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Pardon me for butting in. “Dunphy” in the piece isn’t so much second guessing, as offering a debrief, something that is done, or should be done, after every encounter like this by those involved. The purpose is to ask “what did we do right, and what could we do better next time.”

That said, Dunphy touched on something I’ve wondered about. After pouring through the record, it’s clear that Wilson heard the initial call about a “stealing”, or petty theft, a misdemeanor at the liquor store. And like any good cop, knowing he was in the area, we went to look for the suspects when he had finished his call with the sick baby. What’s not clear is that the units at the liquor store ever put out information that it was a robbery, a felony.

Wilson’s initial contact, after he realized that Brown matched the description of the “stealing” suspect was consistent with trying to delay a misdemeanor suspect pending arrival of a backup unit. “what’s wrong with the sidewalk” etc., trying to distract and de-escalate until the second unit got there that he had called for. The problem with that was that Brown knew he had just committed a felony strong-arm robbery, even if Wilson did not. You can’t divert your partners for every single misdemeanor stop, but you sure as heck want to try to wait for backup before trying make a felony stop. It isn’t always possible, but it’s what you hope to be able to do.

And after the fact: the media believed uncritically the story Dorian Johnson told “Hands up”, even after it emerged that Johnson was an accomplice in the Robbery. Next time, police commanders and media relations officers need to be cognizant of that tendency, and be ready to counter with facts and information that challenge the media narrative.

Asking the question isn’t the same as making excuses for Brown’s criminal behavior, either at the store, or on Canfield. He, and he alone bears responsibility for his own death. But we can learn: the Mike Browns of the world are still among us, and we must try to take what lessons we can from this episode to “do better” next time.