Answering The Pantheon Of Armchair Police Officers (And Other Useful Idiots)

It's getting extremely tiring hearing questions about whether Michael Brown could have been shot in the legs or some other non-lethal body part in order to incapacitate rather than kill him.


1.) Brown had already been shot in his hand when he reached into Wilson's patrol vehicle.


2.) Brown assaulted Officer Wilson, punching him twice in the face hard enough to fracture his eye socket and tried to wrest Wilson's gun from him (causing Wilson to fire 2 shots in the vehicle).


3.) This isn't the movies.


4.) Anyone with even a shred of intellectual honesty will tell you that anyone who may have to use a firearm for their job, like the police and our military, is trained to shoot center mass. Why? Because that's where most of the vital organs are located and it's the biggest target. In the movie "The Patriot," Mel Gibson's character, Benjamin Martin, asks his two boys, who helping him attack the British unit transporting his eldest son as a prisoner, what he taught them about shooting. They replied, "Aim small, miss small." Yes, I know it's a movie, but "Aim small, miss small" is a truism in shooting.


5.) Officer Wilson, having already been attacked by a 300 lb. man (not a child), nearly knocked unconscious, does his job - pursuing a subject suspected of a strong-arm robbery. This suspect flees, then turns around and charges at Wilson, causing the officer to shoot Brown five more times, the fatal round entering Brown's head as he fell to the ground less then eight feet from Wilson, leaving a twenty-five yard long blood trail in the process.


6.) Firefights and officer involved shootings happen quickly, and are typically high-stress situations. I know from the 2 firefights I was in years ago that my heart was racing, my hands shaking, and my aim unsteady. I can only thank the good Lord above that I didn't hit someone other than the ones shooting at me. To shoot at anything other than center mass is to court death.


7.) There's nothing harder in shooting than hitting a moving target, especially when adrenaline is flowing, or you've been assaulted by a man whose intention it can only be assumed was to kill you. Ask any soldier who's been in a firefight in Iraq or Afghanistan - they'll tell you the same thing.


8.) We must also keep in mind that Wilson's entire encounter with Brown lasted about a grand total of ninety seconds. Things moved fast. Thankfully, Officer Wilson's training and instincts kicked in to keep him alive.


The point of this diatribe is to show that while the police willingly put their lives on the line every day, they also aren't like the cops we see on TV and in the movies. They get nervous, scared - just like the rest of us - but they're trained to deal with those emotions better than we are.


Again, based upon the evidence, I believe Officer Wilson acted appropriately and within the law. Once again, it would behoove us to remember that the police are not obligated to use less than lethal means to subdue someone once deadly intent has been displayed.


This isn't now, nor has it ever been, about race. This is, and always has been, about a police officer doing his job - and that's all it ever should have been about. Period. ~ Hunter