Ok I’m not
an attorney but I’ve seen countless episodes of Law & Order and never once have I seen a prosecutor act as
defense council for the accused and not one time has the prosecutor presented
evidence to the Grand Jury without a recommendation of charges. Like some
episode right out of Bizarro World,
this is exactly what St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch did
with the Grand Jury charged with deciding whether or not to indict Officer
Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown. He chose the evidence he wanted
them to see and pretty much said “go for
it, you’re on your own”. There were no
options given on how to charge the officer. He also allowed the testimony of Officer
Wilson to be presented without dispute, testimony by the way which is virtually
unheard of in Grand Jury proceedings. So last night when announcing the Grand
Jury’s decision prosecutor McCullough gave this strange rambling speech
chastising the media and attacking the witnesses he claimed were biased. To be
clear what he said was that all the witnesses in defense of Darren Wilson’s
account of the events were credible and accurate while those who opposed were
confused and unreliable. From beginning to end he did nothing but offer excuses
for Darren Wilson and justifications for the non-indictment. Oh, and according
to him social media is the devil. He offered what he considered to be the facts
in the case but what he failed to mention was his bias, his refusal to recuse
himself and the fact that he gets to choose what evidence is submitted to the
Grand Jury.
Of course the
facts presented are to be considered
but what also has to be considered is the history of violence by white cops
against African-Americans in the community. And again you don’t let a cop come
in and give his side of the story uncontested. While the officer was given the
benefit of the doubt with his contrived “he
was reaching for my gun defense”, no such benefit was given to Michael
Brown. There was no advocate for his side of the story. There was no one to
contest Officer Wilson’s account. A
trial would have allowed for that. A grand jury does not hear all of the
evidence in the case they only hear what is presented by the prosecutor. A
trial would have allowed for more evidence. Instead this prosecutor chose the
testimony, how it was presented and chose to allow only the evidence that made
Michael Brown look bad. And once again a black unarmed youth is responsible for
his own death. I encourage you to read Darren Wilson’s account of the incident
here it is ridiculously unbelievable: http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7281165/darren-wilsons-story-side
