How Michael Brown's Mother Reacted

On Monday, prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced that Darren Wilson would not be charged for the shooting of Michael Brown. Difficult as the news was for the entire nation, there was undoubtably no one more heartbroken then the parents of the slain 19-year-old. In a video posted on Facebook, Leslie McSpadden, Brown's mother, sobbed and shrieked over the Ferguson verdict in front of protestors following the announcement.

McSpadden was filmed standing next to supporters as she screamed:

Everybody wants me to be calm. Do they know how those bullets hit my son? What they did to his body as they entered his body? Nobody had to live through what I had to live through.

Michael Brown being targeted and shot by a white police officer is seen as emblematic of the larger, more prevalent issues of racial discrimination and police brutality that many people in black and minority communities experienced, and the teenager's death was immensely personal for those who felt a similar, enduring persecution by law enforcement for the color of their skin. But the fact that Wilson was not charged — despite Robert McCullough, the prosecutor of the case, stating last night during the announcement that there was "no question" that Wilson was responsible for the shooting and death — added salt to an already-festering wound.

In the video posted by Writer's Block Survivor, the crowd shouts back to McSpadden, "We love you!" She broke down sobbing after repeatedly crying out, "Why?" Close supporters embraced and comforted her as she weeped.

Unusually for typically-secret grand jury proceedings, its transcripts have been made public. In his testimony, Wilson said that since his initial goal was to arrest Brown he had tried to buy time until backup arrived:

I thought if I can buy 30 seconds of time, that was my original goal when I tried to get him to come to the car. If I could buy 30 seconds of time, someone else will be here, we can make the arrest, nothing happens, we are all good. And it didn't happen that way.

The transcripts also revealed that Wilson fired 12 shots during the incident. An autospy on Brown's body showed that he was struck by at least six bullets. In contrast, pictures of Wilson's injuries sustained during the altercation with Brown — before the officer unloaded all but one bullet in his 13-shot Sig Sauer .40 caliber gun on the boy — showed bruises on his cheek and the back of his neck. In the transcript of his testimony, Wilson said:

I felt another one of those punches in my face would knock me out or worse. I mean, it was, he's obviously bigger than I was, and stronger, and the—I've already taken two to the face, and I don't think I would—the third one could be fatal if he hit me right.

While it's unlikely that Wilson will return to the police force, there is little doubt that for many Americans, he represents all that is wrong with a justice system that does not see fit to punish those in positions of power who are guilty of committing crime. The long-standing tension between minority communities and law enforcement that doesn't proportionately represent the communities they "protect" blew up in August, claiming Brown as a tragic victim of the broken system.

In the video, his mother, to whom the indictment has delivered a huge injustice, cried:

They still don't care. They're never gonna care. I've been here my whole life.

Images: Writer's Block Survivor/Screenshot (3)