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Friday, August 22, 2014

An Open Letter to Captain Ronald S. Johnson

Chief Ed Delmore |

I have to call you out.

I don’t care what the media says. I expect them to get it wrong and they often do. But I expect you as a veteran law enforcement commander—talking about law enforcement—to get it right.

Unfortunately, you blew it. After days of rioting and looting, last Thursday you were given command of all law enforcement operations in Ferguson by Governor Jay Nixon. St. Louis County PD was out, you were in. You played to the cameras, walked with the protestors and promised a kinder, gentler response. You were a media darling. And Thursday night things were better, much better.

But Friday, under significant pressure to do so, the Ferguson Police released the name of the officer involved in the shooting of Michael Brown. At the same time the Ferguson Police Chief released a video showing Brown committing a strong-arm robbery just 10 minutes before he was confronted by Officer Darren Wilson.

Many don’t like the timing of the release of the video. I don’t like that timing either. It should have been released sooner. It should have been released the moment FPD realized that Brown was the suspect.

Captain Johnson, your words during the day on Friday helped to fuel the anger that was still churning just below the surface. St. Louis County Police were told to remain uninvolved and that night the rioting and looting began again. For much too long it went on mostly unchecked. Retired St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch tweeted that your “hug-a-looter” policy had failed.

Boy did it.

And your words contributed to what happened Friday night and on into the wee hours of Saturday. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, you said the following regarding the release of the video: “There was no need to release it,” Johnson said calling the reported theft and the killing entirely different events.

Well Captain, this veteran police officer feels the need to respond. What you said is, in common police vernacular—bullshit. The fact that Brown knew he had just committed a robbery before he was stopped by Officer Wilson speaks to Brown’s mindset. And Captain, the mindset of a person being stopped by a police officer means everything, and you know it.

Let’s consider a few examples:
On February 15, 1978 Pensacola Police Officer David Lee conducted a vehicle check. He didn’t know what the sole occupant of the vehicle had recently done, but the occupant did. Who was he? Serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy attempted to disarm Lee. Lee was able to retain his firearm and eventually took Bundy into custody.

On April 19, 1995 Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hangar stopped a vehicle for minor traffic violations. He didn’t know that 90 minutes earlier the traffic violator, Timothy McVeigh, killed 168 people with a truck bomb at the Murrah Federal Building. But McVeigh sure knew it, didn’t he? Fortunately, given his training and experience Hangar was able to take McVeigh into custody for carrying a concealed firearm. It was days later before it was determined that McVeigh was responsible for the bombing.

On May 31, 2003 then-rookie North Carolina police officer, Jeff Postell, arrested a man digging in a trash bin on a grocery store parking lot—an infraction that would rise to about the level of jaywalking. Postell didn’t know that he had just captured Eric Rudolph, the man whom years earlier had killed and injured numerous people with bombs and was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.

So now, let’s consider Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson’s stop of Michael Brown. Apparently Wilson didn’t know that Brown had just committed a strong-arm robbery. But Brown did! And that Captain, is huge.

Allegedly, Brown pushed Wilson and attempted to take Wilson’s gun. We’re also being told that Officer Wilson has facial injuries suffered during the attempt by Brown to disarm him. Let’s assume for a moment those alleged acts by Brown actually occurred. Would Brown have responded violently to an officer confronting him about jaywalking? Maybe, but probably not.

Is it more likely that he would attack an officer believing that he was about to be taken into custody for a felony strong-arm robbery? Absolutely.

Officer Wilson survived the encounter with Brown as did Lee, Hangar, and Postell. Michael Brown didn’t survive and it’s too soon to say if Officer Wilson’s use of deadly force was justified and legal. You and I both know that not all officers survive such confrontations. Officers die in incidents like this Captain Johnson, including a couple that I remember from your own organization:

On April 15, 1985 Missouri Trooper Jimmie Linegar was shot and killed by a white supremacist he and his partner stopped at a checkpoint; neither Trooper Linegar nor his partner were aware that the man they had stopped had just been indicted by a federal grand jury for involvement in a neo-Nazi group accused of murder. The suspect immediately exited the vehicle and opened fire on him with an automatic weapon.

Just a month before, Missouri Trooper James M. Froemsdorf was shot and killed—with his own gun—after making a traffic stop. When the Trooper made that stop he didn’t know that the driver was wanted on four warrants out of Texas—But again the suspect knew it.

So Captain Johnson, I guess the mindset and recently committed crimes of the suspects that murdered those Missouri Troopers didn’t mean anything. The stops by the Troopers, as you have said, are entirely different events right?

Bullshit.

Some information contained in this article came from the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP).

9 comments:

  1. An excellent letter and I agree completely. I most strongly believe that they should have released the information about the officer being injured right away.

    Everyone was saying what a "great kid" Michael Brown was, just a "gentle giant." Gunned down in the street with him hands in the air in the surrender position. That is enough to inflame most people.

    I understand that law enforcement, and no I am not a member, withholds information in order to protect a case or to verify that a person truly knows about the crime which they are addressing.

    But why let the country, and even the world for that matter think that this "child" was gunned down in cold blood in the middle of the street for no reason.

    I realize that in today's society, with social media and cell phone video or still pictures, that things can quickly get out of hand. But why not step up and say , "Wait a minute, this was not an innocent kid, he just robbed a store, and he attacked the officer with enough force to cause orbital fractures." I think that information greatly changes the picture that is presented.

    Now I wasn't there, and I am glad I wasn't, and so I don't know what happened, but I do agree with this letter/article concerning the state of mind of Michael Brown. He knew what he had just done, and may have thought the officer knew as well, and so reacted differently that he would have under other circumstances.

    But I will say this after seeing the video. He didn't appear to "gentle giant-ish" to me in that video.

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  2. excellent a very good letter.

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  3. Great letter--time to let some facts come out!

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  4. Anonymous Anonymous said...
    Great letter--time to let some facts come out!

    August 23, 2014 at 9:13 AM

    Yean, I will be glad when the kops FINALLY do let the facts come out. Real ones, not the ones they make up.

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  5. Oh, you mean like the made up story that he was shot in the back. I guess that autopsy showing none of the bullets struck him in the back dispelled that "story." That must have been one of those "made up" stories. Oh, that's right, that didn't come from the cops. That came from the witness who was with Michael Brown. The witness who was wanted by "kops" on other charges.

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  6. 3:23 PM

    So that makes it okay for kops to MAKE UP STORIES too, in your small mind?

    There have been three autopsies and I haven't seen one yet. And what has come out about Brown's wounds depends on which one you believe.

    The one paid for by his family says one wound in his arm came from behind, and while arm was in the air.

    Regardless, this police dept. has not been forthcoming with any facts. They put out an incomplete incident report, which was illegal BTW.

    They lied about a broken eye socket. Two of their officers, one a Lt., have been placed on UNPAID leave. The Lt. for pointing a rifle at people and threatening to kill them, and wouldn't identify himself.

    The other kop, made an hour long video saying some pretty disturbing things.

    Now, all that may be okay with YOU, but not me. And certainly not anyone who wants the truth to come out and justice to be served.

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  7. Two of their officers, one a Lt., have been placed on UNPAID leave.

    I should have said they were SUSPENDED without pay. Relieved of duty. At least THIS time kops don't get a paid vacation while they cover up for them.

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  8. And now it is THREE Ferguson cops who are suspended. Yeah, I believe everything those kops say....NOT

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  9. You guys should go march with Al. You have the same way of thinking! I bet you donate to him and watch msnbc all night long!

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