I hate to be flippant about so great a tragedy, but this somehow seems like the most appropriate answer I can give. What a joke our system is sometimes.
TW: slavery, genocide, antiblackness, white supremacy This is the reality of law enforcement in this country.
I’ll repeat what I said in the open thread: I really held out a glimmer of hope this time that the cop might actually have to go to trial. Given that he choked Eric Garner to death, on camera, for selling loose cigarettes illegally. Nope. I should have known that this would happen once I realized the grand jury was in Staten Island. The Bronx or Brooklyn? Maybe a different story, depending on who the prosecutor was. But probably not. The police have always basically had a license to kill black people whenever they feel like it, and nothing has changed. There’s always an excuse. And I will add this: it will never change as long as (among other things) local prosecutors who depend upon police in other cases (as witnesses, etc.) are the ones responsible for prosecuting police. It’s an inherent conflict of interest. In response to Pretty Amiable’s question: Staten Island is the most conservative, whitest borough of New York. It’s where a lot of police live. But I saw a list recently of all police killings in NYC over the last 20 years, and the percentage of them that actually resulted in a police officer being charged (never mind convicted) is tiny, regardless of the borough.
And I will add this: it will never change as long as (among other things) local prosecutors who depend upon police in other cases (as witnesses, etc.) are the ones responsible for prosecuting police. It’s an inherent conflict of interest. I agree. I’ve been spending some time trying to figure out what a good alternative is, though. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
A bureau for police crimes independent of the general prosecutorial pool would be a good start, in my (not a lawyer like Donna) opinion, because the prosecutors’ office and the police have too close of a relationship as part of their daily work for their investigations of the police to be anything close to impartial. Why nobody in either branch of the legal system has thought this was a screaming conflict of interest before shows me all I need to know about the system being designed this way.
Thought this was an awesome article on the hypocrisy of enforcing Broken Windows Policing while living in a culture of police impunity: http://www.popehat.com/2014/12/04/broken-windows-and-broken-lives/
Martin Luther King Jr. also said “the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice” but white people sure as heck aren’t quoting that on their Facebook statuses and Tumblr blogs.
A terrific interview with Kimberlé Crenshaw, the professor of law at Columbia University and the theorist who first coined intersectionality as a political framework. Among other things, she gives her views about possible alternatives to the current grand jury system: http://www.salon.com/2014/12/05/some_of_the_worst_racist_tragedies_in_history_have_been_perfectly_legal_kimberle_crenshaw_on_eric_garner_broken_windows_and_police_impunity/