The family of slain teen Michael Brown, who senselessly died early last month at the hands of Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson are now in Atlanta to kick off a concerted nationwide effort to push for police to arm themselves with body-worn video cameras according to WSB-TV.
Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden (pictured right) & Michael Brown Sr. (pictured) are trying to get legislation, the Michael Brown law, passed that will require officers to sport body cameras while on duty.
According to the couple, if Wilson would have been wearing the body camera, there would be no questions now regarding the tragic turn-of-events that led to their son’s murder. Wearing cameras have been associated with dramatic reductions in use of force & complaints against officers.
The couple attended at a rally on Sunday that was held at a Baptist church in Atlanta. The pair reportedly felt Atlanta was a great place to start with their body camera quest, because the city’s chief of police is already on board with the body-worn camera project. At the rally, McSpadden & Brown met Jacqueline Johnson, the Mother of slain teen Kendrick, whose unusual death still has investigators baffled.
The 17-year-old Georgia high school student was found dead, with his body placed in a rolled-up wrestling mat at his school gymnasium. At first, an investigation & autopsy deemed Johnson’s death accidental, but then his family hired a private pathologist who concluded he passed away from blunt force trauma. Johnson’s family members are convinced the teen’s death was racially motivated as he had been attacked & victimized previously by a White student.
The stop in the southern city is just the first, as McSpadden & Brown are on a tour of gratitude that began in Atlanta & will end on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
In the nation’s capital, both McSpadden & Brown plan on campaigning for the Michael Brown legislation they are hoping will get placed on the books. The parents also want the federal government to take over the investigation of their son’s murder.
According to Benjamin Crump, the attorney who is representing both the Brown & Johnson families, Atlanta is a great place to begin their mission on getting laws passed for officers to wear body cameras, “We’re trying to make sure that this doesn’t happen to nobody else’s child, so we’re pushing for the Michael Brown laws to have body cameras on all these police officers,” he said.
News source courtesy of NewsOne!!!