Officials here are urging calm after a local grand jury decided not to bring criminal charges against a white rookie Cleveland police officer who in November 2014 shot and killed a 12-year-old African American boy.
“The Grand Jury has fully investigated this case and made its final decision,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Monday. “Now it is time for our community to learn from this tragedy and start to heal.”
Civil rights activists have called for fresh protests in Cleveland, where police are still working to implement broad changes following a 2014 Justice Department finding that they use their weapons too often.
But McGinty on Monday called “for the leaders of our community to respect the process and the decision of the grand jury and to urge others to express their opinions in a peaceful and lawful manner.”
The story here is not the death of a 12 year old kid (though it should be) - It's that the prosecutor had no intention of bringing this to trial. His only goal during the 'investigation' was to make it go away - The literal opposite of his job. He told the victims' family they would have to provide evidence to present to the grand jury. So much WTF.
America just seems so broken when it comes to law enforcement and minorities. I don't even pretend to know how it can ever begin to be fixed. It's just awful.
America just seems so broken when it comes to law enforcement and minorities. I don't even pretend to know how it can ever begin to be fixed. It's just awful.
Probably start with not electing judges and sheriffs.
Annnnnd it's a mistrial. 11 convict, 1 holdout. You would think they'll eventually get a conviction, but still pretty embarrassing someone actually thought this was self defense.
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Annnnnd it's a mistrial. 11 convict, 1 holdout. You would think they'll eventually get a conviction, but still pretty embarrassing someone actually thought this was self defense.
The 11-1 count was on Friday. It seems that the note that was handed to the judge on Monday said that a majority of jurors were still undecided. Also saw one reference that it was a 0-12 count for murder, but 11-1 for voluntary manslaughter, but can't find the source.
Will be interesting to see if the prosecution asks for the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter to be included in the instructions during the next trial. Its inclusion seems to have caused some confusion this time around, based on the clarifications that were requested.
Elie Mystal gets this much right: “Letting cops who murder black people go free has nothing to do with the black community.” The defense attorney Scott Greenfield adds:
"People need to believe in cops. It’s an irrational belief, born of their own compulsion to make sense of the world, because if an otherwise ordinary police officer had a random killer hiding beneath his badge, there would be nothing to stand between our desire for safety and the insanity of random violence that could take our life, our children’s lives, for no reason at any moment. It would be like living in The Purge, and no one would ever be able to sleep at night if that was the case.
But as Elie says, the failure to convict in this case, with this evidence, rips our comfort blanket of civility from our clutches. Whether it’s because Walter Scott was black or Michael Slager was a cop isn’t clear. What is clear is that any result other than guilt in this case tell us the system is a failure and we are left to our own devices to survive."
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There are plenty of recent stories involving white police officers who have shot and killed black men, including some who are on trial for those shootings. Then there's the case of a white cop who did not shoot a black man holding a gun — and it may have cost him his job.
It started with a 911 call for help in Weirton, W.Va., on May 6 at 2:51 a.m. An emergency dispatcher in turn put out a call for an officer.
"Had a female stating they needed someone right now. She sounded hysterical," the dispatcher said. "Hung up the phone, will not answer on call back."
Nearest to the address was Stephen Mader, a 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran and rookie cop who was alone in his squad car. He got to the house and saw Ronald D. Williams, a 23-year-old black man, standing outside with his hands behind his back.
Quote:
In Weirton, Mader still had those wartime rules in mind. The Marines had taught him to wait for clear hostile intent before opening fire, something he didn't see from Williams.
"For me, it wasn't enough to kind of take someone's life because they're holding a gun that's not pointed at me," Mader said.
But then — and this all happened in seconds — Mader's backup arrived. All they knew is that the dispatcher said there was a weapon. Mader remembers that Williams walked toward them as they drove up and got out of their cars.
"Their weapons are drawn, and they're screaming at him to drop the gun," Mader said. "At that point he starts waving the gun, back and forth between us."
One of the officers fired four shots, and a bullet hit Williams in the side of the head, leaving him on the pavement. The dispatcher called an ambulance, but the officers saw there was no hope in giving first aid. Mader went inside to check on the girlfriend and baby.
Interesting perspective, that might fly in the way of some people's thinking.
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Annnnnd it's a mistrial. 11 convict, 1 holdout. You would think they'll eventually get a conviction, but still pretty embarrassing someone actually thought this was self defense.
This is so great. Slager gets 20 years. A really good start.
