Iâm a bit stunned. The video of what happened is unmistakable, and the choke hold is an officially prohibited, dangerous thing to do, is it not? This is horrible.
WTF?
Seriously?
Letâs take race out of it. What force canât an officer use? It seems to me like everything is fair game. Like, they can use lethal force, regardless of reason, and regardless of whether or not the accused is armed.
Putting cameras on officers will make little difference. This one is on camera, and the outcome is the same.
Welcome to the Police States of America⌠With Liberty and Justice for all ⌠who can afford such a luxuryâŚ
Yep. I mentioned in the âNYC Officers to wear videosâ thread that Iâm not sure what videos are supposed to accomplish. Nothing seems to change here; the videos are just ignored anyway.
Video of a man being choked by an officer: check.
Manâs death officially ruled a homicide caused by the officer: check.
Against all possible logic, officer cleared of all charges: check.
If the US legal system wanted to make it as clear as possible that cops are allowed to kill black people anytime they want to, they couldnât do a better job.
Aaaand cue riots. Honestly iâm not surprised, but i really am in many ways. It is in the proper definition of the word, Unbelievable.
Knowing that you are being recorded, especially on video generally makes people behave in a more conservative manner. (with the exception of TV reality shows and Jerry Springer)
From the article in the New York Times:
[quote]The grand jury, impanelled by District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan Jr. in September, has weighed evidence {snip}
{emphasis added}[/quote]
Any competent prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
But they have to want an indictment.
In all cases where the person who faces an indictment is a police officer, we need to have a special prosecutor appointed, an attorney who does not have a day-to-day, working, collegiate, cordial relationship with the police department.
Based on the incident in Chicago which was reported here yesterday cops canât use force on each other. Oh, wait, did I say âcanâtâ? Please allow me to rephrase that. I meant to say âwonâtâ.
Well, thatâs a turn up for the books, and no mistake.
Mark the date in your calendar, folks: 3-Dec-2014 : no charges for police officer.
This is totally fucked up. Thereâs a pattern showing up here now which looks like these juries are being somehow possibly intimidated, either by the judges or by armed officers maybe being present in or around the jury rooms??? Are they being scared of retribution by law inforcement itself???
'This Definitely Does NOT Compute"âŚ
As @davide405 mentions, itâs not the juries, itâs the prosecutors; they donât actually want charges, because the rest of their time they work with the police and this would make their job hard. So they half-ass it, at best.
They donât have to be intimidated, see above.
The prosecutor making a presentation to a grand jury has sole discretion of what evidence to show. If they donât want an indictment, it wonât happen!
Can we convince Fox News to move its HQ to Staten Island? It would fit right in, what with the giant landfills of festering trash.
I canât imagine any city in America has people living in it who want the cops to get away with murder. If I try really hard, I can imagine a city hiring up a bunch of scabs, short term, firing the entire police force, and then hiring them back under a new contract, one that disallows a union, and eliminates official immunity. What would happen next? I donât know, but how could it be worse than what weâve got now?
I suspect every city does, as long as the police are murdering the right people. Yâknow, those other, thuggish people who deserve it.
Many Americans are terrified of (largely imagined) crime and many Americans are also terrified of black people. Scared people are often willing to tolerate ridiculous abuse of power in the name of public safety.
