I have read the Department of Justice report on their non-indictment of Darren Wilson, and, quite frankly, I am very disappointed.
The report reads as if Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis county prosecutor, and his two subordinates prepared it. The whole report reads as if the investigators were more concerned with the well-being of the killer than they were about the teenager who was killed. Who was advocating for Michael Brown, I want to ask.
I must confess that I had a problem with Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, announcing the findings of the investigation of the Ferguson Police Department and the non-indictment of Wilson all at the same time. It reminded me of the stunt pulled by Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson when he called the news conference to announce the name of the murderer. If you’ll recall, that was when we were flooded with news of a “strong-arm robbery,” and so the news media dutifully focused on that rather than on the killer-cop.
This is what I got from the attorney general: We will not be indicting Darren Wilson because we could not prove he was guilty of violating Michael Brown’s rights ... but look what we have done over here!
The reaction from those who have been fighting for Michael Brown has been swift.
Activist Tori Russell:
“They’re trying to throw us a bone because we’ve been saying the police were racist, then it only took them 100-plus days to actually make a statement acknowledging that they were being racist,” Russell said.“I find it strange that the Justice Department has been found them to be operating with racial bias and that their stops and arrests are racially biased. But there are no civil rights charges against Darren Wilson. That sounds like the direct definition of a civil rights violation to me.”
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Brendan Roediger, a professor of law at St. Louis University:
“I know that Holder believes the standard is too difficult to meet, but in the end it comes down to the fact that an unarmed young man was shot dead in the street and we know this police department not only knowingly engaged in discriminatory practices but encouraged a culture of racism,” Roediger said. “The end result of that culture of racism was an unarmed man shot dead in the street should be sufficient to file charges.”
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Apologists for the killer-cop have been popping champagne and gleefully pointing to the Attorney General's words. Especially this:
“It remains not only valid — but essential — to question how such a strong alternative version of events was able to take hold so swiftly, and be accepted so readily.” |
Maybe, Mr. Holder, maybe it was the picture of the white guys by their truck throwing up their arms in the air to demonstrate what they were seeing unfolding before their eyes. Why would so many people make up that particular lie? Why would the report make such a big deal about Michael Brown not being shot in the back, suggesting that the killer-cop didn't fire at him while he was running away? All the early reports were that the killer fired shots as the teen fled.
But my biggest question to my attorney general is this: Why would you believe a word of what Darren Wilson said when you know the nature of the police department for which he worked? When you know that he failed to write a report immediately after the killing and only produced one after he saw the eyewitness accounts? When you know that his testimony was not challenged in the grand jury investigation? Why would you believe one single solitary word of his self-serving, carefully crafted lies?
The Police Department for which the killer-cop worked was a cesspit of racism and bigotry, coupled with unethical and unprofessional behavior. And here, I am not relying on the DOJ's report. For years the residents of the city have been telling everyone who'd listen about the oppressive yoke around their collective necks. But given your own findings, Mr. Holder, don't you think that every case of physical abuse or killing committed by members of that department should be automatically charged as civil rights violations? In my humble opinion, to do anything less is a travesty of justice.
Among the incidents of excessive force discovered by our comprehensive review, some resulted from stops or arrests that had no legal basis to begin with. Others were punitive or retaliatory in nature. The police department’s routine use of Tasers was found to be not merely unconstitutional, but abusive and dangerous. Records showed a disturbing history of using unnecessary force against people with mental illness. And our findings indicated that the overwhelming majority of force – almost 90 percent – is directed against African Americans.
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#LetOurPoorPeopleLive
Progress Report
Last week, members of Support the Dream Defenders mailed Freedom of Information Requests to governors in Florida, Mississippi, Maine, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. Additionally, Governor Nikki Haley finally provided her response to the last of our South Carolina FOIA demands. Tomorrow, we send out our final batch of FOIA requests to governors in Wyoming, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. Yes, it is past time to make Governor Snotty Walker squirm.
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About Support the Dream Defenders
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders invigorate three ongoing projects:
1. We coalesced to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defenders defend 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. This bill quickly gained the support of 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. 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 17,000 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. We will publicize our results through progressive media. We now only need volunteers in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
More information about STTDs here.
This is a community diary.
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