A plan by the district attorney to seek murder charges against three narcotics officers involved in the shooting death of an elderly woman during a bungled drug raid may jeopardize a broad, federal investigation into civil rights violations by the Atlanta Police Department, a spokesman for the victim’s family said Thursday...I'm sorry, but I don't get it.
“These officers did not commit felony murder,” he said. “They committed a violation of civil rights that led to her death.”
Mr. Hutchins said both he and Ms. Dozier believed strongly that the civil rights division of the federal Department of Justice should be the prosecuting agency. That way, the legal consequences might apply to the entire Atlanta Police Department, not simply to the three officers.
Of course there should be a murder prosecution, and the people directly responsible should be the ones on the hook for it.
If the family wants to pursue civil, that is, monetary penalties against the department for bad policies and training, that's also an option open to them.
And there's nothing that I can see in this that precludes federal civil rights actions on top of that, as a different set of laws would be applied.
I thought maybe the concern was that the murder charges were for show, to mollify "the community" when the "authorities" know they won't stick--but it seems to me that an acquittal would produce renewed outrage and a whole 'nother set of problems.
Tell me if I'm missing something, because right now, I'm questioning whether the "survivors" of the childless victim are after justice based on personal accountability or deep pockets.
[Via Tom, who credits The Agitator]
5 comments:
Think George might have said it best:
“...He is determined to make Examples which will deter the boldest and most harden'd offenders. Men who are called out by their Country to defend the Rights and Property of their fellow Citizens, who are abandoned enough to violate those Rights and plunder that Property deserve and shall receive no Mercy.”
- George Washington, October 23, 1778, General Orders. [The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. John C. Fitzpatrick, Editor.]
murder charges are appropriate. If the greedy relatives wish to pursue financial gain from Ms. Johnston's death, they can still sue. Same if they just want to put the PD on notice that a new policy is in town.
Without criminal charges, the only penalty being borne is not borne by the actual killers, hence no deterrence for their envious emulaters that didn't get to participate-----this time.
I didn't get it either.
Perhaps they see it as a "race thing," rather than, or more important than, a murder? Maybe a lawyer advised them poorly? I was hoping someone would be able to make sense of it.
In either case I think the money case will come, just look at the OJ trials, he was cleared but had to pay up.
What they want is the feds to come in under judicial order manage and clean up the dept. like is supposed to be happening in Los Angeles.
I got that part, anon. What I don't get is how local prosecutions under state laws will preclude that.
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