The Grand Jury: A Sick Hustle, An Obscene Farce
November 25, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a Reader:
One hundred and seven days after Michael Brown was gunned down in the street by Ferguson “police officer” Darren Wilson, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced this murderer would not be charged with any crime, at all.
Posing as sanctimonious and “objective,” McCulloch claimed that he had given the grand jury “every piece of evidence” and that the decision to LET THIS PIG WALK was the will of the people.
BULLSHIT!
The whole grand jury move in this case was a sick hustle and an obscene farce to COVER UP and WHITEWASH the murder of Michael Brown.
Fact: Grand Juries do what a prosecutor leads them to do. Over and over and over again, prosecutors tell grand juries to indict Black and Latino people especially, and over and over again, those Black and brown people are on their way to jail, never mind the evidence. And it happens before you can say WTF.
Nearly every time a cop murders a Black man, the killing is just ruled “justifiable homicide” by a prosecutor. The difference this time? In the face of tear gas, rubber bullets, and armored personnel carriers, people in Ferguson rose up in heroic and determined protest. The world saw a glimpse of the reality of life, and death, in this country for millions. And it looked like a modern-day slave plantation.
So, rather than simply issue yet another “justifiable homicide” ruling, the DA—McCulloch—told everyone that he would let a grand jury make the call. But the decision to not charge Darren Wilson was orchestrated all along the way. The whole story has yet to come out about how that went down, but there were obvious and glaring ways McCulloch set things up: For one, nearly every time a prosecutor brings a case to a grand jury, that is done with recommending charges against the defendant. Not so in this case. That sent the grand jury an unmistakable message that this defendant was different and a different set of rules applied. McCulloch fed the grand jury bullshit. He let the murderer testify for hours defending himself (something that almost never happens). And a constant stream of leaks from the grand jury favored Wilson and sowed confusion. McCulloch dragged the whole grand jury “investigation” out for months to try to burn out people’s energy and outrage.
And now this notoriously pro-cop prosecutor—who can send a Black or brown man on the path to prison in minutes, innocent or not—is trying to make it look like he’s above it all. As if he is an impartial agent of justice.
No. He orchestrated the whole grand jury whitewash.
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