On Aug. 9, 2014, recent high school graduate Michael Brown was shot and killed by Police Officer Darren Wilson after Brown committed a robbery at a nearby liquor store in Ferguson, Missouri. This shooting caused national outrage toward Wilson and quickly became an issue of race, as Brown was African-American and the officer a Caucasian.
In a poll conducted by CNN, 32 percent of Americans believed that the police officer should be charged with murder, while 25 percent believed he should be charged with a lesser crime, such as involuntary manslaughter.
On Monday, November 24, 107 days after the shooting, a grand jury came back with the decision not to indict Wilson for any crime, a decision that Brown’s family was “profoundly disappointed” with, according to a statement. Since then, protests have popped up throughout the nation, from lighting police cars on fire in Ferguson to laying on the 101 freeway in Los Angeles.
When this unfolded back in August, I found it easy to be outraged with the nation. How could a cop kill an unarmed, “innocent” young man? I sympathized with the Brown family and despised Wilson, and those feelings carried on until the verdict was announced. I can’t say I was surprised with the decision to not charge Officer Wilson with any crime, but the sting of betrayal and hurt was there, followed by the fear of what kind of response the public would make.
Then, however, I had to take a step back and really look at what I was doing, which was putting myself in a situation that didn’t involve me at all. I didn’t know all the facts of what happened that night, and it definitely wasn’t fair that I was making assumptions about anything without knowing what happened.
With the release of the grand jury decision also came that of everything else: the testimony, evidence and autopsy reports. An article by Paul Cassell of The Washington Post lists the main points of the evidence presented before the grand jury.
According to the article, the medical examiner determined that the fatal shot to the head was fired when Brown was facing Wilson rather than away from him, disputing earlier claims that the victim was shot while running away.
When it came to whether or not Brown’s arms were raised in surrender when he was shot, the medical examiner could not determine this, saying that “you have a lot of mobility within that arm, and it can be in a lot of scenarios.”
It’s easy for people to make quick judgments based on hearsay and information that is immediately available but not always accurate, but as Christians, we are taught not to be so fast to judge. It should not be until all the facts are presented to us that we should form an opinion on any matter.
For some, of course, the facts aren’t always easy pills to swallow, and they don’t always accept those facts. When something tragic like this happens, there’s always this notion that someone has to be held accountable for it in the way we want them to be. In this case, that meant most people wanted to see Wilson go to jail for killing Brown.
When it comes down to it, both Wilson and Brown should be held accountable for their actions. Brown stole from a local liquor market and didn’t comply with Wilson’s demands and, unfortunately, was killed for it. Wilson killed a young man and isn’t going to trial for it. However, that’s always going to be on his conscience and his public image is ruined. Even though it’s a small price to pay compared with Brown’s, it still gives me a little bit of comfort knowing that he is never going to be looked at the same way again.
All that’s really left for us as Christians to do is to pray. Pray for those in the Brown family that they may find some closure. Pray for Wilson, that he may feel some sort of remorse. Pray for the protesters and anyone else who faces racial discrimination, that they may find peace and strength.