So with Ferguson Missouri's, tensions are more than high, they're volatile and I tend to side with the community on what they're demanding. I do believe he should be brought up on at least wrongful death charges and should lose his badge. However, in dissecting this event I want to be balanced in answering the question of why the officer who fired the bullets have not yet been brought up on charges. I also want to make clear that in THIS post I'm not going to address the clear misconduct of the Ferguson police in this case...I'll leave that to my next post.
First of all, there is no question that the officer in question fired those bullets, that's not being contested. As for why he hasnt been arrested...I dont think they can just yet. Will they? they should, but that remains to be seen. Now why do I say that they cant arrest him just yet?
It comes down to the evidence they currently have as opposed to evidence they need to make the indictment and arrest. As I'm watching the news updates I get the feeling that they want to get to the bottom of what happened so they know how to proceed. Just the simple fact that shots were fired and someone is dead does not qualify as damning evidence in these cases. They are investigating and they cant make arrests like that until the investigation is over because if they do make an arrest, then they have a wrongful arrest/imprisonment and false charge allegations on their hands.
Now personally (since I'm doing commentary) I think the officer went too far and should have fired ONLY a warning shot and should have made damn sure that young Mr. Brown was armed before deciding to take his life. By all accounts once he was hit the first time, he gave up and complied. that should have ended the shooting right there. Accounts also state he had his hands up high enough where, if he were to go for a weapon, he would have had to make and obvious movement to get to that weapon. No observers report that he did so. This is why I tend to side with the community on this. The officer should not have continued firing. Also if he had a weapon on him, isn't it reasonable to assume he would have used it in this so called robbery? Since it was not and as it turns out, he wasn't armed something very fishy is going on here.
Arrests are the end result of thorough investigations, not the result of people demanding it to be so. We as citizens cant expect that we open our mouths and the process suddenly changes because we say so. There is a process, and the laws that run along side it are part of that process. As much as we hate that process at times like this, that process doesn't change based on an emotion. It's there for a reason.
In a tregedy like this, wanting answers is only natural. But chaos is not the way to go about it. The FBI has been called in to investigate so lets wait and see what they determine.
Now how will they proceed from this point on? Time will tell.
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