Mark Henry would have been a better parallel, actually....
....but the point was still well-made:
Included in the grand jury material released tonight [11/25/14] after the announcement that no charges would be filed in the Michael Brown killing is a handwritten witness account stating that the teenager charged at Officer Darren Wilson “like a football player. Head down.”
A football metaphor. Just as I've been using for the past three and a half months. "Great minds think alike," and all that.
The unidentified witness wrote that the eighteen-year-old Brown “has his arms out with attitude,” while “The cop just stood there.” The witness added, “Dang if that kid didn’t start running right at the cop like a football player. Head down.” The witness told of hearing “three bangs,” but “the big kid wouldn’t stop.”
See, that's why I have a problem with depictions of Michael Brown as being an "unarmed teenager". The undercurrent of that phrase evokes Steve Urkel.....
....not Brandon Mebane....
Mr. Brown was "unarmed" in the sense that he didn't a have gun on him. But at 6'4", 292 pounds, he physically dwarfed Officer Wilson, and was bent on, and came very close to, disarming him:
The witness’s account of the unarmed Brown charging Wilson – even after he had been shot in the hand during a struggle at the cop’s patrol car – supports the officer’s contention that he fired a series of shots as Brown bore down on him.
During his September 16th grand jury testimony, Wilson, 28, recounted how he tussled with Brown when the teenager grabbed for his gun while lunging into the squad car.
As they fought over the weapon, Wilson testified, the teenager taunted him, yelling, “You’re too much of a pussy to shoot me.” ……
You could almost say he was asking for it, couldn't you? And probably counting on the specter of what has ensued over the past three and a half months to serve as a deterrent against Officer Wilson defending himself in the only way available to him.
Wilson also gave grand jurors another vivid description of Brown. Recalling when he first placed his hand on the teenager’s arm – when the 6’ 4”, 292-pound Brown was alongside his patrol car – Wilson testified that, “I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan.” The cop added, “Hulk Hogan, that’s just how big he felt and how small I felt just from grasping his arm.”
I think it's safe to say that Officer Wilson's actions were, given the dire circumstances, calm, measured, and proportionate. If Mr. Brown had stopped his advance, Wilson would have stopped shooting, and the "youth" would be alive today. But he didn't stop, and the Ferguson police officer did what he had to do. You can certainly conclude that Officer Wilson wanted to be anywhere but where he was that afternoon, doing anything else but was he was being forced to confront. And he certainly wasn't out "hunting" black kids.
Everybody does realize, I hope, that even though he will not be prosecuted for his act of self-preservation and defense, Darren Wilson is finished as a cop in Ferguson, and probably anywhere else. Certainly he can't live there anymore, as he will be forever a marked man. He and his family will have to relocate, probably go into the equivalent of a witness-protection program for the rest of their lives. And they'll never, ever be safe. They'll always have to look over their shoulders, check their rear-view mirrors, feel the eyes in the middle of their backs. Probably even have to change their names. Like the X-Men, anonymity will be their best defense, and that will be difficult to come by.
It's an ironic shame, actually; because in the days ahead, Ferguson and Greater St. Louis are going to need all the cops they can get.
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