Wake up Taylor of Br Bre at night and police have banned a Louisville Knock-and-War Runt by shooting him in the same building. The police chief was fired, and so was an officer at the scene. But despite demands from across the country, no charges were laid in Mrs Taylor’s death.
On Wednesday, the Kentucky Attorney General announced fewer allegations of endangerment against an officer involved in the raid, and nothing against the two who shot Mr. Taylor six times.
The lack of charge of murder or homicide was an outrage to many – but not surprising.
Few police officers are charged with murder or manslaughter when they cause death in the line of duty, and only a third of those officers are convicted.
Thousands of Americans oppose police brutality and demand law enforcement, amid public perceptions of police violence and how it is treated in court.
In a case against Miranapolis officials accused of killing George Floyd, whose video tape shocked the country in May and was almost universally condemned, prosecutor Keith Ellis has warned prosecutors about the plight of prosecutors.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s hard to be guilty, “Mr. Ellis said in June, as he announced he was raising charges against an officer, Derek Chauvin, for second-degree murder.” History shows there are clear challenges. “
Union defense that protects police officers from timely investigations, legal norms that give them the benefit of the doubt, and the tendency to take officers on their word have added little recognition and some time to jail for officers who commit murder. On top of that, misconduct and weak judgments are not always quantified as criminality.
Although state laws vary, officers are generally allowed to use lethal force if they reasonably consider imminent danger – a norm that is sensitive to excessive subjective and racial bias.
“Police know what the jury has to say and what the jurors have to say and what the judge has to say they believe they are justified in fear,” said Kate Levin, a professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School in New York. “Even if there are other witnesses, those witnesses have not received the same amount of credibility determination from the prosecutor, the judges, the jury.”
Law enforcement officers kill about 1,000 people a year across the United States. Philip M., professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. According to figures compiled by Stenson, since the beginning of 2005, 121 officers have been arrested on charges of murder or manslaughter in non-duty murder. Of the 95 officers whose cases have been completed, 44 have been convicted, but are often charged less, he said.
The charges include the murder of Lucan McDonald in Chicago, for which Jason Van Dyne was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison and the murder of Justin Demond in Minneapolis, for which Mohammed Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years.
Many of the officers who avoided criminal charges have been fired, like the other three officers in the McDonald case and Daniel Pantalio, who used a chokehold on Eric Garner on Staten Island.
More recently, officials involved in Mr. Floyd’s death in Minneapolis and Mr. Richard Brooks in Atlanta have been charged with rapid murder. Mr. Brooks’ case in particular reflects changing standards; Because he grabbed the officer’s tazar and fired before he was killed, many experts said they would have been suspected if Mr. Floyd had died before the wave of protests and police investigations.
But the two cases do not prove that prosecutors have become more willing to prosecute criminals – or have led to increased pressure. Professor Stinson said any such optic has so far been statistically negligible. No charges have been filed in the many similar high-profile investigations into police killings.
In 2014 Ferguson, Mo. In depicts the connection between Michael Brown’s death, public opinion and the plaintiff’s reality: After a nationwide protest over his death and a federal review of the case, the officer, Darren Wilson, was not convicted.
In July, Wesley Bell, the plaintiff elected after Mr Brown’s death, sternly announced that he would not seek charges even after a second review, although he added that his decision did not “expel” Mr Wilson. “The question of whether we can prove the case at the hearing is different from removing any and all malpractices,” he said.
This week the prosecutor’s office in Tucson, Ariz, came to a similar conclusion in the death of Carolos Ingram Lopez, citing “insufficient evidence of crime” despite a police guru calling it a violation of policy. Mr Lopez died in police custody naked, handcuffed and under the face.
With increasing calls for change, some states have tried to make it easier for officials to be held accountable.
In Washington State last month, an officer was charged with murder under the 2019 Act, which removed the need for prosecutors to prove that an officer behaves “maliciously.” After the death of Stephen Clark in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento, no criminal charges were filed against the officers, California made the standard of power to use it reasonable and more stringent than necessary.
But legal action is always difficult in situations facing a police armed person.
In Mrs. Taylor’s case, for example, her boyfriend, Kenneth Waker, before firing on the police – under criminal law – broke down her door before any guilty verdict or strict police action. First place.
“I can understand why people are amazed, because the circumstances that led to Mrs. Taylor’s death were preventable and unacceptable in terms of how she treated the police and Mr. Walker that night,” said Taryn Merkel, a senior adviser at the Brennan Center. Justice and former federal lawyer.
In recent months, some advocates of criminal justice reform have argued that prosecutors may also be hostile because they avoid addressing systemic issues and, in Professor Levine’s words, “the mainstream, the white public and the politicians who give them comfort.” ” It was easy to assume that the police officers had done their proper job. “
These advocates show an inherent contradiction between wanting to end more incarceration and sending police officers to jail, including colored police officers like Mr. Noor. “To the extent that people see these actions as a neat count against white police officers on behalf of people of color, it’s not that simple,” Professor Levine wrote.
Last month, Essence Magazine published a major editorial by two black prison abolitionists, “We should give more justice to Brain Taylor, a system that could kill him.” Miriam Kaaba and Andrea J. Ritchie, the authors did not say that legal action should not be taken against the officers, but that “basic collective reactions to arrests and prosecutions lead to dead ends and deep frustrations.”
