General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I work with teens Michael Brown's age and the number one rule is [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Johnson tells us something about Wilson's state of mind. Wilson should have called for back-up and waited if he wanted to stop Johnson and Brown. He was the responsible person in that situation. Brown was a thief and may have attacked the store clerk, but he was not posing a violent threat to anyone at the moment that Wilson encountered him. Wilson should not have escalated the situation. He did.
Our police officers need better training. That goes for the entire nation.
If any other public servants acted like our police officers do, we would fire them. And I have known some great, courteous police officers. But most of them are not trained in psychology, and they need to be for their own protection as well as for the protection of the public. Many of them are nice guys, but they react without thinking at times.
Brown should have been arrested but not by Wilson alone. Wilson should not have had any reason to feel so threatened. In fact, he did the threatening when he backed up and reacted to Brown's insult. Then opening the door so as to hit Brown? What was that about?