In terms of the basic morality of this encounter, I go with the cop over Mr. Greenshirt. However, if one wants to thrash around in the details, there's this:
Lucky45 wrote:Eyewitness account here.
The cashier said, "Omar Brown came back to the counter and reached over him. Rivers turned around and said, 'Man, you know, you bumped me.' Brown said almost rudely, 'I said I'm sorry.' Rivers replied, 'You didn't say nothing.' So, Rivers turned back around for me to wait on him and Omar Brown walked off and he turned around and said, 'You ain't seen bumped me yet.'"
But there's also this from the same article....
Officer Brown has told us he did not exchange words or bump Rivers in the store.
And as someone noted above, the store clerk seemed to overlook the fact that Mr. Greenshirt went to his car to get a gun and then approached the cop. She seems eager to blame the cop. If I were the cop's attorney, I would be eager to explore her attitudes about the police and how they might color her testimony.
New nit to pick over: If the cop had already paid for the softdrink and the twinkies (or whatever it was), which were still laying on the counter, why did Mr. Greenshirt get between the cop and his purchases?
Hmm, look what I ran across here:
Brown says he made his purchase, put an item back on the shelf and then reached around Rivers to grab his drink. That’s when the bump heard around the city happened.
http://www.abcnews4.com/news/stories/1007/464059.html
Did the clerk encourage Mr. Greenshirt to move up the counter even before the cop gathered up his stuff? If so, she might want to redirect attention away from her little contribution to the "tension" and to other details of the situation.
I guess this is why, if you are a halfway smart DA, you let the cops interview everybody and their brother, and watch all the video (unedited by the TV station), before making conclusions?
elb