Writing about the leaks about a Ferguson, Mo., police officer’s account of the Michael Brown shooting, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan said, “I can think of a better way to have handled this, and it would not have required any machinations. How about a timely release of information? All of this ‘new’ information could have been released immediately. In fact, it should have been released immediately.”
After the shooting, McClellan writes, “With almost no facts to go on, people picked sides. Each side had its own narrative. A gentle giant mowed down before he could start college. A thug who robbed a store and then beat a police officer senseless. For more than two months, those narratives were allowed to take hold.” Two fatal police shootings in St. Louis after the Brown case did not explode partly because the city police released information promptly, including the accounts of the officers…Nobody had much time to develop alternative theories. Compare that with the near total shutdown of information in the Brown case. I fault the St. Louis County Police Board.”