From the beginning, the public has been misinformed about what transpired when white Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, according to Ron Hosko, the former assistant director of the FBI.
Hosko appeared Wednesday on America's Forum on
Newsmax TV.
"The grand jury's job was to review as much evidence as possible and that obviously weighed quite heavily in favor of Officer Wilson's use of force in this case," said Hosko, who is the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
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"One of the key things the grand jury did here was make credibility determinations. Obviously physical evidence has great weight and when you hear other witnesses and Officer Wilson's stories start to come into alignment with that physical evidence, it makes for a powerful case."
The "opportunists" who have resorted to violence, such as burning buildings and looting businesses, have upstaged those trying to civilly protest their upset at the grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson, he said.
"Frankly, some of those in that crowd aren't the least concerned about what happened to Michael Brown and the engagement with the police in Ferguson or in other places," he said. "There are criminals and there are opportunists that are looking to upgrade their stereo system or get some alcohol or take whatever they want to take or just do damage."
Prosecutors will be looking into remarks inciting violence by Brown’s stepfather following the announcement of the decision, Hosko said. The stepfather repeatedly screamed for the crowd to "burn this bitch down!"
"Unmistakable, unquestionably, the loss of a child is a very painful event for any parent, regardless of what the child did or didn't do," he said. "So you have to look at it in those terms but his words and then how immediately did action get taken, did it get taken in the vicinity of his words, very disappointing and really painful for the good citizens of Ferguson and the community there."
Earlier this month,
Hosko penned a scathing letter to President Barack Obama, accusing him of and his administration of being hostile to law enforcement, citing the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, as an example.
"It does feel as though that the president and the attorney general by their acts, by their deeds, by their omissions, are unappreciative of the hard work and the sacrifice of law enforcement," Hosko said. "We saw it happen in Harvard with his comments about the police acting stupidly after their engagement with a Harvard professor.
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"I had hoped that he would remain mute on the Ferguson situation until the facts were known and early on we heard comments and we heard reference to race and young black men, people of color being stopped inordinately and making the connection between those instances and what happened in Ferguson. Here we have an officer who took a life, that's the last thing a police officer wants to do in his job and we have what felt like the president putting his thumb on the scale. We had DOJ weighing in with the patterns and practices investigation in the immediate wakeup. That could have been held off, ideally, it would have happened before to correct actions in Ferguson if they needed to rather than within a few days of the investigation."
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