Considering the lack of injury to Officer Wilson in the Ferguson incident, it makes me wonder just how afraid of Michael Brown he really needed to be. I am not sure how new officers are being trained these days, but perhaps there is too much emphasis being placed on using the equipment, particularly the firearm. Oftentimes, officers fail to augment their skills with additional training in the techniques of unarmed combatives. It is naive to think the retraining, some of which is only annual, a department offers is enough to ingrain those skills into one's self so they are readily available when needed. Such training takes personal initiative and a high level of professional commitment to becoming proficient in the crafts of our trade. Knowing that all an officer does is scrutinized, analyzed and magnified it would behoove every officer to ensure they are up to speed on the most recent and prudent methods beforehand.
Officers must realize that the engagement starts in the mind. It begins with the mental preparation of running scenarios in your head to work out the reactions to the 'what ifs' before they happen. It unfolds with the approach and leads to a fluid encounter. The officer must not lose sight that the objective is control gained through a graduated application of force. The officer must remain mindful that this application is itself fluid and must be adjusted as the flow of the encounter changes. This control starts inside the officer's mind.
It is imperative to control one's justified fears and emotions in order to think clearly and make good decisions. Irrational fear and runaway emotions do not allow for such clear thinking and often leads to mistakes being made. In this case, fear and fury ruled the day. Michael Brown brought a fist fight to a gun fight. And the results are tragic! I believe these misplaced fears and emotions are the reasons that in the encounters between citizens and police officers that resulted in the death of the citizen, between 2012 and 2014, the citizen was unarmed.
Police work is a noble and honorable profession. The sworn officer is a trained professional and not some brute with a badge. We are not like the criminals we chase neither in heart or in mind.
Officers swear an oath to protect and defend the constitution and enforce the law. The rules, policies, procedures and practices of each department should support that end and neither supplant or circumvent it. The sworn officer carries huge responsibility and power on their shoulders: the power over freedom, life and death. This responsibility and power is given by the citizens and should not be taken lightly or exercised without due diligence and caution. This responsibility and power is accompanied and balanced by the weight of the accountability police have to the citizens. In this public office, the officer serves the citizens.
Rest assured, hard questions will be asked of Officer Wilson at his civil trial. I suspect his municipality, himself and his family will pay dearly as a result of Officer Wilson's critical decision making and the death of Michael Brown.
This incident and others should be the catalyst for specific and focused police training in every jurisdiction. But I am afraid it will not be and we will be doing this once again before the end of next year.
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