Indictments aren't convictions, but this is progress.
In two separate cases, two police officers in Georgia and two police officers in New Mexico were each charged with murdering a man that they had already surrounded and subdued.
In East Point, Georgia, right outside of Atlanta, two officers were charged with murder, aggravated assault, manslaughter, and six counts of violating their oath of office in the death of Gregory Towns, a 24-year-old father.
According to a lawsuit his family filed a year ago, Gregory Lewis Towns Jr. was trying to catch his breath after a chase of less than a mile when former police Cpl. Howard Weems and former Sgt. Marcus Eberhart activated their Tasers a combined 14 times in an effort to get the 281-pound man to stand up.
The indictment said Towns’ hands were cuffed behind him and he was “exhibiting symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath.
The officers
claimed to have only used their stun gun a few times on Towns, but the models of stun guns they used created an electronic log and showed that they were actually used 14 times—which could kill anyone.
Soon after the officers were charged in Georgia, indictments were announced for two Albuquerque, New Mexico, police officers who shot and killed James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man who was living in the mountains.
For the first time in the Albuquerque Police Department’s history, officers will face murder charges for actions taken on the job.
Officer Dominique Perez and now-retired Officer Keith Sandy shot and killed James Boyd after a tense three-hour standoff in the foothills in March 2014. They face second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and aggravated battery charges.
Ample evidence obviously existed to charge these four officers, but convictions of police officers are nearly impossible in America. Less than 1 percent of officers who kill are prosecuted, and a tiny fraction of 1 percent are ever convicted. So while it's premature to call either of these indictments a victory, they are certainly an essential first step.