I’m not seeing why a federal civil rights case is so unlikely.
Ken White at popehat worth a read, as usual…
"For a very similar example, consider United States v. Williams.
Sheriff’s Deputy John Williams shot Adam Hall in the back. Hall was
unarmed. The feds prosecuted Williams for violating Hall’s civil
rights. Williams asserted that Hall made “furtive movements” and that
Williams thought Hall was going for a gun; witnesses contradicted this.
Prosecutors offered evidence that Deputy Williams had previously shot
another suspect, and that Hall knew this; they argued this was
relevant to Hall’s state of mind, because it showed that Hall would not
make furtive movements when confronted with an officer he knew was a
shooter. Williams appealed, saying that the admission of his past
shooting and Hall’s knowledge of it violated Rule 404. The United
States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the conviction,
agreeing that the victim’s state of mind was relevant:
‘Though a victim’s state of mind indeed rarely matters, in this case it
somewhat helped the government disprove Williams’s main defense. The
jury had to determine whether Williams acted reasonably when he shot
Hall. This judgment turned on a credibility assessment: Was Williams
telling the truth when he testified that Hall made several threatening
movements before Williams shot him, or were the other witnesses telling
the truth when they denied such movements? If Hall feared that Williams
might shoot him, the government argues, then Hall would avoid anything
that might provoke Williams to shoot.’ "
Yeah but it’s not like we should just give up and not fight to make that true even if it isn’t true today.
Just like we have yet to learn how much participation it takes from the people in order to have an actual functioning democracy. We need more participation to discover what is possible and that is the hope for our future.
One of the interesting facts left out of most accounts of the killing is that Ferguson cops have no dash cams on their police cars. Plenty of military hardware and boy-toys, but no installed dash cams.
A very good friend has three daughters, one of whom is now engaged, but she and their father have always told them in the most most loving way possible to avoid any relationships with cops for all the reasons we’re talking about. They kill with impunity.
This is an investigative report from the NYT about a woman in St. Augustine Fl who was reported to have committed suicide by using her cop boyfriend’s gun. She had a young daughter, a new job she liked, and a happy outgoing disposition. Her family knew intuitively he had done it and arranged the crime scene just so, but the law enforcement wall was impenetrable, and actually the sense of solidarity with the killer cop only grew.
If and when this happens there will be another eruption of violence in Ferguson. I can understand a DA being very reluctant to indict unless the odds of getting a conviction are extremely high. And from my read of this article that’s very unlikely.
Sadly the best thing the citizens of this town might hope and work hard for is increasing the voter turn out and making some changes in their community governance. I know that will not give them any immediate satisfaction but it will bring about a long lasting change for them.
“We don’t want to believe that the people we hire to protect us could be the people who want to harm us,”
For me, it’s the opposite, I have no love for police officers. And I do not trust them one bit.
It’s unfortunate that the bad over shadows the good, because there are good officers out there.
The police force is a legal criminal network. Only the wealthy/rich believes otherwise; it has to do with the fact that they think their wealth makes them immune from police brutality.
Back in the early 90’s, there was a case in Arizona where a teenager led the highway patrol on a high speed chase. He finally stopped, got out of the car with his hands up and one of the cops killed him by firing multiple shots.
The cop got off with a simple defense that the adrenaline surge from the chase caused him to involuntarily fire his weapon more than once. All it took was one expert witness and the use of “science” to give the jurors permission to let the “good” guy walk.
Sadly, even if there are multiple eyewitnesses willing to testify at trial, I can’t imagine how the prosecutor will get a conviction in the Ferguson case.
Hence the reason Drew Pertersen was able to murder his first wife (and almost got away with it), because his criminal colleagues turned a blind eye to the possibility that he did it. Had he not been such arrogant SOB and committed a second murder (his 2nd wife), the murdered 1st wife would have never been given justice.
“he reasonably believes that such use of deadly force is immediately necessary to effect the arrest…”
…is rather like destroying the village in order to save it. “I had to kill the suspect to arrest him.” Well, then, ok. After all, death is the ultimate form of arrest.
From my read of this article it does not seem like dash cams would make any difference unless they showed the victim assailing the murderer.
I am seeing many posts offering up similar stories of police abuses going nowhere in courts or, in the instance littlegirlblue cites, never even being investigated. This seems to be the standard MO across our country.
We decry sexual assault in the military and there are efforts being made to take oversight away from the Generals. It would be nice to see something similar take place for instances where the police abuse their authority. An outside agency should be doing the investigating instead of the cops peers.
This would probably have to be a state by state initiative since there is no federal authority over local PD’s.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the FBI and Eric Holder are able (and willing) to do other than to tsk tsk at this.
The Politico story is depressing and amazing. Hats off to the father for his persistence in getting a law passed to require independent reviews. That should serve as a model for the rest of the country.
History says it’s likely the officer won’t be charged. I hate that reasoning. “Well, we’ve always done it this way.” It’s time for that to change. Long over due, actually.
I’m not going to argue with you too much, but it’s worth noting that Ferguson’s municipal elections are held in odd-numbered years in April, and all that is on the ballot are municipal offices. State and Federal elections are held in even-numbered years.
In 2013, only 11.7% of eligible total voters turned out to vote, 6% black and 17% white. It’s worth noting that in the 2012 elections, both races turned out almost equally. Older white voters who own their homes are more likely to vote in the municipal elections, which doesn’t reflect the younger, apartment dwelling black people.
I believe these statistics are well-known in Ferguson, which is why election reform hasn’t happened amongst the ones who could make it happen.
