For the second time in roughly a week, our nation is in turmoil because of a murderous police officer and the cowardice of a grand jury that refused to indict him. This situation is not only an embarrassment to the United States, but an undermining of the legitimacy of its government.
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The justice system's failure in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases is not simply an individual failure of justice or a pair of local tragedies. It is a travesty of justice that arguably undermines our broader legal system. Not only does it reduce already limited confidence in police departments across the country, but it also reduces trust in the judicial system.
Although the law enforcement community will try to put the blame on the media and liberal agitators, in reality it is the spokesmen of law enforcement who have done the most to sully their own reputations. There are too many examples to cite all of them, but a few will suffice to establish my point.
We can start with Rudy Giuliani's attempt to shift the conversation to black on black violence in a debate on CNN. His apparent logic was that if some black criminals kill each other, that somehow excuses white cops killing black men. Did we really expect any better logic from a man whose name was used as a battle cry by a gang of rapist cops?
A somewhat more disturbing example occurred last night on PBS News Hour. A City University of New York Professor, Candace McCoy, argued on national television that the killing of Eric Garner was simply a matter of bad tactics, rather than a murder. The professor in question teaches law at the college. Whatever her reasoning may have been, her comments revealed her own moral bankruptcy, as well as that of our legal system. It's chilling to think that someone like this is training future attorneys and prosecutors.
Finally, we come to the statement of the head of the New York police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. Patrick J. Lynch, in one of the most staggeringly tone deaf speeches I have ever heard, praised the grand jury and harped on the fact that the killer cop was an Eagle Scout. I'm a pro-union liberal, and this is the first time I have ever wanted to see a union broken. (Seriously, in my hometown, Philadelphia, the Fraternal Order of Police has protected cops who were caught on tape striking people unprovoked and fought measures to prevent corruption.)
Taken together, statements like these leave one to wonder whether the American legal system is trustworthy at all. Nowadays, the best one can say for it is that it's not as bad as what you would find in an authoritarian country like China or Russia. It leads one to wonder whether we should trust police officers' testimony in court, or the prosecutors who seem bent on protecting them at all costs. They are increasingly the termites in their own foundations, weakening any claim they have to respect or authority.