If Officer Darren Wilson is telling the truth, he might have had cause to shoot Michael Brown, though, perhaps not cause to shoot him dead.
They exchange blows when Brown reaches into the car, with Wilson taking a punch so severe he doesn't know that he can survive another. Suddenly, Brown bolts away, but doesn't run too far before turning around and charging again at Wilson, reaching into his waistband as if to get a gun. He keeps coming even though Wilson shoots him, and, about 8 to 10 feet away, lowers himself as if he is going to tackle Wilson. Wilson then fires a bullet that hits Brown in the head.
I can't help notice how the reaching into his waistband follows the story of an officer-involved shooting in South Salt Lake, where Dillon Taylor was killed. It does occur to me it becomes a claim you could make to justify a killing. Still, it could be true, and just a coincidence that the claim is used in both shootings.
All, told, supposing Wilson is being honest, I'm still not sure I believe Brown should have been killed. Wilson's claim that he did his job haunts me because officers are trained to kill. "The reason I have a clean conscience is because I know I did my job right," Wilson said.
If officers are trained to kill, then he did his job right, by that measurement. I'm just not sure they shouldn't be trained to have more restraint from killing. By the time Brown would have been 8 to 10 feet away, lowering himself into a tackling position, it isn't likely he was positioning himself to pull a gun. Simply, a physical rumble was about to ensue.
You don't kill another man simply because he is about to fight you. If Wilson were justified in this, so is most everyone who gets in a fight. There is always the danger that someone will kill you in a fist fight. Do we say that whenever you are in a rumble, if you are scared for your life, you should pull a gun and take the other person out?
That's George Zimmerman logic, logic that got Zimmerman off for killing Trayvon Martin. And, now it has raised its head again. I will not say I totally reject it. Perhaps we should let anyone getting in a fight protect themselves by shooting the other person dead.
But, somehow, I'm doubting it.
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