Despite surveillance video that allegedly shows Michael Brown robbing a convenience store and violently shoving a store clerk into a rack, his parents state that there is nothing to suggest that Brown had an “aggressive temperament.”
His mother, Lesley McSpadden, and father, Michael Brown, Sr., told CBS News that they have not yet seen that surveillance video. His mother said Brown “was just tall, big and black.” And even though some reports allege that Brown beat Wilson before the incident, his father claims that officer Darren Wilson treated his son like a “dog” or a “rat.” The family was certainly aware of the video, however. Immediately following police release of the surveillance video last week, Benjamin Crump, the family’s attorney, said the family was “incensed” by it.
According to news reports, Crump said the Brown family felt “blindsided” by “the old game of smoke and mirrors.” The mainstream media had portrayed Brown as a “gentle giant,” but they stopped doing so after the surveillance video was released.
Even though the grand jury has not heard the evidence, Brown’s father alleged:
My son had his hands up. So that lets the world know that he has been taught to understand and do the proper thing that he was told by a police officer, who he was suppose[d] to trust to protect and serve him, to obey and not to be treated like a dog or a rat on a street.
Attorney General Eric Holder privately met with the family this week while he was in Ferguson.
Michael Brown’s funeral is scheduled for Monday.
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