Posted on 09/16/2014 9:41:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A little over a year ago the debate was fierce over whether Florida state prosecutor Angela “Tough on Crime” Corey assigned to prosecute George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin would dump the case. There was good reason for the debate.
Zimmerman was not a police officer. But he was seen as the next best or worst thing to it since he had close ties with law enforcement and was a one-time neighborhood watch patrol officer. This automatically bestowed on him the shield that cops have from any charges of misconduct, especially in cases where the victims of their misconduct are young African Americans or Hispanics.
The rest of course is history. Zimmerman walked in part because a jury believed his fairy tale that he was the victim of a Martin attack. But in larger part because prosecutors put up an inept, feeble and bumbling prosecution that again reconfirmed the nightmare fear that the rare times that cops are prosecuted for deadly force and the victims look like Martin, bad things almost always happen.
A year later the red flag that flew high with prosecutors in cop cases is flying even higher in the Michael Brown slaying. The instant that the call on whether to prosecute Brown’s killer, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, would be made by the hard-nosed St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough, who has a well-worn record of refusal to prosecute any officers who have been involved in dubious, even outrageous killings of mostly unarmed Black suspects, the screams were loud for a special prosecutor.
This hasn’t happened. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon emphatically said no. This could be subject to change, but it would take the near miracle of smoking-gun evidence that Brown was killed with absolutely no justification or provocation and the dogged refusal of McCullough to prosecute.
The reason for McCullough’s foot dragging or outright refusal to prosecute Wilson strikes to the heart of why he and other prosecutors either won’t prosecute officers or invariably blow the case against them the rare times they do. More than a decade ago, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in its landmark study, “Who’s Guarding the Guardians,” of the conduct of police and prosecutors in civil rights cases, told exactly why.
It cited the traditionally close relationship between district or county attorneys and police officers, who usually work together to prosecute criminals, the difficulties they have in convincing grand juries and trial juries that a police officer did not merely make an understandable mistake, but committed a crime, and the lack of information about cases that could be prosecuted or systems for reviewing possibly prosecutable cases.
The instant that the call on whether to prosecute Brown’s killer, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, would be made by the hard-nosed St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough, who has a well-worn record of refusal to prosecute any officers who have been involved in dubious, even outrageous killings of mostly unarmed Black suspects, the screams were loud for a special prosecutor.
These towering barriers have been glaringly evident in the Brown slaying. Wilson was put on pro forma paid leave, the Ferguson police chief released potentially damaging information about an alleged Brown heist at a convenience store, rallies were held and hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised in Wilson’s defense.
And in the flood of news stories about the killing, Wilson has been depicted as a hardworking, model cop. There is also no ironclad standard of what is or isn’t an acceptable use of force in police misconduct cases. It often comes down to a judgment call by the officer.
In the Rodney King beating case in 1992 in which four LAPD officers stood trial, defense attorneys painted King as the aggressor and claimed that the level of force used against him was justified. This pattern has been evident in a number of celebrated cases since then.
There’s yet another horrific fact about these cases. That’s the call for a special prosecutor who will take the case away from local police-friendly prosecutors and can be independent and objective.
Corey was a good example of where even that can go terribly wrong. She was the special prosecutor appointed to prosecute Zimmerman.
But again the U.S. Civil Rights Commission noted that the appointment of a special prosecutor does not guarantee that police officers accused of wrongdoing will be prosecuted and ultimately punished. In many cases, the special prosecutor is another county or district attorney selected from a neighboring jurisdiction that may be subject to the same biases and partiality as the original prosecutor.
The Commission cites numerous examples where special prosecutors have been appointed in high profile cases to eliminate real or perceived bias by local prosecutors for the defendants yet the prosecution has still failed to get a conviction.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission noted that the appointment of a special prosecutor does not guarantee that police officers accused of wrongdoing will be prosecuted and ultimately punished.
In October, a grand jury supposedly will make the call whether to indict Wilson on charges in the Brown killing. Barring a dramatic development in the case, it will be up to McCullough to ask for an indictment and to supply evidence that will support an indictment. This is usually a mere formality and prosecutors get the green light to go forward.
But this can’t happen if no case is presented in the first place, and given McCullough’s track record and the past history of these cases, the odds are long that Wilson won’t spend a day in criminal court. This is why the red flag flies high again on prosecution in the Brown slaying.
*********
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor, an associate editor of New America Media, a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network, and the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio Los Angeles and KPFK Radio and the Pacifica Network.
He probably is referencing the “bloody shirt” of the post Civil War period.
So you’ll be hiring him tomorrow so he has a steady income? Good for you!
The author and others would respond that armed men are shooting unarmed (young) black men.
Of course the reply to that would be, if black kids don’t want to get shot, stop whaling/sucker-punching guys with guns.
I can see the gangsta posers being too stupid to understand, but Earl Of Sri Hutchison and the other afro-chest-thumpers don’t have the excuse of being young and dumb.
He didn’t even bother to learn that Robert McCullough is not the one presenting the case to the grand jury.
“McCulloch said he won’t be presenting the case to the grand jury himself. That will be the job of two assistant prosecutors, Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley. Alizadeh, who is white, is the homicide prosecutor on duty and has 27 years’ experience. Whirley, who is black, has the grand jury assignment and has 18 years’ experience.”
I had a feeling they would postpone it all. This story disappeared like greased lightning because it started to backfire on the democrat party. The looting, the lies, the outside activist groups, voter sign up booths, the burning of local businesses that had nothing to do with what happened, turned people off big time. Mike Brown was not a sweet ole big guy after all.
The dems know there is most likely pretty good evidence supporting the cop too.
After the situation backfired, if the grand jury does not indict the cop, we all know another riot and looting will occur before election time. They just can’t have that! Plus, the rioting will be much more miserable in Ferguson in January.
Fairy tale? It was the truth. This piece is nothing but hysterical propaganda.
Zimmerman walked because the myth of "Saint Trayvon" was the actual fairy tale...
I dunno what kind of brain you got, dunno how to compute? Z just happened to be armed at that point in time, had he not he would have been killed by the dope-smokin’ wanna be gangsta.
If Zimmerman hadn’t been armed he wouldn’t have had the balls to follow the scumbag around in the first place.
Zimmerman has acted like a fool since being rightfully acquitted, he ought to smarten up.
Even just having watched the televised trial, the prosecution wasn’t able to prove any guilt beyond reasonable doubt, they had no case to begin with.
Tell me about all his convictions since the trial and maybe I’d see your point, but he’s never been convicted of anything serious in his life, has he? Anyone can accuse anyone of anything, as I’m sure you know.
but as the photo shows, he was not injured. Also Washington Post etc said he was not injured, so what you talkin about willis
I see your point on convictions, here’s to hoping he gets on with his life and thrives.
I have relatives in Sanford, you would think he would keep a low profile.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-george-zimmerman-road-rage-20140912-story.html
Will you hire him? Will your relatives? How do you suggest he “get on with his life” without a job?
Doesn't matter. After reading the first dozen blatant lies, there's no reason to care.
Based on his behavior post trial, I wouldn’t hire him, he’s a time bomb.
Maybe he can get mercenary work overseas.
Post trial is irrelevant. You don’t even own business nor ever ran a business nor a HR person. Would you then hired Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin if both alive today?
Who wasn’t injured? Zimmerman?
was being sarcastic towards the left, they refused to see the injuries in the photos if you recall. Denial I guess it`s called. If it had been trayvon they would not have played down the very serious injury
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.