I Should Read, Michael Brown Didn't Have to Die

   I almost think to buy the book Michael Brown Didn't Have to Die by Ken Dye. 

   I have a friend who has been encouraging me to tell him what my opinion is on the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown. I've put him off, thinking I should review the evidence before coming to an opinion. So, today, I thumbed through the DOJ Report. But, this was no easy task, not one to be adequately done just in a couple hours. There were 60 witnesses in the case. It would take a lot of reading to read them all. The DOJ Report is 86 pages long. 

   Some of the witnesses are discounted in the report. What they said was not consistent with the evidence, the report says. Sometimes, it wasn't even consistent with what they themselves had said, their testimony on one occasion not matching with what they said on another occasion, according to the DOJ Report. But, if we discount some witnesses for conflicting statements, shouldn't we treat Darren Wilson the same? Wilson, who shot Brown, gave different timeframes for a statement he said Brown made. 

   I also wonder when I read that Wilson gave his sergeant, known as Witness 147 in the report, a partial account of what had happened. But, says the report, the sergeant never documented what Wilson told him. In a good investigation, wouldn't a written statement from Witness 147 be asked for? Isn't taking written statements from all the witnesses standard procedure? 

    Still as I thumbed through the report, I found myself thinking Wilson was probably not guilty. Then, as I search for the video that went viral, I find instead a video of Michael Brown exchanging what is supposedly a bag of weed for cigarillos at a convenience store. "He left his items at the store, and he went back the next day to pick them up," says a narrator. The next day -- the day of the shooting -- Brown is accused of stealing the cigarillos and he is said to have been walking home from that thievery when Wilson stopped him and shot him. The video of the night before might have another explanation. The stealing of cigarillos might, indeed, be just that, stealing. Still, it makes me wonder. And, I wonder why the DOJ Report doesn't at least discuss the video purporting to be an exchange of weed for the cigarillos.

   My guess at this point would still be that Wilson was justified in the shooting. But, that might change with more study. I won't, but perhaps I should read books like Michael Brown Didn't Have to Die. There might be other books that back up that Wilson was justified. It would be great to be able to read them, to study this. It is important. But, alas, we only have so much time.