Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts

Monday, April 24, 2017

AG Jeff Sessions Slams Hawaii

photo 9c2022ba-1cd3-4261-95f1-28ffb3e89a92.jpg

Attorney General Jeff Sessions used the language of the Birther movement to slam a Federal Judge in Hawaii who ruled against Donald Trump's Muslim Ban. Calling the 50th state an "island in the Pacific," the AG also seemed to question the right of Federal Judges to uphold the checks and balances built-in to our government.

Hawaii became the 50th state of the union in 1959. The Birther movement, including President Donald Trump, often used the fact that President Barack Obama was born and raised in Hawaii to call into question his citizenship, even after Hawaii produced his valid long-form birth certificate.

From Huffington Post
Last week, Sessions attacked Derrick Watson, a U.S. district judge in Hawaii, for halting Trump’s revised ban on travel and immigration from six majority-Muslim countries. 
“I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power,” Sessions said on conservative radio host Mark Levin’s show.

Sessions refused to apologize, calling his remarks "a joke."














Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, November 5, 2016

The Pro-Trump FBI

photo fbi_logo_twitter.jpg

Previous Related Posts:
FBI Director Comey Drops Unethical Email Bomb on Dems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why is the FBI meddling in a United States election? Did they coordinate with the Trump campaign when FBI Director James Comey announced vague accusations at Hillary Clinton just a week before a major election? Is the FBI Pro-Trump because they are Clinton-hating,gun-loving institution full of white men?

From The Guardian.com: "The FBI is Trumpland"
“The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent.
. . . Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.”

Daily Beast: Did Rudy Giuliani know about the Comey announcement ahead of time?
Two days before FBI director James Comey rocked the world last week, Rudy Giuliani was on Fox, where he volunteered, un-prodded by any question: “I think he’s [Donald Trump] got a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.”
Pressed for specifics, he said: “We’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around.”
. . . Back in August, during a contentious CNN interview about Comey’s July announcement clearing Hillary Clinton of criminal charges, Giuliani advertised his illicit FBI sources, who circumvented bureau guidelines to discuss a case with a public partisan. “The decision perplexes me. It perplexes Jim Kallstrom, who worked for him. It perplexes numerous FBI agents who talk to me all the time. And it embarrasses some FBI agents.”
Kallstrom is the former head of the New York FBI office, installed in that post in the ’90s by then-FBI director Louis Freeh, one of Giuliani’s longtime friends. Kallstrom has, like Giuliani, been on an anti-Comey romp for months, most often on Fox, where he’s called the Clintons as a “crime family.”

Daily Beast: Dems Need to Investigate FBI Leaks to Giuliani
Giuliani appeared on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning and confirmed that he had heard about Comey’s letter before it was sent, though he denied he had tried to disseminate the information.
“I did nothing to get it out, and I had no role in it,” he said. But he continued, “Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it, and I can’t even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents.”
Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Conyers, respectively the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Judiciary Committee, wrote to the Justice Department inspector general on Friday afternoon asking him to investigate the source of the information to Giuliani.

From Huffington Post:
White men are overwhelmingly likely to support Donald Trump, and the FBI is a culturally conservative law enforcement agency that is overwhelmingly white and male.
The FBI has actually gotten whiter in recent years. As of Aug. 1, 83.2 percent of FBI special agents were white, according to internal statistics. That’s a higher percentage than in 2008. More than 80 percent of FBI special agents are men. Last year, FBI director James Comey joked that the fictional FBI depicted on the television show “Quantico” made FBI agents look more “attractive and diverse” than they did real life.



Giuliani backtracks on speaking to current FBI agents:














Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Pro-Trump FBI

photo fbi_logo_twitter.jpg

Previous Related Posts:
FBI Director Comey Drops Unethical Email Bomb on Dems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why is the FBI meddling in a United States election? Did they coordinate with the Trump campaign when FBI Director James Comey announced vague accusations at Hillary Clinton just a week before a major election? Is the FBI Pro-Trump because they are Clinton-hating,gun-loving institution full of white men?

From The Guardian.com: "The FBI is Trumpland"
“The FBI is Trumpland,” said one current agent.
. . . Clinton is “the antichrist personified to a large swath of FBI personnel,” and that “the reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump.”

Daily Beast: Did Rudy Giuliani know about the Comey announcement ahead of time?
Two days before FBI director James Comey rocked the world last week, Rudy Giuliani was on Fox, where he volunteered, un-prodded by any question: “I think he’s [Donald Trump] got a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.”
Pressed for specifics, he said: “We’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around.”
. . . Back in August, during a contentious CNN interview about Comey’s July announcement clearing Hillary Clinton of criminal charges, Giuliani advertised his illicit FBI sources, who circumvented bureau guidelines to discuss a case with a public partisan. “The decision perplexes me. It perplexes Jim Kallstrom, who worked for him. It perplexes numerous FBI agents who talk to me all the time. And it embarrasses some FBI agents.”
Kallstrom is the former head of the New York FBI office, installed in that post in the ’90s by then-FBI director Louis Freeh, one of Giuliani’s longtime friends. Kallstrom has, like Giuliani, been on an anti-Comey romp for months, most often on Fox, where he’s called the Clintons as a “crime family.”

Daily Beast: Dems Need to Investigate FBI Leaks to Giuliani
Giuliani appeared on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning and confirmed that he had heard about Comey’s letter before it was sent, though he denied he had tried to disseminate the information.
“I did nothing to get it out, and I had no role in it,” he said. But he continued, “Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it, and I can’t even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents.”
Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Conyers, respectively the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Judiciary Committee, wrote to the Justice Department inspector general on Friday afternoon asking him to investigate the source of the information to Giuliani.

From Huffington Post:
White men are overwhelmingly likely to support Donald Trump, and the FBI is a culturally conservative law enforcement agency that is overwhelmingly white and male.
The FBI has actually gotten whiter in recent years. As of Aug. 1, 83.2 percent of FBI special agents were white, according to internal statistics. That’s a higher percentage than in 2008. More than 80 percent of FBI special agents are men. Last year, FBI director James Comey joked that the fictional FBI depicted on the television show “Quantico” made FBI agents look more “attractive and diverse” than they did real life.





Giuliani backtracks on speaking to current FBI agents:














Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

FBI Director Comey Drops Unethical Email Bomb

photo Comey.png

FBI Director James Comey decided last Friday to drop an unethical and possibly illegal bombshell one week before we elect the President of the United States.

As if we haven't heard enough about Hillary Clinton's emails, he suddenly announced that the FBI had found more of them on - wait for it - Anthony Weiner's computer. Yes, "Carlos Danger" had some of Hillary's emails on a computer he shared with his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, an assistant to Clinton.

Why was it necessary to announce this? Were these emails illegal or relevant in any way? Well, that's funny - the FBI didn't even have a search warrant for them until yesterday.

Is Comey trying to help Trump get elected? Everyone believed Hillary was cleared of wrongdoing in the email scandal last summer - by James Comey - and he was praised at the time for being "non-partisan" in his investigation. So what is he now? Um . . . he's in deep manure. Even Republicans are calling for his resignation and Harry Reid says that he has broken the law.

And even worse - Comey is said to have avoided making announcements about the FBI looking into Trump's ties with Putin and Russian banks because he didn't want to influence the election. Well, uh, why only make announcements about one side if you are a non-partisan public official???!!!

From NPR
...Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid says Comey may have violated a law known as the Hatch Act by making the investigation public this late in the election season. In a letter to Comey, Reid said the move revealed a "clear double standard" and accused Comey of using his position as FBI director to influence the election.
"In tarring Secretary Clinton with thin innuendo, you overruled longstanding tradition and the explicit guidance of your own Department. You rushed to take this step eleven days before a presidential election, despite the fact that for all you know, the information you possess could be entirely duplicative of the information you already examined which exonerated Secretary Clinton."
To further his claim of a double standard, Reid also accused Comey of sitting on evidence of ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the result of an election.

From Charles Blow on The New York Times
On Friday, the F.B.I. director, James Comey, took the outrageous and unprecedented step of sending a letter to Congress announcing that the bureau has “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent” to the inquiry into Clinton’s personal email server that apparently had been uncovered as part of an Anthony Weiner sexting investigation.

. . . In a letter to F.B.I. employees, he pointed out that “of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations,” but feebly tried to explain that he was doing so this time, at this crucial moment, so as not to mislead the American people and to “supplement the record.” Then he wrote: “At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.”
“Risk of being misunderstood” is one of the most appalling understatements of this presidential cycle. Comey clearly knew that his ill-advised actions could implicate Clinton by insinuation and he proceeded anyway, presenting his vague letter as an act of valor when in fact it was an act of vacuity. The irony here is that the man who blasted Clinton for being “extremely careless” for her use of a private email server was himself “extremely careless” for inserting himself and his agency into an election with that letter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Donald Trump still hasn't released his tax returns, 12 women have accused him of sexual assault, and he's going on trial for fraud for Trump University in November. But now, the only thing the media is talking about is emails. It's like during the O.J. Trial if everyone was focused on whether or not the Ford Bronco had up-to-date registration."
~~ Comedian Seth Meyers on Late Night





















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Six Baltimore Police Officers Indicted by Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby

photo Baltimore-FreddieGrayIndictment.png

Previous Related Post:
Baltimore Burning Over Death of Freddie Gray

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was an epic day for justice in Baltimore, Maryland, when State Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby stepped up to a microphone and stunned the world by announcing the indictment of six officers charged with the death of Freddie Gray.



photo ba7b84b7-2021-4810-a3f2-a851d24b9eb1.jpg

photo Baltimore-FreddieGrayIndictment2.png





From the Baltimore Sun
State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby charged the driver of the van with second-degree murder and the other officers with offenses that included involuntary manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. The officers were taken into custody Friday and released on bail.
"These charges are an important step in getting justice for Freddie," said Richard Shipley, stepfather of the 25-year-old Gray, who died April 19, one week after he was injured in police custody.
. . . After weeks of tension and occasional violence, it felt as if many exhaled in relief Friday. Gray had become the focus of massive demonstrations, here and in other cities, as the latest in a string of African-American men who died during confrontations with police.
The case stood in stark contrast to others across the nation in which police officers were cleared of wrongdoing in the deaths of black men. Grand juries declined to indict the officer who put a chokehold on Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., or the officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

From Jennifer Bendery on Huffington Post

Who Is This Objectively Badass Attorney Running The Freddie Gray Investigation?
. . . Mosby's news marks a huge turning point for people around the country demanding justice for yet another black man killed by police, for a city torn apart by the drug war and economic disparity, and for Mosby herself.
She was just four months into her job when she was tasked last month with investigating Gray's death. She had never held elected office before November. And at 35, Mosby is the youngest chief prosecutor of any district.
Those details gave city residents reason to doubt her abilities, something even her biggest supporters have conceded. Before her current job, Mosby had been counsel for Liberty Mutual Insurance for three years and an assistant state's attorney for five years.
On Friday, though, Mosby emerged as the voice that so many in Baltimore needed to hear. She gave a detailed description of what happened to Gray the day he was arrested and said officers ignored his requests for medical attention. She let the findings speak for themselves.

Huffington Post Headline 5-2-2015

photo c3454794-8c61-4292-a6bf-96f13c2f2bbd.png













Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Ferguson Witness 40 is a Lying Racist - and McCulloch Knew It

photo B5CNdfwIQAAhx2b.jpg

Previous Related Post:
The Travesty of Witness 40 in the Ferguson Case

More stuff is coming out daily about Witness 40, who in spite of a dubious story and no proof she was even there, was allowed to testify to the Ferguson Grand Jury in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Smoking Gun reveals that Witness 40's real name is Sandra McElroy, and they rightly refer to her as a "fabulist" whose testimony was illegal perjury. She has untreated bipolar syndrome and lives in an alternate reality of her own making.



From Smoking Gun
Though prosecutors have sought to cloak the identity of grand jury witnesses, a TSG investigation has identified McElroy as “Witness 40.” A careful analysis of information contained in the unredacted portions of “Witness 40”’s grand jury testimony helped reporters identify McElroy and then conclusively match up details of her life with those of “Witness 40.”
TSG examined criminal, civil, matrimonial, and bankruptcy court records, as well as online postings and comments to unmask McElroy as “Witness 40,” the fabulist whose grand jury testimony and law enforcement interviews are deserving of multi-count perjury indictments.
. . . When asked what she was doing in Ferguson--which is about 30 miles north of her home--McElroy explained that she was planning to “pop in” on a former high school classmate she had not seen in 26 years. Saddled with an incorrect address and no cell phone, McElroy claimed that she pulled over to smoke a cigarette and seek directions from a black man standing under a tree. In short order, the violent confrontation between Brown and Wilson purportedly played out in front of McElroy.
Despite an abundance of red flags, state prosecutors put McElroy in front of the Ferguson grand jury the day after her meeting with the federal officials. After the 12-member panel listened to a tape of her interview conducted at the FBI office, McElroy appeared and, under oath, regaled the jurors with her eyewitness claims.

Not only is she lying about her whereabouts that day, but she had fabricated a story years earlier in order to cast doubt on a police matter, and Prosecutor Bob McCulloch must have know that. She got involved in the kidnapping of a boy named Shawn Hornbeck. So she was known by police and prosecutors to be a known liar way before the murder of Mike Brown. She should never have been allowed near a Grand Jury.
. . . (Ms. McElroy) fabricated a bizarre story in the wake of the rescue of Shawn Hornbeck, a St. Louis boy who had been held captive for more than four years by Michael Devlin, a resident of Kirkwood, a city just outside St. Louis.
McElroy, who also lived in Kirkwood, told KMOV-TV that she had known Devlin (seen at left) for 20 years. She also claimed to have gone to the police months after the child’s October 2002 disappearance to report that she had seen Devlin with Hornbeck. The police, McElroy said, checked out her tip and determined that the boy with Devlin was not Hornbeck.
In the face of McElroy’s allegations, the Kirkwood Police Department fired back at her. Cops reported that they investigated her claim and determined that “we have no record of any contact with Mrs. McElroy in regards to Shawn Hornbeck.” The police statement concluded, “We have found that this story is a complete fabrication.”


She's also a blinkin' racist, and her claim that she was trying to stop using the N-word is a lie. Smoking Gun's reporting continues with this analysis of her YouTube page:

An examination of McElroy’s YouTube page, which she apparently shares with one of her daughters, reveals other evidence of racial animus. Next to a clip about the disappearance of a white woman who had a baby with a black man is the comment, “see what happens when you bed down with a monkey have ape babies and party with them.” A clip about the sentencing of two black women for murder is captioned, “put them monkeys in a cage.”
McElroy’s YouTube page is also filled with a variety of anti-Barack Obama videos, including a clip purporting to show Michelle Obama admitting that the president was born in Kenya. Over the past year, McElroy has subscribed to three channels devoted to mystery and real crime shows, as well as a “We Are Darren Wilson” video channel.












Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Travesty of Witness 40 in the Ferguson Case

photo c9c74e9f-954f-48dd-9f61-c9a226d665b0.jpg

One witness allowed to testify to the Ferguson Grand Jury on the death of Mike Brown was a self-avowed racist who had raised money to help shooter Darren Wilson. She also seems to have fabricated a "journal" in which she describes Mike Brown as "running at the cop like a football player, head down." But there's a problem - she can't prove she was even there that day, and the FBI can't find video of her car anywhere near Florissant Avenue that day.

Also, she testified that she was there after waking up that morning and deciding to "cure" her habit of saying the "N-Word" by driving through the black part of town.

Is that believable? I don't think so. No one thinks so.

Yet Bob McCulloch, the Ferguson Prosecutor, allowed her crazy-ass, obviously false testimony into the record, and even showed the Grand Jury a nutty interview she did with FBI agents in which she can't remember much and admits to being racist anyway. Then McCulloch didn't bother to question the reality of her statements, or give the jurors any sense of direction. It was admitted as if it was all factual.

This witness should be investigated and charged with perjury, or at the least needs some type of psychological intervention.

McCulloch should be disbarred and a Federal Prosecutor should cut through this crap immediately - not next week, not next month. This is a travesty of justice.

Of course, the Fox Racist News is running with Witness 40 as "proof" that Darren Wilson was in fear of his life from "linebacker" Mike Brown. Sean Hannity is using that line as often as possible - he loved George Zimmerman who killed unarmed Trayvon Martin, and now he loves Darren Wilson who shot down unarmed Mike Brown in the street. See a pattern there? Oh, but not racist, right?


Witness 40 Journal Entry Here


The FBI warned this person not to lie, but she then told them a completely garbled story, and she's probably lying about not having cable TV too. And probably everything else!
FBI Interview Transcript Here
We have to let you know that, we tell this
to everybody, if you lie to a federal agent, and
you, (inaudible) it is a crime. You are better off
not saying a word and just not talking to us if you
plan on lying and sitting in here and telling us
lies.

. . .

Transcript Via CascadianX1 on Gawker

August 9th - Saturday

8AM

Well Im gonna take my random drive to Alousant (sp. Florissant). Need to understand the Black was better so I stop calling Blacks N*****s and start calling them People. Like dad always said you cant fear an hate an entire race cause of what one man did 40 yrs ago.

4PM

OMFG it was crazy I dont even know where I was I ask Q.T. guy for directions but went wrong way. I just wanted to take drive. I ended up in Some Apartment Complex & asked directions again. Real nice kid in wife beater he had no idea he asked guy in green Shirt & Jeans that guy was realy sweet. Then I heard a weird noise caught my attention this cop was backing up saying [?]

I couldnt hear but they was some kids I almost hit with car. A big one & a skinny one. The Cop tried getting out & the big one hit the door the cop looked pissed & tryed opening door again. The big kid hit the door with his gut & the little one punched the mirror someth gold fell on the ground. The big one is half in the window/door cant Remember. I swear the little one had the cops leg. I heard a noise not sure what the guy in the green shirt was yelling stop the big kid pulled his pants up they was tan shorts & he started running the skinny one took off on opp direct the cop got out left hand on face right hand on gun. The cop scream but I could not understand . Every one was screaming. I heard 'lay yo stupid ass down' I think it was a lady next to me. The cop was wobbling the big kid turned around had his arms out with attitude. The cop just stood there dang if that kid didnt start running right at the cop like a football player head down. I heard 3 bangs but the big kid wouldn't stop. I heard cop say something but not sure what or if he was just making noise. Cop took a couple steps forward then backwards and the gun went off 2 more times. The last one the top of the kids head. OMG the blood. The green shirt man grabbed my arm and said get your ass out of here. I got in car & drove into into neighborhood some how[?] I went through parking lot across the street & back to Main Rd. Not sure how long but police were every place with Police tape. There was other cops there I seen one pull his gun but he didnt fire. Dont even remember when he got there. There was lady in parking lot of QT I just pulled up and asked for the close highway. She points & I left. Then to top shit off I got on highway going the wrong way. Had to ask for direct again. Real nice old man helped me out. Home has no cable so not sure whats on news.

9PM

Talked to [REDACTED] without telling him everything. He told me 1st I was nuts to taking drive up there and 2nd keep my mouth shut. He's prols right noone will believe me anyway.














Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Protests Continue over Killer Cops

photo cd5951e6-8152-4bd3-b52e-574930b726aa.png

Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho,
These Killer Cops
Have Got to Go"
~ Chant During Washington D.C. Die-In
Screencap Via Reuters Video

Protests are continuing night after night over the Eric Garner decision in New York, as well as the cumulative numbers of police shootings that continue each day.






New Video Shows a Lack of Medical Response
And NO CPR
For Eric Garner
According to CBS News, Two EMTs were Suspended



People are Blaming Everyone EXCEPT the Cops
























Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Angry Nation Ponders Eric Garner Non-Verdict from New York Grand Jury

photo da8dcf59-c809-45b9-93c0-338d8ce6eb6d.gif

#ICantBreathe = Last words of Eric Garner.

What is your life? It is even a vapor,
that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
New Testament James 4:14

There are really no words - or breath left to speak words - after the non-decision of a New York Grand Jury in the tragic death of Eric Garner, who was killed by a cop while in a stranglehold on a public sidewalk. The whole thing was caught on film from the first interaction to his dying breath, yet to the bafflement of the world, no indictment against the cop was brought by the Grand Jury. Once again a prosecutor chose to protect law enforcement instead of enforcing the law.

And it's been another sad day for our country as we grieve another senseless death at the hands of the police, the death of a man who was selling cigarettes on the city streets. He wasn't a thug, he wasn't being violent. There was no danger for the cop who killed him. There is no instant death sentence for resisting arrest.

We have to solve this, and soon.

Eric Holder has announced an investigation into the Garner case, as well as in Ferguson for the victim Mike Brown. Until there is some kind of justice and cops are held accountable by somebody somewhere, protests are going to fill the streets of our country. Tonight thousands flooded into the streets from New York to Seattle, and Reverend Al Sharpton has called for a march on Washington on December 13th. It would be nice to have some sense of resolution of all these racially motivated cop shootings by Christmas, but the thin blue line is into protecting itself these days and most politicians don't seem to give a damn.



































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Part Three: The Grand Jury Misled by Prosecutors

photo 4ce8aa42-4cc4-42b3-885b-be2b3fd575e2.jpg

Previous Related Posts:
Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Part Two: Darren Wilson's Weird Testimony
Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Part One - No Indictment, but Blame the Victim and Social Media
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Grand Jury in Ferguson was not only misled by strange testimony from Officer Darren Wilson about the "demon" Mike Brown, but was also misled several ways by Prosecutor Bob McCulloch. While at first we thought McCulloch's main sin was his hands-off approach to steering the Grand Jury one way or another, he may have actually broken the law by giving the jury illegal instructions. And I'm sure there is more to come about how corrupt this process was, not only for Missouri, but for the country as a whole.

Full (and bizarre) Statement from Prosecutor Bob McCulloch in Ferguson, MO.




Ferguson reminds us that we still have a race problem in America. But the face of this problem is not Darren Wilson’s. It’s Bob McCulloch’s.
. . . McCulloch short-circuited the process — reinforcing a sense among African Americans, and many others, that the justice system is rigged. He almost certainly could have secured an indictment on a lesser charge simply by requesting it, yet he acted as if he were a spectator, saying that jurors decided not to return a “true bill” on each possible charge — as if this were a typical outcome.~
~ Dana Milbank on Washington Post

The St. Louis County prosecutors were trying to be clever, repurposing an ancient institution for the contemporary political situation. They seemed to think that, because the grand jury members are drawn from the public, they would create public validation for whatever outcome the grand jury reached.
Yet public validation of ordinary jury trials depends on the public having heard the evidence. The Constitution provides that criminal trials be held publicly, precisely so that the citizenry knows what's going on. Grand jury proceedings are held in secret. That must've appealed to St. Louis County prosecutors, who sought to avoid a media circus. But releasing a summary of the grand jury transcripts afterward is a far cry from a public trial. Secret evidence was unlikely to produce public validation -- as, in fact, it did not.
~ Noah Feldman on Bloomberg

From Think Progress:
Justice Antonin Scalia, in the 1992 Supreme Court case of United States v. Williams, explained what the role of a grand jury has been for hundreds of years.
It is the grand jury’s function not ‘to enquire … upon what foundation [the charge may be] denied,’ or otherwise to try the suspect’s defenses, but only to examine ‘upon what foundation [the charge] is made’ by the prosecutor. Respublica v. Shaffer, 1 Dall. 236 (O. T. Phila. 1788); see also F. Wharton, Criminal Pleading and Practice § 360, pp. 248-249 (8th ed. 1880). As a consequence, neither in this country nor in England has the suspect under investigation by the grand jury ever been thought to have a right to testify or to have exculpatory evidence presented.
This passage was first highlighted by attorney Ian Samuel, a former clerk to Justice Scalia.
In contrast, McCulloch allowed Wilson to testify for hours before the grand jury and presented them with every scrap of exculpatory evidence available.

Bob McCulloch had no answers - the "Fix was In."



According to Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC, Jurors were given copies of a 1979 Statute concerning when it is lawful for a cop to shoot a fleeing suspect. The problem is that the law was ruled unconstitutional in the 1980s, so . . . that's a huge problem. How could Bob McCulloch NOT know that the law was unconstitutional?

Via RawStory
O’Donnell said that early on in the jurors’ deliberations, Alizadeh handed them a copy of a 1979 Missouri statute saying police were “justified in the use of such physical force as he or she reasonably believes is immediately necessary to effect the arrest or prevent the escape from custody.” However, he explained, the Supreme Court found those kinds of statutes to be unconstitutional six years later.
As the Daily Kos reported, the high court found in Tennessee v. Garner that “where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force.”
. . . handing the jurors the original statute, O’Donnell said, ...conveyed the message that Wilson did not feel his life needed to be in danger for him to be legally justified in shooting and killing 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.





~~~~~~~~~~~~









Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Part Two: Darren Wilson's Weird Testimony

photo c3b463e7-c0f1-46b0-9a99-4fe895af13c6.jpg

Previous Related Post:
Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Part One - No Indictment, but Blame the Victim and Social Media

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm no legal scholar, but there is something seriously wrong with Officer Darren Wilson's testimony in the Ferguson case. He actually sounds deranged and not fit for street duty, describing Mike Brown as a "demon" and "Hulk Hogan." Clearly the police lawyer who coached him felt that if the victim card worked for George Zimmerman with Trayvon Martin, then it would work for Darren Wilson with Mike Brown.





Nancy Grace : "It doesn't add up."










































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, November 24, 2014

#Ferguson Grand Jury Decision Part One ~ No Indictment, but Blame the Witnesses and Social Media

photo 940c0b0e-2ee3-4dae-986d-501c4ec30607.jpg

Counting down to the Ferguson Grand Jury Decision at 9 p.m. - and now we have it. At 9:24 the Prosecutor said the Grand Jury chose not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. Unfortunately, this guy is a total idiot, and his "speech" is a joke, so this is not going to end well. I will have Part Two with video up later.

Blame the Victim, Blame the Witnesses, Blame Social Media

9:25-9:30





9:23











9:06



9:02







8:59



8:47




8:46



8:44:




Earlier Tweets:




































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)