You are right...
I have been in law enforcement, I have carried a weapon as part of my duties, and I have arrested those under the influence of drugs. I have also faced "unarmed" men who were much larger, much stronger than me. If they had charged me, (and If you've ever played football, you know that an aggressive, full-on charge is often with the head thrust down and forward) I would had shot them. No question.
Do you not realize that 7 out of every 10 police officers killed in the line of duty are killed by their own weapon after it was taken from them by a larger "unarmed" suspect, one that often felt no pain during the struggle because of drugs or alcohol?
I think this is one instance where the ignorant armchair quarterbacks and irresponsible self-righteous pansies should quietly back off. It's a whole other world of daily life-or-death you cannot begin to understand.
First, like Zaac, "Welcome to the board!"
I agree with what you said. People seem to forget that the badge and aura of authority a cop brings to the event is smoke and mirrors. Most of the time, it is more than adequate in getting support and respect from the people you are forced to approach and deal with.
However, once that mystic aura is broken, and the citizen goes from compliant to defiant, their hands are a weapon to be reckoned with. I know that as a private citizen, should someone break into my home and not leave when I caught them and ordered them out, but instead charged me, I would have no problem using my semi-automatic weapon do my speaking from that point on!
I am not frail, but I am older, and I have several serious physical disabilities, which makes a charging burgler a threat to me, and I would have the right to protect myself!
I believe this is the same with any police officer. The authority barrier can be challenged and broken by a belligerent person, and even if they do not have a weapon, cops are not hired to be fighters. For example, in the army, they taught us hand-to-hand-combat, and said there would be many times that or life or death would come down to that one on one conflict.
Like the Drill Instructors taught us, use any mean possible to kill the enemy, because once you engage them physically, you are in a one, life-and-death struggle to the end! And it is your goal to get back to base camp after the mission on your own two feet, and not in a black bag. This is why we were taught to make a quick assessment of the enemy and the area around us, and to utilize whatever was seen, to give us the upper hand in the fight!
The police want to go home after a shift. They don't want to leave a wife and three kids. Thus, they will take whatever action, and that may even be lethal, to maintain the upper hand in the battle.
When the cop and Mr. Brown met up that afternoon, both had a plan. And if, in fact, the victim did go after the weapon, that takes the cop to another level, and in order to come out of this confrontation in one piece, he made a life-and-death decision!
We read that the officer had not been previous knowledge of what Mr. Brown had just done at the market, which means the officer had no preconceived notions of Brown, other than his blocking traffic, and failing to obey the order of the officer to get to the sidewalk. It appears the officer was driving off until he saw in his mirror that Brown defied the order, and continued to walk down the middle of the street.
This kind of behavior was not only dangerous to Brown but to drivers on that road. And because Brown had just pushed around the store employee, I'm sure he felt a certain emotional high, and was not about to listen to the white cop!
From there, you know what happened. As I say, had the victim only obeyed the cop, knowing that the robbery was not the issue the cop stopped and talked to him, he'd probably be alive today! Maybe in jail for stealing whatever he stole, but alive.
Most people don't realize how many kinds of thoughts flash within your mind when a non threatening situation escalates, and turns physical! Both men were looking for a way out, believe me, and both men wanted to avoid being the dead victim. So, within both men, scenarios and training, and the fight or flight emotions were running at full speed. Which led to a tragic set of circumstances.
Let me post this: Had Brown been able to subdue the officer and get his gun and kill the officer, do you thin we'd be where we are right now?
I say yes. Because the family and the black community would be saying that Brown was a quiet, shy, good kid with good grades. He only shot the cop because he was defending himself from an aggressive white racist cop, intent on harming him! And I think we'd still have a riot, because now Brown would be in jail for killing a cop, and the community would say he was pushed into the corner by the racist cop! So now they arrested a black man for protecting himself from the white cop, who went for his gun, and had it taken from him in the struggle and an accidental discharge killing the cop, happened to happen.
Sorry ... but this was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation! And Brown would have won. The only question that remains is, had he simply obeyed the order and went to the sidewalk. And that we will never know!