As expected, the Justice Department announced Wednesday that it will not prosecute former Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. The case followed the same pattern that we saw him the Zimmerman investigation: a premature entry into the case, Attorney General Eric Holder making public comments assuring a federal response, a long investigation, and a leak from the Justice Department preparing people for the rejection of any charges. In both cases, some of us questioned the timing of the entry of the federal investigators and the weak basis for a civil rights investigation. (For a prior column, click here) In the end, the Justice Department found much of the same inconsistencies detailed by the grand jury and the police in the Ferguson case.
The Justice Department found that Wilson’s actions “do not constitute prosecutable violations under the applicable federal criminal rights statute.” Specifically, the report found “no evidence” to disprove Wilson’s testimony that he feared for his safety. Notably, while the state prosecutors were attacked for finding witness testimony to be conflicted and unreliable, the federal investigators found the same thing:
“Although there are several individuals who have stated that Brown held his hands up in an unambiguous sign of surrender prior to Wilson shooting him dead, their accounts do not support a prosecution of Wilson. As detailed throughout this report, some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witness’s own prior statements with no explanation, credible or otherwise, as to why those accounts changed over time.”
It would seem that some of these witnesses were not merely “inconsistent” but lying. However, the end result is the same. There was no basis for prosecution in the case.
Many viewed the early entry of the federal investigators into the case to be an unjustified and political move by Attorney General Eric Holder. At the time, Holder said he shared the same experience of profiling and abuse at the hands of police. As he did in the Trayvon Martin case, Holder sent in federal civil rights investigators before the initial investigation ended. Such federal investigations are ideally launched after state trials or, at a minimum, after an investigation is complete.
Now Holder is calling to lower the standard for civil rights prosecutions, a very worrisome prospect. Holder was clearly frustrated that he could not prosecute when he disagreed with the state prosecutors. Holder has long been viewed as hostile to federalism principles and this move would further erode the core police powers held by the states. Holder wants less of a barrier to federalizing such crimes — subjecting defendants to two alternative systems for prosecution.
The civil rights prosecutions should remain focused on their original purpose and should satisfy the current standard. The standard proof is high. It requires prosecutors to prove that a person used excessive force, willfully with the knowledge that it was wrong. It is important to remember however that this is just the standard for a civil rights prosecution. The same person is subject to an array of possible local and state charges. The standard reflected an effort to avoid precisely what Holder seems to want: a ready alternative for prosecution when the federal government disagrees with the results of state criminal cases or investigations.
Source: USA Today
BitchinDog
Apparently TJustice likes welfare and to disrupt and trash JT ‘s blog because he is jealous. Maybe he needs to get a blog going of his own since he doesn’t have any manners.
“Guess what? This is an uneducated statement in light of the facts of Ferguson Missouri and I am tired of repeating myself on this issue and it is nothing to do with JT but Yes, we feel Patriotic towards him since Obama shows no Patriotism towards the Country.”
What is an uneducated statement in light of the “facts”?
Also, feeling patriotism towards one individual is a rather totalitarian quality. Moreover, it’s the 21st century now, leave your nationalism where it belongs – the 20th century.
T Justice
You can Take that Animal Farm Mentality Projection You just put on me which is more of your brand of moral relativism and put it in your pipe and smoke it
Ferguson has problems which stem from zoning and bank practices. Fifty years ago the city government allowed cheap housing to be built on vacant ground. Catholics flooded those flood plains and overpopulated. The next generation did not want those ratty shingle homes and moved to St. Charles. Now banks wont lend money on a home sale less than fifty grand. So those homes can be bought and lived in by new customers. Downward spiral. Then the more recent zoning decisions led to large areas of section 8 housing multi family housing. Section 8 multi family housing has one absent component. The Dad. That is because mom wants “her check” for the dependent children. So the thugs like Michael Brown grow up in Canfield living not with mom even, but with grandma, in a neighborhood full of dysfunctional families. The baby photo of Brown does not convey the sight of the 19 year old thug punching the store owner after stealing the goods and then a few minutes later bragging his way down the middle of Canfield Lane when he runs into the cop who simply asks the punk to get on the sidewalk where he belongs. Then the push and punch and run and turn and charge. Then the shots rang out. If you wish to keep the Browns in places like Jennings (they did not live in Ferguson) then do not allow section 8 housing in your town and convince a local bank to loan money on homes under 50 grand in value. End welfare as we know it. Form a militia in Ferguson to protect the property owners from arsonists from NYC. Put Al Sharpton on toilet paper. Can Inga show us that one?
TJustice
Guess what? This is an uneducated statement in light of the facts of Ferguson Missouri and I am tired of repeating myself on this issue and it is nothing to do with JT but Yes, we feel Patriotic towards him since Obama shows no Patriotism towards the Country.
JT
This was and will continue to be a, ‘dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t’, situation. If Holder had not investigated the potential to prosecute, and he did not prosecute but ascertained if there was or was not sufficient mishandling of the situation by the police officer to prosecute, then he would have been more negligent of his duties to society.
this statement is the one I am referring to. I am sick of these statements about Ferguson and I am sure Barkindog and dbq is also. You see, we all lived there most of our lives and watched the times change there. What you don’t understand is the Police there were always roughhouse and Clayton and St Louis were always Crooked. It is NOTHING to do with Black Skin. Okay????? I was pushed around there by cops as a teenager and jerked around as an adult and my door shoved in to have my house checked over because of my little dogs so they could try to condemn it. There was Nail Polish on the floor I had to get up and cobwebs on the ceiling and things like that. See. So, I don’t want to hear it.
Obama and Holder KNEW that Michael Brown’s hands were not up and that kid was shot dead in the street and torched on the night of the grand jury because Obama said no National Guard duty that night to Governor Nixon. So, JT knows about this. So, how much do you know about this. How about you go through every one of these archives until you find that one.
Back to point. True to form JT is a good attorney. The grand jury system is mentioned to support his point when, as a criminal defense attorney, he is certainly aware that grand juries are largely rubber stamps in practice, unless it concerns members of police forces. The stats aren’t that tough to read.
Not a mention of that though.
LOL! Ok that was great.
“I love it when folks lecture JT. I disagree w/ him on much, but I learned from my parents and a great coach, lecturing is counter productive. Make your disagreement succinct, and never pontificate. It is the least effective way to change how someone thinks. But, it does make the pontificator feel good!!”
Nick Spinelli,
Haha so I get you like JT and his blog, but he doesn’t need a defender every time someone attacks his points. It’s called freedom of speech (which you JT, DS, Paul, etc., claim to like). Just because it isn’t packaged your way does not mean it’s different. Go ahead and call it uncivil so it makes y’all feel better.
Also, your jingoism for JT must have caused your self-awareness to disappear. Unless JT calls you personally and you both converse about the issues discussed on this blog, you only know of his ideas through two ways: 1. writing and 2. LECTURING.
JT is a chaired professor of law, what do you think they do? Uh… I think LECTURE… Also, he has been clear that he travels the country doing what? Giving LECTURES…
Oh did I pontificate, my bad.
Lee
You really ought to have read the report before you commented. It is not a matter of the word of the officer versus the work of Michael Brown’s friends.
Looking at this narrowly through the scope of whether or not there was enough evidence to bring federal charges against Wilson is, first of all, outcome determinative, which is the wrong way to judge any investigation. Second, that ignores the overwhelming value of exposing the rampant racism throughout the entire department. There was likely never going to be enough evidence to bring charges against Wilson simply because the best witness is dead, and now it’s the police officer’s word against the victim’s friend’s word. But really try claiming that this investigation is “worrisome” in light of the damning evidence against the entire department of racism and intentional wealth extraction from minorities. You have to ignore an awful, and I do mean awful, lot to come away thinking that this was bad.
For hundreds of years in America, we had affirmative action. It wasn’t legislated because it didn’t have to be. It simply was the way things were. Some considered it god’s will. White men of wealth had enormous privilege because of all three characteristics [white, male, money] and no one was to dare to challenge their sense of entitlement. So non-whites, women, and those of lesser means have been slowly chipping away at their petrified brains but it sure isn’t easy. It is completely hilarious that people think there is no white and/or male and/or wealth privilege in this country.
Pogo
Tribalism is universal. Bigotry is universal. Racism is universal. In France there are many families that look down on their kids dating someone from the next city, town, village, regardless of race. Baloney, no. The US has a recent past, less than one lifetime, where it was preached in church, country club, bars, well threaded through society that one race was less human than the other. This was not ‘cute’ like a kid from Nice marrying a kid from Marseille. They didn’t lynch them. The US owns and must wear this, regardless of what other countries own and wear. It doesn’t all get better with time alone.
“The racial divide is light years away from the late 60’s.” I am amazed that you either have no memory at all or somehow missed it. There is no comparison. The inequality and prejudice is still there but with the help of moves like affirmative action years ago, now minorities have role models. Affirmative action was an extremely successful move that may or may not still be necessary. However moves like this again and again will erode the conditions that keep minorities down. White Americans don’t like to be reminded in any way, of what just started being addressed less than fifty years ago and still inhabits enough of us. It is difficult to dance around this issue without using the word race but it is about race, in everyone. It must seem incredibly appealing to be able to push it all off onto two black guys. So if the next President is white then we don’t have this problem anymore.
“The US wears this problem.”
Baloney.
Tribalism is universal. The US doesn’t own it.
There isn’t a nation on earth free of its effects, whether by race or nation or tribe or belief.
It was ever thus.
“Has it gotten worse or has it simply had its profile exposed.:”
The racial divide is a bad as the late 60s.
Race riots, race-based violence (the knockout game), suppression of speech in college by color (speech codes and “white privilege”).
It was never like this in the late 70s through 2008.
Never.
Obama brought the polarization.
Obama wears this problem.
Pogo
Has it gotten worse or has it simply had its profile exposed. The problems of race in America don’t go away with an amendment to the Constitution or a bill of these or those rights. It takes time and a lot of effort. Hundreds of years of the devil ruling the world, enslaving others under some sorry excuse for religion, supported by those basic truths and laws that were so easily ignored, creating ‘honor’, and ‘charm’, and ‘tradition’. If you look at how easy it was to ‘grow’ these values under evil, is it any wonder that it is just as easy to grow and maintain resentment for this evil? This is a legacy of the US and will take more than a few generations to settle. The problem has to be addressed before someone ends up on a rampage and then gets himself killed.
There is a certain naivety if not wearing of blinders in those that accuse this or that person in this or that moment in time. The US wears this problem. The question is how well.
How does JT know Holder “really want to prosecute”? We haven’t had an AG that we should all be proud of since RFK.
Bill Clinton gave us Janet Reno – a brown-noser who earned her bones by destroying the lives of people that were framed and prosecuted on false charges of child molestation at Nursery schools in South Florida.
What this country needs is a good $2,00 cigar, wider highways, and nickel beer.
Call for EDWIN MEESE! Your party is waiting for you. First door on the far right. Tell ’em Necessity sent you, and say LOL!! to the NS lecture man.
“Because America is evidently very racially divided, still!”
I agree, indeed it has gotten worse under Obama.
But balkanization is what the left does best, so that’s no surprise.
The Ferguson PD is about to get the boot…
It appears that the post racial Roberts Court is behind the times…
… Because America is evidently very racially divided, still!
jim22
Us versus them, you versus him, me versus you. It’s all the same. Try it on its own merits, without the baggage.
Is someone confusing Libertarian with Anarchist?
“Oh wait, THESE citizens are black so they deserve it. White conservatives are sick people.”
That is a completely racist statement, and also totally untrue. See the thread on the Indian man who spoke no English. You just made a statement against white people. Does racism not apply to you?
There is no guarantee of your safety if you go for a cop’s gun, regardless of skin color. My own brother and his friend tried to get in to his friend’s house through a window when he forgot his key. Someone driving by called the cops, and there were no neighbors home to verify that the friend lived there. So my brother and his friend, who were white, got to sit humbly on the curb in handcuffs until they could reach his mom and clear it up. They weren’t given a free pass because they were white. My dad wasn’t angry at the cops for doing their job. No one went for the cop’s gun. No one threw punches at the cop. And if my brother HAD assaulted an officer, my father would have come down on him like a ton of bricks.
The father of my good friend, who was black, would have reacted the same way. There is no way he would have encouraged or defended any of his children physically attacking a police officer.
This is not about black or white; it is about people who defend those who assault police officers. That’s a values problem.
It sounds like some people in the black community want the right to physically assault police and have them not defend themselves, for no other reason than the color of their skin. It’s nonsensical.
So where are all the libertarian conservatives who should be outraged at bullying armed state agents intimidating, insulting and abusing citizens and violating their precious constitutional rights? Oh wait, THESE citizens are black so they deserve it. White conservatives are sick people. Instead of taking responsibility for their behavior many whites will cheer on the police..as long as they are putting the boot to a black person’s head..