General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ThinkProgress: How One Woman Could Hit The Reset Button In The Case Against Darren Wilson [View all]Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Wilson is a cop. Brown had just committed several crimes, including assaulting a police officer.
Wilsons job was to get out of the car and pursue him.
Would Brown still be alive had Wilson stayed in the car? Probably? Does that mean that Wilson had any sort of legal obligation to stay in the car? No. Brown woudk still be alive today if Wilson has said "screw it, I'm going to lunch" instead of offering to help find the suspects from the robbery.(and don't keep throwing up the. "Wilson didn't know about the robbery, the dispatch tapes show he did). You can play a million "what if's" as you sit there comfortably under no stress with the benefit of hindsight. None of them matter unless you can say Wilson did something illegal or outside the scope of his responsibilities as a cop- and getting out of his car doesn't even come close. Not illegal, and pursuing a fleeing criminal is exactly his job.
Wilson exiting the car and pursuing Brown was 100% legal. Dealing if he should have stayed in the car is a non-issue for the courtroom. There was no legal obligation for him to do so, and in fact a responsibility of his job to not allow a person who had just committed a violent felony to escape into the public.