Discussion for article #230420
Whether this guy stays a cop or not, there are better places for him than Ferguson at this point.
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Sounds to me like someone is fishing around for a way to keep him out of prison and avoid violence at the same time. No one should take that bait. There are too many questions. The case needs to go to a regular jury trial.
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Sounds like everyone in the Ferguson government knows he’s gonna walk. Even him.
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yes, if the grand jury does indeed return charges - it would be very likely that he would stay on the force - from a practical legal defense strategy standpoint, he would almost have to. If charges are made, he will hope that they will be intertwined with ‘carrying out his duty’ (correctly or incorrectly) - and to construct his best defense, he will need to be aligned with the Ferguson Police Department.
In reality, his career on the Ferguson Police Department is over - the only question is when it becomes official.
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Makes me suspect the idiot chief’s statement that he’d put Wilson back out on the street if the Grand Jury no-bills was intended to pressure Wilson to resign, not just another example of his cluelessness.
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Resign my donkey. The whole department needs to be purged.
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Sure why not. He can collect all that money the KKK crowd funded for him. I heard it was over 400K and that was several weeks ago.
Why work when you can take blood money for murdering someone with impunity.
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“…he may change his mind if the grand jury does indeed return charges…”
Say what?
So, clearly not being the sharpest lightbulb under the basket, let’s see if I get this.
He’ll resign as long as there’s no indictment. But if charges are brought, he won’t.
How do you spell that again? Is it W, T, and F?
Like the Big House.
Future assistance with legal representation may hinge on his continued employment with the city, his membership in any police unions, his eligibility for legal insurance with either or both, etc. Resigning, while the proper thing to do from a public relations/public safety aspect, might do him harm in his ability to pay for future defense bills.
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Awww. Doesn’t he look happy in that photo? My money is on no bill. God help us all.
The threshold for a true bill is pretty low. The percentage of true bills returned by a grand jury is pretty high, I think about 95%. There are so many unanswered questions in this case. So, if a true bill isn’t returned it has to be because the prosecution didn’t want one. There are enough discrepancies and questions that need to be answered, but we know it’s different when an unarmed African American teen is killed. Sadly, I will not be shocked if Wilson gets off. How many think that if this had been an unarmed white kid the officer would have an opportunity to work out the details of their resignation? Sickening.
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How about this as a negotiating position:
FIRE THE BASTARD.
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Far too much credit afforded such an uncritical thinker.
That advice came from elsewhere.
By someone who’s seen this movie before.
jw1
I have a hard time judging this officer at this point. Certainly his career as an officer in Ferguson is over, warranted or not.
Manslaughter is the obvious charge, but probably not the likely outcome of the GJ…Then again if they were going to return a no indictment finding I think they would have done so already.
He would want to use the resources of the police department for mounting a defense, clearly.
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I might have been more accurate-- as my comment was describing the chief’s actions.
Wilson? After he left the scene of the killing?
I may have done things just as he has.
At that point it become a matter of self-preservation.
I don’t have any sympathy for him-- but do have some understanding of what human nature might prescribe.
jw1
I’m in agreement. I just find this rush to judgement on parts of the discussion board somewhat unappealing. Certainly the South has a bad track record on adjudicating black/white crime and in fact there is a great article in the New Yorker about the death penalty in Alabama (?) around this subject which was, frankly, depressing and should make every American angry as hell, be they conservative or liberal.