Posted on 11/28/2014 12:30:57 PM PST by jazusamo
A California Democrat said a lesson in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting is a need to look at police acting as “jury and executioner” when confronting suspects.
Rep. Karen Bass, a House Judiciary Committee member, said in a statement after the grand jury opted to not issue an indictment this week that it “continues a trend of injustice that has rightfully created an environment of anger and concern in Ferguson, Missouri and across the United States.”
“Ferguson officials botched this case from the beginning when they left Michael Brown’s body on the street for over four hours after he was killed. They were mean-spirited when they leaked information to the media to assassinate Michael Brown’s character. The Ferguson Police Department violated the constitutional rights of the Ferguson community when they attacked and tear gassed lawful protesters,” Bass said, adding that the grand jury “attacked justice by not holding Officer Wilson accountable for his actions.”
The congresswoman added she would “continue to insist that the United States Department of Justice conduct its own investigation to determine if the Ferguson police violated Michael Brown’s civil rights.”
On CNN, Bass stressed “we have to do a short-term and a long-term strategy, and we really need to begin to come to grips with this in our country, because you can go down a long list of these cases.”
“You can rattle off these instances, and one of the most important thing that I think people need to do who are not African- American, who are not Latino, is need to just take a deep breath for one minute and say maybe I don’t understand. Maybe there’s something going on here that I need to look at, because you know, all of the polling shows the sharp divide,” she said.
“…And Ferguson, they most definitely need to diversify the leadership of that city, the police department, the city council, and so we need to look at things both in the short-term and the long-term.”
Bass addressed Brown taking cigarillos from a convenience store before the attack.
“Since when do we not have trials? Since when do we execute people?” she said. “I mean, the way that the information was leaked from Day One of this case, intentionally leaking the information about the video. It’s terrible if he committed a crime before this happened, but even if he did commit a crime, is a police officer supposed to be the jury and the executioner on the spot? So, you know, it’s that kind of mentality that we really need to begin to look at.”
Bass also pushed back against criticism of the media exposure of the Brown shooting and protests.
“If you think about the Civil Rights Movement, if you think about the Rodney King beating, if it wasn’t for the media showing those images to the world, you know, there’s no telling how much longer these situations would go on.”
“might or might not”
None. Unless it actually happens to them or someone close to them, then they might see the light.
What puzzles me is why officers are not paid more as salaries aren’t the biggest factor in modern police departments any more. This would let PDs get a lot pickier.
Stupid, stupid people.
The Black Bull Moose was charging back to attack.
Hell yes I’d plug him rather than be overpowered and killed.
Except if they’re white cops.
Exactly. These leftists are just shameless. They only believe in self defense when its them exercising it. If Brown had been a White kids attacking a black police officer there wouldn’t have been any question of the justification of the shooting by these types and the media wouldn’t have spent 10 minutes on the story.
Brown is sure a cause celeb.
Strong arm robber...
Walks down the middle of a street at night...
Assaults a police officer...
Causes the discharge of the officer’s weapon...
Leaves the immediate vicinity of the officer, then turns and charges?
Winds up getting killed because the officer saw this as a threat to his life.
Now Brown is a perfect little angel, and the officer is the bad guy.
What passes for logic these days is incredible. And you have Whites who are going out there acting as if the White officer was the bad guy.
Not only are the betraying their own race due to stupidity, but they are betraying every law abiding citizen who will be affected by the riots and society having to give minorities even more leeway to commit crime without concern.
You don’t get much dumber than that, unless you’re Brown.
Time for the stupid communist subhumans like Karen Bass to shut the hell up.
The criminal Brown brought about his own death, this has been corroborated by both black and white eye-witnesses.
Karen Bass is a marxist and an anti-white racist working to destabilize the United States of America.
All of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and most of the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are corrupt up to their eyeballs.
These marxist crook animals must be investigated, indicted, and incarcerated.
Smash the CPUSA!
She said Ferguson needs to change its leadership and get some color in it, the way I see it Ferguson has no leadership are town left.
The people of Ferguson voted, why is Bass complaining? Who is she to complain about the people’s choice?
Well said, and now this is the prosecutor and grand juries fault there’s no justice. Sheesh
I guess she is in charge and gets to tell us how to think.
When you are attacked do you fight back ?
I’m sure Michael Brown would have peaceably surrendered to this politician had he ask him nicely. How do these false assumptions ever get published?
Brown wasn't "executed" because he was guilty, he was killed because he was a threat.
You are the weakest link. Goodbye!
“”It’s terrible if he committed a crime before this happened, but even if he did commit a crime, is a police officer supposed to be the jury and the executioner on the spot? So, you know, it’s that kind of mentality that we really need to begin to look at.””
Would be nice if a member of Congress familiarized themselves with the facts before running off at the mouth! I wonder if she truly believed that’s why the shooting took place.
The kind of mentality we REALLY need is to have people in districts like hers take a real good look at the level of intelligence of the candidates before they vote..
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