Too many see only black or white

Before becoming a columnist, I was the night police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and I used to spend a lot of time with cops. We’d often go to small chop suey joints on the city’s north side.

“Always get shrimp fried rice,” one detective told me. “Nothing looks like shrimp but shrimp.”

That was, and is, good advice. Avoid ambiguity whenever possible. Of course, it’s not always possible. That doesn’t seem to bother most people. Confronted by ambiguity, they just plow ahead.

That has been apparent in the shooting death of Michael Brown.

We do not know exactly what happened. The key legal moment in the confrontation between Brown and Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. might have occurred at the police car. A shot was fired from inside the vehicle and hit the panel or floorboard.

But what was the nature of that shot? Did the gun misfire as Wilson took it from its holster? Did Brown see Wilson drawing his gun and try to knock it away? Did Brown struggle and try to take the gun from Wilson? It’s a relatively safe bet that Wilson told the grand jury that Brown tried to take the gun away.

According to the witnesses who have talked to the media - and more about that in a minute - the fatal shots were fired well away from the police vehicle. A construction worker told reporter Jeremy Kohler that he heard a shot and then saw Brown running with Wilson in pursuit. During the pursuit, Wilson fired, the construction worker said.

A police officer can shoot at a fleeing suspect only if the officer “has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others.”

Stealing cigars and roughly shoving a clerk probably would not meet that standard. Assaulting and trying to disarm an officer probably would.

The construction worker told Kohler that after a shot was fired, Brown stumbled, turned around, put his arms up and said, “OK. OK. OK.” The construction worker said Brown began walking back toward Wilson, who then began firing, backing up as he did so.

There is no justification for shooting a man who is trying to surrender - unless you don’t know he’s trying to surrender. Perhaps all Wilson knew was that Brown was coming at him. The fact that Wilson was backing up as he was firing would seem to be consistent with a frightened man firing in self-defense. Talk about ambiguous. The construction worker’s story cuts both ways. That’s if you believe it. His story is considered important because he is “neutral.” That’s a polite way of saying he’s white. Most of the witnesses are black, and they are considered potentially biased, and therefore less credible. Insult upon injury. No wonder so many people are angry. Then again, I can’t tell you what the other witnesses claim to have seen because the county police have released almost no information. Forget the public’s right to know. We might as well be in North Korea.

Oddly, the public is unconcerned about not knowing. Most people seem firmly in one camp or the other. One side is convinced it’s murder. The other side is convinced the shooting was absolutely justified.

This bodes poorly for the future. People who can make up their minds without facts are unlikely to change their minds. If Wilson is indicted for anything, his supporters will shout, “Politics!” If he is not indicted, the other side will shout, “Cover-up!”

If this case does get to trial, good luck with a jury. Try to find 12 people with open minds.

Also, I expect trouble no matter what the verdict. If it’s an acquittal, blacks might stage a conventional riot. Whites riot, too, but in unconventional fashion. O.J. Simpson was acquitted in California in 1995. The next year, whites voted to outlaw affirmative action in the state. We don’t loot, but we get even.

In a more perfect world, we’d have a jury of black cops. Reporter Christine Byers recently did a story on a black sergeant in the Ferguson Police Department. He seemed to understand the ambiguity of the case.

That’s not surprising. Black cops live in both worlds. Every black person I know has a story about the police. Young black men and cops have a very uneasy relationship that white people don’t really understand. Civilians don’t get the cop thing, either. We might watch cop shows on television, and we might even eat chop suey with them, but they have a different reality.

That’s why I was happy to hear that Sheila Whirley is one of the prosecutors handling the case in the grand jury. She’s black, and she spent four years as a cop in Pagedale, Mo. before going to law school.

That background should serve her well. Life can get complicated. Sometimes a chop suey joint is all out of shrimp.

Bill McClellan is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.