By Raul A. Reyes, he is an attorney and member of the USA Today Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes
(CNN) — A little over two days. That’s how long the grand jury deliberated before deciding not to bring an indictment against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced the grand jury had heard more than 70 hours of testimony from 60 witnesses before reaching its decision, which he said was supported by physical evidence.
Sadly, the grand jury’s failure to return an indictment of Wilson was not surprising. But don’t blame the grand jury; blame McCulloch. He oversaw the proceedings and bears responsibility for their outcome.
McCulloch compromised the Ferguson grand jury proceedings from the start. He resisted calls to recuse himself, saying, “I have absolutely no intention of walking away from duties and the responsibilities entrusted in me by the people of this community.” However, the community would have been better served if he had stepped aside.
McCulloch’s father was a police officer killed in a shootout with an African-American suspect. His brother, uncle and cousin served with the St. Louis Police Department, and his mother worked there for 20 years as a clerk. Newsweek noted McCulloch’s “long history of siding with the police.” For the sake of impartiality, McCulloch should have let a special prosecutor take over the case.
The grand jury only needed to find “probable cause” to charge Wilson. That’s one of the lowest legal standards in our justice system, below “beyond a reasonable doubt” (required for a criminal conviction) and “preponderance of the evidence” (the standard in a civil trial). The fact that McCulloch did not get an indictment for a killing that shocked the nation raises questions about whether he really wanted an indictment.
Additional Reading
Racism in USA and Universal Brotherhood in Islam
Categories: Americas, Racism, Universal Brotherhood
Poll finds racial divide over Wilson charges
Washington (CNN) — Americans are sharply divided along racial lines as to whether Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson should be charged with murder in the shooting death of Michael Brown, a new CNN/ORC poll out Monday finds.
Fifty-four percent of nonwhites — including blacks, Latinos and Asians — say Wilson should be charged with murder, while just 23% of whites agree. And 38% of whites say Wilson should be charged with no crime at all, while just 15% of nonwhites hold that position.
The poll’s results come as the grand jury prepares to make its decision, with an announcement expected Monday evening.
Most Americans agree that Wilson should at least face some form of criminal charges, the poll finds.
Ferguson grand jury decision coming
Town near Ferguson preps for decision
A combined total of 32% say a Missouri grand jury should charge Wilson with murder, while 25% say he should face lesser criminal charges and 21% say he should be charged with no crime at all.
The CNN/ORC International survey of 1,045 Americans was conducted Nov. 21-23 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
My message to the 79% Whites
Please imagine the reverse, a Black policeman callously shooting and killing, your son, who was drunk after binge drinking in a college campus. What is the charge?
This may remind you of the Golden rule and solve the racism problem in USA.
I am a black man but I think it is ridiculous that each time a white police officer shoots a black person he does so out of racial prejudice. Quite often imputing racism to such actions shows that the accuser is racist who projects his racism on the other person. In recent times, there has been no report of white people, or officers for that matter,hunting for black heads.
This incident is another occasion which shows that there has been a rush to judgment and on each case the apostles of racism have shown themselves for who they truly are. In the Zimmerman, case the jury, which I believe must have been mixed, did not find him culpable. But because the jurors decided against the expected judgment, their identities had to be kept secret for fear of reprisals. The grand jury in the Ferguson case found no merit in the accusation. There were three blacks in the grand jury. Where is justice lacking?
Juan Williams in an article on the Fox News website has queried the lack of presence of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in Ferguson after the grand jury. Both do nothing but profit from fanning the embers of racism. While their actions cause more deaths and mayhem, they dust up their relevance.
What is happening to and in the black community is caused by the dearth of parental responsibility. Why would an eighteen year old boy prefer getting drunk to planning and shaping his future? Freedom has been stretched too far. Parents abdicate their roles and expect the system to takeover. Children see attaining 18 as giving them the impetus to become uncontrollable.
Rather than blame the whites for the self inflicted injury of the blacks, they should be encouraged to think positively. One way is to acquire education which immigrants take advantage of.
They are their own worst enemies. Their so-called leaders are self centered and dupes.
Rudy Giuliani says that 95% of blacks killed die at the hands of fellow blacks. Playing the blame game can never be the panacea. They have to sit up. Being a parent at 16 and grand parent in the early 30s only increase the level of frustration they have which they are taught to blame others for.
Wielding guns and peddling narcotics give them a disproportional presence and prolonged stay in correctional facilities.
Now this a well presented response to Mr. Reyes article by Namelee. Let me say that even in the Quran, Bible and other philosophical books, there is a spirit of segregation and racism. I am sickened when I hear people say “I am a member of the whatever political party.” They all believe differently so they want to enforce their right to be separated. In the Quran, there are the Jews, the Christians, the True Believers aka the Muslims and finally the non-believers and they are all treated differently in a society where most of the people are Committed Muslims. Look at America. Land of the free and home of the brave. Yet we have all this diversity in religions, politics, street gangs, sexual preference, food tastes and my list goes on and on. We will never be one because we exercise the right to choose. People are spoiled, especially in America. What happened to the important simplicities of life? There was a day when children of all races and religions would play together without consideration of their differences. We learn to be racially divided and segregate and prejudiced and everything that separates through our growing years. Then we get older and we think we are supreme, while that sense of supremacy only exists in the far corners of our minds. Muhammad loved poetry and knew that it would speak to people in a broader sense rather than direct commands. Police enforce the law because we live by the rule of law and our law here in the states is designed to hopefully hopefully protect all people. The keyword for us to remember is that we are the “all” of mankind. Our diversity is nice to behold, but we cannot in our society use this diversity to separate ourselves from one another.
Even among what is regarded as a homogenous group, there will always be differences. Diversity has to be acknowledged as a fact of life.
On the surface, the whites in America give the impression of homogeneity. But they still think of their Irish, English, German, Italian etc roots. On this, the blacks tend to do better because they see themselves as ‘African-Americans’.
The problem is not with diversity but with things being seen from the lens of racism all the time even when there is no shred of evidence. Such an attitude blinds people to reality and actions are judged based on ones color. What is universally wrong is hailed as an act of heroism by the particular race of the perpetrator.
An example is Marion Barry who was convicted on narcotics charges and tax fraud while serving as the mayor of DC, a predominantly black community in America. After his incarceration, Barry was still elected into office and remained there until he was forced out. Where he could have been passed for the criminal that he was, Barry is being celebrated in death as a hero with an elaborate funeral arrangement.
There is racism in America just as there is tribalism in traditional societies. To give the impression that it is only the other person whose action is always motivated by racism is to see with jaundiced eyes.
Polls show that race relations have declined under Obama more than at any time in America since the end of ‘Jim Crow’. If this trend continues,it may lead to racial tensions and the inevitable explosion. What sense will that make?