What the law says on when police can use deadly force. "The police account of Saturday's events is that Michael Brown fought for a gun in a police cruiser before being shot dead a short distance from the car. Given that account, one question in Brown’s shooting death at the hands of Ferguson police is whether Brown would be considered a non-dangerous suspect. The U.S. Supreme Court imposed a constitutional limit on the police use of deadly force to apprehend unarmed fleeing felons in a 1985 case from Memphis where an African-American 8th grader was shot fleeing a home burglary. That decision, Tennessee v. Garner, rested on the shoulders of a St. Louis case from the 1970s." William Freivogel in St. Louis Public Radio.
What does the law say on releasing the involved officer's name? "Rothert said that under Missouri’s public records laws, police incident reports, comprising the names of officers, must be made public within 72 hours. Thomas Jackson, the Ferguson police chief, claimed on Tuesday that exceptional circumstances meant that did not apply in this case....Jackson later told NewsChannel 5 that he would not be releasing the name unless directed to by a judge or required to, if or when official charges are filed. Police officials backtracked after initially saying that they would publish the officer’s name on Tuesday. They said that the officer and the department at large had received threats of violence." Jon Swaine in The Guardian.
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