My nephew is a 29 year cop said this about Ferguson.

[davishenderson265]

Not only is he a 29 year cop, he is the third highest ranking officer in the county that he works in. I asked him about this. Being the Republican that he is, I expected him to jump to Darin Wilson's defense. He had this to say.

He would not say it was a racial thing because he doesn't know. He did say he read all of the reports and the grand jury testimony.

1-He said at very least Wilson is completely incompetent. That you never get out of the car by yourself if you know there is going to be a physical confrontation with an unarmed person. Especially if you were in Wilson's words, "afraid" of the guy.

2- He said Wilson should have let Brown go, followed him as far as he could in the car as he called for back up. If he had to, arrest him later.

3-He had no business firing once Brown was down on the ground. He fired four shots too many even if you believe his story.

4- It is unheard of to leave the guy laying in the street for four and a half hours.

5- If all of this was in accordance to Wilson's training, an idiot trained him.

6-Brown's family will get a huge settlement from Ferguson because if this goes to civil trail it will cost them many millions more.

What my nephew thinks happened is that Wilson got into an argument with the guy, got out of his car to whip his ass. Quickly realized he bit off more than he could chew, so he shot the guy.

Take it for what it's worth.

[FarPoint]

1. I have repeated no. 2 a hundred times...

Finally, a higher standard Police Officer. Thank you for sharing.

[underpants]

2. That is a great assessment

Wilson f'ed up from start to finish

[jehop61]

3. My husband

was an officer on the street for 12 years and an instructor in the police academy of a majoe city for 20. He said pretty much the same thing. Even if Wilson's story was totally true, he still did the wrong thing. And we can be assured his story was not true.

[davishenderson265]

4. He also said, every cop he's talked to think Wilson is an idiot.

Though most won't say it in public.

[Warpy]

51. They're not alone.

Just like in the Trayvon Martin murder, once a guy spoiling for a fight gets out of the car, it's all over. Even dropping down prone on the ground with hands behind you to be cuffed is no guarantee you won't be shot at that point.

[uppityperson]

55. Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown are "d-bags"? Do you think Zimmerman was ok in shooting

Martin?

[uppityperson]

59. You call Trayvon Martin an alpha male douchebag? Gotcha. And bull.

From the quickly accessed and sourced wiki, sounds like a decent teen with teen issues, not an alpha male d-bag you claim he was.

When Martin was nine years old, he saved his father's life by pulling his father, who had been immobilized by burns to the legs, out of a fire in their apartment

Martin had wanted to fly or fix planes and in the summer of 2009, enrolled in "Experience Aviation," a seven-week program in Opa-locka, Florida, which introduced him to aviation. During the time Martin was enrolled in the program, it was run by Barrington Irving, the youngest person ever to fly solo around the world. Irving said Martin was a polite youth who enjoyed flying and had an interest in football. After Martin graduated from the program, he spent the next summer as a volunteer, helping out new students in the aviation program. According to his parents, Martin had hoped to attend the University of Miami or Florida A&M University.

When Martin started high school, his goal of playing professional football was put aside in favor of a career working with airplanes.[21] Martin attended Carol City High School in Miami Gardens for his freshman year and most of his sophomore year, before he transferred to Krop High School in north Miami-Dade in 2011. While in his first year at Carol City, Martin attended classes in the mornings at the high school and then went to George T. Baker Aviation School for the rest of his school day. Martin's ninth grade teacher, who taught him three classes of Aerospace Technology at the Baker Aviation School, said he was a normal student, well-behaved and passed all the classes. According to another teacher at Carol City, math was his favorite subject, and she said she never saw Martin show disrespect. Some students at Carol City, compared Martin's death to that of Emmett Till, one of the nation's most infamous civil rights cases.

At the time of the shooting, he was serving a ten-day suspension for having a marijuana pipe and an empty bag containing marijuana residue. He had been suspended twice before; for tardiness and truancy and marking up a door with graffiti.

Martin was not charged with any crime related to these suspensions and did not have a juvenile record.

[seabeyond]

76. What is this with rw'er a and their obsession with alpha. Really says something not

Complimentary that they are so obsessed defining their manhood in terms of alpha.

Clueless what the troll was saying, just saw it in your post. Go to di and these guys are all over their fantasy of the... Alpha

[1StrongBlackMan]

111. It's what one obsesses about ...

while living as the Beta, if not the Omega.

[ncjustice80]

61. Wow, racist much???

Inner city douchebaggery? Alpha males? Are you even reading your own words???

[uppityperson]

66. THANK YOU JURORS!

[ncjustice80]

71. Lol looks like someone got the ban stick xD

[uppityperson]

72. I saw that so now must say THANK YOU MIRT

[sdfernando]

104. And that is part of the problem

If things are going to change then good decent LEO's need to call to account the bad ones and they need to do it publicly. The blue code of silence servers no one in the end.

[BootinUp]

5. Wow, I agree with a Republican police officer on something!

[Kablooie]

80. There are still a few Republicans who can think.

Not many it seems, and I'm sure we'd disagree with a hell of a lot of their thoughts, but they aren't all total zombies about everything.

But I'm kind of talking out of my hat because I don't really know any Republicans.
Or at least not anyone who claims they are and talks politics.

[elleng]

6. Thanks. Good to hear.

I didn't ask my son in law cop/sheriff, as I'd opened my mouth loudly at the wrong moment so foreclosed any further discussion on the subject w Thanksgiving crowd.

[loyalsister]

7. Thanks for sharing that with us!!

[KingCharlemagne]

8. I wish you could get your nephew to post on DU himself. Even hearing

it second hand carries immense weight for me, since i have no LE training and thus no frame of reference, other than (arguably) common sense.

The only caveat I would add is that the first two shots from Wilson's firearm were discharged while Wilson was still in his vehicle. Not sure how that meshes with your nephew's take, except that by the time Wilson got out of his car it may have already escalated far beyond an intended 'ass whipping.'

Please thank your nephew on my behalf

[roguevalley]

30. there are cops in my family and prison guards and I am one semester away from a bachelors

in law enforcement though not academy trained. I think Wilson is a bomb that was waiting to blow. He was a idiot with a gun and badge and it was inevitable, especially with at least three of his department outed as Klansmen. Imagine, Klansmen with guns and badges.

[KingCharlemagne]

70. I've wondered off and on whether the gloating boast of that shitstain Ancuna

actually had one or two grains of truth behind it. To wit, that the Klan had infiltrated local law enforcement to the point where it could actually influence the outcome of the investigation. Call it for now still merely a nagging paranoid suspicion. But nothing to date has quieted it much.

[roguevalley]

73. at least 3 cops had their Klan pics on their Facebook pages

Anonymous found them and the 3 took them down. I saw them. They were at a rally for Wilson and the pix matched. You know everyone knew as well as the prosecutor.

[GeorgeGist]

9. Cool story, bro.

[Logical]

50. What is your point? Or you have none? nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

69. He has none. nt

[Logical]

74. So you're saying he is lying? nt

[Maedhros]

102. That's of the stupidest posts I have ever seen on DU.

/ignore list

[NYC_SKP]

10. Your nephew is correct, IMNSVHO.

The civil case is the only justice we'll get and it still won't be justice because Wilson will still have his life and his freedom.

[1StrongBlackMan]

32. Are you seeking of "Justice" for ...

those most directly affected by this, i.e., the family of Michael Brown; or, "justice" for unaffected spectators, such as ourselves?

[NYC_SKP]

34. Both are in order, IMO. Justice for Mike Brown comes in both forms.

Absent any change in society, as might be seen by actions against the city, county, and PD, justice will not have been fully served.

Similarly, if only the public agencies are brought to court and the Brown family left behind, then justice will again not have been served.

His family should see some relief in the form of damages, and the community should see changes to the way things are done.

Distance spectators like myself, I don't think I'm looking for justice, nor do I think I'm due any for this mess.

I think that's the way it should go and the way Michael and his family members would want to have it.

[John1956PA]

11. I recommended a previous thread of yours where you said Wilson is guilty of bad police work.

I have been saying that, too.

Thanks for the detailed assessment from your nephew who points out Wilson's mistakes.

[MisterP]

12. it's actually very relevant that he can't tell if the confrontation was necessarily racial,

(though there's a black "perp," black neighborhood, black/white police relations); because the coverup absolutely was--from the moment the "hulking thug shattering his skull and needing 12 bullets to be 'put down'" complex was activated

racism doesn't just give impunity to overtly racist incidents, but also incompetent and sadist officers who are in it for bullying: it then encourages overt racism by telling the sadists they can go after Black people even more scot-free than usual since the coverup will be even easier if it goes pear-shaped

impunity is often actually all-or-nothing: if one violator gets prosecuted the floodgates are open and the police have to watch themselves much more because the "shield is down" and punishments are no longer an internal affair with just the PD and their pet prosecutors

[marym625]

13. Thanks for this

Good to know. I wish cops would speak up publicly.

The only thing I think happened differently is I think Wilson had his gun drawn when he backed the car up. He was pissed they didn't get out of the road, those uppity. .. And when he aimed it them, Michael Brown started fighting for his life and the life of his friend.

[earthside]

14. Excellent points. And as to the findings of the grand jury ...

... it is so important to point out that a grand jury is not a trial!

Yet this is precisely how the right-wing is spinning this whole controversy: that the results and 'evidence' of the grand jury proceedings are determinative.

Indeed, one of the big attack lines of the racist-right is that there should even be perjury prosecutions of witnesses that did not corroborate Wilson's testimony.

Without an adversarial proceeding like a trial, we really cannot arrive at a reasonable judgement about what happened in Ferguson to Michael Brown. A court room trial is the basis of our system of 'justice'.

On the face of it, it appears that we have a case here of prosecutors working on behalf of the accused/perpetrator and not seeking truth or justice.

There should have been an independent special prosecutor.

[lolly]

110. They should be careful what they wish for!

The perjury trial they think they want would force Wilson to testify as a witness. Decent defense attorneys would shred his testimony.

[democrank]

15. Smart, level-headed nephew.

Thanks for posting this.

[Bad Thoughts]

16. Police malpractice!

If physicians can be sued for making stupid choices, so should police.

[branford]

21. Doctors are mot sued for making "stupid" choices, however, they may be liable for "negligence."

Police departments may similarly be liable for negligence. However, negligence is a civil action, and does not necessarily implicate criminal wrongdoing.

[7962]

64. But cops are immune from civil liability when they do anything wrong or illegal

And THAT needs to change. They know the city will pay damages and also provide them with a lawyer. maybe if they thought they could lose their house in a lawsuit they may take their job a little more serious.

[branford]

78. That rationale applies to virtually all government employees,

and I would agree that the immunity provided to these employees does not always benefit the general public or encourage productivity or best practices among those involved.

[kwassa]

67. Johnnie Cochran made his name and got rich over the repeated negligence of the LAPD

and he was a former city prosecutor.

Long before OJ, Johnnie was raking in cash from lawsuits over the stupidity, er, negligence of the police. He was quite effective.

[noiretextatique]

90. yep...he worked for Ronnie Settles' family

And successfully sued the city of Signal Hill on his behalf.

[gordianot]

17. I have heard similar break down add one more.

From a veteran Policeman. Wilson knew he shot Brown and probably killed him approached body then walked around possibly contaminating the scene. I later told him the prosecutor denied Wilson walked around the body. He asked if the prosecutor volunteered that info his response was OMG on learning it was a reporters question. I forgot to tell him there were pictures.

[PatrynXX]

18. I have come to the conclusion

after the clodhopper prosecutor.. that the system in MO failed everyone including the accused. So if it comes that the federal investigation finds that the higher ups need to be held accountable. that should be interesting. and that Prosecutor should go to jail

[branford]

20. The prosecutor should go to jail for what?

Absent criminality like provable bribery, blackmail, etc., a prosecutor is under no obligation to pursue any potentially criminal matter. McCulloch was free to lawfully not seek an indictment against Wilson, and present any evidence and testimony he chose to the grand jury, even including a recommendation that they not vote to indict. This is the very essence of prosecutorial discretion.

Strongly disagreeing with McCulloch's perception and choices in the case is certainly appropriate, but there is nothing to indicate that he broke the law or any rules of professional conduct.

[MadDAsHell]

23. Agreed, that's pretty scary that we've now got people...

calling for jail time for the involved individuals if they don't like a legal outcome.

If this is the direction we're going, why have a legal system at all? Why have grand juries, trials, etc. if everyone has already decided what an acceptable outcome is before the investigation has even started?

[branford]

25. I certainly understand the frustration, particularly in a case like the Brown shooting.

I think that, more often than not, people just do not understand the rules and procedures of our criminal and civil justice system, and the duties and obligations if its participants.

For instance, if McCulloch did not want to prosecute Wilson, he simply should have said so. By taking the case to the grand jury, but not really trying to procure an indictment, although legal, confused a great many people and aggravated an already tense situation.

[AndyTiedye]

26. Prosecutor Should be Disbarred, at Least

Conflict on interest that stinks to high heaven

[branford]

35. Disbarment would not be the punishment for a conflict of interest,

it would be removal from the case, and the governor could appoint a special prosecutor.

As to the conflict, if you're referring to the fact that McCulloch's father was a police officer killed by a black man, that would not normally be considered a conflict of interest mandating his removal from the case. An actual conflict would be more akin to a prosecutor being a close familial relation to either the alleged victim or suspect.

A prosecutor also faces no conflict because he routinely works with police. A true conflict generally requires far more than such an attenuated relationship.

I've additionally seen some claim that McCulloch's choice not to pursue charges against other officers in the past may also constitute a conflict. This, too, would be incorrect. A consistent, if troubling, exercise in prosecutorial discretion, without proof of criminality such as bribery or blackmail, is perfectly lawful and ethical, and most certainly not a conflict of interest.

The remedy for McCulloch's choices is the purview of the voting electorate, not the criminal courts or any disciplinary committee.

[AndyTiedye]

62. Leading the Fundraising for the DEFENSE Seems Like a Conflict of Interest

and a pretty brazen one at that.

If somebody dug a bit, they might find some obstruction of justice in there too.

[branford]

79. Not prosecuting is definitely nowhere near obstruction of justice.

The fundraising issue has also been rehashed here innumerable times, and the connection between McCulloch and the charitable organization and any donations was, at best, indirect, and not a legal conflict of interest.

I'm not here to defend McCulloch's choices, for I certainly agree that an indictment was warranted and could easily by procured by the grand jury (a conviction would have been far less certain), but absolutely nothing revealed thus far about McCulloch appears to actually be unlawful or against the rules of professional conduct.

Professional organizations, noted and experienced attorneys and activists, and the DOJ, have been monitoring this case and "digging" into McCulloch starting before the presentment to the grand jury. If they had anything substantive, they would have immediately sought judicial intervention, yet the best they could muster was a request for McCulloch to withdraw from the case.

McCulloch may have been an ass, but unless far more incriminating evidence is discovered, the only recourse against him is at the ballot box come 2018.

[branford]

19. Interesting analysis.

The points, if all true (and that is still subject to controversy), demonstrate that Wilson was either incompetent or poorly trained, but do not necessarily form the predicate for criminal charges. If nothing more could be proved to jury, as an attorney, I believe that a civil trial would be the proper and appropriate forum to adjudicate the shooting.

Remember, with any legal action, it's not what you believe, but rather what you can prove, and do so beyond a reasonable doubt.

[Cal33]

22. "5- If all of this was in accordance to Wilson's training, an idiot trained him." I've read in this

forum, I think, that police departments no longer hire as police officers applicants with
IQs better than 102 to 104. (An IQ of 100 is right in the middle, the 50 percent mark).
The reason is that those with higher IQs tend to get bored as police officers, and their
rate of leaving the service was high. It takes quite some money to train a policeman
to begin with, so it becomes too expensive eventually to employ more intelligent people
who tend not to stay in the force long.

Police officers do come across situations requiring good judgment, and they do come
across situations involving life and death depending on their judgment. The more
intelligent officers tend to have better judgment. But if police departments don't hire
people with more than average intelligence....... Could this be a reason for the large
numbers of unnecessary deaths at the hands of police officers nationwide?

How about doing the opposite -- hiring only people with IQs of 110 and higher as police
officers? They could be made to pledge to stay with the police force for a minimum of,
say, 8 years, and they'll have a good chance of promotion if they did a good job? It will
take quite some time for the numbers of unnecessary deaths to drop, of course. But this
still would be worthwhile, and will be worth the expense.

[mountain grammy]

24. I think there are many cops who agree with your nephew

they need to speak out loudly and publicly. ABC should be looking for cops to counter the sorry interview they gave Wilson. Until the cops who don't do the shooting and the beatings speak out, they will all be labeled the same. It's time.

[MissDeeds]

27. Thanks for posting this

It really spells out a lot of the concerns many of us have had. Your nephew is undoubtedly a good cop. Kudos to him!

K&R

[indivisibleman]

28. absolutely correct.

What happened apparently was when Wilson opened his car door it ricocheted off the two men, Big Mike and Dorian. Wilson misinterpreted it as an act of aggression and reached out and grabbed Brown by the arm pulling him into the car through the window. He then went for his gun which Brown quickly tried to push away from himself in defense and also fought to get away. One shot goes off hitting Brown in the hand. He then gets away and takes off. This is how Dorian Johnson describes what took place.
Wilson plan lost it and went berserk. Glad he is gone from any police force.

[Enthusiast]

47. I believe you nailed it.

Wilson plane lost it and went berserk.

[rock]

29. Your nephew sounds wise beyond his years

Some never get there. Thanks to both him and you.

[TheKentuckian]

33. No disrespect to the nephew but he is demonstrating what must be baseline wisdom for the position.

This isn't the stuff of Solomon, Odysseus, or Confucius here but plain horse sense and not being a dumbass.

You are comparing him to folks who have absolutely no business anywhere near such a societal duty. It seems near insane to not be drawing from the top 40%, at worse for such a job. In fact, I think it is damning to the institution and our society that such is not only not on the agenda but lower sights are actually willfully set.
This is design, feature rather than bug and the question of to what purpose greatly disturbs me.

[rock]

45. Agreed

I could talk about this at length, but rather than boring you to tears, let me add one additional point. As it stands this bug (which is a design feature because politicians are nearly always incompetent at everything they do except getting elected) is extremely attractive to bullies and there is no filtering out of this class of citizens. This is a tremendously bad choice for LEOs, right up there with serial killers.

[Hoyt]

31. Great post. I think my FIL - 25+ years in law enforcement, 23 more in military - would say similar.

He's deceased, but we talked about such stuff. He provably would have used some language I don't like to describe both Brown and Wilson, but he never shot anyone despite dealing with some bad asses.

[PsychGrad]

36. Your nephew's assessment

is exactly the assessment I made after reading all of the testimony and reports.

[butterfly77]

37. That just about sums it up except...

he shouldn't have been shot and 8 shots would also have been excessive. Where was his tazar?

[AverageJoe90]

38. Your nephew seems to be one of the good ones, IMHO. Smart, to boot.

Even if Wilson hadn't intended to *murder* Brown, per se, he is, at the very least, guilty of voluntary manslaughter. What bothers me is, why couldn't they just fall back on that charge if the jury was absolutely unable to convict him of murder?

[brewens]

39. Like the King beating. Even if every word the cops said initially was true, it should have

stopped much sooner. They had no justification to keep pounding on him once he was down and clearly helpless. If all that video had shown was one cop clubbing him a couple of times, we probably would never have seen it. That wouldn't mean it was justified of course, but we wouldn't be able to make much of a judgement from just the video in that case.

The one thing about the Rodney King video that amazed me was that the media was able to convince so many that there was this secret part that we weren't being shown. That was thoroghly debunked on an episode of Crossfire one day. They had a certified copy from the court and a sworn affidavit from the guy that shot it that it was in fact the whole film he shot. It starts with King already on the ground being beaten.

I can't really remember who the conservatives on the show that day were but it was really an eat shit moment! It seems like it was Sununu. Kinsley I think was on the left and the conservatives were surrounded. The basically had to admit that they understood that was all there was. Sure, we were almost never shown the whole video, it was all the same, and it went on for far too long for most networks to want to show the whole thing everytime. Even if King had gotten out of the car with an assault rifle and fired shots, once down and incapacitated, it should have stopped and he should have been cuffed and stuffed.

I'd be willing to bet that all of us can easily find a right-winger that will swear there is a secret part of the video where King gets out of the car and menaces the cops. Some may even claim to have seen it but it never existed.

[catbyte]

40. I remember my dad, a cop for 30 years, being disgusted and horrified by what those LAPD cops did to

Rodney King. If I hadn't lost him to ALS, he'd be even more horrified, and downright furious about Ferguson--not to mention police abuses elsewhere. Nothing pissed him off more than arrogant, incompetent police officers. He always said they are not only a serious menace to society, but it made it much harder for him to do his job.

[murielm99]

41. I have some cop friends,

from both political parties. What I can't understand, if this is a problem area, is a policeman patrolling without a partner. I feel very strongly, and so do some of my police friends, that he should have had a partner. They concur that he should have called for backup.

Thanks for posting this.

[justiceischeap]

48. He did call for back-up, he just didn't wait for it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366519644/ferguson-docs-officer-darren-wilsons-testimony

Wilson told the grand jury that Brown and Johnson kept walking in the middle of the street. That's when, he said, he called for backup.

[Historic NY]

42. I concur and add he was a lazy...

f--k driving up on them in the first place. Stop your car, call off or just wait and observe until backup occurs. He just pull up next to them. What an ass.

[calimary]

43. Welcome to DU, davishenderson265!

Glad you're here! Your nephew certainly seems to have called it. His analysis is a lot more logical and credible than any explanation Darren Wilson offered.

[Hoyt]

44. The right wing yahoos seem to think Wilson was required by law to chase and stop him.

Of course, they can't provide any citations of law, police police, or God's mandate.

[Enthusiast]

46. Your nephew sounds like a decent human being and competent law enforcement officer,

even though he is a Republican.

This is exceedingly rare.

[True Blue Door]

49. Plausible interpretation. A cowardly scumbag starting shit instead of defusing it.

But I'm hesitant because it still makes Wilson sound like a cop - a bad cop, but a cop. I do not agree that someone who did what he did is acting as a police officer, even incompetently.

Maybe in training, police need to have it emphasized that their own actions can cause problems? It sounds obvious, but people attractive to police work don't necessarily reflect on themselves much.

[True Blue Door]

60. This is why I support hugely increasing cop pay and hiring fewer of them.

Hire fewer, and demand that those you do hire be genuine "officers of the law" who are capable of intelligent thought and positive interaction with the community in a tense situation.

[Cosmocat]

85. It is a lot like Zimmerman

he instigated it, and was too lazy and incompetent to handle what he started ...

[Lenomsky]

52. THIS >>

"That you never get out of the car by yourself if you know there is going to be a physical confrontation"

He only had to wait like 90 seconds for backup!

RIP Dude.

[lordsummerisle]

53. I still can't get past

The body being left there that long...

[leanforward]

56. This posting is a break through.

Thank you for posting your conversation with your nephew. I was hoping there would be a posting for thought from behind the blue wall. But, when I read he was hired from disbanded police department, then all of my skepticism flipped, guilty of incompetence. The four and a half hour wait is comparable to some of the VN atrocities.

All he had to do was note 2 above, and wait for back up. We would not be discussing this now.

Beyond Wilson, the Chief, the Mayor and any other supervisory types involved in this fiasco should be fired. Leaving the gentleman on the road is beyond decency.

[7962]

65. Please ask his opinion of "no knock warrants" nt

[BootinUp]

68. Apparently, you hit some RW nerves dude, excellent.

As indicated by some missing posts, HA!

[weissmam]

75. I agree 100%

[medeak]

77. your son is right

small town, little funding and training equals train wreck

[JDPriestly]

81. Precisely! Effective policing, effective law enforcement is teamwork.

Wilson wanted to play Lone Ranger.

As Nancy Grace said, he should have put the pedal to the metal and waited for reinforcement.

Your nephew is right. Wilson was poorly trained and incompetent.

We need good law enforcement. We ask our police officers and their families to take huge risks. They deserve better training than many of them get. And we deserve better law enforcement than we get.

[whathehell]

82. Sounds spot on. n/t

[Lefergus70]

83. Teaching cops to just walk away

This AP story, via rsn,shows that some police are being trained to avoid potentially explosive situations like this one at Ferguson:

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27248-teaching-cops-to-just-walk-away

[OrwellwasRight]

103. Agree, I do not understand why Wilson and others can't just walk away. Grow up already I say!

There is no law that says we have to like or respect cops. Frankly, it would have been legal for Michael Brown to actually say "fuck what you have to say" (which I don't believe he did, because 18 year olds don't talk that way; they say "fuck you" or "fuck me" or "fuck that shit," but they do not say "fuck what you have to say&quot .

Anyway, if you can't take someone telling you to "fuck off" without shooting them, you should not be a cop. Period. End of story. It is called self-control. The rest of us have it. So can cops.

[Cosmocat]

84. B I N G O!

This has been my point all along almost point for point.

I don't know if it was "racial" on Wilson's part, but it was absolutely incompetence of the highest degree.

IMO, THAT is what this story should have been about all along.

[heaven05]

96. "I don't know if it was 'racial' on wilson's part"

please....neither was Trayvon Martin, the NYC untaxed cigarette seller choked to death, the walmart shooting of a black man buying a BB gun for a family member. Right. What does it take?

[Cosmocat]

98. Not really the point

but, ok ...

[heaven05]

99. if you say so

ok

[TxVietVet]

86. Your nephew sounds like a police officer with lots of commone sense and good training

That's more than I can say for Wilson. Wilson is a
My opinion of Wilson is probably not worth much. I personally believe the guy will have to go into hiding unless some redneck police force needs ANOTHER POS cop.

[aikoaiko]

87. I noticed your nephew didn't say Wilson did anything illegal.

Which I think is noteworthy of something but I don't know what.

Think blue line or does he think it was ultimately justified?

[librechik]

88. Wilson fucked over the entire Ferguson police force with his incompetence.

They should be furious and throw him to the wolves. Instead they close ranks to protect him. Making them ALL fools.

Obviously they intend to continue this behavior. That's why they show no remorse, and look for ways to justify Wilson's actions.

[Hissyspit]

89. Yup.

[heaven05]

94. I know you believe that

and it is typical of ........of a mentality that is not appreciated by decent, honest people trying to get at the truth. You are just wrong. Period.

[randome]

97. Sure you did.

You have all the class of your GOP brethren.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[AtheistCrusader]

100. Predator-prey response.

"2- He said Wilson should have let Brown go, followed him as far as he could in the car as he called for back up. If he had to, arrest him later. "

That's what he should have done, but he viewed Brown as prey. Even if he wouldn't use the word himself, that's his mindset. That's why he couldn't just 'let him get away'. In his mind, he owned Brown. He was HIS suspect, HIS arrest. HIS prey.

Wilson destroyed him because he wasn't getting his way, one way or another.


I don't actually know for sure if race played a part in it, but power certainly did. How DARE someone defy his authority? Can't have that. Wilson is no different than any dog. If you run from a dog, it WILL give chase. The Prey drive is overwhelming, and all-consuming.

The sooner people realize, this is how some police view us, the better.

We are the prey.

[cleduc]

101. Even if one accepted everything Wilson had to say about

this (and I absolutely do not), I cannot accept any officer discharging 12 shots in a residential neighborhood to bring down an unarmed shoplifting suspect. One of those 12 pistol shots (many that missed and often do because pistols are not very accurate) could have killed an innocent person. The bigger picture of public safety has to come first and I strongly suspect all decent police forces on the planet would agree on this.

For randomly selected examples from a google serach:

Florida police fatally shoot innocent bystander during bar altercation
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/20/florida-police-fatally-shoot-innocent-bystander-during-bar-altercation

There will be no charges laid against police who shot and killed two people in Montreal last year, including an innocent bystander on his way to work.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/17/montreal-police-shooting-charges_n_1525842.html

NYPD officers fired three shots on a crowded Manhattan street near Times Square on Saturday night, missing the man they believed had a weapon but striking two bystanders, police said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/times-square-shooting-nypd-officers-shoot-two-innocent-bystanders-near-times-square/

etc, etc

Wilson should have been fired for that alone - for carelessly putting the public at risk.

My sense of it is he got pissed off and murdered the kid - so I'm not oblivious to that outrageous behavior either. I'm pointing out (again as I did months ago) that the cowboy shootout-at-the-Ok-Corral conduct was also way over the top - and the officer in the top post might have pointed that out.

[shrike]

105. Cop friend of mine said the same thing n/t

[R B Garr]

106. +1000. Great thread and great responses. Wilson's ego

got in his way and that's probably why he thought he would go it alone as much as possible in engaging Brown. His initial contact with Brown didn't sound legitimate enough to warrant a call or to wait for back-up as what he describes was against his training. I mean, really, pulling up next to someone so close that you have to begin your stop by ordering them to back-up away from your car -- how utterly stupid, careless, irresponsible, incompetent and combative could you be. Just mind-boggling.

Your nephew really makes a lot of sense and that's what the experts who were interviewed about Wilson have all basically said, so we know Wilson went rogue on this presumably for personal reasons.

[Marr]

107. I consider your nephew's speculation on what actually happened to be quite likely.

[staggerleem]

108. A headline I fully expect to see in the 1st quarter of 2015:

MARICOPA COUNTY WELCOMES NEW POLICE OFFICER

Sheriff Joe Arpaio hires Officer Darren Wilson, formerly of Ferguson MO -
"He's our kinda guy," says America's Sheriff.

[samsingh]

109. that's my feeling exactly

and everyone, like joe scar, who sides with wilson show how disgusting stupid or racist them are - in my opinion