And his criminal record is completely relevant, especially since they tried to portray him as an upstanding college-bound citizen, and also considering that just moments before he had used violence to rob a store.
His criminal record and the convenience store robbery have a huge bearing on Michael Brown’s own behavior.
If he were an innocent, upstanding citizen, the story that he attacked a cop, fractured his eye socket, and was coming back to finish the job when he was shot, would make no sense. What would be his motivation.
If, however, one takes into account that he was in trouble with the law, perhaps on probation, and had just roughed up a shopkeeper, Michael Brown’s actions make a lot more sense.
As far as he knew, Officer Wilson was stopping him for knocking over the convenience store. If he had already been in trouble with the law, he might have been facing some pretty severe penalties for his most recent crime. If so, the story that he made a decision to struggle with the police officer is much more plausible.
And finally, it is silly to say the video make Michael Brown look bad. Michael Brown made Michael Brown look bad. Stealing stuff and roughing up shopkeepers is bad, whether the video winds up on the news or not.