Mike Browns parents Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. appeared on CBS This Morning today (Nov. 26) to respond to the grand jury’s decision, erupting violence in Ferguson thereafter and Darren Wilson’s first televised interview. Still reeling from their loss, McSpadden and Brown called for peace and change.
“We actually don’t accept that our son is gone, but we’re dealing with it,” Brown said. “It’s other families that went through the same situation and we all just want change all over.”
Also offering a retort to Darren Wilson’s testimony in which the officer claims the 18-year-old Brown provoked him, McSpadden said she was not convinced. Asserting to have known her own son better than that, she said Wilson painted an unfair picture.
“I don’t believe a word of it. I knew my son far too well. He would never do anything like that,” she said. “[…]My son does not have a history of violence. One image does not paint a person’s entire life, or their entire past or how they were.”
SEE ALSO: Darren Wilson On Mike Brown ‘I Have A Clean Conscience Because I Did My Job Right’
McSpadden also spoke about the looting and burnings that took place in Ferguson following the grand jury’s decision. Citing Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon as the reason for why people are “infuriated,” she explained that residents were vocal about what their reactions would be if Wilson suffered no consequences for Brown’s death.
“On August 9th, voices were heard about if there weren’t an indictment, how they would react, how they would lash out, what they would do, she said. “And we continued to ask for calm. We continued to get out there and protest with them in a peaceful manner. Anything that happened when we weren’t there, we can’t be held accountable for. We can’t be held accountable for anyone’s actions that’s not our own. That’s not what we asked for.”
And one question, it seems, will be stuck in Mike Brown’s mother’s mind forever:
“How could your conscience be clear after killing someone, even if it was an accidental death?”
Watch Mike Brown’s parents talk the grand jury decision in the video above.