Don’t Shoot (Your Mouth Off) Before All the Facts Are Known

We hand a man a gun and ask him to protect us. If something goes horribly wrong, perhaps in a flurry of panic, we don’t rush to punish him. We make sure a criminal justice system meant to protect all citizens also protects him. We blanket him in the presumption of innocence. It’s the reason juries are loath to convict and, as happened in Missouri, grand juries are loath to indict officers involved in shootings.

So do I believe that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson might not have confronted Michael Brown, 18, and his friend Dorian Johnson, 22, if they had been white kids walking in the middle of the street on a hot Saturday morning? Yes, I do. But I also find Wilson’s explanation credible. He testified that he approached the young men because he saw cars swerving around them. It’s his job to keep the community safe.

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