Allies of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson insist that given that the grand jury didn’t indict Wilson and believed his version of events over Michael Brown friend Dorian Johnson, the state should consider charging Johnson with perjury.
It was Dorian Johnson that initially claimed Michael Brown had his hands up and said, “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting”. That led to the ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ meme and eventually protest chant that characterized August’s angry protests. In fact, it’s a large part of why the incident took on the nature it ultimately did.
That’s partly why some Wilson supporters feel Dorian Johnson should be held to account for his statements.
A close friend said: ‘Dorian Johnson is the one who started it all. If it was up to me he should be charged. ‘He got right on CNN, he got right on TV and started blabbering his mouth off. I could tell by his voice that he was lying.
… The friend also criticized Johnson for claiming that he hid behind a car but also claimed to have seen everything that happened. The friend said: ‘That’s just not possible’.
In his TV interviews after Brown’s death on CNN and MSNBC Johnson said that Wilson told him and Brown to ‘get the f***onto the sidewalk’ as he drove past in his police SUV.
Johnson had claimed “Wilson shot Brown in the back. The autopsy disproved that claim and other witnesses also offered different accounts from Johnson’s, who has a record and was involved with Brown in the convenience store robbery that precede the confrontation.
Still, it’s doubtful that he’ll see charges of any kind.
Johnson vanished soon after making his interviews and has only resurfaced once in a brief interview on CNN.
His credibility was further damaged after it emerged that he had previous convictions for theft and filing a false police report.