The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[OttoVonBismarck]

I think the big problem is in the United States generally prosecutors decide on their own discretion whether someone should be brought to trial. Unless they are literally trying to railroad a guy for which there is no evidence at all, the prosecutor can then pretty easily get an indictment from a grand jury (in the Federal courts or the roughly 25 or so States that normally use them.)

In this case something special was done that's obviously allowed for under the law but highly irregular. The prosecutor actually made use of a feature of grand juries not normally used--their ability to be given a bunch of random evidence and decide for themselves if any crimes may have been committed, which crimes those were, and what charges to indict on. Normally a prosecutor is going to direct the grand jury to a specific charge, with only his strongest evidence. It creates the perception (possibly true), that the prosecutor was basically unwilling to say he couldn't find sufficient cause for trial so instead he passed it onto a grand jury via a process that normally never happens.

There was obviously enough evidence a drunk prosecutor from Bob's Barber College & Law School could have gotten an indictment. Could a prosecutor have won at trial? Probably not, just based on the stuff we've heard so far. In non-controversial cases in situations like this the prosecutor would decline to prosecute due to the normal operations of the prosecutor's office being geared around "not losing cases." But McCulloch didn't have the stones to stand up as County Prosecutor and let it be known that in his 20+ years experience worth of expertise he didn't have a winnable case, so instead he pushes it off onto the grand jury.

[DGuller]

Yeah, my impression is that grand juries elect not to indict only when the prosecutors doesn't want them to indict.  I think the same thing happened with Tony Stewart's case a couple of months ago.

[DGuller]

I forgot that this forum actually has signatures.  I turned them off such a long time ago.

[DGuller]

What the fuck, Seedy? 

[Admiral Yi]

I think it was a good move on the prosecutor's part.  This way he gets all the evidence put on the public record, and angry negroes can't scream that the white man was covering for whitey.

[CountDeMoney]

What the fuck, Seedy? 

Don't look at me, the Grand Jury did it.

[jimmy olsen]

I think it was a good move on the prosecutor's part.  This way he gets all the evidence put on the public record, and angry negroes can't scream that the white man was covering for whitey.

Not true at all. The unusual way in which this grand jury was run will merely be interperted as a cover up more brazen than usual. At least the cops who beat Rodney king were put on trial, Wilson didn't even have to go through that, when the prosecutor, if he had wished could certainly have convinced a grand jury to indict.

[CountDeMoney]

It was a great move on the prosecutor's part, when you don't want to indict a police officer.

[Admiral Yi]

It was a great move on the prosecutor's part, when you don't want to indict a police officer.

Right.  If he had just announced he was not going to press charges all hell would have broken loose.

[derspiess]

Seedy just wants to see Whitey hang.

[Valmy]

Predictably, the police are now getting crap for holding back and letting Ferguson burn last night.

Um the governor is getting flack for not sending in the national guard and mostly from the police themselves

[derspiess]

Predictably, the police are now getting crap for holding back and letting Ferguson burn last night.

Um the governor is getting flack for not sending in the national guard and mostly from the police themselves

Um fine but it's unrelated to what I said.

[Valmy]

Predictably, the police are now getting crap for holding back and letting Ferguson burn last night.

Um the governor is getting flack for not sending in the national guard and mostly from the police themselves

Um fine but it's unrelated to what I said.

How is something directly related to what you said unrelated to what you said?

I said the only criticism I had heard was at the Governor for being too slow.

[derspiess]

Then you missed my post about the Sharpton news conference.

[Razgovory]

Then you missed my post about the Sharpton news conference.

You watch more Sharpton then Seedy does.