According to the article, Wilson and his wife, Barbara Spradling, who has also left her job as a Ferguson police officer, are living with their young child at an undisclosed location in the St Louis area.
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It’s a community he’s unlikely to return to soon, as Wilson – who bought his house with donations from supporters – is basically unemployable.
“What we have right now in the country is an emerging consensus as to the need to act”, said NAACP President Cornell William Brooks.
While the Ferguson Police Department has already been exposed for blatant discrimination, being that “ninety-four per cent of the people arrested in Ferguson for “failure to comply” were black”, based on the article, Wilson is an exception to the rule. “We have to fix what’s happening now That’s my job as a police officer”.
Brown’s father is also interviewed as well a cousin, a witness to the teen’s shooting, Wilson’s wife, his former co-worker, and some academics to give insight on the subject of racism and police brutality. “I like the black community”. But he insisted the Ferguson police department was not the hotbed of racism it has been made out to be.
Wilson conceded that most jobs available to African-Americans in Ferguson are poorly paid but added, “That’s how I started”.
In the profile, entitled “The Cop”, author Jake Halpern described Wilson’s “very quiet life” after Brown’s death and the subsequent protests that roiled Ferguson on-and-off for months: a life on “a nondescript dead-end street on the outskirts of St. Louis” filled with fears of death threats, dim prospects of a future career in law enforcement and limited reflection on the man he killed.
“There’s a lack of jobs everywhere”, he replied, brusquely.
Wilson rarely goes out in public, and when he does, he tries to remain unrecognizable, sometimes wearing sunglasses and a hat.
In May, Wilson said: “You do realize that his parents are suing me?” “I didn’t want to just sit around all day”, he said.
He said he writes thank-you notes to his supporters, who have reportedly sent him thousands of letters.
When Wilson was thirteen, he stopped trusting his mother altogether, because she stole funds that she had helped raise for his Boy Scout troop.
“Everyone is so quick to jump on race”, he added.
“There are people who feel that police have too much power, and they don’t like it”, he said.
Wilson said he’s been trying to move on with his life.
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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. “It’s out of my control”. I had fun there… He recounted a typical exchange: ” ‘Why you running?’ ‘Because I’m afraid of getting caught.’ ‘Well, what are you afraid of getting caught for?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Well, there’s a reason you ran, and there’s a reason you don’t want to get caught. “You’ve got to start somewhere”.
