Hands Up Don't Shoot

Dear Reader,

The Grand Jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson is unbelievable. I believe that Wilson should have gotten some sort of punishment for killing Michael Brown. The punishment could have been anything that would have brought justice to the situation. At the very least, he was guilty of manslaughter. However, the Grand Jury disagreed and let him walk away as if no crime was committed. The Grand Jury’s decision brought no justice to Mike Brown and his family.

Mike Brown was an African American teenager who was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. Wilson stopped Brown for jaywalking, not because he was a suspect in crime. Brown was just minding his own business and was not being a threat to anyone. Wilson stopped him anyways and started talking to him. Now, Wilson claims that Brown laid his hands on him first, but many other eyewitness stories claim that Wilson was the aggressor; we cannot know for sure. By this time, Brown is running away while Wilson is firing his gun at him, which is against police self-defense protocol. Once Brown is about 150 ft away and has already been shot a couple of times, he turns around and says, “I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.” This is when Wilson shoots Brown twice in the head, killing him. Many more protocols were broken, such as not interviewing witnesses, not taking pictures of the crime scene, not investigating Wilson’s gun for fingerprints, and allowing Wilson to wash off the blood on him before being photographed. If any of these protocols were followed, the outcome of this case could have been different.

The case of Mike Brown is not just about a white cop who killed an unarmed black teenager. It is more than this. It is about police brutality and how cops are continuing to get away with it. Fong Lee was an unarmed Hmong-American shot to death by the police, who believed he was carrying a gun. Eric Garner was an unarmed African-American who was put in a chokehold and was suffocated by the police, who accused him of selling cigarettes. Kelly Thomas was an unarmed homeless white man who was beat to death by six officers for being “uncooperative”. These are just a few of the many people who have been killed because of police brutality. In most of these cases, the police officers walked away with no charge and were declared not guilty. As you can see, it is also not just about race. Police brutality can happen to anyone, at any time. That is why I am asking anyone who is against police brutality, whether you are of color or not, to stand up against it. We need to put an end to this injustice.

Sincerely,

Michael Balleza