By
Basil Wilson
For
Carib News
12/01/14
The death of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014 has become a litmus test for the American criminal justice system. The teenager’s death and the exoneration of Police Office Darren Wilson have precipitated protests in American cities and as far away as London. The unprecedented move by the District Attorney of St. Louis, Missouri, to release the transcript of the Grand Jury proceedings of over 4,000 pages of testimony will keep scholars and journalists busy for years, not to mention the books and investigative reports that will be forthcoming.
I have not yet read all the documents of the Grand Jury proceeding but I have read the testimony of Police Officer, Darren Wilson and I have read an analysis of eyewitness testimony published by the Washington Post. It is abundantly clear that the Grand Jury proceeding was not a search for objectivity but a grand, contrived affair to exonerate Darren Wilson.
The incident on August 9th, 2014 can be sub-divided into three distinct frames with obviously over-lapping consequences. The first frame entails the encounter between Michael Brown and the Police Officer Darren Wilson at the police car, the second entails the fleeing of Michael Brown from Darren Wilson and the third frame, the shooting to death of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson.
Throughout his testimony to the Grand Jury, Darren Wilson makes the case that Michael Brown is the aggressor and he, Darren Wilson, is the professional peace officer whose life is being threatened by the “demonic” teenager. The reputation of Ferguson County police officers makes that script somewhat incredulous. It is an indisputable fact that after admonishing Dorian Johnson and Michael Brown for walking in the middle of the street, the officer reverses his vehicle and blocks their path. Dorian Johnson has indicated that the SUV police vehicle would have hit them if they had not moved out of the way.
The traffic infraction began at this point to take on a life of its own. The situation escalated and angry words were exchanged between Brown and Wilson. Darren Wilson’s testimony to the Grand Jury is that as he attempted to alight from the vehicle, Michael Brown trapped him in his own vehicle. Of all the frames, the Assistant District Attorneys spent the most time on this initial incident.
Darren Wilson makes the case that Michael Brown began pummeling him in the face and he was becoming fearful for his life. He goes through meticulously his decision-making at this point as he shares with the Jurors whether he should use the mace in his possession, his flashlight, etc. At some point in the struggle, Darren Wilson pulls out his gun. What is unclear is at what stage of the struggle did Darren Wilson pull his firearm? Was the struggle with Michael Brown over the gun because Wilson threatened to shoot the teenager?
Darren Wilson weighs 220 pounds and is 6 feet 4 inches tall. Michael Brown was 6 feet 6 inches and weighed 290 pounds. According to Wilson, Michael Brown was much stronger than him and he was like a five year old child up against the wrestler Hulk Hogan.
We do know that of the twelve shots fired encompassing all three frames, two shots were fired during the struggle at the vehicle. According to Darren Wilson, one shot went through the door and the other shot hit Michael Brown. Fearing for his life Michael Brown runs away from Police Officer Darren Wilson.
Wilson puts a curious spin on the initial incident. He quotes Brown as saying that you are too much of a p…… to shoot me. A black teenager who is familiar with the streets and the relation between white police officers and the black community is baiting a police officer that he would not dare to shoot him.
In the second frame, after being shot, Michael Brown flees the scene in an attempt to save his life. In the Grand Jury testimony, Darren Wilson specifically states that he did not fire after Michael Brown white he was fleeing. Previous eyewitness reports, including that of Dorian Johnson, indicate that shots were fired at Michael Brown while he was running even though he did not pose a threat to Darren Wilson. In a 1987 Supreme Court ruling, a police officer cannot shoot at a fleeing suspect unless that suspect represents a danger to the police officer or to others. Michael Brown was unarmed and running for his life.
The third frame is when the African American teenager stops running. The question here is was Michael Brown hit by any of the bullets fired while he was running for his life? Or did he realize that he could not run faster than a bullet?
Darren Wilson’s account to the Grand July is text book testimony for exoneration of a police officer. Wilson claims that he shouted at Michael Brown to “Go on the Ground” repeatedly. Instead, in the gospel according to Darren Wilson, Michael Brown put his right hand in his waist convincing Wilson that his life was being threatened and since Michael Brown was charging towards him, he had no choice but to fire his weapon multiple times into the body of the teenager. One of the bullets, more likely the last, pierced the middle of Michael Brown’s skull as he was falling.
Most of the eyewitness reports signify that Brown’s hands were in the air and that there was no need for a volley of shots. Other witnesses marvel that Brown continued to walk towards the officer, stumbling from earlier and later shots.
Why would a black teenager who ran to save his life turn around, unarmed, and seek to charge a police officer who had demonstrated at the vehicle and while he was running away that the police officer in question was far from reluctant to use deadly force. That would be tantamount to “suicide by cop”.
The Michael Brown murder is a classical example of a police officer’s inability to de-escalate what started out as a traffic infraction. During the encounters in frame one and two, there was still an opportunity to avoid the tragic loss of life. It is not difficult to construct an alternative scenario as recited to the Grand Jury by a well-coached Darren Wilson. Indeed, it is apparent that he abandoned his professional training and the fisticuffs between Michael Brown and himself degenerated into a street fight with one armed with a powerful firearm and the other unarmed.
The Grand Jury exercise constituted a grand charade. Darren Wilson was thrown “lollipop” questions by the Assistant District Attorneys. His answers were well-scripted. There was no one in the Grand Jury to speak for the dead Michael Brown. The Michael Brown tragedy reflects the institutional corruption in the criminal justice system and making the Grand Jury transcripts available simply affirms that lack of integrity in the system.
America in recent decades has regressed as a society and nowhere is that more evident in the criminal justice system. There have been landmark cases highlighting the persistence of corruption in the criminal justice system from the lynching that began in the post-Civil War period, to the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s, to the Emmet Till in the 1950s, to Goodwin, Schwerner and Chaney in the 1960s. In the post civil rights era, these travesties of injustice continue ad infinitum. The Michael Brown murder on August 9, 2014 is another illustration of the criminal justice crisis in America.
The dialectic is largely between African-American males and white police officers. Darren Wilson found himself trapped in a community from which he was estranged. Poorly educated and poorly trained police officers with deadly weapons invariably and intermittingly produce these tragic pitfalls. Only a mass movement will initiate the necessary changes.
