The police officer, Darren Wilson, was assaulting the unarmed 18-year-old teenager for jaywalking...and this is what the killer cop finally admitted to be the "reason" he had accosted the two young black men on a summer afternoon.
The trigger-happy cop Wilson had no reason to stop the two "walking while black" young men, "Big Mike" and his friend Dorian Johnson, age 22, but excessive force was a "norm" for the Ferguson policeman. For those of you who do not live in Missouri, Ferguson is a friendly blue-collar neighborhood with a very crooked white-supremacist police force that has a history of discrimination against black men. The police chief at the time was discovered to have attended KKK gatherings and even giving a speech at one.
Lazy summer afternoon, Dorian Johnson met up with his friend "Big Mike" and they walked to the local store, then walked the two blocks back to Michael's Grandmother's apartment to play computer games. There was no traffic and the apartment building was across the street, so the young men walked in the street---a common occurrence in South County neighborhoods (where I lived for many years). Big Mike had tried to shoplift a box of thin cigars, but the box fell to the floor and the video camera revealed that Dorian Johnson bent down to lift the box and put it back on the counter. Big Mike grabbed a couple of the spilled cigars, which he had in his left hand when they left the store. No charges were filed and no report was made, and so said the store owner on camera when the Ferguson police tried to smear the victim.
Wearing flip-flops, summer shorts, and a t-shirt, Michael Brown was not looking for any trouble that day. The first words out of the 28-year-old Darren Wilson's mean mouth to the two young men were unnecessarily hostile: "Get the f**k on the sidewalk!" Johnson tried to explain that they were about a block from the apartment and pointed across the street to show where they were headed. Killer-cop Wilson started to drive on, but when he saw that the two "boys" did not obey his imperial command, he backed up his SUV in a rage, according to witness Johnson, and tried to fling open the door in fury---but he was too close to the two men, so the door hit Big Mike and closed. The already overly angry (chip on his white supremacist shoulder) hot-tempered spoiling-for-a-fight cop mistakenly thought Michael Brown had pushed the driver-side door shut (which Mike could not have done because he had a handful of the cigars) and so the cop reached out and grabbed Michael around the neck, putting his thumb on the front to block breathing, surprising both young black men. Michael put his big hands on the outside of the vehicle trying to push away, not understanding why this white cop was so furious over jaywalking. When he was losing the choke hold grip, killer-cop Wilson grabbed the t-shirt at the neck for no reason with the officer's left hand---just made because two black men did not "obey" his command to "get the f**k on the sidewalk." His friend Dorian could tell Mike was scared and was trying to get away, pushing on the black police SUV (multiple witnesses confirm this)---he was NOT trying to attack the police officer, but the officer was attacking him for no good reason. Officer Wilson kept his weapon and his taser on his passenger-side (right) hip, so when the t-shirt was not enough to detain the terrified 18-year-old, the cop tried to pull the kid's arm into the window---as testified to by a business owner who came by to pick up one of her employees. The cop was trying to pull Big Mike into the car and Big Mike was trying frantically to push away and escape. When killer-cop Wilson's gun went off (he'd tried to pull out the taser, some thought), witness Dorian thought it might have been a mistake because he reported that Wilson's face looked surprised. That shot from the car left powder burns on Wilson's shirt and the RECOIL struck him in the lower jaw on the right side of the officer's face, and the bullet went through Darren Wilson's hand that was pushing against the outside of the car, freaking out the teenager, and he RAN---he broke free and FLED IN TERROR, telling his friend Dorian to get away. The families-occupied quiet neighborhood had a crazed hot-tempered trigger-happy white cop firing his weapon at least seven times, hitting the fleshy part of Michael's forearms as the big teenager ran as fast as his flip-flops would allow, pumping those big arms behind him trying to accelerate. The third hit, Michael turned around, his arms up (as witnessed by a construction crew in the area), giving up and in horrible pain. That did not stop adrenalin-crazed killer cop who kept on firing even when those construction workers hollered out "He's got his arms up! He's surrendering! Why are you still shooting?!" recorded by a security camera and a woman's phone.
Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood by a white trigger-happy hot-tempered cop, and then left in the hot sun for hours. You do not have to be LIBERAL or BLACK to object to this inhumane treatment of a young unarmed 18--year-old killed for "walking while black" and for "jaywalking."