Yes, there has been an information flow and am in agreement Officer Wilson's attorney is protecting his client and as usual my comment or thought was all wet.
Thanks for the prayers. I’m as sure he’s with the Lord as you can be, this side of heaven. :)
One of the challenges facing the black community in trying to change things is dealing with the grieving parents. One of the rumors floating around after their son died was that he’d grabbed for the gun. The guy who told them this version was trying to convince them their son was a “hero,” but although my friends didn’t argue with him, they thought it would have been a stupid thing to do in that situation. OTOH, they recognized that, in the heat of the moment, their son might have done it.
In the end, it was clear that wasn’t what happened. But it’s equally clear that impulse to martyr or make a hero of the victim is not just a black one; so far as I know, everyone involved here was white.
OTOH, one of the guys who got jail time out of this was the officer in charge, and I once ran across an internet debate between that officer’s family and the victim’s family. The officer’s family absolutely bought into the whole, “he was just a boy, should be given another chance, his life is ruined” routine. That isn’t a black or white thing, either — whites make the same arguments when their kids are held accountable for doing something dumb that got someone killed.
My friends absolutely pursued justice, while forgiving the sinner and refusing to see revenge, and I admire them all kinda lots for it. And I truly believe that, had there been evidence that their son contributed to his own death, they would have accepted that, instead of just rejecting it out of hand while finding someone else to blame.
But both of those are challenging, challenging things to do. I won’t go so far as to say it is impossible without community support, but clearly it is a lot easier if you are surrounded by people who also understand that there is a difference between justice and revenge, and to help you keep that in mind. When emotions run that high, even if you normally expect people to act responsibly, it must be incredibly easy to just slide into a mindset of unaccountability for whoever matters to you, while blindly blaming the other guy.
Although to be honest, it sounded like the officer’s family hadn’t been holding him accountable for some time anyway. *sigh*