One television personality has said that the Furgeson Police Department may have made the correct decision in releasing the video allegedly showing Michael Brown robbing a local convenience store ten minutes before he was shot and killed.
Juliet Huddy from Fox News contended that release of the robbery video was the right thing to do, as it might have persuaded protesters that police had legal justification for shooting the unarmed teen.
The U.S. Department of Justice had asked Furgeson police to withhold the video, purportedly over concerns that it would inflame the ongoing protests. The Furgeson Chief of Police disclosed that the officer who shot Brown was unaware of the fact that Brown might have been a suspect in the robbery.
Huddy stated that she could not understand why the Justice Department thought that release of the video might incite further violence. Co-host Tucker Carlson said that the issue of the video’s release seemed to be unrelated to controlling the crowd.
The FBI had already refused to become involved during the looting phase of the riots. Huddy then went on to state that if the video had been released earlier, it might have shown that Brown was not the gentle giant that protesters and the media had portrayed him to be. Perhaps the officer was justified in shooting Brown because something else criminal also occurred.