It has been documented time and again that it is District Attorneys and their offices that have stood in the way of justice for victims of police brutality.
“Prosecutors work with police day in, day out, and typically they’re reluctant to criticise them or investigate them,” said Prof Samuel Walker of the University of Nebraska. Describing Lugod’s case as a cause for concern, Walker said: “A major change in our standard legal practice, and the structure of our criminal justice system, is required.”
All over the country we have had cases of DAs declining to charge cops for criminal behavior, or openly advocating for the cops at grand jury inquiries, or charging and then doing a piss poor job of convincing the jury that they are guilty.
...the case was one of 217 this year where a police officer who killed someone was cleared of wrongdoing in a process led by a prosecutor who typically works alongside the officer’s department. The total represented 85% of all killings by police that were ruled justified in 2015, according to a Guardian analysis. This week, the police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year in Cleveland, Ohio, was cleared in the same way.
Now come welcome news that at least one governor is prepared to do something about this sorry state of affairs.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo took a necessary step last year when he empowered New York’s attorney general to take control of cases where police officers may have unjustifiably killed unarmed citizens. His order, enacted several months after a New York grand jury failed to indict the officer who killed Eric Garner, was intended to assure the public that police officers who kill civilians would be prosecuted fairly and without bias.
The New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, now has the authority to look at the facts and determine whether a police officer could reasonably claim to be in fear for his/her life at the time of a killing.
Where, in his opinion, there is a significant question as to whether the civilian was armed and dangerous at the time of his or her death.
Of course, we cannot wait on government edicts to do the job of restoring honor — if there was ever any — to the offices of district attorneys and prosecutors. As a direct result of the campaigns led by Black Lives Matter and other progressive groups, some of the worst offenders have already been kicked out of office. Anita Alvarez and Timothy McGinty were among the worst of the worst and I take great pleasure in saying that they were given the boot this year.
You either serve honorably or get out of office, is the message to district attorneys across the nation.
We are rapidly approaching the signature collection phase of our campaign to get the Over-Policed Rights Act on the California ballot. We will be needing your help.
This is a screengrab of the Summary and Title of the Ballot Initiative sent to us by the California Department of Justice:
Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act as seen through the eyes of the California Justice Dept
We await word from the Secretary of State who will be sending us a schedule with the maximum filing deadline and the certification deadline.
More awesome news! Our law has been submitted as a Resolution to the NAACP. That august body will now discuss and then vote on whether to adopt The Michael Brown Over-Police Rights Act (MBOPRA) at the Legislative Session of the NAACP’s Annual Convention.
“We should make a little money if they all pay us to burn crosses in negroes’ yards,” Allison says on the recording. “We could sell portable crosses like a wood cross with a base. It could have the fire starter chunks built in it.”
Edwin Downs, who still works for the sheriff’s department, also used offensive language on the recording. “Maybe you shouldn’t be black,” Downs said, referring to African-Americans worried about their children’s safety after Martin was shot.
The Ohio sheriffs were ordered to sensitivity training for revealing their true selves. Sensitivity training? Hahaha.
Someone paid the murderer $250,000.00 for murdering Trayvon Martin. No further comment.
George Zimmerman said he has sold the gun he used to kill unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 for $250,000, television stations in Orlando and Las Vegas reported on Friday.
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About Support the Dream Defenders
(Wordcloud composed of Support the Dream Defenders, Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, Expand Medicaid, Freedom of Information Act Project, Combat Racism, Demand Equality.)
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders launched four ongoing projects:
1. We came together to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defendersdefend the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by "develop[ing] the next generation of radical leaders to realize and exercise our independent collective power; building alternative systems and organizing to disrupt the structures that oppress our communities." Please donate here.
2. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, crowd-sourced at Daily Kos in the fall of 2014 after the death of Michael Brown. Our bill quickly earned endorsements from the NAACP and the ACLU. The NAACP forwarded our bill to members of Congress, and we distributed it to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. President Obama signed into a law a small piece of our bill in December 2014. The Department of Justice included parts of our law in their reports on Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature.
3. Our Freedom of Information Act project. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. Ebola has killed about 9000 people in total; Republican governors kill 23,000 people PER YEAR by refusing federal support for Medicaid, a story ignored by traditional media. Our project forces those governors to out themselves, clapping them in a Catch 22. With the support of readers, we publicize our results through letters to the editor, press releases, and petitions.
You can receive all future diaries of Support the Dream Defenders in your Daily Kos Stream by clicking here. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD diaries appear in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page.
This is a community diary. Please Join us.
You are also welcome to join us on The Porch over at the Black Kos Community group on Friday afternoons at 4 p.m. ET."
