Michael Brown deserves better
Letters to the editor
5/24/2019, 6 a.m.
Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white Ferguson, Mo., police officer in August 2014, was vilified and demonized by a large segment of the majority race in our society. He was stereotyped as a roguish black man.
The documentary, “Stranger Fruit,” a play on the song by Billie Holiday, clearly shows that Mr. Brown didn’t think that he was stealing anything from a Ferguson convenience store that led to the police call. Clearly, he should have used better judgment and waited for the crew involved in the transaction at the store to come back on their shift.
Taking that factor out of the equation, it seems highly unlikely that he would charge a policeman who was pointing a gun at him.
Many witnesses testified that the police description of what happened was not accurate.
Police misconduct takes many forms — verbal abuse; being stopped for trivial reasons; with the police hoping to smell marijuana being the real reason for the stop; and being hit for supposedly not following instructions fast enough. These types of things don’t get reported in the news, just the ultimate wrongs — the killings.
Michael Brown deserved better than the verdict that was reached in this case.
BERNARD A. GORDON
Glen Allen
