Music

Here's what Killer Mike would say to Ferguson shooter Darren Wilson

by Tyler Munro

In the months since Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, we haven’t been shy in our admiration for Killer Mike. Granted, as a rapper he’s somebody we’ve always deeply respected, but his commentary in the months following the incident(s) in Ferguson, Missouri has been both poignant and entirely necessary.

Last week, when the grand jury ruled not to indict Wilson, who has since resigned his post as a police officer, we shared Killer Mike’s powerful on stage speech, during which he spoke fearfully for the future of his sons. Naturally, his reaction gained him plenty of press, and like when they had him on when protests first began in August, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin invited him for an interview.

Killer Mike’s responses are appropriately nuanced throughout the entire interview, which you can and should watch below. He talks about the differences in talking to his daughters and sons regarding the incident. He relates to President Barack Obama’s, who remained largely mum on the protests throughout but did announce enhanced funding for police training and surveillance.

But the most powerful part of their discussion is Baldwin when she asks what Killer Mike would say to Darren Wilson, given the chance.

Here’s his answer, in full:

In less polite terms, I’d tell him “I think you’re a liar.”

I think you’re lying to cover yourself. I’m not saying that you weren’t engaged wrongfully, but I think you killed that kid because you were angry. I think that you decided, by the time you got out of that car, that he wasn’t going to get away with whatever you perceived he did to you. I think you’re going to live with this the rest of your life.

I don’t know how you can, without any conscience, say “I was just doing my job,” because every police man that I’ve ever known that has had to engage someone with a gun, whether they survived or not, walked out of the other side changed person.

“I don’t believe you,” is what I would say to him.

Unsatisfied with his answer, Baldwin then says she has to push him further.

“There are witnesses who corroborate the officer’s story: the struggle in the patrol car, the gun going off; that Michael Brown did charge at the officer,” she explains. “According to all of the testimony, he felt that his life was in danger, and the law spoke and his lethal force was justified.”

Again, Killer Mike’s response was candid and well elaborated upon:

Absolutely. And again, I’ve said from the start that I don’t think the engagement was engaged correctly. I honestly think that, if due process was never served, than we can say “Oh man, a fight occurred, he was afraid for his life,” but it was because this due process was never served…

This young man was never given the chance to be brought up on charges of shoplifting. He was never given the chance of being brought up on charges of jaywalking. And in fact he was sentenced to death because of those.

I’ve been in many a fight. I have been in many a fight. I can tell you that the man on that marks on that man’s face, who happened to be white, if hit by a 200-and-some-odd, 300 pound person, would not look like a shaving mark.

All of my white friends have turned to me and said “that’s about how my face looks like after I shave.”

So I’m not saying that you guys didn’t scuffle, but if it was as brutal as you’re telling me, because I’v actually been in a fight… I can’t believe you based on looking [at] you.

It doesn’t mean I don’t want to believe you, it doesn’t mean I’m not sympathetic to police officers, but in the case of this particular police officer, something is awry.”

Here’s the first part of their interview: