QUESTION:WHAT MESSAGE DOES FERGUSON SEND TOTALLY CLEAR TO BLACK YOUNG AND OLD URBAN AMERICANS.? ANSWER: BLACKS NEED NOT APPLY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA? QUESTION: SO WHAT IS YOUR OPTION? THIS IS THE QUESTION BEING ASKED NOT ON THE CNN NEWS DESK BUT ON THE STREETS OF MAIN STREET URBAN AMERICA ACROSS THE TRACKS. ANSWER; ...THAT THEY HAVE LIVED PERMANENTLY ACROSS THE TRACKS SINCE JAMESTOWN ....ACROSS THE TRACKS..WHERE THEY KNOW THEIR LEADERS HAVE FAILED THEM AND THE MASTER SLAVE AGREEMENTS IS WILLIE LYNCH DRIVEN IN HATRED AND BLOODSHED QUESTION: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? ANSWER:...NOW, ON BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN HAVE SEEN THE END GAME OF THE COIN TOSS BECAUSE IT WAS MONEY THAT BROUGHT THEIR FORE-PARENTS HERE TO AMERICA IN THE FIRST PLACE VIA the infamous RICHLY REWARDING FOR THE BACKERS AND EMPLOYERS OF THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE.....BUT THIS IS 2014 and there is no more room at the inn for the 200 hundred million urban young and old of the Fergusons Land of Lincolns, Martins and Malcolm Xs America..NOW LOOKING EVER MORE LIKE THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS. for new awarded street cred of Louis Leadership found in the black face of clear viewed worldwide front page media driven institutional racism inN FARRAKHANS AMERICA/ @RaulAReyes (CNN) -- A little over two days. Thats how long the grand jury deliberated before deciding not to bring an indictment against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced the grand jury had heard more than 70 hours of testimony from 60 witnesses before reaching its decision, which he said was supported by physical evidence. Sadly, the grand jurys failure to return an indictment of Wilson was not surprising. But dont blame the grand jury; blame McCulloch. He oversaw the proceedings and bears responsibility for their outcome. Raul A. Reyes Raul A. Reyes McCulloch compromised the Ferguson grand jury proceedings from the start. He resisted calls to recuse himself, saying, I have absolutely no intention of walking away from duties and the responsibilities entrusted in me by the people of this community. However, the community would have been better served if he had stepped aside. McCullochs father was a police officer killed in a shootout with an African-American suspect. His brother, uncle and cousin served with the St. Louis Police Department, and his mother worked there for 20 years as a clerk. Newsweek noted McCullochs long history of siding with the police. For the sake of impartiality, McCulloch should have let a special prosecutor take over the case. The grand jury only needed to find probable cause to charge Wilson. Thats one of the lowest legal standards in our justice system, below beyond a reasonable doubt (required for a criminal conviction) and preponderance of the evidence (the standard in a civil trial). The fact that McCulloch did not get an indictment for a killing that shocked the nation raises questions about whether he really wanted an indictment. We will be presenting absolutely everything to this grand jury, McCulloch said in August. Yet in grand jury proceedings, the prosecutor typically shows the minimal amount of evidence necessary to establish that a trial is merited. By dumping so much evidence on the grand jury, McCulloch may have overwhelmed them and led them to the wrong conclusion. In the process, hes opened himself to charges that he was acting to protect Wilson. Consider McCullochs time frame for the grand jury, which The New York Times described as prolonged and exhaustive. Grand juries routinely return criminal indictments in a matter of days. But the Ferguson proceedings dragged on for months, putting a burden on the jurors to recall everything and then decide wisely. Another red flag was that this lengthy process was riddled with leaks, all of which supported Wilsons account of the events. Worse, McCulloch declined to recommend charges to the grand jury. Prosecutors normally walk a jury through the charges they are seeking, breaking them down and explaining why they are deserved. McCulloch instead left the Ferguson grand jury to sort through terms such as voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in the second degree on their own -- making it more likely that they would not seek an indictment. Jackson: Civil rights have been violated Breaking down the Ferguson decision Smoke bombs fired on Ferguson crowds In fact, McCulloch could have brought charges directly against Wilson, circumventing the grand jury. He chose not to do so, which is a troubling indicator of his interest in aggressively prosecuting this case. Sure, there are conflicting accounts of what transpired between Wilson and Michael Brown. Was Wilson in fear for his life, as he told investigators, when he and Brown struggled for his gun? Did Brown have his hands up when he was fatally shot? We will never know, because there will be no trial. Thats a tragedy for the Brown family and an affront to the fundamental American value that we are all are equal under the law. The grand jurys decision has implications far beyond Ferguson. Gallup polling has found that African-Americans have less confidence in the criminal justice system than white Americans, while a W.W. Kellogg Foundation report found that 68% of Latinos report being worried about police brutality. Wilson walking free will likely reinforce the views among communities of color that our justice system is unfair. And when significant segments of our population lose faith in our justice system, our democracy is weakened. The Ferguson decision reflects poorly on prosecutor McCulloch. His flawed grand jury proceedings ensured that justice was not served for Michael Brown.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:08:44 +0000
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