Posted on 08/25/2014 12:03:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Now that the potential prosecution of Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson is at hand, circumstances are custom-made to produce another round of anger on the streets.
Flash point No. 1 is the presence of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCullough, who has a good reputation among peers but whose family has long ties with the police. McCullough is white. Years ago his father, a police officer, was killed in a confrontation with a black suspect. Protesters from the predominantly black community are not likely to believe anything from McCullough other than an all-out prosecution of the white officer who shot and killed the unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
Even though it is the job of a public prosecutor to avoid bringing charges when the evidence indicates, angry Ferguson protesters won’t see it that way.
The situation is made more tenuous by the presence of the grand jury, which will hear evidence and decide whether to bring charges against Officer Wilson.
Grand juries are notoriously secretive, hearing evidence and arguments brought by prosecutors behind closed doors. Ordinary citizen/jurors suddenly confronted with complicated circumstances can be influenced greatly by persuasive prosecutors arguing in private. Unlike proceedings in court, grand jury testimony and proceedings do not benefit from public scrutiny, prompting suspicion from outsiders.
Those who suspect grand jury bias often think prosecutors lead jurors to bring unwarranted indictments. In this case, the suspicion will run the other way. If Prosecuting Attorney McCullough and the grand jury do not indict Officer Wilson, the furious horde will once again hit the streets. If an indictment is handed up, many will believe the prosecutor and the jurors were intimidated by the threat of public violence, unfairly targeting the police officer.
The situation is not constituted to bring a calm reaction to what should be a credible pursuit of justice in the shooting incident.
Trouble is, the angry people of Ferguson and beyond want “justice” far beyond the parameters of the current shooting incident. They want redress for decades, even centuries of alleged persecution as members of racial minorities, a grievance no resolution of the Brown shooting will satisfy.
For the moment, though, the Brown shooting is the flash point. The prosecutor and grand jury will try to find a bright line through a murky landscape. Even though Officer Wilson might have avoided shooting Michael Brown, was the officer justified under usual police expectations and proceedings? Did Brown threaten Wilson seriously enough to give the officer cause to use his weapon?
Law officers for good reason are given latitude in such circumstances. Even if Wilson is found “guilty” of acting too rashly, the most he will get is reprimand and possible suspension from service. Officers should be trained and emotionally able to avoid shootings like this, but they deserve some slack for their reactions when confronted with threatening circumstances.
This sort of nuance makes sense in a detached discussion of proper police behavior. It won’t fly with people on the streets throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. Prosecutor McCullough says the grand jury process might take months, far longer than needed to hear the evidence but time that might allow tempers to cool a bit.
He understands the reality of the situation -- inly liberals would have a problem with reality.
“We’ll have a fair trial then we’ll hang that cracker”
Eric Holder
Vide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eezMiIuNNn8
Those who threaten violence if they don’t get their way are domestic terrorists.
That is all.
Excellent point. The root of the issue is this.
Jury selection in this case is going to be a bitch. The only people who would want to be on this jury are people with axes to grind.
Now that the potential prosecution of Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson is at hand....
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Jeez. Another barf inducing first sentence!
Wishful thinking on his part.
Hey Watters. Here’s an idea. Try and see if Angela Corey is available. Maybe Mike Nifong.
Fact is - there is no case against Officer Wilson. He will be exonerated.
Why does this writer and almost all the Obamabot media tell folks the current prosecutor that Blacks hate is a Democrat that has been re-elected by them for four terms???
The DA is not making the presentation to the Grand Jury.
Presumably he would not handle the trial either.
“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.”
“Grand juries are notoriously secretive”
Unless your name is Rick Perry.
Or George Zimmerman or Alfred Dreyfus or...
The politically motivated lynching of Darren Wilson.
The rule of law meets mob rule.
Guess which will win?
It’s depressing to even think about it.
“Michael Brown” is an issue manufactured by the administration, its Democrat toads and their MSM to distract attention from six disastrous Obama years.
There were fifty Michael Browns shot in Chicago this past weekend and ten died. Those deaths can’t be `mau-mau’ed, so down the memory hole they go.
It seems our government has decided it’s more important to keep feral thugs happy than it is to maintain the rule of law. The MSM is supporting that decision.
Good points made here.
These protestors want “justice”, but to then the only justice is a conviction for 1st degree murder. They don’t understand or care of nuances such as when police shootings are allowed, especially when done in self defense. They don’t know and don’t care about legalities involved with grand jury proceedings. They wantynch mob justice.
The left is conducting Stalinist show trials. OK, so they aren’t yanking out fingernails at 2:00 a.m. in the basement of the Lubyanka to get people to sign confessions to things they didn’t do, and then shooting them. But these are show trials, none the less. Facts and truth don’t mean crap; only the result matters.
Ask Scooter Libby, Rick Perry, George Zimmerman, Tom DeLay, and now Darrel Wilson.
It’s what the Stalinists love to do.
And if he was protecting himself?
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