I think Wilson is a bad cop, quite possibly a racist, but I also think this was an unwinnable case.

[JDPriestly]

105. Are you a lawyer?

If so, are you a litigator?

I would like to know why Wilson backed up his car right next to Johnson and Brown and then knowing that the two young men were standing right next to where he had backed up his car, tried to open the door because at that point Johnson testified that Wilson hit Brown with the car door.

That act escalated a nasty but not serious encounter into a test of wills, of aggression.

That act might betray the mental state of Wilson at the time he met the two young men.

Questioning and focusing more on the very beginning of Wilson's interaction with Brown after Wilson backed up his car might throw a different light on his intent at that time. Combined with the number of shots Wilson fired and the trajectories of the bullets, who knows?

It is very hard to win a case. It is not hard to get an indictment. There are reasons for our adversarial system of litigation and justice. They include fairness, airing facts and reaching clarity, allowing the parties' cases to be heard, airing conflicts and resentments in public rather than letting them smolder and then flame again. Those are just a few reasons why a trial with opposing attorneys each fighting for his or her client are not only important for the parties concerned but also for our society.

It is very difficult to get a conviction of a police officer. But it is, in my opinion, very important that we devise a process through which police officers answer in public to the public when their conduct appears to reveal a lack of self-control.

We cannot continue to have a society in which police officers are given a license to be violent and cruel. We need to encourage police officers to try when possible to bring peace to violent, angry situations.

I don't know, but I think we ought to try to find out, maybe through psychological research, what the effect of the rare instances of police brutality that are well publicized have on the conduct of the officers and on the conduct of the public, especially the members of the public who have been convicted of crimes or who may be living in areas that have a lot of crime.

I just think we can do better. I also think that our society would have gained a great deal had Wilson been tried whether or not Wilson was found to be innocent (a likely outcome).

No matter what, Wilson has to live with the facts of that brutal killing. He has to live with the knowledge of his own inadequacy in a situation in which he probably could have reduced or even avoided such a violent outcome. After all, as it turns out, Brown was not armed. He was a big guy, but he was not armed. Wilson will have to live with the fact that he got scared and shot an unarmed man. He, a police officer, entrusted with the license to kill will never know whether he killed without cause.

Ten years from now, he may wish he had gone through a trial and gotten a verdict of innocence because without that he lives in social notoriety and uncertainty.

Lawyers are prone to counting their wins and losses. The lawyer's win or loss is not always the point.