Dear Officer Wilson,
Tonight in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News you said if you had to do it over again, you would not change anything about the events that transpired on August 9, 2014 that resulted in the death of Michael Brown.
You were asked,?Is there anything you could have done differently that would have prevented that killing from taking place??
You replied, ?No.??
Again, Stephanopoulos asks, ?Nothing??
Confidently, you replied, ?No?
Seriously? You wouldn’t change a single thing?
Any decent human being would look back at any incident that ended this poorly; especially one that cost someone his or her life, and examine what could have been done differently to result in a less devastating outcome. You have been privy to what has transpired since this all happened, correct? I would think that the whole ?protect and serve? part would mean that most days the goal is to not kill someone. In fact, you admitted that this day was the very first time you ever discharged your firearm in the line of duty. On a day in which you pulled the trigger and killed a fellow human being, I would think you might want to review all of those actions, just to see if there was anything you could have done, anything that would have had a different outcome.
So let’s boil this down. A bullet from your gun snuffed out the life of an 18-year-old young man. That is huge! It is a something that should certainly prompt one to pause and employ a bit of critical thinking. Surely you don’t believe that with six years on the job you’ve perfected your craft? Surely you don’t think that your short tenure has provided you with imperial knowledge of your profession? Even the most seasoned of soldiers, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, doctors, and nurses will question their actions and what they could have done differently when someone loses their life on their shift.
The killing of an unarmed citizen is a grave offense, whether legally prosecutable or not. Even if the death is considered justifiable, it is still a very, very serious matter that most human beings with even a sliver of empathy would reflect upon for quite some time. Irreversible damage has been inflicted upon a family.
However, the ramifications don’t just stop with that one family. Mr. Wilson, have you looked around at the turmoil in our country? Our country is wounded. We are even more divided than we were before this tragic event happened. Numerous violations of human rights have taken place as a result of the shooting. Rioters have burned down buildings and destroyed businesses in Ferguson. Roads, bridges and tunnels have been blocked in New York City. Protestors have been run over by a car in Minneapolis.
The level of arrogance needed to say everything was done perfectly in this case, is certainly telling. It truly is a level of depravity if you can see the destruction as a result of those brief moments, based upon choices that could have been different, and still say you would do it exactly the same, all over again. Even if the situation happened as you claimed, there were still other modes of operation that could have been attempted and perhaps considered in hindsight for self-awareness in the future. The options are really endless.
Worse yet, within seconds of saying you have no regrets, you also provided a deeper glimpse into the type of person you really are. As George Stephanopoulos was closing the interview he asks,
?Is this something you think will always haunt you??
?I don’t think it’s haunting, it’s always going to be something that happened.?
Yeah, that seems like a response of someone who is well suited to be in public service. It’s a perfectly sane, rational, compassionate reaction to such a traumatic, life-changing event. It’s not like you pulled the trigger and watched a bullet enter the head of a teenager and then watched as the life left his body as he collapsed in the middle of a street. I can’t imagine why that would ever be haunting.
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Elizabeth Preston is a thirty-something wife and mother of three living in Florida. She is a fierce liberal with a passion?for equality and justice. She is a skeptic by nature and often the Facebook friend that rains on the urban legend parade with fact checking. Give her?Facebook page?a?like, follow her on?Twitter?and check out her personal blog,?My Four Ha? Pennies.
