes officers “Colonel Custer” it—that is, rush headlong into a problem and are up to their rumps in alligators before they know it and get hurt in the process. Such recommendations as exercising caution, calling for back-up and waiting until they get there and slow the heck down, are all sound advice for supervisors to reinforce to their troops. The night in question, Brown and a friend were walking down the center of a street. No threat to life or property was apparent. Had Wilson simply waited for back up, things would have been different. No matter if Michael Brown was a sleeze ball or choir boy, proper police procedure should have been followed.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 05:44:21 +0000
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