Ferguson, MO

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by Kevin

On both sides of the case, that's true. The demonization of Wilson and the turning of Brown into some sort of martyr has polarized the case such that I doubt any good can come of it. As I understand it, St. Louis law enforcement took the Rams' gesture as a big 'ol eff u.

Most law enforcement officers are trying to do their job. In this case, what we know for a fact is that we had an officer who was trying to apprehend a criminal and we know the criminal resisted.

Police officers, especially in St. Louis probably have very little problem stepping into the shoes of Darren Wilson. They see how the community rose up against Wilson, threatening his life, his family's life and taking away his livelihood because he [in the eyes of most law enforcement personnel] did his job and arguably had to defend himself from a suspect who was capable of killing him.

Now consider that some of these bars probably have law enforcement officers as a large part of their clientele and you might come to the conclusion that the decision to express this level of angst over what a few Rams players did is economical more than ideological.

If you take Wilson's version of the facts as true, it still doesn't reflect well on him. Even if his versions of the facts are true, we know that he mismanaged the situation badly. Officers are trained to avoid putting themselves in situations where they need to use their guns. All Wilson had to do was call for expedited back-up, watch where Brown and Johnson went, and then confront them from a safe distance. He shouldn't have confronted them alone. He shouldn't have confronted them as aggressively as he did. He shouldn't have confronted them at the short distance that he did. It was terrible policing. Now Brown is dead and Wilson is out of a job and Ferguson has had multiple businesses burned.

That said, I was very happy to hear Obama endorse more training and uniform "use of force" policies for any agency that wants to use military surplus. That will improve many police departments and is a useful carrot to start addressing this situation.