Although I think that the grand jury decision was mostly right, I am skeptical that in the case of Michael Brown, the officer handled the situation as well as he should have. How does a professional peace officer go from making an ID on a suspect that stole some cigars to turning him into swiss cheese? I fully realize that Michael Brown attacked him... but why did the officer put himself into that position? Why didn't he wait for backup? All I am saying is on that fateful day, it seems like he didn't handle the situation as he was trained to do and made some critical mistakes.
Without video evidence, we're left with the forensics, the officer's statements, and conflicting witness testimony, much of which was weeded out as witnesses admitted they hadn't really seen what they told the tv cameras they'd seen, along with other witnesses who backed up the officer with statements that never wavered.
1.) Michael Brown had parts of his body inside the officer's car, assaulted the officer with one or more punches to the head, and had his hand on the officer's gun when it was fired inside the car. The placement of Brown's blood inside the car, along with contact gunshot residue on Brown's hand, proved that.
2.) Wilson had called for backup, and his training required him to keep the suspect in sight, repeatedly demanding that he drop to the ground. Blood and other forensic evidence proved that Michael Brown ran about 100 feet, then turned and began to move back toward Wilson. Then and only then did the gunfire begin. The final shot took place when Brown, who outweighed Wilson by nearly 100 pounds, was 8 to 10 feet away. There was no time for backup to arrive before the shooting began, and the officer's shots were fired as he realized that Brown was capable of killing him if he reached him. It was self-defense.
Wilson had approximately 15 seconds to make every decision he made. It's easy for all of us out here to say, "why didn't he just taze him"... the kid was too far away for a taser, assuming Wilson had one, when he exited the car, then turned and headed back too fast to change weapons; "why did he fire so many times"... he's not a great shot, this was the first time Wilson had ever fired his weapon on duty and the kid was moving fast; "why didn't he just let the kid get away"... as a police officer, it's Wilson's job
not to do that. And on and on. It's a whole 'nother ballgame to be there and realize if you make the wrong choice, you have seconds to live.
This isn't the Martin/Zimmerman case, where a swaggering civilian provoked a completely unnecessary confrontation with a young, slightly-built kid. This was a police officer facing a massive opponent who was, in the officer and some witnesses words, "charging" him. The grand jury only had to find "probable cause" to indict, which is the lowest possible standard. They couldn't find that, because the evidence didn't even support the lowest possible standard.
Personally, I wonder where all the outrage and pickets were when Fullerton, Calif., police officers... 3-6 of them... surrounded a mentally ill (white) man, tased him three times after he was already on the ground, then proceeded to beat him so badly every bone in his face was broken, his black/blue face was swollen to the size of a beachball, and he died within hours. Those officers went to trial... and were acquitted.
That is the kind of blatant, outrageous police brutality abuse and failure of justice that makes me want to scream and puke. Not the Michael Brown case. Assault a cop, try to get a cop's gun, and finally charge a cop with his weapon drawn... well, you're going down. Period.