Much media attention is pointed at Ferguson, Missouri. Eighteen-year-old black male Michael Brown was shot an appalling six times. His body lay uncovered in the street for nearly a half hour. The public and the local police force disagree on many details of the shooting. Witnesses of the shooting say that Brown was putting his hands up to surrender. In a statement the officer gave to investigators, he claimed Brown was starting to “bum-rush” him. The officer also said that there was a confrontation before the shooting. The officer claims Brown had shoved him into the squad car as he attempted to get out.

The fact of the matter is that a struggle inside the squad car has no bearing on the death of Brown. A police officer is trained to only use the amount of force that is being threatened. Brown was shot six times. He was yards away from the squad car.

This in turn has created mass protest by the town of Ferguson. At first it was peaceful protest, the protests then turned into riots.

There are so many freedoms being threatened in this situation. The first being the shooting of Brown. The officer had no right to shoot Brown. The police department says that Brown had an altercation with an officer and then began to run. Witnesses say that Brown was shot once and then turned around to put his hands in the air. According to an autopsy, Brown was shot six times. Four in the arm, and twice in the head. One of the shots to the head went all the way through. The Brown family asked for a second autopsy to be done. Doctor Michael M. Baden, the former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, conducted the second autopsy.

“In my capacity as the forensic examiner for the New York State Police, I would say, ‘You’re not supposed to shoot so many times,’” Baden said, but later added that there is “too little information to forensically reconstruct the shooting.”

Let’s say that Brown was not turning around to surrender, but instead he was going to fight back. He was multiple yards away. Are four shots in the arm not enough? Shooting someone in the head from yards away is only justifiable if the attacker has a gun in his possession. Brown had nothing on him. The officer reacted in a complete unnecessary manner.

In a case somewhat similar, the Trayvon Martin case went to the courts. It differs in ways that it was not the actual police force, but a neighborhood watch personnel. In this case George Zimmerman shot Martin and killed him after what Zimmerman said was a life threatening beating. Zimmerman got a broken nose and two black eyes in the altercation. An all-female jury found Zimmerman not guilty to the charges of murder in the second-degree.

Zimmerman was found not guilty because he was able to produce evidence that he was acting in self defense. The Ferguson Police Force has not yet produced any kind of evidence that makes the shooting an act of self defense. Brown was multiple yards away from the officer when he was shot. There is no reason to shoot a person six times if there is no threat against your life.

The problemwith the Brown shooting is that the police department continues to release bits of information. They released a video of Brown robbing a local store. They are specifically doing this to paint Brown as a criminal. When is the department going to release the officer’s statement?

The question many people in the country want answered is how do you conduct this investigation in a more effective manner? In 2004, white 21-year-old Michael Bell was shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. According to eyewitnesses there was no reason for the shots fired at Bell. The 21-year-old had no drugs found in his bloodstream, nor was the forensic evidence that Bell had grabbed the officer’s gun.

The Kenosha Police Department investigated the shooting and cleared the officer of any charges. Six years later, the Bell family was awarded $1.75 million in a wrongful death suit. The family didn’t stop there. They took the crime to the Wisconsin State government. Eventually a law was passed that said any police involved shooting had to be investigated by an outside source.

In the death of Brown a law like this in Missouri would be beneficial. President Obama and Governor Nixon have taken the first steps in a separate investigation. Obama has sent in the FBI and Attorney General Eric Holder.

The officer acted in emotion, but there was far too much force against Brown. The fact that the police department continues to withhold information about the incident makes the protesters and myself angrier. A police officer needs to be better trained than to shoot to kill. The four shots in the arm were beyond the limits needed to stop someone refusing arrest. Two shots to the head are never deserved for running away from an officer.