A partnership between groups created after the protests last August, the Ferguson Action Council is scheduled Aug. 7-10 to host events to remember Brown, an 18-year-old black man who was shot and killed by a white Ferguson police officer.
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Wilson said that in the months following the shooting he had been preoccupied with the legal ramifications and overall tumult and had not thought about who Brown really was.
Wilson said he was interviewed for a few police positions after the fatal incident, but was told “he would be a liability”, the New Yorker Magazine reported on Monday. He said worked for two weeks at a boot store, but quit when reporters called the store.
Wilson didn’t speak much about the actual shooting (he is still being sued by Brown’s parents), but did respond to a question about whether he still though about Michael Brown. “It’s not a race issue”, Wilson said in a new profile published by the New Yorker. While Halpern certainly doesn’t shy away from criticizing Wilson (and sometimes lets the subject hang himself, as in the “mixing pot” comment), the profile does, at times, tell the story of Ferguson, Brown’s death, and the aftermath from Wilson’s perspective. The names of the now former officer, the unarmed teen, and the town where their paths crossed have each become archetypes, representing the persistent tensions that link race and policing in the U.S. That’s my job as a police officer.
Writer Jake Halpern explains how Wilson has been living his life since he was officially cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting.
He said he writes thank-you notes to his supporters, who have reportedly sent him thousands of letters. “People who experienced that, and were mistreated, have a legitimate claim”, he told me. I had fun there…
One of the most troubling aspects about the article is that it reveals Wilson had no problem working for two police departments with histories of racism.
Just three states – Colorado, Connecticut and Illinois – have passed comprehensive packages of legislation encouraging body cameras, boosting police training on such things as racial biases and requiring independent investigations when police shoot people.
But in the interview, Wilson describes a “blind, black, single mother” who Gawker summarizes his opinion of her as being “powerless to stop her kids from causing trouble and allegedly committing crimes, no matter how many times Wilson tried to catch them carrying weapons”. “No. Not at all”.
“There’s a lack of jobs everywhere”, he said. Nixon also created an Office of Community Engagement and a summer jobs program for young people in the St. Louis area. He continued: “You know”.
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Asked whether he thinks Brown was a “bad guy”, Wilson said, “I only knew him for those 45 seconds in which he was trying to kill me, so I don’t know”. He told me that he still ate out, but only at certain places. “On the other hand, they’re not surprised”.
