December 4, 2014:
Once again, another unarmed black person has been killed by an armed white police officer. Just as the mess in Ferguson, Missouri is being sorted out, there is yet another stupid killing by a cop on Staten Island, New York. There was a cellphone video made of that latter incident by a bystander, and it CLEARLY shows the deceased in a compliant posture prior to being grabbed around the neck from behind by a police officer. The officer put the decedent into a legally prohibited chokehold, yet he managed to gasp that he could not breathe. Nevertheless, the officer, assisted by several other officers, continued to apply pressure to the deceased's neck, after he fell to the sidewalk, until he died. As far as I am concerned, what I saw with my own eyes on TV last night was murder, but the Staten Island grand jury incomprehensibly refused to indict the officer.
The decedent on Staten Island was very obese, and it could be that the oxygen deprivation put such a strain on his heart that it went into arrest. Most such chokeholds will cut off the blood supply to the brain and cause the recipient to pass out and go limp, which SHOULD serve as a signal for the officer to stop applying pressure. I know this because I was trained to apply the chokehold during my lifeguard training years ago. Regardless of what happened to the decedent physiologically, in my opinion he was murdered by the unwarranted and continued application of unnecessary deadly force. I believe that the cop had reason to know that the force being applied COULD result in death. I am of the opinion that he continued to unnecessarily apply the deadly chokehold with the apparent intent to maliciously kill the decedent.
A lot of additional information has come out about the events in Ferguson, Missouri. The deceased may well have been a thug, but that is not why he was killed. There has been no allegation that Officer Wilson knew anything about the decedent's criminal past at the time of death. The decedent was repeatedly shot and killed after he ran away from, then turned toward the cop that shot him. He refused to obey orders. According to Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's "Last Word", when the grand jury was empaneled in Ferguson, the assistant prosecutor introduced instructions to the jury that were a completely wrong statement of the applicable law prohibiting the use of deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect. She supplied the grand jury with a corrective statement of the applicable law on the last day of its meeting, but she reportedly failed to call their attention to her earlier error and to the change presented. The grand jury was reportedly confused by the conflicting instructions.
Another occurrence in Ferguson that bothered me is one very similar to one I experienced as a criminal defense attorney years ago, when I sought to have my client testify in front of a grand jury that subsequently indicted him for theft. He might have explained to them that the issue was not theft but a case of civil dispute over who owned the subject piano! My client was so accused by a vindictive woman who had rented him a guesthouse on her farm in Orange County. She alleged that my client had given the piano to her, but when she evicted him, he took what he thought was his piano. My client was prohibited from testifying in front of the grand jury that was considering his indictment because of the prosecutor's concern, validated by the presiding judge, that it would induce the grand jury to "try" the actual case instead of limiting its consideration to whether or not the prosecutor had enough evidence ("probable cause") to go forward with trial.
In Ferguson, the prosecutor (who refused to recuse himself and his office on motion) allowed Officer Wilson to testify in front of the grand jury as to what happened. This basically invited the grand jury to "try" the whole case as a petit jury would, so there was no indictment in the Ferguson case, and the riots there followed. I have not heard whether or not the officer in the Staten Island case was also allowed to testify before the grand jury there, but it is an important principle. It makes me suspect that the "fix" was in in Ferguson, that the prosecutors there made every effort to ensure that Officer Wilson would NOT be indicted.
Most white people with whom I have spoken are outraged about the riots in Ferguson, Missouri. They are incredulous that the imaginary monolithic "black community" did not restrain the looters and burners from their misbehavior. Larry Wilmore, the "Senior Black Correspondent" on Comedy Channel's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" suggested last night that the "black community" no more restrained the Ferguson rioters than the "white community" restrained the white cops who killed unarmed black suspects. We may be our "brother's keeper," but none of us is our brother's "guarantor." It is beyond absurd and blatantly racist to suggest that law-abiding blacks had ANY responsibility whatsoever to risk their lives to rein in the looters in Ferguson.
Cops are out there to enforce the law, INCLUDING the Constitution, as they are all sworn to do. They are obliged to observe AND DEFEND the rights and interests of suspects as much as victims, whether they agree with that or not. Cops have the authority to use deadly force to defend themselves or others from IMMEDIATE danger, but they are not executioners, and they are not allowed to shoot down nor choke compliant suspects. The US Supreme Court said so years ago. If anyone is to be punished, it is up to the courts, not the cops.
Most cops are honorable, decent, professionally behaved people. I have known many cops; I consider them my friends, and some of them have been my legal clients in past years. Their jobs are often dangerous. They keep order which benefits all of us. But every honest cop is unfairly tainted by the few rogue cops, the few bad cops, yet they are afraid to speak out because they will be punished for doing so. Unlike the "black community," police commanders have it within their power to unequivocally and unambiguously fix these problems. Elected officials have it in their power to raise the necessary revenues (taxes) to hire good cops. That ANYONE does not attend to these duties is abominable. The burden of going forward is on the police and the politicians, not some imaginary "black community."
I am very angry about these summary executions of suspects by cops. That is totally unacceptable to me. It should not be tolerated by anyone who considers him/herself a law-abiding person. That same "law" does not allow summary executions by cops.
