The shooting of Michael Brown, a black eighteen-year-old, happened in Ferguson when the police officer Darren Wilson tried to stop him after the teenager stole some cigarillos from the store nearby. The man was unarmed, and according to the reports, they had an altercation with the officer at the police vehicle. However, the witnesses differ on whether Brown tried to reach Wilson inside the vehicle or not. The officer claimed that he was fighting for his gun; later, there was blood found on the outside and inside the car. During the altercation, Wilson shot twice, and one bullet slightly glazed Brown’s thumb.
Brown started to run, and the officer followed him on foot, then shortly Brown stopped, turned to Wilson, and the latter fired more shots and wounded Brown fatally. Again there are contradicting eyewitness testimonies about that moment, as according to some, the victim raised his hands in the air briefly and turned to Wilson, and another opinion is that he turned and ran towards Wilson. The officer also confirmed that Brown made grunting noises and charged violently at him. Brown got six wounds in total, and the evidence suggests that he was still moving closer to the officer after the shooting.
In April 2015, Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore, and while transported in the police van, he fell into a coma and was eventually taken to the hospital, where he died seven days later because of the spinal cord injury. It happened in Baltimore in an area notorious for violent crimes and drug dealings. Gray tried to flee on seeing the patrol, but the policemen caught him, found a knife that violated the Baltimore code, and took him to custody. The policemen claimed that they did not use force against the man, though some witnesses say that Gray was heard screaming while he was dragged to the van, and previously was beaten by the officers and could not use his legs well.
The police argued that he was capable of walking and fully conscious when they got into the van, and it can be seen in the video. It remains unknown what happened in the van, though it is known that it stopped to take another prisoner, and the policemen were checking on Gray’s condition. After their arrival at the police station and the examination of paramedics, Gray was taken to the trauma center in a coma. He held a record of court cases that were mostly related to drug dealing; some of them were still active at the time of his arrest.
The federal investigation of Brown’s case showed that the local justice system allowed for many constitutional violations and had to be created anew. In Gray’s case, there was evidence of the arrested having a rough ride without a seatbelt, which could have deteriorated his condition. Both cases show a lack of discipline, training, and caution in the policemen’s actions. Firing at an unarmed teenager is unnecessary if police officers are trained to prevent danger, at least in a hand-to-hand fight. With Gray, there was a disregard for basic safety rules, and the prisoners were put in the van without seatbelts and with no policemen to watch them in the back part of the van.