The officer who shot Michael Brown, who was unarmed, did so as the young man tried to get away from him -- and continued to shoot as the young man raised his arms and tried to surrender. This shooting was not hidden in some alley, but happened in the open with numerous witnesses. That is what all of those witnesses agree happened.
This makes me wonder then how a significant portion of the population is now saying the shooting was justified. Do they not believe all of the witnesses? If so, that strikes me as more than a bit racist, since the only reason for not believing the witnesses is because they are African-Americans. Would these people still think the shooting was justified if the policeman was black and had shot an unarmed White youth -- and those witnesses were White? I seriously doubt it. It's more likely they would be demanding to know why charges hadn't been filed (which is exactly what Ferguson's African-Americans would like to know).
Now the widely respected Dr, Michael Baden has released his autopsy results -- and they back up what the witnesses have been saying all along. Brown's body showed no signs of any struggle (as officers are claiming, but witnesses denying). And Brown was shot a total of six times, with the last shot, the fatal shot coming at the end of the shooting spree and entering on the top of Brown's head (just as witnesses had said -- that he was on his knees with his arms raised and trying to give up).
I know there are many out there who don't want to admit that a policeman, especially a White policeman, can do any wrong. They are mistaken. Policemen/women are just human -- and like any other profession, there are both bad and good ones. And there is simply no way to justify shooting someone running away, or continuing to shoot and they turn around, go to their knees and raise their hands to give up.
Frankly, I believe the civilian witnesses -- and I don't see any way this shooting can be justified. It looks like this officer let his anger get the best of him, and committed murder. Of course that doesn't mean he'll be convicted of that crime. Even if charges are finally filed, his lawyers will get the trial transferred to a whiter county (and do their best to wind up with an all-white jury) -- and in the end, he'll either get off, or at best, be convicted of some minor crime. I wish that wasn't true, but in case ya'll haven't noticed, this country still has some serious problems with race.
This problem is illustrated in the chart below -- which was made from a new Rasmussen Poll that was done on August 15th and 16th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 2 points.
