3 shootings by police put spotlight on Justice Department

[brassmonkey]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three deadly police shootings of black people. Three sets of facts. Three potentially different outcomes. On the same day a white former patrolman in South Carolina pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges for killing a motorist, word came down that the U.S. Justice Department would not prosecute two white officers in the shooting death of a man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And a white suburban Dallas officer was fired after fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy as the car he was riding in was driving away.



Civil rights activists are watching closely for clues to how the Trump administration's Justice Department intends to handle racially charged shootings by police. But drawing any conclusions about the department from those cases is risky, in part because each one is different and because prosecutions of officers are difficult and rare no matter the administration.

And while Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said he believes sweeping federal investigations of police departments can hurt officer morale and undermine crime-fighting, he has also promised his Justice Department will prosecute individual officers who break the law.

"I don't really think you can read that much into it," said Jonathan Smith, a civil rights attorney in the Obama Justice Department, noting that in two of the cases, the investigations began before Sessions took office.

Here's a look at each case and how communities are responding. WALTER SCOTT Officer Michael Slager shot Scott five times in the back as the unarmed 50-year-old man ran away during a traffic stop, and cellphone video of the 2015 shooting was viewed millions of times around the world.

Slager pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating Scott's civil rights by shooting without justification. He could go to prison for decades. The charges were brought a year ago, during the Obama administration.

Scott's mother said the admission of guilt was all she needed to move on. But the Scott case was unusual. For one, prosecutors had video that clearly showed that Scott was running from Slager and was at least 17 feet away when he was shot. That contradicted an account the officer gave investigators before the video surfaced. In pleading guilty, Slager dropped his claim that he feared for his life.

The community has been uneasy, but there hasn't been the widespread unrest other cities have seen. Ashley Williams, an organizer with Charlotte Uprising in North Carolina who has staged a number of actions around killings of black people by police, was unsatisfied with Slager's guilty plea, since he neither admitted to nor was convicted of murdering Scott.

"What's happening right now, especially this week, is representative of the failures in the system we're told to rely on," Williams said. ALTON STERLING The Justice Department declined to charge two Baton Rouge officers with civil rights violations in the death of Sterling, who was shot during a struggle on the pavement outside a convenience store in July. Prosecutors said they could not prove the officers acted unreasonably.

According to the Justice Department, the officers said they saw the butt of a gun in one of Sterling's pants pockets and saw him try to reach for it before he was shot. A loaded gun was recovered from the 37-year-old man's pocket, prosecutors said.

Authorities in such cases must meet a difficult standard of proof, a challenge that has complicated prosecutions in past police shootings. "It is not enough to show that the officer made a mistake, acted negligently, acted by accident or mistake, or even exercised bad judgment," the department said.

Myra Richardson, an organizer with The Wave, a youth-led activist group in Baton Rouge, said Sterling's case is "representative of the longstanding history of violence that is sanctioned by the state and mistrust in the police." Richardson said organizers will continue to work on behalf of Sterling's family and in the broader fight to end killings of blacks by police.

JORDAN EDWARDS It's unclear whether the Justice Department will investigate the shooting of the 15-year-old on Saturday. He was killed by a Texas officer investigating an underage drinking complaint at a house party the high school freshman was leaving. The boy's family has not called for federal intervention.

The officer, Roy Oliver, was fired Tuesday for violating departmental policy. Police said video showed that the car Jordan was in was moving away from police, not going toward them in reverse, as the Balch Springs Police Department originally claimed.

Rashad Robinson, executive director of the online racial justice organization Color of Change, is calling for an investigation but is not yet pushing for federal intervention. "Most of the time, we are calling for federal intervention when the state can't actually do it," Robinson said. "It is not because we think that federal intervention is the only way. It is because local officials have refused to hold individuals accountable. We want independent, clear investigations."

article...

[Horatio Caine]

Declare state of Louisiana 100% black. Build 20' wall around it and send all of those "unhappy and oppressed dindonuffins" inside. In 10 years come back and plant trees on empty but well fertilized soil. Problem solved.

[MiamiBoyz]

[Paul Markham]

What do you expect in a country with such a high gun/mortality crime rate?

[makko2]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

What do you expect in a country with such a high gun/mortality crime rate?

And/ Or rather a country where un-prosecuted criminals wearing badges rarely face full or sufficient justice..... and those crossing the Blue Line are demonized in departments.

[Horatio Caine]

Originally Posted by makko2

And/ Or rather a country where un-prosecuted criminals wearing badges rarely face full or sufficient justice..... and those crossing the Blue Line are demonized in departments.

Oh, poor aspiring rappers. Dei is demonizied by oppressive white man's society..

[brassmonkey]

you are a waste of air

Originally Posted by Horatio Caine

Oh, poor aspiring rappers. Dei is demonizied by oppressive white man's society..

[Matt 26z]

The DOJ got involved in this stuff because of Obama. It isn't normal.

This is for the local and state authorities to deal with.

[Horatio Caine]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey

you are a waste of air

[nico-t]

Wow! What a surprising topic this is. I would never expect you to copy and paste a news story like this, brasshat. Very creative and out of the box!


PS - why you spamming this early in the month dogg, payment didn't come through? Or didn't you reach the sig whore minimum payout of $1 last month?

[Matt 26z]

At the heart of almost 100% of police shootings is an idiot who chose not to obey simple police commands.

[Bladewire]

Originally Posted by Matt 26z

The DOJ got involved in this stuff because of Obama. It isn't normal.

This is for the local and state authorities to deal with.

It's normal for the DOJ to get involved in stuff like this, that's what their here for, to oversee the states following federal law . Civil rights is federal jurisdiction.

First you don't understand stand how insurance works, now you don't know civil rights is a federal issue.

[Matt 26z]

Originally Posted by Bladewire

It's normal for the DOJ to get involved in stuff like this, that's what their here for, to oversee the states following federal law . Civil rights is federal jurisdiction.

First you don't understand stand how insurance works, now you don't know civil rights is a federal issue.

I don't recall any of it happening under previous presidents.

During 8 years of Obama every time a white cop shot a black there were calls for the feds to get involved.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by makko2

And/ Or rather a country where un-prosecuted criminals wearing badges rarely face full or sufficient justice..... and those crossing the Blue Line are demonized in departments.

In a country where every other person owns a gun, cops are in fear of their lives.

Add the racist nature of America, the gun-ho culture and it's not surprising cops shoot first.

[MiamiBoyz]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

In a country where every other person owns a gun, cops are in fear of their lives.

Add the racist nature of America, the gun-ho culture and it's not surprising cops shoot first.

And the fact that most of them have tiny cocks, christ complexes, and are psychopaths and it's not surprising cops shoot first either.

[Look Chang]

Originally Posted by Horatio Caine

I'm surprised at the homicide rate of American Indians who represent only 2% of the US population.

[makko2]

Originally Posted by Horatio Caine

Oh, poor aspiring rappers. Dei is demonizied by oppressive white man's society..

Many Americans suffer from the trait known as massive-denial of reality..... and also like to go by that Trumpist-idea of diverting from truth to fool those who are silly enough to be diverted from facts and reality.
What does your comment rappers have to do with the fact most criminal cops [ white , black, asian ] in the USA never face prosecution or are found guilty for murders of civilians who are of every race, age, gender.

I could throw in a poignant stats chart showing US police shootings compared to other nations around the world. But this is good enough too;
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ther-countries

[Horatio Caine]

Originally Posted by makko2

Many Americans suffer from the trait known as massive-denial of reality..... and also like to go by that Trumpist-idea of diverting from truth to fool those who are silly enough to be diverted from facts and reality.
What does your comment rappers have to do with the fact most criminal cops [ white , black, asian ] in the USA never face prosecution or are found guilty for murders of civilians who are of every race, age, gender.

I could throw in a poignant stats chart showing US police shootings compared to other nations around the world. But this is good enough too;
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ther-countries

many americans do what cops tell them to do and end up being just fine. Stop acting like chimpanzee, do not resist arrest, do not run, do not throw punches. try that..