Why the grand jury ruled as it did

The transcript of the grand jury proceeding in the Michael Brown shooting fills 4,799 pages. It shows that some of the witnesses against police officer Darren Wilson would have had serious credibility problems had the case gone to trial.

One of the most incendiary claims about the shooting came from a woman who told the FBI that Officer Wilson stood over Michael Brown’s body and emptied his clip to finish him off. But on page 70 of her testimony to the grand jury on October 27, she admitted she was not in a position to see the final shots. She’d just assumed he’d done it.

It’s pretty clear that the witnesses who persuaded the jury were the ones who said that Michael Brown charged the officer, ignoring repeated commands to stop. A reporter asked Prosecutor Robert McCulloch the question on everyone’s mind – the witnesses who backed up the officer – what race were they?

“The ones I mentioned specifically were all African Americans. The one who indicated that he came at him in a full charge, they’re all African American.”

But the transcript also tells more than just the story of the shooting. Again and again, witnesses who lived near the scene expressed a deep mistrust of the Ferguson Police Department going back a long time.

One woman told of seeing the police gun down a man when she was 6 years old. Another told of calling the cops for help with a violent neighbor only to see them cuff the wrong person.

Another said, “When we see the police come, it’s like instant panic.”

For them, the jury’s decision settles nothing. They see Michael Brown’s shooting as just further proof that whoever the police are protecting, it’s not them.