The St. Louis County grand jury has now found no probable cause to indict Darren Wilson with a crime as a result of his killing of Michael Brown. County Prosecutor McCulloch has laid out the evidence in such a way as to exonerate Wilson and has suggested that anyone who disagrees must have made up her mind in advance of the facts, likely influenced by irresponsible media. Of sourse, what Prosecutor McCulloch presented was an argument based on a carefully selected account of the facts, despite McCulloch’s constant protest that the Grand Jury was presented with all pertinent evidence.
I have never believed that officer Wilson would be indicted for killing Michael Brown. I pointed this out first here. The law gives police the benefit of the doubt in cases such as this one. But it should be said that this is not justice. It is rather a legal shield for the power elite. Prosecutor McCulloch urged the expression of dissent ‘so that such a thing might never happen again,’ but I found his pleading unpersuasive. There are numerous possible interpretations other than the now official one of the “facts” that Prosecutor McCulloch presented. Unfortunately, we shall now never hear them aired in open court. This was what the St. Louis County Grand Jury process was about.
Aside from the fact that McCulloch had a huge conflict of interest in this case and should have recused himself in the beginning, his polemic defending the impartiality of the grand jury process and claiming that anyone who dissents is insulting or attacking the integrity of the good folk who served on the grand jury, who gave up their lives, etc., is a pretty naked appeal beyond the merits of the case. It seeks to set those good citizens who support the grand jury and do not support Michael Brown, a young black man with an attitude, and those who do support Brown, against one another. But these adversaries should have met in open court, and they will not.
For a grand jury proceeding does not allow cross examination of witnesses. When asked why he did not seek a jury trial in this case McCulloch responded that had he done so a pre-trial hearing would still have occurred and the case would still have gone to a grand jury to determine probable cause. The difference is, of course, that a prosecutorial trajectory would have been set in a normal pre-trial proceeding, and that would have strongly influenced the outcome. The best chance McCulloch had of influencing the outcome of this particular case (and of avoiding any potential negative consequences with the electorate) was to present it to the grand jury with no recommendation.
I think the Michael Brown murder trial, travesty though it was, was not about Michael Brown or even about Darren Wilson. I think it was about creating a local outcome that could not easily be appealed to fhe federal court system and create the possibility of overturning Graham v Connor. Of course there will be gunshots, never mind who shoots; and of course there will be looting and vandalism. Civil strife invites opportunistic exploitation, and the terrible irony of such things is that often the innocent are harmed. When a society sets out an intentional policy of harming the innocent, where will such a policy come to rest?
So in the final analysis the verdict was, and is, a whitewash, or worse: the fix was in. The grand jury was used, and the predictable outcome confirms the establishment narrative with all necessary violence and chicanery.
The most-instructive I’ve read & watched/heard, Julian, – is the set of observations which Your piece makes.
AND, a composition-course prof could use Your essay as a model for structuring an essay clearly toward its clear concluding paragraph.
Copy/paste of your concluding paragraph:
“And so the verdict was, and is, a whitewash, or worse: the fix was in. The grand jury was used, and the predictable outcome confirms the establishment narrative with all necessary force and chicanery.“
I recall the doubts expressed early-on about the prosecutor: Your essay puts these doubts Clearly.
My son says that his law-school in Kansas had a course on Grand Juries, – which course focused on MO’s generally and specifically on that of St Looey. I gather that this course featured the criticisms which You make.
WELL-done and USEFUL, Julian, is your piece.
– SM ….
PS:
I told my poli-sci studes to structure thusly {as do You} their papers, – with long-ish titles which cue clearly Both “topic†& “bottom lineâ€. … What would YOUR title be? – – – “The Michael Brown Verdict: [ _fill in the blank with your bottom line_] “. You’d fill in with what? “: The Fix Was Inâ€? “: Confirming the Establishment Narrativeâ€? “: Whitewashing’s Chicaneriesâ€? – s
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Sillynesses {mine} re Ferguson:
How to cause a policeman’s attack: –
– just walk around in the style of a black.
No one’s less cuter
than St Loo’s prosecutor.
Too bad that mayhem’s lootings and riots
join into resistance to lawmen’s fiats.
A fumbling
grand jury
causes a tumbling
in fury
to recover the ball
so’s to ov-er-haul
how the system works
for the Establishment’s perks.
{For Whiteys a prerequisite
is their skin-color’s perquisite.}
The sit-u-a-tion in {Ferguson} Ferg
is the tip of a threatening [ice] berg.
Huge’ll be the panic
when America’s Titanic
collides with the force of many an erg.
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
Hi, Steve. thanks for the comments. I drove down South Grand just now, saw a lot of boarded up windows, a big Channel 5 truck with its antenna up, and some folks out with brooms. A young mother with her two small children were picking up trash at the corner of Grand and Wyoming. This morning’s Post Dispatch urges everyone to read the published transcript from the grand jury hearing. Of course the evidence appears to support Wilson under the standard laid down in Graham v Connor. But Graham v Connor is a travesty. The PD editorial also points out the spectrum of injustice that’s been exposed by Michael Brown’s death. Not the least injustice, or perhaps it’s just a strangeness, is the disconnect between the public hand-wringing and the statements of public officials, a wanting to have it both ways (I. e. Michael Brown’s death was a terrible tragedy and it has revealed a host of injustices that still trouble our society, but we have to accept the justice of Officer Wilson’s use of what we euphemistically call deadly force). I thought the President’s remarks on TV last night were almost incoherent. More about this when I get my head together again after this week’s holiday.
Well It Doesn’t Bode
Well it doesn’t bode
in this revival of the civil-rights mode, –
– resisted AGAIN by the goad
of violence-by-authorities
‘gainst protesting minorities
‘round Ferguson’s Florissant Road.
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
Haiku re Ferguson
{5 syllables then 7 then 5}
{Bonus points if it rhymes}
Well it doesn’t bode: –
– pressing a civil-rights mode
‘gainst cops’ violent goad.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .