Developments in the cases of Walter Scott in South Carolina and Alton Sterling in Louisiana, as well as the police shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in Texas, once again reignited a debate this week over policing, race, and justice that is taking on ever greater urgency as the new administration makes clear its commitment to law enforcement over civil rights.
On Tuesday, Michael Slager, a former police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Walter Scott’s civil rights. Slager’s 2015 shooting of Scott — in the back and as he ran away unarmed — was caught in a video that left no doubt about the officer’s crime, but as part of the deal Slager, who would have been facing a second state trial after a first ended in a hung jury last December, had his murder charge dropped.
Slager’s admission of guilt made for an incredibly rare federal conviction of a police officer in connection with an unjustified shooting. Most officers involved in similar incidents are never charged at the local level — let alone the federal one, which comes with a higher burden of proof. In 2015, for instance, as protests demanding police accountability rocked the country and unofficial tallies put the number of people killed by police at 1,200, 18 officers faced murder or manslaughter charges, a record high. None were convicted.
Slager could now face life in prison. Scott’s family hailed the plea as a victory in the fight for police accountability, but others were angry the murder charge was dropped. So was Slager’s conviction justice?
“In a world where you have 1,200 people killed by police every year and 15 of them get prosecuted, yes,” said Jonathan Smith, who for five years led the Special Litigation Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Yet those who welcomed Slager’s conviction were immediately reminded of just how elusive that justice remains. News of the officer’s plea deal was in fact quickly eclipsed by a leaked report that the DOJ would decline to pursue charges against two Baton Rouge officers who last July tackled Alton Sterling, who was selling CDs outside a store, and shot him in the chest and back while he was on the ground. That shooting, too, was caught on camera, fueling protests that were violently met by police.
Rumors of the DOJ’s imminent announcement in Sterling’s case circulated for days — as Baton Rouge residents braced for the worst and angry officials demanded the federal government act more transparently. The DOJ finally confirmed the decision on Wednesday.
“The Department of Justice’s failure to communicate with the community has created angst and nervousness,” Congressman Cedric Richmond wrote in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the announcement. “I fear that without this transparency, concerned citizens will be left with no choice but lose faith in your Department’s ability to conduct a fair, unbiased investigation.”
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“Under This DOJ, That’s Not Going to Happen”
In fact, affected communities’ confidence in the DOJ lagged long before Sessions’s deeply contested appointment to run it. During the Obama administration, the Justice Department aggressively pursued investigations of systemic civil rights violations by police departments across the country, forcing them to reform or face litigation. But even as it condemned one police department after the other, the DOJ rarely held individual officers accountable for their crimes (Slager is an exception), leaving communities from Baltimore to Ferguson frustrated by reports that called for change but delivered no justice.
Until individual officers face consequences, advocates have long argued, the killings won’t stop.
The latest tragic illustration of that point is Jordan Edwards, a high school freshman who was killed while driving away from a party in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs. Police initially said the car he was in had been charging at police, then changed their account when dash cam video showed that was not true. On Tuesday, Roy Oliver, the officer who shot into the car, was fired. He has yet to be charged or arrested.
“This keeps happening — and it’s sickening,” Rashad Robinson, executive director of the racial justice group Color of Change said in a statement following Edwards’ death. “We’ve seen this time and time again.”
Edwards was one of 333 people killed by police so far this year, and the youngest. His death poses a first test to Sessions’ DOJ, which inherited investigations of the individual officers who killed Scott, Sterling, and Eric Garner in New York from the previous administration but has yet to pursue any of its own.
“If the department expresses no concern about that and doesn’t get involved in one way or another, that will give you an early sense of what the administration’s future agenda in these cases is going to be,” said Smith, the former DOJ official, referring to Edwards’ death.
DOJ officials did not respond to The Intercept’s questions about the possibility of investigating Oliver or the Balch Springs police department.
Although the Justice Department was reluctant to go after individual officers in the past, its widespread “pattern and practice” investigations of police departments became a hallmark of the previous administration’s commitment to civil rights work — a commitment Sessions as vowed to end.
“In a case like Baton Rouge, or in a case like Dallas, what the DOJ should be doing is not simply looking at the individual officer’s behavior and considering whether or not to take action to hold that specific officer accountable, but understanding that when you have people like that, it’s often indicative of other problems and other patterns,” said Ezekiel Edwards, who runs the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “We know when they’ve launched those initial inquiries in places like Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, and Ferguson, that they have found systemic problems.”
“Under this DOJ, that’s not going to happen,” he added.
Quite the opposite. Last month, Sessions called for a review of dozens of agreements that came as a result of earlier investigations, threatening to roll back years of reform. On multiple occasions he made clear that he wants the federal government to leave local law enforcement alone.
“It’s a message to officers on the street and police departments that he believes that, if the Constitution gets in the way, you can ignore the Constitution,” Smith told The Intercept. “He’s consistently said that he thinks that holding police accountable to the Constitution interferes with their ability to deliver public safety, giving free license to the police to ignore our most fundamental law.”
Top photo: Sandra Sterling, Aunt of Alton Sterling cries out to the media at a press conference outside the U.S. Federal Court House on May 3, 2017 in Baton Rouge, La.
I feel as pessimistic as anybody, but come ON! The key development here is that Sessions went ahead and got the conviction – they’re not backing off. It is possible that even conservatives are capable of understanding that just up and shooting people is bad business. I’m prone to give them benefit of the doubt.
And as for Alton Sterling? I made several comments back when the story was live: https://theintercept.com/2016/07/07/two-black-victims-police-violence-become-hashtags-philandocastile-altonsterling/?comments=1#comments Have a look at where Sterling’s right hand goes in this video from a different angle than The Intercept showed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnNOAxk8HQ Bear in mind, he is pinned on the ground, gun in a waistband, with his right arm mostly beneath the front end of a car, and as far as I can tell he moves it down near the gun and then again. Now there was question whether he was being tasered on the ground, that I never did sort out, but how is he being tasered while the cops are on him? The best I can tell, the cops were genuinely afraid he was reaching for his gun. I would like to think a good person could risk death choosing not to shoot in such a situation, but I can’t demand cops go to jail for not being part of a suicide pact.
I agree Jeff sessions is going to set things backwards. I was raped by two cops in Oregon a couple of years ago and I know if murders on camera are not prosecuted theres no way victims like myself have any chance for justice.
Thanks for your important reporting.
?
I’m sorry to hear that. You’re right..but let’s keep expecting justice, demanding justice.
Whether you get it now or they do..everybody ultimately pays for who they are and what they do.
I wonder what it takes for the cops that got you to look in the mirror…I hope they throw up…at the very least.)
LIFE liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Those are our civil rights.
Yet somehow when you steal a life, that particular civil right is treated the same as if you denied someone a job.
I am call bullcrap on the dumb&dumbers for not properly valuing our civil rights. Like when wallstreet robbed the country of our rights of liberty and happiness.
What, we are a nation of slaves?
I THINK NOT.
wait a minute now, perhaps we are getting justice and are misconstrued. Perhaps the dumb&dumbers are right all along, and in fact we really are getting JUST ICE.
I just noticed that the suicide rate for police in Chicago is 60% higher than the national average:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-04/chicago-war-zone-police-suicide-rate-surges-60-above-national-average
wanna have some more fun?
http://heyjackass.com
they also serve police band radio!
call me apathetic but as i see it, the country has gone to hell.
do you know the size of the criminal economy today? it is so big, if we stop crime we are really screwed.
“law enforcement over civil rights”
Can we quit calling police “law enforcement”? That phrase does not even remotely describe what they do.
i was thinking it maybe it should be capitalized, like a proper name.
Law Enforcement, referring more to the industry than the activity or concept.
Good idea.,
so right.
how about PEE? policy enforcement enhancement.
This article (Inadvertently?) shows how the Obama DOJ helped
set up
the continuing corruption
of which they were a part
for the Trump DOJ.
Laquon McDonald was murdered 2 1/2 years ago and
the most Holder and Co. DOJ Inc. could do was to
issue a report describing the already well established corruption
at a time when they were sure that they could NOT do anything
AND
they helped stall, and stall, and stall, so that
the judge overseeing that case can continue to have
secretive discussions in his chambers with the attorneys.
The Trump DOJ is a continuation, not a contrast to its Obama version.
Don’t get behind on your child support, they will shoot you in the back, and unload the clip while they are at it. The hate is strong among the staff here, save for the one.
Racism is a “Genetic Defect!”
Yeah, caused by melanin. Grrrr, that darned biology!
Just curious. Are there stats which show that cops are getting away with the murder of black people under Obama, Trump, and Bush? Otherwise, this is just a partisan hack to attack Trump and praise Obama for all those cops who were sent to jail. Who ever edited and accepted this piece–do the words intellectual integrity mean anything?
how about the words, “reading comprehension?”
anything . . . ?
Trying to get a link to photo of Tom Morello’s Arm the Homeless guitar..!
Since he’s the AG, Sessions has to at least go thru some motions to not be totally perceived as just a racist moron. But that’s exactly what he is. Not all, but many cops are closet KKK members. Is Sessions KKK as well? He may try to be careful and not be so blatantly stupid as to get caught publically saying the N word. So instead, it’s back to Reagan style coded racism. Oh no, I’m not a racist (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). But what he and other racists like him want is a goddamn race war. Tell those “people of color” to shut the fuck up and get in the back of the damn bus.
At least 2 people of color get killed every day. Is Sessions secretly celebrating? It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he is.
Let’s hope he’s not celebrating. This may be naive, but I wonder if he will put effort into proving people wrong on the racism charge.
Let’s face it…how racist was it to call kids “super predators’ and enact 3 strike laws.
That’s the closet racism that really scares me.
It isn’t Sessions out there shooting people. You have collapsing middle class and soon maybe a collapsing economy. The police can only do so much.
It’s weird. The articles here at the intercept seem to be about “social justice,” but they ignore economic collapse. It’s all racism this and sexism that.
Oh well.
Racism is a “Genetic Defect! Which prohibits the racist from seeing clearly the wickedness of their deeds and justifies their immoral and incredulous acts of barbaric thought process as moral and just.
Denial is NOT a River that runs through Africa!
i believe the article sufficiently specific about the role of Sessions so far;
“Although the Justice Department was reluctant to go after individual officers in the past, its widespread “pattern and practice” investigations of police departments became a hallmark of the previous administration’s commitment to civil rights work — a commitment Sessions as vowed to end.”
and;
“Edwards was one of 333 people killed by police so far this year, and the youngest. His death poses a first test to Sessions’ DOJ, which inherited investigations of the individual officers who killed Scott, Sterling, and Eric Garner in New York from the previous administration but has yet to pursue any of its own.”
what does that mean? you think more federal intercession is required? these are fundamental constitutional issues, after all….
Despite the words ending empire’s pledge – these United States have never had “justice for all.”
Predatory bankers blatantly manipulating world markets, high enough government officials mishandling classified, corrupt elected influence peddlers, hell – even known and admitted war criminals are never charged with their crimes. However a black man smelling of weed, or not, looks at a white cop wrong and he goes to jail with multiple charges – or gets shot dead.
Sometimes one just has to say, “Ain’t Murikkka grand?”
That should more appropriately have read: However a black man smelling of weed or not, or looks at a white cop wrong or not, goes to jail with multiple charges – or gets shot dead. My skin color has never been probable cause and I’m sure I can’t adequately imagine that happening – daily. I can imagine a country where justice and rule of law means the same thing for everybody, but it’s certainly a long damn tunnel with virtually no light yet.
Some of these spineless racist creeps should not be in law enforcement.
There is nothing stand up about shooting someone in the back or cold blood. There’s not enough smell of weed in the world to justify taking these lives.
Actually, there aren’t any crimes other than being shot at that justifies what these out of control cops do.
The guy that shot Castillo never considered he had a legal gun because he was black.
I think the decent people that go into law enforcement get the conscience trained out of them.
As far as their shooting skills go..they’re such bad shots they can’t hit a shoulder or a knee cap…like many self respecting bangers could. These cops are taught shoot to kill only.
My heart went out to the black officer that was killed in Baton Rouge, who had recently said..he was uncomfortable out of his uniform as a black guy and uncomfortable in it for what it represented.
We live in a very mad society..sadly.
Prosecuting 15 of 1200 police officers involved in fatal shootings sounds about right. Say what you will, but over 95% of shootings are found to be justified after exhaustive investigations into the circumstances are conducted. Many that are prosecuted because of public pressure are acquitted when taken to trial. The rule to stay safe is simple. COMPLY with ALL commands when dealing with police officers, whether you think they are right or wrong.
Your comment is one of the most ignorant I’ve seen in this thread, and on the subject in general.
Conducted by the guilty party. IOW, the police investigate themselves and then say, “no fucking problem. The police involved all followed proper procedure.” If it then gets beyond that sham investigation it then goes to a district attorney who works with the police everyday.
People attempt to do that all of the time. Many of them end up beaten, arrested or even dead. You have to be a complete moron to not be aware of that fact by now. Take, for example, the case of Philando Castile. He was completely complying with instructions barked at him by the coward cop, but he was shot to death anyway. And, he had previously been stopped at least 52 times. Could you “Comply with ALL commands” 52 fucking times when you know damn well is all about power and harassment? Try living in the real world instead of the fantasy world you’ve created for yourself.
i didn’t expect justice from holder’s doj, and i damn sure won’t from sessions’.
While race is obviously a defining factor in these incidents at a local level, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually not the major factor in the decisions made by the DOJ, both past and present. Discontent and anger among the populace – and crucially, not just segments of it, but across many social divisions – is already very apparent. And it’s obvious that this is only going to get worse as we lurch towards an ugly and fairly inevitable future where transformations in capitalism continue to wreck both civil society, and likely the economy itself. I would guess that, regardless of all other issues, the power structure at large is terrified of doing anything that might discourage aggressive ‘policing’ at a time when broad and diverse segments of society are getting more and more interested in pitchforks and torches. In other words, ‘Law and Order’ at any cost – and certainly at the cost of minorities, whether that otherwise bothers the DOJ or not.
that’s the beauty of systemic racism, isn’t it? it’s like a massive moral three-card monty hustle, but with thousands of cards.
“In a world where you have 1,200 people killed by police every year and 15 of them get prosecuted, yes,” said Jonathan Smith, who for five years led the Special Litigation Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. That seems about right. Say what you will. but most shootings ARE found to be justified after exhaustive investigations are conducted.
i know. it isn’t as if the police weren’t objective in investigating themselves…
Sure, this is just an “exception”, signifying nothing.
Good grief, there is just no pleasing this eternally angry faction.
kill a white guy, it’s murder
kill a black guy, it’s a civil rights violation
3rd world usa
and here is the evil of this – the racist gov will henceforth be offering civil rights violation charges as a ticket to trade away murder charges.
We live in a racist police state. They throw us a bone once in awhile in order to prevent rebellion, which is what this conviction is. Until there are major structural changes, nothing substantially good will happen.
One solution to the problem of keeping wages low, but at the same time wanting to sell more goods, is to produce and sell more weapons. After all the state and it’s institutions as the main consumer of weapons are not restricted by the level of wages. Hence you have further armament and militarization of police and more and more people getting imprisoned and so on…
Yes, major structural changes are needed. Besides policies of demilitarization and anti-racist measures inside the police force higher wages for workers are very important in order to lessen the need for the capitalist class to evade producing normal consumer goods. I know this argument is Keynsianist, but the hell with it… Swords into plowshares!
I agree with swords into plowshares, but overconsumption is one of the biggest problems on our deteriorating planet (the other being overpopulation). We should not encourage people to have or to want more stuff, we should encourage mental and spiritual evolution instead (once people have the basics of course).
Mental and spiritual evolution sounds esoteric to me… Nah, not for me.
Overpopulation only exits relative to production and the system of distribution. Overconsumption plus overpopulation can only coexists in a extremly unequal distributional system. And hey, we have that. It’s called capitalism and THAT is the problem.
what an example of great objective investigative journalism this article is.. not
“It’s Sessions. He’s evil. (Because Trump.)” seems to be the sum total
Are you a racist or an idiot? Because Sessions is a blatant racist and is quite open about it. He said that the only thing wrong with the KKK is that they smoke pot (that’s actually the only thing good about them).
What does “objective journalism” mean to you? Does it mean “He said, She said?” Does it mean here are the facts and here are the alternative facts…we don’t make any attempt to figure out what is true or false, we just report the lies along with the truths as if both are equal…?
Maybe you know this or maybe you don’t, but Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump and the Trump administration each and all have a history which informs and colors who and what they are each and all about. Would you prefer or expect The Intercept to pretend to start from scratch, as if there is no history with which to go on when writing about each of the players being written about in this or any other article?
Also, there is this:
<blockquoteDOJ officials did not respond to The Intercept’s questions about the possibility of investigating Oliver or the Balch Springs police department.
The DOJ officials were given an opportunity by The Intercept to tell us their “side” of the story. They chose not to. What would you have The Intercept do?
from the article;
“In fact, affected communities’ confidence in the DOJ lagged long before Sessions’s deeply contested appointment to run it. During the Obama administration, the Justice Department aggressively pursued investigations of systemic civil rights violations by police departments across the country, forcing them to reform or face litigation. But even as it condemned one police department after the other, the DOJ rarely held individual officers accountable for their crimes (Slager is an exception), leaving communities from Baltimore to Ferguson frustrated by reports that called for change but delivered no justice.”
“Although the Justice Department was reluctant to go after individual officers in the past, its widespread “pattern and practice” investigations of police departments became a hallmark of the previous administration’s commitment to civil rights work — a commitment Sessions as vowed to end.”
i don’t have a highlighter handy.
What a headline. Even when the Intercept can grudgingly bring itself not to write “Trump is the Bad Man,” it has to add not to expect anything good after painfully acknowledging something positive.
Here’s a clue, TI: Your readers can see through it.
The headline is reinforced by the words in the article that people, aka TI readers, can read. Try it sometime.
But somehow Alice expected justice from the corporate lawyer Eric Holder, who was a death squad lawyer for Chiquita Banana in Columbia:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/lawyer-for-chiquita-in-co_b_141919.html
Why have you chosen to lie about what “Alice expected” from Obama DOJ, when in this very article that you’ve supposedly read, the evidence for your lie is rather severely undermined?
“Why have you chosen to lie about what “Alice expected”
Therapy dog time? Alice was predicting the future, declaring this current conviction was the exception to future events. This is what she is *expecting* if you read English.
You are the one who is lying — and angry I brought up that Eric Holder defended Chiquita Banana’s use of death squads in Colombia.
“Who would have thought it? I’m really good at killing people.”
– Obama on ‘Terror Tuesday’
I could give a flying fuck that you brought that up, which goes to show what an ignorant ass you are that you, for reasons that only you might know, are under the shit for brains assumption that I’m a partisan fan of Eric Holder.