It's deeply disappointing so little has been done by our lawmakers, and so few bills have been introduced to address the out of control police killings of citizens resulting in only a few cops being charged for any crime.
Murders and assaults by police have turned into hollow talking points with the Democrats, and the topic doesn't even exist for Republicans. Congress seems largely uninterested, seeming to feel the states need to reform themselves. But apparently they don't want to appear uninterested, and so will do useless ineffective things to make it look like they care.
Here is one bill that seems promising until you actually read it. I signed a petition for this bill, just on the premise of using special prosecutors for police shootings. But now that I know the entire contents, I am pissed.
Introduced in January 2015 by Dem Rep Henry Johnson. Excerpt from summary:
...appoint a special prosecutor to present evidence on the state's behalf at a hearing before a judge to determine whether probable cause exists to bring criminal charges against the law enforcement officer; (2) to use a random process to select the special prosecutor from among all of the elected prosecutors in the state, excluding the elected prosecutor of the locality in which the death occurred; and (3) within 24 hours after being notified of such death, to report the death to the chief officer of the state's law enforcement agency, which shall assume exclusive control of the investigation of the death during the pendency of the probable cause hearing.It even requires a public hearing before a Judge for an opinion on probable cause to charge. Sounds good. They sucked me in.
Yet, after all that, the bill leaves all power and discretion to the local prosecutor, including whether or not to convene a Grand Jury. The local prosecutor can ignore the probable cause findings of the judge, similar to the Cleavland prosecutor brushing aside Judge Ronald B. Adrine's finding of probable cause to bring multiple charges, including murder against Officer Loehmann, and negligent homicide against Officer Garmback, for the killing of 12 year old Tamir Rice. Prosecutor McGinty flatly rejected the Judge's recommendation to arrest and charge the officers.
And for that matter, why expend energy writing a bill to bypass local investigators and prosecutors to avoid corruption and coverups, then leave the actual act of the criminal prosecution itself, including whether to go forward, up to someone like Prosecutor Bob McCulloch from Ferguson, or D.A. Daniel M. Donovan Jr from Staten Island, now a Congressman. (!!!!)
As it stands, Cleavland's County Prosecutor McGinty has not only rejected the recommendation of the judge to press charges, but he has already gone down a similar path as McCulloch, releasing investigation findings that have absolutely nothing to do with Tamir Rice's death, but may successfully cloud the judgement and prejudice a Grand Jury.
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