[Solace]

Originally Posted by kyp275

It's not "any aggression", once you've made the attempt to go for the officer's weapon, you escalate the encounter by demonstrating your intent to use deadly force against the officer,and if you're someone who's got a good 100 lbs on the officer and tried to get back into melee range?

Yea, I would've done the exact same thing. I'm not going to engage in a hand-to-hand fight against someone who's clearly got a size advantage on me and have already attempted to to take my weapon.

I understand the intent, but you know that's not what I meant. The vast majority of cases involving police shooting and killing a suspect (or animal) use the defense of "I felt he/she/it threatened my life". My point was that while this is often true, it's also true that threat of intimidation through force is the tool most used by police. Tactics that attempt to de-escalate a situation peacefully (or at the very least, without relying on a gun) are not used as much. Threat of force can also make situations worse. Suspects on the run are like cornered animals, they will do anything to escape their situation. Threat of force when cornered can make people feel like they have nothing to lose by retaliating in kind.

Besides that, force doesn't require a gun. Most people are horrible at fighting, and learning take down tactics and proper holds can be useful. What if for some reason, Brown had managed to get the gun at one point and during the altercation, the gun ended up some distance from both of them? How would Wilson have continued to handle the situation?

And I agree with that, but at the same time I think a lot of the general population simply have an unrealistic expectation of what's actually physically possible/practical out of the police. All too often I hear people complaining why don't the police "shoot the legs" or somehow restrain someone twice their size with master kung-fu moves.

Of course. It's always easier to look back in hindsight and wonder if things could have gone differently. Officers don't have the luxury of spending much time on decisions in dangerous situations. That said, many police aren't exactly in the best of shape either. I know of several in my area that look like they've spent a few too many hours eating junk food in their car. There is a difference in the level of combat training and physical prowess between the police and enlisted men.

But lying witnesses doesn't equal "tainted process". Witnesses are not automatically presumed to be truthful - hell, witnesses often lie/misrepresent/remember wrong on the stand, it's the duty of the jury to decide how reliable and truthful a witness's statement is, not the prosecutor or defense lawyers.

Except in this case, the prosecutor admitted that he let someone on the stand who was not actually at the scene give eyewitness testimony. In short, he let someone on he knew was lying give a Grand Jury a false testimony, and he didn't tell anyone until after the trial was over.

That's a complete breach of ethics. Of course people lie on the stand. But when you know the person is lying and let them admit testimony anyway, you've knowingly tainted the whole process.

I disagree here as well, there was no getting rid of that lingering doubt for Wilson from the very beginning. Many people have their minds made up already before the facts even came out, and they sure as hell wouldn't be swayed by whatever is decided in court even if it went to trial - just look at the Treyvon Martin case.

Some people will never be swayed, sure. But both cases are plagued with inconsistent testimony from both sides, a questionable use of the law entitling lethal force, and questions if the force was even necessary to begin with. And honestly, the media circus hasn't helped at all. I would argue that the worst culprit in helping guide and shape public opinion was the horrible job that the media did covering the events to begin with.

I believe it was John Stewart who once famously called Nancy Grace "an engorged tragedy tick". I'll put Sharpton up there too. He's the racial equivalent of an ambulance chaser. Both of them cherry pick details to rally their troops/viewers into a frenzy of emotion and use them to line their own pockets. Whenever Sharpton starts invoking King I become physically ill. He's a shame to the legacy of a great man.

According to his mother, the guy's been mentally ill his whole life, started trying to kill himself since he was 13. Incidentally, his ex gf talked him out of suicide - only to have him turn around and put a bullet in her, so take that as you will.

Yeesh. That's one messed up kid.