>> Portraying blacks, especially young black males, as animalistic with super-human strength and ability to tolerate extreme pain is straight out of the racist handbook for the past few centuries. You were raised in the South, so you know it. Wilson was clearly playing on this, consciously or not. All he missed was Brown was after our women.
AFAIK, Wilson wasn't making any statement at all about "blacks". He was describing his encounter with one man, who was in fact bigger and stronger than he was.
More importantly, Wilson had been struck in the face twice by this man while at a serious disadvantage -- sitting within a patrol car while Brown was standing outside the car. And according to his testimony he believed he was in danger of losing control of the situation had he been hit again -- which would, of course, have meant Brown would have had access to Wilson's weapon. Wilson had an obligation to protect himself by preventing that.
Witness testimony backed up Wilson's account. Now, there were witnesses who lied and probably some who saw things differently. But the preponderance of the testimony backed up Wilson's account.
The fact that this has become an issue based on politics rather than on the facts just tells the story, imo. It isn't about any of the stuff you mentioned. It is about the fact that a black man was killed by a cop. What either of them did doesn't matter to you guys.
If the cop was in the wrong he should be prosecuted. But there needs to be some reasonable evidence that at least suggests it, and there isn't.
I can't speak for the grand jury in this case but were on that panel, if there was a showing the police officer was attacked (and there was) it is pretty much over at that point. The officer has an obligation to defend himself and his weapon. And policemen are trained to shoot to kill and to do what is necessary to eliminate the threat. Given those indisputable facts, I don't see where your political argument has a leg to stand on.
I will also point out that on this very thread I was critical of police in St. Louis who shot and killed a black man a day or two after Brown was killed because I thought the man didn't meet the criterion of posing a threat to the officers and he had not attacked them. The man was 10-15 feet away with a knife, and I didn't think it necessary to kill him. I also made that comment on Facebook where a friend who is a former police officer and now a defense attorney disagreed with me, pointing out that 10-15 feet can be closed within a second or two so even though the threat was that of a knife the shooting was easily justifiable.
So, unlike you, I'm not politically dispatched one direction or the other and have no discomfort in saying it like it is. Your argument is a very weak attempt to turn something that not racially motivated into a racial event, just like your idiot hero, Obama. |
