Micheal Brown deserved to be shot.

[Ryantology]

For a cop? Doubt it.

The PSNI has over 6000 officers all trained to use a gun, whereas only 70 have tasers. For some unknown reason they are harder to get.

One reason may be because our fucked up society is more afraid of ebola, which has killed a whole two people in the United States, than of guns, which kill two people every 30 minutes or so.

[Strider]

The PSNI has over 6000 officers all trained to use a gun, whereas only 70 have tasers. For some unknown reason they are harder to get.

According to grand jury testimony, Wilson normally had access to a taser if he wanted to carry one. But he opted to not carry one. Want to know why?

It wasn't comfortable.

Q [Jury]: Did you carry a taser?

A [Wilson]: No.

Q: Why not?

A: I normally don't carry a taser. We only have a select amount. Usually there is one available, but I usually elect not to carry one. It is not the most comfortable thing. They are very large, I don't have room in the front for it to be positioned.

Make what you will of that. He was willing to carry his gun, but the taser...nah. Not comfy enough.

[KUSA]

Unarmed man, no way. Simple as that.

He had 2 huge arms and they would have likely been used to kill or maim Wilson.

I'd be willing to bet that most people would have pulled the trigger as fast as they could if that big ass fucker was coming after them.

When you hit or threaten a cop your life expectancy goes way down. Brown owned the consequences of doing this.

[Ryantology]

Cops should be required to carry non-lethal instruments. And every single time that their gun is unholstered should involve a detailed report of the circumstances. Every single discharge of a weapon should involve at least some level of investigation. Every time that a cop shoots a person to death, they should be subject to the same level of criminal scrutiny as a civilian.

Cops won't like that, but who cares what cops like? They are here to do a job.

[Silver]

Voted No in the poll.

[Ryantology]

He had 2 huge arms and they would have likely been used to kill or maim Wilson.

Wilson wasn't an 80 year old grandmother, and the taser he didn't feel like carrying wouldn't care how huge his arms were.

An unwillingness to even think of utilizing non-lethal means makes a person like Darren Wilson a murderer in my eyes.

[Chad32]

You'd think that people we allow to carry weapons in public would be under more pressure to restrain themselves. Not less. Instead of trying to make sure there's no indictment, he should probably be punished more than a regular person. With power should come responsibility, but these cops get away with murder.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't know. From what I've read, he appears to have been too far away to impose an immediate threat to the police officer -- meaning that the cop should have been able to avail himself of the nonlethal options at his disposal.

But I don't know.

[paulpablo]

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I agree with everything you're saying although I still think he probably deserved to be shot just based on what I've seen which admittedly isn't much but it's all I have to go on which is why I voted for probably.

The situation as I see it is there's one huge guy, and another guy with dreadlocks and neck tattoos, they go into a store, intimidate everyone who gets in their way, steal, walk out into the middle of the street get in trouble with the police and one of them gets shot.

Yes... one of them gets shot. Twelve times. Dead. And you're ok with it because of the admittedly little evidence you've seen. Seems to me you haven't really thought this through.

I'm not ok with it, because I don't really know what happened for certain.

I just think it's very likely that this guy was a big thieving bully who hung around with wanna be gangsters who had no respect for the law and if that is true I am perfectly ok with the fact he was shot 12 times dead.

On the other hand if I was the cop who had a tussle with this guy I wouldn't have shot him dead purposely unless I was genuinely afraid of the guy hurting me. But that's only for purely selfish reasons, I wouldn't want to get involved in the obvious controversy that would follow, lose my job and have to go into hiding.

[MechViking]

My opinion is that what happened happened and whatever choice the jury makes is fine with me.