In another diary Shaun King asks why it took almost 2 years for the now-infamous "perp punting" video to see the light of day.
(And no, I'm not making fun of anyone, it's just hard to know what to call what happened).
Some people are asking iof the second grand jury saw the video when the first one didn't, and that's good question. I can say that the report was that the Attorney General, Matt Denn, and the second jury saw "the same" information as the first.
Did they both see the video? Interesting question; maybe we can find out.
Regardless of what the grand jury saw there are two points here.
One is that Lateef Dickerson and the ACLU were and are suing the Dover police. Sooner or later that video was going to surface in testimony unless there was a settlement; and after an indictment, sooner or later it would surface there. So the city was in a no-win situation with the video. They could have buried it by settling with the ACLU, but you bet your sweet earlobe it would be presented in the assault trial.
With that in mind it's best for all concerned to have this out sooner and not later.
The other is that Delaware's Attorney General, Matt Denn, set up an office to protect civil rights and also, specifically, investigate police abuse of power. It was done practically the first day he was in office.
So the supposition is that he's making a loud and clear statement here about the limits of what Delaware police agencies can get away with, and that the office is not a parking place for one of his pals where nothing much will happen.
The point is that the staff there will not be defending cops this month and investigating cops next month, removing the conflict of interest that apparently stalls justice in palce like Missouri.
This isn't quite like an independent review squad at the federal level (or regional level, for that matter: if police departments can band together into regional outfits, why can't AGs band together and staff a regional review board?) but it's a who heck of a lot more than many states seem to have.
Denn's investigators are not shackled by the narrow confines of federal civil rights law, either, which apparently is a problem in cases where citizens see a clear civil rights violation by police, yet it falls outside the letter of federal law.
The links explain:
News report: http://www.delawareonline.com/...
The AG's own website: http://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/...